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The Importance of Handwriting, with Debbie Draper

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The Importance of Handwriting, with Debbie Draper

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Handwriting compared with nonmotor practice produces faster learning and greater generalization to untrained tasks than previously reported. Furthermore, only handwriting practice leads to learning of both motor and amodal symbolic letter representations.

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The Effects of Handwriting Experience - Wiley, R. W., & Rapp, B. (2021)

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The Effects of Handwriting Experience - Wiley, R. W., & Rapp, B. (2021)

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Writing experiences in early childhood classrooms where children made higher language gains

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Writing experiences in early childhood classrooms where children made higher language gains

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Handwriting Accuracy of Beginning Writers and Its Impact on the Readability of Their Sentences

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Handwriting Accuracy of Beginning Writers and Its Impact on the Readability of Their Sentences

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Teachers' perceptions of needs and supports for handwriting instruction in kindergarten

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Teachers' perceptions of needs and supports for handwriting instruction in kindergarten

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Perceived needs and supports for handwriting instruction in kindergarten

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Handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children.

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Handwriting Generates Variable Visual Output to Facilitate Symbol Learning - Li, Julia X.James, Karin H

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Handwriting Generates Variable Visual Output to Facilitate Symbol Learning - Li, Julia X.James, Karin H

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Handwriting Generates Variable Visual Output to Facilitate Symbol Learning

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The Relationship between Parent- and Child-reported - Hui, W. Y., Brown, T., Yu, M.-L., & Lyons, C. (2022)

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The Relationship between Parent- and Child-reported - Hui, W. Y., Brown, T., Yu, M.-L., & Lyons, C. (2022)

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Perceptions of Children’s Handwriting Quality and Skills

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The Relationship between Parent- and Child-reported Perceptions of Children s Handwriting Quality and Skills (1)

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A quantitative comparison of handwriting in children with high-functioning autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - Beth Patricia Johnson, Nicole Papadopoulos, Joanne Fielding, Bruce J. Tonge, James G. Phillips & Nicole J. Rinehart

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A quantitative comparison of handwriting in children with high-functioning autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - Beth Patricia Johnson, Nicole Papadopoulos, Joanne Fielding, Bruce J. Tonge, James G. Phillips & Nicole J. Rinehart

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This study compares the handwriting characteristics of children with high-functioning autism (HFA), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and typically developing (TD) children. Using kinematic analysis during a copying task, the researchers found that children with ADHD exhibited greater variability in letter size, while children with HFA showed slower writing speed and higher pen pressure. The results highlight that different neurodevelopmental conditions impact handwriting in distinct ways. These findings are important for tailoring writing support in school settings.

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Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures

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Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures

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Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures | K

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At the forefront of current digital literacy studies in education, this handbook uniquely systematizes emerging interdisciplinary themes, new knowledge, and

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Developing Early Literacy Assessment and Teaching

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Developing Early Literacy Assessment and Teaching

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Learning to read and write is developmental—but not in a lock-step, step-by-step progression. Each child’s experiences with language and literacy prior to school will have an effect on their later literacy development. This is because language and literacy are generative processes—the more children talk, read and learn, the more they can talk, read and learn.

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The association between measures of visual perception, visual‑motor integration, and in‑hand manipulation skills of school‑age children and their manuscript handwriting speed - Theresa Brown & Sara Link

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The association between measures of visual perception, visual‑motor integration, and in‑hand manipulation skills of school‑age children and their manuscript handwriting speed - Theresa Brown & Sara Link

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This study investigated how visual perception, visual–motor integration, and in-hand manipulation skills relate to the handwriting speed of children aged 6 to 8. Results from assessments showed that all three factors were significantly correlated with handwriting speed. Among them, visual–motor integration had the strongest association. The findings suggest that occupational therapists and educators should consider these foundational skills when supporting children with handwriting difficulties.

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Predictive validity of kindergarten assessments on handwriting readiness

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Predictive validity of kindergarten assessments on handwriting readiness

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The Systematic Screening for Handwriting Difficulties (Dutch abbreviation: SOS). The kindergarten assessment consisted of the Writing Readiness Inventory Tool In Context (WRITIC), the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery™VMI) and the Nine-Hole Peg Test (9-HPT).

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Our group video explores how handwriting contributes to young children’s reading and writing development. We discuss key research findings showing that handwriting practice enhances literacy fluency, comprehension, and confidence in early learners.

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The relationship of handwriting ability and literacy in kindergarten: a systematic review

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The relationship of handwriting ability and literacy in kindergarten: a systematic review

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Abstract

Evidence supports a link between handwriting and aspects of literacy, including both reading and writing. Most evidence, however, pertains to children from grade one and above, once foundation skills known to support emerging literacy have been established. The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesise the extant literature concerning measurement of handwriting and literacy and the relationships between these measures for kindergarten students (the first year of formal instruction). Following a systematic search of the literature, 17 studies involving 3343 participants were identified. Handwriting measures could be grouped into two categories-letter writing fluency and perceptual motor skills, while literacy measures addressed one or more of letter name and sound knowledge, phonological skills, word reading, writing composition, and spelling. Strong evidence was found for the impact of letter writing fluency on writing composition, and letter name and sound knowledge. In addition, there was moderate evidence for a relationship between letter writing fluency, spelling, word reading and phonological skills. Weaker evidence was found for the impact of perceptual motor skill proficiency on letter knowledge and spelling, word reading and phonological skills. However, as all intervention approaches focusing on letter forming fluency included perceptual motor skill practice or exposure, an important role for perceptual motor skill in both letter writing fluency and literacy may be inferred. This review has found preliminary evidence to support the facilitating impact of handwriting on the foundations of literacy in kindergarten. Further research into the effects of handwriting interventions on kindergarten literacy is indicated.

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References

Dang, D., & Dearholt, S. L. (2017). Johns Hopkins nursing evidence-based practice: Model and guidelines. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.

Jones, D., & Christensen, C. A. (2012). Impact of teacher professional development in handwriting on improved student learning outcomes in writing quality. In M. Fayol, D. Alamargot, & V. Berninger (Eds.), Translation of thought to written text while composing: Advancing theory, knowledge, research methods, tools, and applications (pp. 213-227). Psychology Press.

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Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and publication of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

Karen Ray, Leah Rowlandson, Kit Iong Tam & Alison E. Lane

2. School of Education, College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 2308, Australia

Kerry Dally

3. Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, LaTrobe University, Bundoora, VIC, 3086, Australia

Alison E. Lane

Contributions

The first author conceived the idea for the article, and performed the literature search. The data analysis was conducted by all five authors. The first author drafted the article and the second and third author critically revised the work.

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Correspondence to Karen Ray.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Groupings for handwriting and literacy used in included studies

Table 4 Risk of Bias Rating-Johns Hopkins Evidence Based Practice

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Ray, K., Dally, K., Rowlandson, L. et al. The relationship of handwriting ability and literacy in kindergarten: a systematic review. Read Writ 35, 1119-1155 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10224-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10224-8

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Keywords

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The relationship of handwriting ability and literacy in kindergarten: a systematic review - Reading and Writing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Evidence supports a link between handwriting and aspects of literacy, including both reading and writing. Most evidence, however, pertains to children from grade one and above, once foundation skills known to support emerging literacy have been established.