| How are you getting on with the assignment on handwriting? |
| Not too bad. |
| You know, I hadn't realised that children benefit in so many ways from learning to write. |
| It's such an important skill, |
| and yet most people think handwriting is less important than in the past, |
| because people hardly ever write by hand these days. |
| Yes, and all the evidence suggests children should learn to write by hand before they learn to type, |
| not least because it helps their memory. |
| That's right. |
| The physical act of writing helps children to remember letters. |
| That seems pretty obvious when you think about it. |
| What's less obvious is how it helps develop their concentration. |
| They have to sit still and focus on one thing. |
| Yeah, that aspect of handwriting had never occurred to me before. |
| Same here. |
| I'm not sure I understand how it improves children's imagination, though. |
| Well, there was that study which showed that... |
| primary-aged children generated more ideas when they were writing by hand than using a keyboard. |
| I would have guessed that would be the case. |
| Yeah, I'd never associated spatial awareness with handwriting either. |
| I thought spatial awareness was more to do with knowing where you are in relation to objects or other people. |
| Hmm... I thought that too. |
| But good spatial awareness is essential for writing because you have to space words correctly. |
| It's not just fine motor skills that improve through writing, as I'd always assumed. |
| Handwriting is so much harder for children with dyspraxia, |
| who have problems coordinating movement. |
| It's good there are lots of things you can do in the classroom to help them. |
| They need so much more support with letter formation. |
| You need to play lots of games to help them distinguish letter shapes. |
| It takes a lot of patience. |
| Yeah, I like the idea of using one of those pens that lights up if you press too hard. |
| That seems like a really simple solution. |
| Yes, absolutely. |
| I'm not sure there's much you can do about children with dyspraxia writing very slowly. |
| It's more important to focus on accuracy |
| and as they get more confident, I think they eventually speed up. |
| One quite simple thing you can do is to use grid paper. |
| So they write each letter in a box |
| and that trains them to space the letters correctly. |
| Indeed, that's more important for legibility than trying to get them to write in a straight line. |
| For some children, it might be better to teach them to write on a laptop rather than by hand, |
| like children with dyslexia. |
| They often really struggle with handwriting and some just give up. |
| Yeah, it's not as frustrating for them if they get things wrong. |
| On a keyboard, they can be more willing to have a go. |
| But I read that developing fluency isn't any faster. |
| That's right. |
| Did you read that article on the benefits of teaching print rather than cursive handwriting, where the letters are joined up? |
| Yes. |
| Well, in the past, cursive writing was certainly considered more stylish and educated, |
| but not anymore. |
| Teachers' attitudes have changed because it's been proved that cursive is more difficult to learn, |
| especially for children with learning difficulties who find joining up letters really challenging. |
| I agree. |
| I was always worried that my poor handwriting affected my exam results, |
| and now research shows that I was right to worry. |
| I'm sure a lot of students think it's unfair that they're being judged on their handwriting, not just their knowledge. |
| Marks are definitely affected if examiners can't read the script. |
| That is why it has always been so important to teach children to write legibly. |
| Do you think the role of handwriting will change in the future? |
| Hmm... I can't see that changing much. |
| Touch typing still isn't taught in most schools, which is a shame. |
| But maybe that won't be necessary in the future, |
| because people will also be able to write by hand on digital devices. |
| Anyway, teachers understand the value of handwriting. |
| It's a basic life skill. |
| True. |
| However, the fact is that people are writing by hand less and less and relying on digital devices. |
| That does cause some problems. |
| You mean like note-taking? |
| There are lots of apps for that. |
| And for reading historical documents, apparently. |
| But my mum is shocked by my awful spelling and the fact that my punctuation is really inconsistent. |
| I think you can put that down to lack of practice. |
| I expect so. |
| Personally, I miss writing by hand. |
| I hardly ever write anything now. |
| I remember my grandparents had such beautiful handwriting and it was so individual. |
| Nobody I know would be able to identify my handwriting now. |
| It's a shame. |
| I know. |
| I feel the same way. |
| I used to write a diary by hand and now I do that digitally. |
| It just seems less effort to do it that way. |
| So it's not just a problem... |