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Teaching Tips

Just the Facts: Handwriting

October 4, 2018

by: LWT staff

3 minutes

You need better writers in your classroom, better test scores for your district, less remediation, and improved literacy skills. Simple, right?

This may be a surprise to you, but this is where explicit handwriting instruction can help—and lead to a good foundation for all academic subjects.

Why Handwriting:

  • Research shows that handwriting is a foundational skill that can influence students' reading, writing, language use, and critical thinking (Saperstein Associates 2012).
  • When children practice printing by hand, their neural activity is far more enhanced and “adult-like” (Bounds 2010).
  • Research states that learning how to write by hand is a necessary motor exercise (Saperstein Associates 2012; James and Gauthier 2006; James 2012; Berninger 2012).
  • Children consistently do better writing with a pen. They write more and they write faster (Berninger 2009).

The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory tools and strategies for your classroom. See why it works:

  • Our unique letter order makes writing developmentally appropriate and makes it easier for all children to learn how to write.
  • Our teaching order moves from writing readiness in Pre-K, to printing and cursive. The scope and sequence of lessons is based on research about how children learn best.
  • Our program follows research that states children learn more effectively by actively doing and by using the five senses.
  • Our unique physical approach addresses posture, grip, and paper positioning.
  • Students using Handwriting Without Tears made siginificant improvement in test scores across all handwriting skills. 

We are THE handwriting specialists.

We have a unique, proven, developmental approach to letter formation that makes all children successful writers.

Read our full handwriting research review for best practices and citations

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