I was in shock. I was just told that the school system in our state took out handwriting as a subject. What were they thinking?! I had just finished my training as an educational therapist through the National Institute of Learning Disabilities. They taught me in my training the importance of cursive handwriting as well as how to implement it with my students. I am very passionate about teaching cursive handwriting, and I even wrote my own handwriting curriculum because I wasn’t satisfied with what I found online.
Welcome to my side of the Great Cursive Debate!
WARNING: You may never think about teaching cursive the same way again!
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5 Things You Never Knew About Cursive
- Writing in cursive has biological and psychological benefits: better sensory-motor coordination, magnified thinking level, and it dramatically engages both cerebral hemispheres of the brain.
Biological and Psychology Benefits of Learning Cursive
- Cursive and keyboarding are not equal! They use very different skill sets and different parts of the brain. Neither should be taught to the exclusion of the other.
Handwriting is Boeing 747 Technology
- Writing in cursive is an important tool for cognitive development, especially in children with dyslexia.
Brain Benefits of Learning to Write in Cursive
- Pencil grip is extremely important and makes a difference in learning!
Importance and Benefits of Proper Pencil Grip
*These are some of my favorite pencil grips to aid in proper positioning.
- You can start teaching cursive in Kindergarten! Don’t wait until 2nd or 3rd grade. I have taught all my children cursive from the beginning and have seen major benefits! This is one of the reasons I developed The Joy of Handwriting!
Should I Teach Cursive or Print First?
Are you convinced? I hope that this has given you something to think about! I have several handwriting tools in my shop, so take a look!
Should cursive be taught first. Thanks.
There is quite a debate about teaching cursive first. There are so many benefits to teaching cursive first, which I mention in the post above. I taught both of my older kids cursive first and have not regretted it for a moment! I’ve been thinking about trying to teach both cursive and print together, which seems to be a newer idea, and may try that with my little guy coming up. (I’ve developed the program already and it’s almost ready to launch!!) I’m happy to answer any questions you may have! Blessings!
My daughter is dyslexic, should I start her on cursive or print?
Hi Eunice! I have taught several dyslexic students and have found that cursive really works well for them. You might want to check out my cursive program here: https://teach-me-joy.teachable.com/p/joy-of-handwriting-success
I had a conversation with one of my daughter’s teachers, who commented on my daughter’s beautiful cursive recently. He agreed with me that every child should learn cursive, because if they don’t, then they will never be able to read any of our nation’s documents. They are all written in cursive. Only in the last 10 years has cursive handwriting started to disappear.
It is such a tragedy! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks for this. If you do cursive first, can you tell me when you would formally start teaching print? Concurrently? 2nd grade? Later?
Thank you!
This is a great question! At first, I didn’t teach print for a couple of years, but then I ran into a couple of snags that I didn’t plan. I never formally taught it to my 2nd one because she just picked it up, but her printing is not good at all. I finally realized that you could teach them together! I wrote a 3rd program teaching both together. You can find out more here: https://teachmejoy.com/teach-cursive-manuscript/