Advantages for writing with pencil and paper in kindergarten

[debbie]

Handwriting fluency in kindergarten linked to better reading abilities

by Jordan Baker

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/ ... 54654.html

Children who handwrite fluently in their first year of school are likely to be better readers a year later, prompting researchers to urge caution about relying too heavily on technology in the classroom.

The Australian study of 154 students followed children from kindergarten to year 1, to see whether fluency in writing letters in kindergarten was linked with being better able to write longer texts in year 1.

"It did, and it also predicted their reading abilities," said one of the authors, Anabela Malpique of Murdoch University, whose work was published in the journal Reading and Writing.

I'm not at all surprised by these findings. I've always heavily promoted explicit quality handwriting practices and have found them to make a profound difference in children's foundational literacy outcomes.

I have built into guidance for my phonics programmes that 'handwriting' is the third 'core' skill, as you can see here:

https://phonicsinternational.com/Brief_ ... tshell.pdf

When teaching handwriting thoroughly and well, this also leads to 'alphabet' work as well as 'alphabetic code' content.

See the bottom left section of the yellow triangle in this graphic to note just how much is involved with teaching handwriting and the alphabet:

https://phonicsinternational.com/Triang ... skills.pdf

[Geoff Vaughan]

I value your expertise and advice with this essential area Debbie. It has been my experience that handwriting has fallen off the radar for a long time now. The effects of this are being seen further down the line.
I have long held the belief that using pencil for as long as possible is extremely important for learners as they develop handwriting fluency. This has very much been met with a level of incredulity by many but when you see what younger secondary students are writing with I believe it is a very important area to concentrate on.
There are some real exponents of good handwriting and even some of the pen companies are very good at promoting the need for good handwriting.
I fear that it will continue to lose priority and the knock on effects will be considerable.