Tag Archives: improving children’s handwriting

Schools’ Handwriting Competition 2016

Class A winner

Class A winner

Is handwriting still important and should it be taught in schools? Isn’t it better to teach keyboard skills instead?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four year-olds. In each instance, the winner is on top, the runner-up on the left and the third place on the right.

Four year-olds. In each instance, the winner is on top, the runner-up on the left and the third place on the right.

As Chief Judge of the Schools’ Handwriting Competition, I am often asked these questions. Of course children should be taught keyboarding skills (as I type this I wish I had been!), but that should not be to the exclusion of handwriting being taught properly and well. We now have evidence for the importance of handwriting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five year-olds

Five year-olds

The Handwriting in the 21st Century summit was held four years ago in the US with very interesting findings 

Six year-olds

Six year-olds

 

 

 

 

Research revealed that handwriting influences reading, creative writing, language and critical thinking, yet 25–33% of US students are struggling to achieve competence in handwriting.

 

 

 

 

Class B winner

Class B winner

Here are three quotations from the report:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seven year-olds

Seven year-olds

When students do not adequately develop handwriting skills, the negative implications can be lifelong. Without consistent exposure to handwriting, research indicates that students can experience difficulty in certain processes required for success in reading and writing, including:

  • retrieving letters from memory
  • reproducing letters on paper
  • spelling accurately
  • extracting meaning from text or lecture
  • interpreting the context of words and phrases

 

 

Eight year-olds

Eight year-olds

[Doubt about the value of handwriting instruction] is similar to what happened with math as calculators and computers came into vogue… people wondered whether students needed to learn how to do math. The answer in both cases is absolutely “yes.” Writing is not obsolete.

Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators

 

 

 

 

Class C winner

Class C winner

Illegible handwriting is a problem for a large number of children…it can affect [children] not only personally (their self-esteem), but also academically, and their careers in the future. So, it’s got a very long trajectory.

Dr. Gerry Conti, assistant professor of occupational therapy at Wayne State University

 

 

 

 

Nine year-olds

Nine year-olds

In the US many states do not teach handwriting beyond Grade 1 (age 7), yet in doing so, they are seriously affecting the future academic achievement of their young people as was underlined in this research.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ten year-olds

Ten year-olds

As a craftsperson, I know how important using our hands is to memory and how repetition can lead to perfection. But it is the influence on our cognitive functions where handwriting also scores. Students who hand-wrote wrote more words, wrote words faster and expressed more ideas than those who used a keyboard.

 

 

 

 

 

Class D winner

Class D winner

Teaching good handwriting should not be an option, as it is in US states, Finland and a few other countries, as it has such an important effect on so much more than just committing words to paper. And it is worth helping and encouraging children who struggle with writing to make progress as handwriting has far reaching effects.

 

 

 

 

 

Eleven year-olds

Eleven year-olds

All the finalists in the Schools’ Handwriting Competition are to be commended for the excellence of their writing, and, with almost 10,000 entries, all those finalists have done extraordinarily well.

 

 

 

Twelve year-olds

Twelve year-olds

The judges look for good handwriting, not calligraphy, nor specially fancy styles with distorted forms and lots of curls on the letters, but the sort of writing that will stand you in good stead whether you are making a shopping list or writing a school project.

 

 

 

Thirteen year-olds

Thirteen year-olds

Letters should be well-formed, and with comfortable joins where appropriate.

There should be appropriate spacing between the words and the poem should be placed well on the page.

 

 

 

 

 

Staff winners

Staff winners

The number of very competent entries from 4 year-olds is increasing year-by-year, and this year, too, there were far better entries from the older age groups. It is encouraging, too, to see the number of boys in the finalists, particularly as Class Winners.

However, some finalists lost out because there were no school postcodes on the backs of the paper (with 10,000 entries it is impossible to check which school ‘Sarah Smith’ belongs to), and putting entries into the wrong age-groups also was a disadvantage for the judges.

Overall, though, the standard was very high this year and all who entered the competition have the advantage of knowing that their skill in handwriting will also aid their reading, spelling, understanding and creativity – all a bonus!

 

National Schools Handwriting Competition

Four year-olds

Four year-olds hand writing

Each year schools up and down the country focus on encouraging their pupils to write their best handwriting for the National Schools Handwriting Competition, run by SATIPS and sponsored by the Manuscript Pen Company. The huge advantage of this competition is that everyone in the school (up to the age of 13 for children) can enter for free, and that includes the teachers, caretakers, secretaries, teachers’ assistants – there is no selection of only few entries by schools – and it shows that handwriting is important no matter what your age.

Five year-olds.

Five year-olds handwriting

What the four-year-old prize-winners (above right – and in each case in this post, the winner is shown on the top and second and third prize-winners below) and the five year-olds (right) won’t fully appreciate is that, if they continue to write well, then they should not lose marks in exams as highlighted in an article in The Times in May. ‘Almost two-thirds of teachers said that they had marked down pupils because of illegible answers and three in ten reported a deterioration in children’s handwriting in the past five years.’ More to the point, children themselves (39%) were more worried about their handwriting in exams than not being able to remember things (37%).

Overall winner, Group A

Overall winner, Group A

With the increased concerns about how easy it is to cheat using a tablet or computer, it looks likely that examiners will emphasise the importance of handwritten answers more in the future. As educators, we are doing our children a disservice if we do not equip them with the skills they need to perform at their best in examination conditions. The well-developed cursive style of handwriting of the Overall Winner of Class A (seen on the right here) should have few problems about performing well.

Six year-olds handwriting

Six year-olds handwriting

How can teachers and parents help their children to develop good handwriting. I posted Top Ten Tips for Children’s Handwriting on my website blog this year. It is not difficult to ensure that children develop a grip which will not cause them pain later in life from a very early age, particularly if and when they go on to sit 3-hour examinations.

Seven year-olds

Seven year-olds

 

Nor is it rocket science to help children develop that good grip by placing paper and books in the best position. So for neither should the paper be straight but slanted, and for right-handers, the top right-hand corner should be highest, and for left-handers the top left-hand corner should be highest (it is very easy to remember). This helps left-handers particularly to avoid developing an ‘over-the-top’ claw-like grip which causes strain on the wrist, forearm, shoulder and spine. If pen-hold is a problem, then triangular grips that slide over pens and pencils can be very helpful.

Eight year-olds

Eight year-olds

Ensuring that children do not have to reach up to write, nor hunch their bodies over a table are also essential. Both seating positions – stretching and hunching – may result in pain and poor posture which could cause problems later. No-one enjoys writing if their experience of it brings back memories of being uncomfortable or hurt. Standard issue chairs and tables are not the best for children of many different heights in a class from quite small to very tall – one having to stretch too much and the other having to bend over too much.

Nine year-olds

Nine-year-olds

And, of course, writing at a slope is far more preferable to on the flat, but I sense this is a lost cause nowadays! Those old-fashioned wooden desks with a sloping lid were far better for writing, especially when doing so at length.

 

 

 

 

Winner Group B

Overall Winner Group B

Research has also shown that children who hand-write, rather than type, are better at composition and reading and also have better memories. The same research from Washington University also found that children ‘wrote’ more quickly when hand-writing their compositions than when ‘writing’ them on a computer, even for those who had learned to touch type. Many authors, too, find that handwriting allows ideas to flow more easily as the brain keeps up with the speed of the hand-writer. What better proof then to emphasise the importance of everyone learning to handwrite well and how much it helps children’s learning in so many other ways.

Ten year-olds

Ten year-olds

This year’s competition was as difficult to judge as previous ones, with many examples of excellent handwriting, which will surely stand all in good stead in future years. As always, the judges looked for well-formed letters. It is important when it is time for speeding up that the heights of ascenders are consistent with the letter ‘t’ usually being smaller than that of other ascenders but higher than the x-height, the body of the letters.

 

 

 

 

Eleven year-olds

Eleven year-olds

Once letters are joined, the joins should be smooth and natural. Of course, not every letter in a word has to join, but where they do it should not look contrived.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner Group C

Winner Group C

There are always some difficult letter combinations, and the ‘fl’ and ‘bl’ combinations in this Overall Group C winning entry is an example of those combinations being well resolved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twelve year-olds

Twelve year-olds

There should also be a consistency of slant. For some people their natural ‘ductus’ results in letters that slant forwards, or the letters are upright, or backwards. Consistency is more important than the direction, and examples of all three can be seen in these prize-winners.

 

 

 

Thirteen year-olds

Thirteen year-olds

It has been said in previous Judge’s Reports, but placing/position on the page/paper does make a difference. It is not that difficult for a teacher to indicate (or even draw a margin for younger children) so that the poems are not crammed tightly over on the left-hand side. A beautifully placed piece of writing, as in the winner of the ten year-olds (above) comes as a real joy!

 

 

 

 

Winner Group D

Winner Group D

And the style of lettering makes no difference either – Italic, round letters, Copperplate-style looped letters are all in evidence here.

 

 

 

 

Staff

Staff Winners

And to show that good handwriting does not stop when children leave school, the three prize-winners in the Staff section are all to be praised for a natural, legible and consistent style.

Children’s Handwriting

children's handwritingTo me, the value of teaching children to write is undisputed; it is a skill that everyone should acquire. Whether they do it well, and their handwriting is a thing of beauty, is not essential – as long as it’s legible – in the same way that most can sing or shuffle a bit but not everyone can be a singing star or a champion at dancing.

As Chief Judge of the National Schools’ Handwriting Competition, and as a practising scribe, I am often asked about how to help children with their handwriting, so here are my Top Ten Tips for parents and carers:

photo copy 71. Encourage children to write, it doesn’t matter what, as long as they get something on paper. Suggest they keep a holiday diary, draw and write captions perhaps instead of thank you letters (which can be rather a chore), write letters to Father Christmas, and let you know, in writing, what they want for birthdays and special events.

 

2. At the same time, let them see you writing a lot – making to-do lists, writing thank you cards and letters, adding a personal note to birthday cards rather than just ‘best wishes’, writing your own diary perhaps, writing shopping lists. And the worse thing adults can say to children? ‘My handwriting’s awful’ because the message of that is that you have got to where you are as an adult with rubbish writing, and so good handwriting doesn’t matter.

pens and pencils3. Get hold of a selection a pens and pencils and let them try them out to see what suits. Some prefer big chunky pens and pencils, others slim light ones. Insistance on using a fountain pen by carers or schools is, in my opinion, not fair. There are some children, often young boys, who manage to get themselves and their paper covered in ink just by taking the tops of their pens. For these never to achieve a nice piece of writing because wet ink and posh nibs are de rigeur isn’t going to help them feel good about writing.

photo copy 64. Ensure they have somewhere suitable to write. Adult-sized tables and chairs for young children can cause pain if they have to reach up, and they won’t want to write if that’s a consequence. So a chair of the height whereby they can sit comfortably with their feet firmly flat on the floor, and a table which isn’t so low that they have to crouch over, or too high so they have to stretch would be ideal.

 

 

 

5. Arrange an appropriate light. Much of the ‘mood lighting’ in houses nowadays means that children can find it difficult to write simply because they can’t see!

photo copy 5For right-handers, the light source should come from the left-hand side,

photo copy 3

 

 

 

and for left-handers, the light source should be on the right-hand side (the lamp would normally be a bit further away than shown on the right, but the picture looked a bit strange when I did that!).

In daylight, simply turn the table and chair around by the window so this happens. During the evening, a cheap table lamp will do the business.
photo copy 5

 

6. And on the subject of right- and left-handers, to avoid left-handers having an ‘over-the-top’ grip, simply ensure that for them the left-hand corner of the top of the paper is highest. This is so easy, not at all rocket science, and it makes all the difference! Left-handers often adopt the ‘over-the-top’ grip because when paper is placed in front of them with the top edge straight, they can’t see what they’re writing, and also smudge what they’ve written if using wet ink. Changing the paper angle by having the left-hand corner at the top resolves this.

photo copy 4

For right-handers the right-hand corner of the top of the paper should be highest.

 

 

 

 

photo copy

 

7. Although I don’t like to be didactic about this, a conventional grip does avoid pain. So the pad of the thumb and the part of the middle finger between the tip and first knuckle hold the pen,

 

 

 

 

photo copy 2and then the control is given by the forefinger, which should be relaxed and not tense.
photo copy 3

 

 

 

Left-handers might like to try to hold their pen or pencil a little further away from the tip, and rotate the hand slightly more to the left to help with seeing what they’ve written and to avoid smudging.

 

 

 

photo copy 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

$T2eC16hHJF0E9nmFTL6RBP8tTs1VCw~~60_35There are triangular grips which slide on to the pen or pencil, or even pencils that are themselves triangular, which help in maintaining this grip. I wouldn’t like to condemn grips which are like a claw, or where the wrist is high, but they can cause tension in the hand, arm, shoulder and back when writing and that can lead to pain. Once handwriting is associated with pain, then why continue writing?

 

8. Encourage, encourage and encourage. Find one or two good letters well written and praise to the heavens on these, then suggest that if they can write those letters as well as that, then they can try to write others in the same letter families well, using the same or very similar strokes.

photo copy 8Letter families are: Letters that start with a straight stroke and usually have a joining stroke or curve at the base – i,l,t,u,y,j. Letters that start with a downstroke and then arch (and beyond) – r,n,m,h,b,p,k (if using a looped, closed bowl style). Letters (most of – e is the exception) which start with a curve to the left –  c,e,a,d,g,q,o. Diagonal letters (although depending on the lettering style, some of these may be more curved and fit in with the first letter family) – v,w,x,z. And then odds of f and s, and the letter k if the bowl isn’t closed as a loop.

photo copy 99. People don’t expect to play a musical instrument well, or be able to do ballet without practising. It may be a chore but it gets results. Some good exercises, on lined paper, once children have started to join up are repetitions of letters are i l and t, to get the heights right, then the letters r n and u to help with arches and joins; o c and e to help again with joins. And while encouraging children to do this, why not sit down and do it yourself at the same time to show that it’s important, as this will improve your writing too!

10. And the last isn’t a tip as such but a fact. Of course we all know that learning to write helps hand-eye co-ordination and encourages concentration and the ability to sit still for a period of time. In addition to this, research at Washington University concluded that children who are taught to write at a young age are better at composition and reading and also have better memories. They also found that children ‘wrote’ more quickly when hand-writing their compositions than when ‘writing’ them on a computer, even for those who had learned to touch type. Many authors, too, find that handwriting allows ideas to flow more easily as the brain keeps up with the speed of the handwriter. What better proof then to emphasise the importance of everyone learning to handwrite and how much it helps children’s learning in so many other ways.

So write letters to children (many children have never received a letter, let alone a hand-written one) and handwrite to thank people – everyone, not just children, likes to receive a letter and do e-mail thanks or phone calls really cut the mustard? Write every time you can – especially when children are around – and why not encourage your local school to enter the National Schools’ Handwriting Competition which is completely free and every child and adult (yes including caretakers, cooks, auxiliaries, TAs, helpers etc) in the school can enter? What better way to encourage everyone to value the importance and significance of handwriting?

Many thanks to my hand model; she knows who she is!