Cursive Research
Two articles contributed by Iris Hatfield.
Released: 9/16/2013 5:35 AM EDT
Source Newsroom: Universite de Montreal
Source Newsroom: Universite de Montreal
Newswise — By 2014, 45 American states will stop teaching cursive
writing in favour of keyboard proficiency. In Québec, there are no plans for the
moment to abandon this type of writing. “Teaching and daily use of handwriting
are essential, if only to avoid being at the mercy of technology,” says
Professor Isabelle Montésinos-Gelet at the University of Montreal’s Faculty of
Education. Although she welcomes the idea of young people learning to handle a
computer keyboard, she believes it should be introduced in the school
curriculum when students are already proficient in one style of writing: print
(separate letters) or cursive (joined letters).
“Here, as in many countries, the general approach to teaching
writing is based on tradition rather than on educational research that has
proven benefits,” says the professor.
For generations, most Québec students learn to print in the first grade and write cursive in the second. "This was decided at a time when the cognitive aspects of the writing process and the important role of graphic-motor skills in learning how to write were unknown,” says the researcher, who conducted a study on the subject: Which is better, print or cursive? What form of writing instruction is more beneficial for students?
For generations, most Québec students learn to print in the first grade and write cursive in the second. "This was decided at a time when the cognitive aspects of the writing process and the important role of graphic-motor skills in learning how to write were unknown,” says the researcher, who conducted a study on the subject: Which is better, print or cursive? What form of writing instruction is more beneficial for students?
The study, conducted in collaboration with Professors Marie-France
Morin, Université de Sherbrooke, and Natalie Lavoie, Université du Québec à
Rimouski Sherbrooke, with 718 Québec students and teachers in 54 second grade
classrooms, demonstrates the influence of three handwriting teaching methods
(print, cursive, or print and cursive) on the acquisition of graphic-motor
skills (speed and quality of writing), spelling, and text construction. The
results, published in 2012 in the journal Language and Literacy, show
that students who learned cursive benefited the most. In particular, they had
better results in spelling and syntax. "These two aspects are essential
elements that contribute to the development of writing skills at the primary
level," says Montésinos-Gelet.
Worst approach: the print-cursive method
"Whether they learn print or cursive, children are better off when one type of writing is taught," she says. "Teaching both types does not promote the acquisition of automatic motor movements, which play an important role in spelling and text construction."
"Whether they learn print or cursive, children are better off when one type of writing is taught," she says. "Teaching both types does not promote the acquisition of automatic motor movements, which play an important role in spelling and text construction."
The data show that more than 50% of the variance in writing
quality among second-grade students is associated with graphic-motor skills.
This number hardly surprises the researcher. "If children write too
slowly, they cannot remember all their ideas; they forget them before they can
write them down," she explains. "Hence the importance of making motor
movements automatic so they do not mobilize all the children's resources."
The transition to cursive writing in the second grade hinders this
automatization. The findings of her research indicate that writing skills
improve in terms of speed and legibility by the end of the year whatever the
type of writing. On the other hand, students who learned printing in the first
grade and then began cursive writing in the second grade made the least
progress in spelling. The print-cursive method did not help with memory
consolidation of word spelling.
At the beginning of elementary school, children experience a
growth in spelling that allows them to spell many words, somewhat like the
language development phase at around two or three years. If they have to change
writing styles at this moment, it impedes their memorization by requiring more
brainwork," says Montésinos-Gelet.
In her opinion, teaching cursive writing leads to the best results
in comparison to the other two methods. “We observed among these students an
increase in syntactic skills, unlike those who only learned to print or who
learned both. The performance of these students remained stable throughout the
school year.”
Avoiding “backwards” letters
Learning to write in cursive also has the advantage of encouraging students to respect linguistic constraints from the outset. “Children who learn to print tend to treat letters like pictures and often write them backwards." This approach slows down the integration of what specialists call "stroke grammar,” i.e., the sequencing of gestures to produce optimal letters.
Learning to write in cursive also has the advantage of encouraging students to respect linguistic constraints from the outset. “Children who learn to print tend to treat letters like pictures and often write them backwards." This approach slows down the integration of what specialists call "stroke grammar,” i.e., the sequencing of gestures to produce optimal letters.
When students write directly in cursive, they are forced to follow a
kind of path determined by the direction of the strokes. “Otherwise, they
wouldn’t be able to join the letters,” says Montésinos-Gelet. “So, there are no
backwards letters.”
Furthermore, children who write in cursive do not at all have the
problem of spacing between letters and words. “They understand the concept of
word more quickly than the others do and therefore tend to have better
graphic-motor skills related to language processing, which helps them in terms
of syntax and spelling,” says the researcher.
Notes for media
This text was translated from a document originally published in French by Dominique Nancy. Professor Montésinos-Gelet is available for interview from noon to 4 pm Monday September 16 and Thursday September 19. She is not in a position to participate in radio or television broadcasts in English.
This text was translated from a document originally published in French by Dominique Nancy. Professor Montésinos-Gelet is available for interview from noon to 4 pm Monday September 16 and Thursday September 19. She is not in a position to participate in radio or television broadcasts in English.
Here's Proof That Learning Cursive Makes You
Smarter
Children practicing cursive handwriting
When was the last time you wrote in cursive? Fifty-eight years ago The Saturday
Evening Post was already calling America a "nation of
scrawlers."
Now, the recently established Common Core
State Standards, the standardized education benchmarks for
U.S. public schools, omits cursive as a graduation requirement. Indiana and Hawaii waved goodbye to cursive in 2011 and welcomed
keyboarding classes to their curricula.
Still, states like California, Georgia,
Idaho, Kentucky and Massachusetts have kept cursive instruction in place or
allowed individual school districts to decide.
The technique has many
defenders, including The National
Association of State Boards of Education, which recently compiled
evidence that learning cursive makes you smarter.
Below evidence from a NASBE policy brief:
·
Cognitive and
Motor Skills Development: Because
handwriting is a complex skill that involves both cognitive and fine motor
skills, direct instruction is required to learn handwriting (it is not good
enough to just give a workbook to students and hope for the best). However, the
result of good instruction is that students are benefited both in their
cognitive development and in developing motor skills.
·
Literacy
Development: Handwriting is a foundational skill that
can influence students’ reading, writing, language use, and critical thinking.
Students without consistent exposure to handwriting are more likely to have
problems retrieving letters from memory; spelling accurately; extracting
meaning from text or lecture; and interpreting the context of words and
phrases.
·
Brain
Development: The sequential hand movements used in
handwriting activate the regions of the brain associated with thinking,
short-term memory, and language. In addition, according to Virginia Berninger,
Ph.D., professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington,
cursive in particular is linked with brain functions around self-regulation
and mental organization. “Cursive helps you connect things,” Dr. Berninger said
in an interview.
·
Memory: The act of handwriting helps students (and adults) retain
information more effectively than when keyboarding, mostly likely because
handwriting involves more complex motor functions and takes a bit longer.
One study comparing students who took notes by hand versus classmates who took
notes by computer found that the hand writers exhibited better comprehension of
the content and were more attentive and involved during the class discussions.
·
Written
Expression: Elementary-age students who wrote
compositions by hand rather than by keyboarding, one researcher found, wrote
faster, wrote longer pieces, and expressed more ideas.
·
Learning
Disabilities: Handwriting instruction can be
especially valuable to many students with disabilities. As one professor of
occupational therapy has written, “One of the first things educators can do to
ensure that students with special needs develop good writing skills, besides
teaching them spelling and basic writing processes, is to provide them
with formal handwriting instruction.” Students with learning disabilities are
more likely to need extra support to improve their handwriting, but improved
handwriting can both help improve academic outcomes and help in fine motor
skill development.
And you never know when cursive will be
useful.
For instance, the technique proved crucial in
this year's Florida v. George Zimmerman murder trial. Later acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman's defense team attempted
to discredit Martin's childhood friend's testimony. Rachel Jeantel's was forced to admit
she could not read the cursive letter she wrote to Martin's
parents, bringing into question if she could truly write in cursive.
Dr.
David Sortino in his article Brain research and
cursive writing stated “I discovered that cursive writing was an excellent
kinesthetic exercise which grounded my students’ energies, many of which had
severe behavioral problems.
Cursive
writing has proved to even support higher SAT scores. That is, the College Board found that students
who wrote in cursive for the essay portion of the SAT scored slightly higher
than those who printed, which experts believe is because the speed and
efficiency of writing in cursive allowed the students to focus on the cohesion
of ideas in their essays through the mirror of the connected cursive stroke.
More importantly, after about
six months, the students were showing one to two years academic growth in word
attack, reading fluency and reading comprehension as defined by popular
achievement tests.
Shadmehr and Holcomb of Johns
Hopkins University published a study in Science magazine showing that their
subjects’ brains actually changed in reaction to physical instruction such as
cursive handwriting lessons. The researchers provided PET (Positron Emission
Tomography) scans as evidence of these changes in brain structure. In addition,
they also demonstrated that these changes resulted in an almost immediate
improvement in fluency, which led to later development of neural pathways. As a
result of practicing these handwriting motor skills, the researchers found that
acquired knowledge becomes more stable.”
How to improve everyday memory.
by William Klemm, D.V.M., Ph.D.
What Learning Cursive Does for Your Brain
Cursive Writing Makes Kids
Smarter
Published on March 14, 2013 by William R. Klemm, D.V.M, Ph.D. in Memory Medic
“… scientists are discovering that learning cursive is an
important tool for cognitive development,
particularly in training the brain to learn “functional
specialization,”[2] that is capacity for
optimal efficiency. In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops
functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and
thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become
co-activated during learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed
to typing or just visual practice.
There is spill-over benefit for thinking skills used in reading
and writing. To write legible cursive, fine motor control is needed over the
fingers. Students have to pay attention and think about what and how they are
doing it. They have to practice. Brain imaging studies show that cursive
activates areas of the brain that do not participate in keyboarding.
In learning to write by hand, even if it is just printing, a
child’s brain must:
- Locate each
stroke relative to other strokes.
- Learn and
remember appropriate size, slant of global form, and feature detail
characteristic of each letter.
- Develop
categorization skills.
Cursive writing, compared to printing, is even more beneficial
because the movement tasks are more demanding, the letters are less
stereotypical, and the visual recognition requirements create a broader
repertoire of letter representation. Cursive is also faster and more likely to
engage students by providing a better sense of personal style and ownership.
Other research highlights the hand's unique relationship with
the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas. Virginia Berninger, a
professor at the University of Washington, reported her study of children in
grades two, four and six that revealed they wrote more words, faster, and
expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus with a keyboard.[4]
There is a whole field of research known as “haptics,” which
includes the interactions of touch, hand movements, and brain function.[5] Cursive writing helps train
the brain to integrate visual, and tactile information, and fine motor
dexterity.”
Penmanship/cursive research
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