There is a reason some children dislike writing. Communicating through writing is a hugely complex, composite task that requires competence in each of the underlying component skills to do well. It is the most complex thing we ask children to do. Yet too often, children are expected to work on complex tasks before they have the necessary skills. While some children are fine with this and find the act of communicating motivating enough to put their fledgling skills into practice, for others it can result in frustration and demotivation.  

Joan Sedita’s Writing Rope describes 5 component strands that each need attention when learning to write.  One of these strands is transcription and that strand is composed by two further strands: spelling and handwriting/keyboarding. Handwriting is not something many teachers know a lot about. It’s a bit of a Cinderella area of the curriculum, both in terms of time allocated and teacher expertise.  Yet children in primary school spend a large amount of time with a writing implement in hand. So my hunch is this is a massively important area of learning that needs a revolution in teacher CPD.  And it so happens that Ofsted have just published a research review that argues that transcription in general and handwriting in particular needs much more attention if we are going to enable all children to be successful at writing.

This blog is my contribution to this revolution. Teachers deserve to be evidence-informed about what is most likely to work in this area of teaching. In order to understand what the evidence says, this blog in based on an interview I did with Margaret Williamson who is an absolute fount of knowledge of all things handwriting related. Margaret works for Kinetic Letters, a company that provides CPD for teachers and a teaching programme on handwriting. However, this is not intended as a puff piece for that particular product. It’s about helping teachers understand what handwriting entails and what to do so that children find it easy and it isn’t a barrier to learning. The rest of the blog is therefore written in question-and-answer format. Margaret and I did  this interview before Christmas – so long before the publication of the Ofsted research review – but it has taken us a while to whittle it down from the 80  pages of transcript into blog form!

CS: So, my first question is why is teaching handwriting important? The curriculum is really crammed and everyone’s fighting for their little piece. Probably handwriting is quite marginalised in many schools but here comes Margaret saying it needs to be brought out of the shadows and given a proper emphasis. Why does it deserve quality curriculum time?

MW: Handwriting is the fundamental foundation for writing success. Pupils need automaticity in handwriting so that when they are required to write, their brain is free to concentrate on what they’re wanting to say rather than being distracted by physical discomfort, or issues with producing the letters. It deserves quality curriculum time, since in order to master this complex interaction of cognitive and motor skills, pupils need careful, systematic teaching of the skills involved, and the time to practise them. In addition to promoting automaticity, psychological research confirms that handwriting actually develops connectivity patterns in the brain, producing optimal conditions for learning. And the physical dexterity acquired through handwriting helps pupils with handling tools and typing.

When pupils master the physical and written elements of handwriting, resulting in legible script, it not only benefits spelling development but also gives writing a genuine purpose. Their friends and teachers are able to read their thoughts and ideas which otherwise may have remained unexpressed or not acknowledged. Automaticity in letter production, combined with a strong, stable writing position and comfortable pencil hold, enable the speed and stamina to convey all their thoughts within the time allotted to the task. Teachers can then praise progress, assess their understanding, and plan next steps for their learning. All these factors boost the pupil’s self-esteem, encouraging further engagement and expression because they know that their ideas are important and valued.

In sharp contrast are those pupils who despite being able to express themselves well orally, when asked to write, their engagement and enthusiasm drops. For others, underlying anxieties may come into play- that they’re not going to be successful, or that writing makes their hand ache, or that it’s a pointless activity as no-one can read it. This may prompt them to start misbehaving, or simply try to avoid the situation.

CS: And do you think that is all down to handwriting or partly down to handwriting?

MW: I think handwriting is a huge factor. If pupils are engaged during verbal discussion, but enthusiasm dwindles when you ask them to write, then handwriting is going to be a significant player. Of course, there are other factors – are they finding it easy to spell the words, or construct sentences? However, these elements become moot if you can’t actually get your ideas down on paper. So I would say that handwriting is the foundation of writing, that then enables those other very important skills to begin to flow.

CS: I think that some people would agree with the diagnosis of the problem but have a different solution and say that therefore we should just do much more orally. I don’t agree with that myself.  Part of it is just practical. If it’s written down, the teacher can see what you’re thinking, but they can’t hear simultaneously what 30 people are saying, it’s just not feasible. It’s the difference between talk which is a synchronous communication mechanism, and writing which is asynchronous. The transient nature of speaking provides all sort of logistical challenges in the classroom. Whereas writing allows thought to be made permanent, or at least semi-permanent, which means more people can have access to your thoughts – your peers as well as your teachers. Which isn’t an argument against also developing and valuing oracy, but it can’t replace communicating through writing.

MW: Exactly, and of course there are some pupils for whom writing could become the easier way to communicate. Children who are slower at processing for example can find that by the time they are ready to say something, either somebody else has already done so, or the conversation has moved on. Others lack the confidence to speak out loud but writing gives them the way to rehearse and refine their ideas.

CS: Because writing is a tool for thinking extended thoughts.

MW: The ability to write helps you engage with education, develop as a person, and improve confidence in your own thoughts and arguments. Handwriting is communication- if it’s legible, others can read your ideas. If you can read your own writing, then you are able to edit and polish your work, expand, rephrase, and make your communication clearer.

CS: So what does learning to handwrite actually entail? I think teachers tend to think it’s learning a letter formation scheme. But it’s way more than that, isn’t it?

MW: That’s right, because it requires both motor and cognitive skills. The motor skills require postural strength in order to maintain an effective writing position; to sit still enough to concentrate and hold the pencil comfortably whilst controlling tiny movements accurately and at speed. The cognitive involves learning correct and consistent letter formation through systematic teaching, with sufficient time to practise and build automaticity. However, it also involves learning how to space letters properly. Incorrect spacing within and between words, or sentences that sprawl haphazardly over numerous lines, makes writing hard to scan or edit.

CS: This corresponds with what we know about saccades – the jumps that our eyes make when we read. Our eyes don’t move smoothly along text but make sudden jumps then fixate on a few characters then jump again. The spaces between words help us navigate those jumps. If they are the wrong size, or within words, then we make the wrong size of jump which is why incorrectly spaced writing is less legible.

MW: Spacing also helps the speed and flow of writing, and eventually joining. When letters are correctly spaced, it is easier to extend the finish into the next one without creating big loops in between, making it easier to read. This is also really important because another misconception in writing is that when you join letters, you join every single one.

CS: Yes- I was listening to handwriting expert Steve Graham a few weeks ago and he was saying that

exclusively cursive writing is not faster than non-cursive (manuscript). In fact, the fastest writing was a mixture of some joined letters, some not. Which is not what I have always been told – but apparently the idea that cursive is faster is a myth. Adults write faster than children because they’ve had more practice. Coincidentally they tend to use cursive but it’s the practice and not the cursive that’s behind the speed.

I don’t work in England anymore, so joining is not a problem here in Guernsey but in England cursive is in the National Curriculum. It’s in the assessment criteria. So there’s a real push to do it. Do you think that’s counterproductive?

MW: I think it’s completely counterproductive until the foundations of the formation, heights and spacing of letters are automatic. Once they are, and pupils are writing faster, they will often intuitively start to leave the pen on the page between letters, which of course is all joining actually is. At this stage other joins are simple and quick to teach, building systematically and progressively, rather than pupils thinking they have to learn a whole new way of writing.

CS: So, what should be going on in Reception for handwriting?

MW: It’s important to create enabling environments to build physical and cognitive foundations for writing. Modern life is becoming increasingly sedentary and so pupils need to build the postural strength and stability to be able to sit still and control writing implements. Hand and finger strength is dependent upon postural strength; it enables manipulation and dexterity of the fingers, and this again needs targeted provision to systematically develop children’s control. Manipulation of different sizes and resistances of tools and materials, increasing the complexity of their use, builds this organically.

CS: It’s like the STEP approach in PE, where you change the space, task, equipment, or people to increase or decrease challenge. So it’s not just saying ‘Oh yeah, they’re doing that for gross motor or fine motor’. In the same way that the profession over the last few years has really thought about the granular detail of the knowledge that a child might need to know in geography or whatever, it is fundamental to know the granular detail of what physical progression for handwriting looks like.

MW: Yes, exactly. The progression is essential. One of the biggest questions I always get asked by teachers of older pupils is, ‘how can we break the bad habits they’ve acquired in handwriting?’ Well, the answer is not to inadvertently encourage the bad habits in the first place, by rushing to provide writing activities for which they don’t yet have the skills!  It’s counterproductive, and it tends to be an adult desire, rather than the child’s. However, children love making marks, and there are many ways to provide for this, for example simply using hands or huge brushes rather than writing tools that require a tripod grip, before they have the physical skills and have been explicitly taught how to do that. Then, when tools become appropriate, they should be slim to suit small hands, and long enough to be supported across the hand. Also, there should be limits to how long pupils use them for until they have built the stamina to maintain the tripod grip. The initial scaling down of letters from whole body movements, can be achieved by writing with their fingers in shaving foam, or shallow sand trays. If we think in terms of cognitive load, with this approach they’re able to focus on the formation, grounding, and heights of the letters, before having to also control the writing tool.

CS: I can envisage some people thinking this is dumbing things down- if we say we are not going to have a writing table too early and not to trace over letters, but it’s not. You can’t microwave children to develop physically quicker than they’re going to. I mean, you can help by providing environments and contexts that are very focused on specific strengthening of certain areas of the body. But thinking about handwriting in this way means that everything becomes purposeful. Adults trained in this method actually develop children who learn to write very quickly.

MW: Precisely. In my experience, when all this is taught systematically in line with their development, children are beginning to put letters into words, and even words into simple sentences, by the end of the first term of Reception.  So in fact you’re actually going to prompt significantly faster progression.

CS: Writing is always the aspect of the Early Learning Goals where more children struggle. Because results are lower, the temptation is to push children to try and write with a pencil. But it doesn’t work like that. Yes, we want them to do it, but there are some prerequisites, the developmental steps that just have to be there.

MW: Yes, and of course Reception is in fact a very long period of time in a child’s development. I believe that we should break the year down into smaller units with regards to handwriting expectations. In the autumn term, teachers provide very firm foundations in all of the aspects mentioned previously: gross and fine motor skills, and learning letter formation through movement of varying scales, first without tools and then with them. During the spring term, most can maintain a tripod grip to write correctly formed letters, and combine them into words and simple sentences which they can read themselves. Thus, by the summer term, handwriting automaticity is developing well. Writing speed and stamina can then be the focus in Year 1.

CS: What about phonics and handwriting?

MW: There is a helpful quote from the DfE Reading Framework which states that, ‘Some practices may confuse children, make it more difficult than necessary for them to learn or discourage them. Such as when the teacher asks children to write independently before they have the necessary skills.’So we don’t want them writing in a phonics session until they have the necessary skills. Throughout this blog we’ve been talking about the importance of pupils acquiring these systematically: the physical skill of positioning their bodies for holding the pencil, knowledge of how the letters are formed, placement of the letters correctly together in a word, and the understanding of comparative heights to avoid confusion when they try to read their work.

Early in the first term the cognitive load is more manageable if handwriting and phonics are taught and practised separately. After a few weeks, once pupils are writing letters that they themselves recognise as being the same as those they see the teacher writing, they will be able to benefit from writing in the phonics session. And equally of benefit, they will be able to use both handwriting and phonics skills in writing in the wider curriculum.

CS: My last question is what about learning to type on a keyboard? I’d argue that instead of obsessing about learning cursive we should teach children typing in key stage 2. Do you agree?

MW: I do, we need to teach typing, but in addition to handwriting, not as a replacement. Most children can master automaticity before they can master touch-typing. And there are practical problems with typing such as where do you buy a keyboard that fits a young child’s hand size.

Also due to research, we now understand more about the benefits of each. Studies using MRI scans or EEF recordings show how when writing by hand, the brain connectivity patterns are beneficial for general learning. Other studies indicate that children write faster and with more ideas, and students make more effective notes when writing by hand rather than typing. It benefits memory, recall and creativity when you’re handwriting a stream of consciousness that isn’t interrupted as it might be when typing, where the temptation is to keep pausing to edit individual sentences.

So it is clear that because in this digital age we have more choices for how to produce writing for different purposes, it is essential to equip our pupils with the skills to access both- by teaching automaticity in both typing and handwriting.