Some Practical Considerations in the Teaching of Handwriting
Abstract
Some Practical Considerations in the Teaching of Handwriting SAGE Publications, Inc.1968DOI: 10.1177/105345126800400102 Diana HanburyKing Allegheny Mountains, a summer school for dyslexic children. During the winter she teaches at the Potomac School, McLean, Virginia UNESTHETIC reinforcement is the sine qua non of all successful remedial work, and the importance of correct training in handwriting cannot be overemphasized. Kinesthetic patterns, once learned, are more firmly embedded than those of any other sense. He who has once learned to ride a bicycle or a horse, to skate or ski, or to use a typewriter will not lose the skill, even after years of disuse. Unlike visual or auditory stimuli, which feed into both hemispheres of the brain, handwriting is a unilateral cerebral activity and serves to establish and reinforce dominance, lack of which is related to difficulty in any area of language. Writing is often the first step in learning to read, for it is only when the dyslexic child begins to feel the shape of the letters that the symbols begin to stick in his memory. In the more severe cases of dyslexia, remedial work often fails because the handwriting and spelling are ignored as efforts are concentrated on teaching