Handwriting (producing letters and words using a pen) is a crucial skill for children to master at school. Being able to take notes, and get down ideas and knowledge on paper underlies much of how children’s attainment is measured, and it’s unsurprising that handwriting ability (both in terms of legibility and speed) has been found to predict educational achievement even at an early age. However, up to a third of all children struggle with this skill, with some children finding the demands of the mechanics of writing interferes with the ability to generate ideas, others finding their writing is too slow to allow them to get their ideas down on paper in a set time, and others being marked down because their writing is illegible.
Our group aims to take evidence-based effective clinical techniques for improving handwriting, and translate them for use by teachers and other members of staff in schools.
