When Is a Child Developmentally Ready to Learn Cursive?
Even though teaching cursive might be on its way out, kids typically have the fine-motor skills needed to learn cursive handwriting by ages 7 or 8. However, that doesn't necessarily mean they'll have good penmanship from the start. The ability to write legibly is wide ranging at this stage of development.
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Moving On Up
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In a way your child has been "writing" from the first time she clutched a crayon in her hand and drew random lines in various shapes and sizes. The squiggly lines used in cursive are reminiscent of the toddler years -- only now your child is learning to make swoops and swirls that have meaning. Your child has probably mastered the art of printing letters and words by the time she's ready to learn cursive.
Prerequisites of Learning Cursive
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A 7-year-old should have polished fine-motor skills that allow him to use a sophisticated pencil grasp -- referred to as a dynamic tripod grasping pattern, according to a web page on the website of the Oceanside School District in New York. The tripod grasp consists of holding a pencil or pen between the thumb and index finger. The writing utensil lies on the middle finger. Learning cursive also requires good hand-eye coordination and a steady shoulder to help support the elbow and wrist.
Line Em Up
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Lined paper helps ensure that your child writes cursive letters that are the correct size and proportion, points out KidsHealth, a website published by the Nemours Foundation. Capital letters should reach from top to bottom of the lines while lowercase cursive letters such as "c" should be half the height of the capital letter "C." Using lined paper when learning cursive helps keeps your child's letters and eventually complete words level.
Unnecessary?
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As of September 2013, 45 states had adopted the Common Core State Standards, which states that U.S. schools are not required teach cursive. The standards were set by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association. States that do not require cursive writing as part of its school̵7;s curriculum believe it makes more sense to use the time to teach keyboard skills because students spend so much of their on the computer.
Not So Fast
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Many students, parents and scientists maintain that cursive continues to be relevant and important. Researchers are discovering that teaching children cursive promotes cognitive development. Studies of brain images show that several areas of the brain are activated simultaneously when learning cursive writing of pseudo-letters -- a succession of bogus letters that bear a resemblance to a real word. Such multifaceted brain effects were not evident when using a keyboard, according to a March 2013 article at PsychologyToday.com.
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