I have written a number of different blog posts about the value of cursive writing. I have long believed that this is a valuable skill, especially since it is so efficient once it is mastered, and it has troubled me that so few of my students are able to write in cursive, largely because it is no longer being taught to elementary school children. That trend has begun to change and there are more and more states that are again mandating the teaching of cursive in their schools. Hurrah!
The overall benefits of knowing cursive have long been acknowledged and the news clip in the link below points out that it enables people to sign their name, read historical documents and understand letters from older relatives.
This time I am providing a link to a short video (59 seconds) that I found on the IDA (International Dyslexia Association) website. It shows a TV news program which includes portions of an interview with Dr. Nancy Cushen White, who is a clinical professor and part of a research team at the UCSF (University of California at San Francisco) Dyslexia Research Center. She says that cursive is faster because you don’t have to pick up your pencil after each letter. She maintains that it also helps you connect things and it makes it harder for the writer to reverse letters on the page (which is something that people with dyslexia often do).
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAHl6G_tsXI
