Why do children have to learn to write joined up?

[Hulababy]

Just curious.

I know some schools start this very early on, and some later. But they all do it eventually. And there seems to be a big push for joined up writing in schools full stop.

But why? What is the reason for it? Why is it important to be able to write joined up?

I can write joined up. I learnt at school. But I rarely write joined up. I print. My writing is far neater and more legible when I print, and I can write just as fast when printing. So, if as an adult, I can chose how I want to write and no one would ever comment on me not joining up (have noticed lots of adults don't join up actually too) why do we find it so important to teach it in early primary?

Would love to know the fuull justifications for it.

See my post below. As a result I never use anything but a fountain pen!

cursive handwriting is easier for dyslexics as they are less likely to reverse letters. Dyslexic teaching programmes use cursive handwriting not print. Also fluency, speed.

It is also more attractive.

not to my visually impaired dd it's not
She needs the separation and contrast of each letter
She will get a sats exemption apparently.

My dd (7) is dyslexic and struggling with trying to join up. Have just ordered her a workbook from Amazon so we can practice at home as all her homeowrk comes back with a comment about lack of cursive.

My ds (dyslexic) struggled with it as well. Found it easier when he was taught one to one by a dyslexia teacher. Very difficult to learn when taught as a whole class. He's now mastered it and although it's untidy, it's legible.

My dd is also being asked to learn joined up writing and I have to say i'm baffled why. In my job we receive lots of letters of complaints and the ones from people who use joined up writing are unreadable a lot of the time. We usually end up writing back asking them to print future letters or use a computer. This so annoys people especially the ones who think that joined up writitng is 'proper' writing.

Perhaps they have not been taught properly.

my ds has learnt joined up from reception,he's in yr 1 now and managing well.
I don't have a problem with it.

Ithink my concern with it all is that for me, the most important thing about the written communication is that it should be clear, legible and suitable for the audience it is intended for. And I am afraid that the majority of joined up handwriting does not meet that criteria in many situations.

Maybe we should be teaching our children how to write legible, but int he way that best suits them, than making them all write in some prescribed way.

Both my DSs abandoned joined up writing eventually, having spent years practising it. Strangely this doesn't seem to have affected their life chances!

If my Ds (8) ever learns to write his own name i shall be thrilled. joined up or not

DD's reception teacher told me they do cursive from yR because it's easier as each letter starts on the line. I agree that DD's writing in yR was atrocious, but by y2 it has already vastly improved.

I was always told cursive was better for dyslexic children, better for boys as you write in patterns -igh is a good flowy example. Your memory develops but so does your physical memory which is very important for spelling when writing. Everything starts in the same place, on the line so this helps SEN children but letters such as F, x and z are difficult beacuse f's can be on the line, above the line crossed like a t or not. It just depends on what your school does.

I have never been shown research as to this really improving writing/spelling. My school handed out 2 sheets of a4 with examples of cursive writing on and then asked us to teach it. We had just invested in a new handwriting scheme that the head then totally disregarded in favour of cursive. There are little resources -I had to make my own and parents find it difficult to help at home.

Writing does tend to look neater from an earlier age, our yr1's had beautiful writing which is a good by product and I would think you would get extra points in SAT's.

lol Cod, my dd has learnt Canadian Cursive, it's so ornate. ( I'm not sure it's really necessary ) but does look good I agree.

My 2 dc had to learn this style at school in Germany and it's a mess and took ages to get to a readable standard. I think dc should learn to print neatly before they learn all those curly scrawled joined up styles. Ds has had marks knocked off in a test because a teacher read his y as a j - he was only writing in a style that they don't use in the area we've just moved to.

There's no evidence cursive helps from the start - for children like my DS who has significant motor skills problems it is worse as he can't work out what the moves are to make the letters anyway so he just puts in loads of lines like a spider.

Much better to begin with separate letters and move to cursive once correct formation is mastered
Advice from NHA

My joined up writing is pretty illegible, even to myself.

I was always told cursive was better for dyslexic children, better for boys as you write in patterns -igh is a good flowy example.

Not sure why it would be better for boys, what is it about a Y chromosome that makes flowy writing better?
But it certainly isn't better for my likely-dyspraxic child.

I was only ever taught cursive, never taught to print. I dread those forms that say use block capitals throughout as it looks like I've let my five year old loose on them.
This is a picture of the handwriting I was taught (in a current edition of the book)

Like learning to play the piano, I believe cursive is linked to other higher learning skills (math or memory).
It’s no longer relevant thanks to emails and electronic communications. And not a focus in Canadian education anymore.
Basically the only time I even hand write a note are Christmas/birthday cards.