Is teaching cursive writing to Nursery/Reception pupils a good idea?

[ZephirineDrouhin]

dd is in the Nursery year at her primary school. While they don't do any formal lessons, they do encourage the children to write their own names, and have recently implemented a cursive writing policy in Nursery/Reception.

Dd was writing her name and a few other words pretty well at the start of term, but since they have been teaching them cursive writing it has become a pretty much unreadable mass of ticks and flicks.

I know it will get much better over time of course. However, I'm really struggling to see how teaching writing this way can be anything other than confusing for 4 year olds who are just grappling with the rudiments of reading and writing.

Does anyone have a more positive experience of this either as a teacher or parent?

I like the sheet of letters on that 2nd link muppetgirl -will print that one off.

Having read a bit more around this and mulled it all over, there is one thing in particular that really doesn't make sense to me. It seems that a key idea in teaching cursive is that each letter "starts on the line", and that it is this that enables children to join up the letters later on. But when they are joined up, letters do not always start on the line when they are joined up, otherwise you would end up with loops all over the place, because lots of letters have exit points above the line ("r", "o" etc)

Can anyone explain this?

The fist letter of each word starts on the line

Really, corny? But from what I have seen, they have been teaching them to start each letter on the line regardless of where they come in the word, so that for example "u" "i" and "a" all have extra strokes on the left hand side starting from the line (or unfortunately, at this stage, finishing on the line).

When I teach a new letter I teach the child to start it from the line but also show how to join to other letters. So the first letter of the word starts on the line and the rest of the letters join to each other.(I am confusing myself here so apologies!)

No I see what you mean, and that makes sense. But presumably this isn't to Nursery/Reception kids?

Sorry - one other thing. If you are teaching them to write the letter "a" on its own (ie the indefinite article) would you still get them to do it with a pre-stroke starting on the line?

I am SEN teacher - at the moment the youngest I teach is Y1. The children I teach very often need lots of work on letter formation. Yes I would teach 'a' starting on the line if on it's own but not a big deal if they don't do it that way. The important thing is that they form the letters correctly.

Yes, that's my concern. I'm not convinced that dd is being shown how to form the letters, but rather being shown what the end result is expected to be and left to get on with it, so she tending to apply pre-strokes after the actual letter is formed.

I do think it is great that children are being taught cursive from a fairly young age, but still not quite convinced that it's a good idea at 4. I can't help feeling they should be able to form the actual letters reasonably competently first. I just can't see how it is "unlearning" or "relearning" to be later taught how to join those letters up when the time comes. I can't get past the fact that, to me, the pre-strokes are part of the joining-up process, not part of the letter formation.

Anyway, just venting. Can't do anything about it except try to support what the school is doing. I'm sure it will become clear in time.

Reception children are taught how to join letters correctly ZephirineDrouhin.

That's good mrz. At all schools?

ZD, i think you are over-thinking this.

i think that the 'all letters start on the line' is a rule you teach at the beginning and once you have mastered the art of doing o, you learn to break it. if you look at the first image of the D'Nealian script on the wiki page you'll see that is what is represented.

dd, also in reception, sometimes does the the beginning ticks and flicks after the letter formation. I'm quite sure she is being taught the proper way from seeing the sheets she brings home but she is at a place in the learning process where what you described is happening, but i notice less often now.

I obviously can't speak for "all" schools but many many schools who teach cursive from nursery do.

they're not taught correctly at our school ZD - they're encouraged to do 'flicks' but no-one's checking at what point in the process the flicks get added

at one point ds2 was taking ages to write anything at all - he realised that 'cursive' writing was what was expected, but didn't have a clue how to go about it so did a very shaky print style with loads of added wiggles, curlicues etc - I had to take him right back to basics and start all over again (this was in y2/3). We did Write from the Start and thankfully he can now do joined-up writing (although he'll never win prizes for calligraphy!)

Yes I hope so, goblin. Good to hear positive experiences anyway.

Oh, sorry - missed your post mimsum. Not so positive. Well done for putting him right. Will have a look at Write from the Start. It does all seem to me a bit like learning to run before you can walk, but I suppose it all does depend a lot on the individual teachers.

don't forget ZD and mimsmum that some children will pick up things a lot later than others. they are only capable of learning at their own rates and in a class of 30, even with TA support, it is very difficult to differentiate for all children. this of course is not your child's problem, it is an inevitable difficulty in most educational settings. Hopefully you can find her teacher and school approachable where you can voice your concerns so that they can be addressed.

I teach secondary and I have a bottom set of year 8. Some of them are dyslexic and no teaching style will have made them learn to write legibly. In fact about 5 of them are only just learning to read an analog clock with my help - in French I daresay. I have a lot of empathy for teachers in primary with large classes of mixed abilities and learning styles, even with TA support in every lesson.

It seems sad to me that nursery children who are barely out of nappies are being taught to write. Surely social/ play skills are more important at this age.

Get this - in my old primary we had to learn Italics (no I'm not that old, it was the Heads pet subject).
Print to Italics to cursive.
Needless to say, my handwriting is an awful mix of the lot!

I thought it was wrong when my DD started reception last term as most of the children could already write in print and DD found it difficult to begin with , but now she like many of the others can write every letter and is starting to join , which I think is pretty good for 4YOs.

Don't understand the focus on cursive writing in the UK.

Adult brits have some of the worst handwriting I have ever seen. I print most of my words and it is fast and instantly legible. My dh OTOH, who is schooled in UK, has handwriting that is completely illegible. I mean he can barely form a simple letter to look anything like the print version. Weird.

Reallytired - I agree with you, but I don't think they are actively teaching the children to write in Nursery. It's more that they are encouraged to write their names on their drawings etc, and are being told to do this in cursive script (but without actually joining), so that an i looks like a sort of inverted curly v, u and a have tails on both sides etc. Consequently, dd has gone from being able to write her name pretty well to writing pretty illegibly.

It would seem to me to make more sense at this stage to let them form letters in print - especially as it will be printed letters which they will be learning to read - and to teach them how to join the letters once they have the basics. However, as this isn't how it will happen at dd's school I am glad to read all the positive responses on teaching cursive from the start.