Computer Off, Pencil Up: Course Helps Kids Get a Grip on Writing

By Kameel Stanley

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Anna Schultz's two sons are whizzes when it comes to technology. Between them, they have four game systems, and their fingers can fly across a computer keyboard faster than their mom's.

But sometimes, 6-year-old Ben writes his e's backward. And when 7-year-old Jason had long journal assignments in class last year, he had trouble gripping the pencil.

"He came home, and his hand would hurt or he had cramps," said Schultz, a stay-at-home mother in Potomac Falls. "He was doing something wrong for it not to work."

So, while their friends were spending the waning days of summer at the pool and hanging out with friends, Ben and Jason were at the Claude Moore Community Center in Sterling in handwriting camp. They learned the ins and outs of good penmanship in preparation for their return to Lowes Island Elementary School today as public schools reopen in Northern Virginia.

In an era in which kids are more likely to use a computer to write a book report and a cell phone to send a note to a friend, there are still parents who believe that knowing how to write - on paper, with a pen or a pencil - is still important. What's more, they shelled out $160 for the unusual summer camp to help their children conquer their penmanship fears.

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Jay Chadha, 6, Thomas Wajsgras, 6, Ian Whitfield, 6 and Ben Schultz, 6, do a writing exercise where they look up to a word written on the mirror by the teacher and then copy it on the mirror. (Michael Williamson)

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Kaleigh Mullins, 9, and Courtney Davis, 9, do hand coordination exercises by trying to find small beads embedded in clay, which helps get them warmed up for writing. (Michael Williamson)

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"I'd like for them to struggle less," Schultz said, who added that if they get better, "it'll be worth it."

Ashburn resident Kely Davis, the camp teacher, is a certified instructor for the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.

"The program is mechanical," said Davis, who decided to become trained in the program seven years ago so she could help her children learn the proper way to write. "This is usually what the teacher's don't have time to do."

But her lessons in handwriting are nothing like those taught in a traditional classroom.

Instead of spending hours at a table writing and rewriting sentences, Davis's group of 10 boys and three girls, ages 6 to 9, spent that time playing with clay filled with tiny toys they had to extract and fashioning jump-ropes out of strings of beads.

Writing, after all, is a motor skill, and the toys Davis brought helped strengthen finger muscles needed for writing.

The week-long camp, Davis said, was only a crash course. Most children need a series of lessons before they start to adopt good handwriting techniques, including remembering to start their letters from top to bottom and developing mental reference points that decrease the chance of writing letters or numbers backward.

This year, the community center and Davis are teaming up to provide handwriting classes throughout the school year.

"I have always had a waiting list," said Davis, who teaches full time and often gives private lessons and trains other parents. "And I tutor quite a few doctors."

Schultz, who said she heard about Davis from a friend whose young son gets private lessons, said there is a misconception that children do not need good handwriting skills because of the emphasis on technology.

"They still do write so much in the lower grades," she said.

Handwriting and formal penmanship classes went out of style in the 1970s, said Jan Olsen of Bethesda, an occupational therapist who founded Handwriting Without Tears in 1977 after seeing her son struggle.

At that time, she said, there was a push to stop caring so much about handwriting and focus more on the content of students' work. Along with the increased emphasis on technology and computers, it has created a generational gap that companies like hers are trying to fill.

Olsen said an increased awareness about the importance of good writing appears to be changing things. The key moment, Olsen said, came in 2006, when the SAT exams introduced a handwritten essay portion.

Since then, parents, teachers and schools are again recognizing the needs for handwriting instruction, she said.

"Handwriting has been going out of favor for many years, and it's just now coming back," Olsen said. "The reason these children can't write is because we aren't teaching them.

"Our business this year is up 25 percent," Olsen said, adding that her company has about 500 workshops for teachers, parents and trainers nationwide each year.

Although many school districts provide only minimal handwriting instruction, some are starting to come around, she said.

Last week, Olsen trained teachers from Virginia's Chesapeake public school system, which decided to roll out Handwriting Without Tears this fall. The program has also been used by schools in Arlington and Prince George's counties and the District.

A national study examining how primary grade teachers teach handwriting appears to support Olsen's beliefs. The survey, published this year, found that four of five surveyed teachers, about 79 percent, said their district required that handwriting be taught. But only 12 percent said they felt they were adequately prepared to do so.

"There is a lot made about how we're living in this electronic age," said Steve Graham, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the study's primary author. "But the idea that we would not need handwriting does not line up with the realities."

Although kids today have more exposure to technology, he said, a larger part of their classroom experience still involves putting pen to paper.

"You're not seeing every kid taking a laptop into the classroom to take their notes," he said. "They're still doing an awful lot of writing by hand."

Graham's study also indicates that the number of children who have experienced difficulty with handwriting has increased. Surveyed teachers reported that 23 percent of their students fell into that category, up from earlier estimates of 12 to 21 percent.

Research, including Graham's, shows that handwriting hang-ups can negatively affect a student's academic ability, Olsen said.

"We're not doing this because we're picky or mean," she said. "We're doing this because we want children to be able to write neatly and quickly."

Handwriting isn't rocket science, Olsen said, but it's also no innate.

"You do not learn to do handwriting like you learn how to talk. You need instruction," she said. "With the investment, good handwriting becomes a habit, like shoe-tying."

Tagged: education, schools, Sterling

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