Thursday, January 24, 2019

Cursive v/s print hand writing


I know that the world will stand against me, when I say that I strongly believe in teaching cursive handwriting strokes in Level 2 of Preschool.
With my experience over 30 years I have observed very closely that children who start writing in cursive hand in early years develop better cognitive skills than the others. The twist and turns of fine muscles stimulate brain to develop the core of the particular section of the brain. Writing print letters for not have the same effect on the brain, as it does not require the same fine motor movements as cursive. 
I had observe the behavioural difference amongst the children who learnt cursive or print letters. The one who uses cursive hand is more disciplined and systematic in every approach. 
Cursive hand helps in maintaining the flow of the thoughts too whereas the thoughts of people who use print letters in Pre and lower primary levels break in between and make them unable to express themselves in a flow, they use some irrelevant sounds to fill in the pause to recollect the thoughts eg. Ah.....u....hmmm etc. It shows that cursive and print letters affect the speaking skills too.
In this world of smart phones and digital communication many of you might say, what is the use of using pen and paper and writing in cursive hand but human brains need to work behind all these gadgets and cursive hand helps in mental development.
What I have mentioned above opens many topics for research in the field of educational psychology.
Let's acknowledge the importance of cursive handwriting.
Release of tension and excessive energy.
Children build up tensions just as adults do, but they tend to reduce them naturally through movement and play. Frequently children are required to be still beyond their capacity to endure. When this happens both tension and excess energy increases and leads to restlessness and lack of atte which may lead to unnecessary strain between adult and child.
It is more effective to deal directly with the cause (the need to move) than the ensuing behaviour. If we can allow them to wiggle, jiggle, stretch and move with vigor, we may find everyone in a more pleasant mood, including ourselves.