The Italic Handwriting Series developed for public schools in Portland, Oregon, emphasizes a continuous flow in handwriting development and instruction and is designed to allow a more natural transition from print to cursive. Italic writing was first implemented during 1983-84 at the kindergarten through fourth-grade levels, with an additional…

Stressing the importance of instructional objectives, this discussion explores the relationship of handwriting to child characteristics and societal expectations. The nature of writing is described, and questions are specified for teachers to consider before determining educational objectives pertaining to handwriting. Guidelines for initial…

The Montessori language program is described as potentially helpful to the learning disabled child because of its emphasis on developing a concrete understanding of concepts prior to the teaching of abstract solutions. (GW)

Form errors, but not reversal errors, generated when kindergarten children printed reversible letters and numbers, were associated with teachers' judgments of children's academic performance at the end of kindergarten and throughout Grade 1. Three samples totaling 166 non-repeating kindergarten children (79 male, 87 female) were drawn from eight…

Responds to Karl Koenke's article on handwriting in the November 1986 issue of "The Reading Teacher" and offers an alternative opinion on handwriting instruction based on instruction methods in the United Kingdom. (JC)

Profiles the life and achievements of Marion Richardson, who is credited with developing the child art movement, and inventing Writing and Writing Patterns. The article also traces Richardson's neglected contribution to art education. (BSR)

Two studies assessed effects of training mildly handicapped students (N=6, ages 10-13) in the use of a self-evaluation and correction procedure on manuscript letter formation skills. All students attained independent use of the self-correction procedure in two to ten sessions with corresponding increases in correct letter production for all…

Study conducted to determine if performance would be better with a felt pen or a ball point pen and on college ruled as opposed to unlined paper. (RB)

The effects of penmanship, complexity and accuracy of prose, length of answers, and use of quotations on marks awarded by English literature examiners were studied. The sex of students and examiners, untidiness, and prose complexity and accuracy were unrelated to grades. The results suggested that examiners avoid crediting students for…

Investigated with 15 elementary or secondary grade nonretarded exceptional children was the correlation of spatial problems with difficulty in reading, writing, and spelling. (DB)

Examines relations between different word categories and reading/writing performances in 20 nine-year-old children. States that for Norwegian (less regular than Finnish but more regular than English), the length and frequency of words and their interaction are factors substantially related to children's reading, writing speed, and spelling…