The early learning years are filled with novelty and wonder. Children enter school and take on a new persona, a student, something separate from their home life and different entirely from anything they’ve been asked to be a part of. They learn how to get along with other students. They learn autonomy and how to express themselves as individuals. They also learn that symbols, including numbers, letters, shapes, and colors, are unique and have distinct meaning. Teachers create an environment that blends play with instruction time, allowing students the opportunity to learn and grow at their own pace while meeting the expectations of the classroom. Many of the foundational skills supporting literacy, language arts, and math are introduced during this important period, and children develop their sense of self as a student.
In recent years, learning how to form letters correctly, an important foundational skill, has seen a reduction in instructional time. However, the average student spends thirty to sixty percent of the school day engaged in writing activities. Even in today’s digitally dominated world, handwriting continues to be a primary way students demonstrate what they know. In many instances, written work is the means by which a teacher evaluates the child’s learning. Studies show that elementary-school-aged children with good handwriting have a greater ability to focus on spelling, reading, and sentence structure. In many instances, students with good penmanship receive better grades than those who struggle to handwrite well.
In order to handwrite well, we must integrate two critical aspects of writing, lower-level motoric skills and the higher-level process-oriented skills (Medwell and Wray, 2007; Hoy, 2011; Volman, van Schendel, and Jongmans, 2006). The motoric aspect of handwriting refers to the ability to manipulate a writing utensil to form letters and words. With consistent exposure and practice, letter formation should progress from a novel motor act to an automatic skill. The process-oriented aspect represents the stage at which the writer is no longer focusing on the physical act of writing, but is using written words to communicate thoughts and ideas. Acquisition of these two different types of skills generally occurs in a chronological sequence in which motoric skills are learned first and then followed, given time and consistent practice, by higher-level process-oriented skills (Exner and Henderson, 1995). When letter formation is mastered and becomes automatic, the writer’s attention can be devoted almost fully to higher-level cognitive tasks such as vocabulary selection and written expression of ideas. Typically, these more advanced skills are in place by the third grade (Feder and Majnemer, 2007). Therefore, it is critical that students are taught early in their learning years the correct way to form letters so there is ample time to practice. Automatic, fluid, and legible handwriting will allow them to be efficient and effective written communicators.
Letter formation is the ability to properly form the letters of the alphabet. It means being able to form letters quickly, neatly, and correctly from memory so that letter, word, and sentence formation happens automatically or without thinking about it. Good letter formation is linked to improved reading, spelling, and handwriting. In older grades, proper letter formation affects test-taking skills and grades. In a nutshell, knowing how to form letters and numbers correctly makes school easier and helps students get better grades.