New York City and I work with Kindergarteners through 3rd graders on Reading, Word Study,

and Writing Skills. In addition to be a reading specialist and learning specialist, I'm also

a parent and today I'm going to talk to you about topics in reading

Instruction in handwriting used to be an important part of kindergarten and first grade curriculum

and even for older students as well. Unfortunately, it's somewhat of a lost art now and we encourage

our children at a very young age to experiment with writing on paper. We support and honor

inventive spelling. If children know the motor plans for the letters that they want to write,

then they're going to be much more able to access the letters and the letter sounds to

spell the words that they want to put down on paper. If the motor plans are automatic

and they know them well, then they're going to be able to make the connection from the

content in their minds to the words on the paper.

Handwriting practice is also critical for reinforcing knowledge of letter names and

sounds. When you can learn a concept through multisensory means - and handwriting would

be putting something in muscle memory, having the tactile feedback of the pencil on the

paper while you say the letter name, while you practice the letter sound - all of those

concepts and all of that knowledge is going to be much more secure, and your child is

going to become more fluid and automatic at the word-level sooner. And that word-level

automaticity is really foundational to acquiring later reading skills and becoming a good,

fluent reader who can construct meaning from text.