Cursive Handwriting Instructional Practices and Assessments: A Systematic Review

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 9:45 am - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Reading, Writing, and Literacy Instruction

Abstract

Despite the growing presence of technology in schools, handwriting remains an important building block to literacy skills. This systematic review investigated the instructional practices and assessments used in cursive handwriting intervention studies. After conducting our search, we identified 26 studies that met our inclusion criteria. We found that more than half of the included studies incorporated explicit instruction, but fewer studies included other instructional practices such as memory retrieval, visual cues, technology integration, and motor instruction. Assessments used across studies in this review focused mostly on handwriting legibility and fluency, with some studies exploring skill transfer to other literacy outcomes. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are provided.

Authors

• Murphy Young, University of Iowa

• Shawn Datchuk, University of Iowa