Handwriting in early childhood education: Current research and future implications

Abstract

Early fine motor writing skills are quickly becoming recognized as an important school readiness skill associated with later academic success ( Dinehart and Manfra, 2013 ; Grissmer et al., 2010 ; Son and Meisels, 2006 ). Yet, little is known about the development of handwriting, the extent to which it is of value in the early childhood classroom and the best means by which to teach handwriting, or at least handwriting readiness, to young children. The current work reviews the literature on handwriting and its place in early childhood education. Overall, this article serves as a call for (a) researchers to continue examining the role of handwriting in the early education and development of young children and (b) practitioners to develop and implement programmes they know to be best practice in teaching early handwriting or handwriting ‘readiness’ skills.