As your child continues to develop their skills in Language, you'll notice we present cursive as their first introduction to the written word. The advantages of learning cursive first are numerous.

When children begin to show an interest in sounds they are quite young, and their hand control is often not developed enough to pick up a pencil and make the movements necessary for writing. As they develop their fine motor skills it is often curved lines and loops that come first rather than straight movements. Cursive writing aids in that process.

Cursive is a flowing, uninterrupted movement which reinforces the left to right directionality of our written language. Words in cursive are a cohesive unit and spacing between words is distinct; it reinforces the beginning and end of words with proper spacing of letters. Seeing these joined words also emphasizes blending of the sounds within words as a child naturally begins to read.

All cursive lowercase letters start from the same beginning point which helps to eliminate confusion with reversal or inversions that are so common between some print letters (notably d, b, p, q). Additionally, it is much easier to learn print after cursive, rather than the other way around.

Take a moment to remember those cursive letters from your own childhood and start to write little notes, grocery lists & labels around your house as your child enters into the world of writing & reading!

Elizabeth Stanaway, TTMS Primary Guide