The why, who, what, when and how of handwriting instruction

In this article, we briefly consider the 'why, who, what, when' and 'how' of handwriting instruction in the early years of school. Writing is a complex task that involves the expression of one's thoughts, ideas and knowledge in ways that allow for sharing. Writing is also a process of thinking, and for students it is a major way of demonstrating learning or understanding. While many texts today are multimodal, the written word remains important to most texts and having the ability to express and communicate in a written form is important. Efficient transcription skills allow a writer to concentrate on message creation, while poor transcription skills can disrupt the composition process. While we would suggest that writers in contemporary times also need to develop efficient typing/keyboarding skills, it is handwriting that is the focus of this article.