Did you know that Handwriting Without Tears has a Handwriting Standards Document?
If you are familiar with state standards, the writing standards are generally geared more toward composition (composing sentences and paragraphs, working up to essays). The only standard addressing actual handwriting is usually something like, "produces legible handwriting." Not very helpful, right?
The Handwriting Standards available on the Handwriting Without Tears website, have handwriting standards by grade level for Kindergarten through 4th grade. These standards are definitely based on the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, but I find them to be very helpful guidelines, even if your school district does not use the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.
I personally use the standards as a resource for writing grade-level appropriate IEP goals, as well as having on hand to educate parents and teachers on handwriting skill expectations for their child.
Not sure if you have seen this or not yet but Zaner Bloser has released a new set of handwriting standards and keyboarding standards. They are looking for feedback. You can view my blog post about it here - http://yourtherapysource.blogspot.com/2012/05/handwriting-and-keyboarding-standards.html
ReplyDeleteIt also has some nice references explaining the benefits of teaching handwriting.
Thanks for sharing! I am so glad that the handwriting curriculum companies are coming up with these standards. I think they are really helpful for therapists, teachers, and parents. I just looked through the Zaner-Bloser Standards briefly and I really like that they have included keyboarding. I will definitely read through it more thoroughly.
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