Seeds of Skill

My children all have some form of learning disability. In my oldest son, this is compounded by terrible fine motor skills. In fact--his handwriting sucks. He should have been a doctor.

A few years back, in an effort to help him seize some control, I started him on some very basic calligraphy strokes. Now you may scratch your head and wonder what I could be thinking, but his motor control did improve. Not drastically, I admit, but sufficiently that an improvement in his handwriting was evident. I suspect if he had continued on with the practice, there would have been even more improvement.

Handwriting--cursive strokes--are after all, a matter of fine motor skills. And calligraphy strokes are the most basic of movements. Practicing the various strokes builds up a degree of control that translates to other areas--such as cursive writing.

Of course, many school districts no longer teach cursive writing. One wonders what will happen when there is no longer anyone who writes cursive. For if you never learn to write it, then who will be left to read it? Will the libraries and historical repositories then end up with piles and piles of manuscripts that only specialists can read?

That is a sad vision of the future. In the meantime, if you wish to hone your fine motor skills...check out a book on calligraphy and try practicing the basic strokes.

anny