Presented by Nancy Cushen White, Ed.D., BCET, CALT-QI
Manuscript, cursive, and keyboarding have advantages at different ages. Handwriting involves both cognitive and motor skills—and influences reading, written expression, and critical thinking. Sequential hand movements activate brain regions associated with thinking, working memory, and language. A note-taking study showed better comprehension and retention of content for handwriters. Elementary students composing by hand wrote faster, longer pieces with more ideas. Cross-disciplinary research demonstrates effectiveness of explicit, integrated handwriting instruction from kindergarten to high school.
In this session, attendees will learn that handwriting is a written language skill—not just a motor skill. They will learn at which ages and stages the use of manuscript, cursive, and/or keyboarding is most likely to be an advantage for various students, and will be able to give examples of strategies for integration of handwriting and keyboarding instruction into the teaching of reading and written expression.
About the Speaker: Dr. Nancy Cushen White has 40+ years of experience in public schools as a classroom teacher, special ed teacher, and program specialist in San Francisco Unified School District. She works as a certified academic language therapist, a board certified educational therapist, and dyslexia consultant in private practice. She is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics-Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine-University of California-San Francisco. She is a member of the Board, member of the Faculty Senate, and a certified teacher training course director for the Slingerland Institute. She has taught literacy skills classes to young adults in the Pre-Trial Diversion Project through the Mentor Court Division of San Francisco Superior Court. She is a Literacy Intervention Consultant and Case Manager for Lexicon Reading Center in Dubai--United Arab Emirates. Nancy was a member of the AB 1369 Dyslexia Work Group assembled by the California Department of Education (CDE) to draft public school dyslexia guidelines required under the new law.
Nancy is a past member of The IDA Board of Directors and past president and current advisory board member of the Northern California Branch of IDA. She serves as an IDA representative to the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD). Currently, she is the editor of the Examiner, IDA’s monthly on-line newsletter. She received the Margaret Byrd Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Dyslexia Association in 2007.
This webinar will be recorded and available to view on IDA-UMB's website after the event. If you register, you will be notified when the recording is available.