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Zaner-Bloser vs HWT


tdbates78
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My 7.5 year old first grader is using HWT based on the recommendation from an OT because she was holding her pencils with a fist. She is making progress on her handwriting using her "special" pencil with a grip. However, neither she, nor I, really care for HWT and I'm starting to get a lot of whining and pushback when it's pulled out. It's just "different" and I dislike having to pull out special HWT paper for her all the time. And I do not like the looks of their cursive, which I plan to start teaching sometime next school year. 

 

I'm really thinking about switching to Zaner-Bloser. I like the look of it and I think my girls would enjoy the colorful pages. I like their cursive exponentially better.

 

Thoughts on Zaner-Bloser?  Has anyone used it with a child with OT needs? And is the teacher manual necessary? I never use the HWT teacher manual. 

 

Thanks!

Tracy

Edited by tdbates78
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I have HWT and never have used ZB but this is timely as I just consulted my best friend about this. She is a speech and language pathologist as well as a reading and handwriting specialist. My 6 year old also holds his pencil in an odd way (although he has beautiful writing which is odd). She highly recommends ZB and says that is what she uses in therapy for remediation and also to teach cursive. She feels it is the one best received by children and she too prefers the look of it. She is going to let me come over and look through her curriculum so that I can get a sense of it. I am unsure if the manual is necessary.

Edited by nixpix5
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The whining and push back could simply be because writing is hard work for her right now.  Switching may not stop that.  But...that being said, I like the cues in HWT, but not the lines.  I also had two of my kids, who are perfectionists, start leaving HUGE gaps between words, because that is how HWT demonstrates word spaces.  We switched them both to something else (A Reason For Handwriting, in our case).

 

 

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I have not used HWT, but I did switch to Zaner-Bloser from Getty-Dubay after encountering the "Nooooo not handwriting" blues and my 7 year old really likes it. (We also took a brief break from handwriting and worked a lot on drawing, so we could erase some of the bad memories of handwriting lessons.) I've never used the teacher manual-- I found a sample somewhere online and it didn't look like it would give much new information to someone familiar with teaching handwriting (which you are, if you have another teacher's manual).

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My DS used the HWT pre book, and half of K. He saw his older brother's colorful ZB book and said he wanted one like that. I switched him over to finish the K book, then the first and he loved it. No complaints at all after that. (no OT things going on though)

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We used HWT in K-2 then I decided to switch. I just don't care for the look of HWT cursive or some of the numbers. DD was in PS this year for 3rd until recently and did her first page of ZB today. She has motor control issues (SPD) and she did well with it. My 4yo is still doing HWT because I like their Pre-K book for an intro. They'll both be doing ZB next year. 

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