Peterson's Directed Handwriting Anyone?

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

Hi,

Does anyone use this? I'd heard of it and suggested it to a friend and she loves it. I'm going to get it for my DS2; he's 4 1/2. I was wondering if I should also get it for my 1st grader. He has pretty good handwriting.

[boscopup]

It looks cool, but the way they did their capital print 'M' made me run away. :lol:

 

I also am very suspect of their "Don't trace any letters!" mantra. I've read their info on it and can't really even figure out why they don't suggest tracing letters, and as I work on my own handwriting, I'm finding tracing letters to be VERY helpful.

 

So I dunno. I was originally going to go with PD in the beginning, but then I got HWT instead (which was a great and inexpensive choice for us), and for cursive, we're going to do Getty-Dubay connected italics. I've been practicing with StartWrite software, making my own italic copywork, and yes, I'm tracing entire sentences before writing them free form! It's working GREAT!

 

I'd love to hear someone explain why the tracing is supposed to be bad. The little pictures of computer analysis of handwriting didn't really tell me much. Yes, you'll be choppier while tracing. But the person doing the free form version probably traced as a child to learn how to write... And really, it's the visible output that I care about.

[FO4UR]

I have PDH on my shelf, and use it as a reference. I recommend starting with it, if you are going to use it at all. I didn't start with PDH, and it's harder to get into after using other methods. Still, when we are working on neatness, I pull out ideas from PDH.;)

 

 

fwiw - The no tracing rule is there b/c you are training muscle memory with the strokes for the letters vs drawing the letters. It's the muscle memory that creates a nice (permanent and easy) hand.

[kitten18]

We use Peterson and I LOVE it. My DD's handwriting was sooooo bad and it was so difficult for her that it was just painful to watch. We've been using PDH for about a year now and the difference is amazing. The most important thing (to me) is that she is forming her letters correctly and not just drawing them.

 

I bought the K and 1st grade and didn't really use the K, the 1st grade is a good starting point IMO.

 

My DS is 5 and is just starting to write and I can already see that things are going to go much more smoothly with him because of starting with PDH.

 

 

FWIW - we used HWT and hated it.

[Amie]

I don't own it, but I like what I've seen on their website and have heard wonderful things about it. I plan to use some of their methods as a guide in teaching cursive first. They have their complete instruction manual(s) available for viewing on their website.

It has been a while, but I watched all of their videos one afternoon in the middle of an intense handwriting/history of handwriting research phase I went through (I think I could turn into a handwriting geek ;)). I don't remember all of the reasons now, but it made a lot of sense at the time (I have notes around here someplace) when he explained the difference in "writing" and "drawing". There were some graphs(?) he showed demonstrating the difference in the pressure points and speed variation that occurred while writing vs. tracing. It was all very interesting to me.

 

Also, thanks to Google books, I've looked over a few old books on handwriting/penmanship--back when entire texts were written to teachers just on how to teach cursive--and from what I can tell the Peterson methods seem about the closest to those older, tried and true methods (for what that's worth to you).

 

I know I'm not much help, but I do enjoy the handwriting discussions. :001_smile:

Edited February 12, 2011 by Amie

[Crimson Wife]

I love their cursive but find HWOT better for print.

[boscopup]

fwiw - The no tracing rule is there b/c you are training muscle memory with the strokes for the letters vs drawing the letters. It's the muscle memory that creates a nice (permanent and easy) hand.

 

I can see this for cursive, but for their print (and again, I can't get past the 'M' :lol:), I don't see how it would make a difference? HWT teaches the way to do the movements (like "magic c, up like a helicopter, up higher, back down, bump" for a 'd').

 

I just don't see how tracing (if done in the correct order, with the correct movements) would reduce muscle memory? I can see letting a kid go off and trace on their own causing the "drawing letters" issue (and my son did have that issue), but I don't see it being caused by tracing but being caused by not making sure the child is using correct formation of letters. In my son's case, he was taught properly, but was in a classroom where no one made sure he was actually doing the correct movements. Now he's doing the correct movements and writing is much easier.

 

I find that as I'm tracing letters, I am building up that muscle memory in how to form that letter.

[Snowfall]

Peterson has their own names for the strokes, just like HWT. You aren't required to teach any letter exactly the way they say. DD does her y's totally differently and we've always done the continuous stroke method, but we call everything by the Peterson name. I really like it, but DD's handwriting isn't great. She says she doesn't like italics, though, so we're staying with PDH.

 

PDH has them do finger tracing, just not with a pencil. The research leading them to this conclusion is on their website. I'd look at it before deciding it makes no sense. Kids never learned to write by tracing in pencil until the last few decades, and our handwriting certainly hasn't improved in that time, so I'm not convinced it has any value. Phonics Road and Spell to Write and Read do not rely on tracing either.

[boscopup]

I'd look at it before deciding it makes no sense.

 

I did look at their research, and that made no sense to me, but their whole website is convoluted and just plain awful. I just didn't really see their evidence that concludes "You shouldn't trace with a pencil ever!"

 

Most schools these days encourage finger tracing, sky writing, writing in sand/rice/whatever, and all that before putting pencil to paper. I completely agree with that. I just don't understand why after doing all that, tracing with a pencil would be bad, if it's done in the correct form. And again, I'm teaching myself italics right now, and tracing is really helping me. If I didn't trace first, I'd have some really ugly letters still.

[FO4UR]

I did look at their research, and that made no sense to me, but their whole website is convoluted and just plain awful. I just didn't really see their evidence that concludes "You shouldn't trace with a pencil ever!"

 

Most schools these days encourage finger tracing, sky writing, writing in sand/rice/whatever, and all that before putting pencil to paper. I completely agree with that. I just don't understand why after doing all that, tracing with a pencil would be bad, if it's done in the correct form. And again, I'm teaching myself italics right now, and tracing is really helping me. If I didn't trace first, I'd have some really ugly letters still.

 

 

Finger tracing and sky writing and those other things are gross motor movements. It serves a different purpose than the pencil. I teach the strokes with gross motor movement first, and don't even attempt pencil/paper work until the strokes are 2nd nature (and my dc are writing for fun by that point).

 

I spend a little time each week (several times a week for 5min maybe) practicing strokes, stopping at the base line, focusing on slant, feeling the rhythm of it all. These exercises are sheer fm/muscle memory practice.

 

PDH prohibits tracing for the same reason my typing teacher in school wouldn't let me look at the keys, same reason my piano teachers did the same...there is a mind/hand reflex that is being built.

 

If tracing is helping you, that's great.:001_smile:

[Violet Crown]

I agree that their website is horrible. Frankly their instruction manual is even worse; I had to read it several times before I could figure out what exactly I was supposed to do.

 

That said, I absolutely love Peterson. Dd8 now has handwriting so beautiful it makes people gasp. My mom watched her doing some writing and commented "That's the way the nuns tried to make me write!" So I think it's an "old-fashioned" method.

 

Not tracing the (cursive) letters makes total sense. PDHW is about mastering certain strokes, making them part of your muscle memory, and then combining them to form letters. If you try to "draw" their letters in the usual cursive fashion, they won't look at all right.

 

I wish I'd known about PDHW for my first child. I can say, for cursive, the CD is completely unnecessary. I also don't understand why there are different "years" of cursive; dd8 only needed the first year of cursive, and then she could write it. It got smaller on its own as she got older.

 

YMMV.

[Snowfall]

LOL, yeah, they're website is terrible. I think an adult tracing is a lot different than a kid tracing, for multiple reasons. First of all, your fine motor skills are already a lot better, so it's easier for you to trace the letter. For a kid, that's HARD, and some kids are going to go reeeeaaaallllly slowly, with a lot of stops along the way. That does not promote muscle memory, because they're not doing anything like what they'd be doing if they were actually attempting to write the letter. It's not really about drawing vs. writing. It's about how fluidly you write when you trace vs. when you just write. There's a huge difference in the fluidity, and that affects muscle memory.

 

On top of the fact that it's easier for you as an adult, with your advanced fine motor skills, it's also easier because italics aren't some brand new thing that's totally unfamiliar. The letters are shaped slightly differently, but that's it. It's not like you're learning to write Arabic by tracing. You're learning to shape your letters slightly differently, and you already know in your mind what they should look like. The equivalent for a kid would be like learning to write Arabic for you. Italics just isn't foreign to you. It's a minor modification of what you've been doing for years, so it's already easy for you to trace.

 

I don't really think it matters much, either way. It's not like tracing is going to hurt anyone. It's not how people learned to write any time before a few decades ago, so I just don't see that it's at all necessary. I do know it can be incredibly frustrating for a little kid when they can't stay on the dotted lines. It used to make my dd cry. Finger tracing and then writing the letters on her own has never made her cry. That's a good enough reason for me. :)

[kht2006]

I like the curriculum from firststrokeshandwriting.com

It's great:)

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to get this. My friend said it is really helpful to her for a left handed child. DS2 is a lefty.:)

[kitten18]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to get this. My friend said it is really helpful to her for a left handed child. DS2 is a lefty.:)

I think you'll be really happy with it. My kids are right handed but I'm a lefty and I think the PDH has a lot of help for lefties. When we first started and DD didn't want to practice, I would write with her and use my right hand to make our handwriting more even.:D