Is having a good cursive style of handwriting still relevent today?

Good day to everyone hope you are all well and ready for the week end.


I have been talking to and reading on social media about other dyslexics experiences and parents of dyslexics with hand writing. I have to say some of what I hear and read it seems like a nightmare for many of us.

So I was wondering about anyone else's experiences with hand writing and being given hand writing practise at school? 

Please leave me your thought and comments.

I know all the arguments for handwriting and hand writing remediation including developing fine motor control, learning spelling from motor memory etc.

But what about speech to text or even just the lowly computer keyboard is having good handwriting as important as it once was?

Isn't the content of the writing the important thing not how it was written either by hand or speech to text or just by keyboard?

Speech to text software and assistive tech. I personally don't get on with it because it gets in the way of my train of thought. But it can and does work for many other dyslexics. I have never been able to writing using a cursive style.

I believe handwriting will become like a lost art maybe 30 years from now. I read somewhere that emojs are the way forward for communication. Business will lead here because speech to text is so much more efficient than typing by hand.

The computer keyboard freed me from that particular little handwriting nightmare. I left school with no qualifications mainly because of my hand writing. Now with a computer keyboard I have my masters degree, I am a dyslexia and inclusion specialist etc.

The expectation that everyone should be able to write using cursive and neatly is disabling. It is a non dyslexic world expectation and its disabling. My job as a dyslexia and inclusion specialist is about enabling, finding ways that enable dyslexics to succeed. If I can do that then I have succeeded.

Dyslexia is a difference that reflects diversity. We must enable the diversity to achieve, to thrive and to learn not shackle it to non dyslexic expectations such as we must write by hand using cursive.

many thanks for taking the time to read my blog.......if you think it has something to say please share it.

peace love and groovyness to all

Steve McCue

What should we be doing more of to meet the needs of our kids in school?

Hi blog readers

What should we be doing more of, or less of or keeping the same to improve our kids experiences in education? Here are a couple of mine. What are yours?

More = inclusion and training inclusion for all teachers. Not only dyslexia but disability and neuro diversit also.
More = time for teachers to develop inclusive learning opportunities to meet the learning needs of all kids in the classroom.

Less of = standardised testing it does not work only provides statistics for league tables.
Less of = the quagmire of paperwork many teacher face on a daily basis. Children's need before paperwork.

Is there anything that should remain the same? I cannot think of anything for this. Can you?

Thanks for reading much appreciated

I see, make sense of, feel, understand, think as a dyslexic. how fab is that? for me its fabtastic

Many dyslexic kids go through so much stress and anxiety at school having time for play is that much more important

Hello there blog readers hope you are all feeling fab

#iamdyslexic😎 I see, make sense of, feel, understand, think as a dyslexic. If I were a stick of rock it would have dyslexia written all through it. I see through a dyslexic prism and don't want to be cured.

Nature and humanity thrives because of diversity. Just think of all the fab accomplishments of dyslexics throughout history. #dyslexia is a difference that reflects #diversity rocks What would be lost to all of us if there were such a thing as a cure for dyslexia or diversity?

For me personally it would not be a cure it would be an amputation.

What are your thought on this?

Positive or negative?

In some research we did at Dyslexia Pathways CIC we found that 67% of dyslexics were positive about being dyslexic. However, 82% felt that society saw being dyslexic as a negative.

Do you think society views being dyslexic or neuro diverse in a negative way?


What are your thoughts on this?

Below are a couple links to our web sites and one of our Facebook pages:

http://www.uniquedyslexic.com/ 

http://www.dyslexiapathways.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Unique-Dyslexic-1431413910440768/



Many thanks for taking the time to read this blog peace love and groovyness to you all.

PS:

My dyslexia blog has nearly had 200.000 reads. Please share, share, share and share my #dyslexia blog

#iamdyslexic😎 And that's fab, who wants to be a mundain neuro typical anyway? Not me

Hellay hellay and thrice hellay blog readers hope you are all well
Some time ago I read a statement that said dyslexia does not define us.

What do you think? Please comment

I would totally disagree. Now there is a surprise lol. I am not ashamed to be dyslexic. I don't suffer with dyslexia Yes it has been somewhat of a pain in the past but that was before I was assessed.

I am dyslexic, I don't have dyslexia, I don't suffer with dyslexia. I don't hate being dyslexic. 

Once I was assessed I began my own journey of understanding  of what being dyslexic means and the many positives that came with being dyslexic.

Strong emotional intelligence, fab creativity, big picture thinking, empathy and so much more. Hey give me more positives comment please.... 

Ok reading is a pain but it does not stop me reading. My spelling can be a trifle bazar but it does not stop me spelling or writing. My memory eeep my memory can be a trifle forgetful and don't ask me about remembering names hmmmmm wassyour name again?  Lol I was on a date once and for the life of me I couldn't recall what her name was the whole night sigh.

I would say the way I define being dyslexic is positive. I own the label and it does not own me. I see the world through a dyslexic prism and very happy in my dyslexic skin. But I am far from happy by the was society defines dyslexia.

It is my view that society has a very one dimensional view of dyslexia and dyslexics. One that does tend to focus negatives.

Comparing dyslexics to non dyslexics is a bit like comparing a cow to a kangaroo. You ask a kangaroo to jump and it will jump. You ask a cow to jump and it cant. Then you label the cow disabled, you diagnose it you send it to remission jumping lessons and so on lol. Ok daft example lol but you get my drift lol. 

Then I would say then not being dyslexic has its own negative aspects. I would not want to be not dyslexic, if that makes any sense. We as dyslexics need to define dyslexia for ourselves not let a society that lacks any real understanding about being dyslexic define dyslexia for us.

I bang on about the medical / deficit model of dyslexia and how negative it is. All the medical / deficit model tells us is we are ill in someway. That we need to be cured.

There is far to much focus on remediation on trying to make us into a non dyslexic image that we will never achieve Not enough focus on enabling us to develop our strengths so that we can embrace our dyslexia and succeed because of it.

Unless we break away the medical model of dyslexia many of us will keep on becoming negative self fulfilling prophecies and keep on being marginalised by wider society.

Anyway that's enough of me rattling on

PS

To coin a phrase I don't want to build a wall I want to make a brick to built a strong and positive global dyslexic community that can forge a new positive social model future for dyslexics everywhere.