Article from sun-sentinel.com
Two examples of handwriting A.A gentle non aggressive nature allows a writer's muscles to relax and create curves. B.A writer who is driven, aggressive or hostile can only create angles, not curves. A is Mother Teresa B is Heinrich Himmler .Experts say that while handwriting can indicate certain traits, there are a lot of factors that go into one's penmanship, including how rushed they are, how happy or angry they are and whether they have a since of entitlement (those who feel entitled take up more space on the page). ..Handout photo provided by: Michelle Dresbold
By Scott Travis, Sun Sentinel
7:41 p.m. EST, January 24, 2012
Here's an idea worth jotting down: your handwriting may reveal clues to how smart and successful you are.
Handwriting has been in a fight for academic survival and Florida has even considered dropping cursive from the curriculum. With that in mind, a Florida International University assistant professor decided to see if there was academic value to good penmanship.
She studied the handwriting skills of 1,000 second grade students and found that students with good penmanship tend to get better grades. For the next phase of her research, she and others will work with struggling pre-K students to see if a writing intervention will lead to better results in reading and math.
"People should take a second look at how important handwriting might actually be," said Laura Dinehart, an assistant professor in FIU's College of Education.
Video: Check out movie trailers of 2012 Best Picture Oscar Nominees
Besides helping students academically, researchers say handwriting can reveal people's creativity, passion, anger and happiness, among other traits.
In the FIU study, Dinehart compared the grades and test scores of second graders inMiami-Dade Countyto handwriting assessment scores they received in a pre-K program three years earlier.
Those with higher handwriting scores averaged a B in school; those with lower scores averaged a C.
"We think it has something to do with kids' ability to pay attention, to focus and hold things in their working memory," Dinehart said.
She said students who struggle to craft letters and words may be focusing on their writing at the expense of the actual subject matter.
A child's messy script often indicates poor motor skills, which is a learning disability, said Michelle Dresbold, author of "Sex, Lies and Handwriting," which examines what people's handwriting says about them.
But if handwriting is a measure of achievement, how do you explain all the highly educated and successful doctors known for their illegible scribbles? It's most likely because they are in a hurry, experts say.
Dr. Stuart Markowitz, a senior associate dean in Florida Atlantic University's College of Medicine, said teachers and families members used to tell him he had "gorgeous handwriting." But Markowitz, who practiced internal medicine before coming to FAU, then spent decades writing patient reports, prescriptions and notes to insurance companies.
"I'm convinced it's been a deterioration of years and years of massive writing, and the necessity to write as quickly as possible," he said.
While writing quickly can lead to sloppiness, other writing styles may be a more accurate reflection of intelligence, Dresbold said. She said people whose writing gets smaller toward the end of words tend to be more intelligent than those whose writing gets larger.
But Shirl Solomon, a handwriting expert in Lake Worth, warns against making broad generalizations.
"If a person is sloppy, they may have poor skills in writing, but they don't necessarily have poor math skills," she said. "The brain may work beautifully in other areas."
Still, she said handwriting can reveal a number of traits. For example, people who don't use much space on the page may feel constrained or inhibited, while those who write all over the page, including in the margins, may feel more deserving, she said.
Those who write big may be attention seekers, or they may lack the abiltity to write smaller, which is a trained skill.
"If your handwriting is pretty, it can be mean someone's a beautiful, eloquent speaker, but you have to be careful," Dresbold said. "If it's too perfect, it often means they're trying to keep everything under control and they're on the verge of cracking up."
Dinehart's research was funded by the Children's Trust, a child advocacy group based in Miami-Dade County. It is scheduled to be published soon in the Journal of Early Childhood Education and Development.
Handwriting enthusiasts hope the research will encourage schools to focus more on the craft.
"It's a beautiful skill, and there are things you just can't communicate when you use a computer," Solomon said. "For it to be taken away and just have computers would be criminal."
stravis@tribune.com or 561-243-6637 or 954-425-1421
Article from sun-sentinel.com