This session will focus on the importance of handwriting. It will examine the main stages of the development of penmanship and the teaching of handwriting. The stages of emergent writing will be discussed along with pre-writing activities and the teaching of letter formation. The session will also address issues that make writing difficult and examine the importance of beginning cursive writing and reasons why it should be taught from the beginning of schooling.

Biography
Brendan Culligan spent thirty years as a primary school teacher in Dublin. He specialised in learning support teaching for fifteen of these years. He spent another fifteen years lecturing in initial teacher training both in Froebel College of Education and Marino Institute of Education. He was a member of the D.E.S. task force on Dyslexia in 2001. He is a past secretary of I.L.S.A. and past president of the Literacy Association of Ireland. He is a designer and tutor of in service on Literacy Difficulties and has presented papers both nationally and internationally. He has edited journals for both I.L.S.A. and L.A.I. He has published many articles on literacy and is the author of ‘Improving Children’s Spelling’ and also ‘Spelling and Handwriting’. His latest work is a cursive handwriting programme from the beginning called ‘Go with the Flow’. 

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