An examination of the effectiveness of Handwriting Without Tears instruction
- PMID: 25004586
- DOI: 10.1177/0008417414527065
Background: Handwriting is an important childhood occupation, and implications of poor handwriting may have significant long-term effects.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) on Grade I students' handwriting and perception of skills.
Methods: A cross-over design was used. Repeated measures, at three points, included the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA) and performance rating scales.
Findings: Eighty-three boys and 66 girls with an average age of 6.2 years participated in the study. Students receiving HWT achieved significantly higher improvements compared to students with teacher-designed instruction in MHA Total Test Score and in MHA components of form, size, space, and alignment (all p < .05). Students had higher average performance ratings when receiving HWT in the first half of the school year.
Implications: Instruction using HWT improves students' perception and skill in handwriting performance.
Publication types
- Clinical Trial
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Cross-Over Studies
- Educational Measurement*
- Handwriting*
- Motor Skills*
- Students / psychology
- Teaching / methods*
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Handwriting without tears, from emergent writing in pre-k to cursive mastery in fifth grade, handwriting without tears helps students develop a fluency for writing success, no matter where they learn., building the foundation of literacy.
Handwriting Without Tears helps students build essential skills for emergent writing and handwriting success.
Children who master handwriting are more likely to succeed in school, writing with speed and ease in all subjects. But without a strong foundation, bad habits take root. Our unparalleled curriculum nurtures writing automaticity through direct, explicit instruction along with guided and independent practice.
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The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory strategies for early writing. The program follows research of how children learn best and includes materials that address all styles of learning.
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Multisensory activities and manipulatives appeal to all learning styles and provide a hands-on approach to handwriting.
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Teach handwriting alongside other subjects! Fun letter lessons and writing activities connect handwriting to math, social studies, ELA, and science.
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Double lines and line generalization activities promote legible writing. When children know how to place letters, they can write well on any style of lined paper.
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Easy-to-use assessments track handwriting progress in the classroom and support your instruction for year-round handwriting success.
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Effectiveness of a Handwriting Readiness Program in Head Start: A Two-Group Controlled Trial
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Carol A. Lust , Denise K. Donica; Effectiveness of a Handwriting Readiness Program in Head Start: A Two-Group Controlled Trial. Am J Occup Ther September/October 2011, Vol. 65(5), 560–568. doi: https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2011.000612
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OBJECTIVE. This study measured skill improvement in prewriting skills, kindergarten readiness, first-name writing, and handwriting-nonspecific fine motor skills of students at Head Start who participated in Handwriting Without Tears®–Get Set for School (HWT–GSS) programming.
METHOD. We conducted a two-group, nonrandomized controlled trial using a pretest–posttest design at a rural Head Start. The effectiveness of adding the HWT–GSS curriculum in one preschool classroom was compared with a control classroom.
RESULTS. On posttesting, the experimental group made significant improvements compared with the control group in prewriting, kindergarten readiness, and fine motor skills. Both groups made significant improvements between pretesting and posttesting in prewriting, first name writing, and school readiness.
CONCLUSION. Adding HWT–GSS to the Head Start program would be beneficial in improving handwriting readiness skills.
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Handwriting Without Tears
Millions of students all over the world use Handwriting Without Tears. Our easy-to-teach, easy-to-learn curriculum makes handwriting mastery joyful for students and their teachers.
Research supports the active teaching of handwriting. recent findings demonstrate that writing by hand improves creative writing skills and fine motor skills. in fact, elementary students have been found to write more and faster by hand than when keyboarding., and with the adoption of the common core state standards, the emphasis and expectations placed on classroom note-taking and expository writing in grades k–5 is greater than ever., why it works, the handwriting without tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory tools and strategies for your classroom. the program follows research that demonstrates children learn more effectively by actively doing, with materials that address all styles of learning., we teach effectively with joy. we have figured out easier, happier ways for children to master handwriting. handwriting without tears is dedicated to developing excellent materials for children and training for teachers. as a result, millions of students have successfully used our program. the result truly is handwriting without tears .
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Empowering Expression
Introducing Handwriting Without Tears 2025
We’ve taken what’s proven, known, and loved and enhanced it with insights from our millions of student and educator users.
Now the science of reading has caught up with what we’ve always known, handwriting is foundational to reading.
Our dedicated solution is both effective and simple for teachers and students. The program takes little or no teacher prep time and provide explicit instruction with the exact words that a teacher needs to deliver an entire lesson.
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Why It Works
- Dedicated program using the research of what works for children to become fluent readers and writers
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Poster Sets New four-color poster sets -provide visual models of letters on double lines and help students with transitioning to other lines styles to ensure success on any style of classroom paper—one set for printing and one set for cursive.
Ready for writing lowercase print poster set Help students with size and placement of letters on lines. Model spacing in words and sentences.
Connecting cursive poster set Help students with cursive letter formations and letter connection patterns.
Letters to Words Blackboard set Help children learn the sounds that letters and letter combinations make while practicing writing on double lines.
Handwriting Without Tears
Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) is an approach to improving students’ printing and cursive. Letter formation is made in a straight up and down manner that is quick and easy to master. Then, the students learn to hook the letters together to create cursive. Most students want their written communication to be legible; they just do not know how to go about it. HWT takes the stress out of putting thoughts on paper.
Research supports the active teaching of handwriting. Findings demonstrate that writing by hand improves creative writing skills and fine motor skills. In fact, elementary students have been found to write more and faster by hand than when keyboarding.
And with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, the emphasis and expectations placed on classroom note-taking and expository writing in grades K–5 are greater than ever.
For more information visit the Learning Without Tears website at lwtears.com
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Handwriting Without Tears is a step by step approach to help students learn to print and write cursive.
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A Modern Evolution for a Timeless Practice. Research-backed curriculum designed to be easy to teach and easy to learn. Developmentally appropriate sequence flows from Pre-K-5. Explicit instruction combined with guided practice to promote handwriting automaticity. Multisensory learning engages visual, audio, and kinesthetic learners.
Handwriting Without Tears (HWT; Olsen & Knapton, 2008), a developmentally and multisensory-based handwriting curriculum, ... suggesting that maturation effects play a large role in curriculum-based handwriting intervention research. Because of this large discrepancy, we report findings from all studies but effect sizes of only the Level II ...
OBJECTIVE. This study explores the effectiveness of the Handwriting Without Tears ® (HWT) kindergarten printing curriculum in general education through a consultative approach with occupational therapy.. METHOD. One cohort of students was the control (n = 19), whereas two other cohorts were experimental groups learning printing through the HWT curriculum (n = 20 each).
Handwriting Without Tears Research Review. View our comprehensive research review of Handwriting Without Tears and find out why it is the most effective program in teaching children strong writing skills. In this research review, you will find: Why teaching handwriting in the classroom is important. Best Practices for teaching handwriting.
Eighty-three boys and 66 girls with an average age of 6.2 years participated in the study. Students receiving HWT achieved significantly higher improvements compared to students with teacher-designed instruction in MHA Total Test Score and in MHA components of form, size, space, and alignment (all p < .05). Students had higher average performance ratings when receiving HWT in the first half of ...
A strong handwriting foundation creates literacy success. When students practice letter formations, they create the foundation for reading and writing skills they will use throughout their lives. The research is clear—handwriting can influence student's reading, writing, language use, and critical thinking. Our unparalleled curricula ...
A multiple baseline design (Kazdin, 2011) was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the HWT gray block paper on letter writing. The number of letters varied for each of the participants due to the different number of letters in their names. In the present research, each set consisted of one letter to be mastered.
Abstract. OBJECTIVE. This study explores the effectiveness of the Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) kindergarten printing curriculum in general education through a consultative approach with ...
The "handwriting without tears" program is a developmentally and multisensory based handwriting curriculum that aims to promote appropriate practice by using stages from imitation to copying to ...
Background: Handwriting is an important childhood occupation, and implications of poor handwriting may have significant long-term effects. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) on Grade I students' handwriting and perception of skills. Methods: A cross-over design was used.
The Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) method is one of the most widely used approaches. It has been adopted by twelve state boards of education, including ... connections" (p. 1). Research related to this program focuses on slanted versus vertical . 3 manuscript handwriting, handwriting in relation to speed and legibility, and readiness
The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory strategies for early writing. The program follows research of how children learn best and includes materials that address all styles of learning.
Handwriting Without Tears Print and Digital Solution is Proven to be an Effective Program for Handwriting Fluency. NEW ORLEANS, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- At ISTELive 22, Education's leading ...
John's Printing After HWT. Handwriting Without Tears ® works and is a proven success in preparing children for the demands of school. We analyzed test scores from the Screener of Handwriting Proficiency for more than 14,000 students using Handwriting Without Tears over three years. These results demonstrate the success of the curriculum.
This Handwriting Without Tears© -style letter font, uses 3-lines to best support your students. There are Go-Dots, Gray-Boxes, and Simple Arrows that inform rather than confuse learners. Best practices include research-based methods incorporating application of developmental and motor learning theories to benefit your struggling learners.
Abstract. OBJECTIVE. This study measured skill improvement in prewriting skills, kindergarten readiness, first-name writing, and handwriting-nonspecific fine motor skills of students at Head Start who participated in Handwriting Without Tears®-Get Set for School (HWT-GSS) programming.METHOD. We conducted a two-group, nonrandomized controlled trial using a pretest-posttest design at a ...
The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory strategies for early writing. The program follows the research on how children learn best and includes materials that address all styles of learning. Children move, touch, feel, and manipulate real objects ...
Learning to form letters correctly is a fundamental objective of any handwriting curriculum. Handwriting Without Tears begins instruction with a no-pencil, no-paper approach. In Pre-K and kindergarten, hands-on learning is necessary.4. The unique teaching order of letters helps children build upon previous knowledge.
Start with Handwriting. Handwriting is a foundational skill that leads students to automatic word recognition. Through time-tested methods of letter formation, students embark on the pathway to reading and writing excellence while connecting letters to sound and fortifying the alphabetic principle. Explore Handwriting Without Tears…
Two experimental classes received instruction with the Handwriting Without Tears® method while two comparison classes received instruction using traditional methods. Handwriting performance was measured using the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment. The Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA) consists of fi ve categories including: legibility, letter formation, alignment, size, and spacing. MHA ...
The Handwriting Without Tears® curriculum draws from years of innovation and research to provide developmentally appropriate, multisensory tools and strategies for your classroom. The program follows research that demonstrates children learn more effectively by actively doing, with materials that address all styles of learning. ...
Empowering Expression. Handwriting Without Tears 2025 embraces the science of reading and of handwriting with a dynamic offering that is intuitive and customizable to student and classroom needs. Our print and digital solution saves you time and cost in producing better student outcomes and success in school. Student Editions Play Video.
Handwriting Without Tears® is a step by step approach to help students learn to print and write cursive & takes the stress out of putting thoughts on paper. 941-447-2226 [email protected] Facebook; Facebook; ... Research supports the active teaching of handwriting. Findings demonstrate that writing by hand improves creative writing skills and ...