Bringing Handwriting Professional Development to a City Near You!
Are you prepared to teach foundational writing skills.
Virtual sessions are convenient, but nothing can replace the immediate connection you’ll feel learning in person! Handwriting Without Tears is bringing expert-led workshops to you! Learn to build the foundational writing skills your students need to succeed. Learning Without Tears is an approved provider of continuing education by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (AOTA).
Join us for a powerful new learning experience, and you’ll:
- EARN up to 13.5 contact hours (1.35 CEUs)
- NETWORK with peers in your city
- REINFORCE your skills through hands-on learning
Upcoming Handwriting Workshops
Learn how to teach Handwriting Without Tears with your peers in your city! This summer we are offering new workshops in select cities across the country.
Readiness & Writing
Discover how to use music, hands-on manipulatives, and technology to help children develop the emergent writing skills needed for kindergarten readiness.
SEE UPCOMING DATES
Handwriting Without Tears® Print
Explore our comprehensive, easy-to-use Handwriting Without Tears print curriculum. You’ll learn engaging, multisensory techniques to make handwriting a natural and automatic skill for your Grade K–2 students.
Handwriting Without Tears® Print + Cursive
Through discussion and active learning, you'll acquire the skills to teach our print and cursive handwriting curriculum, helping students from K–Grade 6 develop writing into a natural and automatic skill.
Handwriting Assessment
In one, in-depth learning experience, you'll gather all the training you need to expertly assess K–5 handwriting skills using proven tools. Learn how to monitor progress, set goals, and determine specific areas needing remediation to better serve your students.
Comprehensive Handwriting Bundle
(Select Cities Only) Bundle all workshops and save more than $200—This complete package provides you with 2 days of in-person workshops, including: Readiness & Writing (Pre-K), Print Handwriting (K–2), Handwriting Assessment Workshop (K–5), and FREE access to our on-demand Cursive Workshop (a $130 value) !
SEE UPCOMING DATES
What Your Workshop Day Will Look Like
Each workshop is packed with information and tips that you can begin using in your classroom right away!
- FOCUS on foundational concepts
- LEARN techniques for teaching handwriting
- DISCOVER skills for spacing and writing
- GET ANSWERS from experts in our Q&A
Secure your Spot Early and Save
Use promo code bundle25 to get 25% off 2 or more workshops (ends nov 30), upcoming workshops.
SEE WORKSHOPS
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Meet Our Facilitators
You'll learn with our team of facilitators, comprised of educators, school leaders, occupational therapists, and parents who have collectively helped thousands of educators and the millions of students they serve.
Dr. Peter Giroux
Occupational Therapist
Peter Giroux is a full-time tenured Professor of Occupational Therapy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. He has a Master’s of Health Science degree (MHS) from Mississippi College and a Doctoral degree (PhD) in Clinical Health Sciences from the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Read About Dr. Peter Giroux
Katrina Erickson
Katrina received her Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas in 1990. Her experience has reached beyond her OT training in the design and delivery of summer camps and private tutoring services to develop and improve handwriting skills.
Read About Katrina Erickson
Valerie Zaryczny
Valerie received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University and a Master of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from Washington University in St. Louis. Valerie is passionate about helping children of all abilities develop the skills necessary to be successful at school and in daily life.
Read About Valerie Zaryczny
Roxanne Thompson
Roxanne Thompson received her Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy from Texas Woman’s University in 1998. She has practiced OT in the public schools, early intervention, and currently at a private pediatric out-patient clinic. She also provides handwriting tutoring services to children in pre-school through middle school.
Read About Roxanne Thompson
What Participants Are Saying
“Roxanne did an amazing job discussing and modeling different techniques that we can use in our classroom.”
“Valerie explained this program very well. I loved the videos of teachers putting Handwriting Without Tears into practice. Thank you!”
“I enjoyed learning tips from other educators in the break-out sessions.”
“Excellent explanations of the materials, content, and developmental applications of the specific lessons.”
Have any questions? We’re happy to answer them!
Please check back for more offers and information.
| The Level 1 Certification directory helps you find an occupational therapist, teacher or other qualified individual who specializes in helping children succeed with handwriting. These experts provide a variety of services to help children succeed using HWT's unique, multisensory approach to teaching handwriting, including: student evaluations, tutoring, presentations, and handwriting camps. When you choose a certified handwriting specialist, you get: |
Search the directory:
Show all specialists »
If you are looking for a specialist outside the U.S. & Canada, please look under International (INT). If you have any questions, please email [email protected] .
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Get a Grip: Teaching an Important Handwriting Skill
Tuesday, january 18, 2022 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm est.
Presented by Roxanne Thompson, OTR, National Presenter & Content Specialist, Learning Without Tears; and Valerie Zaryczny, MS, OTR/L, National Presenter & Content Specialist, Learning Without Tears
Sponsored by Learning Without Tears
Watch the Recording
Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation. Get a CE Certificate for this edWebinar Learn more.
In honor of National Handwriting Day, celebrated on January 23rd each year, Learning Without Tears focuses on one of the most important prerequisites for the lifelong skill of handwriting—grip! In this edWebinar, you learn answers to frequently asked questions such as what age to start teaching grip, how to teach it effectively, and how to help older children who already have poor gripping habits. Whether you are a teacher, parent, therapist, or interventionist, you learn practical strategies to implement immediately with the students in your life.
This recorded edWebinar is of interest to K-5 teachers, occupational therapists, and education technology leaders.
Roxanne Thompson received her Bachelor of Science in occupational therapy from Texas Woman’s University in 1998. She has practiced OT in public schools, early intervention, and currently a private pediatric out-patient clinic. She also provides handwriting tutoring services to children in pre-school through middle school. She completed her Level 1 certification in March 2007 and has been presenting for Learning Without Tears since 2009.
Valerie Zaryczny received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University and a Master of Science degree in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a pediatric OT with experience across multiple settings including schools, clinics, early intervention, and teletherapy. She first attended a Handwriting Without Tears workshop in 2004 as a new therapist and has been in love with the products and methods ever since! Valerie became a National Workshop Presenter for Learning Without Tears in 2011.
Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.
Join the Building Blocks for PreK–5 community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
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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.
Download brochure
Direct Instruction Builds Handwriting Automaticity
Handwriting Without Tears' pedagogy guides students to success with:
- Developmentally appropriate sequence of instruction
- Consistent guided practice to develop automaticity and fluency
- Multisensory components engage visual, audio, and kinesthetic learners
- Hands-on manipulatives for developing fine motor and phonics skills
- Simple, student-friendly, step-by-step language for letter formations on student practice pages AND teacher's guides
"Automatic letter writing is the single best predictor of length and quality of written composition in younger students." (Dinehart, 2013)
An Integrated Print and Digital Solution for K–5 Handwriting
Get the expert-backed and research-proven resources you need—in the classroom and online—to ensure student success. Our integrated and print and digital handwriting solution builds confident communicators by getting to the heart of every letter with developmentally appropriate, multisensory strategies.
Effective Handwriting Instruction for K–5
Our handwriting curriculum builds confident communicators by getting to the heart of every letter through developmentally appropriate, multisensory strategies and digital experiences for teachers and students.
Interactive Digital Teaching Tool
Our digital teaching tool supports teachers online with dozens of pre-loaded lesson plans, an assignment tracker, and resources like video, music, and animations to engage your classroom instruction.
Emergent Writing for Pre-K
Ease young learners into their communication journeys with this intentionally designed curriculum. Students build pre-writing and emergent writing skills developmentally through engaging, hands-on, play-based activities.
Emergent Writing Solution for Pre-K
Lessons address general readiness, pre-writing, alphabet knowledge, letter and number recognition, capital and lowercase letter formation, counting, drawing, shapes, and colors.
Pre-K Interactive Teaching Tool
Experience a new digital platform to help you bring Pre-K lessons to life with videos, animations, and songs—all in a friendly voice that connects with children.
Why It Works Easy to learn & teach!
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.
Multisensory Teaching Strategies
Multisensory activities and manipulatives appeal to all learning styles and provide a hands-on approach to handwriting.
Cross-Curricular Connections
Teach handwriting alongside other subjects! Fun letter lessons and writing activities connect handwriting to math, social studies, ELA, and science.
Unique Letter Order and Style
Innovative letter order and style are developmentally appropriate and promote easy learning for every letter—print and cursive.
Student Edition Design
Clean, simple, and intuitive approach to student editions invites personalization and fosters handwriting success. Lefty-friendly with large step-by-step models.
Line Success
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.
Assessments and Tailored Instructional Plans
Easy-to-use assessments track handwriting progress in the classroom and support your instruction for year-round handwriting success.
Proven Teaching Strategies
More than 3 million students benefit from the Handwriting Without Tears® program each year.
High end-of-year test scores show students using Handwriting Without Tears are prepared for the handwriting demands of school.
Grants and Funding Resources
You've got options! We'll help you find the best use of your COVID relief and stimulus funds by showing you how Learning Without Tears' proven, effective products qualify.
Hands-On, Multisensory Products
Browse multisensory products and student workbooks that make printing and cursive easy to teach and easy to learn.
View Our Teaching Resources
Cursive Handwriting Without Tears- With an OT
What's included
16 pre-recorded lessons, 1 year access, class experience, us grade 3 - 6, beginner level, learning goals.
Lowercase Letters: c, a, d, g
Lowercase letters: htpk, lowercase letters: elf, lowercase letters: uyij, other details, learning needs, pre-requisites, supply list.
Teacher expertise and credentials
Bachelor's degree from university of oklahoma health sciences center, self-paced course, financial assistance , outschool international , get the app .
More to Explore
Classes by age , classes by grade .
Handwriting Without Tears
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- CURRICULUM – HANDWRITING
An award-winning curriculum that offers multisensory strategies and materials to teach pencil grip, letter formation, and the literacy skills needed for print and cursive handwriting.
COST : varies
- Developmentally appropriate, child-friendly curriculum.
- Great option for students who dislike writing and struggle with handwriting.
- Multisensory program with optional manipulatives.
- Available in English, French, and Spanish.
- Workbooks, teacher’s guide, and manipulatives need to be ordered and mailed.
Why it’s helpful for families living internationally
This is an effective program to teach young children writing and handwriting skills. It’s especially useful for kids who struggle with handwriting and traditional handwriting lessons.
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Support for Irish families using the Classical and Charlotte Mason approach to Home School
Learning Handwriting using Handwriting Without Tears
Both my children loved learning to write using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. I think this is a fantastic curriculum for learning print handwriting, and it is available here in Ireland from Sensational Kids in Naas and Thinking Toys in Co. Clare.
The aim of the program is for children to learn to write legibly and quickly. It is used by many home educators right from the start, and it is also used remedially with older children both by parents and by occupational therapists.
With home educating we have the significant advantage of being able to teach at our child’s pace and to teach for mastery.
Some curricula tie reading and writing together. As is usual in education, there are differing opinions. I think it is better to separate these very different skills.
The Handwriting Without Tears program starts with learning all the capital letters first, as they are easier to write and recognise; for example, they are all the same height.
It is a very fun, multi-sensory experience. There is a CD of songs, so your child is singing and having fun while learning. For example, singing about learning to start her capital letters at the top, while pointing up, or finding the top, middle and bottom of her body with a song before writing the letter E. The child is introduced to the wooden pieces before starting to create the letters. Another song encourages them to find the small curve, large curve, etc, and then tap them together or hold them above their head.
The process for learning to write a letter with Handwriting Without Tears
Here are the steps for learning to make a letter. Of course, you are not doing all those steps in one day. That is just the process.
Take the little blue mat and make the letter using the wooden pieces, of which there are four types – small and large lines, small and large curves. Having made the letter your child would trace the wooden letter with their finger. The tracing is similar to the Montessori sandpaper letters, which you could add in if you have them.
Have your child makes the letter using playdough. This is optional but fun, and good for their motor skills.
Next, use a little chalkboard. The chalkboard and the blue mat have a little smiley face in the top left, where most letters start, and the chalkboard uses the idea of “Wet, Dry, Try”. Mom or Dad writes the letter correctly with the chalk, then the child, using a little sponge, wipes away mom/dad’s letter – while actually “writing” the letter without realising! Then the child writes the letter with chalk, following the wet lines.
Next, your child uses little crayons to follow the large grey letters in the first workbook, colouring in a picture to go with the letter if desired.
In the final step, your child is writing a lovely capital letter using their pencil in their notebook.
What do you need?
You start with My First School Book which teaches capital letters and numbers. Sample here . Available from Sensational Kids and Thinking Toys .
The next book is Letters and Numbers for Me which reviews the capital letters before working through the lowercase letters and writing words. ( Sensational Kids , Thinking Toys )
My Printing Book is next, practising upper case, lowercase letters, words and sentences, on narrower lines. Most pages still have pictures to colour in. For both my children I paused partway through this book as it was using a lot of sight words and I used a phonics reading program – All About Reading. For a while, I wrote out words and short sentences from their readers for them to copy using the line width from this book because I wanted them to be able to read phonetically what they were writing. ( Sensational Kids , Thinking Toys )
Then comes Printing Power, which includes a variety of sentences and a little bit about punctuation. ( Sensational Kids , Thinking Toys )
Then we moved to the blank lined notebooks, called Writing Journals by Handwriting Without Tears, and started Charlotte Mason copywork, mostly using Cottage Press Primers ( Amazon UK Teacher guide , Amazon UK Student book ). The notebooks come in different line widths, so you pick the width that is the right for your child.
The wooden pieces are a little expensive, but you could make some out of thick cardboard if you prefer. My children enjoyed the songs involving selecting and tapping their wooden pieces before creating the letters. The official set has a soft foam blue mat with a smiley face in the top right to remind them where to start their letters. You will need some sort of A4 page with a smiley face. ( Mat at Sensational Kids , Wooden pieces at Thinking Toys , Mat at Thinking Toys ) More information on using the wooden pieces is here .
I don’t own Montessori sandpaper letter cards, but I do have these inexpensive, small books for lowercase letters ( Amazon UK , Book Depo ) and numbers ( Amazon UK , Book Depo ). Given the wooden pieces are only for capitals, I was glad to have these, bringing in this tactile sense.
Next, you need little chalkboard, some little pieces of chalk and a square of sponge. Mine was cut from the washing sponge. The chalkboard is about A5 (half of A4 size) if you are looking in the Euro store. ( Sensational Kids , Thinking Toys )
I assume any playdough would work for making letters. We used to make our own. The base plate for creating the playdough letters on is about A5 size. ( Thinking Toys )
The CD with the Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn CD really adds to the fun. I want my children to enjoy learning, so this was worth it to me. ( Sensational Kids , Thinking Toys )
The teacher guide for the first level is really helpful and worth having. If you have the teacher guide for the first level and you are home educating, I feel the workbooks are enough for the subsequent levels. You are working one on one with your child, not trying to keep the attention of a classroom. Some sample pages from the teacher’s guide are available here . ( Sensational Kids , Thinking Toys )
Details of how all the capital letters and numbers are formed are here .
Handwriting Without Tears has a significant number of materials. Some overlap and having seen them in person, I feel many would be overkill in a home. The above is all you need in normal circumstances. If your child has additional needs you will need to consider those.
I would not recommend the cursive curriculum from Handwriting Without Tears for use in Ireland, because some of the letters are different from how we write in Ireland. I will discuss cursive in a future post.
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Workshops—Professional Growth for You. Learning Without Tears offers a variety of live and on-demand workshops to meet you on your specific professional learning journey, whether you're an educator, occupational therapist, or special education teacher. You'll get expert guidance on Pre-K-5 topics with tips you can put to use immediately in ...
1) Must have a Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) or be a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant (COTA) 2) Attend all four of the handwriting workshops (in their entirety) • Readiness & Writing for Pre-K. • Handwriting Without Tears Print (K-2) • Handwriting Without Tears Cursive (2-5) • Handwriting Assessment.
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 is bringing expert-led workshops to you! Learn to build the foundational writing skills your students need to succeed. Learning Without Tears is an approved provider of continuing education by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc. (AOTA). Join us for a powerful new learning experience, and you'll:
WELCOME TO LEVEL ONE CERTIFICATION. Learning Without Tears (HWT) Level 1 Certified handwriting specialists are occupational therapists, teachers, and educators who have specialized skills and experience using HWT's award-winning curriculum. They are passionate about educating others about handwriting and seek to promote good handwriting habits ...
Collaboration is a powerful and authentic instructional method to engage, improve, and direct student learning. Handwriting Without Tears® is a developmentally based program designed to progress a child's fine motor skills along with visual skills through fun and interactive activities. **Course content offered through WEI Solutions.**
A highly trained, tested, and proven handwriting expert. A specialist driven to help children succeed in school—and beyond. An individual who can communicate his or her knowledge and recommendations for your child. An expert who continually pursues the latest handwriting research and training. Great results!
Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2022. Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST. Event Categories: Early Childhood Learning, Learning Pedagogy/Practice. Event Tags: grip, handwriting, legibility. Learning Without Tears will be focusing on one of the most important prerequisites for the lifelong skill of handwriting—grip!
A-Z for Mat Man® and Me. You can seamlessly bring the ABCs to life while building foundational literacy skills with this new early literacy program. Now accepting your pre-orders! Uses connected text to help teach the alphabet. Diverse stories promote social-emotional learning. Supports early to developing readers.
Handwriting Without Tears' pedagogy guides students to success with: Developmentally appropriate sequence of instruction. Consistent guided practice to develop automaticity and fluency. Multisensory components engage visual, audio, and kinesthetic learners. Hands-on manipulatives for developing fine motor and phonics skills.
Learn More. Inspire. Empower. Thrive. Learning Without Tears provides interactive professional learning opportunities that incorporate a hands-on, minds-on approach to motivate, educate, and support Pre-K-5 success. View Brochure.
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).
Throughout my career, I've attended all continuing education courses offered by Handwriting Without Tears, for both print and cursive handwriting techniques. Integrating the principles of Handwriting Without Tears alongside my own innovative methods, I strive to cultivate an fun, relaxed environment for kids who find handwriting difficult.
CURRICULUM - HANDWRITING An award-winning curriculum that offers multisensory strategies and materials to teach pencil grip, letter formation, and the literacy skills needed for print and cursive handwriting.
The Handwriting Without Tears program starts with learning all the capital letters first, as they are easier to write and recognise; for example, they are all the same height. It is a very fun, multi-sensory experience. There is a CD of songs, so your child is singing and having fun while learning. For example, singing about learning to start ...
Through 40 years of experience, Handwriting Without Tears has evolved to meet educator needs and to always provide the best possible student outcomes. Explore new and improved features and benefits. ... Assistant Director of Early Childhood Education "The active teaching really brings the workbook to life by adding in different interactive ...
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Professional Development. From virtual workshops to on-demand training, find the right professional development option for you. Learning Without Tears provides engaging, interactive professional learning options, such as workshops and virtual training, that span early learning, handwriting, and keyboarding for grades Pre-K through 5.
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Today's learners are digital natives. That's why Handwriting Without Tears includes resources for both print and digital instruction. This comprehensive, research-based program helps handwriting become a natural skill for K-5 students. Our Wet-Dry-Try handwriting activity can also be done digitally, through our iPad app.