Handwriting: Important issues through Basque/Spanish materials

Abstract

In this age of new technologies, handwriting is still important. There is strong evidence showing that if children are slow as they form letters then language processing may be affected at higher levels (e.g., forming words, expressing ideas, sentence patterns, etc.). As an Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country, I have published numerous books, articles and videos that deal with handwriting. I have also taught many courses and workshops to teachers and I have collaborated with radio and television in educational spaces. At this moment, for example, I have developed a MOOC course in Spanish about evaluation instruments on legibility and speed. With these contributions, I have tried to promote good practices with regards to handwriting, both in Spanish and in the Basque language. This latter is a minority language and the oldest living language in Europe, for many linguists. In the talk, I will show these materials in connection with the important points of view about handwriting: the writing readiness view, the constructivism, the cognitive psychology view and the writing neuro-developmental view.