A change at hand

At a large, circular table in a kindergarten and first-grade classroom, a girl in pigtails writes about singing, using a pencil to fill the wide lines in her notebook with careful print.

At a table nearby, a first-grade boy makes only one ''s" backwards in his notebook, while a kindergartner, perched on a red rubber ball, practices his name with a ''squiggly" vibrating pen.

Every day, Geralyn McLaughlin gets her students at Mission Hill School in Roxbury to write for about 40 minutes. On Wednesdays, occupational therapist Deb Baye helps out, working with children on letter formation, grip, and spacing.

The focus is efficiency and ease, not perfection, with the teacher and Baye emphasizing the foundations for functional, legible handwriting.

Children who don't learn to write correctly at a young age often never will, say teachers and therapists working to make sure handwriting doesn't become a dying art. They fear that handwriting is becoming a casualty of the widespread emphasis on computers and the need to master math and English for standardized tests. Teachers reported that between 10 percent to 20 percent of children have trouble with handwriting, said Steve Graham, a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who has studied student handwriting.

Handwriting is making a slow comeback in some schools after decades in which many educators shunned serious penmanship studies. Tests, blamed in part for handwriting instruction's decline, also are a part of the reason for its return. This year, for the first time, the SAT will require handwritten essays. Massachusetts, as part of its MCAS exams, also includes handwritten essay questions. Graders claim they require only that the essays are legible, but specialists say multiple studies correlate a neat hand with higher scores.

New state standards for fourth-graders pushed Newton schools to rethink handwriting, said Barbara Golder, an occupational therapist there. ''Before you had to write a little essay on the MCAS, it was really getting to the point where it wasn't emphasized at all," she said.

In recent years, teachers began referring more children to her, Golder said. Many of the children, who were struggling with fine motor skills, simply needed proper instruction in handwriting, she said.

In local elementary schools, handwriting instruction varies widely. Some districts, including Lynn, create standardized systems. Some require widespread systems for the entire district. Brookline, for example, generally uses D'Nealian, a slanted script meant to transition children to cursive easily. Natick, Needham, and others use a system called Handwriting Without Tears, an upright manuscript emphasizing correct letter formation.

Others districts, such as Boston, Cambridge, and Newton, have no systemwide program, allowing individual schools or teachers to choose their methods.

Time spent on handwriting also varies, but educators agree the subject -- though it's gaining notice -- still receives far less emphasis than it did years ago.

''Many schools are so concerned about these reading and math scores and being on the failing list," Graham said. ''They've crowded the curriculum. Handwriting and writing is not getting a lot of instructional time."

Computers are perhaps the most popular culprit in handwriting's demise. And teaching colleges, which place little emphasis on handwriting, haven't helped. Officials at Harvard, Lesley, and Northeastern universities, and Wheaton and Simmons colleges, confirm their teaching programs don't emphasize handwriting. The result: Instructors are uncomfortable with the topic, said Graham, who surveyed 169 elementary teachers with fellow professor Karen Harris two years ago.

Eighty percent of those polled said they received little or no training in how to teach handwriting, and only 19 percent said they enjoy teaching it, he said. But 90 percent reported teaching handwriting. ''A lot of what we picked up on was teachers teaching it on the fly, without a regular program," Graham said.

While most teaching schools aren't teaching handwriting, Bridgewater State College plans to begin focusing on the craft. Professor Robert Sylvester recently identified a disturbing trend: prospective teachers getting sloppy in their own writing, said Nancy Witherell, elementary education department chairwoman.

''He came to me and said, 'Our students can't write,' " Witherell said. ''Their writing is not legible."

Sylvester plans to give his students a handwriting assessment and may beef up handwriting instruction, she said.

Marty Guild, an occupational therapist who trained Natick's elementary teachers to teach handwriting, said she thinks the skill is regaining respect. ''We want the child to be efficient . . . and be able to write with ease and so it's legible," Guild said. ''In order to get that, I think we need to reinstate a very good handwriting program."

Laborious handwriting creates other writing problems, researchers Graham and Harris found.

A 1997 study of 600 elementary students indicated that handwriting struggles can affect writing quality and the amount of text children produce, Graham said.

Struggling to write also appears to interfere with planning, coherence, and sentence structure, Graham said.

It's important to instill good habits -- a firm ''pincher" grip, erect posture, and the ability to form letters from the top down -- occupational therapists said. Watching how children write is crucial, said Baye, who divides her time between Mission Hill and other Boston public elementary schools. Are they attempting cursive? Spacing letters and words? Using the lines provided or creating their own space? Making dark letters that may indicate posture issues?

She said she feels like a detective, deciphering handwriting for clues to what children are doing with their bodies.

Parents should also monitor whether children write legibly and correctly, said Olsen, who created a handwriting program after her son came home crying over his embarrassing printing.

Some teachers now accept poor handwriting, she said. ''Do you know the ruin you are visiting on young lives with your attitude?" she said, jokingly.

Olsen worries poor handwriting could create low academic self-esteem and a dislike of school. For most, neat handwriting still equals smart, she said. ''Handwriting is a very visible, physical indictor of success," she said.

The write stuff

How parents can help children learn proper handwriting skills

Do it correctly yourself Children learn by imitation, so make sure you are holding your pencil and forming letters correctly.

Don't give 3- and 4-year-olds pencils Let them finger paint or use crayons, which develop the ''pincher" grasp. Give young children broken pieces of chalk or crayons, they'll have no choice but to hold the small pieces correctly.

Encourage good posture Make sure your child's feet are on the floor and their arms can move freely wherever they write.

Read Show children the importance of communicating through words.

Sing Show children letters during the alphabet song. Sing songs that use fingers, such as ''Itsy Bitsy Spider."

Draw Children who draw often write better.

Move Teach spatial words, such as under, over, top, middle, and bottom through visual representations. Put one hand under another, etc.

Offer small bites Encourage children to pick up small objects with their fingers, such as tiny pieces of food. This develops writing muscles and coordination.

Play Encourage preschoolers to use finger paints and sponges to strengthen writing muscles and reinforce coordination. Do activities that require two hands, such as lacing, to build foundation skills and muscle tone.

Sources: ''Handwriting Without Tears," occupational therapists

Paysha Stockton