{"id":4423,"date":"2012-01-23T13:12:35","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T18:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=4423"},"modified":"2012-01-23T13:12:35","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T18:12:35","slug":"better-handwriting-means-better-grades-researcher-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/01\/23\/better-handwriting-means-better-grades-researcher-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Handwriting Means Better Grades, Researcher Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"full_story\">\n<div id=\"attachment_4427\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 275px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Florida International University professor Laura Dinehart says research shows students with better handwriting earn better grades.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/01\/Dinehart.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4427\" title=\"Dinehart\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/01\/Dinehart.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/01\/Dinehart.jpg 275w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/01\/Dinehart-220x328.jpg 220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Florida International University<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Florida International University professor Laura Dinehart says research shows students with better handwriting earn better grades.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Want your child to do better in math or be a stronger reader? Have them write out your weekly shopping list.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s according to <a href=\"http:\/\/news.fiu.edu\/2012\/01\/good-handwriting-and-good-grades-fiu-researcher-finds-new-link\/34934?utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=good-handwriting-and-good-grades-fiu-researcher-finds-new-link\">research<\/a> by Florida International University professor <a href=\"http:\/\/education.fiu.edu\/docs\/faculty_profiles\/profile_Dinehart.pdf\">Laura Dinehart<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dinehart studied more than 3,000 four-year-olds in Miami-Dade County. Those who received better grades on fine motor skill tasks, such as writing, also scored higher on math and reading tests taken later.<\/p>\n<p>Dinehart says schools should put more emphasis on handwriting, cursive and art.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Schools have kind of dropped handwriting from their curriculum and I think it might have been jumping the gun a little bit,&#8221; she says. &#8220;I think it forces us to take a second look at what handwriting might actually be providing kids.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Parents can encourage those skills at home by providing art supplies. Kids can also make lists, such as animals they see at the zoo.<\/p>\n<p>Dinehart says her next study will try to answer why good handwriting leads to better grades.<\/p>\n<p>Today happens to be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crayola.com\/calendar\/detail.cfm?event_id=141&amp;year=2012\">National Handwriting Day<\/a>. Dinehart&#8217;s study echoes results found in a <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/indiana\/2011\/09\/29\/why-schools-should-keep-teaching-handwriting-even-if-typing-is-more-useful\/\">similar Indiana study<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want your child to do better in math or be a stronger reader? Have them write out your weekly shopping list. That&#8217;s according to research by Florida International University professor Laura Dinehart. Dinehart studied more than 3,000 four-year-olds in Miami-Dade County. Those who received better grades on fine motor skill tasks, such as writing, also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1103,265,264,263,1078],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4434,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4423\/revisions\/4434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}