Handwriting and Keyboarding Standards

Zaner-Bloser has proposed Written Language Production Standards for Handwriting and Keyboarding.   These standards offer developmentally appropriate, research–based indicators to integrate handwriting and keyboarding into the curriculum.  From the Zaner-Bloser website it states that the standards are:

“research-based and includes basic letter formation and keyboarding indicators included in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, national and local technology standards and policy, state handwriting and keyboarding standards, studies in motor skills development from occupational therapists and data on language (written and oral) and brain activation from academic researchers”.

You can get more information on the standards on the Zaner-Bloser website.

View the final Written Language Production Standards for Handwriting and Keyboarding.  

After perusing the document quickly, it has a great summary of the research on why handwriting is a functional skill that is necessary for literacy, enhances neurological development and facilities writing fluency.  It also discusses why children need to learn both handwriting and keyboarding to be successful in this age of technology.

 For each grade level kindergarten through grade 8, it provides standards for form and legibility, spacing and size, direction and alignment, rate and fluency, writing application and word processing (only grades 4-8).

Experienced and new pediatric occupational and physical therapists will benefit from reading this comprehensive document.