Shawn Datchuk, director of UI’s Iowa Reading Research Center (IRRC), is a former K-12 special education teacher, elementary teacher, special education director and academic performance director. Most recently, he served as an associate professor of special education in the UI College of Education, where he focused on identifying and supporting students with reading, reading comprehension and writing difficulties and related disabilities.
Datchuk, who was appointed director of the IRRC in May 2024, recently discussed how learning cursive can impact the development of reading and writing skills in an article recently published by The Conversation.
The following excerpt is from that article:
“Recently, my 8-year-old son received a birthday card from his grandmother. He opened the card, looked at it and said, ‘I can’t read cursive yet.’
Then he handed it to me to read.
If you have a child in the Philadelphia School District, chances are they have not been taught how to read or write cursive either.
But cursive handwriting is making a comeback of sorts for K-8 students in the United States. Several states in recent years passed legislation mandating instruction in cursive handwriting, including California, Iowa and Oklahoma.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey are considering similar legislation, as are other states.
I’m an associate professor of special education and the director of the Iowa Reading Research Center. At the center, we’re conducting a systematic review of prior research to improve cursive handwriting instruction.
We also want to know how learning cursive affects the development of reading and writing skills.”
