"Beyond Words" Event (30 Oct 2025) Q&A: Question 2

At our live events we usually have a Questions Box. Anyone attending the event can (anonymously) write down a question and we share all the questions and answers with everyone afterwards. This format allows people who don't want to stand up and ask a question in front of everyone to still be able to get answers to questions they may have.

Question:

In Montessori circles I've heard there's been a lot of research on the importance of learning cursive before print and this helps dyslexic children, as they do not mix up the letters as much; e.g. 'b ' and 'd' (in cursive) are very different to print 'b' and 'd', also the 'p' and 'q' (in cursive) are very different to print 'p' and 'q'.

Thoughts?

Answer:

I've had lots of headaches with cursive writing. But that is because I was working with a lot of Grade 4 - 7 learners, where they had to write cursive in class. When one is trying to solve dyslexia (after print letters have already been learnt) cursive is definitely a complication.

I'm not familiar with the research on learning cursive before print. Even if b's and d's, and q's and p's are very different in cursive, other letters that dyslexics confuse are not (u's and a's, u's and v's, n's and u's, and the list goes on). So I'm skeptical about that point.

For me the crucial step in really stabilizing letters is the tactile aspect - the muscle memory of how letters should be written. If dyslexics write their d's starting from the top (like b's) then the muscle memory is very similar for both letters. But if they write the d correctly, the muscle memory is different.

Because cursive writing is attached - you don't lift your hand within a word - there is less room for writing letters with the wrong method and therefore learning the wrong muscle memory. So maybe in that regard it could help?

Obviously correctly mapping the print letters onto the cursive letters will be crucial when teaching cursive before print to try and beat dyslexia and I feel like this could be a difficult additional step, but I haven't thought about it in depth.