ABSOLUTELY! Teachers depend on written work to measure how well a child is learning.
*Learning to correctly write the manuscript alphabet enhances letter recognition.
*Letter recognition leads to comprehension:
1. The child focuses on the order of the letters in words and which letters are commonly associated with each other. Good readers have this skill; poor readers do not.
2. The child is able to learn common spelling patterns and develop the ability to translate spelling into meaning automatically.
3. The child is able to break words into syllables more easily which makes it possible to read longer words.
4. The child is free to focus on extracting meaning from print because the recognition of words is automatic.
5. The ability to recognize letters automatically is essential to reading development.
6. Learning to form and write letters correctly is a natural way to reinforce letter recogntion.
7. Being able to reproduce letters automatically not only benefits written expression because it frees the student to focus on words, sentences and ideas, but it benefits reading as well.
Not only that, students who write legibly receive the highest scores even on state proficiency tests scored by trained scorers AND AND AND learning to write provides a motivation to read!