Re: Is 'good' handwriting an inherited trait or is it learned?

Well quite a lot of work has been done on this subject.  The first thing
that has to be said is that most neuromuscular inherited disorders which
show extensive muscle weakness in the limbs will most probably also affect the
handwriting of the affected individual.  Deonna et al(1997) described an 11 year
old girl who had severe hand writing difficulties as well as walking problems.
This girl was diagnosed as having childhood dystonia.  Nakamura et al(1997) have
described a similar scenario for Progressive supranuclear palsy.  Friedrich et
al(1996) have reported on a boy who suffered from benign hereditary chorea who
again, amonst several other problems of muscle movement, showed poor handwriting
skills.
Whilst these examples are not directly answering your question, we can possibly
infer from these cases that a whole spectrum of inherited conditions will exist
which are much less severe in the extent of loss of muscle control and therefore
perhaps a deterioration in handwriting.  some of the much milder conditions may
as of yet not have been identified as inherited muscular disorders but this does
not exclude the possibility that some genetic factor or factors are involved.
Moeschler and Graham(1993) have found three cases of a disorder referred to as
Brachmann-de-Lange syndrome(BdLS) in which the individuals affected had only mild
manifestations of the disrder(BdLS).  For example one of the patients, a 7 year
old boy, was attending the 1st grade as normal whilst a second BdLS patient was
in the fourth grade at age 10.  These three BdLS patients were receiving special
education support in addition to their regular studies and had problems with
handwriting.  

Like so many of these things there is likely to be both genetic factors and
environmental factors involved in determining how 'good' ones handwriting is.
Both events that occur during the course of a person's life as well as age are
likely to affect handwriting in some way or other.  Grossi et al(1996) have
carried out a study of changes in handwriting and general hand control after a
cerebral stroke.  The findings showed that the individual had what is referred to
as a deteriorated'post stroke performance' relative to that assessed 18 months
before the stroke.  As far as age is concerned, Phillips et al(1996) carried out
a very interesting study on the handwriting abilities of adults at different ages.
Those adults that were in the 'young' category generally had more efficient
writing when compared to those of 'older' adults.  In addition the older adults
made much greater use of so-called visual cues such as lines on the paper on
which they were writing.  Karlsdottir (1996) carried out a comprative analysis
of two different types of handwriting quality improvement methods.  A method was
described which did appear to improve handwriting quality.  It involved providing
a detailed description of each letter of the alphabet as each letter was written
down on paper.  

Finally I will say that you only have to browse through the Internet to see
people who claim that they can 'improve your handwriting' and as a result
'completely change your life'!!!!!!!!  so as far as the commercial world is
concerned you can do anything you want to change your handwriting.  I hope that
by reading the answer that i have given you, you will not believe everything
that they say on the internet!!!!!


Happy writing!!!!!


robert 


References

Phillips et al(1996) Psychol Aging Vol 11 PP521-526
Grossi et al51996) Ital J of Neurol Sci Vol 17 pp241-248
Friedrich(1996) Pediatr. Neurol Vol 14 pp 326-327
Karlsdottir(1996) percept. Mot Skills Vol 82 PP659-673
Moeschler et al( 1993) Am Jounal of Medical Genetics Vol 47 pp 969-976
Deonna et al(1997) Dev Med Child Neurol Vol 39 PP49-53
Nakamura et al(1997) nippon Rinsho Vol 55 pp127-130