Written by Office ADAGames/Activities, Dyslexia, Visual Perception Training
Are you ready to put your observation skills to the test? Our popular “Spot the Differences” puzzles offer a fun and engaging way to sharpen visual perception—one picture at a time!
How It Works
Each puzzle presents you with two seemingly identical illustrations. Your mission: find the 10 differences between them! Simply compare the images and mark what’s missing in the lower picture.
What makes our puzzles special:
A new picture every day – Fresh challenges keep things exciting
No timers, no pressure – Work at your own pace and enjoy the process
Flexible formats – Solve online in your browser, or download as a PDF for printing
Solutions included – Download with or without the answer key
Why Spot the Differences Is Essential for Dyslexic Children
For children with dyslexia, “Spot the Differences” isn’t just a game—it’s valuable training for the brain. Here’s why these puzzles are particularly beneficial:
Strengthens Visual Perception Many dyslexic children experience differences in how they perceive visual information. Regularly practicing with these puzzles helps train the eyes and brain to notice subtle details—a skill that directly transfers to distinguishing between similar letters like b/d, p/q, or m/n.
Improves Focused Attention According to the AFS-Method, attention is one of the three key areas to address in dyslexia training. Spot the Differences puzzles naturally encourage sustained focus and concentration as children systematically scan and compare images.
Develops Visual Memory To find differences, children must hold visual information in their working memory while comparing it to what they see. This strengthens the same cognitive processes needed for reading and spelling.
Builds Confidence Through Success With no time pressure and achievable goals, children experience the satisfaction of completing each puzzle. This positive reinforcement builds self-esteem—something many dyslexic children need after struggling in traditional academic settings.
Trains Systematic Scanning Children learn to examine images methodically, moving from left to right and top to bottom. This organized visual scanning approach supports better reading habits and reduces the tendency to skip words or lines.
Fun Without Frustration Unlike traditional worksheets that may trigger anxiety, these colorful puzzles feel like play. When learning feels like fun, children stay engaged longer and retain more.
Get Started Today!
Free Trial: Try 10 puzzles completely free to see if your child enjoys them.
Lifetime Access: For just a one-time fee of $5, unlock ALL 250+ Spot the Differences puzzles—forever! Use them online anytime, or download for offline use and printing.
Whether you’re a parent looking for engaging activities, a teacher seeking classroom resources, or a Certified Dyslexia Trainer building your toolkit—these puzzles are a valuable addition to any visual perception training program.
Questions? Feel free to reach out—we’re happy to help!
Today, ubiquitous unsavory incentives and unnecessary diversions steal away beautiful memory-making family times. Have some of your long-trusted family ties seemed to vanish? Have you entered what sometimes feels like an inescapable revolving door? Have you felt alone and bewildered in this whirlwind world? Have you lost time to read classic literature together or to study the holy scriptures, worship, or pray? Have you noticed others who seem to be reflecting your same experiences?
Distracted moments turn into lost hours and lost days. Blink twice and the precious ones here today are gone tomorrow. Do you need a nurturing and confidence-building approach to bond with your cherished children? Are you looking for a way to get back on track to champion their thoughts, beliefs, and dreams and to be their most trusted, but silent and unnoticed, mentor?
Answers may be nearer than you think. Have you given space in your life and in your abode for precious pets? If so, then good luck is just around the next corner and is hastening to help. Indeed, soon your dogs or cats or rabbits will be scampering in or your ponies or horses will be galloping forth as silent helpers. Well, sometimes they aren’t so silent. Nevertheless, as I said in Writing about Your Pets #1, to encourage parents, homeschoolers, and teachers to bond with their ’tweens and teens, “Pets, in a way, are our greatest teachers. Write about how your pets are happy just to be with you. To sit with you in silence, to ride along with you, to walk or run with you, or to play with no regrets about yesterday and no frets about tomorrow—that’s your happy pet modeling the beautiful concept of living in the moment.”
Undeniably, pets gratefully accept whatever moments are given to them. They do not toss away today with worries. Neither do they throw away tomorrow with negative thoughts. Pets are like enlightened teachers, who have studied far and wide and have learned to guide us by their honest words, good works, noble intentions, and honorable traditions. As we care for our pets, they not only demonstrate how to live in the moment, but also they show us unconditional love which is a mostly missing commodity on planet Earth.
So, if you and your pre-teens or teens share a common bond that treasures your pets, then let your pets, their antics, behaviors, characteristics, and daily habits become the topics for fun writing adventures that you can share. Writing about Your Pets #1 offers a bountiful array of writing prompts, questions, suggestions, and ideas to help you get started. Enjoy a quiet time together, for just a bit each evening, or as often as possible, to select a topic that your young writers-in-the-making choose to tackle. Chat about the many ways to explore and conquer each chosen prompt. Make sure your ’tweens or teens feel heard and seen and adored and can go away, with your blessing, to write until their hearts are content. On your next evening, or earliest chance, listen with complete attention while your young writer reads aloud the masterpiece composed the night before.
Soon, you will find that your confidence-boosting and thought-provoking times together become better and better. In fact, you can help your young writers to sort through and solve any worries, challenges, or threats that they may have needed to tell you about earlier but felt you had no time for them. Now, with a renewed trust in you, they can adopt you as a quiet, unseen mentor. They will feel empowered.
Getting families together, in the short term, to share a meeting of minds to recognize and vanquish current problems and to prevent possible oncoming perils is a major objective of Writing about Your Pets #1: Questions & Prompts for ’Tweens, Teens & Beyond. Beyond that effort, an even more important goal is to go forward to help build the habit of creating time to read, to be aware of the potential perils that may challenge the young and their families, and to find answers together that can serve your spirits in good stead in spite of the sometimes distracting, disenchanting, and disorienting times of today.
I admire all pets; and through the years I have shared home and hearth with a menagerie of dogs, cats, rabbits, canaries, parakeets, guppies, goldfish, colorful tropical fishes of many species, and turtles. In addition, I treasured my precious maternal and paternal grandfathers for their care of animals—my maternal grandfather’s glorious golden palominos, herds of dairy cattle, abundant turkeys, and other well-cared for farm animals and my paternal grandfather’s well-treated cattle, wealth of chickens, and other farm animals, as well. Also, just so you will know, the smart and cuddly cat, who appears on the Pets #1 cover sat in my lap and helped to calm the rush of time and constant distractions, so that I finally could share these words with you. I truly hope my heartfelt words voiced here and in Pets #1 can bring good tidings all across our world with their sincere hope for peace and better times to come.
Linda Davis-Kyle, of WritingNow.com, is an internationally published health and fitness and general interest writer who has been published in Canada, the United States, the Netherlands Antilles, Ireland, England, Bulgaria, South Africa, Bahrain, Qatar, Bangladesh, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand in professional journals such as Modern Drama in Canada, Bulletin of Bibliography in Great Britain, Caritas in Ireland, and Studies in English Literature in Japan and in award-winning publications such as Chem Matters, Martial Arts Training, WellBeing, and World Travel Magazine.
A 19-year-old student from Connecticut has initiated legal action against her former school district, alleging she graduated high school without the ability to read or write. Despite earning honors and securing a college scholarship, Aleysha Ortiz contends that the Hartford Public Schools system failed to address her learning difference, resulting in her functional illiteracy.
Ortiz’s lawsuit asserts that her difficulties with letter, sound, and number recognition were evident as early as first grade. By sixth grade, her reading proficiency remained at a first-grade level. She recalls being marginalized in class, often told to “stay in a corner and sleep or just draw pictures.” These challenges led to behavioral issues, with Ortiz admitting, “I was the bad child.”
Born in Puerto Rico, Ortiz’s mother, Carmen Cruz, sought better educational opportunities for her daughter by relocating to Connecticut. However, Cruz’s limited English proficiency hindered effective communication with school officials regarding Ortiz’s needs.
During her sophomore year at Hartford Public High School, Ortiz was assigned a special education teacher and case manager, Tilda Santiago. The lawsuit alleges that Santiago subjected Ortiz to bullying and harassment, including stalking her on school grounds, leading to Santiago’s eventual removal from the case.
In her junior year, educators recommended testing for dyslexia, but comprehensive evaluations were not completed until the last day of her senior year. The assessments confirmed that Ortiz was indeed dyslexic and required explicit instruction in phonics, fluency, and reading comprehension. Despite these findings, she graduated with honors in June and was offered a deferred diploma in exchange for intensive services, which she declined, stating, “They had 12 years; now it’s my time.”
Ortiz managed to navigate the educational system by utilizing technology such as text-to-speech and speech-to-text applications. She used these tools to complete assignments and even her college application. Currently enrolled at the University of Connecticut, Ortiz has found college challenging and has taken a break from classes to focus on her mental health, with plans to return soon.
Through her lawsuit, Ortiz aims to hold the school district accountable and prevent other students from experiencing similar educational neglect. She emphasizes her passion for learning, stating, “People took that opportunity for me to learn, and now I’m in college and I want to take advantage of that. Because this is my education.”
Hartford Public Schools has refrained from commenting on the pending litigation but expressed a commitment to addressing the diverse needs of its students to help them reach their full potential.
This case underscores the critical importance of early intervention and appropriate support for students with dyslexia to ensure equitable educational outcomes.
In the ever-evolving landscape of educational resources, innovative tools that cater to diverse learning needs are invaluable. For the millions of individuals worldwide who struggle with dyslexia, finding the right approach to language learning can make the difference between frustration and success.
Enter Wordformulation.com — a platform dedicated to enhancing language acquisition through the proven AFS Method. Developed by Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller, this structured approach to word formulation offers hope and practical solutions for individuals with dyslexia and other learning challenges.
What Is the AFS Method?
The AFS Method is far more than just another learning technique. Standing for Attention, Function, and Symptom training, it represents a comprehensive, research-backed approach designed specifically to address the unique challenges faced by dyslexic individuals.
Here’s how each component works:
Attention Training focuses on helping learners concentrate when working with letters, words, and symbols. Dyslexic individuals often experience attention lapses specifically when dealing with written language — not due to lack of effort, but because their brains process information differently.
Function Training targets the underlying sensory perceptions that are essential for reading and writing. This includes visual differentiation, auditory memory, spatial orientation, and other cognitive functions that form the foundation of literacy skills.
Symptom Training addresses the actual difficulties in reading and writing — but only after attention and functional skills have been strengthened. This is crucial: traditional approaches often jump straight to symptom training, which is why they frequently fail dyslexic learners.
By addressing all three areas in a coordinated manner, the AFS Method ensures that learners receive targeted support tailored to their specific needs.
Exploring Wordformulation.com
Wordformulation.com serves as a practical treasure trove of resources for teaching and training in the English language. The platform offers a variety of exercises and materials designed with flexibility in mind — resources can be used both online and offline, accommodating educators, learners, and parents in various settings.
The website is thoughtfully organized into grammatical categories:
This structure allows users to focus on specific areas of interest or difficulty, making it easy to create customized learning paths based on individual needs.
Why This Matters for Dyslexic Learners
Dyslexia presents unique challenges in language acquisition that often require specialized strategies to overcome. Traditional teaching methods — which typically involve repetitive practice of the same material — rarely work for dyslexic learners. In fact, they often lead to frustration, decreased self-esteem, and a growing aversion to reading and writing.
The AFS Method, as implemented on Wordformulation.com, takes a fundamentally different approach. By first strengthening attention and functional skills, learners build a solid foundation that makes symptom-level work (actual reading and writing practice) far more effective.
The benefits extend beyond just improved literacy skills:
Increased confidence as learners experience genuine progress
Reduced frustration through appropriately targeted exercises
Better self-understanding as individuals learn how their minds work
Long-term skill development rather than short-term memorization
Practical Application in Daily Learning
One of the greatest strengths of Wordformulation.com is its practicality. The resources are designed for ease of use by:
Educators looking for effective classroom materials
Parents supporting their child’s learning journey at home
Learners themselves working independently to improve their skills
Exercises can be completed online or printed for offline practice, accommodating various learning environments and preferences. The platform’s user-friendly interface ensures effortless navigation through different sections, making it a convenient tool for both daily practice and long-term learning strategies.
The Science Behind the Success
The development of the AFS Method by Dr. Astrid Kopp-Duller is grounded in decades of intensive work with individuals facing learning challenges. Since 1995, this approach has been refined through real-world experience with thousands of learners, contributing to its proven effectiveness.
The method acknowledges a fundamental truth that many educational approaches overlook: dyslexic individuals are not “weak students” — they are people with a different way of processing information. This shift in perspective is transformative, both for the learners themselves and for those who support them.
Getting Started
Whether you’re an educator seeking effective teaching materials, a parent supporting your child’s learning journey, or a learner striving to improve your language skills, Wordformulation.com offers resources that can make a meaningful difference.
The platform is free to explore, and the structured organization makes it easy to find exactly what you need. Start by identifying areas of difficulty, then work through the relevant exercises systematically.
Remember: progress in language learning, especially for dyslexic individuals, is rarely linear. Celebrate small victories, maintain consistency, and trust in the process.
Conclusion
In a world where literacy is fundamental to success, tools like Wordformulation.com and approaches like the AFS Method are more important than ever. By offering specialized, research-backed resources that address the root causes of reading and writing difficulties, these platforms are helping countless individuals unlock their full potential.
Explore Wordformulation.com today and discover how a different approach to language learning can open new doors for you or someone you care about.
For more information about the AFS Method and comprehensive training in supporting dyslexic learners, visit www.dyslexiacertificate.com
Wordformulation.com is a resource provided by the Austrian Dyslexia Association (EÖDL), celebrating 30 years of service to individuals with dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Do you want to secure the most nutrient-packed food for your cherished children to ensure their ability to learn? In mere moments, your favorite search engine will bring to your fingertips such articles as, “Brain foods: the role of diet in brain performance and health,” “Nutrition and the developing brain,” and “The impact of dietary macronutrient intake on cognitive function.” Do you have plans to grow you own organic garden for your family? Do you know a local small farmer or rancher in your area who grows and sells grand organic and regenerative food?
Ensuring Wholesome Foods for Your Family
When you support your local organic and regenerative food producers, then you are helping to ensure the best food for your family. Real Food for Real People introduces more than 100 websites of food producers and marketers devoted to growing and delivering the best organically grown and regeneratively raised, health-enhancing food to your front door—often free of shipping expenses.
Making Your Kitchens and Homes Happy Havens
RealFood ebook helps families enjoy their “happy havens,” provides much needed information, and encourages the strongest lawful and peaceful support of our noble local food producers and their rights to grow and ship their goods where they see fit. Not only that, the author supports the rights of farmers and ranchers to own their own land, grow their own crops without interference, and to save and use their own natural seeds from season to season.
Praising Writer and Director Pete McGrain through Host Woody Harrelson
Real Food for Real People directs your attention to the most powerful solution, that Woody Harrelson, twice nominated Oscar winner and host of Ethos—written and directed by Pete McGrain—spoke in 2011, “If you don’t want foods with chemicals or GMOs in it, then don’t buy it…. No company will continue a practice or a product that you, the consumer, will not buy. If you won’t buy their stuff, they go out of business.”
Seeing the Crucial Need to Support Our Local Farmers and Ranchers Worldwide
Simply put, there will be no “Making Your Kitchen a Happy Haven” as described in “Part One—Getting Ready for Success,” if we do not immediately take the strongest lawful and peaceful actions to protect the rights, freedoms, and liberties of our hardworking and logical thinking local small farmers, ranchers, dairies, and fishers all around the world.
Remembering the Profound Words of Claude Bristol (1891-1951)
Real Food for Real People reminds readers to think long and hard about Claude Bristol’s chilling words from Chapter 1 of The Magic of Believing in 1948, “I am aware that there are forces—powerful forces—at work in this country that would dominate us substituting a kind of regimentation for the competitive system which has made America great among nations. I believe that we must continue to retain the wealth of spirit of our forefathers. If we don’t, we shall find ourselves dominated in everything we do by a mighty few. We will become serfs in fact, if not in name.”
Linda Davis-Kyle of WritingNow.com has written several articles for the American Dyslexia Association, and she is the author of the series Your Writing Matters — Book One. Teaching English to Children: Reviewing English Grammar, Book Two. Getting Teens to Write: Writing for Real, Book Three. Helping Dyslexics to Write: Using Mind Maps [in progress], the series Writing about Animals [in progress], and Real Food for Real People is available on Amazon.
Sometime ago when I entered my acupuncturist’s well-lit, but tiny, four-chair waiting room filled with the fragrance of frankincense, a mom and her two children were getting settled. The mom’s lap served as a comfy chair for her daughter who was about two years old. The little pink bow in her daughter’s curly golden hair was about to fall off. The mom raised and tightened the bow. She struggled a bit to hold the daughter and a small electronic game to pacify her son who leaned against her. His right hand clutched tightly to the inside of his mom’s left elbow. His dark blue jeans, red cotton shirt, and red sneakers were new and well cared for, just as both children obviously were.
The mom and I smiled at each other and said, “Hello.” The youngsters and I simply smiled at each other, as I sat down.
When I began to proofread a manuscript, the handsome little blue-eyed fellow immediately lost interest in the electronic game and abandoned his mom’s arm. He came near, leaned over between my work and me, and peered at my words with deep interest. I held my manuscript, in its portfolio that kept it sturdy and offered him my pen and the blank back side of several pages so that he could “write.”
Ecstatic to be offered these tools and loving the attention, he scribbled lots of little waves, peaks, valleys, curves, and circles with joy for quite some time. I turned pages for him as if he were playing at a piano recital. He hugged my pen to his heart each time he finished a page. Sometimes he laughed a little between “sentences.” His mom, baby sister, and I watched as he filled almost four pages.
When this young “writer” completed his pleasant task, I asked him to tell me about what he had written. He said, “Oh. It’s a story!” Then he proceeded to “read” about his mom, his dad, his little sister, and their dog and even their goldfish. His totally surprised mom looked on in awe and smiled from ear to ear.
I swiftly gave this precious young “writer-in-the-making” the pages of his story along with my pen when the acupuncturist called me. As I said, “Goodbye,” my sincere hope was that his mom would continue to offer such writing fun to him daily.
In Getting Teens to Write: Writing for Real, I quote Octavia Estelle Butler who said, “… write every day, no excuses.”
Dyslexics and non-dyslexics alike often feel joy when they “write” at a tender age. Many writers of many ages feel joy when they write to express themselves. When we as parents, grandparents, step parents, single parents, foster parents, educators, teachers, homeschoolers, writing coaches, and friends give the gift of undivided attention to aspiring writers, we help them to see themselves in a positive light.
If any struggles arise, if we give encouragement, then we give them a precious gift that can help them to keep on keeping on and never give up their dream to write.
In Bloodchild and Other Stories, Octavia Estelle Butler said, “I pecked my stories out two fingered on the Remington portable typewriter” that she had begged her mother to buy for her when she was 10. Filled with ambition and drive, Butler also says that in junior high she asked Mr. Pfaff, her science teacher, to type one of her stories “the way it was supposed to be” for submission to a science fiction magazine. At age 12, she wrote the influential version for her Patternist series of science fiction novels.
Butler reached an enviable height of success as she continued to write each day, year after year. Think how fortunate she was to have help to keep her dream alive and to see it bloom.
Perseverance comes more easily when aspiring dyslexic and non-dyslexic writers are given thoughtful attention and useful instruction.
Just like the seedlings that grow and thrive beautifully when they receive fresh air, gentle sun, clean water, and love from their gardeners, the very young, the ‘tweens, the teens, and those beyond, who long to write, will succeed when given the greatest gifts of all—attention, careful instruction, thoughtful evaluation to help them get on track and stay on task, and genuine admiration from those who care about enhancing and protecting their excellent mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
Having someone who truly cares and believes in aspiring writers helps them enormously to believe in themselves. And when they do believe in themselves, they can conquer obstacle after obstacle to win their writing goals and even go on to help other writers win, too.
Sources
Butler, Octavia Estelle. Bloodchild and Other Stories. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2005, p. 127.
Davis-Kyle, Linda. Getting Teens to Write: Writing for Real. Austin: WritngNow.com, 2022.
Helping Dyslexics to Write: Using Mind Maps for Fun. In progress. Excerpt reprinted here with permission.
Are you looking to make a difference in the lives of children and adults with dyslexia? Look no further than the Certified Dyslexia Trainer Program on https://www.dyslexiacertificate.com.
A learning disability called dyslexia impairs a person’s ability to read and write. Peers frequently misunderstand it, which makes learning challenging for people who have trouble with it. The Certified Dyslexia Trainer Program can help with that.
This program will equip you with the skills necessary to assist dyslexic people in their daily lives beginning in March. Our course material will enhance your didactic and pedagogical abilities, assisting you in becoming a specialist in the subject of dyslexia.
We have been providing dyslexia education to clients in 64 different nations for the past 25 years. With our assistance, you will develop new training skills and gain knowledge about how such abilities might benefit dyslexic students.
Don’t pass up the chance to have an effect on dyslexics lives for the better. Simply sign up for our free online newsletter to get started with the Certified Dyslexia Trainer Program.
The Dyslexia Trainer Certification Program is a flexible, online course designed to teach individuals how to support children and adults with dyslexia. The program is open to anyone, including professionals in the fields of education, psychology, and medicine, as well as those who simply want to make a difference in the lives of others. Upon completion of the course, participants will be qualified to identify dyslexia and support individuals with the learning disorder. The program has been reviewed and accredited by various organizations and is conducted according to strict quality standards. The minimum study time is 10 months, with a maximum of 2 years, and tuition can be paid in monthly installments. Simply sign up for our free online newsletter to get started.
You can start the course at your own pace and schedule.
According to the International Federation of Dyslexia and Dyscalculia Associations, 1 in 5 people are affected by dyslexia. This is a learning difference that affects an individual’s ability to read and spell words.
Dyslexia affects more males than females
You may have heard that dyslexia affects more males than females. This is true.
You do not grow out of dyslexia
Dyslexia is a lifelong language-based learning difference that affects the brain’s ability to process written language.
It is the most common learning difference
Dyslexia is a learning difference that affects the way you think, read, and write. It is the most common learning difference, affecting one in five people.
80% of those in Special Education are dyslexics
People who are dyslexic often have difficulty processing what they see on the page or hear in their head into words they can understand and say out loud.
Some of the most brilliant people had dyslexia
Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Winston Churchill, and Thomas Edison were all dyslexic. They had trouble reading and sometimes writing.
Most folks today don’t write in cursive. Some people never even pick up a pen or pencil. Writing in cursive has become rare — yet reading cursive remains an important life skill, whenever:
family members still use cursive, or even send greeting cards that use cursive fonts:
teachers use cursive, or assign work that involves reading historical documents in their original form:
employers, supervisors, or co-workers use cursive:
store signs or logos use cursive:
Today, more and more children and adults — with and without disabilities — cannot read cursive handwriting, or can only partially and laboriously figure out a word or sentence in cursive, even if the cursive writing is clear and error-free (which is often not the case). These difficulties occur at all educational and socioeconomic levels.
In the USA, Canada, India, and many other countries, non-readers of cursive include most people 35 and under, as well as a surprising number of older adults who have often managed to hide this problem throughout life.
Worse yet, today’s millions of “cursive non-readers” (with or without disabilities) aren’t limited to those who were simply never taught cursive.
Even when conventional cursive training actually does lead to reading (and writing) cursive, those “successful” learners often lose the ability sometime between the year that they are taught cursive (typically Grade 2 or 3) and the year that they leave high school.
This situation was profiled in 2013 by one of Canada’s largest newspapers. The cursive non-readers whom that article were college freshmen. By now, almost eight years later, they must be in their mid-twenties: they have jobs, or are trying to get jobs, and probably some of them have families. (How will cursive non-readers help their children, if the school or the district or other administration mandates cursive instruction?)
Forgetting how to decipher cursive (or never learning how to decipher it in the first place) can happen anyone — but it more severely impacts people with dyslexia, autism, and other neurological differences that affect how we perceive and process the data that our senses provide.
People with various neurological differences (autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and more) are often very good at looking for patterns — and are extremely good at seeing patterns in the surrounding environment, without ever even having to look for the patterns! The patterns, especially visual patterns, simply jump out as them — or, I should say, simply jump out at us (because I have several of these “dys-”abilities). Therefore, we use visual patterns to try to make sense of what we are trying to learn — and we learn best when we are encouraged to use visual patterns.
However, students who encounter cursive are often discouraged from even trying to wonder if there are visual relations between the cursive letters and their printed counterparts. The two systems of writing, appear unrelated to each other:
Since it looks as if there is no relationship between most cursive letters and their printed counterparts, many learners frustratedly give up on even trying to use their visual/pattern-recognition strengths to “crack the code” of cursive. When the visual/pattern-recognition strengths of a learner’s brain are suddenly made useless, he or she may feel that his/her brain has stopped working and can no longer be trusted. (Such a learner may be said to have “form constancy issues.”)
Unfortunately, well-meaning parents and schoolteachers may accidentally push learners even further in that direction, by trying to reassure frustrated learners of cursive that “there is really no relationship between cursive and printing anyway, so don’t even bother trying to see a relationship or a reason or an explanation. Don’t even think that there could be a relationship between one style of letter and another. There is no relationship, nothing to find, is nothing to understand, so just memorize, don’t worry, and you’ll pick it up just fine, I’m sure.”
However, “just memorizing” (without understanding) is an extremely fragile and worrisome way of trying to learn and remember. What is memorized without comprehension is quickly forgotten, as soon as lessons are over — Especially in modern times, when fewer and fewer people write cursive (or even write by hand at all) in life after school the liabilities of “just memorizing” hold true for most people, to some degree — but they almost always hold true, to a huge degree, for people whose neurology differs significantly from the average.
When learners are told that “there is no reason, only memorization,” and when they experience no way of fully understanding the material that they must memorize , they lose trust in their own ability to even try to learn and understand: at a basic rote-memory level, and/or at any other level.
This is especially true when the subject is cursive handwriting, because — for many students learning cursive — the cursive textbook is typically the only textbook that is full of assigned material which they cannot read (although it is in their own language), but must still copy.
One part of the visual skills/form constancy problem is that the shapes of cursive letters are often inconsistent from word to word, in ways that can make words very hard to recognize.
Look at these cursive words:
In both words, the third letter is a cursive s — but the “same” cursive s is very different each time:
A learner who has memorized the cursive s in past (where it needs to start at the bottom) is likely not to recognize the “same” cursive s in post (where it needs to start at the top):
For any learner — but especially for one whose neurology is not the “average” that textbook publishers assume — all this can deeply shatter confidence and motivation.
Does it have to be this way?
Can we make cursive make sense to all learners — even if they don’t write cursive, or if they don’t write by hand at all?
What if we showed our learners how cursive happened?
A new book, READ CURSIVE FAST (National Autism Resources, 2021), takes this approach: offering three easy stages to lasting cognitive comprehension (not just fragile rote memorization) of what makes a cursive letter a G or a Z or an r or an s — and why. Now, learners’ visual strengths, pattern-recognition strengths, and cognitive strengths can work in synchrony instead of being neglected or frustrated,
Step One: Show how cursive letters happened!
When readers are allowed and encouraged to learn how cursive letters came about, remembering the cursive shapes makes cognitive/pattern-recognition sense, and does not have to rely solely on rote memory. Here’s an example for the letter G:
READ CURSIVE FAST uses a pattern-recognition/cognitive approach to “unlock” the visuals of every cursive letter. Some letters need to be cracked in step-by-step detail, while others can be “cracked” more simply:
When you see the print-style s hiding inside cursive s, you can see why the cursive s looks different after lowercase o versus the way it looks after lowercase a.
Building pattern recognition and understanding into the learning task makes for faster progress and greater retention, by providing another route to comprehension. Cursive writing is not the only path to cursive reading — for many students, it is not even a reliable path.
Step Two: Sustained Reading
Once students recognize cursive letters alone and in words and phrases, it’s time to build automaticity and fluency with longer texts. To accomplish this, READ CURSIVE FAST uses “cursive stories”: passages written in fonts that resemble increasingly difficult styles of handwriting. Here is the opening of one story:
___________________________________________
(The first four sentences of a cursive story from READ CURSIVE FAST.)
___________________________________________
The beginning of each story resembles familiar printed letters, but each sentence adds more and more cursive features, carefully easing readers into understanding increasingly complex forms of cursive.
Step Three: Reading Historical Documents
Once students can read present-day cursive with some fluency, they will eventually want or need to read our nation’s historical documents, many of which are written in very elaborate forms of cursive.
Today, reading historical documents is one of the most frequent reasons for needing to read cursive, but handwriting style variations in past centuries were even more frequent than they are today. This means that most students (particularly those with neurological issues) will benefit from practice with historical cursive samples once they are experienced in reading present-day cursive samples.
Therefore, READ CURSIVE FAST includes a section specifically on historical documents. Learners reach this point are usually pleased and amazed that they can now read historical material.
When we know how each cursive letter happened, we know (and we never forget) what makes the letter understandable. Whatever our own handwriting looks like, whatever style we use, or even if we never write by hand at all, we can make sense of every cursive letter we are shown what parts of a cursive letter make that letter make sense.
When cursive letters make sense, we do not need to write cursive in order to read it.
When we make sense of the interrelations of different alphabet styles — print and cursive and more — handwriting becomes …
As the author of READ CURSIVE FAST, I look forward to seeing and hearing your own experiences and thoughts on cursive reading issues.
