Handwriting and Spelling Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Review

Students with learning disabilities typically have difficulties with handwriting and spelling, and such difficulties can interfere with the execution of other composing processes, constrain writing development, and mark a child as a poor writer. In order to minimize the negative impact of handwriting and spelling difficulties, I propose that explicit and systematic instruction as well as incidental or natural learning approaches are needed to maximize the development or these two basic writing tools. The application of these approaches with students with learning disabilities is examined, providing a comprehensive review of handwriting and spelling research and practice with these children.