Previously we discussed the complexity of the Phonics concepts (see Phonics - what’s all the fuss about?) and how we take a pragmatic and agnostic approach to this to avoid the debate raging in academic circles surrounding various different applications to teaching of phonics. We stick to this principle when it comes to the forming of letters by leveraging only the basic phonics sounds in examples for our writing of the letters video. Similar to phonics, there is more than one font type to choose from when it comes to teaching and not all schools or regulatory bodies use the same ones. Some schools even go to the extent of designing their own font!
So choosing a font style, or even simply finding learning resources that doesn't spark controversy and debate can be a challenge. The choice of font becomes a bit further entangled when you consider the difference between manuscript font (handwriting) and typewriter (or computer) fonts. The most obvious example perhaps is the lower case A,
which is generally represented as “a” on a word processor keyboard. This is not a typical letter form to teach to children. In the main, fonts used to teach children are designed to be written by hand and not via a keyboard.
For our English alphabet writing video, see link below, we use the Monserrat font as the base but change a few of the letters to get the best complete set for early learning. In the lower case set we change the “a” and in the Upper case set we changed the G, I, J, Q, and Y. This is an arbitrary judgement call to minimise visual complications and simplify the forming of the written letters by hand. We also offer a printable workbook so that children can follow along with the video by pausing and completing each letter exercise or complete the whole book as a standalone exercise.
There is a split between those who favour the type of font style we have chosen for this video and something called the D’Nealian font style, a more cursive style. The argument being that the D’Nealian font prepares the student better for the move into cursive writing. We plan to release a D’Nealian font style version of the letter writing video to allow our users a choice or to use both as a progression from simple letter writing to cursive style.
We have also developed a video and associated printable workbook covering learning to write numbers, a vital step in performing arithmetic. In this video we chose font types for numbers to clearly differentiate the symbols from letters. So the number one does not look like a lower case L or upper case I and the number nine does not look like a lower case Q.
Note that some children write letters and numbers in mirror image when they first start out with writing. This is quite normal and not something to be concerned about, gentle correction, taking care not to damage the child's confidence, will generally result in self correcting of the issue. In such cases a child may think a back to front nine is like a lower case E... Like I said, nothing to be overly concerned about.
Comments