D'Nelian

Greetings Sheila,

I am not a fan of D’Nelian but my son (without LDs) had no trouble learning to write with this method. However, my daughter’s (with LDs) previously very legible D’Nelian printing became a gnarled mess of print/cursive when D’Nelian cursive was taught. Six years later, we’ve finally corrected this and my daughter has beautiful cursive handwriting as a result of Getty-Dubay Italic. It’s very easy to learn since it’s basically connected printing. Using the adult “teach yourself” workbook, she learned it in less than three months but she was motivated and older (age 13). I even switched my already nice cursive to Italic because it’s prettier and faster than regular cursive.

Blessings, momo

My two children, but only one ld, both had lots of trouble with it. The theory is it makes learning cursive easier. But it is more taxing on the small motor skills of young children than block printing.

I didn’t like d’Nelian at all for my daughter who has fine motor problems. It is more messy looking than block printing, with more squiggles and loops. For a child with handwriting problems, it’s nearly illegible. Her writing improved enormously after she unlearned d’Nelian and learned block printing.