Handwriting: Evolution and evaluation.

Handwriting, "everyone's art," is an indispensable skill. The roots of our present forms of penmanship are traced. When and which initial style to teach children, especially the dyslexic or learning disabled, are discussed.The need for a good instrument to evaluate handwriting to prevent perpetuation of illegibilities or to determine if speed is rapid enough to meet the writer's purpose is paramount. A new diagnostic tool, the Children's Handwriting Evaluation Scale (CHES) and its college counterpart are detailed. The CHES also provides a projective scoring key based on graphoanalytic interpretations.