Should people with dysgraphia use cursive writing instead of printing?

For many children with dysgraphia, cursive writing has several advantages.  It eleminates the necessity of picking up a pencil and deciding where to replace it after each letter.  Each letter starts on the line, thus eliminating anther potencially confusing decision for the writer.  Cursive also has very few reversible letters, a typical source of trouble for people with dysgraphia.  It eliminates word-spacing problems and gives words a flow and rhythm that enhances learning.  For children who find it difficult to remember the motor patterns of letter forms, starting with cursive eliminates the traumatic transition from manuscript to cursive writing.  Writers in cursive also have more opportunity to distinguish b, d, p, and q because the cursive letter formations for writing each of these letters is so different.

Reprinted with permission