Observations from NAEYC

The first week in November, I had the opportunity to exhibit PointScribe at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) annual conference in Orlando. If you have ever exhibited at a tradeshow, you know that after not much time, the conversations you have provide and confirm  information on your audience segments, perception of your product and the state of your industry overall.

Some things I learned at NAEYC:

• Classroom teachers highly value the teaching of handwriting and the benefits it provides to students for fine motor and cognitive development. They are disheartened that so many schools are de-emphasizing or removing it from the curriculum. They themselves are seeking ways to keep it in the classroom for their own students. 

• Attendee were surprised to learn that Handwriting Without Tears and PointScribe are NOT competitors---the two products work beautifully in concert, with PointScribe providing a valuable data collection and assessment function to the process of teaching handwriting. 

• The concept of teaching handwriting on the computer continues to fascinate to people.  

• The most surprising thing I observed:  The age at which educators feel it is appropriate to introduce handwriting varies wildly. We heard as many people say "I teach three year olds, they love learning to write!" as we heard "I teach five years olds and they are no where near ready for handwriting!"

I met many dedicated, interested educators at NAEYC and thank all for their interest and thoughtful conversation.