D'Nealian vs. Zaner-Bloser: Which Handwriting Style to Teach?

Here is the short version, because most of the pages you'll find on this bury it: the handwriting style you choose matters far less than parents and new teachers fear. What predicts a child's handwriting is doing it consistently, in the same style, with a little practice most days. Pick one, stick with it, and you'll be fine.

But there is a real trade-off between D'Nealian and Zaner-Bloser — and it's almost never the one printed on the workbook cover. The famous D'Nealian selling point is that its slanted letters make the eventual jump to cursive easier. That claim does not survive contact with the research. The trade-off that actually matters is simpler and more useful: one style is easier to read; the other is arguably easier to write.

What the two styles actually are

Zaner-Bloser is the traditional, upright manuscript you probably learned yourself. Letters are vertical and built from separate strokes — the classic "ball and stick" (circle plus straight line), though newer editions smooth out some of the pencil lifts. The company traces back to an 1888 penmanship school in Columbus, Ohio (Elmer Bloser joined a few years later), and it remains the most widely used handwriting curriculum in American schools.

D'Nealian is the slanted alternative, created by Michigan teacher Donald Thurber and first published in 1978. Its lowercase letters are formed with a single continuous stroke and finish with a small "monoline" tail. Thurber's explicit goal was to make the later transition from printing to cursive smoother — the tails, in theory, are already halfway to the connecting strokes of cursive.

The selling point that doesn't hold up

If you only remember one thing before you buy a workbook, make it this: the evidence that D'Nealian actually makes cursive easier is weak. A frequently cited study by Trap-Porter and colleagues compared children who learned D'Nealian manuscript against those who learned Zaner-Bloser and found no significant difference in their later cursive letter production. (Trap-Porter et al., Journal of Educational Research)

That doesn't make D'Nealian a bad choice — it just means you shouldn't pick it only for the cursive promise. If a smooth cursive transition is your real goal, the lever that works isn't the manuscript style you start with; it's teaching cursive deliberately when the child is ready. (We walk through that timing in cursive vs. print: which to teach first.)

The trade-off that actually matters: reading vs. writing

Strip away the marketing and the honest comparison comes down to two competing strengths.

Zaner-Bloser is easier to read. Its vertical, unjoined letters closely match the "book print" a child sees in early readers, which supports letter recognition while they're still learning to read. That's a genuine advantage in kindergarten and first grade, when reading and writing are being learned at the same time. The catch: because several letters are near mirror images, upright print can make b/d and p/q reversals a little easier to fall into.

D'Nealian is arguably easier to write. The continuous stroke means fewer pencil lifts, which many occupational therapists like because it keeps the motor movement flowing instead of stopping and restarting. That same continuous formation also gives b and d genuinely different motor paths — you start and move through them differently — which some therapists argue reduces reversals. The catch runs the other way: the slant and tails make D'Nealian letters look a bit less like book print, which can add a small amount of visual confusion for a brand-new reader.

How to actually choose

Run down these in order and you'll have your answer in about a minute:

1. Match what your school or district already uses. This is the single most important factor and it beats every pedagogical argument. If your child is in — or will enter — a school that teaches one style, teach that one at home. Being re-taught a different letter formation is the one thing that genuinely sets kids back.

2. If reading recognition is the current struggle, lean Zaner-Bloser. For an emerging reader who's still mapping letters to sounds, upright print that mirrors their books is one less thing to translate.

3. If reversals or choppy, effortful writing are the struggle, consider D'Nealian. The continuous stroke and distinct b/d paths are its strongest real-world advantages — bigger than the cursive claim ever was.

4. Then be consistent. Whichever you pick, use it everywhere and resist switching mid-year. Consistency in the order and direction you form each letter is what actually builds the muscle memory.

The part nobody puts on the cover

The reason the style debate is a little overheated is that the biggest lever isn't in it. Handwriting itself — the physical act of forming letters by hand — feeds directly into learning to read. Forming letters activates the same brain circuitry involved in reading and helps cement letter-sound knowledge in a way that tapping a keyboard does not. (review of handwriting and early literacy research, PMC) A few minutes of steady, correctly-formed practice in either style will do more for your child than agonizing over which one.

It's also why handwriting isn't going away: more than 20 states now require cursive instruction by law, and manuscript is the on-ramp to all of it. Getting a solid, consistent print foundation — the right grip, the right stroke order — is the work that pays off later. (If the grip is the sticking point, start with the pencil-grip progression by age.)

Frequently asked questions

Which style do most US schools use? Zaner-Bloser is the most widely used, though plenty of districts teach D'Nealian, and many are now adopting structured, explicit handwriting programs regardless of the letterform style.

Does D'Nealian really make cursive easier? The research doesn't support it. A classic comparison study found no significant difference in later cursive production between children who started in D'Nealian versus Zaner-Bloser.

Can I switch styles later? You can, but it's costly. Re-learning letter formation means overwriting motor memory, which is exactly what slows kids down. It's far better to choose once and stay consistent.

Is one style better for a left-handed child? Neither is clearly better on style alone. For left-handers, the paper angle, seating, and grip matter far more than whether the letters slant — a lefty can succeed in either style with the right setup.