To see Write Dance in action, in the British School in El Salvador, visit Raquel Valiente’s YouTube channel Diana Strauss has collaborated with Ragnhild Oussoren, the author of Write Dance, since 1988 and together they delivered the very first Write Dance training sessions in the South East of England. She has presented at conferences around the UK, at The Institute of Education and at Roehampton University. Local Authorities, schools and early years settings across England have benefitted from her training sessions.

Write Dance is an exciting, innovative and fun programme which uses music and movement to introduce handwriting to children aged 5-8 years. Write Dance movements are designed to help children feel happy and comfortable with their bodies, improve their motor skills and provide a strong foundation for writing.

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Having taught for 20 years she then gained her NLP trainer and Master Practitioner qualification and works as a personal coach and as an Educational Trainer. Nicole has a passion for empowering young people and adults to be confident and successful. She has delivered trainings to schools for both staff and students across the UK and abroad. The unique aspect of the approach is the use of music and dance. This combination of rhythmic and then melodic pieces of music are chosen so the children can follow and learn specific movements to develop their physical skills including, balance, coordination, flexibility and stamina. Write Dance Training offers training in methods developed in the Write Dance approach. Visit writedancetraining.com

Diana is committed to delivering continuing professional development, so after teaching for ten years she provided support and training to teachers and support staff in schools and nurseries for a further twenty years, collaborating with educational psychologists, occupational and physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and Local Authority advisors. Write Dance Training is by far the most creative, dynamic and fun programme enjoyed by participants and trainers alike. Nicole Barrons

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With Nicole Barrons, Diana is co-founder of Write Dance Training and has trained a wide range of professionals to much acclaim. Diana is a qualified teacher, to Masters level, and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Childhood Studies Department at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent. She is now able to combine the delivery of Write Dance Training sessions with further investigations into the benefits of Write Dance in early education. By evaluating approaches and practices in schools and settings, Diana will be refining the theory and principles that underpin Write Dance. For more information on mark making and language development, including some of the ideas introduced in this article, visit talk4meaning.co.uk/every-child-a-talker/language-and-mark-making Nicole has a great love of music and dance and has taught many dance workshops. She has always used dance and music to inspire and motivate children and adults. Having used Write Dance as a teacher she was able to see first hand the benefits of using it with children. She also understands the reality of working in a school and aims to make all her trainings inspiring, practical and useful. One of the most exciting mark making and early writing projects I have been involved in, bringing together movement, language and music, is known as ‘Write Dance’. I first became aware of this approach when I was asked to help develop children’s mark-making skills in Reception classes in Luton schools. The original concept was developed by Ragnhild Oussoren, a Norwegian/Swedish graphologist based in the Netherlands. Her experience showed that children develop handwriting skills when they have well-developed gross motor movements, and particularly when they are able to make movements using both hands to cross what is known as the ‘midline’. The midline is a vertical line that we can imagine passing just in front of our bodies, from the tops of our heads to the floor between our feet.

Many young children get very excited about learning to write their names. They can gain a great deal of knowledge from this process, including about the strange shapes that adults and older children scratch on paper with pens and call ‘writing’. The music and the dance is used to guide and aid children’s imagination and language development, so the pieces of music, with the corresponding movements, are structured into ‘narrative’ themes that can be developed as stories or these can be enjoyed as separate and ‘stand-alone’ sessions. How exciting! Write Dance is now in its third edition, and what a lovely book this is! It gives teachers exactly what they have been asking for; a detailed and clear resource to support the teaching of handwriting using a fully cursive style. As consultants, practitioners and trainers for Write Dance we are delighted to endorse this book, which combines the two previous 2nd edition publications, Write Dance and More Write Dance. - Nicole Barrons and Diana Strauss, Write Dance Training, UK The success of Write Dance is wholly attributed to the enthusiasm of practitioners and teachers who share this resource and continue to spread the practice worldwide. Guiding and Aiding Children’s Imagination and Language Development Colouring Sheets relate to each story in the book and can be projected onto your interactive whiteboard or printed out for children to colour in.Nicole has a B Ed in Early Years. She is an accredited NLP trainer, Master Practitioner, Life Coach and Write Dance Trainer. Write Dance in the Early Years: A Pre-Writing Programme for Children 3 to 5 (Third Edition) by Ragnhild Oussoren is available here Nicole Barrons is co founder of Write Dance Training. She has worked closely with Diana Strauss, training with her and then developing content for Write Dance workshops. She has been delivering Write Dance trainings in the UK for the last 8 years.

Children’s individual expression, pace of learning and writing style are recognised within this approach. It is apparent that children’s confidence, motivation and self-esteem can be seen to develop because as Ragnhild says, “Everything in Write Dance is right”.

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The 3rd edition of this bestselling book combines Write Dance and More Write Dance to bring you the ultimate one-stop Write Dance experience, and has been updated throughout with a brand new layout as well as new themes, music and video. Ragnhild A. Oussoren is the creator of Write Dance. She developed the Write Dance approach in the Netherlands twenty five years ago and it has gone on to capture the imagination of children and teachers across Europe. Children with movement coordination difficulties, e.g. dyspraxia, can find it very challenging to be able to move their hands from one side of their body to the other, across the midline. Children with well-developed coordination (who are likely to develop good handwriting skills) have learned to cross the midline with ease. Introducing waves However, many children can make very little sense of the writing process and may become put off or even fearful of making marks on paper. Part of the problem is that children can be introduced to the physical aspects of writing far too early: sometimes by parents, but also in some settings. From my practical experience, it is essential to make sure that children have developed all the foundations they need before adults set out to teach them how to write. These foundations include language and fine motor control. But one key element that is often overlooked is the need for children to have well-developed and coordinated ‘gross motor’ (large physical) movements. Write Dance