In 1913 the LCC (London County Council) School inspectors decided to encourage teachers of infants to use a print script based upon the 10th Century Winchester Bible. An expert on lettering, Edward Johnston, had told the LCC that he recommended that approach for his Art School students. Unfortunately, it proved disastrous for small children, who have now been taught lettering from the age of five instead of joined-up writing.
Plenty of research has shown that handwriting is the learning of a physical activity. Poor habits learnt early are very hard indeed to change. Learning the staccato stop - go - stop way of writing separate letters, however clear they may be, does not help with cursive (joined) writing later on.
The alphabet you see above, has a pattern of oval letters with parallel forward sloping downstrokes. Letters join naturally from the top if they finish at the top, such as o v w f t etc. They join from the bottom right if they finish there, such as a c h l etc. If they finish at the bottom left such as b g j y etc. then they don't join at all.
This style was designed by professional scribes in the 16th Century to be economical, legible and fast. It has been altered, engraved, over-decorated, looped and degenerated over the years, but it has never been improved upon.
Children of 4 or 5 years old need to be taught to join their writing right from the start. They are quite capable of understanding the different function of letters used for reading and those used for writing.
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