In reply to Typography for first reader books:
The question of the simpler versus more complicated forms for a and g is a complicated one that I have spent some serious time on. In short:
- teachers and book designers/producers seem to mostly prefer the simpler forms for theoretical reasons with no support from actual science.
- young readers in first and second grade prefer the more complex forms (according to research by Sue Walker)
- cognitive psychology theory suggests that the more complex forms are also more clearly distinctive and hence should be easier to learn and easier to distinguish (my own analysis, supported by Kevin Larson)
The idea that we *must* use the simpler forms for written works aimed at beginning readers assumes in part that they can and will be shielded from the more complicated forms. I believe this argument is obviously nonsense. It would require control not only of all lettering in the schools, but also of the home environment and everywhere the children go. They are exposed to the more complicated forms, and trying to avoid teaching them is just kind of silly, IMO.
Cheers,
T
