History and Mission

In 1977, Jan Olsen set out on a mission to help her son. Responding to John’s tears over handwriting in first grade, Jan used her occupational therapy training and background to develop strategies to facilitate his handwriting. John’s teacher noticed his progress and asked Jan to help other students in the class. Soon Jan became known in the area as the tutoring solution for handwriting, and her ideas became the basis for the first therapists’ guide, Handwriting Without Tears®.

Thirty years later, the HWT® product line has grown to include workbooks and teachers’ guides from preschool through fifth grade: hands-on materials, music, assessments, and more than 500 annual workshops to train educators throughout the world in the HWT teaching methods.

At Handwriting Without Tears, our mission is to make learning and teaching easy and fun by providing superior educational products, training, and promotional materials to educators and parents.

We are the leaders in providing easy-to-learn, easy-to-teach, developmentally appropriate, and inclusive materials to preschool and elementary students throughout the U.S. Last year, more than two million students learned to write successfully using the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. The Get Set for School™ preschool program is used by thousands of public and private preschools to develop handwriting and other school readiness skills.