I have a vague recollection of reading some research which seemed to indicate that children who were taught to write using a cursive script were more likely to spell accurately. I think it was something to do with the way cursive writing encourages you see the word as whole because you seldom lift your pen off the paper when writing a word whereas you do in other writing styles. This was some years ago when such things had a professional relevance for me and I cannot now recall the provenance of the research - it makes some sort of sense however.