Here is my non-professional opinion:
I have wondered if giving up cursive writing would be detrimental in the long run for the mental and emotional health of a child and eventually for the maturing adult. Personally, I think it could be disastrous for a child's self-communication skills and ability to communicate with others clearly. When a child learns to form letters cursively, the neuronal connections in the brain for self conversation might strengthen as the child struggles to form the letters correctly and then to create a coherent sentence that will allow them to present their ideas clearly. Also, the effort to form cursive letters seems to take more concentration and could also lead to more a creative skillset than may be possible with just forming the block letters of printing. I personally believe that this is why young people are becoming less and less able to communicate clearly and openly with others; because they are losing the ability for self dialogue. (Of course, technology is also responsible for the inability for some young persons to communicate clearly when in personal conversation.) At any rate, I have talked my theory over with a psychologist, 2 high school teachers and 1 middle school teacher. All of them think that I am on to something but that they have never given the idea any thought. Just my own pet theory and I have no scientific basis for coming to this conclusion. If it were me, I would find time to teach cursive writing as another form of intellectual challenge for the child's developing brain.