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| Is handwriting obsolete in the digital age? |
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When was the last time you wrote something down? Not just in your phone or on a keyboard, but a handwritten note or letter? In today's technology driven world, it increasingly feels like handwriting is becoming something of an old-fashioned skill.
Finland, a country known for its pioneering approach to education, scrapped cursive writing in its classrooms in 2016, opting to teach only print handwriting and to spend more time teaching keyboard skills. And from 2017, over a two to three year period, NAPLAN is moving from being a paper-based test to an online computer-based assessment.
Though cursive writing is still favoured in many schools in Australia, with the increasing shift to keyboard and technology-led learning, what are the benefits of cursive writing in the classroom?
Physical and cognitive development
Integrating thinking, movement and sensation, handwriting is fantastic for hand–eye coordination and fine motor skills. But it is not just the motor skills that benefit. In writing, we use the region of the brain where visual and language signals come together, engaging large areas of both cerebral hemispheres; typing doesn't generate the same brain activation.
According to Dr. William Klemm, the cognitive benefits of learning handwriting are similar to learning to play a musical instrument. This cognitive development helps you to integrate knowledge and be able to take on even more information… making you smarter.
Early learning
Writing letters improves letter recognition, something that for early learners is critical to the process. Writing by hand also teaches children how to construct letters into words, thus teaching how to read. A study that followed children in grades 2 to 5 also found that students who wrote text by hand not only consistently produces more words more quickly than they did at a keyboard, but they also expressed more ideas.
Engages the mind
Studies have found that students who use a keyboard are less likely to remember notes they are taking than if written by hand. Handwritten notes appear to help students retain information better. Why? The specific pen strokes slow down the process and add visual identification to the information, meaning you are more actively focused.
Psychologist Stanislas Dehaene, from the College de France in Paris explains, "When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated. There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain. And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn't realise. Learning is made easier."
Neurologist William Klemm believes that this engagement is compounded when using cursive writing: "Cursive writing, compared to printing, is even more beneficial because the movement tasks are more demanding, the letters are less stereotypical, and the visual recognition requirements create a broader repertoire of letter representation."
Identity and creativity
Cursive writing is artistic, creative, and essential in developing your own style and voice. This personal style of handwriting, something uniquely associated with you, encourages individuality and self-expression. This is epitomised in the signature – something that makes you 'you'.
Improved spelling
An increased reliance on technology, which offers spell check and predictive text, has brought with it a decline in spelling ability. Without needing to think about a word's construction, the actual spelling of the word and how it goes together is never mastered. Writing and learning words by hand allows children to absorb and understand the spelling of each word on their own.
Increased self-esteem
As the most immediate form of communication, handwriting allows a child to learn one letter at a time, something which is both attainable and that provides immediate positive feedback. Each time the child tries they get better, they understand more, they pay more attention and they take ownership of the effort. This process of learning and intrinsic motivation cannot be replicated on a keyboard.
We need to be able to read it!
Letters from Grandma? Handwritten notes? If you can't write it yourself you won't be able to decipher someone else's handwriting
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