In a world dominated by keyboards, touch screens, and voice-activated devices, it’s easy to overlook the importance of a seemingly old-fashioned skill: handwriting. Many believe that the art of handwriting is slowly fading into obsolescence. However, recent research suggests that it’s a mistake to underestimate the enduring significance of this age-old practice, especially when it comes to preparing our children for success in the 21st century.
Virginia Wise Berninger, an accomplished researcher in the field of psychology and education, has delved into the profound implications of handwriting. Her work emphasizes that handwriting is not merely a motor skill but a written language skill that plays a crucial role in child development. In a world filled with digital distractions, handwriting is much more than a nostalgic art form; it’s a cognitive and physical process that has the potential to shape the minds of our future generations.
The Cognitive Value of Handwriting
To fully understand the value of handwriting, we must first recognize that it involves more than just the physical act of putting pen to paper. Berninger’s research highlights several non-motor mental processes that are engaged when we write by hand:
- Working Memory: Handwriting requires a temporary memory system to process and store letter forms. Our eyes act as a window through which written language enters our minds, and this visual input is essential for both reading and writing.
- Naming Letters: Naming letters aids in finding the corresponding letter forms in long-term memory and helps in the writing process.
- Planning: Handwriters must plan to form letters before executing the physical act of writing them.
- Sensory Information: The visual and touch sensory information plays a significant role as we write and observe the letters we are forming.
- The Orthographic Loop: This is a crucial component of working memory that integrates letters and written words in the mind’s eye with the sequential hand and finger movements during writing.
Training the Brain
Not only does handwriting engage the hand, but it also plays a fundamental role in training the brain. Karin James and Thea Atwood from Indiana University demonstrated that handwriting improves the perception of letters in reading when compared to keyboarding. Forming letters by hand might help the mind create letter forms more effectively than selecting them by pressing keys on a keyboard.
Furthermore, Todd Richards and Virginia Wise Berninger discovered that children with handwriting difficulties activate more brain regions when learning new letters compared to writing highly practiced letters. This indicates that the act of writing stimulates the brain regions responsible for the analysis of letters and written words.
The involvement of brain activation during the serial finger movements used in handwriting goes beyond just the physical act of writing. It also extends to spelling and composing. This suggests that handwriting is a fundamental component of the cognitive processes underlying language development.
The Educational Implications
So, why is handwriting so important, especially in an age where keyboarding and digital literacy have become the norm? The answer lies in its educational implications. Handwriting can be divided into different developmental stages:
- First Grade: The goal is to move beyond drawing letters and develop automatic letter writing. Students should practice each alphabet letter daily, in a different order each day, to achieve this.
- Second and Third Grade: During these years, the focus shifts towards improved written expression of ideas and the development of long-term memory by teaching rapid and automatic retrieval of letter forms from the ordered alphabet.
- Fourth Grade and Beyond: In these years, the focus is on periodic tune-ups, reviewing legible and automatic letter formation, and teaching strategies for self-monitoring of letter legibility for various kinds of writing assignments across the curriculum.
Preparing for Kindergarten
One of the most critical aspects that Berninger’s research emphasizes is the need to prepare students for kindergarten by focusing on prewriting skills during early childhood. This is especially important as we aim to set our children up for success in a technology-driven world. Here’s a closer look at this early developmental stage:
Preschool Years
Writing begins at about 10 months of age when infants can grasp a writing tool and leave visible marks on paper. As children reach the age of two, they begin to use tools like pencils and crayons. Preschoolers imitate basic writing movements, such as vertical and horizontal strokes, and they copy simple shapes like lines, circles, and squares. These early activities help develop their fine motor control.
However, it’s not just about writing. Preschoolers can also benefit from a range of activities like playing with clay, playdough, bead stringing, pegboards, mazes, and puzzles, which all contribute to developing their motor strength and fine motor control. The goal is to strengthen their motor skills, which play a significant role in the prewriting process.
Cross-disciplinary Collaboration
To effectively prepare children for kindergarten and develop prewriting skills, a collaborative approach is crucial. This involves communication and cooperation between occupational therapists and classroom teachers. Occupational therapists bring their expertise in assessing and teaching motor planning, control, and execution skills. Teachers, on the other hand, are skilled in teaching letter formation, assessing student responses to instruction, and integrating handwriting with reading and writing activities.
Both occupational therapists and teachers play essential roles in helping children build the foundational motor skills required for writing, spelling, and composing. These skills, developed during the early years, set the stage for later success in reading and writing.
Prewriting Skills and the Common Core
A crucial aspect of preparing children for kindergarten is aligning their prewriting skills with the Common Core State Standards for writing. As education standards become more rigorous, it’s essential that we equip our young learners with the skills they need to excel.
Focusing on prewriting skills in the early years is more than just preparing children for kindergarten; it’s about setting them on a path to meet and exceed educational standards. This developmental approach helps children fine-tune their motor skills, build their cognitive abilities, and develop the foundation for strong reading and writing skills.
The Controversy Over Handwriting
While the significance of handwriting is clear, there are still debates around whether print or cursive writing is superior. In reality, both formats have their advantages. Beginning writers can learn either format, and developing writers often show individual preferences.
Printed handwriting, with its manuscript format similar to that found in books and on screens, may offer more straightforward transfer to reading. In contrast, cursive writing might contribute to the development of executive functions for self-regulation of the writing process.
However, it’s important to recognize that students should be proficient in both formats. Being able to read different forms of handwriting is crucial, as various people may use printed, cursive, or mixed formats. Allowing students to choose the format that works best for them, as done in some countries like Australia, can help personalize their learning experience.
Pen and Paper vs. Keyboarding
Another point of contention is the battle between pen-and-paper writing and keyboarding. While computer technology has revolutionized writing and communication, there’s evidence that supports the advantage of handwriting, especially in the early years of education.
Research indicates that students in grades 2 to 6 write more, write faster, and express more ideas when using pen and paper. Handwriting with a single hand activates the opposite side of the brain, which has been linked to various cognitive functions. In contrast, keyboarding requires bimanual letter production, which involves communication between both sides of the brain. Since the neural connections supporting this communication aren’t fully mature until adolescence, handwriting may offer advantages in the early stages of learning to write.
Despite the prevalence of computers and digital devices, handwriting continues to be a valuable tool for daily activities. It remains an integral part of the school day, with computers primarily used for homework. This suggests that practice and development of both handwriting and keyboarding skills have their place in the education of students.
The Takeaway
The research by Virginia Wise Berninger paints a compelling picture of the enduring significance of handwriting, particularly in early childhood education. Handwriting is more than just a nostalgic relic of the past; it’s a cognitive process that engages the brain, fine-tunes motor skills, and shapes the foundation for effective reading and writing.
As parents and educators, it’s crucial that we understand the importance of handwriting and its impact on our children’s development. By focusing on prewriting skills in early childhood and offering a balanced curriculum that includes both print and cursive handwriting along with keyboarding, we can set our children up for success in the 21st century.
In an age where technology continues to reshape our world, let us not forget the power of a simple pencil and paper. Handwriting, with its ability to bridge the gap between the physical and cognitive, will continue to play a vital role in nurturing young minds and preparing them for the challenges of the digital era.
