There are those who believe that writing in cursive is passé; that keyboarding is all children need to learn in the digital age; that there is no benefit to spending time on push-pulls, running ovals, and the other exercises that come with penmanship training. Those people are wrong.
Here are just a few of the reasons why learning to write, and especially to write in cursive (joined letters), rather than just printing, is extremely important for children.
1. Research by Virginia Berninger at the University of Washington reveals that cursive handwriting stimulates the brain in ways that keyboarding does not. She states, “Pictures of brain activity have illustrated that sequential finger movements used in handwriting activated massive regions of the brain involved in thinking, language and working memory.” The same was not true of printed writing or keyboarding.
2. Writing in cursive means that the student also learns to read cursive. Today, many high school students, and even some younger teachers, cannot read handwritten documents. That means they can’t read a birthday card from grandma or the Declaration of Independence, or other important documents, which puts them at a real disadvantage.
3. The complex interaction between hand-eye-brain that is required in handwriting helps the child to improve other fine motor skills, and language skills.
4. Kids love learning to write. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and increases their self-confidence.
5. Cursive writing helps with self-discipline and self-control by developing left-brain learning. Left brain functions help to combat the effects of TV and video games that bombard so many children on a daily basis.
6. Handwriting doesn’t rely on electricity or batteries. In natural disasters where computers and cell phones may be unusable, or simply run out of power, communication with pen and paper is still possible.
7. Handwriting is very low cost; certainly far lower than electronic equipment and software that need to be frequently upgraded. The price of a pad of paper and a pen or pencil is negligible.
8. Children who do not learn to write properly are uncomfortable writing and so do not express themselves as well. Thus, they tend to receive lower grades on tests.
9. Handwriting as a multi-sensory activity helps improve overall organizational skills according to handwriting remediation instructor Jeanette Farmer.
10. The United States Supreme Court has likened handwriting to facial expression, tone of voice, and body language, all expressive gestures. By being in physical touch with the writing instrument on the page, the writer is literally in touch with and processes emotions in a way that keyboarding cannot.
These are just a few of the reasons why it is important for children to learn to write. www.campaignforcursive.blogspot.com, a blog sponsored by the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation, has many others, along with links to helpful articles.
Finally, consider this: Which would you rather receive from someone you love—a typed email, or something handwritten? There’s something intensely personal about holding a note or card that someone took the trouble to write. It’s almost like touching them, even long after they are gone.
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Sheila Lowe, MS (psy), is the president of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation. A forensic handwriting examiner, she is licensed to provide continuing education for marriage and family therapists. She teaches forensic handwriting examination at the University of California Riverside Campus and will be teaching handwriting analysis at UC Santa Barbara to teens from around the world in the summer of 2013. Sheila is the author of the internationally acclaimed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis, Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, and the Forensic Handwriting Mysteries series, as well as numerous monographs and articles. www.sheilalowe.com