
Placing cursive handwriting in the same category of skill as keyboarding is similar to categorizing flying a kite and a Boeing 747 as being synonymous. Finally, it makes for better recall.Ī study of 300 students at Princeton and at UCLA established that those who took notes by hand had significantly better recall and comprehension of the material than those who took notes with keyboards (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014).įrom Handwriting-is-Boeing-747-Technology-by-Kristin-Barbour: Children generate ideas more easily when writing by hand (Berninger, 2012). Children who learn letter formation learn to recognize letters more quickly (Berninger, 2013). Forming letters by hand engages more networks (Berninger, 2012) within the brain than keyboarding. While the computer rules these days, there are crucial cognitive benefits that are lost when handwriting goes (Berninger, 2012 Zubrzycki, 2012). So we need to output in order to improve our ability to process what we input from the environment.”įrom Write Makes Right: Type is Hype, Diana King states: “The act of producing something supports perception. “Handwriting requires the production of a letter form, stroke by stroke,” Berninger said in the CBS interview. In a five-year study of Seattle children in grades one through five, Berninger found that printing, cursive writing and using a keyboard each use related but different brain functions - underscoring that writing is a complex undertaking that draws on many neurological processes. Children taught to write learn to read earlier, generate ideas more easily and have a better ability to retain information, they say. Some psychologists, neuroscientists and researchers including Berninger say there’s an important connection between handwriting and learning. The Common Core standards adopted in most states call for teaching children legible handwriting in kindergarten and first grade only, after which the focus is on keyboarding skills.īut several states, including California, Massachusetts, North Carolina and South Carolina, have recently moved to make cursive instruction mandatory. The value of handwriting has been a topic of some debate in academic circles. (9) Handwriting instruction in kindergarten through fifth grade to ensure that students develop the ability to print letters and words legibly by third grade and to create readable documents using legible cursive handwriting by the end of fifth grade.įrom University of Washington’s Handwriting Engages the Mind:
#Dyslexia simulation code
On February 13, 2017, House Bill 58 was introduced to amend section 3313.60 of the Revised Code to require instruction in cursive handwriting:
