But in spite of those who argue that handwriting itself is outdated in an age of electronic communication, and that handwriting instruction is a waste of time, there is compelling evidence to the contrary.

Consider the benefits of handwriting in the following areas:

1.  Reading.
Handwriting instruction teaches students to organize and visually track letters in the same patterns used in reading: top to bottom, and left to right. With practice, these patterns — which are essential to reading — become ingrained.

A 2011 study by researchers in Norway and France suggests that writing by hand creates “a motor memory in the sensorimotor part of the brain, which helps us recognize letters.” This effect on letter recognition does not occur when using a keyboard. The same result has been observed in adults who are learning a foreign language.

An Indiana University study of 4-year-olds compared teaching letters with the “show-and-say” method (showing a letter while saying its sound) with the result when writing was also incorporated. After 4 weeks, MRI testing showed new links between sensory (visual) and motor (hand) regions of the brain in the children who wrote the letters, that were absent in those who did not.

3.  Cognitive ability.
Another study, published in 2012, examined 5-year-olds who had not yet learned to read or write. They were asked to reproduce a single letter by three different methods: tracing, typing, and drawing by hand. Later, they viewed the same image while undergoing an MRI. The test showed significant activity in three separate areas of the brain when they looked at the letter they had written by hand, that was absent for letters typed or traced.

The take-away for all of us? As one author noted, “The more you use those neural pathways, the better it is for your overall brain health. The phrases ‘lifelong learning’ and ‘use it or lose it’ are never more true than with your brain. Both activities ward off debilitating disease like Alzheimer’s and keep your cognitive abilities strong.”

4.  Learning challenges.
Students with dyslexia frequently struggle with reading, writing, and spelling, due to the way their brain processes sounds and letter combinations. However, experts say the multi-sensory nature of handwriting — which involves fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, memory, and other brain functions — can help with the decoding process. Cursive handwriting, with its longer strings of letters connected as one word, can be very effective in helping individuals with dyslexia memorize words as a whole.

In fact, because handwriting is such a multi-sensory activity, completing assignments on paper is beneficial for students of every learning style (particularly those who learn best through visual or tactile/kinesthetic exercises).

5.  History.
Growing up in Virginia, I had occasion to visit Washington, D.C., several times. I remember the crowds that always surrounded our nation’s founding documents. Standing in front of them, looking at those words on paper, was awe-inspiring. Can you imagine visiting the National Archives, where the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence are all displayed … and being unable to read them because you don’t know cursive?

Whether historical documents or letters exchanged by long-deceased relatives, the inability to read such handwritten treasures is an immeasurable loss.

So … what about handwriting instruction? Is a formal curriculum important?

In a word, yes. The benefit of a handwriting program goes well beyond the convenience of ready-made lessons (although homeschooling parents know this does matter!) and can be the key to developing legible, fluid handwriting.

Experts consider many things when designing handwriting curriculum:

• letters introduced in a logical sequence; the simplest strokes are practiced first, with similar letters grouped together
• focus on legibility, efficiency of letter formation, and how to best teach students to write each letter (which helps develop fine motor skills and minimize muscle fatigue)
• attention to proper placement and spacing
• regular practice in every letter of the alphabet
• lessons that require a fairly consistent amount of time
• cursive letters designed for fluidity, so students progress to writing ever-longer words without the constant stop-and-start inherent in block letters

Anyone can learn to duplicate the shape of letters, but left to his own devices, he will probably not do so efficiently. If you ever watched a preschooler copy words — or have recently seen a teenager write his/her signature at the motor vehicle office — you’ve observed this in action.

Why is this significant? In the words of Dr. Louise Spear-Swerling of Southern Connecticut State University, “once children have formed counterproductive habits in handwriting, such as poor pencil hold or inefficient letter formation, those habits can be difficult to change.” The result: students who cannot write fluently.

Handwriting fluency matters because:

• A 2014 study by Laura H. Dinehart, Ph.D., offers several interesting observations.
  — It emphasizes that, “the ability to produce writing legibly and quickly, has been consistently linked to composition skill.”
  — Goes on to say that formal handwriting instruction, “significantly improve[s] the compositional fluency” of early elementary students.
  — Notes that a non-fluent student’s attention is split between what he is writing and the physical act of putting words on paper.
  — Concludes that, at the college level, “positive evaluations of nicely handwritten essays were not associated with the attractiveness of the writing per se, but rather the fluency associated with processing legible versus illegible material. In other words, teachers are more likely to give higher grades to work they find ‘easy’ to read.”
• A 2012 study by Nancy Stephenson and Carol Just of Thomas Jefferson University found that older students who lack handwriting fluency often have below-average composition skills, as well as lower grades and test scores.

Correct letter formation and consistent practice are critical to making handwriting efficient, so it becomes second nature. It has long been established (see the study by Berninger & Rutberg, 1992) that formal instruction allows students to write legibly, and eventually quickly, without requiring conscious attention, so they can focus on the content of their work instead of mechanics.

Your 4th grader may not love practicing cursive letters, but when she sits for the ACT — many top colleges now require the essay component — or an AP exam, she’ll have a huge advantage over students who received no formal handwriting instruction.

No text or email compares to a hand-written note. You don’t outgrow the joy of receiving those (my children still grin from ear to ear when they receive a birthday card or letter in the mail!) because taking the time to write a message some how gives it greater meaning. And while most of us can’t claim to still use those perfectly-formed letters we learned in elementary school years ago, science tells us our brains reap the benefits of writing by hand, well into our golden years.

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