Richard Gentry
5 Brain-Based Reasons to Teach
Handwriting in School
Cognitive psychology and neuroscience support teaching handwriting in
school.
Teaching handwriting in elementary school is getting huge support from research in
cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Some state legislatures are paying attention and
mandating that handwriting be put back in the elementary school curriculum. That’s
smart: Handwriting helps support children’s literacy and academic development. Here’s
what the research now says regarding both “why” and “how” to teach it.
Why? #1. Handwriting helps kids develop reading circuitry in their brains.
If we want kids to learn to read, we should teach handwriting beginning in preschool. Brain
scanning has demonstrated that handwriting in manuscript helps preschoolers learn their
letters (James & Englehardt, 2012). In doing so the child who is learning to print letters is
setting up the neural systems that underlie reading. How? By connecting several reading
and handwriting distinct shared neural systems or networks in the human brain (James &
Englehardt, 2012). Think of writing by hand as being indispensable for helping children
develop a brain that reads with proficiency. That’s why schools that have thrown out
teaching handwriting should bring it back.
Why? #2. Handwriting makes better writers and spellers and predicts reading and
academic success.
The handwriting is on the wall. Research shows that learning to write by hand is a key
component in improving both spelling ability and written composition. With beginners,
handwriting experience facilitates letter learning (James, 2010; Longcamp et al., 2005),
and letter learning not only sets up the neural systems that underlie reading, writing, and
spelling but it is a primary predictor of later reading success (James & Engelhardt, 2012;
Piasta & Wagner, 2010). In addition, handwriting fluency frees the child’s mind for more
complex composing skills for making meaning (Dinehart, 2015). Much of the current
handwriting research demonstrates immediate gains and lasting benefits for academic
achievement. Even in upper elementary and middle school, research has shown that
learning to write in cursive improved spelling and composing skills (Berninger, 2015). The
takeaway? It’s worth taking the time in the daily curriculum and it’s worth the financial
investment in teaching resources for handwriting.
Why? #3. Handwriting makes both children—and adults—smarter! Close those laptops!
Learning handwriting in preschool is better than learning letters on the computer because
research shows that handwriting in print—not keyboarding—leads to adult-like neural
processing in the visual system of the preschool child’s developing reading brain
(Stevenson & Just, 2014). In one study, researchers found gray matter volume and
density correlating with higher handwriting quality, which signals more efficient neural
processing and higher skills and ability (Gimenez et al., 2014). Furthermore, when older
students lack fluency in their writing, composition skills suffer along with self-esteem,
grades, and test scores (Stevenson & Just, 2014).
Even in adults handwriting is better than keyboarding for learning. Public Radio
International’s Marc Sollinger reports Pam Mueller’s notetaking research at Princeton
University that led Sollinger to champion handwriting and implore laptop writers to “Close
Your Laptops!” and write notes in longhand. Mueller’s notetaking experiments found that
typing on a laptop was much less effective for remembering and synthesizing information.
Those lecturer-verbatim laptop notes weren’t as good as longhand for studying for the test
or for retrieving information because ENCODING in writing—just as with preschoolers and
kindergartners—is better for the learning brain than keyboarding.
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How? #4. Start out with teacher modeling.
Exemplary veteran kindergarten teachers and researchers Eileen Fledgus, Isabell
Cardonick, and I worked for over thirty years synthesizing the research and showing
kindergarten and first grade teachers the benefits of teacher modeling for letter learning
and writing. Even if children come to kindergarten classrooms unable to write their own
names we have them drawing their story or drawing their information and writing
meaningful pieces within a couple of months (Feldgus, Cardonick, & Gentry, in press).
Now our techniques are supported by neuroscience and psychological research (see for
example Puranik & Alobaita, 2012; Puranik,& Lonigan, 2011; Puranik, Lonigan, &
Kim,2011).
How? #5. Teach handwriting directly and explicitly.
Handwriting is a complex skill engaging cognitive, perceptual, and motor skills
simultaneously. It is best learned through direct instruction (Beringner, 2015; Berninger et
al. 2006; Hanstra-Bletz and Blote, 1993; Maeland, 1992).
Some schools in the United States have stopped teaching manuscript explicitly in
kindergarten and first grade, and stopped teaching cursive beginning in grade 3 ostensibly
due to not having time to teach handwriting in elementary school. That’s a mistake.
Handwriting for school children is a boon for reading, writing, and spelling. It’s still required
in Great Britain—they are getting it right. It’s supported by research. We should be
teaching handwriting (and spelling) in the U.S.
Invest in handwriting instruction, and as I reported in previous posts, invest in explicit
spelling instruction. If you are a parent, a principal, a school board member, or
an education administrator insist on direct handwriting and spelling instruction throughout
primary and elementary school. Both are important stepping stones on the 21st century
pathway to academic success.
Sample References from a Huge Research Base Favoring Handwriting
Berninger, V., Rutberg, J., Abbott, R., Garcia, N., Anderson-Youngstrom, M., Brooks, A., &
Fulton, C. (2006). Tier 1 and Tier 2 early intervention for handwriting and
composing. Journal of School Psychology, 44, 3-30.
Berninger, V.W. (2015) Position paper submitted June 20, 2015 to Ohio State Legislature
entitled Research Report in Support of OH 146.
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Dinehart, L. H. (2015). Handwriting in early childhood education: Current research and
future implications. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 15(1), 97–118.
Feldgus, E., Cardonick, I. & Gentry. R. (in press). Kid Writing in the 21st Century. Los
Angeles, CA: Hameray Publishing Group.
Gimenez, P., Bugescu, N., Black, J. M., Hancock, R., Pugh, K., Nagamine, M., Hoeft, F.
(2014). Neuroimaging correlates of handwriting quality as children learn to read and
write. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(155). doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00155
James, K. H., & Englehardt, L. (2012). The effects of handwriting on functional brain
development in pre-literate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 1(1), 32–42.
Puranik, C. S., & Alobaita, S. (2012). Examining the contribution of handwriting and
spelling to written expression in kindergarten children. Reading and Writing, 25(7), 1523–
1546.
Piasta, S. B., & Wagner, R. K. (2010). Developing early literacy skills: A meta-analysis of
alphabet learning and instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(1), 8–
38. doi:10.1598/RRQ.45.1.2
Puranik, C. S., & Lonigan, C. J. (2011). From scribbles to Scrabble: Preschool children’s
developing knowledge of written language. Reading and Writing, 24(5), 567–589.
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Puranik, C. S., Lonigan, C. J., & Kim, Y.-S. (2011). Contributions of emergent literacy
skills to name writing, letter writing, and spelling in preschool children. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 26(4), 465–474.
Stevenson, N. C., & Just, C. (2014). In early education, why teach handwriting before
keyboarding? Early Childhood Education Journal, 42, 49–56.
Sollinger, M. (2015). Close your laptop. Handwriting could make you smarter. Public
Radio International, Development & Education/Innovation Hub posted July 12,
2015. http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-07-12/close-your-laptop-handwriting-coul...
Links to posts on the importance of direct spelling instruction:
Connecting Spelling Books to Reading Scores
5 Reasons Your Child’s School Needs Spelling Books—Part 1
Dr. J. Richard Gentry is the author of Spelling Connections for Grade 1 through Grade 8.
Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and find out more information about his
work on his website.
