Researchers are learning that handwriting engages the brain in ways typing can’t match, raising questions about the costs of ditching this age-old practice, especially for kids.
fta:
Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing “sync up” with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.
“We don’t see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all,” says Audrey van der Meer, a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.
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“If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won’t reach their full potential,” says van der Meer. “It’s scary to think of the potential consequences.”
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Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don’t have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It’s the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.
