All of a sudden this Grandma has found herself with a computer signature. I must admit that I find it a little disconcerting that typing my signature into a form on the internet is now considered my signature. Now, I have heard that cursive writing is no longer being taught in schools and even any writing by hand is becoming a lost art. Typing is becoming the norm for the youngest school children.
Having been a teacher who taught the Palmer method, I have a beautiful handwriting – that I hardly ever use anymore, it seems, in the demands of our fast paced society. Our oldest daughter fought us when we forced her to take typing as an elective in middle school and is now singing our praises for having done so. What concerns me is that she does not seem concerned that our oldest grandson is learning to sign his name in cursive and little else. Is this progress or being short sighted?
Now, this Grandma finds that she is justified in the concern that cursive writing ability, and even all handwriting, is becoming a lost art for our grandchildren. Modern studies are confirming that learning to write by hand not only improves motor skills, but it improves memory and creativity as well. That writing enhances learning is becoming “new” knowledge – old is new again.
In the New York Times, June 2, 014, Maria Konnikova, asks in her article, “What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades,” and concludes, that although handwriting does not matter much to many educators in 2014, it is an important skill. She says, which this Grandma guessed, “[t]he Common Core standards, which have been adopted in most states, call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.”
However, she writes that “[n]ew evidence suggests that the links between handwriting and broader educational development run deep. Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it’s not just what we write that matters – but how.”
She then goes on to quote experts, several different experts who have come to the same conclusion!
When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” said Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris. “There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain. And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realize, learning is made easier.
A 2012 study led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, lent support to that view. Children who had not yet learned to read and write were presented with a letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it in one of three ways: trace the image on a page with a dotted outline, draw it on a blank white sheet, or type it on a computer. They were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again.
The researchers found that the initial duplication process mattered a great deal. When children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write: the left fusiform gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior parietal cortex.
By contrast, children who typed or traced the letter or shape showed no such effect. The
activation was significantly weaker.
Dr. James attributes the differences to the messiness inherent in free-form handwriting: Not only must we first plan and execute the action in a way that is not required when we have a traceable outline, but we are also likely to produce a result that is highly variable.
Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, used a scanner to see how handwriting affected activity in children’s brains. That variability may itself be a learning tool. “When a kid produces a messy letter,” Dr. James said, “that might help him learn it.”
Our brain must understand that each possible iteration of, say, an “a” is the same, no matter how we see it written. Being able to decipher the messiness of each “a” may be more helpful in establishing that eventual representation than seeing the same result repeatedly. “This is one of the first demonstrations of the brain being changed because of that practice,” Dr. James said.
In another study, Dr. James is comparing children who physically form letters with those who only watch others doing it. Her observations suggest that it is only the actual effort that engages the brain’s motor pathways and delivers the learning benefits of handwriting. The effect goes well beyond letter recognition.
In a study that followed children in grades two through five, Virginia Berninger, a psychologist at the University of Washington, demonstrated that printing, cursive writing, and typing on a keyboard are all associated with distinct and separate brain patterns – and each results in a distinct end product. When the children composed text by hand, they not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas. And brain imaging in the oldest subjects suggested that the connection between writing and idea generation went even further. When these children were asked to come up with ideas for a composition, the ones with better handwriting exhibited greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory – and increased overall activation in the reading and writing networks.
When this Grandma learned educational theory over forty years ago, I learned that writing was integral to learning, especially learning to read and retention of information and memorization. Maria Konnikova agrees, “[w]riting something provides tactile and visual feedback. You go slower when you write and you think about what you are writing. . .
Cursive or not, the benefits of writing by hand extend beyond childhood. For adults, typing may be a fast and efficient alternative to longhand, but that very efficiency may diminish our ability to process new information. Not only do we learn letters better when we commit them to memory through writing, memory and learning ability in general may benefit.”
This Grandma is computer literate and somehow retains matter typed. I am going to try to go back to writing by hand more often, especially around my grandchildren to try to spark interest in them.
Again, the new studies are confirming that the old fashioned way of writing by hand is still the best way to learn:
Two psychologists, Pam A. Mueller of Princeton and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, have reported that in both laboratory settings and real-world classrooms, students learn better when they take notes by hand than when they type on a keyboard. Contrary to earlier studies attributing the difference to the distracting effects of computers, the new research suggests that writing by hand allows the student to process a lecture’s contents and reframe it – a process of reflection and manipulation that can lead to better understanding and memory encoding.
So, what does it mean for us Grandmas? I have not been vocal to the parents of my grandchildren about my concern that hand writing and cursive writing ability is becoming a lost art for our grandchildren. I will no longer keep my concerns to myself. I will point out that studies are now showing that learning to write by hand not only improves motor skills, memory and creativity, but is integral to brain development and learning as well.
If the schools are not paying attention, it is the parents of our grandchildren who must speak up. If the parents of our grandchildren are not inclined to buck the latest educational fiasco in the name of “modern progress,” then we can share our history of learning to write and play “writing class” with our grandchildren.
Yes, I, as a former teacher, can teach the grandchildren to hand write and write cursive. And, we all can, whether we grandmas are teachers or not. Great visit presents are inexpensive workbooks for grandchildren who love to play school. On Amazon there are dozens of top rated and best selling handwriting workbooks.
Yes, I want my grandchildren to learn to write their signature in cursive, even if they too more often than not will use a computer signature in their lives. In this concern, more time learning to write is better and we want grandchildren with better motor skills, improved learning and memory and improved creativity which is the real benefit of hand writing is being overlooked.
I know I love seeing the grandchildren’s “signatures” on the Mother’s Day and birthday cards I receive, even when they are toddlers able to just scribble. Maybe, with a little helping hand (writing), I might even get a hand written thank you note one day!
Joy,
Mema
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