Handwriting is Healthy (and Research Says So!)

On June 15, 2011, the LA Times ran an article titled:  "The Many Healthy Perks of Good Handwriting."  Since then, my Google Alerts for topics related to "handwriting" regularly snag iterations of that same article running in syndication around the country and around the world.

Handwriting is on people's minds right now and it should be.

The article, by Julie Deardorff, discusses not the future of handwriting, but something more important: its relevance to the future in terms of developmental and literacy benefits experienced by young students as they learn to hand write.

Benefits of learning to hand write detailed and backed by years of research by renowned exports reported in the article include:

• Handwriting can change how children learn and their brains develop.  
• Good handwriting can mean better grades.  
• Handwriting is faster.   
• Handwriting proficiency inspires confidence. 
• Handwriting engages different brain circuits than keyboarding.  

I strongly recommend you click the link above and read about the research and findings---it's concise and captivating.

The other topic my Google Alerts captures regularly is the current wave of schools removing cursive handwriting from their curriculum. While the cursive form of handwriting may no longer be a standard requirement in our schools, handwriting and written communication are not going away any time soon and Deardoff's article clearly explains why.