It’s not just what we write that matters, but how. Children read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, and they are also better able to better generate ideas and retain information.

Printing, cursive writing, and typing on a keyboard were compared in a study of children in grades 2-5. When the children wrote text by hand, they consistently produced more words more quickly, and also expressed more ideas, when compared with the children who wrote on a keyboard. The children with better handwriting showed greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory when they were asked to think of ideas for a composition, as well as a greater overall activation in reading and writing networks.

Physically forming letters when writing is important for learning and memory!

Click here to read more in the NY Times