Can Technology Replace Writing Skills?

As computers and other electronic devices become more common, even ubiquitous, most of us do the majority of our writing using a keyboard. In many ways, this trend isn’t unlike the invention of the printing press, in that the availability of written works is more common than ever. Before the printing press, every book had to be copied by hand, whereas the printing press allowed for mass production. Similarly, the advent of typed papers, emails, and even text messages reduce the necessity of using handwriting to get our thoughts across.

Unfortunately, this also means that society is debating the value of writing by hand, or even teaching cursive to our children. As Anne Trubek pointed out in a New York Times opinion page, handwriting has become less important. She argues, simply, that we should largely do away with handwriting, and limit its use to those few times when paper is necessary.

Of course, Trubek’s contention, made in 2018, isn’t an uncommon belief. These days, schools both in the United States and other countries are minimizing the teaching of handwriting. And even before that, children and adults with special needs were encouraged to use typing to level the playing field between them and those who have less trouble with reading, spelling, or fine motor coordination. “Exceptional” students, as they’re often called, are the most technology-dependent group in many schools.

However, a move away from handwriting isn’t as advisable as those who advocate its demise would claim. Learning how to write by hand, then practicing throughout life, has benefits. This is even true for kids with dyslexia or dyspraxia. In fact, there are three areas of benefit for handwriting, many of which apply to nearly everyone. These areas are learning, psychological, and physical.

Learning benefits

Because so much of the debate over handwriting focuses on the “usefulness” of carrying around a pen and paper when everyone has a smartphone in their pocket, let’s start with the learning benefits of handwriting. These are important reasons why everyone should learn how to write if physically able, and why schools should spend sufficient time teaching it. Handwriting is valuable as a form of “therapy” for learning.

Writing by hand improves reading proficiency

When you think about it, this is the biggest reason why writing by hand is so therapeutic. To write, you have to really learn the letters, and you can do so more easily through handwriting. Think about it a minute: when we draw the letter “A,” we have to make three strokes to form a triangle with legs. In so doing, we use motion and space to form the letter. Multiply this by many times, and you can see how learning to write each letter engages many of our senses. If you’ve seen early education teachers encourage drawing in the sand, you’ve seen this principle in action.

Similarly, educators have often commented on the value of handwriting for improved reading comprehension. Experienced educators in general find that as people become better (hand) writers, they become better readers. And in particular, the reading specialists that work with struggling readers and students with dyslexia have found that focusing on handwriting improves outcomes significantly.

Hand writing notes helps aid learning

Handwritten notetaking helps learners absorb information more easily, then recall it better. It also fosters some digesting of info to identify what’s most important. Educators have known this for years, but in the age of computers, many researchers were reluctant to do studies which could confirm what was already known anecdotally.

That changed in 2017 with a Norwegian study. Researchers experimented with the different types of taking information onto paper: handwriting, typing, and using a stylus on a tablet. Participants took down dictation using each method, and their brain waves were measured by EEG.

Analyzing the data, the Norwegian researchers found that the greatest number of neural connections were made when participants took down information in handwriting. These connections are typically associated with learning new information, though that was beyond the scope of that study.

However, another study does look at recall of information from handwritten notes. They conclude that students who take notes in class on a keyboard tend not to have as good of information recall as those who handwrite them. This is due to a “shallower” level of learning. In other words, there not only is a place for writing in academic settings, but it remains superior to electronic methods in many cases.

Physical benefits

However, the therapeutic effects of handwriting extend beyond the sphere of learning. In fact, one of the biggest reasons that handwriting is beneficial overall is that it helps develop student’s fine motor skills in the hands and arms. This is similar to the way in which sports can improve someone’s ability to throw a ball or run a marathon.

Studies bear this out. In fact, researchers know that poor fine motor skills in hands and wrists make it harder to develop good handwriting. For that reason, after an injury or other neurological problem affecting the hands, physical therapy often focuses on restoring the fine motor skills needed to write. Since these are the same muscles used for buttoning shirts or tying shoes, they remain important even in today’s society.

Likewise, handwriting practice helps develop helps develop the fine motor skills needed in writing and in life. This is one reason why schools have consistently used tactile toys to teach skills, especially in preschool and early elementary grades. Even scribbling with crayons helps in the long run. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Manual dexterity develops over time.

Finally, let’s compare handwriting to typing briefly in this regard. With typing, you move a finger, press a key, then move another one. However, with handwriting the movements are more complex. In addition, you have to hold a pen or pencil steady in your hand. In turn, this means that the fine motor skills needed for handwriting and typing are different. As children learn to write words by  hand, they incorporate both academic learning and fine motor skills.

Psychological benefits

Finally, let’s look at the psychological benefits of handwriting. When people talk about the therapeutic effects of handwriting, this is often what they mean by it. In short there are situations where handwriting can be psychologically and physically beneficial. These effects extend far beyond the improvements of motor skills discussed above.

Journaling helps people process traumatic events

First, we have known since the 1980s that writing a journal helps people process traumatic events, bad memories, and other failures. There are many reasons for this, such as the fact that you can write in a diary that nobody else reads. At the same time, you’re taking the time to write out your thoughts, involving the physical in your attempts to do mental processing. Recent studies, in fact, have shown that “writing therapy” is a viable alternative to formal counseling, especially when “professional help” is inaccessible.

Handwriting helps reduce stress and anxiety

Similar to the benefits of handwriting on trauma victims, scientists have found that writing about one’s feelings helps reduce stress and anxiety. Here, the researchers had study participants write about emotional events, rather than trauma per se. The idea was to let people process their emotions by using expressive language in their writing. In other words, how they felt during the event being written about.

At the end of the study, researchers noticed that participants had a lot less stress and anxiety than they did at the beginning of the study. Furthermore, similarly to psychotherapy the effects lingered after the end of the therapy sessions. Effects were most pronounced in subjects that have an easier time expressing their emotions.

Handwriting can help boost physical health

Finally, a paper published by Cambridge University outlines the physical benefits of expressive writing. The literature review overall contributes to the discussions that scientists and health professionals have had about the linkage between physical and mental health, because the authors are looking at the therapeutic use of writing as it relates to physical health.

In short, the findings of this paper are astounding. People who engage in expressive writing have lower levels of stress, but they also may experience an improvement in chronic health conditions. For instance, people with asthma have increased lung function and a decrease in emergency inhaler use. Likewise, people with HIV sometimes see boosted immune function, and patients with high blood pressure see it reduce.

Looking at the studies and educational literature above, it is clear that handwriting has a profound therapeutic effect.  Far from being a dinosaur of the past, handwriting can and should retain some of its place in everyday life. To that end, it is important that schools continue to teach handwriting, and that people be encouraged to write about their lives as appropriate. Finally, assistive technology is clearly helpful for children with special needs, as we’ve known for a long time. But handwriting has enough value for all young learners that, so long as a child is capable of writing, they must be allowed to do so on some level.

To receive our advice based on your self-assessment of your child, please download our free checklist below: