Motivated Parent - Successful Child: Handwriting

In this article I’m going to present more scientific point of view on benefits of handwriting for kids.

Nowadays fine handwriting has becoming more like a hobby among other vanishing skills like knitting, crocheting or hand sewing. Even though our children learn how to write in early schooling they are not required to write neatly; meaning goes over quality and the keyboards are used in many subjects or computer games to accomplish the goal.

There is evidence, however, that writing the old-fashioned way is really helpful.

Virginia Berninger, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, says that writing by hand is different from typing; it requires using strokes to create a letter, rather than just selecting the whole letter by touching a key. These finger movements activate large regions of the brain involved in thinking, memory, and language.

Handwriting helps children learn letters and shapes, improve their composition of ideas, and boost fine-motor skills development.

She found that in grades two, four, and six, children wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand than when typing on a keyboard.

Another study presented at Indiana University found that children who practiced printing by hand had more active brains than kids who simply looked at letters. Researchers invited children to man a "spaceship," actually an MRI machine using a specialized scan called "functional" MRI that spots neural activity in the brain. The kids were shown letters before and after receiving different letter-learning instruction. In children who had practiced printing by hand, the neural activity was far more enhanced and "adult-like" than in those who had simply looked at letters.

There is a proof, that writing prevents us from being distracted. The computer in front of us is a time-extracting device. Of course, the internet isn't all bad, since we can obtain valuable information in almost no time; we just have to use it wisely. Handwriting helps us to focus on a subject. For a better outcome it is suggested to try writing for short 20-minute stretches at a time.

Another interesting finding says that rewriting notes by hand is one of the most effective ways to study and retain new information. That's because putting ink to paper stimulates a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating Center, or the RAS. The RAS acts as a filter for everything your brain needs to process, giving more importance to the stuff that you're actively focusing on that moment - something that the physical act of writing brings to the forefront. A study from 2010 found that the brain areas associated with learning "lit up" much more when kids were asked to write words like "spaceship" by hand versus just studying the word closely. Recent research illustrates how writing by hand engages the brain in learning.

There is an indication that handwriting makes us a better writer. Many famous authors choose writing by hand over the utility of a typewriter or computer. A writer Susan Sontag said that she penned her first drafts the analog way before typing them up for editing later. Novelist Truman Capote said "I don't use a typewriter. I write my first version in longhand (pencil). Then I do a complete revision, also in longhand."

http://teachhumane.org/heart/2013/01/23/humane-activity-the-many-benefits-of-letter-writing/

http://www.rd.com/health/why-handwriting-makes-you-smarter/

http://lifehacker.com/5738093/why-you-learn-more-effectively-by-writing-than-typing

http://www.futurity.org/for-kids-pens-mightier-than-keyboard/#more-4909

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1505/the-art-of-fiction-no-143-susan-sontag

http://flavorwire.com/193101/weird-writing-habits-of-famous-authors

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA