Cursive or the Keyboard – The Great Debate
The keyboard has overtaken pen and paper. Schools are moving rapidly to digital learning through online classes, digital textbooks, and tablets in the classroom. For the last several years, the Common Core standards have not required cursive instruction to be a part of school curriculum because it takes time and effort to teach, the time and effort that could be used for what some say is the “more relevant” skill, technology. As of 2020, only 21 states in the U.S. require cursive to be taught. The use of paper and pen is now seen as an almost archaic method of communication. And it is not just children for whom handwriting is becoming irrelevant. As adults, we email rather than write letters, send texts, put shopping lists on our phones, dictate reminders on our smartphones, use bill-pay, and keep our diaries in our computers.
While it is true that the keyboard is much easier and faster, what is the cost? What are we losing? We are not yet sure, but there are early indications that we might be losing quite a lot.
Cursive Handwriting and the Brain
There is a fundamental hand/brain connection that generates new pathways as children use their hands to explore and interact with the world. The small motor movements required for hand writing are fundamental to brain growth and cursive handwriting engages different brain connections than does using a keyboard.
Handwriting requires coordination of all five fingers to hold the pen. The motor skills needed to coordinate our fingers activates multiple areas of the brain simultaneously and requires it to process many things at once: fine motor movement to control the pen, directional awareness (center, up, down, left, right) necessary for letter formation, kinesthetic awareness of the flow of the pen and hand across the paper, and visual recognition of the shapes of the letters.
While these motor, kinesthetic, and visual aspects of writing are being processed, the language networks in the central and temporal lobes of the brain are engaged for thought formation and expression. In addition, the corpus callosum (the brain structure connecting the two hemispheres) is actively transferring neural information back and forth, the networks related to reading and spelling come into play, and our memory and learning centers are activated.
All this brain activity stimulates thinking, creativity, and memory. Conversely, striking the letters on a keyboard requires much less of the brain, with many fewer neural connections being made. Using individual fingers to strike single keys creates a repetitive pattern to create specific letters – this, of course, allows for the speed and efficiency of typing. However, these repetitive movements do not engage the motor cortex for fine motor control or directional awareness, and much less kinesthetic information is being sent to the brain. Additionally, the visual system functions differently with the keyboard – letters appear instantly as completed images, while in writing the letters emerge gradually.
Arguments for Letting Go of Cursive
Proponents of removing cursive instruction from the classroom argue that cursive takes a great deal more of the teacher’s time and the benefits don’t outweigh the loss of time needed for instruction in technology. This is the same argument put forth for removing music and physical education from schools – they take time away from the core subjects. However, what is lost is of tremendous benefit to the brain’s developmental process of learning through movement and the senses. Cursive handwriting, music, and P.E. remain vital to learning and to a full maturation of the human mind.
Another argument for doing away with cursive is that a keyboard and texting are easier and more time efficient. Children who type are commonly less frustrated and will produce more text and receive immediate feedback on what they’ve produced. While a skilled typist may produce more words per minute, handwritten notes can make a difference. Despite writing far fewer words than their typing counterparts, those who take notes by hand demonstrate better recall of the material, tend to perform better when tested, and score better on both conceptual and factual questions during exams.
Why Keep Cursive?
“It’s vital that children be taught handwriting at school. They must be exposed to handwriting activities in school to establish the neuronal patterns in the brain that are beneficial for learning.”
Cursive writing has always been considered an essential foundational skill for academic success and is an accepted learning process in societies with strong literacy traditions. Advocates for cursive warn that letting cursive die may come at a greater cost than we are currently aware of. What may be at risk is an overall lower grade average, a drop in class performance, unidentified learning difficulties, less creativity, and poorer critical thinking skills. Cursive handwriting is crucial to learning, memory, idea formation, and expression. Studies show that children who suffer from dyslexia (difficulty in learning to read and interpret the meaning of words and other symbols) benefit greatly from learning cursive due to the extensive brain areas that are activated. Children learn to read more quickly when they are also learning to write by hand, and they are better able to retain information, generate ideas, and express themselves creatively.
There are many skills which develop through handwriting, including:
Directional Awareness. The visual and kinesthetic awareness of direction is a sub-skill necessary for handwriting as well as organizing our thoughts for expression, creative thinking, and writing composition.
Memory. Nerve pathways that underlie memory formation and learning are developed more easily and completely in children who draw and learn cursive handwriting.
Sensory Motor Skills. Sensory awareness and motor skills are strengthened through handwriting, as it requires the integration of several senses simultaneously: Vision - both externally and internally visualizing the letters in our mind; Touch – we touch the pen, our own fingers, and the paper; and Hearing - we silently voice letters and words internally. The brain coordinates all of these senses to work together for fine motor control, directional awareness, and auditory/visual identification of letters and words.
Spelling. Handwriting improves spelling accuracy because the visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and motor functions are all involved in letter formation and creating a word.
Interestingly, these benefits have been found to be associated when handwriting with pen on paper as well as when using a digital pen. Learning cursive and technology are not mutually exclusive. It is the intricate finger and hand movements used in shaping the letters that engages so many brain systems to integrate motor, sensory, and perceptual skills in a way that typing does not.
“The use of pen and paper gives the brain more ‘hooks’ to hang your memories on. Writing by hand creates much more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain. A lot of senses are activated by pressing the pen on paper, seeing the letters you write and hearing the sound you make while writing. These sense experiences create contact between different parts of the brain and open the brain up for learning. We both learn better and remember better,” says Professor Audrey van der Meer.
Cursive or Print?
It may be that distinct and separate brain patterns are activated when we print, write in cursive, or use the keyboard. The neuronal activity in the brain, when writing in cursive, can be observed in the brain networks associated with reading and writing and in the brain regions associated with working memory.
It appears that cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and coordination between left and right hemispheres; promotes better brain development in regions associated with cognition; and children tend to score better on recall exercises and tests.
The fact that printing and cursive engage distinctly different neural networks is supported by studies of people with brain injury who then suffer from dysgraphia, an impairment in the ability to write. In some brain injured people with this condition, cursive writing is unimpaired while in others, printing remains intact. In addition, if alexia is present (the inability to see or read words) some people are able to read print and some can read cursive.
Handwriting and Technology – Striking a Balance
In order for the brain to develop properly and to achieve its greatest potential, we need to use it fully, exercise all of its capacities and keep it challenged. Cursive writing is one of the best things we can do for the developing brain of a child. And adults would be wise to heed the research and maintain handwriting activities whenever possible to keep the neural pathways firing, connected, and strong, and to help the brain process new information.
As our world becomes more and more based on technology, it is increasingly difficult to find ways to keep cursive handwriting a part of our experience. We are currently at risk of an entire generation being “cursive illiterate” and experiencing new and, as yet, undefined learning challenges. We are poised to lose a vital developmental step in fine motor abilities, critical thinking skills, and an avenue of artistic self-expression. We may well see a loss in the ability to communicate between generations (that birthday note from Uncle Joe or that treasured letter from great-Grandpa) and an inability to do research in archival, historical, or literary papers, losing a link in our history. Cursive writing is a skill that is central to our culture.
At the same time, it is important to continue moving forward, keeping pace with our digital world. Otherwise, we will lose out on all that it has to offer: flexibility, speed, connectivity, and staying current and knowledgeable. How can we be digital and yet not lose out on the amazing benefits that cursive handwriting offers? We must find a balance. I believe it is possible to keep cursive instruction in schools alongside technology, and that we as adults can incorporate handwriting into out everyday routines. In this way, we can find a balance and experience the best of both worlds.
Incorporate Handwriting into Daily Life
Handwrite notes when in the classroom, listening to a lecture, a TedTalk, or a YouTube instructional video. Then type them up.
Handwrite rough drafts for essays or articles and then put it together at the keyboard.
Handwrite shopping lists, reminders, letters, and diaries – either on paper or using the note-taking app on your phone.
Do crossword puzzles on paper rather than on the computer.
My experience in writing this article confirmed what I learned through my research on cursive handwriting and my experience as a movement therapist. I thought I should walk my talk so I wrote the entire first draft of this article in cursive. It was different and surprisingly wonderful! Read more about how I did it and what I experienced.
Interested in helping your child put pen to paper?
Start Here.
A great way to start is to use the Alphabet 8s Guide. This is a instructional handout for printed letters, a good first step to cursive. Simply doing this activity challenges and activates the brain, stimulates thinking, and is relaxing the more you do it.
Now, let’s learn cursive.
Cursive writing in built upon the movements learned from the printed alphabet in the Alphabet 8s Guide, so be sure to start there. Follow a step-by-step guide that trains your brain and body to integrate the complex nature of cursive writing.
The views expressed in this article belong solely to S. Christina Boyd based on 30 years of clinical experience as a movement therapist. If you would like further reading, please explore the source and related information provided.
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Why Writing by Hand Makes Kids Smarter Professor Audrey van der Meer, Peer Reviewed Publication, Norwegian University of Science and Technology | October 2020
Writing by Hand Boosts Brain Activity and Fine Motor Skills Mental Health News | October 2020 | for quote by Eva Ose Askvik, Norwegian University research scientist
The Benefits of Cursive Go Beyond Writing New York Times | April 2013
Why Don’t The Common-Core Standards Include Cursive Writing? PBS Newshour | Oct 2016
The Great Cursive Writing Debate: Lost Art or Vital Skill? The Write Life | August 2017
The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults Frontiers in Psychology
Montessori Services Cursive Handwriting: How Important Is It? Montessori Services | 2013
Handwriting Matters; Cursive Doesn’t Handwriting Repair/Handwriting That Works | 2013
The Science of Notetaking: Writing vs. Typing Clearvue Health | January 2019
Writing by Hand Boosts Brain Activity and Fine Motor Skills Very Well Mind – Mental Health News | October 2020