How Handwriting Trains the Brain

Forming Letters Is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas

By
GWENDOLYN BOUNDS
Updated Oct. 5, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET
Ask preschooler Zane Pike to write his name or the alphabet, then watch this 4-year-old's
stubborn side kick in. He spurns practice at school and tosses aside workbooks at home.
But Angie Pike, Zane's mom, persists, believing that handwriting is a building block to
learning.
Wendy Bounds discusses the fading art of handwriting, pointing out that new research shows it can benefit children's motor skills and
their ability to compose ideas and achieve goals throughout life.
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Gwendolyn Bounds reports on what your handwriting says about your brain and everything else.
She's right. Using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are
finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps
with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may
aid fine motor-skill development.
It's not just children who benefit. Adults studying new symbols, such as Chinese
characters, might enhance recognition by writing the characters by hand, researchers say.
Some physicians say handwriting could be a good cognitive exercise for baby boomers
working to keep their minds sharp as they age.
Studies suggest there's real value in learning and maintaining this ancient skill, even as
we increasingly communicate electronically via keyboards big and small. Indeed,
technology often gets blamed for handwriting's demise. But in an interesting twist, new
software for touch-screen devices, such as the iPad, is starting to reinvigorate the practice.
Enlarge Image

Four-year-old Zane Pike used to toss aside his handwriting books. Now, the Cabot, Ark., preschooler is learning to write his letters using
a smartphone application. Angie Pike
Most schools still include conventional handwriting instruction in their primary-grade
curriculum, but today that amounts to just over an hour a week, according to Zaner-Bloser
Inc., one of the nation's largest handwriting-curriculum publishers. Even at institutions
that make it a strong priority, such as the private Brearley School in New York City,
"some parents say, 'I can't believe you are wasting a minute on this,'" says Linda Boldt,
the school's head of learning skills.
Recent research illustrates how writing by hand engages the brain in learning. During one
study at Indiana University published this year, 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.
"It seems there is something really important about manually manipulating and drawing
out two-dimensional things we see all the time," says Karin Harman James, assistant
professor of psychology and neuroscience at Indiana University who led the study.
More
The Juggle: In Digital Age, Does Handwriting Still Matter?
Adults may benefit similarly when learning a new graphically different language, such as
Mandarin, or symbol systems for mathematics, music and chemistry, Dr. James says. For
instance, in a 2008 study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, adults were asked to
distinguish between new characters and a mirror image of them after producing the
characters using pen-and-paper writing and a computer keyboard. The result: For those
writing by hand, there was stronger and longer-lasting recognition of the characters'
proper orientation, suggesting that the specific movements memorized when learning how
to write aided the visual identification of graphic shapes.
Other research highlights the hand's unique relationship with the brain when it comes to
composing thoughts and ideas. Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology
at the University of Washington, says handwriting differs from typing because it requires
executing sequential strokes to form a letter, whereas keyboarding involves selecting a
whole letter by touching a key.
She says pictures of the brain have illustrated that sequential finger movements activated
massive regions involved in thinking, language and working memorythe system for
temporarily storing and managing information.
And one recent study of hers demonstrated that in grades two, four and six, children
wrote more words, faster, and expressed more ideas when writing essays by hand versus
with a keyboard.
Enlarge Image

For research at Indiana University, children undergo specialized MRI brain scans that spot neurological activity. AJ Mast for the Wall
Street Journal
Even in the digital age, people remain enthralled by handwriting for myriad reasonsthe
intimacy implied by a loved one's script, or what the slant and shape of letters might
reveal about personality. During actress Lindsay Lohan's probation violation court
appearance this summer, a swarm of handwriting experts proffered analysis of her blocky
courtroom scribbling. "Projecting a false image" and "crossing boundaries," concluded
two on celebrity news and entertainment site hollywoodlife.com. Beyond identifying
personality traits through handwriting, called graphology, some doctors treating
neurological disorders say handwriting can be an early diagnostic tool.
"Some patients bring in journals from the years, and you can see dramatic change from
when they were 55 and doing fine and now at 70," says P. Murali Doraiswamy, a
neuroscientist at Duke University. "As more people lose writing skills and migrate to the
computer, retraining people in handwriting skills could be a useful cognitive exercise."
In high schools, where laptops are increasingly used, handwriting still matters. In the
essay section of SAT college-entrance exams, scorers unable to read a student's writing
can assign that portion an "illegible" score of 0.

Even legible handwriting that's messy can have its own ramifications, says Steve Graham,
professor of education at Vanderbilt University. He cites several studies indicating that
good handwriting can take a generic classroom test score from the 50th percentile to the
84th percentile, while bad penmanship could tank it to the 16th. "There is a reader effect
that is insidious," Dr. Graham says. "People judge the quality of your ideas based on your
handwriting."
Handwriting-curriculum creators say they're seeing renewed interest among parents
looking to hone older children's skillsor even their own penmanship. Nan Barchowsky,
who developed the Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting method to ease transition from print-
script to joined cursive letters, says she's sold more than 1,500 copies of "Fix It Write"
in the past year.
Some high-tech allies also are giving the practice an unexpected boost through hand-held
gadgets like smartphones and tablets. Dan Feather, a graphic designer and computer
consultant in Nashville, Tenn., says he's "never adapted well to the keypads on little
devices." Instead, he uses a $3.99 application called "WritePad" on his iPhone. It accepts
handwriting input with a finger or stylus, then converts it to text for email, documents or
Twitter updates.
And apps are helping Zane Pikethe 4-year-old who refused to practice his letters. The
Cabot, Ark., boy won't put down his mom's iPhone, where she's downloaded a $1.99 app
called "abc PocketPhonics." The program instructs Zane to draw letters with his finger or
a stylus; correct movements earn him cheering pencils.

In children who had practiced writing by hand, the scans showed heightened brain activity in a key area, circled on the image at right,
indicating learning took place. Indiana University
"He thinks it's a game," says Angie Pike.
Similarly, kindergartners at Harford Day School in Bel Air, Md., are taught to write on
paper but recently also began tracing letter shapes on the screen of an iPad using a
handwriting app.
"Children will be using technology unlike I did, and it's important for teachers to be
familiar with it," says Kay Crocker, the school's lead kindergarten teacher. Regardless of
the input method, she says,