Articles about the benefits of handwriting

So why write cursive?

Cursive and digital skills are like apples and oranges.

Computers are not a substitute for cursive writing.

It isn’t a matter of choosing one over the other.

To be successful, our kids need both.

— Susan Govorko

Why do kids need to learn cursive — isn’t a computer good enough?

Clinical studies show that cursive handwriting creates and increases neurological pathways in the brain. Neural pathways are what help us access the data we store in our brain cells… the more we have, the better we can think and the better we can think, the more we can learn.

Researchers have discovered that the hand-brain connection is vital to the process of neuro-plasticity — the process of organizing and reorganizing the brain’s neural pathways. In other words, the simple pen / pencil grip and fine motor movements involved in handwriting are fundamental to the way we learn and think. Handwriting practice is the precursor to innovative thinking and creative ideas.

In his groundbreaking book, The Hand – How its use shapes the brain, language, and human culture, Frank R. Wilson says it so eloquently, The desire to learn is reshaped continuously as brain and hand vitalize one another, and the capacity to learn grows continuously as we fashion our own personal laboratory for making things.

Links to Articles about the benefits of handwriting:

20 Ways Handwriting is Good for you – infographic

Watch How You Hold That Crayon

Three Ways That Handwriting With A Pen Positively Affects Your Brain

How Cursive Writing Uniquely Helps Brain Development

The Continued Importance of Handwriting Instruction

How Handwriting Trains The Brain – Forming Letters Is Key To Learning, Memory, Ideas

Does Writing By Hand Still Matter In The Digital Age?

Living In The Digital Age:  Does Handwriting Still Matter?

Cursive Seemed to Go the Way of Quills and Parchment.  Now It’s Coming Back.

The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning

How Handwriting Trains the Brain

Brain Plasticity: What Is It? – Learning and Memory

The Case for Cursive

Cursive Handwriting: How Important Is It?

Watch How You Hold That Crayon

In Digital Age, Does Handwriting Still Matter?

Why Learning to Write by Hand Matters

Thinking About Cursive in a Digital World

Indiana Senate Backs Bill to Require Cursive Lessons

State Lawmakers Take Steps to Keep Cursive in the Classroom

Summit to Make a Case for Teaching Handwriting

Why Handwriting is Still Essential in the Keyboard Age

Rationales for Cursive First Penmanship Instruction

How Should We Teach Our Children to Write? Cursive First, Print Later

What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades

Too Soon to Declare Handwriting a Relic of the Past

Handwriting engages the mind

The Pen may be mightier than the Keyboard

The “Write Stuff” For Preventing and Treating Disabilities

The Many Health Perks of Good Handwriting

Support for Dyslexia

Resources to Support Students with Dyslexia

20 Useful Apps for Kids with Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities

Support for Anxiety and mental health

MFT Programs online   Submitted by Jeremy for a research project.  Good information that references the workplace environment, yet can be relevant to the school or learning environment as well.

Plasticity and handwriting:

Brain Plasticity: What Is It? – Learning and Memory

The Brain-Based Benefits of Writing for Math and Science Learning

How Handwriting Trains the Brain

How cursive writing affects brain development

Early Development of Language by Hand: Composing, Reading, Listening, and Speaking Connections; Three Letter-Writing Modes; and Fast Mapping in Spelling

Reports of schools eliminating cursive writing:

Cursive handwriting no longer a focus in Illinois elementaries

Informational articles for teaching young children:

Handwriting – How To Teach Handwriting Skills in Preschool

Sandpaper Letters – Refresh Your Presentations

 

Online Interviews with Vimala Rodgers:

Interview with Vimala Rodgers  (Interview with Carol Assa, Invisible Architecture, 2022)

Conversations with Extraordinary People – Transform Your Life Through Handwriting (interview with Emmett Miller, MD)

American Dreamtime Robert Barham Show (May 23, 2020)

Change Your Handwriting, Change Your Life – YouTube

Vimala Rodgers – Director of the International Institute of Handwriting Studies

How Your Handwriting Can Change Your Life with Vimala

Meditation Domination Interview with Vimala Rodgers, Sept 5, 2013

Design Your Life (Interview with Rev. Kevin Ross, January 12, 2011)


Please report any broken links, and if you have a new resource to add or would like to share a comment,

e-mail Susan: susan@alphabetpenandink.com

Thank you