Handwriting Still Matters

"There is a growing body of research on what the normally developing brain learns by forming letters on the page, in print or manuscript format as well as cursive," notes Perri Klass in her New York Times article,"Why Handwriting is Still Essential in the Keyboard Age."  Some points made in the article...

"...handwriting — forming letters — engages the mind, and that can help children pay attention to written language.

"'This myth that handwriting is just a motor skill is just plain wrong,' Dr. Virginia Berninger (University of Washington professor of educational psychology) said.  'We use motor parts of our brain, motor planning, motor control, but what’s very critical is a region of our brain where the visual and language come together... where visual stimuli actually become letters and written words.  You have to see letters in the mind’s eye in order to produce them on the page.  Brain imaging shows that the activation of this region is different in children who are having trouble with handwriting.'"

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