Phenomenal aspects of handwriting

"Please hold your pen correctly"," Try to write your letters beautifully", "You need to focus on your handwriting", "Could you share your handwritten notes please". Do you find these phrases familiar? Back in our school days, writing with pen on paper was the only medium of saving and practicing our learnt knowledge.  We had the habit of taking class notes with pen. Surprising it is, but because of handwritten notes, we used to remember quickly and prominently. In all our examinations, whether they are school tests or college entrance exams, we always used pen and papers. Computers got introduced to us as a separate stream to learn. It is peculiar but true that we used pen and paper for our computer exams too. We used to handwrite algorithms of complex problems and manually test their efficiency and correctness on paper, all using pen!

Writing with pen was essential and significant part of our school days. I remember, we used to gift each other special pens and notebooks on birthdays, teachers' day, holidays etc. We used to feel immensely happy crafting our thoughtful words and capturing our precious moments in our special diaries with our exclusive pens.

Let's come back to our present day, we have multiple technologies for writing now: pen on paper, computer writing, stylus writing, writing on smart devices etc. It is a technology-friendly, digital age and somewhere writing with pen on paper is becoming obsolete. Even kindergarten kids are familiar with digital devices. Computers, which got into our life as a subject to read and understand, is now prime part of our kids' life. Computers have become a significant part of their learning life, especially during Covid time. I observe that today's elementary school kids use power-point, MS word, google slides to write their school reports so brilliantly.  Maybe kids are born with a pre-stored digital knowledge in their head! They do such a fantastic job in learning digital technologies, which we sometimes struggle to understand.

Noticing the increased use of digital devices at the early school age, makes me wonder, are we missing something! Let's just stop and think for a while. Have you noticed, people who use pen and paper claim to remember most of their written work! They can even give lecture on their report without even referring their notes. They have better problem-solving skills and have extensive vocabulary. Whereas people who use computers for writing usually struggle to remember what they wrote. Well, it's true for me for sure. I tend to forget my scripts more easily when I write on computer compared to paper. On the plus side, computer writing definitely gives substantial amount of fancy features which makes the written work more polished and presentable. Spelling suggestions, grammar corrections and all sort of helping features to improve our writing, are given to us by our "know-it-all" box. But are they really "helping" us! Let's think about it.

According to neuropsychology, a lot of things go in our brain when we write with hand. Our brain performs a heavy workout when we write holding pen on paper. No wonder, we feel exhausted after hours of handwriting. 

There are significant differences in handwriting and typewriting. Those differences strongly suggest that handwriting facilitates memorization of letters and helps in critical thinking.

Handwriting takes place in a small space.  Our attention is limited and concentrated. When we write by hand, our focus is onto endpoint of our pen. Whereas when we typewrite, our focus gets divided into 2 different spaces, screen and keyboard. Our concentration continuously shifts between keyboard and screen, makes us less focused and creates difficulty in memorizing.

In handwriting, the writer needs to visualize the letter, and form the shape of the letter by hand on paper. Each letter has a defined set of hand-moves to give them proper shape on paper. On the other hand, typing doesn't involve this. It involves hitting keyboard keys to form letter on screen. It also doesn't matter the way you hit the key. The same letter can be typed by hitting keys using different force, different motion or even by using different hand. Thus, typing has a very little to do with visual cortex.

Handwriting is slower than typewriting. But due to its slowness, it requires more thinking and analysis than typewriting. When we handwrite class notes, we process what our lecturer explains, analyze, and then write in our own words. It helps in memorizing and improves critical thinking.

In general, handwriting involves activities in multiple regions of our brain which typewriting does not. It involves motor cortex to manually write, visual cortex to visualize the shape and form of letters, and different neural networks related to language, spellings, grammar etc. All these neural connections, collectively work to help memorizing and learning. Handwriting is an essential part of our learning process and cognitive development. It should not be underestimated.

Thanks

Mridulika

 

References:

Neural substrates of sensorimotor processes: letter writing and letter perception

Why writing by hand makes kids smarter

Digitizing Literacy: Reflections on the Haptics of Writing