Typing Feels Productive; Handwriting Actually Works
Why Handwriting Still Matters: What Brain Science Says About Learning
Keyboards have taken over in today’s fast-paced, digital world. Your teenager probably types most of their assignments and text messages to friends and even takes notes in an app instead of on paper. But what if the old-school handwriting skill does something powerful for the brain that typing simply can’t do?
The latest findings in neuroscience and education point to just that: writing by hand engages the brain’s systems for learning and memory more than typing does.
Handwriting Is a Brain-Based Learning Tool, Not Just an Old-School Skill
Modern brain-wave studies (EEG) have shown that the brain exhibits more varied activity and connectivity across the brain when we simply write by hand compared to typing on a keyboard. One such high-density EEG study revealed that college-aged students writing words by hand showed a wide breadth of neural connectivity in the areas of the brain responsible for creating new memories and encoding information compared to those who typed, who showed almost no engagement.
This finding demonstrates that handwriting is more than a motor task — it’s a multisensory experience that connects the motor act of writing with the visual, linguistic, and memory components simultaneously and helps facilitate learning outcomes.
What Happens in the Brain When We Write?
When kids write by hand, different brain regions engage:
Motor regions create the precise movements needed for writing.
Visual regions track the shapes on the page.
Memory and language processing regions build associations between what kids write and their meaning.
The multisensory nature of handwriting creates stronger neural connections in the brain — something typing does not do. In contrast, repetitive typing tasks require less from the brain and body, making them less cognitively engaging.
Handwriting as an Active Memory Tool
Many parents hear, “But typing is ”faster!” — and they are correct. Typing can be a highly effective tool for students to quickly put their thoughts onto the “page.” Unfortunately, faster isn’t always better.
Many research studies comparing handwritten and typed texts have shown that students who write by hand remember more of what they wrote later than if they typed. The slow process of handwriting gives the brain time to encode the material.
Forgetting what we learn is a hallmark of cognitive learning processes. However, this isn’t an attempt to romanticize the practice of handwriting — it involves the way that the brain links physical activity to memory formation. This linking creates a neural “footprint” that helps students recall this information later on, something that typing does not.
Handwriting Helps Students Build Essential Learning Skills
Skills that your child will build by learning how to write by hand include:
Reading skills: Forming letters by hand helps kids learn letter shapes and sounds.
Spelling: Writing by hand makes spelling patterns stick more than typing.
Cognitive Control: The slower pace of handwriting builds attention spans, too.
The research backs all of these foundations, showing how the brain integrates different sensory processes into a single motor action.
How This Research Applies to Your Middle Schooler or High Schooler
For busy high schoolers and middle schoolers balancing reading comprehension, essay planning, note-taking, and studying, here’s how handwriting might improve their learning outcomes:
Handwriting increases the quality of class notes. Typing encourages students to transcribe every word spoken during a lecture. Handwriting notes encourage students to summarize, paraphrase, and abstract the material, enhancing this processing phase for improved retention of key concepts compared to typing/lecture transcription.
Summarizing concepts improves learning outcomes. When middle schoolers or high schoolers write essay summaries by hand, their higher order learning outcomes improve. Handwriting requires their brains to organize ideas before putting them on the page.
Recalling concepts improves retention. Getting students to write by hand definitions/formulas as part of their studying will help them remember this information when it counts most — in their exams! Handwriting activates brain networks responsible for recalling information, something that typing does not do.
Handwriting may support cognitive health. Some studies suggest that this kind of multisensory learning experience (handwriting) may help support cognitive health across the life span.
Teach These Skills and Use Technology Responsibly
This is not an either/or situation. Students need good typing skills to succeed in a school filled with technology (and if they want to succeed after school).
Yet all the research suggests that technology should supplement, not replace handwriting. Think of handwriting as a workout routine for your brain. It should be included in your middle or high schooler's homework, studying, and lessons, but not necessarily before every task.
A combination of handwriting and technology can give students a full range of cognitive skills they will need later on and might even improve their enjoyment of tasks!
Tips Parents Can Use To Encourage Handwriting Again
No freak-outs! Handwriting does not need to play an outsized role in learning during this tech-driven period. However, it should still play an important role in students’ learning experiences. Here are some tips for parents:
Get middle schoolers/high schoolers to summarize material by hand after watching a lecture or reading material in a textbook or work of fiction.
Use paper to recall information/formulae.
Use tablets with pen capabilities. These still engage the motor processes associated with handwriting.
Use paper for larger tasks! Writing essays can improve learning outcomes compared to typing.
Get middle schoolers/high schoolers to practice handwriting again! A few minutes of handwriting practice each day can help build fluency again.
Handwriting Is More Than Tradition; It’s Brain Science
Despite a shift in many classroom settings toward keyboards, handwriting has retained its role as an important learning tool in the classroom. Science backs up why an old-school skill still does something distinct for the brain compared to typing.
Not only does handwriting engage the motor networks in the brain effectively, but it also engages the brain’s networks for memory formation and language processing, both of which help the learner retain information instead of just transcribing it.
As your middle schooler or high schooler tackles increasingly complex academic work and battles self-doubt fueled by anxiety around tests, social pressures, and their own expectations, handwriting can offer them one pure learning-enhancing experience without any baggage attached!
So before your teen reaches for a laptop next time they need to tackle a homework assignment or task at school, hand them a pen their brain will thank you!
Ready to put the science of handwriting into action for your student? Our method integrates these brain-based strategies to help your middle or high schooler achieve better learning outcomes. Book a free 30-minute discovery session today to learn more about how we blend the power of handwriting with modern study techniques to unlock your child's full potential.
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