Handwriting Contributes To Development Of Language

As a kid writing means using a pen or a pencil for writing on a paper or using a key board for the same. While when one wrote with hand errors were difficult to correct and change. Also many a times the content was even more difficult to decipher, due to illegibility in the writing. This even made revision more difficult. Erasing or scratching often caused smudging or made the handwriting look shabby. This always made a poor impression both on the kid and the reader simultaneously.

This always was a reason for agony for students with issues like dyslexia. The kind of labor put to following the process of writing always proved to be the distracting factor in getting the right expressions.

Then came the advance writing tools with facilities for auto correction, word prediction as a great help, where revision also was easy. It certainly proved to be a better means both for writing as well as expressing.

These technological advances have had a fallout effect on Handwriting quality and ability both. It also has had its own negative effect of the learning of language as far as reading ability is concerned.

Multisensory learning or learning one thing involving several of the senses always has a very positive and lasting effect on kids especially the ones with difficulty in learning and thinking together.

Handwriting can certainly be said to be a multisensory activity. Handwriting engages your motor activity (your hand) when you write, the language processing area of your brain when you are going through the process of forming each letter, word and subsequently a sentence, and during this process your eyes see what you are writing, thus also involving these areas of your brain.  You could also be involving the auditory system if you repeated the words loudly during the process of writing.

Scientific research has proved there is a definite relation between the ability to write and development of language. It is usually seen that children who are used to handwriting regularly are not only better in their reading abilities but are less prone to making spelling errors. Experts believe that since handwriting involves conception of a thought in the brain which is transcribed into words by the hand, this promotes learning of the language.  

Similar act of writing through a keyboard is not seen to show any added improvement in the reading ability. Writing with the help of a keyboard certainly facilitates in writing and is of great benefit to kids having writing problems, but certainly this is not an advisable replacement to handwriting specially in the early years of schooling.

The importance of handwriting is hardly questionable; the question is of developing the right method of training those having serious problems in handwriting. Even holding a pencil can cause discomfort to many, it can be a cause of a tired hand or aching wrist. Illegibility is another issue they have deal with every day, reading out their handwritten text every now and then for others to understand. This greatly discourages them from writing and they are always on the lookout for alternatives like a keyboard.

Key board writing does not give any distinct learning advantage especially for the students in early schooling. We must understand that if there is a issue in handwriting it is always advisable to seek the help of an Handwriting expert, a person who could guide such students in the best possible way to overcome their problems of handwriting.

There are several companies dedicated exclusively towards developing and training in handwriting. One such company is Write Right. They have developed indigenous methods of 7 days Handwriting improvement training and they also have a series for books’ My Handwriting Book’ that you could use for development and correction of Handwriting. This series of book is available for kids Nursery to 6th Grade onwards.