✏️ In this increasingly digital world, it is worth analyzing from a neuroscience perspective the inherent benefits that occur in our brain as a result of handwriting.

Benefits of handwriting

🧠 Firstly, in children in primary education, the process of handwriting can positively influence the development and consolidation of letter identification skills (Schubert et al., 2018). Why? Because mentally visualizing the letter and then physically tracing it strengthens the neural networks related to this learning.

🧠 From a neuropsychological perspective, the process of handwriting corresponds to the activation of various cognitive and neuropsychological skills: visuoconstructive abilities, praxis, and linguistic processes. This indicates that every time a child or adult uses handwriting skills, they are simultaneously stimulating areas of their brain that are key to learning.

🧠 From the perspective of the brain areas activated during the writing process, it's worth mentioning that handwriting is not the same for the brain as typing on a computer. Remember that handwriting engages motor, cognitive, spatial, and constructive abilities. On the other hand, when typing on a computer, the hand usually remains static, using the fingers to move the keyboard and visually selecting the letter to be typed (Ardila, 2012).

🧠 The main difference between handwriting and typing is that with typing, we have the option of visualizing the letters on the keyboard before pressing them. On the other hand, handwriting requires the writer to have a mental representation of the letter shapes before and during the writing process.

🧠 From a holistic perspective, considering sociocultural and neuropsychological factors, writing promotes comprehension, production of written words, development of thought, language and cognitive abilities of attention, memory and executive functioning (Hayes, 1996; Serrano, 2014).

🧘🏽‍♂️ It's worth mentioning that, by nature, the human brain is cautious when it comes to conserving energy. The more energy is required, the more the brain tends to take precautions and choose the option that represents the least energy expenditure for the body. This is known as heuristics , which consists of the ability to reformulate a complex problem into a simpler one, so that it can be solved automatically and easily by our brain (Gómez, 2015). This could be one of the hypotheses for why some children resist reinforcing handwriting skills, thus showing a preference for typing on a computer, since from a brain perspective it would represent a lower energy expenditure for the brain.

🤩 At Neuropsyedu, we offer our clients neuropsychological and educational assessment packages. One of the most prestigious educational tests for writing skills is the PROESC , which is administered to students from third grade (8 years old) through tenth grade (15-16 years old). If you'd like to learn more about the PROESC test, I recommend clicking here.

👉🏼 Remember that for assessments, Neuropsyedu is your ally in Panama for neuropsychological and educational evaluations. For Educational Neuropsychology consultations, you can confidently contact us at +507 6535 6362 or via email at neuropsyedupanama@gmail.com

References

  • ✅ Ardila, A. (2012). Neuropsychology of writing. Writing: a mosaic of new perspective, 309-321.
  • ✅ Gómez, GE (2015). The brain and decision-making. X Research Conference in Philosophy. Argentina. In Academic Memory.
  • ✅ Hayes, J. (1996). A new framework for understanding cognition and affect in writing. The science of writing. Theories, methods, individual differences, and applications (pp. 1-27). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • ✅ Serrano, S. (2014). Reading, writing and thinking. Epistemic function and pedagogical implications. Language, 42(1), 97-122.
  • ✅ Schubert T, Reilhac C, McCloskey M, (2018). Knowledge about writing influences reading: Dynamic visual information about letter production facilitates letter identification, CORTEX.