What Learning Cursive Does for Your Brain

[justamouse]

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/what-learning-cursive-does-your-brain

 

Much of the benefit of hand writing in general comes simply from the self-generated mechanics of drawing letters. During one study at Indiana University to be published this year,[3] researchers conducted brain scans on pre-literate 5-year olds before and after receiving different letter-learning instruction. In children who had practiced self-generated printing by hand, the neural activity was far more enhanced and "adult-like" than in those who had simply looked at letters. The brain’s “reading circuit†of linked regions that are activated during reading was activated during hand writing, but not during typing. This lab has also demonstrated that writing letters in meaningful context, as opposed to just writing them as drawing objects, produced much more robust activation of many areas in both hemispheres.

[ElizabethB]

Interesting, thanks! I'll forward it to Don Potter. His handwriting page is full of good resources and links.

[Hunter]

I'm reading more and more about the effects on the brain of cursive handwriting, and have observed the benefits first hand on myself and my students.

 

Knitting, cursive, and walking do some amazing things to the brain. They actually repair damage, as well as slow down and even out brain waves.

[wapiti]

Chalk me up as another believer of the benefits of cursive in training the brain, especially for young ones with fine motor issues, like my ds who learned in K. Later, I found out that our COVD optometrist is a big believer too.

[countrygal]

Thanks for sharing! I always loved cursive writing, and my ds asked to learn in 1st grade. He has such handsome handwriting!! So sad it's disappearing out of ps. The older generations have such beautiful handwriting... someday it'll be gone.