Why Handwriting Is Important

Handwriting Matters Have you ever wondered why your kids never bring home a notebook, but instead it's a computer or tablet? Well if you have it's because it's true, technology is taking over our world, classrooms have resorted to using computers and tablets to do most of their teaching and grading on. Yes it is more efficient and probably faster, but handwriting skills are a great thing to have. I agree that you also need strong computer and keyboard skills because, like I said technology is taking over the world. Not only do you see and use technology everyday, but it's also advancing everyday. On the other hand, you will also use handwriting skills your whole life. Kids handwriting skills are not very good they are sloppy or not legible.

Students need to be able to have neat handwriting, because if they turn in a 5 page paper that they worked very hard on, but it wasn't legible they may get docked points for that. Writing down a Christmas list, signing a birthday card for your grandma or filling out an insurance contract...handwriting is a skill you use about everyday. Writing dates back to the earliest civilization before modern technology was even invented. Just because we have computers and modern technology does not decrease the importance of handwriting skills.. Not only does a handwriting class teach neatness, but the speed at which a child can perform. This is an important skill also, for example the writing portion of the ACT only gives you an hour to perform an essay to your best of ability. Without the skills to write fast and neatly the student might miss out on huge opportunities, that other students with superior and precise handwriting might

Hand-eye coordination is one of the most important parts of early learning process. In handwriting you need it for the eyes need to be able to form the letters readable and in-between the lines. When you are guiding your hand to do the loops and curves onto the paper the brain has to track visibly rapid changes. To learn a not so easy skill has cursive your brain must have excellent coordination, because cursive is different than another writing or painting that you may perform throughout your life. It might not seem hard for you to learn cursive, but the movements of going up and down and around is what makes cursive a greater neutral activator. Visual targets are fixed by saccade. The theory is that the eyes scan the target with a linked series of saccades, in this case the changes in cursive letter structure as the letters are being rapidly formed.(Psychtoday) Our brain fixes on moving saccades, this is how the moving world around us is made more stable, even though our eyes our flickering around with everything we look at; otherwise our whole world would be very shaky and give us a headache. The degree of tracking speed, accuracy, and prediction error must surely influence how well the letters are transcribed during handwriting. The corollary is that the better one learns to write by hand, the better the brain is learning how to track