Handwriting reinforces the visual and aural lessons. The advantage has nothing to do with penmanship—it’s that the simple act of writing by hand provides a perceptual-motor experience that unifies what is being learned about the letters (their shapes, their sounds, and their motor plans), which in turn creates richer knowledge and fuller, true learning, the team says.
Brenda Rapp & Robert Wiley, researchers from the John Hopkins Unviersity.
I have always taken notes and handwritten first drafts of articles on paper. That has allowed me to learn, recall and imagine better. I couldn’t recommend writing more highly. I worry that we aren’t teaching kids how to handwrite, and instead, we are pushing them to the keyboards and touchscreens.