Cursive writing is important for your brain health!
You might be an older adult like me who spent hours when you were in school learning how to write in cursive. I remember sitting with pencil and lined paper with those big spaces between the lines drawing “O” and “U” and “a” over and over. Well, I hear that you don’t do that in school anymore. Lucky you! Or, Not!
If you’re in the “school years” crowd, you might have noticed that some schools are bringing it back. And it probably would be a good thing for those of us who have abandoned writing with pen and paper to take it up again. Researchers are finding out that cursive has benefits that go beyond communicating with others.
I wrote a page some months ago about your brain and writing cursive. Here are some more interesting things that those researchers have found.
1. Your thoughts flow with your words.
Back in the olden days, 1976, the journal, Academic Therapy, published a research that showed writing in the continuous fashion of cursive promoted a better understanding of complete words. Writing in block letters, such as printing, interrupts the flow of your thoughts. We humans think structurally not phonetically and writing in cursive reinforces that skill.
2. Focus on content is improved.
Remove the barrier between thought and action. The College Board had an interesting finding that might help for students taking the essay portion of the SATs. Those students writing their essays in cursive scored slightly higher than those who printed their answers. The experts believe it is because they didn’t slow down as with block printing. Thus, they could put virtually all of their focus on the content.
As a marketer, content is all important so anything that allows me to keep the flow of content is welcome. I am locked into typing my articles, but I do lay out my thoughts beforehand. And I’m thinking it might be a good idea to write those out in cursive and see if it makes it smoother to develope my page.
3. Let your entire brain work with cursive writing.
Cursive and block print are really two different ways of presenting reading material because studies have shown that different neurological pathways are activated. One study measured the right and left hemispheres. The left hemisphere experiences fewer errors than the right hemisphere when presented with printed material but that difference lessens if the two hemispheres are tested with cursive. This indicates that the right hemisphere plays a larger part when reading cursive.
4. Retain more information.
Sorry, but writing notes in cursive is better than typing for retaining the information you’re receiving. Why? When we type, we’re able to almost put down information verbatim. When we are writing it down, we have to be more selective. The brain has to process the information it’s getting and decide what is really important enough to record. This tends to make the information “stick” instead of just passing through.
5. May help improve motor control.
Because cursive handwriting is a fine motor skill that employs plenty of practice, people with developmental dysgraphia may benefit from learning this form of writing.
6. Cursive Writing is Important. It makes you a better speller.
Ah, another remembrance from the past, spelling bees. Cursive can help you here, too. My son is a terrible speller (don’t tell him I told you. He’s a teacher but fortunately for the students, he doesn’t teach spelling!)
Because you are thinking of words as a unit when you write in cursive, you will tend to remember their proper spelling more accurately. As a result, people who write cursive tend to be better spellers.
7. My favorite, you can read it!
I love genealogy and nothing makes me happier than to find an old family letter written in that elegant cursive script that people used to write. Not to forget all those historical documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Sure, there are printed copies of them, but nothing stirs the soul as much as reading the words and seeing the signatures to remind us of their true value.
So, if you already write cursive, don’t lose the skill. If you don’t know it, maybe it’s time to learn. And, it can be fun if you make a game of it. Try learning calligraphy. Just sit and doodle with words in cursive. It’s doing so much more than just expressing your thoughts, it’s helping your brain.
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