by Beth Mckinney

Created on: December 31, 2009

Although some schools spend little time on cursive handwriting lessons, studies show a connection between cursive writing and brain development.

Many would agree with first-century Roman writer Marcus Quintilianus that “too slow a hand impedes the mind,” However, modern education professionals seem to believe that promoting keyboard fluency will do as much to develop the minds of their students as traditional handwriting lessons once did. While students do need to be digitally competent to succeed, teachers need to continue to teach cursive handwriting according to much of the research.

Writing Cursive and the Brain

“There's some pretty powerful evidence of changes in the brain that occur as the result of learning to overcome a motor challenge," says Rand Nelson of Peterson Directed Handwriting. The act of physically gripping a pen or pencil and practicing the swirls, curls and connections of cursive handwriting activates parts of the brain that lead increase language fluency.

This idea is echoed by Iris Hatfield, creator of the New American Cursive program. She also believes in the connection between handwriting and brain development. “Cursive improves neural connections in the brain, “ she writes. She stresses that physiological movement of writing cursive letters “help build pathways in the brain while improving mental effectiveness.” This increased effectiveness may continue throughout a child's academic career.

R. Shadmehr and H. Holcomb of Johns Hopkins University published a study in Science Magazine showing that their subject's brains actually changed in reaction to physical instruction such as cursive handwriting lessons. The researchers provided PET scans as evidence of these changes in brain structure. Further, they also demonstrated that these changes resulted in an “almost immediate improvement in fluency,” which led to later development of neural pathways. As a result of practicing motor skills, the researchers found, knowledge becomes more stable.

Cursive Letters and the Development of Knowledge

As information replaces industry in the marketplace, parents, educators and students themselves have come to place more emphasis on the development of knowledge over the development of physical skills. Those who work with their hands are considered less valuable than those who work with their bodies in many sections of our society.

As a result, schools place less emphasis on physical instruction such

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