Young children demonstrate a stronger aptitude for learning letters and the structural components of words when employing handwriting compared to using keyboards, according to new research from the University of the Basque Country. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, investigated the impact of manual versus digital methods on the acquisition of fundamental literacy skills in 5- to 6-year-olds, a crucial developmental stage for reading and writing acquisition.
Researchers instructed a cohort of 50 children with basic reading comprehension skills in nine unfamiliar letters from the Georgian and Armenian alphabets, along with 16 novel pseudowords constructed from these letters. This approach ensured that learning commenced from a baseline, unlike previous studies that often utilized familiar alphabets, potentially obscuring the extent of new symbol acquisition.
The participants were divided into groups, with one half learning through manual copying and the other half using keyboards. The study specifically aimed to isolate the role of graphomotor function – the physical act of writing – in the learning process. Unlike keyboard use, handwriting necessitates the tracing of letter shapes, engaging motor skills believed to be critical for memory encoding of visual and structural information.
Assessments following the training period encompassed tests of recognition, writing, and pronunciation of both the novel letters and pseudowords. The findings indicated a statistically significant advantage for the children who practiced handwriting across all tested areas. Notably, the disparity was most pronounced in tasks involving pseudowords, where the keyboard-trained group exhibited significantly lower accuracy in identifying and manipulating letter sequences.
Associate Professor Joana Acha, one of the researchers, explained, "As children write less and less by hand, we wanted to explore the impact of this on alphabetic and orthographic skills. In other words, we wanted to see whether the ability to learn letters and to assimilate and remember word structure develops differently through manual training or the use of keyboards. We concluded that the children who used their hands obtained the best results."
Further analysis within the handwriting group revealed that those who engaged in free copying, without dotted guides, demonstrated the most robust learning outcomes. This suggests that while guided tracing may be beneficial initially, the transition to independent writing fosters deeper learning once basic motor control is established. In contrast, variations in font during keyboard training did not yield the same positive impact.
The study's conclusions underscore the importance of prioritizing handwriting in early literacy education. Researchers recommend a cautious approach to replacing traditional pencil-and-paper methods with digital devices during the critical phase of reading acquisition. The findings contribute to a growing body of evidence highlighting the unique cognitive benefits associated with manual writing in the development of literacy skills. Further research is warranted to explore the long-term implications of these findings on literacy development and educational practices.
I truly appreciate you spending your valuable time here. To help make this blog the best it can be, I'd love your feedback on this post. Let me know in the comments: How could this article be better? Was it clear? Did it have the right amount of detail? Did you notice any errors?
If you found it valuable, please consider sharing it.