Do children's scribbles have a long time to live? Luckily, it seems so. Finland specifies that handwriting by pen for children in school does not end, but it will not be mandatory to learn the letter followed or cursive calligraphy since August 2016.
It will be then when Finnish children, who begin compulsory school with seven years, will have to learn the strokes of a single type of writing, that of the print, and will cease to be compulsory teaching cursive calligraphy, which is now He teaches with the first, while enhancing the use of the keyboard.
The Finnish authorities have been quick to make these specifications after the word spread that schools stopped writing by hand. However, it is very possible that it is only a pause on a path of no return. But here we are going to leave you six reasons to keep writing by hand.
Promotes learning and memory
When pencil and paper are used to capture ideas, several systems are exercised at once. In children it is essential to promote learning. When you learn to write with just one hand using a pencil or pen more complex neuronal abilities are stimulated and by expressing our thoughts, the brain is exercised to a greater extent than with a keyboard.
There are neurological studies that have shown that by hand writing more brain regions are activated, favoring the learning of shapes, symbols and languages, which helps to fix the concepts. In the physical act of writing, the signals that communicate the hands to the brain build a long-term memory.
In addition, when you learn the letters it is done differently by writing them manually. Remembering the shape of each letter requires a different type of brain response when writing it, when performing manual movements.
Handwriting develops motor skills
The movements that children make to define the strokes of the letters require fine motor skills that pressing a key does not have. "Calligraphy" etymologically means "beautiful letter" and although not all of us get it at the end, it is true that at first in the learning of writing when children do not master their manual movements it is an important exercise in motor development fine.
Remember that this development fine motor development It arises when the baby discovers the hands, moves them looking at them and begins to try to take the objects and manipulate their environment. The writing comes a little later, reaching a much higher level of complexity than those first steps such as clapping, the clamp ability ...
Of course, that fine motor skills helps them to continue learning and performing more and more complex actions, from detailed drawings to other crafts ... Perhaps many surgeons, cooks or painters acquired a special pulse by practicing calligraphy ...
Promote reflection, calm our mind
Handwriting is a slower process than writing with physical or virtual keyboards, which allows our flow of ideas to be more continuous while paused (not "jumping" like on a keyboard), to stop to think more .
Handwriting helps sort ideas, and even talk about "therapeutic writing" when expressing concerns in writing helps to recognize and overcome them. Handwritten diaries can help people feel better, by spending that reflective moment alone that the screens do not favor.
Expressive writing has been linked in various studies with better mood and greater well-being, even reducing stress levels.
Promote the imagination
There are many writers who deny the computer when making their creations. The differences with the mechanical writing that we have mentioned above make the process of "artisanal" writing, leisurely, with a pen, more prone to let the imagination fly, to the emergence of new and original ideas.
Each person has a unique letter
Those first scribbles of the child will become a personal, recognizable and unique letter. The calligraphy and style of our own say a lot about the person, even we ourselves can know, when looking at the strokes we wrote in the past, if we were nervous, calm, at what time of our life this text corresponds ...
Leave notes in the fridge
Maybe instant messaging ends up replacing them, but what about those notes in the fridge that are made to remind us of something, that milk is missing, to congratulate us on a special day or maybe we just love each other? And who says fridge says in the mirror, at the door, on the pillow, on the sidelines of a book (yes, I am one of those who writes on them) or in the lunch bag ...
Without a doubt, having to print those messages written on the computer takes us a job that, if we have pen or pencil and paper at hand, we solve in a moment. I would love to see those thank you, love or reminder notes not disappear from the corners of homes.
Anyway, Finland may not have banished calligraphic writing yet but I fear it is an unstoppable process. With keyboards, we will leave many things along the way, you are reasons to keep writing by hand they will stop having so much weight, although other different advantages will come.
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In Babies and more | Is it okay for children to stop learning to write by hand? What is grafomotricity and what is it for, should children start reading and writing at age six?
