The Effect of Handwriting Experience on Literacy Learning

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621993111

Commentary

Past research has shown that writing practice may be more beneficial than non-motor practice for learning letters. This study compared typing, visual, and writing learning conditions in adults. (N= 42)

The study evaluated the nature of learned written representations in terms of the impact of the learning modality on behavior in literacy learning.

The researchers found that

Are the benefits of handwriting practice due to motor learning itself or to other concomitant factors?

Second, do the benefits generalize to untrained tasks?

Third, does handwriting practice result in learning and reinforcement only of motor or other types of representations?

We were testing for the following hypotheses.

The results clearly show that handwriting, compared to non-motor practice, produces faster learning and greater generalization to untrained tasks than previously reported. Furthermore, we find that only handwriting practice leads to learning of both motor and non-modal symbolic representations.