September 2025 – Storyworld International

With debates raging about the role of AI in schools, it turns out old-fashioned handwriting might be the most powerful tool for learning and retaining knowledge — and especially for early literacy and language development!

Far from being outdated, handwriting is the cognitive powerhouse that deserves to be center stage in our classrooms and homes alike.

Handwriting Stimulates the Brain

Handwriting is not just about putting words on paper—it activates key areas of the brain involved in memory and learning. Research shows that writing by hand stimulates the Reticular Activating System (RAS), a brain network that filters information and helps determine what is important enough to store in memory (Rausch, 2015) . When learners physically form letters and words, their brains engage in multisensory processing—integrating movement, visual feedback, and language simultaneously. This strengthens neural connections in ways that passive listening, typing, or highlighting simply cannot.

Handwriting as a Tool for Literacy and Language Development

For children learning to read and write, handwriting is not just practice—it’s brain training. The process links spoken language, visual symbols, and motor memory, which accelerates literacy acquisition. Handwriting also supports second language learning, making vocabulary “stick” more effectively and aiding recall in conversation (Rausch, 2015). By integrating listening, reading, and speaking with the act of writing, learners strengthen all four language modalities, building a strong foundation for lifelong communication.

Why Handwriting Beats “Just Listening”

Listening is important for comprehension, but on its own, it often leads to fleeting memory. Students who only listen may grasp ideas in the moment but struggle to retain details later. By contrast, writing down what they hear forces learners to process the information, rephrase it in their own words, and reinforce it through physical activity. Studies show that handwriting improves long-term recall because the learner is actively constructing meaning, not just receiving it (Smoker, Murphy, & Rockwell, 2009).

Why Handwriting is Stronger than Highlighting

Highlighting can feel productive, but research shows it is one of the least effective study strategies because it promotes shallow engagement (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Highlighting marks what stands out but doesn’t require the brain to do the heavy lifting of making sense of the text. By contrast, handwriting requires learners to summarize, reframe, and select key details in their own words. This act of “generation” builds deeper understanding, vocabulary retention, and literacy skills. For young readers and language learners, handwriting letters and words is also essential to mapping sounds to symbols—an early literacy foundation that highlighting cannot provide.

Why Handwriting Outperforms Typing

Typing may feel faster, but it often leads to verbatim transcription, which does not support critical thinking or memory in the same way as handwriting. Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) found that students who take notes by hand perform better on conceptual questions than those who type, precisely because handwriting requires more processing. For early literacy learners, forming each letter by hand cements orthographic knowledge (letter shapes), phonemic awareness (sounds of language), and vocabulary recall. Handwriting slows the learner down in a good way, deepening engagement with both the form and meaning of language.

So, while listening, highlighting, and typing all play supporting roles, handwriting remains the most powerful tool for reinforcing information and accelerating literacy and language development among all learners!

Cynthia Harrison Barbera

Cynthia Harrison Barbera is President and CEO, StoryWorld International. She served as VP Educational Technology for Scholastic and is the recipient of two US Presidential awards for educational programs. An Emmy-award winner for a television series on education, she has taught English to native-speakers and ELL students in the US and overseas.

References:

- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
- Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168.
- Rausch, P. (2015). The relationship between English speaking and writing proficiency and its implications for instruction. St. Cloud State University.
Smoker, T. J., Murphy, C. E., & Rockwell, T. (2009). Comparing memory for handwriting versus typing. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 53(22), 1744–1747.

For many children who struggle with reading, decoding text can feel overwhelming.

These student may encounter unfamiliar words, lose their place on the page, or focus so much energy on “sounding out” that they lose track of the story altogether. This creates a cycle of frustration and stress that can erode motivation and confidence. The worst outcome is that these students simply never become good readers.

Over and over, I’ve seen how read-aloud supports—whether from a teacher, caregiver, or digital audio—can help break this cycle by giving students access to meaning first, before tackling the mechanics of decoding.

Read-Alouds Lower Stress and Increase Engagement

Research shows that when learners comprehend the gist of a text before attempting to decode it, their stress levels decrease and their engagement increases. According to groundbreaking research by Immordino-Yang (2016), when students feel emotionally safe and interested in the text, they are more likely to take risks and persist in challenging tasks. Similarly, research by Krashen (2004) on comprehensible input emphasizes that learners benefit most when they can understand material in context, which reduces anxiety and allows space for skill development. For ELs and struggling readers, hearing a text read aloud provides this “meaning cushion” that lowers cognitive load so learning can begin.

Comprehension Creates Space for Decoding

By supporting comprehension in advance, read-alouds allow students to focus on decoding without the fear of “getting lost.” August and Shanahan (2006) highlight that comprehension scaffolds—such as listening before reading—enable multilingual and struggling learners to allocate more attention to word recognition and decoding skills. This mirrors Scarborough’s Rope model (2001), which illustrates how skilled reading is woven from both word recognition and language comprehension; strengthening one thread can give room for the other to develop.

Building Vocabulary and Background Knowledge

Read-alouds also build background knowledge and vocabulary, which are essential for reading growth. When students already understand a story, they can map the sounds of words onto known meanings more effectively (Nagy & Townsend, 2012). For example, a child who has listened to a story about a bear in the forest will have an easier time decoding and remembering the printed words bear and forest because they carry meaning the child already holds.

Practical classroom applications include pairing audio with printed text, conducting teacher-led story read-alouds before shared reading, and encouraging parents to read stories aloud at home—even in the family’s home language. These strategies help children approach decoding with confidence rather than dread. Teachers often find that once the pressure to “figure out everything at once” is removed, struggling readers show more willingness to engage in practice and improvement.

The Path to Joyful Reading

In short, read-aloud supports give ELs and struggling readers a head start by making meaning accessible first. Once they understand the story, they can focus on decoding without the paralyzing stress of confusion.

As the research shows, lowering anxiety and supporting comprehension pave the way for stronger skill development and leads to joyful reading experiences that makes students come back for more!

📌 Teacher Tip: Allow students to listen to a story read aloud before asking students to read it again silently or in small groups. Once they know the storyline, struggling readers will be less anxious and more eager to practice decoding the words on their own.

Cynthia Harrison Barbera

References:

August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2016). Emotions, learning, and the brain: Exploring the educational implications of affective neuroscience. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Words as tools: Learning academic vocabulary as language acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly, 47(1), 91–108.
Scarborough, H. S. (2001). Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities. In S. Neuman & D. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research (pp. 97–110). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Month: September 2025

Handwriting Gets an “A+” for Accelerating Learning