Handwriting: a way to improve reading comprehension

Abstract

Handwriting is considered a cognitive tool for learning under the premise that practicing it helps to better understand what is read. When the student writes by hand, it involves greater neural connections, all essential for the future of good writing, because they stimulate more complex thinking when writing long sentences and complete sense. Hence, mastery of handwriting skills plays an important role in academic performance: it has been proven that note takers read faster and get better grades. Taking notes by hand integrates visual, proprioceptive, and haptic information, working memory, and motor information. Writing by hand to take notes allows you to consolidate knowledge and achieve a greater understanding of what is heard or read. What better scenario than for the teacher to add the added value of encouraging written expression among students, performing said action in significant contexts? This undoubtedly implies a cognitive process that forces the student to organize, think and rethink their ideas until they are translated into a written composition. Similarly, reading is influenced by handwriting technique, because motor programs and sensory experiences while reading are also activated when writing. Both are considered essential in the teaching-learning process. In short, writing is not an end in itself but a means to learn that offers the possibility of continuous growth and not a simple skill. In addition to serving as a link to learn about or publicize an idea, writing also transforms consciousness; that is to say, that the written expression has effects on the thoughts and feelings of the person who issues it.