Do you remember way back when you were learning to write? Were you taught to write and by whom?
I am regularly asked about the importance nowadays of learning to write and its place in education today.
How relevant is it? Other than being a strong indicator of motor control?
Or great for note taking during class, giving students the opportunity to paraphrase what they are hearing in their own words and as such already in the process of learning what they are hearing, which does not happen with keyboarding. A great incentive for learning. There have been many successful research studies proving this in universities around the world.
Or even possibly as early learning, for letter processing of brain regions to underlie successful reading.
Writing integrates the following three brain processes:
Neuroscientists have noted that the shift from handwriting to keyboarded or digitised writing has serious implications on cognition and skill development.
Many people that have not been taught how to hold a pen correctly, struggle, complaining of hand cramps and strained tendons. Position is all important – not just position of the pen in the hand but paper, and position of the person writing. All of these factors plus others dictate how you write. But let’s go back in time to when you were learning –
Initially, you probably grasped the crayon in your fist and with no control over it scrawled and scribbled wherever the crayon touched. Parents with crayon all over their walls can attest to this.
Drawing comes first, then ultimately with handwriting training, comes letter perception/ impulse, then word impulse and finally sentence impulse. Research has shown that 5-year-old preliterate children only learnt letter perception after handwriting but not through printed, typed or traced letters and shapes. This demonstrated with fMRI scanning that handwriting is important for the brain regions known to be involved in successful reading. Handwriting can therefore help with reading attainment in young children.
Stages involved in this perception involve drawing initially; drawing ability is based on the child’s mental age. Immature drawings are due to the brain not being fully developed at that time as drawing in childhood starts around 15-20 months in forms of scribbles and later becomes more organised and bolder as the child gains sureness. This highlights the stages from scribbling to basic picture, then knowledge of the objects being drawn and finally a pictorial process. The scribbling process is the initial step for hand-eye coordination, essential for handwriting. The dynamic tripod grip of the pen, and the most comfortable, where the pen is held between the thumb and forefinger, resting on the middle finger is generally reached by the age of 7. This allows full finger extension, wrist and arm movement.
Without specialist teaching of handwriting and pen hold, individuals can have problems with too much muscle tension through the wrong grip, or lack of wrist stability, even paper not positioned correctly. Any of these can cause the writing to fluctuate and ultimately produce pain in the body from muscle tension.
As individuals go into the teenage years, some hoping to be different from the others will emulate those who they admire, for instance the circle i-dot, or a paraph under their signature, italic type writing or even printing. Generally, though these fade and the individual’s own style comes with maturity.
One of the last things to master in handwriting is spacing; form and movement slowly evolve but spacing comes later. Some letters cause difficulty such as those with multiple strokes for instance, but ultimately once school has passed, and the individual begins to develop their own style away from the school model – then the true person begins to show through. Some tend to embellish their strokes, but others will simplify the letters reducing them down to the barest shape but through this the speed of mind starts to become apparent.
Our handwriting is who we are. Our brain forms, shapes and moulds the letters into patterns that are intrinsic to who we are. The brain which experiences everything through the body from our nervous and immune systems and from our unconscious tempers the writing stroke to us.
The psychological analysis of handwriting, aka graphology, lifts the veil on those perceptions formed in our childhood and shapes who we are dictating our behaviour and highlighting the decisions and actions that we take in adulthood.
Is handwriting still relevant? Yes! Without handwriting, synapses in the brain are slow to form, helping to activate parts of the brain which are important for learning and memory. With handwriting, individuals learn hand-eye co-ordination, can read, and understand different versions of each letter.
Love letters – those of Napoleon and Josephine, Johnny Cash to his wife, King Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn and of course the handwritten Journals explaining so much about life in the times they lived. How often will such things survive on computers in the future – hard drives are generally destroyed when computers have served their time. New software so often precludes access to old information on earlier editions and therefore our history and history to come will cease to exist.
Would you be interested in learning more about this fascinating subject and learn to understand yourself through your handwriting? Recently, the course I teach was rated excellent by a student who also stated that it was insightful, thought provoking and moving. If you wish to learn more, I am now offering one-to-one graphology training helping you to lift the veil in understanding motivations and behaviour patterns of those around you and for possible self-development.
Comment from a client –
Self-awareness and personal development go hand in hand and what you get from Christina will give you the tools you need to work on both. Thank you Christina xx’
Marie Jayne Harris
