Handwriting and Intelligence

Handwriting and LiteracyHandwriting and Intelligence

Did you know that research has indicated that perceptual and motor systems become linked only when individuals learn through self-generated actions?  Basically, we learn more by doing an activity ourselves versus watching someone else complete the same exact activity.  Babies and little ones learn coordination, visual-spatial skills, and motor skills through self-generated actions.  So the question becomes – why do we teach children how to identify letters and numbers only by showing them letters and numbers?  Is there a connection between handwriting and intelligence?

Use Handwriting to Teach Children How to Identify Letters

One option is to teach children how to identify letters is through handwriting to improve intelligence.  Some research has demonstrated that we learn symbols better if we write them by hand during learning than through other forms of practice, including visual, auditory, and even typing.

In order to determine how handwriting facilitates symbol learning, researchers carried out brain imaging studies on four-year-olds.  They investigated whether experience printing letters by hand creates the perceptual-motor brain network that underlies letter identification and what kind of manual production is important for creating these brain networks.  The brain imaging compared a “see and say” method of learning letters to printing letters without saying the letters.

The results showed that only after the printing training did the visual regions that later become specialized in the literate individual for letter recognition become active.  In a separate study, the “see and say” method was also compared with tracing, printing, and typing.  Again the results showed that only after the printing training, the children’s brain recruited the letter recognition network.

The researchers wanted to take it even one step further to determine how the visual and motor systems become connected in the brain.  Again using brain imaging, they concluded that the visual regions that are active during letter perception (the fusiform gyrus) become functionally connected to motor regions only as a result of handwriting experience.  Further research indicated that the reason handwriting creates these connections is that children are forming many different variations of the same letter versus tracing and typing where it does not vary.

The final study looked 6-year-old children learning a new script—letters written in cursive—either through self-production or through seeing an experimenter produce those same letters in a variable manner.  The brain imaging results indicated that only when the letters were self-produced did seeing the letters recruit the perceptual-motor network.  Learning even variable letters did not result in recruiting the reading network unless the letters were self-produced. Although viewing and tracing variable instances of a given letter was helpful for letter categorization.

The researchers concluded that handwriting experience plays a crucial role in the formation of the brain network that underlies letter recognition.

James, K. H. (2017). The Importance of Handwriting Experience on the Development of the Literate Brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(6), 502-508.

Help Children Improve Their Handwriting and Intelligence Through Movement

Educators and parents can offer students a multi-sensory approach to learning letters and numbers through movement. Children can increase the connections between the perceptual and motor systems.  One way to do this is through movement and learning through active play.

Examples of Active Play to Help Reinforce Handwriting and Intelligence

For example, children can:

This collection of interactive multisensory alphabet activities includes exercises to learn the letters A to Z by working on SAYING the letter, MOVING to the letter, LOOKING for the letter, FINDING the letter words, and TRACING the letters. 

Handwriting Can Predict Reading and Writing Skills

Research indicates that handwriting is associated with intelligence and that it can predict reading and writing skills. A recent study indicated that:

  • handwriting automaticity predicted writing quality and production concurrently and across time after accounting for gender and initial word-reading skills.
  • handwriting automaticity predicted reading performance across time.
  • writing and reading performance were associated with amount of writing practice.
  • teaching planning and revising were positively associated with writing performance.

Reference: Malpique, A. A., Pino-Pasternak, D., & Roberto, M. S. (2020). Writing and reading performance in Year 1 Australian classrooms: Associations with handwriting automaticity and writing instruction. Reading and Writing33(3), 783-805.

Handwriting and Spelling

Handwriting and spelling are also critical parts of intelligence because they are so important for writing. Previous studies have indicated that spelling skills influence the dynamic processes of handwriting. The question remained as to whether variations in spelling ability are related to variations in the legibility of handwriting, spelling skills, or to what extent this relationship may be task- and orthography-specific. A recent study indicated that spelling ability, more so than amount of handwriting experience and years of schooling impacts handwriting legibility. This was further solidified when the researchers determined that all the children’s handwriting in the study was predicted by spelling ability more strongly than by age.

Reference: Caravolas, M., Downing, C. R., Hadden, C. L., & Wynne, C. (2020). Handwriting legibility and its relationship to spelling ability, age, and orthography-specific knowledge: Evidence from monolingual and bilingual children. Frontiers in Psychology11, 1097.

Resources to Help with Handwriting

The Handwriting Interventions Bundle includes 3 occupational therapy tools to help you with handwriting instruction and help your students succeed.  

The Handwriting Interventions Bundle includes 3 occupational therapy tools to help you with handwriting instruction and help your students succeed.  This bundle includes 4 ZIP files that will be available electronically immediately following payment.

Created by school-based OT, Thia Triggs, this intervention starts at the beginning and will allow you to guide your struggling writer to feel confident and successful, regardless of age.
This research-based method has been pivotal for children with and without visual-motor delays, including students with dysgraphia, learning disabilities, ADHD, and autism. Using these SIMPLE strategies, you can make a real difference in helping clients gain legible handwriting.

Handwriting and Literacy

Research also indicates a connection between handwriting, literacy and intelligence. The International Journal of Disability, Development and Education published research 284 elementary school children to explore possible factors that contribute to poor handwriting.

The results indicated the following:

  • correlations were found between poor handwriting, lower cognitive and literacy scores, and a longer duration for handwriting tasks.

The researchers concluded that if children are given handwriting practice time to increase the level of automaticity this may release working memory.  In turn this working memory can be applied to the cognitive demands of the task therefore potentially raise a student’s level of attainment.

Reference:   Debra McCarney, Lynne Peters, Sarah Jackson, Marie Thomas, Amanda Kirby.  Does Poor Handwriting Conceal Literacy Potential in Primary School Children?  International Journal of Disability, Development and Education Vol. 60, Iss. 2, 2013

How do you assess if a child is making progress in foundational skill areas to support handwriting performance? How do you determine if further intervention is required?  Ingrid S. King MScOT, BOT developed the Fantastic Fingers ® Handwriting Foundations Screen to identify handwriting needs fast and monitor progress.  The screen provides standardized observations of functional skills in context.

Read more on on Handwriting, Intelligence and Motor Skills:

Link Between Reading, Visual Perception, and Visual–Motor Integration

Fine Motor Skills and Reading

Fundamental Motor Skills, Executive Function Skills, and Reading

12 Minutes of Exercise Improves Reading and Attention

Visual Motor Connections when Tracing, Handwriting and Typing

Try playing HANDWRITING GAMES to encourage practice time too!