Technology is an undeniable fact of everyday life and can support students’ learning. But there are limits to that: Completely replacing handwriting instruction with keyboarding instruction in elementary school can be detrimental to students’ literacy acquisition. Why are handwriting and letter formation so important?

Research has demonstrated a correlation between letter-naming and letter-writing fluency, and a relationship between letter-naming fluency and successful reading development. There’s a strong connection between the hand and the neutral circuitry of the brain – as students learn to write the critical features of letters, they also learn to recognize them more fluently. This recognition of letters lead to greater letter-writing fluency, which leads to greater overall reading development.