Adapting to Digital Communication
Every time I ask my 13-year-old son to write a paragraph by hand, he responds with a dramatic sigh and a look of disbelief. In stark contrast, when he messages his friends, his fingers race across the keyboard of his iPad with remarkable speed. While screens have not entirely replaced paper and pencils, they have undoubtedly become integral to everyday learning.
“With greater access to devices at both home and school, it seems we are witnessing a natural decline in children’s use of pencils,” notes Kate Kelly, coordinator of the Primary Years Programme at the Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai. This raises a critical question: what do children miss out on when typing takes precedence over handwriting?
The Multifaceted Nature of Handwriting
Writing by hand involves much more than merely forming letters. Kelly explains, “When a child draws, makes marks, or begins to write, a multitude of processes are occurring simultaneously: physically, cognitively, and creatively.”
Dr. Alexandre Machado, a clinical neuropsychologist at Medcare Royal Speciality Hospital in Al Qusais, Dubai, elaborates on this point by highlighting how handwriting combines fine motor control with sensory feedback. Children must coordinate their movements to trace each letter instead of merely pressing a key.
A 2025 study involving 50 five-year-olds in Spain assessed how they learned unfamiliar letters. Those who practised writing by hand performed significantly better in naming and writing letters compared to their peers who typed. “Writing is an extraordinarily complex cognitive and motor exercise…requiring a sophisticated symphony of fine motor skills and tactile feedback,” he adds.
The Cognitive Benefits of Handwriting
Typing, on the other hand, is a different experience altogether. “In contrast, typing on a keyboard or tapping on a touchscreen is a uniform and repetitive motor action that demands significantly less cognitive effort and activates far fewer neural circuits,” Dr. Machado points out. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have shown that the physical act of handwriting “activates a robust network of brain regions, particularly those involved in sensory processing and memory encoding, often referred to as the ‘reading circuit’.”
Research conducted in 2024 at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology tracked the brain activity of 36 university students, revealing that writing with a digital pen was associated with greater connectivity among brain regions than typing. While this finding does not by itself indicate that typing hampers children’s development, it does suggest that the cognitive engagement involved in handwriting may have unique advantages.
Creating Space for Reflection
Handwriting can also provide children with a necessary space to reflect, states Heenal Reddy, a psychotherapist specialising in children and adolescents at Sage Clinics in Dubai. “This process can create an opportunity for them to pause, process, and organise their thoughts and feelings, particularly when these are difficult to express verbally.”
Reddy further emphasises that in a world increasingly dominated by screens, characterised by constant stimulation and rapid information, children require opportunities to digest information rather than continuously react to the next stimulus.
Broader Developmental Considerations
Amina Shazib, director of inclusive education services at the Developing Child Centre, argues that handwriting is the culmination of a much broader developmental process. “A child may be incredibly quick and precise when handling a tablet, but that constitutes a different type of motor experience compared to climbing, hanging, manipulating objects, drawing, cutting, or using a pencil,” she explains.
Activities such as crawling, climbing, and balancing contribute to the strength, stability, and coordination needed for increasingly precise hand movements. “From what I observe in early intervention assessments, children have not necessarily become weaker in their hands, but the variety of experiences they engage in has diminished.”
Shazib also notes that children often abandon writing tasks sooner than expected, as they are less accustomed to composing longer sentences or maintaining focus on an activity for extended periods. This does not imply that screens inherently weaken fine motor skills.
Finding a Balance in Education
Shazib stresses that technology remains a vital educational tool, facilitating learning, communication, and knowledge demonstration. Kelly advocates for safeguarding opportunities to “write, draw, build, manipulate, and create with their hands, especially for younger children.” Her school has implemented a device-free start to each academic year. “This approach provides students and teachers the chance to focus on relationships, routines, collaboration, and hands-on learning before devices are reintroduced into the classroom.”
The Norwegian researchers from the 2024 study acknowledged the benefits of both handwriting and typing, recommending that children learn to do both while considering which task suits each activity best. At home, Dr. Machado suggests integrating handwriting into daily routines, such as creating shopping lists, writing thank-you cards, or maintaining journals.
In classrooms, he recommends that students brainstorm, create mind maps, and outline on paper before transitioning to screens for final revisions. Taking visual notes that combine sketches with written text offers another way to engage with material.
The goal is to ensure that handwriting remains a part of children’s lives alongside the keyboards they already use.