Brain stimulation, movement and cursive handwriting
I was pleased, but not surprised, to read an article in the April, 5, 2016 Wall Street Journal by Robert Lee Lotz entitled “The Power of Hand Writing (D1-D2). In this article, Mr. Lotz summarizes the results of research measuring the short- and long-term benefits of students taking hand written notes versus typed notes on a portable computer device such as a laptop. The researchers thus far have found:
· In 2012 researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis found that in the short run, laptop note takers performed slightly better and had higher recall.
· The same University of Washington research study found that those who took notes in longhand remembered material longer and had a better grasp of concepts.
· In 2014, experiments by psychologists Pam A. Mueller at Princeton and Daniel Oppenhemer at UCLA found, “… that students who took notes by hand took down fewer words, but appeared to think more intensely about the material as they wrote and ingested what they heard more thoroughly.”
· Any notes are better than none.
This particular article did not report on any of the research which connects movement per se with brain stimulation.
Yet we know a number of facts about the human body and the relationship between movement and the brain.. These include:
1 The various parts human body is interactional (talk to each other)
2 The brain is part of the body.
3 The brain directs movement.
4 Movement affects/directs the brain.
5 Many other factors affect the brain which in turns affects the body which in turn…
6 Developmentally delayed children who received physical therapy – manual manipulation of their body – develop certain skills such as language faster. (One can google the mind body connection and learn about the work of such individuals as Mark Taylor with whom I studied.)
Thus, it should come as no surprise that any activity which involves increase movement will have an effect on the brain. The movement required for cursive writing is much different than that required for typing/keyboarding.
There are apparently other advantages to cursive writing. David Sortino reports in an article entitled (Brain research and cursive writing (davidsortino.blogs.pressdemocrat.com) that students who wrote in cursive for the essay portion of the SAT scored slightly higher than those who printed, “which experts believe is because the speed and efficiency of writing in cursive allowed the students to focus on cohesion of ideas in their essays through the mirror of the connected cursive stroke.”
Denise Ferrell reports that further research is strongly suggesting that other benefits of cursive handwriting may be:
1. Functional brain development.
2. Stimulation of brain synapses.
3. Memory retention
4. Development of fine motor skills
5. Improved reading and learning capability.
(Denise Ferrell, September 20, 2015, “Can our brain benefit from cursive handwriting, tbifaithnews.com)
Other researchers are focusing on mapping of the brain regions which work together to control movement. This research holds promise for better understanding and possibly developing treatments for such disorders as ALS. It may also be important to remember that once there is some impairment in the brain which affects movement, the feedback to and the affect on the brain may hasten or cause further impairment. (google brain mapping and ALS)
We humans have a tendency to discount or forget the interactional nature of all relationships whether between the brain and the rest of the body, between humans and the rest of the universe(s), or between humans. Everything we do literally changes the entire universe(s) and every change in any other part of the universe affects what is happening with the individual human and humans as group.
I recall when I first went to Alaska to work with the Klingit Indian community, I was educated regarding on how the changes introduced to and often imposed on the indigenous people affected every aspect of their life. Foods were introduced which so changed the diet that they began to experience illnesses which they had not previously experienced. Forbidding children from speaking their native language, arranging houses as in a suburb without taking into account the dynamics of the community, destroying their written history which was recorded with the totem poles, and imposing a system of justice which violated their core beliefs and values destroyed everything which had allowed them to live and to thrive for a very long time.
Similarly, when we as a culture decide to replace such seemingly innocuous activity as cursive handwriting with the computer, we need to consider that the changes which are then effected are going to change more than the convenience of being able to use spell check, editing, and other tools without having to retype entire documents, use carbon paper or type a ditto copy (the young reader may need to google the ancient modernizing “art” of such techniques).
Whether it is in the use of prepared frozen meals, the computer, the automobile or other magical inventions, we humans may want to borrow the skills of those other humans who are trained and skilled in appreciating and understanding the nature of systems – how all system are interactional. We do not need to fully understand quantum physics to accept the basics of system theory.
Written April 6, 2016
I was pleased, but not surprised, to read an article in the April, 5, 2016 Wall Street Journal by Robert Lee Lotz entitled “The Power of Hand Writing (D1-D2). In this article, Mr. Lotz summarizes the results of research measuring the short- and long-term benefits of students taking hand written notes versus typed notes on a portable computer device such as a laptop. The researchers thus far have found:
· In 2012 researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis found that in the short run, laptop note takers performed slightly better and had higher recall.
· The same University of Washington research study found that those who took notes in longhand remembered material longer and had a better grasp of concepts.
· In 2014, experiments by psychologists Pam A. Mueller at Princeton and Daniel Oppenhemer at UCLA found, “… that students who took notes by hand took down fewer words, but appeared to think more intensely about the material as they wrote and ingested what they heard more thoroughly.”
· Any notes are better than none.
This particular article did not report on any of the research which connects movement per se with brain stimulation.
Yet we know a number of facts about the human body and the relationship between movement and the brain.. These include:
1 The various parts human body is interactional (talk to each other)
2 The brain is part of the body.
3 The brain directs movement.
4 Movement affects/directs the brain.
5 Many other factors affect the brain which in turns affects the body which in turn…
6 Developmentally delayed children who received physical therapy – manual manipulation of their body – develop certain skills such as language faster. (One can google the mind body connection and learn about the work of such individuals as Mark Taylor with whom I studied.)
Thus, it should come as no surprise that any activity which involves increase movement will have an effect on the brain. The movement required for cursive writing is much different than that required for typing/keyboarding.
There are apparently other advantages to cursive writing. David Sortino reports in an article entitled (Brain research and cursive writing (davidsortino.blogs.pressdemocrat.com) that students who wrote in cursive for the essay portion of the SAT scored slightly higher than those who printed, “which experts believe is because the speed and efficiency of writing in cursive allowed the students to focus on cohesion of ideas in their essays through the mirror of the connected cursive stroke.”
Denise Ferrell reports that further research is strongly suggesting that other benefits of cursive handwriting may be:
1. Functional brain development.
2. Stimulation of brain synapses.
3. Memory retention
4. Development of fine motor skills
5. Improved reading and learning capability.
(Denise Ferrell, September 20, 2015, “Can our brain benefit from cursive handwriting, tbifaithnews.com)
Other researchers are focusing on mapping of the brain regions which work together to control movement. This research holds promise for better understanding and possibly developing treatments for such disorders as ALS. It may also be important to remember that once there is some impairment in the brain which affects movement, the feedback to and the affect on the brain may hasten or cause further impairment. (google brain mapping and ALS)
We humans have a tendency to discount or forget the interactional nature of all relationships whether between the brain and the rest of the body, between humans and the rest of the universe(s), or between humans. Everything we do literally changes the entire universe(s) and every change in any other part of the universe affects what is happening with the individual human and humans as group.
I recall when I first went to Alaska to work with the Klingit Indian community, I was educated regarding on how the changes introduced to and often imposed on the indigenous people affected every aspect of their life. Foods were introduced which so changed the diet that they began to experience illnesses which they had not previously experienced. Forbidding children from speaking their native language, arranging houses as in a suburb without taking into account the dynamics of the community, destroying their written history which was recorded with the totem poles, and imposing a system of justice which violated their core beliefs and values destroyed everything which had allowed them to live and to thrive for a very long time.
Similarly, when we as a culture decide to replace such seemingly innocuous activity as cursive handwriting with the computer, we need to consider that the changes which are then effected are going to change more than the convenience of being able to use spell check, editing, and other tools without having to retype entire documents, use carbon paper or type a ditto copy (the young reader may need to google the ancient modernizing “art” of such techniques).
Whether it is in the use of prepared frozen meals, the computer, the automobile or other magical inventions, we humans may want to borrow the skills of those other humans who are trained and skilled in appreciating and understanding the nature of systems – how all system are interactional. We do not need to fully understand quantum physics to accept the basics of system theory.
Written April 6, 2016
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