Two reasonable arguments point opposite ways. Typing is physically easy, which should suit a child whose fine motor control is still arriving. Handwriting couples the movement to the shape, which should lay down a trace that typing never does. So a German team built 16 training sessions of letter games, teaching eight letters by pen or by keyboard. Which children came out ahead?
Typing was not better at anything, and handwriting was better at one thing. Across letter recognition, letter naming, letter writing, word reading and , typing training showed no superiority on any measure. Handwriting training beat typing training in word writing, and showed an advantage in word reading that the authors report as a rather than a clear effect. The easiness of the keyboard bought nothing.
Keyboards are displacing pens early, and the argument about whether that matters for literacy has two defensible sides. Typing is easy on an undeveloped hand, which should let a young child get to letters and words sooner. Against that, handwriting couples action to perception, and the sensory-motor memory traces it establishes may help written language take hold.
Deciding between them needs a trial that changes the writing mode and nothing else. This team built an intense program of 16 training sessions for children in a German kindergarten, using closely matched letter learning games. Eight letters of the German alphabet were trained either by writing with a pen on paper or by typing on a computer keyboard.
The children were then tested on letter recognition, letter naming and letter writing, and on reading and writing whole words. Typing training showed no superiority over handwriting on any of those tasks, which is the first result and the one that undercuts the convenience argument directly.
Handwriting training was superior to typing in word writing, and better in word reading as a tendency rather than as a firm effect. The authors read this as support for action-perception coupling, with the traces laid down by handwriting helping written language acquisition. Keep the scope in view. Eight letters, one kindergarten program, a clear advantage confined to word writing, and a reading advantage that has not yet cleared the bar.
wat. Sixteen sessions of pen work beat sixteen on a keyboard at writing words, and the keyboard won nothing anywhere.
wat wat
The case for keyboards in early literacy rested on removing a physical obstacle. This trial removed it and gained nothing, which is a direct test of the premise rather than an argument about screens.
How do we know?
Kiefer and colleagues gave German kindergarten children 16 sessions of closely matched letter learning games, training eight letters either by pen on paper or by typing, then tested letter and word skills.
What is still unknown
Eight letters of the German alphabet in one kindergarten program, with the clearer result confined to word writing and the reading advantage only a tendency. A larger trial could move either finding.
Learn something?
Where to next
What makes a museum visit teach a child anything?learning
Did a brain scan prove that writing by hand teaches better than typing?handwriting
You were told you are a visual learner. Should you be taught only in pictures?learning