Think you don’t need handwriting in a modern world? You may want to think twice about ditching the pen and paper.

An Australian brain expert has found there are plenty of reasons why the old fashioned way shouldn’t be made redundant.

Perth based Dr Jenny Brockis, Author of BrainFit and FutureBrain, believes people are doing themselves a disservice if they don’t keep up their handwriting skills.

“People have asked me if it matters if we don’t handwrite anymore,” Dr Brockis told Yahoo7.

“I was curious as to whether we were doing ourselves a disservice and found there are two camps - One says tech is the way to go, we’re adapting to it and the brain can change… The other says tech is great but there are certain aspects of the ability to hold a pen and produce writing on paper which is really important as to how well we can apply our thinking”.

Dr Brockis found handwriting, in particular cursive, enabled people to retain knowledge at a higher level.

“One study looked at how students retain information. A lot of university students go to class with a laptop and take notes using their keyboard… very few use a notebook,” she said.

“However, it was found the kids who used longhand had deeper understanding of the information and could record it to a deeper degree some time after.

While she recognised it was no longer the convenient way to go, Dr Brockis felt the act of handwriting could be used on a daily basis as a form of brain training.

“Many schools are choosing not to teach handwriting anymore or only teach students how to print because they’re now going straight to the keyboard,” she said.

View photos Dr Brockis believes it's important for both children and adults to keep their handwriting skills up. Photo: Yahoo News More

“They see it (cursive) as less relevant, I think where they are coming from is that they see it (keyboards) as being quicker and easier”.

However she said the art of holding a pen to paper had plenty of benefits from a learning perspective.

“It enables the brain to develop functional specialisation, how we integrate our understanding of the world and what we are trying to learn,” she said.

“It’s definitely shown the actual practice of holding a pen to paper helps us to learn and read more quickly, it also helps to generate ideas and express ourselves in a different way.

“Pen on to paper will lead to far more creative ideas and innovation”.

She also felt it might be linked to a person’s ability to read and spell also.

“The implication is if you learn how to write that will help you to learn how to read and then we can learn vocabulary and expand it to much larger level,” she said.

“I haven’t found definite research about the ability to spell but my intuition tells me it would affect it… computers have automatic spell checks so we don’t have to think how we are spelling a particular word… I think it would make a difference”.

Dr Brockis also felt handwriting was a way for people to stay sharp as they aged.

“It’s very good brain training,” she said.

View photos Dr Brockis says putting pen to paper more often leads to far more creative ideas and innovation. Photo: AP More

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