Handwriting is crucial for many reasons but certainly because it is one of the things that sets us apart as being human. No one can deny the pleasure of receiving a personal handwritten note over a printed mass produced one.
Recent brain scan studies have shown that early handwriting skill helps children learn to read. Typing on a key board – keyboarding- doesn’t have this effect. Cursive as a form of handwriting is as important. To write legible cursive, fine motor control is needed over the fingers and brain imaging studies show that cursive activates areas of the brain that do not participate in keyboarding. The benefits to brain development are similar to what you get with learning to play a musical instrument.
In this computer age attention to the benefits of writing has been forgotten in classrooms as an upheaval has occurred in how this skill is taught and practiced. The lessons have become sporadic and cursive writing is giving way to printing. The consequences of this can be seen in corporate offices and in personal communications.
Read more in my article: "Is handwriting still relevant?"
http://www.campaignforcursive.com
http://mentalfloss.com/article/33508/4-benefits-writing-hand#ixzz2Zmy8wxKS