What Hands May Tell Us about Reading and Writing

Abstract

Reading and writing are increasingly performed with digital, screen-based technologies rather than with analogue technologies such as paper and pen(cil). The current digitization is an occasion to "unpack," theoretically and conceptually, what is entailed in reading and writing as embodied, multisensory processes involving audiovisual and ergonomic interaction with devices having particular affordances. Highlighting the sensorimotor contingencies of substrates and technologieshow movement and object manipulation affect perception, experience, and sensory "feel" -this article presents an embodied approach to reading, writing, and literacy, using three cases of digitization as illustrations of some educational implications: (1) beginning writing by hand or by keyboard; (2) dialogic reading with iPads and print picture books in kindergarten; and (3) deep reading of long, linear texts on paper and on screens.Without hands, writing systems and literacy may have never emerged.

Pros and Cons: Handwriting Versus Digital Writing

“…Could this be an expression of the link between hand and brain, motor embodiment, and memory (cf. Longcamp et al, 2008, Mangen, 2016, Mangen & Balsvik, 2016? This is remarkable, especially if we add the results of observations showing that some students interacted more when they wrote digitally, whereas they sat by themselves more when writing by hand.…”

“…Longcamp et al (2008) concluded that the combination of physical action and memory makes people remember better. To encourage teachers to use keyboards instead of pen and paper in early writing instruction is, according to Mangen (2016), ill advised. She argues that we still know too little about how the effects of transition from pen and paper to writing with digital tools will affect the close connection of motor action, perception and cognition (Mangen, 2016;Mangen & Balsvik, 2016).…”

“…To encourage teachers to use keyboards instead of pen and paper in early writing instruction is, according to Mangen (2016), ill advised. She argues that we still know too little about how the effects of transition from pen and paper to writing with digital tools will affect the close connection of motor action, perception and cognition (Mangen, 2016;Mangen & Balsvik, 2016). Handwriting, in addition to writing with digital tools, may be a solution for preventing long-term negative effects on motor control skills, and may prevent the ongoing marginalisation of handwriting in writing instruction (Mangen & Balsvik, 2016).…”

“…Also, there are messages to schools on how digital writing tools can improve the skills of struggling writers, which can increase accessability and equity (Stone, 2002;Liberg, 2014;Agélii Genlott & Grönlund, 2016). In contradiction to this, Mangen (2016) and Mangen and Balsvik (2016) report on danger in the transition from handwriting to typing, because of the lack of evidence on the effects this may have on students' cognition and fine motor skills. Studying the impact of digital resources on student texts also includes reflecting on technological gains and losses.…”

An integrative framework for studying, designing and conceptualising interactivity in children's digital books

“…A narrow range of outcome measures does not accord with contemporary theoretical models of reading, which include psychological as well as socio‐cultural aspects of reading (e.g. Mangen, ) and which call for a departure from formulaic definitions of reading and early literacy (Sefton‐Green et al ., ). There are three methodological improvements that are crucial for the field to advance as a hybrid research practice: alternative comparison conditions; alternative outcome measures; and the use of method assemblage.…”