Why Paper and Pencil are Mightier than Screens for Child Learning

People often ask us “where are the interactive games I can pull up on my screen for the kids”?

Well, we don’t have them.

But here’s the thing, there’s a reason for that:

As it turns out, a whole bunch of different researchers have all found that humans learn best through…

…wait for it…

Seeing things on real paper and writing things with their hands!

Our education system leans heavily on screen time for children and technology-assisted learning.

And we get it.

There’s only so much teacher time and attention to go around.

But here at Speech and Language Kids, we’re not interested in doing the same thing as everyone else.

We’re interested in finding the BEST and QUICKEST way to help children get caught up in communication.

So we’re using paper and pencil.

Our full curriculum is PDF-based, which means you can print it out and have your clients actually touch it.

Because research has found:

  • Recall is higher when writing something by hand vs. typing it on a keyboard
  • Handwriting facilitates reading acquisition in young children
  • Retention is higher when reading something on paper vs. a screen

So yes, we use printed materials.

And no, we don’t have interactive screen games.  

The kids have enough of those all day at school.

We’re homing in on the things that will really move the needle for our clients and students.

And that’s just one aspect of our powerful new system that puts all of these tiny details together into one massively powerful tool to help children get caught up.

Sources:

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014).

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581

Mangen, A., & Velmans, A. (2013).

Mangen, A., & Velmans, A. (2013). Handwriting versus keyboard writing: Effect on word recall. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 8(1), 38–55.

James, K. H., & Engelhardt, L. (2012).

James, K. H., & Engelhardt, L. (2012). The effects of handwriting experience on functional brain development in pre-literate children. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, 1(1), 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tine.2012.08.001

Delgado, P., Vargas, C., Ackerman, R., Salmerón, L., & Ibáñez-Alfonso, J. A. (2018).

Delgado, P., Vargas, C., Ackerman, R., Salmerón, L., & Ibáñez-Alfonso, J. A. (2018). Don’t throw away your printed books: A meta-analysis on the effects of reading media on reading comprehension. Educational Research Review, 25, 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2018.09.003

Singer, L. M., & Alexander, P. A. (2017).

Singer, L. M., & Alexander, P. A. (2017). Reading across mediums: Effects of reading digital and print texts on comprehension and calibration. The Journal of Experimental Education, 85(1), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2016.1143794