Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors of Handwriting and Their Impacts on Reading

The association of handwriting with children's reading performance has been well documented. Handwriting is a complex activity involving intrinsic factors, such as sensorimotor skills, and it relates to various extrinsic factors from the environment. Embodied cognition emphasizes the impact of bodily interactions with the external environment on knowledge acquisition. Therefore, from the view of embodied cognition, these intrinsic and extrinsic factors are supposed to influence handwriting performance and its relationship with reading. In this chapter, three intrinsic factors of handwriting, which stem from children's capacities in visual, motor, and haptic modalities, will be introduced. Studies on the effects of these intrinsic factors on reading will be reviewed. On the other hand, this chapter will focus on one particular extrinsic factor that affects handwriting, i.e., writing instruments. Given the prevalence of tablets in learning, investigations on comparing the learning effects of writing on a tablet and handwriting with pen and paper will be discussed. Finally, some suggestions and future directions for investigating the association between handwriting and reading will be provided from the view of embodied cognition.