Should Kids Practice Spelling by Writing or Typing?

Is handwriting better than typing for learning to spell?

Not clearly. The question has been studied for more than 30 years, and the results point in different directions.

The best-known study came first. In 1990, reading researchers Anne Cunningham and Keith Stanovich found that first graders who wrote words by hand spelled them better afterward than children who typed them on a computer or built them with letter tiles. The handwriting advantage held even when the children were later tested on the computer.

Two years later, another research team repeated that study with 48 primary-grade students, and the handwriting advantage did not show up. Handwriting was no better than typing or letter tiles, either for typical learners or for children with learning disabilities.

A more recent study points the same way. In a 2014 study of 40 second graders, children learned new spellings whether they practiced by printing or by typing, with no difference between the two. The authors concluded that their results "do not support the hypothesis that the manual movements involved in printing make it a more effective learning modality."

All of these studies are small, and the older ones used computers that look nothing like today's. So no single one settles it. But taken together, they don't support the idea that typing is a lesser way to practice spelling words.

Does it matter how well my child can type?

It seems to. In that same 2014 study, children who already had better keyboarding skills learned more from typing practice than children who didn't. The researchers found that keyboarding skill "constrained or facilitated learning" in the typing group.

That makes sense if you picture it. A child who has to hunt for every key is spending attention on finding letters, not on the word itself. Once the keyboard is familiar, that cost mostly goes away.

The flip side applies to handwriting. For some children, forming letters takes so much effort that it gets in the way. A 2025 study of 36 Italian middle schoolers found that typical readers learned new words with both handwriting and typing, but students with dyslexia spelled better when they learned by typing. The authors suggest the physical demands of handwriting may get in the way for those students. It is one small study, in a language with more regular spelling than English, so treat it as a hint rather than a rule.

Should young kids still learn to write by hand?

Yes, and here the research leans toward handwriting. A 2005 study of 76 children aged 3 to 5 had them practice copying letters of the alphabet, either by hand or by typing. After three weeks, the older children in the handwriting group recognized letters better than those who had typed them.

That study was about recognizing single letters, not spelling words, and the advantage only appeared in the older children. Still, for a preschooler or kindergartner who is still learning what each letter looks like, writing by hand is a sensible place to start. Handwriting is also a skill your child needs in school for its own sake.

What matters more than pencil or keyboard?

Whether your child is pulling the word out of memory or copying it. A 2016 set of small classroom experiments with first and second graders compared two ways of practicing, both done by hand. Children who heard a word and wrote it from memory spelled more accurately than children who practiced with rainbow writing (copying the word in different colors). In one experiment, the advantage was still there five weeks later, and the children liked the from-memory practice at least as much.

Those groups were small, with 12 to 16 children each. And no study we found compared typing from memory with copying by hand in the same experiment, so this is our reading of the evidence rather than a proven rule. But the pattern is consistent: the pen-or-keyboard choice produced mixed results, while recall beat copying.

The reason is simple. When a word is in front of your child, they can copy it letter by letter without ever having to remember it. Spelling it with the word hidden is the part that builds memory, whether the letters come out of a pencil or a keyboard.

What can I do at home?

You don't have to pick a side. Use the tool that fits your child, and make sure the word is hidden when they spell it.

• Start young kids on paper. If your child is still learning letter shapes, handwriting practice helps with that and with spelling at the same time.
• Let typing count once the keyboard is familiar. If your child types comfortably, screen practice is a fine way to practice spelling words. If they are still hunting for keys, keep spelling practice on paper for now and build keyboard skills separately.
• Hide the word, then check. Whatever the tool, read the word aloud, have your child spell it without looking, then show the correct spelling right away so they can see what they got right.
• Use tracing and copying as a warm-up. They are fine for practicing neat letters, but put most of your practice time into spelling from memory.
• Mix it up. Paper on some days and a screen on others keeps practice from going stale, and no study we found says you have to choose one.
• Talk to the teacher if writing is a struggle. If handwriting is slow or painful for your child, or you suspect dyslexia, ask whether typing could be used for some practice and assignments.

How does StudySpell fit into this?

How StudySpell helps: StudySpell practice is typed, and it is built around spelling from memory. Each word is read aloud, your child types it without seeing it, and they find out right away whether they got it. If they miss, they get another try, and after a second miss we show the correct spelling with the letters they got right in green and the ones they missed in red. Retry mode then brings back the words they missed.

For paper days, our free printable spelling worksheets need no signup. The test sheet is a numbered page of blank lines: you read the words aloud and your child writes them from memory, which is the same recall practice on paper. The handwriting sheet is trace-and-write, so use it for neat letters and as a warm-up.

One thing StudySpell doesn't do is teach typing. If your child is still searching for every key, start with the paper test sheet and save screen practice for when the keyboard feels easy.

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