Why Is Learning to Write So Hard for Children?

Neural connections forming in the brain, illustrating how learning builds and strengthens pathways over time

'Learning to write is one of the hardest challenges pupils face at school, but it is vitally important.' When you’re a busy teacher or school leader, faced with a 150-page document to digest, the opening sentence of The Writing Framework (DfE, 2025) is easy to skim over without much thought. But it’s a powerful statement. It acknowledges the complexity of an incredible human skill — one that has taken thousands of years to evolve — and reminds us of our responsibility to pass this gift on to future generations.

So why is writing so difficult for children? And why is it vitally important?

Lots to unpack, but for now let’s focus on the big picture to frame our thinking.

Writing: a remarkable human invention

The earliest writing systems were preceded (for about 40,000 years) by pictures and marks on cave walls, bone and stone. Humans began to move thoughts from the internal space of their minds to external surfaces, which meant they could be remembered and communicated.

That, quite simply, is exactly how writing still works for us today.

But of course there’s been a long evolutionary road travelled since that spark of human initiative. Centuries of skill refinement and product development followed… activity that gradually, gradually expanded and changed the formation and functioning of our brains.

The birth of alphabets

Don’t you think it’s fascinating that after a 40,000-year incubation, in a relatively short space of time, first writing systems began to emerge independently in different parts of the world?

First, there was cuneiform in Mesopotamia: picture symbols that morphed into wedge-shaped marks, pressed into wet clay to record trade activity, laws and stories.

Only a hundred years or so later, Egyptian hieroglyphs proclaimed royal decrees and told stories of pharaohs, gods and the afterlife.

And then — a couple of thousand years on — came the industry disruptors, thinking differently. The Phoenicians literally rewrote the writing rulebook. Recognising the limitations of picture symbols, they created the first alphabet — a system of written symbols that represented speech sounds. This meant abstract ideas and detail could be communicated more effectively.

Writing now represented what was said rather than what was seen. And today — nearly 3000 years later — although our alphabet looks very different, that principle still holds.

By the way, if you’re wondering (as I did), the word ‘phonics’ isn’t directly related to ‘Phoenicians’. The tempting connection is deceiving. Both have their origins in Greek but the meanings are totally different (phonics — ‘sound’, Phoenicians — ‘purple/red people’).

This short, simplified history is intended to get you thinking — and to recognise how deeply interwoven writing is with the development of our brains and minds.

Why writing is difficult for children

This is why writing is indeed one of the hardest challenges children face at school.

Their brains are still developing. Paradoxically though, the challenge of learning to write by hand (the lens I look through) is vitally important to the development of their brains.

Doing the hard thing makes hard things easier for the brain to navigate in the future.

Do you remember that time during Lockdown, when we were only allowed out once a day? The weather was warm and sunny, and each morning I would head along Quakers Walk with Poppy, my lovely labrador.

Day-by-day, week-by-week we watched a new housing estate slowly, slowly rise from the ground… not one house at a time, but one level at a time. And once the rooftops were finally in place, the roads and pathways connecting them with each other and the wider world were finished, completing the picture and ready (post Lockdown) for life to flow in.

Handwriting demands the simultaneous coordination of brain functions that aren’t yet fully developed in young children.

Think of each necessary function (motor control, visual processing, language networks and executive functions — I’ll explain more about these in future posts) as separate houses being built, layer by layer.

Young children’s building sites are still under construction. The houses are not complete and they’re not yet well-connected.

Handwriting, like the new houses and roads, provides the foundation for writing. It paves the way for becoming a writer — a journey that unfolds throughout a lifetime.

It takes time. Like the time it takes to build the housing estate, for people to move in, to hang their pictures, put up blinds, fill the cupboards and make their houses homes. To plant seeds and watch their gardens grow season-by-season, to meet and chat with neighbours, and become a community.

Handwriting builds the brain

Learning handwriting is a struggle at first. But the struggle is good. It supports brain development — the integration of motor, sensory and cognitive systems.

Through the process of struggle, children develop neural circuits. These circuits connect to become networks. And the neural networks created through learning handwriting (precisely because it’s complex and we begin teaching early in children’s lives), support the ability to work through complex, multi-step tasks as they move through education and life.

Handwriting is not just learning to write. It’s learning how to learn.

Writing is indeed one of the hardest challenges children face at school. But yes, it’s vitally important and worth investing the time and attention teaching and learning need.

In future posts, I’ll explore what this means in practice — and how we can support children through this process.