The short answer

In a NSW study of primary students, the same children scored lower when typing than when handwriting— and that held after the researchers statistically removed the effects of the task, the student and the school.

Handwritten (paper)

Higher average scores in every year examined
The mode Year 3 still sits NAPLAN writing in

Typed (computer)

Lower average scores in every year examined
The mode from Year 5 onwards
Gap holds after controlling for task, student and school

Figure 1NSW primary students (Years 2–5), writing test scores by mode, after controlling for task, student and school factors. NSW Department of Education (CESE), 2021.

after holding constant the effects of various task, student and school level factors on students' writing performance, on average, students scored lower on computer-based writing tests than they did on paper-based tests, across all years examined
NSW Department of Education, Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (2021), Online writing tests for primary students. Registered as HND-10 in the evidence register.

What the study does not say

Three limits, and they matter more here than on most pages, because this finding is easy to over-read into a case against screens.

It is about scores, not about writing ability. The same child scored differently in two modes. That is a finding about how the test and the mode interact, not proof that handwriting makes a better writer.
It is primary students, in NSW. Years 2 to 5. It does not measure secondary students, and it does not measure Victoria.
It offers no mechanism. Typing fluency, on-screen planning and editing behaviour are all plausible explanations. None of them is established by this study, and this page will not pretend otherwise.

If you want the longer treatment — the size of the gap in scaled points, what happens at VCE where the exam is still handwritten for three hours, and a Cambridge finding that markers themselves score handwritten scripts higher — handwriting versus typing is the full version. This page is the short answer to the question a parent actually asks.

Why it is practically relevant right now

Because NAPLAN is split. Year 3 still writes by hand; Years 5, 7 and 9 type. So a child sits the same national writing task in a different mode depending on their year level, and the mode changes between Year 3 and Year 5 — which is also, as the Year 5 page notes, the first time most children compose a whole piece on a keyboard under time.

What to actually do about it

Not abandon the keyboard. The practical reading of this evidence is narrower and more useful than that.

If your child is in Year 3, the writing task is still handwritten, so handwriting stamina under time is worth having. A released paper is the closest free rehearsal there is — the Year 3 past papers page explains why that mode match is unique to this level.
If your child is in Year 5 or above, typing fluency is now part of writing performance whether anyone likes it or not. One timed piece composed on a keyboard, before the real one, is worth more than an argument about screens.
Either way, the sentence is the unit.Mode changes the score at the margin. What changes the writing is whether a child can build a sentence that carries an idea — which is what the writing clinic works on, one sentence at a time, free to read.

A first, honest read of your child’s writing.

Twenty minutes, free, no obligation — typed or handwritten, what it is doing and what would move it next.

Weekly one-to-one writing lessons, Years 3 to 9 — what a term looks like →