By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - ‘How many cards did you send this holiday?…’ so begins an article in The Wall Street Journal. ‘Probably fewer than ten years ago…’, it continues, reminding us of the pleasure of seeing a familiar hand addressed envelope.

Clearly handwriting is less important than ever. A British survey recently found that the average time that an adult last wrote anything at all by hand was 41 days. One in 3 hadn’t written anything for at least six months.

You might say, so what? But research from the University of Virginia found that at schools where handwriting was addressed, students improved penmanship, reading writing, compositional skills and had better recall skills.

Some predict that handwritten communication will not exist in five years, so save and enjoy that box of old family letters and cards that most of us have stored away and treasured. I know I will!

Read Philip Hensher’s thoughts on the lost art of handwriting in The Wall Street Journal.