Young people who rely on email and text are missing out on the pleasures and benefits of letter writing, say experts
One in five children in the UK has never received a received a handwritten letter, according to a survey published today.
With young people increasingly relying on email and social networking sites to communicate, a tenth had never written a letter themselves, the research found.
Teachers and experts said they feared young people were missing out on the pleasures and developmental benefits of letter writing.
The survey of 1,200 seven- to 14-year-olds, commissioned for children's charity World Vision, found that more than a quarter had not written a letter in the last year and 43% had not been sent one.
But in the previous week alone, almost half had either sent or received an email, or a message on a social networking site. Boys were twice as likely as girls never to have never written a letter.
Child education expert Sue Palmer, the author of Toxic Childhood, said: "If children do not write or receive letters, they miss out on key developmental benefits. Handwritten letters are much more personal than electronic communication.
"By going to the trouble of physically committing words to paper, the writer shows their investment of time and effort in a relationship. That's why we tend to hang on to personal letters as keepsakes.
"The effort of writing is a very real one for a child. Painstakingly manoeuvring the pencil across the page, thinking of the best words to convey a message, struggling with spelling and punctuation. It is, however, an effort worth making, because it's only through practice that we become truly literate – and literacy is the hallmark of human civilisation.
"If we care about real relationships, we should invest in real communication, not just the quick fix of a greetings card, text or email. What's more, if we care about civilised human thought, we should encourage our children to invest time and energy in sitting down to write."
Half of 11-year olds were not sure how to lay out a letter and a third of 14-year olds weren't either. The traditional thank you letter was the most common reason for putting pen to paper, making up 70% of children's efforts. Only one in five wrote letters to friends.
World Vision carried out the survey for today's National Letter Writing Day. Writing letters to children in developing countries is a key part of its child sponsorship programme.
Helen Smith, the headteacher at Lum Head primary school in Manchester, said: "Schools play a central role in child development, and we should always be thinking of new ways to get children writing. This is a great way to help enhance their literacy development."