The short answer is a resounding ‘yes‘! It can help make learning easier, and may help you to think better!
Although keyboarding is becoming mandatory earlier in schooling, research shows that handwriting needs to be still taught and required if physically possible as freehand writing activates the brain much more than typing or even tracing. Brain scans used by researcher Dr Karin James at Indiana University highlighted that extra areas activiated were the left fusiform gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior cortex.
These areas were also activated in adults when they read and write – indicating a link that writing is linked in learning to read.
Handwriting (vs keyboarding) has been shown to assist in laying down memories and in producing more ideas for creative writing. The motor memories of the movements in writing in the sensorimotor part of the brain which help to recognise letters (Prof Ann Mangen and Jean-Luc Velay at University of Marseille quoted in Science Daily.
Additionally handwriting requires and enhances skills but the handwritten product/process can indicate underlying areas of developmental difficulty which need addessing (and which may not be picked up as readily from typed process:
eg
-Fine motor skills: Dexterity, Precision, Coordination, Grasping
-Visual motor/Oculomotor skills: Eye teaming, Convergence, Scanning
-Behavioral skills: Attention, Focus, Creativity
For further evidence/ideas go to:
http://theanonymousot.com/2015/01/18/is-handwriting-dead/
http://www.pediastaff.com/blog/handwriting-size-and-children-with-autism-23826
Note: your child may have musculo-skeletal issues and may need extra support in order to produce legible handwriting. In some cases, children may have no other option but to type or use technology instead of writing. Either way, your Occupational Therapist is the best person to assist with a program for underlying difficulties and where needed to help prescribed and personalise technology/accommodations needed for school and home.