Help Your Reluctant Writer at Home

Your struggling writer needs practice at home, but you don't want to make it seem like another school chore.  The answer is to sneak writing into play - and vice versa.

As Joseph Pearce says in The Magical Child, "The child can never learn to play without the parent playing with the child.  Play.....is a huge creative potential build within the child, which never develops unless it is stimulated by the adult model, the parent."

Remember that your role as a home writing coach is to have fun and to honour your child's imagination.  You don't have to be the drill sergeant in charge of spelling.  In fact, research shows us that in the long run, it's far more important to encourage the communication of ideas than to hamper a child's style for the sake of correct spelling.

The root of the word "communication" is "to commune" - in other words, to coax the ideas in your child's brain down through the paper and up into your brain.  You can help by:

• Saying, "Let's play a game."  There's no need to mention "writing game" if your child is a reluctant writer.
• Choosing subjects your child loves, like brontosauruses or monster movies or soccer or shoes.
• Talking through ideas, asking questions, and listening carefully to answers.
• Making drawings, notes, and story maps together, if your child can't remember ideas.
• Taking dictation or having your child use a computer.
• Praising honestly and liberally.
• Keeping games short.
• Posting written work on the wall or refrigerator, or sending it to family members and friends.  Writing is meant to be shared.
• Quitting if it isn't fun for your child or for you.

Make Writing a Game, Not a Chore 

• Writing has many stages before it reaches paper - generating ideas, noticing likenesses, deciding on one main idea, eliminating others, choosing appropriate words, and putting them in an order that readers can follow - not to mention problems with the physical act of writing.
• Your child with learning disabilities may struggle anywhere along the path.  Bur if he or she writes for reason and an audience, half the battle is won.  Incorporate writing naturally into play and it need not be a chore for your child or for you.  Let those ideas flow into print and sparkle.

Great Ways to Encourage Kids' Writing

Spark your child's interest in writing at home with engaging, fun activities.

It's natural for your children to bubble over with ideas, schemes, and jokes.  Unfortunately, capturing those ideas on paper is not so natural for many kids with learning disabilities.  They may freeze up, forget their ideas, or fight the pencil.