Amanda Miller
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Helping Your Child Learn to Write
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Writing will always be important in your child's life. Writing is:
· Practical--make lists, jot down reminders, and write notes.
· Job-related--writing memos, preparing reports, proposals, letters, research.
· Stimulating--writing helps provoke thoughts and to organize them.
· Social--writing thank you notes and letters to friends and family.
· Therapeutic--it can be helpful to express feelings in writing that can't be expressed so easily by speaking.
Writing well requires:
· Clear thinking
· Sufficient time
· Reading
· A Meaningful Task
· Interest
· Practice
· Revising
Pointers for Parents:
· Your goal should be to make writing easier and more enjoyable for your child.
· Provide a comfortable place for your child to write.
· Provide plenty of writing materials.
· Allow time for your child to think.
· Respond to your child's writing. Focus on the "what the child has written, not "how" it was written. Ignore minor errors.
· Don't write a paper for your child, or rewrite his work. Taking responsibility and feeling ownership of it are important parts of writing well.
· Praise your child's writing efforts.
Things to Do:
· Make it real. Encourage your child to write to relatives and friends.
· Suggest note taking. Encourage your child to take notes on trips or outings and to describe what he saw.
· Brainstorm. Encourage your child to describe people and events to you.
· Encourage keeping a journal. This is excellent writing practice as well as a good outlet for venting feelings.
· Write together. Have your child help you with writing letters, making a grocery list, etc. This helps your child see firsthand that writing is important to adults and truly useful.
· Use games. Word games and crossword puzzles help a child to increase vocabulary and make the child more fluent in speaking and writing. Building a vocabulary builds confidence.
· Suggest making lists. This is good practice and helps a child to become more organized. Suggestions: make lists of their toys, baseball cards, books they enjoy, things to do, school work, social events, etc.
· Encourage copying. A child might copy a favorite poem, quotation from a book, song lyrics, etc.
Source:
www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Writing/index.html