Post by misty on Jan 7, 2007 0:37:45 GMT -5
Charlie Girl..............Thread Started on Sept 10, 2006, 12:54pm
So many kids have trouble learning to write that I thought it would be nice to pick the brains and experience of everyone here for things which you have found helpful with your child.
My son is ADD-inattentive and although he isn't diagnosed dysgraphic, he had major problems learning to write and still has poor handwriting at times . He did get so he can write an interesting and correctly constructed sentence now though. I believe that was due to taking some of the pressure off of the physical act of writing so he could concentrate on what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.
His third grade teacher let him write his stories and book reports on the computer, then e-mail them to her. We started with him dictating to me as I typed word for word, putting in punctuation where he told me. I typed exactly what he told me to.
We then would look at what he "wrote" and I would have him tell me what to change. If I saw something that wasn't expressed clearly, I would ask him to read it and whether he thinks someone who didn't know anything about it would understand it. Sometimes I had to point out that "it" was not a valid word for the subject unless he actually had named "it" earlier on, etc. I then let him supply the word.
It took time to do this with him but after just a few, he began typing and editing on his own, then I would do a final edit with him. Within a few weeks he was entirely on his own.
We only did this with story and paragraph construction where learning to compose was the main goal. Everything that required him to practice the physical act of writing was still done by hand, as well as his spelling words.
We did this so that he was getting the practice and experience he needed to learn to write longhand. Neither of us wanted him to go through life dependant on a computer for even a simple sentence. It allowed him to master composition without the distraction of trying to learn to form his letters on paper when he was still struggling with both.
He now can write a decent composition by hand. I really think it made it much easier without taking the responsibility of learning everything off his shoulders.
What have you tried with your child? What worked? What didn't?
misty
I noticed just this year that Shannons printing is becoming MUCH MUCH neater. Her stories are flowing much smoother as well. The only thing that seems to have made the difference is Practice, practice, practice. She LOVES to write stories & in her free time at school & at home, she often chooses to write. Once shes done writing a story ( and her stories are often quite long) She dictates them to me & I type them on the computer. I use the opportunity to suggest alternate ways of stating something or for correcting punctuation.
for example she used to just use "she said" every time a character spoke. I showed her different ways of putting it like "Jackie Exclaimed" or " she whispered" etc.
I notice that the speech in her stories is starting to flow better now without me helping.
Her spelling is improving too. I think since she joined Taylor Hick's fan site & posts on the forum. She doesn't want the others there thinking shes not smart so she'd be asking me constantly how to spell this word or that word. I noticed this has tapered off.
She still cannt write in cursive though. I guess its time to get stricter on having her practice that now.
So many kids have trouble learning to write that I thought it would be nice to pick the brains and experience of everyone here for things which you have found helpful with your child.
My son is ADD-inattentive and although he isn't diagnosed dysgraphic, he had major problems learning to write and still has poor handwriting at times . He did get so he can write an interesting and correctly constructed sentence now though. I believe that was due to taking some of the pressure off of the physical act of writing so he could concentrate on what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.
His third grade teacher let him write his stories and book reports on the computer, then e-mail them to her. We started with him dictating to me as I typed word for word, putting in punctuation where he told me. I typed exactly what he told me to.
We then would look at what he "wrote" and I would have him tell me what to change. If I saw something that wasn't expressed clearly, I would ask him to read it and whether he thinks someone who didn't know anything about it would understand it. Sometimes I had to point out that "it" was not a valid word for the subject unless he actually had named "it" earlier on, etc. I then let him supply the word.
It took time to do this with him but after just a few, he began typing and editing on his own, then I would do a final edit with him. Within a few weeks he was entirely on his own.
We only did this with story and paragraph construction where learning to compose was the main goal. Everything that required him to practice the physical act of writing was still done by hand, as well as his spelling words.
We did this so that he was getting the practice and experience he needed to learn to write longhand. Neither of us wanted him to go through life dependant on a computer for even a simple sentence. It allowed him to master composition without the distraction of trying to learn to form his letters on paper when he was still struggling with both.
He now can write a decent composition by hand. I really think it made it much easier without taking the responsibility of learning everything off his shoulders.
What have you tried with your child? What worked? What didn't?
misty
I noticed just this year that Shannons printing is becoming MUCH MUCH neater. Her stories are flowing much smoother as well. The only thing that seems to have made the difference is Practice, practice, practice. She LOVES to write stories & in her free time at school & at home, she often chooses to write. Once shes done writing a story ( and her stories are often quite long) She dictates them to me & I type them on the computer. I use the opportunity to suggest alternate ways of stating something or for correcting punctuation.
for example she used to just use "she said" every time a character spoke. I showed her different ways of putting it like "Jackie Exclaimed" or " she whispered" etc.
I notice that the speech in her stories is starting to flow better now without me helping.
Her spelling is improving too. I think since she joined Taylor Hick's fan site & posts on the forum. She doesn't want the others there thinking shes not smart so she'd be asking me constantly how to spell this word or that word. I noticed this has tapered off.
She still cannt write in cursive though. I guess its time to get stricter on having her practice that now.
I was about to conquer the world but then I got distracted by something shiny.
