Building Writing Skills: A Parent's Suggestion
Children often find writing to be far more difficult than reading. If that comment fits your situation, you may find it helpful to adapt the suggestion of a parent who recently wrote to me. She described the way she transitioned her son from reading to writing in the following way:
"I pulled my youngest child out of public school two months ago and am undertaking one of the biggest challenges of my life. As I started reading your blog posting on Children Reading Before Speaking, I realized that reading is so much easier for him. So a couple of weeks ago I decided to apply a technique I heard you lecture about some years back.
I wrote short, one page stories without any pictures. Then after my son read a story, I had him repeat after me after every line--perfectly. At the end, I asked him to tell me the story. HE DID!!!! And he did—and he did it without pictures (though up till now, he always had to rely on pictures)! I am trying to extend his ability to retain information without the help of photos or pictures.
Then this week he came up to me and said HE wanted to write a story and asked me to write what he said. He has never done this before! So far, he has dictated about ten stories to me this week alone and he is so excited as I write his words down. He watches me for accuracy and corrects me when I don't use his exact words. He does not like to write. Because I am so excited about his desire to use his words to write these stories I am not insisting that he write them himself. I am hoping to get him to do so, perhaps on the computer, in the future. I am going to read your newsletter diligently as try to put together a complete home program for my son."
