On 5/25/01, Holly posted a message to Holly asking for suggestions on helping students with LD improve writing skills. I could find no response and am looking for guidance/resource materials to develop lessons for my son this summer.
My son, aged 11, is adhd and gifted/ld with a visual processing deficit. Academically, he excels in all subjects except for writing. He has received special services for written language since second grade, and while he has made progress, he has not managed to bring his writing skills to grade level. Since the emphasis on writing will be increasing dramatically over the next few years, I plan to work with him this summer on writing.
Handwriting has always been difficult for my son, so we will work on learning to type. My son is a gifted artist, so dysgraphia is not related to fine motor skills. Once we separate the physical aspect of writing from the creative aspect of writing, these are the areas of focus:
-sentence combining: lowest score on TOWL-2. I am looking for samples to construct lessons, so that we can strengthen this skill.
-ideation: while imaginative, my son has real difficulty generating ideas for writing pieces.
-development and detail-His pieces end up approximately one page in length, while his peers write 2 to 3 pages. Development is immature and there is a significant lack of detail. There is a marked discrepancy between ability in verbal expression and written expression.
My son has gotten to the point where he hates writing, and his attitude towards his special ed teachers was not positive. He is receptive to working with me this summer, so I would like to make the most of the opportunity. I’d like to be able to give him some confidence going into the new school year. Any suggestions or resource referrals would be greatly appreciated.
Audrey
Re: Improving Writing Skills
I’ll give it to you straight. Even with good programs like Spivey’s, this is an area that we sped. teachers have huge and significant difficulties teaching, not only to sped. students but to all students who struggle. You can do exercises and the students may improve on the exercises, but they may not (often) transfer any of the exercises to written assignments.
Regina Richards has written a book in teaching LD (don’t recall the name). Her chapter on writing details something like 12-18 subskills that are necessary to writing. This is more extensive and broad than any other area. Writing is incredibly complex and taps many cognitive areas.
Yes, keyboarding is good. However, there are many areas writing difficulties can show up (12-18 of them) and if a child has problems in several to many of these subskills, then the task is daunting.
Finally, there are quite a few general ed. students who are relatively poor writers. No, we probably won’t get everyone at grade level in all areas. Just as we won’t get everyone running the mile at the same speed. Each child is composed of a unique blend of strengths/weaknesses, likes/dislikes and personality factors that can make worlds of difference.
he has changed the name to Writing Express..
Dr. Spivey has changed the name to Writing Express and he is very helpful over the phone and through e-mail…you can talk to him personally if you have any problems with his program. He has wonderful ideas to help make writing fun for kids. I agree with Anitya, it is hard to teach writing but Spivey’s program is really user friendly. My daughter is writing really detailed sentences now. A year ago she was writing at the 1st grade level and now she is writing at the low 6th grade level. She loves to write and express herself. I strongly recommend this program to people working with all ages of kids.. This is the address..
http://writingexpress.net/products/
Re: he has changed the name to Writing Express..
For combining sentences there is a workbook entitled, “Student Workbook for Sentence Combining With Exercises & Key” by Robert McBaine.
ISBN 0-89420-244-8
You stated that your son is a gifted artist. When a child is gifted in drawing but has trouble writing: poor letter formation, spacing the problem can be a motor memory problem. The child has difficulty remembering the motor movements needed to form the letters or the actual shape of the letters themselves. If this is the problem the keyboarding might be the long-tem solution. It has been for my son. My son’s 6th grade teacher taught grammar in isolation from writing. My son’s writing improved greatly from this approach.
I think three pages of writing for a 11-year-old is a lot.
Helen
Check out Strengthening a Students Writing Through Focus. This program is really easy to implement and will help your son expand his writing and how to have fun with it. It is by Spivey and can be found on the Web.