Hi, my 9 year old with ADHD is doing well in school with math and reading, but he struggles with writing. He says he doesn’t know what to write about or cannot organize his thoughts. I know more writing will be expected of him as he moves on to middle and high school. I’d like to help him work on this, but I don’t really know where to start.
If you’re aware of any books, workbooks or online courses that could help me, please let me know. I know I could hire a tutor to help him, but wanted to see what other resources might be available first. Thank you for your suggestions!
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LlamaMomma
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You might want to check out self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) for writing. There is a lot of info about it online. In a nut shell, it involves introducing students to different forms of writing (narrative, persuasive, etc), utilizing a memorizable (I.e., acronym) sequence of steps to take each and every time you encounter that type of writing prompt, modeling the thought process and steps with the student, including self-encouragement, and then providing guided practice until they are confident in remembering and using the strategy independently. It has great research backing its effectiveness.
With our son we found brainstorming to start and talking aloud a response to be helpful. Then guiding him in outlining a quick skeleton of a response before actually writing.
If you wanted to do some writing practice at home, Night Zookeeper is a fun online program. It can be hard for any kid to start with a blank sheet of paper and simple writing prompt, but some kids really need step-by-step guidance. Night Zookeeper has kids create a character, name it, describe it, and then answer a series of questions about their character in an interactive way. Before they know it, they've written an entire report about their character, and it feels good to see it all put together. There are other writing opportunities, games and videos, all built around a fun story that keeps my kid engaged. My child just turned 8, so the program may be a little different for a slightly older child, but it could be a fun way to get in some writing practice over the summer. nightzookeeper.com/
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