As a homeschool mom of a special needs child, do you struggle with how to teach writing?
Previously, I broadly define three particular learning challenges: dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD that can affect your child’s writing (both creative and physical writing). It’s one thing to name the problem. But it’s quite another to find a working solution!
Whether you’re searching for tips or curriculum, you want nothing more than to help your special needs child with homeschool writing. We often get the question, “Does WriteShop work for children with learning disabilities?” For many students with ADHD, dysgraphia, and dyslexia, WriteShop does seem to be an excellent fit.
“WriteShop’s lessons tend to work well for many types of learning-disabled children because of their explicit instructions and requirements.”
– Nancy, learning specialist
Here are six ways to help both reluctant writers and kids with learning challenges grow in skill and confidence as writers. You’ll also learn how WriteShop materials can help your special needs child with homeschool writing.
1. Special needs learners need specific instructions.
Give Your Kids Direction and Guidance
Open-ended assignments and vague instructions create frustration and chip away at your child’s confidence. Instead, make sure your struggling writer knows exactly what’s expected. Kids feel way more confident when they know what you—and the assignment—are asking them to do.
In other words, it’s not enough simply to tell your children to write. You need to teach them how.
- Elementary Years. During your child’s early years, WriteShop Primary and WriteShop Junior lessons are mostly parent led. Your Teacher’s Guide includes everything you need to teach your struggling learner. There are daily lesson plans and detailed instructions for each activity. It’s all laid out for you step-by-step. You’ll even find suggested scripts to help you introduce new concepts and guide the conversation!
- Teen Years. In middle and high school, WriteShop I and II offer increased student independence. WriteShop instructions are written directly to your tween or teen. These orderly, step-by-step directions give clearly defined expectations for each assignment. If your teen isn’t able to work independently yet, plan to work alongside to guide and help as needed.
Provide Them with Tools to Organize and Check Their Work
- Graphic Organizers. All students (not just struggling learners!) do better when they use graphic organizers. Choose from mind-maps (clustering), charts, lists, or diagrams to help them outline and plan their work. WriteShop lessons provide many such opportunities for kids of all ages to brainstorm and prepare for writing assignments.
- Word Banks. Kids who are easily distracted or who spell poorly benefit from word banks. WriteShop Primary and Junior include portable word banks, “super spellers,” word walls, and more. For teens, WriteShop I and II have 22 pages of comprehensive, topical word lists. These tools help students make better vocabulary choices because new words (and their spellings) are readily available.
- Checklists are vital to the struggling learner. It’s important for your child to be able to mark progress. To help students with self-editing, WriteShop introduces simple checklists in WriteShop Junior and more detailed, lesson-specific Writing Skills Checklists in WriteShop I and II.
>> TIP If your child with dyslexia or ADHD is visually overwhelmed, try inexpensive guided reading strips to help track each line of the student checklist.
2. Special needs learners thrive on repetition and reinforcement.
How do students with special needs learn? Repetition, repetition, and more repetition! It’s key to helping them better understand concepts.
Choosing a curriculum like WriteShop makes sure your child frequently revisits and practices these skills. All levels of WriteShop incorporate repetition. Because lessons are cyclical, retention is even greater.
Remember those checklists I mentioned earlier? They will often include writing skills students have learned in prior lessons—which in turn ensures your children are applying these skills in their new assignments.
Looking for a writing program that teaches in a cyclical fashion? If your special needs child has mild to moderate learning disabilities, WriteShop can help with homeschool writing.
✏️ WriteShop Primary books gently introduce writing skills to K-3rd graders using repetition, daily routine, crafts, and storybooks.
✏️ Junior levels for 3rd-7th graders benefit kids who thrive on predictable routines and multisensory learning activities.
✏️ WriteShop I and II teach tweens and teens through assignments that regularly apply skills learned in past lessons.
Choose purposeful curriculum like WriteShop—and watch retention skyrocket!
3. Special needs learners need alternatives to writing by hand.
The physical act of writing may be too challenging for your struggling learner. Instead of making her write by hand, offer an alternative method. Here are four to try:
- Make a distinction between handwriting and creative writing. When children struggle with physical writing, they often end up hating the creative aspect of writing. Why? because they associate it with the pain and torture of putting pencil to paper. So most importantly, teach and practice penmanship and building hand strength separately from the creative writing time.
- Allow your child to dictate to you while you write or type. Usually a student will use more complex vocabulary and sentence structure when speaking. But if asked to write the same information, she will often choose shorter words and sentences. Allowing her to dictate to you helps ease her stress about writing.
- Let her edit the draft you write. If she is able, have her recopy the corrected version to her own paper.
- Provide an assortment of ergonomic pencil grips, pencils, and pens to increase comfort, improve grip and control, and reduce hand cramping and fatigue.
- Let your child use the computer, including the spell-check function, to type rough and final drafts.
>> Let your child take advantage of digital tools and other assistive technology
4. Special needs learners do better with boundaries.
Most kids with learning disabilities flounder when assignments are open-ended. WriteShop gives specific requirements for each lesson, from brainstorming to writing. Students always know what they need to do.
WriteShop Primary and Junior guide children to develop a writing pattern of beginning, middle, and end.
WriteShop I and II build confidence in teens who learn with difficulty.
- In WriteShop I, lessons limit the number of paragraphs (usually just one). They also restrict paragraph length (at first 5-7 sentences but never more than 10 sentences).
- WriteShop II offers review lessons before stepping into new ones. Later lessons introduce 5-paragraph essays in doable steps.
5. Special needs learners need bite-sized assignments.
Break down the steps of the writing process. Take care not to dump the whole assignment on your child at once. Instead, portion out instructions in small bites. Spreading writing activities over days or weeks will go a long way toward easing anxiety and stress.
- WriteShop’s schedules spread activities over 2-3 weeks. This allows the writing to rest between drafts.
- Assignments focus on the key processes of writing. Lessons start with prewriting activities and brainstorming exercises that narrow and focus in on the topic. Instructions are written step-by-step.
6. Special needs learners do well with multisensory writing activities.
Appeal to Your Child’s Interests and Learning Styles
Children absorb information through their senses. The more ways they handle information, the better they retain it. But kids still have their unique bents. When helping your special needs child with homeschool writing, include tactile, oral, and visual activities.
- Kinesthetic children learn better when writing activities use games, manipulatives, or movement.
- Auditory learners love to brainstorm aloud, talk about their stories, and play verbal word games.
- Visual learners are drawn to writing projects that tie in art, photography, or computer activities. They especially love colorful writing supplies.
WriteShop Primary and Junior appeal to all learning styles with multisensory activities in every lesson. WriteShop I and II also feature a number of hands-on and oral prewriting activities that appeal to auditory and kinesthetic learners.
Have them write letters or keep a diary. Make projects that use writing but are not writing-intensive, such as posters, mobiles, brochures, and cartoons.
Parent Testimonial
“Our son is a junior in high school, and writing has always been rather a nightmare for him. He has ADHD and getting thoughts and words on paper is a difficult and long, drawn-out process for him. BUT your curriculum so quickly gave him the tools to help him to put descriptive, concrete thoughts on paper that I am truly amazed at what he can write after only Lesson 4. I know of at least one other home schooling family that has a son with special learning needs, and they rave about your writing program as well.”
–Laurie, NY (using WriteShop I)
