Reality check:
- Lots of students struggle with writing.
- For exams, adjustments and accommodations can help.
- But school adjustments don’t:
- improve students’ writing skills; or
- help students outside school.
Why it matters:
Writing skills:
- are useful for school, work, and life; and
- help students to think for themselves.
Writing is hard:
Humans aren’t wired to write:
- We all need to be taught.
- But many students struggle to learn, including:
- students with dysgraphia; and
- some students with developmental language disorder, dyslexia, ADHD, and/or autism; and
- students who have simply never been taught properly how to do it.
The poor get poorer:
- Good writers write a lot, and get better with practice.
- Understandably, many students with writing difficulties are:
- reluctant to write; and
- avoid it wherever possible.
- Over time, the gap between good and struggling writers widens.
- Some students give up on writing and even school, altogether.
Never too late:
Students of any age – including adults – can improve their writing skills with:
- evidence-based information about what works; and
- practical, step-by-step instruction and resources.
Get help:
Check the items below for our:
- plain English writing research summaries for students, families and educators; and
- age-neutral, self-paced, explicit writing programs for reluctant and struggling writers.
Sign up for our free download:
Links:
Think, then Write: our Explicit Writing Program, including our:
- assessment/screener;
- simple sentences workbook;
- compound sentences workbook;
- complex sentences workbook;
- paragraph writing foundations workbook;
- narrative writing foundations workbook; and
- persuasive writing foundations workbook.
Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.
Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language
Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.
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