By Maria Gregory and Marysa Enis
It’s high tide in referral season and if you are reading this, chances are you know a student who is being assessed for special education. And if you know a student who is being assessed for special education, chances are that student has difficulty with writing.
How do we know? Well, the act of writing has brought many a child to tears, and not just those with disabilities. There are endless rules to memorize and details to check. There is making sure handwriting is neat and spacing is right. There is brainstorming and organizing ideas, which by itself is enough to break a lot of kids. It’s no wonder that writing is the last skill to develop and the hardest to teach.
But developing basic skills in writing is important. Research has shown that taking notes by hand increases retention. On top of that, the act of writing allows children to formulate thoughts and enrich critical thinking skills. Above all else, writing is a major form of communication, arguably now more than ever.
Unfortunately, written expression is a vastly underestimated skill for rigor across all levels of education. Because of this, challenges are often overlooked in ways they aren’t in reading and math. And while writing may be begrudged by many children, for some, it’s out right painful. When it’s painful, it could be due to a learning disability in written expression.
In the past, you may have heard it called dysgraphia, which simply means “impaired writing by hand.” But in what way is writing impaired? And why? Having a learning disability doesn’t just mean that writing is hard. It means that writing is hard because of a reason, and that reason is brain-based.
Difficulty with writing does not necessarily mean that a student has a learning disability or requires special education services. The following tools are simple and effective ways to help students.