Writing & Spelling
Articles within this section cover a broad range of topics, including understanding dysgraphia (a term used to describe difficulty in writing, particularly handwriting), teaching writing skills, and technology resources for writing.
There are 38 articles in this section.
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The Strategic Spelling Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities: The Results of Two Studies
Prevention and Intervention of Writing Difficulties for Students with Learning Disabilities
Enhancing the Note-Taking Skills of Students with Mild Disabilities
Handwriting Club: Using Sensory Integration Strategies to Improve Handwriting
Handwriting is a complex skill that is not often taught directly. It is not unusual for some students with disabilities to have difficulty with handwriting. These students may also have sensory integration problems. Handwriting Club is a format that provides direct instruction in handwriting combined with sensory integration activities. This article describes all the steps and materials necessary to organize and conduct a handwriting club.
Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities
Tips for Parents to Encourage Writing
Helping Your Child to Better Handwriting
Dysgraphia Accommodations and Modifications
Signs and symptoms of dysgraphia are described. Use the menu of accommodations and modifications to pick the best ones for your students, so they can learn the material without interference by their writing problems. Examples include; let them have more time, simplify the task, allow assistance for part of the task (i.e. a scribe to physically write for a student, give them tools that will help, or change the format). Do not lower your expectations for actual learning. The last section of the article has remediation recommendations to help the student improve their writing and overcome their dysgraphia.
Understanding Why Students Avoid Writing
If parents and teachers understand why some students hate writing , they can targeted solution to address students' reluctance. Learn some reasons students avoid writing, and how increasing the automaticity of writing skills and underscoring an appreciation for the purpose of writing can help.
Strategies for Dealing with Dysgraphia
A common teaching technique is to have the students write information to reinforce the material. For example, spelling programs often encourage students to write each spelling word five times or 20 times. For many students, the kinesthetic process of writing reinforces what is to be learned.
Multimedia and More: Help for Students with Learning Disabilities
From Illegible to Understandable: How Word Prediction and Speech Synthesis Can Help
Mechanical Obstacles to Writing: What Can Teachers Do to Help Students with Learning Problems?
Strategies for Composition and Self-Regulation in the Writing Process
Writing - Walking, Tinkertoys, and Legos
Simple Ways to Assess the Writing Skills of Students with Learning Disabilities
On-going assessment of writing is integral to the effective teaching of writing to students with learning disabilities. Curriculum-based assessments can be used to assess the writing process and product and should take into account purpose as well. The writing process can be assessed through observational and self-observational checklists. The writing product can be evaluated on five product factors: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Writing samples also should be assessed across a variety of purposes for writing to give a complete picture of a student's writing performance across different text structures and genres. These simple classroom measures can fulfill various functions of assessment including: identifying strengths and weaknesses, planning instruction, evaluating instructional activities, giving feedback, monitoring performance, and reporting progress.