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Have your child circle the first letter of each sentence. This activity will draw your child’s attention to this important detail. In time, you can repeat the process to illustrate the capitalization of proper nouns.
To reinforce your child’s command of basic punctuation, make sure he or she understands the three basic forms of end punctuation: period, question mark, and exclamation point. Invent or print out sentences with the end punctuation missing. Ask your child to determine what the correct end punctuation should be. Allow your child to ask you ques-tions, and, if needed, read the sentences aloud to your child.
Like the exercise for recognizing capital letters, you can print a page or two from your child’s favorite book and ask him or her to circle the end punctuation of each sentence. Once your child has mastered end punctuation, you can begin to work on other forms of punctuation, like apostrophes and quotation marks.
How to Collaborate on Writing
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starts with a capital letter, and ends with a punctuation mark. Stories and essays have a beginning, middle, and end. Discuss some of your child’s favorite stories and point out the beginning, middle, and end.
These discussions will help your child understand the need for structure in his or her own writing.
Once your child understands general structure, delve into paragraph structure. Explain why each paragraph should begin with a topic sen-tence that introduces the paragraph’s main idea. Help your child care-fully draft a topic sentence and then provide him or her with guidance to generate supporting sentences. Help your child learn how to stay on topic throughout a given paragraph. Each line in the paragraph should relate back to the topic sentence.
Once your child understands paragraph structure, help him or her write several paragraphs on one topic and then make sure each para-graph transitions to the next. If the flow isn’t working, help your child see how shifting the order of paragraphs or sentences within paragraphs can often make writing more logical.
Continue to function as your child’s scribe. When your child isn’t able to generate ideas right away, help by providing prompts and tran-scribing what he or she says. For example, if your child is assigned a paper about trees, you might say, “What are some benefits of planting trees?” You can also prompt your child by reminding him or her of things he or she has said in the past about the topic: “Remember when we were at the park and you pointed out how the trees provided a nice place for birds and squirrels to live? What if I wrote that down for you as a starting point for your paper?” Build on this process to generate as many sen-tences as you can.
If you find that your child is straying too far from the topic, bring him or her back by saying things like, “A few minutes ago, you were speaking about how the trees in the park provided a nice place for birds and squirrels to live. What are some other thoughts you have on that topic?”
If you find that your child is running out of energy for the writing task, review a few of the interesting things he or she has said and see if any of them spark a couple more thoughts. As your child’s energy runs down, agree on a finishing time and hold to it.
118 Helping Your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities
Middle and High School Writing Assignments
As your child gets older, he or she will be expected to write indepen-dently. Even though your child is older, it does not mean help is not needed to make sure all of his or her ideas have been clearly written.
Writing assignments in middle and high school become more complex, and your child will benefit from your collaboration. This is especially true for research papers, feared by many a student— and perhaps just as many a parent! Over the years, I’ve seen wonderful students virtually paralyzed by such assignments.
• Kaia’s (and My!) Story
Some years ago, I worked with Kaia, a bright and motivated eleventh- grader with significant dysgraphia. Kaia had enrolled in a particularly challenging history class and was assigned a research paper. As I reviewed the paper’s guidelines, I was reminded of an experience I had had myself, many years earlier in high school.
Halfway through my eleventh- grade year, despite my significant struggles in school due largely to dyslexia, I decided to sign up for a challenging research- writing course. The teacher, Mrs. Longo, knew me well and suggested I reconsider taking her class, but I assured her that I was up for the challenge.
There is an important lesson here. Teenagers benefit from being trusted to decide what challenges they want to take on. Had I been for-bidden to take this class, it would have further lowered my self- esteem. If your child wants to take a challenging class, you should encourage him or her to do so. He or she will be surrounded by motivated, ambitious students. My class kept me feeling like a college- bound student even when the odds were against me.
Kaia’s (and My!) Story (continued)
For the first couple of weeks, things went quite well. The class discussed the important world events we might choose as topics. I
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excelled in conversation, so I thought I was home free! But then we were expected to create an outline over the weekend. All weekend, I thought about the assignment. I knew what the finished product was supposed to be, but I couldn’t figure out how to produce it. On Sunday night, I was consumed by overwhelming anxiety about what Monday would bring.
When Monday came, I had nothing to turn in, nor did I have anything to turn in on the many days that followed. Virtually every day, Mrs. Longo would gently remind me that if I didn’t do the work, I would fail her class. I would nod my head and smile. I assured her that I would do the required work. But deep down inside, I knew I was going to fail— but not because I wanted to. Left to my own devices, I simply did not have the ability, or the tools, to manage all of the logistics that go into crafting a research paper.
When I worked with Kaia, I provided the support I wished someone had offered me. I systematically broke down each step into parts she could understand and contribute to. I actively engaged her in the project through conversation by acting as her scribe and by making sure we adhered to a reasonable timetable. I know this approach is time consum-ing, but if your child has dysgraphia, this type of support is needed.