WHY Your Child Freezes or Refuses to Write
Okay, MOM, you found a fun writing prompt and printed it off. It’s even got a cute, summer-themed picture to go with it. This looks fun! Your son or daughter can read okay, but why is it an absolute struggle bus for your kiddo to write more than a simple sentence?
For most kids, brainstorm a little bit, and they’ll spill all their ideas in written form on paper.
For kids who “freeze” or shut down during writing, the problem between reading and writing is often the struggle created by the gap between a child’s ideas she want to write, and her lack of simple phonics skills with (sight words sprinkled in) to get words on paper.
Some kids freeze or refuse to write, because it feels like too much. Words they don’t have the phonics skills to spell (and over-correction by adults) can make a child not want to attempt writing at all. It just feels like defeat on paper.
Perfectionism can trip up young writers. They know that what they wrote on the page is not the right way to spell it, and they’re not okay with just the ‘sounding-it-out’ version they’ve attempted to write. They want to know for sure. So, you can help them out. Write the word on a sticky note.
Reading is passive. Your child doesn’t have to come up with the words or how to spell them. The words are already there.
But writing requires a whole new layer of phonics skills, hand-writing skills and thinking and ordering skills all in the same task.
What can you do when your child freezes or refuses to write? Writing. Why is it so hard?
If your child knows what he/she wants to say, but getting words down on paper is tough, lean in.
HOW to Bridge the Writing GAP
The link between reading and writing is huge! So is the link between phonics and spelling (a.k.a. writing) for K-3. Successful spellers become confident writers.
What to do when your child freezes or refuses to write?
3 Ways to Bridge the Writing Gap
- Speak It First: I used to tell kids, “If I can say it, I can write it.” If they were stuck on a simple writing activity, I would turn over a student’s notebook and say, “Tell me what you want to say. If you can say it, you can write it.” Now your child’s ideas are spoken and organized. Next step, writing his/her ideas on paper. We separate organizing an idea for a sentence from the act of writing.
- Draw the Picture First: Instead of asking a young writer to print out a whole story while creating in in their head, have them draw the story first. This give your child concrete objects, and what a character is doing. Your child is invested in the picture because he/she drew it! Pictures are not ‘extra’ if your child freezes or refuses to write!
- Give Your Child a Sticky Note: For tricky vocabulary words that you wouldn’t expect your child to know, write that word on a sticky note. Now, your child has the word he/she wants to write the sentence with greater confidence.
🎧 Missed the podcast episode? Listen here.
Your phonics guide,
Melanie
