In the world today, children’s writing skills are often used as the basis upon which their learning is judged. That is, if we’re to judge whether or not a child is learning, we’d have to check to see how well that child can write. That’s to tell you how much emphasis is placed on a child’s ability to write. But why so much emphasis? Is it important?

Writing is important because as humans, we can barely do without it. Writing is among the primary means of communication. It is second to speaking! Asides from that, it’s a means of self-expression. Writing ability is also very necessary for students because they’d need to take notes in class and submit assignments. How about in our day-to-day lives? At one point or the other, we’d have to fill out forms, write letters, or even send text messages on social media! To sum it up, a child who can’t write well or speak eloquently will obviously find it hard to make it through school and life in general.

As a parent, we understand that it would become a major concern for you when you notice that your child lacks the ability to write well – and so you begin to look for a solution. Most times parents even go as far as wondering if their child is being affected by a health condition like dysgraphia, dyslexia, or even ADHD. Well, it could be, but most often than not, the solution to children’s inability to write proficiently isn’t far-fetched. Writing is learned, just like every other skill. If your child can’t write properly and you’re worried, what you need is patience and diligence in practicing the steps listed below.

1. Encourage reading:

Most times when kids can’t write, it’s because they can’t read well. Writing and reading go hand in hand. So the first step in helping to improve your child’s writing skills is to teach and encourage him to read more often. When a child reads, he gets exposed. The child gets to learn more new words and see how those words are used to make sentences. Your child doesn’t have to dive into reading difficult books. You can always start with something very basic and make progress from there. One proven way to encourage children to read is to read with them. You can try pointing to each word in a sentence and reading them out while your child repeats after you. With time you can allow them to practice this on their own.

2. Encourage writing:

Of course, there’s no way a child can improve his writing skills if he doesn’t write often. Though it might seem a little difficult, you would have to ensure that your child practices writing consistently. Yes, your child’s writing might make no sense at first, or he could even be making so many grammatical errors but it’s fine. All you need to do is make corrections where necessary. The more a child writes, the more mistakes he’d make. And the more mistakes he makes, the more he learns.

3. Make it fun.

Yes! A little bit of fun won’t hurt, instead, it’ll spark your child’s interest because kids don’t say no to fun! So how can you make writing fun for your child? You could play games. Games like crossword puzzles and word games. You can also make use of some writing tools and materials.

Another fun thing you could try is to ask your child to use notes to communicate with you. That is, if he wants to ask or say something to you, he’d have to write it in a note, while you do the same too.

4. Use writing prompts:

Using writing prompts is another fun way to help your child improve his writing skills. Sometimes what children need is a little help, a little push, a little something that gets them going. You can help them out by writing a prompt and handing it over to your child to finish up. Creating a writing prompt is quite simple. All you have to do is to come up with an interesting fictional story title that you’d like your child to write about. Then you have to start the story by writing a few lines in his notebook. Once you’re done with this, you can now hand over the notebook to your child, asking him to finish up the story however he likes. Writing prompts are amazing because they spark up children’s creativity. It forces them to put on their thinking cap. And the cool part is that they get to end the story however they want. That’s freedom of expression. KIDS LOVE IT.

5. Increasing their vocabulary

Learning new words each day can help improve their writing skills. Allowing your child to learn 1- 5 words each day makes them aware of various ways they can play with words. You can increase the fun of this by making use of flashcards. You could even paste them on the wall around the house to encourage your child to use those new words even as he communicates with you and his siblings.

For sticking around, I’m going to give you an extra tip. This extra tip is that you could hire a tutor to help you out with all of this! You might not be able to give your child the much need attention that is required to improve his writing skills. It’s very simple to hire a tutor from GATE Academy. All you have to do is click this link!