Robin Hurd

 

Writing: The Other Part of Literacy

by Robin Hurd

Please note: I have added portions of actual 1st grade writings from students who use AAC (mine!) within the article. Some of these were written at home, some at school. I hope these samples will be helpful to you, as well as a lot of fun to look at. If you are new to the Parents Corner, you may wish to read the first Parents Corner article to introduce yourself to my boys.
Robin

When we think of literacy, we often think only of learning to read. But a portion of literacy is learning to write things that others can read. Writing in this context is not penmanship, but is putting words together so that others can understand what we think, feel or know about a given subject.

When we talk about writing, we need to begin our discussion by understanding how normally developing children learn to write. The first step for young children is making a picture. Once the child has a picture and some understanding of letters, the child begins “pretend” writing, by adding random letters to the drawing. Eventually these random letters begin to start with the letter of the word a child intends to write, and after a while, the words become understandable, even if the spelling is not correct. After this time, the child begins to use more than one or two words in the writings. Finally, the child begins to use full sentences and eventually to write in paragraphs.

A child generally begins to write by labeling a picture, or making a simple statement such as, “ I like ice cream”, which goes along with the picture. Eventually the writing show signs of a story line, such as my middle son’s first grade story called, “My Blue Hair”, which told what would happen if he woke up one day and his hair was blue!

The average first grader does a writing activity about every other school day. This frequent exposure to the process of writing, more than anything else, helps the child become proficient. Often, a child with special needs does not get the frequency of writing practice at school that a normally developing child does. Parents can have a big part in the child’s development by providing the chance to practice writing skills at home.

“How can I do this?” You may ask. “My child can’t use a pencil.” Once again, technology comes to the rescue. A child with an AAC device who cannot write with a pencil has several other options available to use when writing.

First of all, the child can say what he wants to write, and someone else can put it on paper. We can call this using a scribe. This is a useful way of writing when time is at a premium, or when group interaction (such as writing a story with the whole class) is the focus.

Another way of writing is to hook the child’s AAC system up to a computer that is equipped with AAC keys software (from the AAC institute). The child can then use the AAC system in the same way as speaking to write a sentence word by word, or can use spelling or word prediction for uncommon words. This method is so much like speaking for the child using AAC, that sentence building skills learned when writing are bound to carry over into speech. The child can eventually become totally independent using this method, learning how to edit written work and access the printer without adult help.
Drawbacks of using an AAC device attached to a computer are that it does take a little bit of set up to get the AAC system and the computer hooked up. For schools, a drawback is that the classroom must have a computer in it.

Using a keyboard and typing the letters one by one is an option, but doing so can be so tiring and time consuming for a child with physical limitations that little energy is available to do the real work of writing: putting together words that get your point across. If your child is able to type efficiently, but uses AAC, this method may be the one that you and the school district decide on.

When your child is ready to write, follow the steps that a normally developing child learning to write does. Begin with a picture. Choosing a picture helps your child select a topic that he or she is interested in, and gives a visual prompt to stay on task. Once your child has selected a picture, encourage him to tell you about the picture. Don’t look for perfect sentence structure at first, just for words that relate to the chosen picture. Sometimes, your child may wish to explore the alphabet, appearing to type at random. This, too, is part of normal development. Writing letters, captions for photos, and stories about things that have happened or interest the child are great ways to practice writing. If you keep samples over time, you will be able to see the progress your child is making.

Eventually, you will want to begin helping your child to learn to edit written work. Editing is going back, reading it over, and adding or taking out words and punctuation to help it make sense. First graders begin to use a period at the end of a thought, and you can encourage your child to do this early on as well. Early editing may be done with your help doing the mouse clicks, and your child adding in the necessary words to make the meaning clear. You may even make suggestions of words that might help. Remember, however, that this is your child’s work. Perfection is not as important as practicing the process of putting words together to share with others.

Speaking of sharing with others, be sure to print and display your child’s work prominently around the house, send it to grandparents, and generally acknowledge that your child has worked hard and is sharing a bit of herself with you!

I will end this article with a bit of work my son Joshua did at school, at the end of first grade. We had been talking a lot about the moon at home, since my husband is an astronomer, and Josh had also been enjoying the Magic School Bus book series. He combined all of the things on his mind into a great story which he wrote at school with very little assistance. (In the interests of space, I have not included Caleb’s story, in which he takes a helicopter to the moon, and sees “the boy in the bus”, but it is hilarious example of sibling one-upmanship!)

As always, your questions and comments are important! Feel free to e-mail me at parents@aacinstitute.org