How to encourage your kids to write

Writing is how a child shows what he or she knows and what has been learnt till date. But unlike learning facts or mastering content-based lessons, writing is a skill that develops over time. Here are a few pointers. 

Good writers tend to be avid readers and there is a reason for this. The more a child reads, the more they will be exposed to new vocabulary in context and the more words they will learn. Reading also exposes kids to different ways of using words and a variety of sentence structures that they can use in their own writing.

Parents can make a huge difference in how their children’s writing skills improve by agreeing to read early drafts. Kids learn to write through example. Completing an initial draft alone is sometimes important, particularly if the task requires sharing personal thoughts and experiences, but it also helps to have someone else there to review it. Use the child’s words to suggest optimized phrasing and/or help them pinpoint what they are trying to say through conversation. This makes it easier for the ideas to be written down.

When children learn to write well they are not just cultivating academic skills; they’re also opening up a new avenue for self-expression. Creative tasks foster positive associations with writing, so children see it not just as an activity for learning and reporting information at school, but a way of getting their thoughts across. Parents might suggest keeping a personal diary with a journal entry a day resulting in a special treat at the end of the week.

Children may do fine once they get started but you often need to help them get the first few words or sentences down. Ask them a thought provoking question, make a list or mindmap of ideas that relate to the topic they are writing about or work with them to organise an outline they can turn into a draft. Taking away the stigma of writing the prefect sentence is also key.