10 Tips How To Help Your Kids Develop Strong Writing Skills

Writing is an integral part of our daily activities. From early school days, children often get assignments to write essays; however, essay writing does not translate into developing strong writing skills. As defined by Wikipedia, writing is a form of communication. So, developing a strong writing skill involves a conscious effort to improve constantly.

Just like reading, writing is also very important to the child’s educational development; the child should be able to communicate effectively not only by speaking but by writing as well. There are several ways parents can aid that development, and we will highlight ten of those things that parents can do. The tips provided here start from an elementary level (young age) to an advanced level. You can also seek writing assistance online.

Make It Fun

That is the first point that has to be considered, as it is very important. Everyone appreciates if a little bit of fun is included in their learning process, and children are no different. The more fun the learning process is, the more interested children will be to participate in it. An important part of writing is spelling effectively, so improve your kid’s spelling skills by playing games that cater to that need. For example, crossword puzzles not only help with spelling but can greatly increase their use of synonyms.

Encourage Reading

Be an active participant in developing your child’s reading skills too. Reading is the first step that will help in building this vital skill. The more a child reads, the more familiar they get with words and their usage.

Help Them Apply Words Correctly

The child may be able to identify words and read, but the next step will be for them to be able to use those words in constructing a sentence. You can help them apply the words they have learned by giving them exercises to make sentences with the given words. Being able to construct concise, grammatically correct sentences is a valuable skill in writing.

Give Practical Corrections

Yes, you have helped them apply the words they have learned from reading. However, there will be errors – sometimes a few. As a rule, these are punctuation errors or wrong sentence construction. So, you should give corrections that show the child the proper way to use the words, the proper punctuation to use, or help them use spell checks to find their spelling errors.

To do that effectively, you will need to make sample sentences to show the child how to apply the writing rules.

Use Comprehension Questions

Being able to read and comprehend is vital in developing writing skills. Help the child build their comprehension skills by giving them passages to read and questions based on the passages. That will enhance comprehension and sentence construction skill simultaneously.

Build On The Sentence Construction Skill

After the child has mastered basic sentence construction and punctuation, you will need to develop the skill beyond that level. Here the child will be required to form not just one sentence, but a series of sentences. To do that, you can help the child to learn how to summarize. It is easier to teach that by first reading a book that interests the child, then briefly explaining the main details in the book. You will have to use a book that the child likes – if there are more books to use, that will be better.

After you have shown how it is done, help the child repeat what you did, but in their own words. Repeat as many times as possible until the child gets the lesson.

Introduce Them To Essays

Once the child has mastered the skill of comprehension and summary, they have obtained the basic skill of writing. The next thing will be to help them recognize different genres of writing, their structure, and styles. It may be better to help the child to understand the essays by starting with the genre that is quite relatable. As the child grows older, ask them to write an essay about their favorite vacation spot, how they spent their last holiday, their mum or dad, their future career, in fact, you can tell them to write on anything that interests the child.

With that, you will be able to check the child’s development in using more complex punctuations, compound sentences, and their understanding of this particular essay genre.

Proofreading And Editing

That step helps to smoothen out the writing skill. There will always be mistakes while writing – grammatical or spelling errors. Either of these can be corrected using online tools for correcting such mistakes. So, the use of these tools should be taught to the child.

There are limits to which these tools can function, so, the child will need to learn how to proofread and edit their written articles even after crosschecking with the online tools.

Help Them Start A Blog

Nothing builds confidence more than seeing that persons are interested in reading what you have written. Please, be their biggest fan.

Practice

The more the child practices, the better. By now, the child will develop a love for writing and should be comfortable writing on any of the genres. Encourage the child to write letters – formal or informal, narrative essays, or journals. You can also encourage them to seek writing assistance to hone their skills.