Writing - Parents Page
Communication, Communication,Â
Communication
The key reason for writing anything is to communicate with others, or to stimulate interest or action from the reader. That is why you are looking at facebook, TikTok or instergram isn't - to find out what's going on.
You need to be able to record your learning so show the Educational Welfare Officer what your child has been learning and that you are providing an appropriate and meaningful education for them.
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The importance of writing stems from the fact that writing is the major method by which communication has been passed on. However significantly we dyslexics struggle with these weird and wonderful markings, we cannot get away from the need to write.
We encounter writing every day of our lives, from writing a list of what to get done, to signing a birthday card in a meaningful way, leaving post-it-note to adjust a recipe to sending a party invite. Writing is extremely important in today's society.
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Communication With Grandparents
Writing is more and more common among the older generation but some of us have made it into the digital age. One way to encourage writing is to write cards and letters to grandparents. Writing letters allows you to keep in touch with people who love you, and it means so much when you send them something in return. Thank you notes may be a dying are art but the pleasure of receiving one is not.
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Why Read To Write?
Everyone is limited in what they can accomplish without good reading and comprehension skills. Therefore, reading goes hand in glove with writing. It is important because it develops the mind. The more you read, the better you are able to put the words together when you write, to use more interesting words and more impressive phrases to the person on the other end understands what you are trying to say.
Reasons For Writing
The primary reason for writing anything in school is to assessing the progress and learning of students. Write tests enables the school (and the Government who after all is paying for our free education) to log the progress from one year to the next. The problem comes when they don't provide the correct interventions and tools for the dyslexics. Our written work doesn't always reflect our intellectual process and under exam conditions we often have to accept lower marks.
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The adult world requires you to write for communication, record keeping etc. there is no getting way from it we need to be able to write.
When we write, therefore, we are either writing for ourselves or we are writing for others. So it needs to be readable, well constructed and spelt.
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Writing For OurselvesÂ
When we write for ourselves it helps us to think, learn and understand. Writing for ourselves is a private affair though it may be shared with others.
Benefits of Writing
Writing offers you time and space to re-draft and re-focus your message. In this way, perhaps, it is easier than spoken communication.
When speaking, you have to think of words and immediately release them to the audience, and once spoken there is no opportunity to 'edit' them before they are heard.
Writing sometimes has more impact than other communication channels. Through writing, you can select language to influence the thoughts and actions of your reader in particular ways, guiding them through your evidence and argument to convince them of your analysis and conclusions.
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However, we should be aware that a sense of humour does not necessarily trace well by text or email or twitter! So we need to be careful with what we say, and good writing skills can help us get our message across without upsetting, offending or hurting others.
Learning To Write With Dyslexia
If you have dyslexic then learning to write is going to an issue. I am not going to dress it up and say it will be easy because it's not. It will require some hard work and some personal fortitude on the part of the learner and a wealth of patience and understanding on behalf of the parent and teacher. An acceptance on both sides that the writing needs to happens - is a start.
However, we are lucky to live in the digital age and we have some fabulous tools to help us. Don't waste time focusing on the handwriting - go straight to the keyboard and teach touch typing. As a NVQ assessor I cannot think of one job or industry that I visit that requires copper script handwriting. Sadly, parents I am going to persuade you that handwriting is a dying art to be confined to the past especially for the dyslexic.
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Dyslexic learners will need extra time and help to notice all the details in the sentence. Research has now shown that being able to type and word process takes a large amount of the stress out of writing for the dyslexic. Being able to adjust the sentences before it is printed is very helpful and the aid of spell checkers and grammar checker are invaluable if we are unable to do this for ourselves.
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If you are not an accomplished writer yourself, or lack the confidence to teach your dyslexic learner to write at home, or if you are not sure of the best way forward - then employing a specialist teacher may be the way to go for this part of the home schooling education you deliver.