Teach Kids Writing to Boost Reading Skills

Reading and writing are connected and are really just two different ways of learning about the same thing. The reciprocity of early reading and early writing ensures that when children are learning to write words, messages, and stories, they are also learning to read and vice versa. For instance, when a child learns to write the word cat they are also setting themselves up to recognize it in reading. It also provides the child with important knowledge to make analogies to similar words i.e. rat or hat. Writing, like reading, involves paying close attention to the formation of letters and words. It involves identifying letter and word patterns, and also involves reinforcement of left-to-right directionality and other concepts of print. In order to help young children learn about reading skills it is important not to overlook writing as an essential piece of the puzzle.

When attempting to write a word or letters ensure that children articulate the sounds clearly to themselves. Say the word slowly is a good prompt to assist children with this strategy. You can model the sound and correct articulation for them but children must be taught to say words slowly, so they can hear them-self say the sounds. Also, ensure children say the words completely in order to hear ending sounds.

Even scribbles, reverse letters, and invented spelling will give a great deal of information for discovering what children already know about print. The information is also very useful for instructing children to take next steps in their learning. Writing helps children consider many aspects of print which can be applied in their reading.

• Writing helps children learn to analyze print from left to right.
• Writing left to right helps to train the eyes to scan words in reading.
• Writing forces learners to attend to the features and forms of letters as well as the importance of letter sequence.
• Writing words aids the development of phonemic awareness skills and letter identification.
• Writing helps children develop eye hand coordination.
• Writing provides a means for understanding the purpose of print.
• Writing forces children to organize their thoughts and words to convey a printed message.

In order to help children take steps in their learning, it is important to notice their understanding of print by observing writing/picture samples. There is a large spectrum of knowledge and understanding children will exhibit for letter knowledge and concepts of print. It is important to identify what a child knows and support what they need to know next. For instance, if a child is having difficulty holding a crayon then their next step might be some hand-over-hand instruction to address this skill. In the same way, if a child is printing a letter backwards then exploring the visual form of the letter and practicing to print it correctly is a good place to start. The following is a list of ways to support early learners with writing skills.

• Hold a pencil correctly.
• Slide their finger across a page to show the left to right direction of print.
• Show children where to go next when they slide their finger to the end of the page (return sweep).
• Organize ideas on a page with pictures and words.
• Print and form letters correctly.
• Say words slowly in order to hear the individual sounds.
• Sequence letters in a word.
• Hear and identify the first and last letters in a word.
• Notice the difference in capital and lowercase letters and learn to print both.
• Write sentences and point to the words when reading them over together.
• Cut up a simple sentence into words and practice putting it in order.
• Use pictures to retell a story and sequence the events.

When reading stories with young children it is helpful to make them aware of the connection between the print they see in books and writing. If the child can print the letter b, then finding it in a book to confirm what it looks like is a fun way to reinforce letter identification. It is also useful to reinforce directionality when reading by having children slide their finger under a line of text. The skills that are learned in writing can be reinforced in reading and vice versa. This close connection makes writing an important part of helping early learners develop into successful readers.

A stamp set will provide hours of fun message creating. The messages that children create with the stamps provides opportunity to learn about letter sounds and print. Older children love to use them for those special touches to school projects.