Dear Clare1822,

This sounds like a very frustrating experience for you and your son.  I hope that some of the following ideas will help you.

1.  You didn't mention whether your son has fine-motor difficulties.  You said that he has no problems with spelling, sentences, and grammar.  Does he have difficulties remembering the letter shapes, remembering how to make the letters in the same way each time, producing the letters, making them uniform, making them fit the spaces between the lines, and making them quickly?   Any, or all, of these weaknesses could make him resist doing printing and writing tasks.  

If he has any of these difficulties, I'd suggest that you have your son's school make a referral to an Occupational Therapist.  If your school system doesn't have access to Occupational Therapists, then your family doctor could refer you to one.  Occupational Therapists can help children improve their fine-motor abilities.  They will give him fun and varied exercises and activities to develop fine-motor control and fine-motor speed.


2.  If your son doesn't have weaknesses in any of the above areas, then we can focus fully on how to help him get ideas for writing.  Here are some ways to do this:

-Have him draw pictures of what he needs to write about.  For example, if he needs to write about his birthday party, he could draw one picture of his friends, the cake, and the presents.  Or, he could draw several pictures, showing different games he and his friends played, and then what his presents were.  He could choose what he would draw, with your suggestions.  Does he like to draw?  Or is this difficult for him, as well?  I find that, usually, young children start their stories by drawing a picture first.  Then they add words to the pictures.  If he already has the pictures in front of him, then he's already done his thinking before he begins to write his story.  The pictures tell the story.  If he needs help deciding what's important about his birthday party, then you'll have a conversation with him, to help him decide what's most important.  The discussion will be critical because it will help him do his thinking.  That way he doesn't have to stare at a white sheet of paper.  I don't know how meticulous your son is about his drawings.  I would call what he draws "organized sketches", rather than drawings.  They don't need to be beautiful pieces of art work.  The pictures just need to tell the story and show what he has been thinking.

-Engage in paired writing.  You and he could talk about the topic he needs to write about.  You would jot down several ideas and then when you and your son think that you've finished discussing the topic, you could begin paired writing.  You would probably write the introduction, then your son could print the next sentence.  Then you would write the next sentence.  And so on.  At first, you would write more than your son.  In fact, at first, you could write almost all of the story.  Then you would take turns writing.  Gradually, you would write less, and he would write more.  You would do this very subtly so that your son doesn't particularly notice what's happening.  Sometimes, with older reluctant writers, I have done paired telephone conversations with them.  At first, they might only want to write the words "yes", "no", and "maybe".  Gradually, they gain confidence and begin writing more and more.

-You could show your son, graphically, the structure of stories.  Your son's teacher can help you with this.  Stories begin with a problem, a setting, and some characters.  Then there are a series of events where the characters try to solve the problem.  There's a climax to the actions of the story.  And then there's a conclusion where something has been found, or solved, or learned, or experienced.  Your son's teacher may be working with picture organizers in the classroom, showing children, visually, how stories are created.  You and he could look at stories he likes to listen to, and you could sketch these ideas on a story organizer.  He could copy the format when he needs to make up his own story.

-You could help your son make more vivid images in his head, to help him describe what he sees.  Nanci Bell's book "Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking" has lots of ideas for helping students make their pictures more vivid and detailed.  For example, you could develop his ability to think about:  shape, color, movement, mood, size, etc.  Your son may not know what's most important about what he's noticing and thinking about.  Teaching him, what Nanci calls, "structure words", will help him to focus on important information that he can write about.

I hope that these ideas will be helpful for you and your son.

Sincerely,

Sylvia HS
Reading Specialist
Author