How To Help Your Child To Develop Great Writing Skills

Some children naturally take to writing, while others find it tricky. Wherever your child is on the scale, there are lots of ways that you can support them to improve their skills.

1 . Use art and drawing

Encourage your child to draw and paint pictures with you at home. Art is a therapeutic activity, plus it gives children a chance to express their imagination. Kids draw all sorts of creative things, and they can use their art to tell stories. Once your child has drawn a picture, ask them questions about it. You can use their answers to help them tell a story. For little children, you can write the story down for them. If your child is old enough, they can write it by themself.

2. Encourage plenty of reading

To develop great writing skills, it helps to read as often as possible. Reading can help to strengthen your child’s vocab skills and improve their spelling and grammar. By reading great books, they will also improve their imagination. There are plenty of benefits to reading often. Research from the National Literacy Trust discovered that ‘Children who are the most engaged with reading and writing are much happier with their lives than children who are the least engaged.’

3. Practice home spelling tests

Your child might have a great imagination, regardless, if their spelling skills are lacking, it can be difficult for their writing to improve. If your child struggles with spelling, try giving them a few extra spelling tests at home. You don’t have to approach these like a traditional test, why not try spelling games? To help you out there are lots of kids spelling apps you can try:

Word Wagon: Using the Word Wagon app you can support your child with spelling, phonics, letters and sight words. With the help of a few fun games, you’ll soon get your child excited about spelling.

Spelling Bug: With the help of this fun application, kids can play fun games with the bug characters. This app is both engaging and simple to use.

4. Storytelling games

Young children learn best through play, so it’s a great idea to practice storytelling games. Use a dressing-up box, and help your child to dress up and act out their own make-believe stories. Roleplay and drama activities are amazing ways to think up fun ideas. You can help your child to write down their stories later. When it’s nice and sunny, story games are the perfect outdoor activity for children.

5. Create books

Making books is a fantastic way to encourage children to write. You can help your child to write a story, draw pictures, and create a cover page. Use arts and crafts materials, to turn their writing into a real book. If you need some inspirational resources, take a look at Studentreasures.com.

With plenty of fun activities to try at home, you’ll soon see an improvement in your child’s writing skills.