4 Reasons Why Writing Composition May Be Hard for Your Child

Nikki Gray, MA, BCBA, LBA

As a parent, teacher, or behavior analyst, you may have encountered situations where presenting a writing assignment to a child who has a developmental or intellectual disability has led to hours long problem behavior. These behaviors can range in severity from sitting in silence and refusing to complete work, to calling the work stupid, joking around and getting peers off task, to breaking pencils, ripping papers, hitting, throwing desks, to physical aggression. There are 4 areas that can be assessed to assist these learners to becoming more fluent and confident in their ability to complete writing assignments.

1. Fine Motor. If the student is using an improper grip with a pen or pencil or not typing appropriately with a keyboard, the physical act of writing or typing can cause pain. Correcting pencil grip and teaching keyboarding to fluency are ways that the lack of fine motor skills (as they relate to using a writing utensil and keyboard) can be eliminated as a barrier to completing written tasks.

2. Delays or deficits in naming items. Children who have strong and fluent naming skills, including categorizing and telling features and functions of items, are able to better answer WH questions after they read. For example, a learner who can name a cat when they see it as well as name the features, functions and class of a cat are better able to answer a WH question if told, “the cat scratched at the door.” The child is able to answer this because they have learned that a cat can live in a house, a house has doors, a cat has claws and that claws can scratch. When a learner is unable to label and categorize items, it impacts their ability to answer WH questions and to build on those skills to compose text.

3. WH questions Discrimination. Answering WH questions involves the child knowing that who is referring to a person, where is referring to place, when is referring to time, and what is referring to a noun. If a child reads the sentence, “the cat scratched at the door,” answering a WH question may be difficult to answer without the ability to discriminate what the question is asking. The child may require additional supports for discriminating these questions.

4. Delays or deficits in conversational ability. Dr. Pat MCGreevy writes in his book, "Essentials for Living," that most learners will not be able to comprehend text at a level that is higher than their everyday speaking ability. He writes that spelling words (above their conversational ability) becomes a rote response, and reading words becomes “word calling” with no comprehension taking place. The child will be able to read and spell the word, but because are not using the word in everyday conversational language, they will not be able to compose text related to the word.

Many skills go into a student being able to produce a written response. We are often attempting to decrease problem behavior related to composing text/writing assignments without first analyzing and assessing what the text is asking the learner to do and if they have the skills to do it. Many people view ABA as a therapy that is only for children under the age of 7. ABA is beneficial for older individuals and one of the ways is teaching the skills identified in this articles so that children are successful and independent when given writing tasks in the educational setting.

For more information, contact us at our Indy location by calling 317-388-8131 or our Evansville location at 812-636-1533 or visit us online at www.tiiba.org.