Tips for Deaf Children's Writing Skills

 

Where to Start...

 

• An environment full of books is a good starting place in developing written literacy in children.

 

• Celebrating new steps in the writing process evident in the work children produce is also key.

 

• In upper elementary school and throughout middle school, children explore giving and receiving feedback on their written work.This helps them clarify their intent to their intended audience.

  • Peer writing and editing sessions can be particularly helpful when possible.This should be done in a conversational manner and delivered gently.

  • An adult model in the revision process will help ease the child’s anxiety and demonstrate that every story needs some revision.

  • Sometimes less is more; the writing should still be the child’s, not that of a parent.

 

• Deaf children statistically use more visually-based strategies for learning to write than sound-based strategies, if they use sound-based strategies at all.  Meaning, Deaf children focus more on the visual cues provided in children's books and the way a word looks on a page, than sounding out words as they read.  As they learn to write, studies have shown that they often use the right letters to make words, but they transpose the letters into the wrong order.  Children who use visual strategies for learning to write often get closer to the actual spelling of the words they are writing than children who use sound-based strategies.

 

Written Communication Used in the Home

 

• Written letters between the child and a mentor, relative, or other more experienced writer gets them excited about the process.The writers can ask one another clarifying questions, provide differing perspectives, and discuss things they may not have the time or privacy to do in other settings.

 

• Leave written notes for your child that expand with increasing literacy skills.

 

• Use a family writing board to encourage written literacy.Post writing prompts to a small bulletin board that is visible to the whole family.  Have each member of the family take turns writing about one of the prompts.  For small children, this can be adapted to include pictures with labels, and prompts could be adapted as well.

 

• Know the Deaf child’s literacy goals on his or her Individualized Education Plan (IEP), know the child’s reading and writing levels, know how literacy is taught in the classroom/if a certain program is used, share literacy ideas with school professionals, and ask specific questions about how the child could be assisted at home to improve his or her literacy.