The Process of Writing

When I picked up the girls from Mom's today, Emma asked how was my day. I replied that it was busy and muggy. She next asked what did I learn? Talk about role reversal. I said "the writing process." Her reply was interesting. "That's easy Mom, you grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down what your thinking. Was that all you did today? Cause that was pretty easy, and Acadia is supposed to be hard." I smile and pull in the driveway.

Today had the potential to be an overwhelming day. Task analysis is stressful, but I'm feeling better about it. Handwriting in simple terms is using a some sort of pen, pencil, crayon or marker to get symbols on paper. As seen in the PowerPoint today, Kay describes it is the grapho-motor execution of sequential symbols to convey thoughts and information. 

We know that symbols represent oral language and that in order to write well you have to be a good reader. Emma prefers to write over reading. I think it has more to do with the freedom of writing. Maybe it's a decoding issue. She does come from a family with a strong construction background. I'm constantly on her about slowing down to reconstruct her sounds better. Sometimes she prints what she hears, and it's up to me to make her pronounce her words better. For instance when in primary, the "th" sound was the "d" sound until I corrected her enough on her pronunciation and then  she made the switch to "th" in both her speaking and writing.

Attending to tasks and Executive Functions run deep in this analysis, in all task analysis'. Only here we have lower and higher skill levels, content and mechanical. It's just so  much more complicated! 

   As a primary teacher, I really like the Handwriting Without Tears program. Emily informed me later today, that although the PD I received just over a year ago from an OT from the IWK and someone else is no longer recommended by the HRSB. I wonder why. It certainly isn't the be all and end all, but it is a great program. I try to use an abbreviated version in my classroom in September to assess and build on students fine motor skills. I din't realize that Letter formation was so involved. It not only includes attending to the task, which can be more challenging when you're 4 or 5 years old, plus all the executive functions, and spelling, Orthographic processors, letter recognition, phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, prior knowledge, retrieval, recall, experience, memory, language sound letter correspondence, auditory processing, visual processing, fine motor, organize ideas, sequential processing, conventions of print, spatial awareness, TIME, automatic letter form, accuracy, punctuation, vision, concentration, and the list foes on... who would have thought?