The Importance of Identifying & Addressing Writing Problems Early

When the last National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing assessment with released scores was given to eighth and twelfth graders in 2011, only 24% of the students were ‘‘proficient’’ in writing. What percentage of eighth and twelfth graders will be proficient when the test is next administered in 2032?

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Over the past decade that I have been teaching writing classes, each year, students have been coming to me with more and more severe writing problems, and the students with the problems have been older and older—it is very concerning, to say the least.

What is mind-boggling is that in almost all cases, writing remediation wasn’t recommended by the child’s school, the place where the remediation process should begin. Instead, it was initiated by the child’s parents and oftentimes too late.

The ideal time to begin addressing writing problems is in late elementary school because children are developmentally ready to do so and time is on their side, so to speak. If a child slips through the cracks and doesn’t start getting supplemental writing help until middle school or high school, there is a lot of catching up and undoing that needs to be done at that point, putting tremendous pressure on the child, their parents, their teachers, etc., because the child is responsible for writing papers in multiple courses but doesn’t have the appropriate skill set to do so, and getting the child’s writing skills up to par is not an overnight process.

My recommendation to parents is that if your intuition is telling you that something is not right with your child’s writing skills, don’t hesitate to act on that intuition; act on it right away before your child finds themselves in a place where they can’t catch up with their peers’ writing skills, leaving your child feeling defeated and giving up on the learning process.

Having strong writing skills is a confidence booster, and more confidence leads to more motivation overall and, in turn, more success in life. Empower your child by giving them the gift of strong writing skills.

~ Christina Caputo

Founder & Owner of ★ W O R D S