As an occupational therapist with many years of
experience working with children on the autism spectrum-including my own son,
the title “I hate to Write” not only caught my eye. I needed to find out what strategies the
authors offered that would specifically address the unique needs of these
students. The book’s subtitle- “Tips for Helping Students with Autism Spectrum
and Related Disorders Increase Achievement, Meet Academic Standards and Become
Happy, Successful Writers” describes exactly what readers will learn!
Occupational therapist Cheryl Boucher, MSEd, OTR/L
and speech and language pathologist Kathy Oehler MS, CCC-SLP provide the
perfect balance of information on evidence-based practices and their own
strategies based on decades of experience working with students. The combined
perspectives of an OT and SLP create a holistic framework for teachers to
understand the challenges faced by students with an Autism Spectrum disorder
(ASD)-including impaired
·
Language processing
·
Organization
·
Sensory regulation
·
Motor control
The authors explain that by the end of second grade
children are expected to primarily express their knowledge through their
writing rather than verbally as they did in earlier grades and to have mastered
the mechanics of letter formation and spatial organization on the page. The National
Common Core State Standard describes expectations for older students to perform
tasks such as writing
·
Narratives
·
explanatory texts
·
longer research projects and
·
using a writing style appropriate to the task,
purpose, and audience
Obviously, many students who “hate to write”
struggle to achieve the early foundational and more advanced writing skills
required to meet the national core standards.
Therefore, the authors begin each chapter with a 1) writing requirement,
followed by 2) the teacher’s concerns such as “when I ask him to write, he just sits there” or “he writes
in fragments. His writing does not make sense”.
Teacher
concerns are followed by 3) the “why” – explanations of brain function that
impacts sensory processing, comprehension and abilities to complete tasks.
Finally, and most importantly the authors provide 4) numerous strategies
arranged according to functional deficits such as
·
poor
sensory regulation (i.e. provide dynamic seating or movement activity)
·
decreased
motor skills (i.e. scaffold with physical supports that are gradually faced,
use technology)
·
organization
(i.e. use of graphic organizers such as pictures)
As one would expect, this book is well organized with a
variety of adaptations and teaching options for each learning goal- so that
teachers can pick the ones most suitable for the individual student. My
personal favorites are the ‘Laser Power Letters’ activity and using the
backward chaining technique to teach spelling.
Finally the appendices provide, yet more valuable
information and resources on
·
brain
function
·
glossary
·
tips
for the left-handed writers
·
letter
formation strategies
·
keyboarding
and
·
assistive
technology
Although I Hate to
Write is written primarily for teachers, I think that therapists,
psychologists and other professionals on the educational team will benefit from
the concrete, evidenced-based information. Parents, will also appreciate
learning about the types of educational strategies that are available. I recommend this book to help those who hate
to write (for whatever reason!) to academically achieve to the best of their
abilities.
My 4 year old had very good attention and effort today. She listened and persisted when I told her to move around the blue and red cords (actually strips of fleece that feel great) rather than just tugging to untie the knots . I'm sure that there are many different ways to practice this skill, but this was one that didn't lend itself to hand-over-hand teaching. I just made sure that the knots were loose enough so that they could succeed pretty quickly before being discouraged.
