Writing As A Verbal Process
Joan M. Smith, Ed.D.
Jason was reported to have a terrible time writing stories and compositions in his fifth grade class.
His mother had to sit with him every time he had to prepare a written assignment for class. She reported that he did seem to have any idea how to organize the material, could not understand the format and was so discouraged that he often looked like he would cry. In order to get a report finished, his mother usually ended up dragging him to the library, selecting the books for his report and reading them with him. She often found herself typing his report in the middle of the night while Jason slept.
This sequence of events is commonly reported by parents when their children have difficulty with writing skills. This is not a parenting issue. These are good, caring parents who realize that if they do not provide the structure and impetus for getting the assignment done the child will fail. They realize that their child is unable to do the task on their own no matter how much motivation, reward or encouragement they might provide. It is only the "hands-on" and "do it for them" that gets the writing completed. The learning challenge which Jason is experiencing is in his auditory planning function
- Jason cannot verbalize how to prepare his material for a paper.
- He cannot visually image the parts of the paper (Introduction, Body, Conclusion).
- He has no working strategy for preparing an outline or a plan for the organization of the paper.
- He cannot write his thoughts down and maintain his verbal train of thought at the same time.
He experiences a learning challenge with his auditory planning (verbal inner voice). In order to correct Jason's learning difficulty he will need to learn to use his inner voice for planning. It will not work to begin training by having him do this by working on a paper. He needs to start at a beginning level. The initial activity we use in teaching Jason to plan is to use a task in which he learns to sequence a series of events. A simple story about a famous inventor was used with Jason. Her heard the story about Thomas Edison. Four simple facts were recorded for the story.
- Edison was born in Scotland in 1845
- Edison's grandfather took him to see an inventor's museum when he was fifteen
- Edison developed the telephone in...
After Jason had heard the story and we recorded the facts on cards, then we mixed them up and asked Jason to put them in the proper order.
Jason worked with this type of task to understand the order and organization of events. Once Jason knew the story of Edison and could retell it (verbalize) with ease from his fact cards, he was ready for a written exercise. Jason was asked to verbalize what his story was about. He found that very easy - "My story is about the invention of the electric light bulb by Thomas Edison."
Without realizing it, Jason had already developed a topic sentence!
He was asked to add a second sentence to his first sentence which told a bit more about his story, which he did with ease. Jason was then asked to tell three facts about Thomas Edison that would explain how he became interested in sound and what happened. He verbalized these with ease and then wrote them down.
Finally we asked him to tell what his story was about and he said "It was fortunate for everyone that Edison's grandfather took him to the invention museum. Because Thomas went to London and visited the museum he got the idea to become an inventor. WE all are happy because we have electric lights to thank him for."
Once Jason had recorded his information we showed him the three parts of his story. We labeled them for him and had him describe what was different about the three parts. He understood the differences. The next activity was a critical one. We asked Jason to go home and write out his story on a piece of colored, lined composition paper we gave him. He decided he would like to make it look very nice and then frame it as a gift for his mother.
We really wanted him to do a written activity on his own. He agreed that he would do this and would phone us the next day to report on how he did. We asked him to make it a secret effort that he could only reveal when it was done and framed. At this point Jason had a strategy which he had internalized verbally to guide his writing. He was very familiar with the material and he know how he would structure his writing. He would be successful with his independent effort.
Writing is a language process...It is the recording of language in a written form.
Students (or adults) who experience difficulty in writing usually have inadequate of inefficient verbal inner language. The do not listen to themselves. They do not talk to themselves. Their inner voices appear to be more random thoughts, spontaneous responses or reflections of feelings.
In order to be effective in writing we need to be able to verbally describe a sequence of events or to order information. This is the critical strategy in developing a written assignment Jason's inability to organize his thoughts and verbalize the order for a sequence of events prevented his writing development. His mother had externally organized them for him. Once he learned to do this for himself he was empowered to develop a writing system.
The strategies differ for each individual depending upon where they are on the continuum of possible confusion. The sequence is consistent and can be applied with success to relieve writing disabilities at any point in the process.
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