Issue 23: Never give up, never surrender! Supporting reluctant writers to succeed | David Kinnane

For more than a decade, I've worked with students who are reluctant to write. In this article, I share some evidence-based tips and practical resources to help families of reluctant writers.

Writing reluctance: why does it happen?

Lots of reasons. For example, some students:

• have speech or language disorders, like childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), developmental language disorder (DLD), or language disorders associated with autism or other neurodevelopmental differences;
• have specific learning disorders in reading and/or writing, better known as dyslexia and dysgraphia;
• struggle to write well because of the effects of ADHD and other challenges with executive functions;
• have sensory challenges, like hearing and vision impairments, that make writing challenging;
• are learning English as an additional language
• experience mental health challenges, like anxiety;
• are dealing with the effects of socioeconomic stress, neglect, abuse or trauma;
• refuse - or are excluded from - school and miss out on writing instruction; or
• are "instructional casualties", having simply never been taught to write.

To complicate matters, many students present with more than one of these challenges.

In recent years, after the COVID lockdowns, I've seen increasing numbers of students who are unmotivated to write much. Some students simply don't see the point of writing in the age of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT.

Watch out for negative self-talk and signs of reluctance

To help reluctant writers, we first need to spot them!

Start by listening to what students say. Too often, reluctant writers buy into the idea that they can't do it. "I'm bad at writing." "It's too hard. I can't do it. Writing is boring." "Writing's for [girls][nerds]." And so on!

Sometimes, students' actions speak louder than words. Look for signs of nervousness before or during writing, avoidance behaviours (e.g. frequent bathroom breaks), slowness to get going, phase-outs mid-task, day-dreaming and doodling, talking, shouting or irrelevant questioning, complaining, rushing work, perfectionism (e.g. multiple restarts), low stamina, fidgeting, chair-rocking, self-sabotage, and challenging behaviours. Some students will do almost anything to avoid writing.

While some reluctant writers stand out like stop signs, others are more subtle. We need to keep a close eye out for students who are struggling in silence. Too often, we overlook students who don't make a fuss but are experiencing significant writing difficulties. Too many of these students are not picked up until late primary school and even high school, including many girls.