Writing or composition is one of the most difficult tasks children with developmental problems can do, especially those with Language Learning problems. Several  of my students have this problem, with grades in the Language subject bordering on the failing status. Why does this happen? Read here.

Yes, some of them have difficulty understanding the grammar rules or the syntax. The fact that they have difficulties understanding some of the finer skills in language like pragmatics and semantics, writing seems not a priority.

Many times this has happened to several of my students, they are able to explain in detail what was asked of them. But when they were asked to write down what they have just explained, they look blankly at me and ask: “What am I going to write?” When I tell them to write what they have just said, they really have that blank look on their faces like I have said something foreign to them.

Writing is a complex task and there are several ways to do this, to teach this:

• Plan what to write. making a graphic organizer or writing down key words and concepts would be a great help.

• Be sure that basic grammar rules, particularly subject-verb agreement is understood. Sometimes children can do this in drills but can not apply what has been learned in writing.

• Write in drafts so that corrections are easier to spot.

• Clear rules for what needs to be revised should be made known. It is also important to explain why the revisions need to be done.

There are many ways to encourage children to write and here are some suggestions:

• writing down a telephone message.

• Writing ideas, thoughts, dreams, quotations heard,movie or TV lines heard and even writing down information like phone numbers and addresses are just some examples.

• Writing down instructions like when to take the medicine and how to operate something.

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I think we have a budding artist and writer in our midst.

No, not the eldest child nor the middle child but our youngest child, who is 5.9 years old.

Tania has always been advanced with her fine-motor skills even when she was younger.

She can draw well using the pen and paper. Please take notice of the dimensions of the bunch of balloons.

She can also use the MS Paint in the computer.

She also loves to write her own stories. I know I have thrown out some of her stories and have not documented these but now that she has a new set of stories, I plan to put these together and make something like children’s book with her drawings and written stories in it.

This would be a good gift for relatives especially grandparents during Christmas or special occasions. You might want to try this too

Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. The theme for this Saturday, June 14, 2008 is EMOTION (S). Being a Special Ed teacher, I have been privy to emotions running high: with the parents of my students, with colleagues, with the children themselves and with myself. I am a very emotional person, I cry easily and am passionate about the things that I believe in. Below are some photos I wish to share to show why emotions played a big part:

A lot of people came to the Angels Walk for Autism which we attended. In the photo are my co-workers, Occupational therapists and speech therapists (not in the photo). Some children performed on stage and everyone was proud about each child’s accomplishment.

A long-time student, JEM, performing guitar accompaniment for me while the song plays on his Nokia Express Music phone. Good job, JEM I am so proud of you!

JP, sitting down to do a table top activity for a change, instead of running around the room. I hope he would be able to adapt this behavior when he goes back to school. Your mom was very happy about this

The last day of our Storytelling/Narrative Group for the summer (school starts in June here in the Philippines) where everyone brought their favorite books and told these stories in front of the group. All in all, we were really happy about the results If only I could show their happy faces. That is my son, Julian at the rightmost photo. The girl in green is my daughter Tania. Below is a rather emotional entry for me, which I wrote a post here in my other blog as an entry for another Photo Meme participated by Filipinos.

Here is a part of my post: I was uncomfortable, I was not happy, not because they were asking for money but because its late. Its past 9pm! Shouldn’t they be resting? Why do they still continue what they were doing? This puzzled me. Isn’t this a form of child abuse? Isn’t this child exploitation? My feelings were hurt for them, I was “on fire” so I had to get the camera and to take their photos. I wanted to write about this, to vent off my steam about this kind of treatment, about this kind of system. And to think they are staying with a foundation. Why do they have to do this to them? May I ask what photo drew a unique emotion from you? photohunt

This is the fifth story in our Story Telling group activity this summer: “Grover, Grover, Come On Over” by Katharine Ross. This is a book I bought my daughter Trixie when she was just a few months old.

This story has many aspects or lessons to be learned by the reader.

First, Grover made a kite by using recyclable materials that he got from his friends. Then it also teaches about kite making using step by step sequences. It also teaches about patiently waiting for something to finish to be shared and enjoyed.

And because the lines were repetitive and rhyming, the kids enjoyed reading along with me (those who can already read) or just plainly reciting along with me. We had our oral reading wherein they assumed the role of Grover and I assumed the role of the other characters. Oh what fun we had!

Noel, an occupational therapist who is with me in the group, put up some yarns to some of the fixtures on the ceiling. Then the children were asked to get a hold of one and pretend to be flying kites. They had so much fun!

Then the children settled down to design their own kites. One of them had high hopes of flying the kite when he gets home. If it rains, he said he will use a fan

Here is heart-warming story about a girl who learned to read this story.

Our fourth story for the Story Telling Narrative was about Franklin the Turtle, of that famous animated TV show. I didn’t really know that this has been turned into an animated show because we don’t have cable tv. Franklin is a character i have loved even before, when my daughter Trixie was a preschooler, learning to play with computer games.

The story Franklin is Lost talks about having fun with friends and not forgetting what your parents have asked you to do: follow what they told to do, or not to do. The story talks about friendship and the love of parents to their children. Warm feelings about loving and caring.

Yeah, i did manage to tell the story and go on with this activity after being harangued by this incident. Professionalism rules the day, not rants and false accusations. But I digress, I better save my breath on more important matters . Oh, I’m so loving this, I hope she would be able to read this.

This is the book:

Franklin is Lost by Paulette Bourgeois book

The children doing their design-your-Franklin activity. Yes, I drew them turtles

We did a diorama. The children helped put up the trees which were made of rolled brown construction papers and crumpled green Japanese papers. We used a box top cover for the setting. Good thing we have a lot of plastic toy turtles in the center so each child got to choose a Franklin to play with. They had their turns playing their Franklins in the diorama.

UPDATE: one of the speech pathologists in the center used our diorama for her session yesterday I feel good.

A Fine Mouse Band is a wonderful story about a family of mice. This story talks about doing chores, helping one another and developing the potentials and talents of the family members.

The Plot: This story is about a family doing different chores at home. Each family member has his/her own task to do. Then they enjoyed playing music with the instruments that they made.

Of course we had to make music using our own improvised pom-poms, cymbals made of empty lotion plastic containers (these are being used for massages by the occupational therapists), musical instruments toys and even the baby rattles used by the smaller children for therapy.

Here the children are watching a “Mommy And Me” DVD while they sing their hearts out and use the “musical instruments”. What fun they we had!

This story was written by Cyndy Szekeres who also wrote a lot of books and you can view the titles here: Cyndy Szekeres (1933-) Biography - Personal, Career, Writings, Work in Progress, Sidelights