I need a suggestion for a writing program...

[stephanie]

ds 13 has ADHD/SPD and is not imaginative at tall. He is a very reluctant writer, and his writings are usually way off and flighty. We've been using R&S 6 with Wordsmith Apprentice, but I feel WA has not been formal enough to really teach him. Any suggestions?

[Kathy in MD]

How good are your ds's sentences? I found that my ds's poor writing structure started at the sentence level. This year I've done Sentence Composing for Elementary School (he's 7th grade), and that has made great improvement in my ds's writing. It allows us to focus on writing good sentences, fleshing them out and making sure that each sentence makes sense internally. It does it by having the students study and immitate the sentences of professional novelists.

Next year we're using IEW because of the structure it teaches in writing paragraphs and short essays. Laurie4B has been using it this year and likes it. However I'll be combining it with Sentence Composing for Middle School to continue developing ds's sentence structure.

One last thought. Is your ds typing his papers? That reduces the physical writing problems some with SPD have. Also editing is much easier, making it less of a chore.

[stephanie]

How good are your ds's sentences? I found that my ds's poor writing structure started at the sentence level. This year I've done Sentence Composing for Elementary School (he's 7th grade), and that has made great improvement in my ds's writing. It allows us to focus on writing good sentences, fleshing them out and making sure that each sentence makes sense internally. It does it by having the students study and immitate the sentences of professional novelists.

Next year we're using IEW because of the structure it teaches in writing paragraphs and short essays. Laurie4B has been using it this year and likes it. However I'll be combining it with Sentence Composing for Middle School to continue developing ds's sentence structure.

One last thought. Is your ds typing his papers? That reduces the physical writing problems some with SPD have. Also editing is much easier, making it less of a chore.

You know, now that you say that, I guess it is more of his sentences. They are just plain odd. They are written just like he speaks-scattered and unorganized. I'm going to check it out though. What do you think of starting him in WWE?