Executive Functioning & Writing
As executive functioning coaches, we’ve noticed that a lot of our students struggle with writing skills. In today’s article, school psychologist and executive functioning consultant Tulin Akin is going to discuss why writing can be such a challenge and what you can do about it.
Why are strong executive functioning skills important in the writing process?
Writing assignments can be a unique source of frustration for students with executive functioning deficits. Your child might be able to talk for hours about their favorite subject, but if you asked them to put pencil to paper (or fingers to keyboard), they may be unable to transfer those thoughts to the page.
Writing involves a surprising number of underlying skills including:
receptive and expressive language skills
fine motor skills (think writing or typing)
background vocabulary
knowledge of writing rules such as grammar, punctuation, and capitalization
automation of spelling rules
short-term and long-term memory
critical thinking skills
maintaining sustained attention to the task
In addition to all of those skills working in the background, writing requires many steps including organizing and reorganizing one’s thoughts, holding and transferring ideas to the page, and following the expectations and purpose of the assignment.
After a draft is finished, there is the editing process, which includes revision of phrases, organization, word choice, and flow; revision of capitalization, spelling, and grammar errors; and often, being willing to listen and accept feedback on our writing. Ideally, before submitting, there is a final reflection to ensure the final piece accomplished the initial goals and met all requirements.
Phew! It’s a lot to ask of our brains! Add in constraints of a due date or time limits during an exam, and we start to see why many people freeze before a blank page or are resistant or avoid writing assignments.
Two major aspects of writing which can bring challenges are the physical act of writing (handwriting or typing) and the writing process itself. We’ll discuss each of these below.
Writing assignments can be a unique source of frustration for students with executive functioning deficits.
Handwriting and typing
If your child appears to struggle with the physical aspect of writing (handwriting or typing), you’ll need to work on these challenges before moving on to working on the writing process. If they struggle to produce letters and sentences, then they won’t be able to write, even if they have a lot of thoughts ready to share!
You may first want to rule out any fine motor skills deficits. Has your child’s teacher expressed any concerns? It takes a lot of focus to learn and sustain legible handwriting initially. It’s important that your child over-learns handwriting skills, so that they’re able to produce letters and sentences automatically. If they need to concentrate on letter formation, that’s going to reduce access to working memory, critical thinking and planning for the other aspects of writing.
Some people find that, due to fine motor or other challenges, they never really master handwriting. For those students, typing (instead of handwriting) all written responses may be a great solution and accommodation. One way or the other, many people end up relying on typing as the main medium for writing.
Typing skills develop and change over time: touch typing is the most efficient but takes practice and a level of fine-motor skills that not all children have reached, so hunt and peck is often a starting point and preferred method. As the hunt and peck method requires focus on fine-motor and visual-spatial skills, the brain space available for the overall writing process is reduced.
If your child experiences difficulty with either writing or typing, you probably want to start with these skills for your writing support. You can consider seeking out an occupational therapist or working on these skills with programs like Handwriting without Tears.
If you’ve tried to work on these skills extensively and your child is still struggling, adult dictation or dictation software can be a helpful accommodation to make sure they’re still able to express their thoughts and ideas.
The writing process
As discussed in the introduction, the writing process requires us to coordinate multiple aspects of executive functioning together smoothly.
The process requires your child to organize their thoughts, initiate the writing task, sustain attention to their writing, and engage in critical thinking about their writing. If a student has challenges with working memory, organization of ideas or flow within a paragraph or sentence is going to be difficult.
To further illustrate the complexity of the process and its heavy reliance on executive functioning skills, let’s break down what it takes for me to write this article alone:
Because so many students struggle with the writing process, we’ll spend the remainder of the article making suggestions to improve this common challenge!
Building executive functioning skills through the writing process
Fortunately, there are steps we can take to reduce the frustration and avoidance students have toward the writing process.
Graphic organizers/outlines
I highly recommend the use of graphic organizers and outlines for students and writers of all ages. Graphic organizers can help guide all stages of the writing process, starting with brainstorming and pre-writing/planning phases.
I continue to use my own brainstorming methods in my professional writing to this day. I have worked with many students who dive right into writing; they see the essay prompt and immediately start writing a paper. Not surprisingly, because pre-writing/planning is an essential part of the writing process, their final product often ends up disorganized, does not fully support their argument, and is underdeveloped.
I pause students before starting any writing assignment and together we use a graphic organizer or outline to develop a framework to a paper before developing paragraphs. You can select the right tool (graphic organizer or outline) based on the age and needs of the student.
Identify steps for the writing process
It may help to create a checklist including the steps that can be referenced each time your child has a writing assignment. The checklist might include something like:
read prompt/directions/rubric
gather research/information
graphic organizer or outline
write first draft
revise for vocabulary
revise for grammar and punctuation
rewrite with edits
refer back to prompt/directions/rubric and compare to final draft
edit if needed
submit
You can edit the list for your child! Another helpful tip is to laminate your child’s individualized writing checklist or place it in a sheet protector, so that your child can use a dry erase marker to check off the steps as they’re completing each writing assignment.
Use of timers
To help with task initiation (i.e., getting started with writing)
Particularly for students who are avoiding writing, agreeing to sit down for at least 10 minutes to write can be a way to get started. Usually once someone has started writing, they’re willing to continue past the original agreement because they’re in a flow state or they see it isn’t that bad. For some students, they may need to work in smaller blocks of time in order to maintain sustained attention to the task. The timer will help them know to get started.
You can even use an online visual timer to help them see how much time they’ve agreed to and have left.
To increase focus and limit perfectionism
Use the Pomodoro method to help maintain focus (e.g., 25 minutes to write, 5 minute break, another 25 minutes of writing). We’ll be writing an article soon with more details on this helpful strategy!
Set a reasonable time limit for each component of the writing process (e.g., 45 minutes for research, 10 minutes for an outline, 60 minutes for first draft, etc).
Calendar/assignment notebook
How much time has the student been given to complete the writing assignment? Work backwards from the due date to estimate how much time/days can be spent on each component of the writing process.
Ideally, particularly for longer papers in high school, I recommend students plan to have the “final” draft prepared 24 hours before it is due. That way they can “sleep on it” and their brain will have rested and processed some last edits. In addition, this allows for unexpected (but not unusual) interferences or distractions that may put them behind their initial daily goals.
I recommend students write these smaller process goals on a calendar or in their assignment notebook (e.g., Tuesday: research, Wednesday: outline, Thursday: first draft, etc.)
Adult assistance
Typing assistance:
Sometimes our fingers don’t move as fast as our brains so having an adult type out a child’s thoughts can be beneficial. A student with a working memory challenge may forget their thoughts as they are writing and that can get frustrating.
The key here is that the adult is essentially acting as a dictation device, not an editor! It needs to be your child’s words and sentences and the editing process left until it’s time for that step.
I have done this for many students and they are often surprised by how much quicker it goes if they don’t have to type or handwrite as well as process their thoughts. I have them sit right next to me so they can watch as I’m typing or writing and they will often self-edit as they see the words on the page.
Editing assistance:
This is another tricky role for a parent because, as an adult, you have so much more experience writing and may have learned a different approach to writing. It’s important you give suggestions and ask questions, rather than changing phrases or organization.
The great thing about documents on the computer is that most systems are designed to allow for “comments” or “recommended edits.” Sometimes your child will reject your suggestions and sometimes they’ll use it as a jumping off point to make their writing stronger. If you’re concerned about the thesis, you could say something like “what are you trying to prove in this paper? What is your argument you will support?” instead of “phrase it this way…”.
You can also encourage your child to read the paper aloud or read it aloud to them. Our eyes fill in missing words on the page when read silently and reading aloud helps us catch those errors. When it is read aloud, we will also hear when phrases don’t “sound right” and this helps us with our self-reflection.
Writing doesn’t have to be a painful process and I hope you and your child will find these tips helpful!
If you think your child would benefit from more direct instruction in the writing process, contact us for a free consultation! We have tutors who can scaffold writing instruction for your child so they can build towards independence and success in writing.
About the author:
Tulin S. Akin is a certified school psychologist who has been working as a tutor and Executive Function coach with Chicago Home Tutor since 2015. Prior to CHT, she worked in public schools (elementary and high school) for eight years, after getting her specialist degree in school psychology for Illinois State University. Tulin works with students in all academic areas but has chosen to specialize in EFs after observing the affects of poorly functioning EF skills on student performance and long-term functioning. Her articles are based on reviews of current research literature, texts for practitioners, and hands-on supports for students through college age.
