2 things you must stop doing today if you want your toddler to become an independent writer.

Parents often tell me this…

‘My child refuses to write!’

and parents often ask me this…

‘How do I get them to write?’

You don’t ‘get’ a child to write. So get that out of your head for starters!

Here’s what you should be asking me…

‘How do I help to create a love for writing?’

That question I can spend hours answering!

When I worked full time in primary schools, this was something that I had to work very hard to get rid of in my classrooms. This ‘enforced writing’ time. Especially in the earlier years (Reception- Years 2). Some children just don’t want to write for whatever reason they have and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure that there are many things that you don’t like to do too!

Yet we continue to ‘force’ our children to write and then we wonder why some children don’t want to write?

If you want your child to become an independent writer, here are two things you must stop doing today.

1.Telling them to do it.

My son is 28 months old. To this day, I have never told him to write. Not once. Every morning, I leave paper out for him. I leave colouring pencils/felts out for him. But I don’t tell him to write. If he gravitates towards that activity - that’s great! He’s always asking me for pencil and paper. He calls pencils ‘papers’! Perhaps because he sees me writing all the time and he copies everything I do, perhaps he sees that I myself love writing and am writing at various points in the day. Perhaps this is why he loves to write.

It is a problem if you keep telling your child to write because if they don’t want to do it and you tell them to do it, they will associate it with something negative. And once it becomes negative - that’s it - Game over.

We want writing to always be associated as something very positive. Very relaxed and calm. This is not what I’ve seen on many occasions in my nearly 20 years as an educator.

2. Telling them that what they have written is not good enough.

Don’t do this.

If you are trying to encourage your child to become an independent writer, just let them write. What they do is good enough. Don’t tell them otherwise. If you do want to comment on something, be specific. Eg. I love your letter o but let’s try forming it the other way.

You want your child to become an independent writer then avoid these two things to have the greatest chance for success!