Writing is one of the most difficult and complex tasks for kids to learn. For kids with certain learning and attention issues, it can be even more of a challenge.

Written expression requires many skills. Knowing what these are can help you understand why your child may be struggling. Writing skills operate at three levels: word, sentence, and paragraph/whole text. By pinpointing trouble spots, you can get your child the right help to improve writing.

Here are six essential skills needed for written expression, and what might help struggling writers.

Skill #1: Reading Comprehension

One of the most basic skills for writing is reading comprehension—the ability to read and understand text. In order to write, kids first need to be able to sound out unfamiliar wordsand instantly recognize many other words. Then they need to understand the meaning of strings of words, in sentences and in paragraphs.

Having a good vocabulary will help with understanding. But new vocabulary words are mostly learned through reading.

Without these skills, it’s difficult for kids to even start writing. They will likely struggle with spelling and with creating text that’s meaningful. And they’ll have trouble revising and editing their work. Those tasks require re-reading closely to catch and fix mistakes or weak spots.

What might help: Assistive technology can help kids work around reading challenges. For instance, if they struggle with decoding words, text-to-speech can read aloud the words they’ve written. Some text-to-speech tools read aloud words as they type them, which can be very helpful when editing.

Skill #2: Transcription

Transcription is the physical act of producing words. This skill covers handwriting, keyboarding and spelling.

Kids can struggle with transcription in many ways. Some have messy or illegible handwriting, even after being taught. Others write very slowly by hand. Still others may be able to write legibly or type quickly and accurately enough, but they may not be able to spell many words without help.

Using a keyboard can often help speed up transcription. But for some kids, the very act of typing is a struggle and gets in the way of writing.

Skill #3: Sentence Construction

To write, kids have to know how to construct sentences that make sense. But some kids with learning and attention issues have a hard time understanding and using correct sentence structure.

They may not understand the placement of verbs or how verb tenses work. They may also use sentences that are too simple or incomplete. Or they may string a lot of ideas together into long run-on sentences.

Using correct punctuation can be a challenge. That includes the use of commas, apostrophes or punctuation marks that end sentences. Knowing when to use capital letters can also be difficult.

What might help: One way to help kids who struggle with this skill is by giving them very basic, practical knowledge. This includes things like the difference between a statement and a question, and the difference between a subject and a verb.

Kids will need a lot of practice using this knowledge to write sentences. They might work on splitting and combining sentences, for instance, and using sentence connectors like and or but.

Skill #4: Genre and Content Knowledge

Genre knowledge means knowing how different types of writing need to be structured and what to include to help a reader understand the message. For example, if the assignment is to write a story, kids need to know what goes into the genre of narrative writing. It must include setting (who, where, when) and plot (what and why.)

Another example of a genre is a persuasive essay. When kids write a persuasive essay, they have to know what goes into that genre. The essay should include a position statement, reasons, facts to support reasons, and a conclusion that summarizes main reasons.

Content knowledge means knowing something about the subject of her writing. If kids are asked to write a letter to a politician about pollution, they need to understand what pollution is. They’ll also need to know how it affects people, animals and the environment. And they may need to know what causes pollution.

What might help: Many kids pick up genre knowledge simply by being exposed to it in school through reading. Other kids may need more explicit instruction. They need to be taught about the differences between biography and memoir, for instance, or fiction versus nonfiction.

One way to do that is to find good examples of each genre. Then, compare and contrast them with non-examples or weak examples. Another way is to come up with a list of common elements that all the good examples share.

Some kids with learning and attention issues may have holes in their general knowledge. This can hurt their writing. One good strategy is to help kids build background knowledge of the world.

Kids can gain background knowledge through reading, or through field trips and family outings. Talk about what kids are learning before, during and after the outing. Experiences like a summer camp, where a child is exposed to many types of people and activities, can also provide background knowledge.

Skill #5: Planning, Revising and Editing

There’s a process to writing. Kids need to know how to plan, revise and edit their work in order to express themselves well in writing. Researchers have found that good writers plan what to write in their heads or through brief notes before they write a first draft. That requires strong executive skills, like working memory and attention.

To write, kids have to juggle many ideas. Then they need to decide how to organize those ideas into paragraphs and an overall structure. This requires them to pull the right knowledge from their memory, like genre and content knowledge.

Kids also need to go back through what they’ve written to fix errors and make improvements so the message is clear. That requires understanding why and how to make changes to the text to make it better.

What might help: Kids can learn specific strategies about the writing process. For instance, the “hamburger” strategy helps kids plan a paragraph. A paragraph needs a topic sentence (top bun), main idea (patty), supporting details (condiments), and a conclusion (bottom bun).

A “spider map” encourages kids to think of a topic with supporting details. A “T table” helps them brainstorm reasons for and against a certain issue. And a timeline can help kids map out a sequence of events for a story.

You can find many of these strategies in graphic organizers. These tools help kids visualize how to plan their papers. They also help kids generate content in an organized way.

Checklists can help kids focus on certain things to look for when they’re revising and editing. These include:

• Content (the quality and accuracy of ideas)
• Organization (how information is structured to create a good flow from beginning to end)
• Language (the variety and precision of vocabulary and sentences)
• Appearance (spelling, capitalization, punctuation)

Skill #6: Self-Regulation

The ability to self-regulate plays a big role in writing. When kids set goals about how many words the term paper must be, then check the word count as they write, that’s self-regulation. If they get to the end of a sentence, realize it makes no sense and decide to rewrite it, that’s self-regulation.

Frustration can lead kids to give up on writing. But when they remind themselves that they’re making progress and can do it, that’s also self-regulation. Experienced writers do this naturally.

How kids view themselves as writers can have an impact on their ability to self-regulate. Do they value writing? Do they feel competent about writing? How motivated are they to write?

Self-regulation is hard for some kids with learning and attention issues. That’s especially true of kids with ADHD or executive functioning issues. Weak self-regulation skills can affect many of the other writing skills.

What might help: Kids can be taught strategies for self-regulated writing. For instance, you can teach kids to check each sentence of a paragraph once they’ve finished the paragraph. It also helps to encourage kids to take breaks after writing a certain number of words.

Kids can also be taught to use positive self-talk to help with motivation. For example, while writing they could say to themselves, “It’s OK that this is hard because I know my effort will pay off.” The key to all these strategies is repetition and practice. You can help your children to learn different things from the children’s book series and they can learn about financial freedom and life lessons.

How important is it for parents to present a united front regarding discipline? The answer depends on your child’s age. Learn more from Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D., author of The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting.

One of the most frequent questions parents ask is whether it’s important for spouses to maintain a united front in matters of discipline.

The simplest answer is that it depends on your child’s age. The younger your child is, the more important it is for spouses to be consistent with each other. This is true regardless of whether you are married, separated, divorced, or remarried.

Young children (those six and younger) are easily confused when one parent has different rules from the other, or when one parent enforces rules and the other does not. At this age, children tend to see the world in absolute terms. Because they have a hard time resolving discrepancies between two opposing views, they can’t understand why Dad says one thing and Mom says something else. To them, there can be only one “right” way to do things. This is a problem when you and your spouse don’t present a united front, because you don’t want your child to see one of you as the right parent and the other as the wrong one. Over time, this will only undermine your child’s respect for the parent who is typically on the wrong side of things.

The need to see the world in such black-and-white terms gradually disappears between the ages of six and eleven. My advice is that if your child is not yet eleven or so, you and your spouse should do what you can to present a united front. It will make life a lot easier for your child if you work out your disagreements and keep them private.

A united front is certainly desirable when you have older children or teenagers, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. Once they have turned eleven or twelve, children understand that people can disagree about things without either of them being wrong. They will usually attribute differences in their parents’ behavior to differences in their personalities or values. Instead of seeing one parent as right and the other as wrong, for example, children at this age will come to view one parent as strict and the other as lenient. Of course, this can create a different set of problems; a clever child will soon learn to approach the lenient parent first when asking permission for something and to play one parent against the other. But, by and large, this is something you can handle if you follow the advice contained in this section.

If you and your spouse have differences of opinion over how to handle a particular disciplinary issue, the first step is to talk it through outside the earshot of your child. (This is a good idea regardless of your child’s age.)

If your disagreement surfaces in front of your child (for example, you and your spouse are watching television when your preadolescent enters the rooms, asks permission to have his ear pierced and you are shocked to hear your spouse say it’s okay), it’s fine to tell your child that you need to talk it over before making a final decision. This is less awkward when neither of you has actually voiced an opinion yet, but even if one or both of you have, there’s no harm in saying that the two of you disagree and need to discuss things. Whatever you do, though, don’t try to work out your difference of opinion while your child is standing there waiting. You have no idea whether the discussion will be short, simple, and calm, or long, complicated, and heated. It’s fine for your child to be exposed to the former, but you don’t want him to be exposed to the latter.

When you and your spouse finally have a chance to discuss the matter, try hard to find common ground and understand each other’s perspective on the issue. Step away from the specifics of the matter at hand and see whether one of you has taken a stance that is more consistent with the principles you’ve been trying to follow. This will help you see what the real issue is.

Sometimes, one of you is simply too close to the details of the issue to look at it objectively. If you can’t find a solution that is acceptable to both of you, and if the decision doesn’t have to be made immediately, set the matter aside and revisit it later or the following day. One of you may change your opinion.

There will invariably be issues on which the two of you simply cannot agree, even after a thorough discussion. In these cases, you are just going to have to “agree to disagree,” pick a solution, and go with it. Few decisions are cast in stone, and if you find you’ve made a mistake, you can always change your mind.

Agreeing to disagree is not a problem. It’s more important that you do the right thing than that you be consistent with each other just for the sake of agreement. Children fare better when at least one of their parents follows the principles of effective parenting than when their parents force themselves to agree with each other but happen to be wrong.

When you and your spouse are both technically correct, but still don’t agree, you can usually reconcile hard-to-resolve disagreements on one of several grounds:

• Decide on the basis of which parent the issue is more important to. If you don’t care all that much, it makes no sense to stand on principle. There will be times when the situation is reversed, and you’ll appreciate being given extra consideration when you feel more strongly than your spouse does.
• Err on the side of caution. It is a lot easier for a lenient parent to live with a cautious decision than vice versa. It is also usually the safer bet as far as your child is concerned. If you want to relax your child’s curfew but your spouse does not, you should probably follow your spouse’s instinct.
• Decide on the basis of which one of you has more relevant expertise. If the issue concerns your child’s physical health, and one of you is a physician, that parent is probably in a better position to make a decision.
• Decide on the basis of which parent is going to bear the brunt of the decision. If what you decide will affect your spouse’s daily routine but not yours (perhaps a decision will mean that your spouse is going to have to spend extra hours each week shuttling your child around), give your spouse more say.
• When all else fails, decide on the basis of equity between the two of you. If virtually all of your recent decisions have favored one person’s view, it’s probably time to even things out a bit.

Once you have worked things out with your spouse, it’s important that you support each other, even if you disagree with the final decision.

Supporting each other is not the same as presenting a united front.

If your child is old enough to understand that two people can disagree and both be right, there’s no problem telling your child that the two of you disagree but have made a decision on some other basis (it is the safer option, it mattered much more to one parent than the other, it will make one parent’s life easier, and so on). This will teach your child important lessons about the need for compromise in healthy relationships. She will not learn this if you present a united front every time you disagree.

However, supporting each other means that even if you and your spouse don’t see eye to eye, you will not undermine either the decision or your spouse’s authority by helping your child work around the policy, by winking at your child when you know he’s violated it, by knowingly failing to enforce it when your spouse is not around, or by suggesting to your child, implicitly or explicitly, that you are on his side but your spouse is not.

This sort of sabotage happens frequently when separated or divorced parents are having trouble working out their differences amicably, but it happens in married households as well, usually when one parent is too insecure in the parenting role to bear making a child angry. These secret or unspoken alliances between a child and one parent are harmful, because they either undermine the authority of the other parent or make the child feel guilty for doing what he’s been explicitly told not to do. When they are younger, children may favor the “nice” parent in these situations, but in the long run, most children will grow up appreciating the parent who behaved responsibly and have less respect for the parent who behaved more like a child than an adult.

If your child is angry at you because the decision you came to didn’t turn out the way he had hoped, and you were the insistent parent, don’t worry about it. This is not a problem as long as one parent is not habitually forced into the role of the “bad guy,” and as long as your decision pleases your child every once in a while. If a child is always being told no and the blame is always placed on the same parent’s shoulders, he is bound to become resentful toward the parent.

When you and your spouse don’t agree, don’t get drawn into a power struggle over it. This is not a battle to see who’s the stronger, smarter, kinder, or better parent. The correct resolution to any disagreement you have with your spouse is the one that is best for your child, not the one that establishes one parent’s authority over the other’s. Parenting is not a competition. Everyone has to maintain a financial budget and how much money should you save before having a baby, it’s difficult thing but you can learn about it just drop your comments in the comment section.

Somewhere between the Mom who obsessively wipes down every knob and toy her child might touch, and the Dad who thinks rolling in the dirt is “good” for kids, there’s a healthy medium, British experts say.

“We have to find a way to protect against infectious diseases and harmful microbes, whilst at the same time sustaining exposure to the essential beneficial microbes in our world,” explained Sally Bloomfield.

Bloomfield is a member of the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene, and also the co-author of a new report that surveyed British adults on their attitude towards dirt and germs in the home.

The 2018 survey, from the Royal Society for Public Health, suggests people are confused about how much dirt is OK. A lot of that confusion is probably coming from the rise of the “hygiene hypothesis” — the notion that today’s homes are overly sanitized, and kids need contact with germs to build up healthy immune systems.

But this notion can be taken too far, as Bloomfield’s group found.

In fact, nearly one in four people polled agreed with the statement that “hygiene in the home is not important because children need to be exposed to harmful germs to build their immune system.”

Men were twice as likely as women to express that opinion.

On the other hand, misconceptions around the level of “danger” posed by dirt were also common.

Bloomfield’s team found that “almost two-thirds of those we surveyed (61%) said touching a child’s dirty hands after they have been playing outside was likely to spread harmful germs.”

But that’s simply not true. In fact, “there is little evidence that outdoor dirt and soil is contaminated with harmful microbes (unless there are animals nearby),” according to the report.

Different germs, different hazards

Bloomfield, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the key thing to remember is that all germs are not created equal.

Exposure to diverse microbes from other people, domestic animals and the natural environment do help build a healthy immune system and microbiome — the varied microbes normally living in the gut and respiratory tract, experts agree. However, exposure to the wrongtypes of germs can both weaken the microbiome and cause infections.

And if those infections require antibiotics, “good” bacteria in the gut get destroyed along with the bad, they pointed out.

So, how to find a balance between being a compulsive germaphobe who’s constantly cleaning or the lax parent letting kids chow down on mud pies?

Bloomfield believes a new, more nuanced model, called “targeted hygiene,” is probably the answer.

Targeted hygiene means intervening with kids and their environment, but only when you can stop the risk of infection. This doesn’t necessarily mean avid cleaning. Cleaning does get rid of visible dirt, but it won’t necessarily reduce the risk of infection.

What does? Handwashing.

Handwashing is a simple component of targeted hygiene, and should be timed to certain activities, Bloomfield said.

“Our own bodies, our food and our domestic animals are the most likely sources of spread of infection — so the times that matter are [times such as] when we handle raw food, when we use the toilet, when we care for our pets, when we are infected or caring for someone who is infected,” she explained.

So, be sure to wash your hands well:

• when you first come home;
• if you’ve been caring for or playing with a pet;
• after toileting;
• before eating or preparing food;
• after handling raw meat, fruits or vegetables;
• after sneezing, coughing or blowing your nose.

‘Common sense’ clean

Most — but not all — of the British adults surveyed seem to understand the value of hand washing, since “73% of respondents said they ‘always’ washed their hands thoroughly with soap after using the toilet and after preparing raw meat,” the report found.

In addition to hand washing, Bloomfield said other important measures include cleaning surfaces that come into contact with food, cleaning surfaces regularly touched by many people, and washing dishcloths immediately after using them so they don’t spread germs.

Dr. Aaron Glatt is a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He reviewed the new report and said he “likes the idea of targeted hygiene.”

“Good common sense remains the best way to prevent infection,” Glatt said. “You don’t need to wash your hands 40 times a day, but appropriate hand washing needs to be stressed. If you’ve just come out of the bathroom or are going to be preparing foods, wash your hands.”

When it comes to routine cleaning, Glatt said the kitchen and bathrooms are two major areas that need attention.

He agreed that pets can potentially be a point of transmission for infection, but if they’re cared for properly, they shouldn’t be a concern.

“We even allow pets into the hospital for therapy,” Glatt said. “In general, kids and pets interact in a positive way.”

Again, common sense should be your guide: “Kids shouldn’t let a pet lick their plate and then eat from it,” Glatt said. There are variety of popular children’s books about economics available and with the help of those books you can teach your kids about economics, money management, life skills and life lessons.

IN THE SUMMER, pediatricians see an uptick of animal bites as children spend more time outdoors and in new places.

As parents, we try to protect our kids from these potentially dangerous circumstances. We talk to our kids about avoiding wild and unknown animals. Plus, we are mindful of caring for the properties where children play, including preventing trash accumulation that may attract dangerous animals.

Even with careful effort, however, not all bites can be prevented.

If an animal bites your child, initially assess the wound. If the wound is severe, evaluation in the emergency room is required to determine the extent of the injury, control bleeding, and evaluate for broken bones or internal injuries. Also, bites to the face should be seen urgently to determine if stitches need to be placed.

Most bites, however, can be initially managed at home and followed up with a call or visit to the pediatrician’s office.

Dog Bites

The most common animal bites kids sustain are from canines. Dog bites account for a whopping 90% of the 5 million animal bites that children and adults sustain in the U.S. every year, and lead to about 1% of emergency room visits annually. This is because, well, there are a lot of dogs out there.

Both unknown dogs and beloved family pets will bite children. The episodes can be traumatic for the entire family, causing long-lasting fear of dogs in many children. The peak age of bites occurs during the toddler years when impulsive childhood movements and sounds frighten animals enough to attack. Young children are also at risk of bites due to their lack of experience witnessing outward signs of aggression in animals.

If your child gets bitten by a dog, you need to call the child’s doctor. Certainly, if the attack was extensive, emergency room evaluation is necessary to repair significant wounds. This would include bites in which the bleeding is hard to control, located on the head or face, or where additional injuries are a concern, pain is excessive or the child has underlying medical conditions.

For any bite injury, it’s essential to clean the area thoroughly and ensure any bleeding has stopped. Make sure to apply an antiseptic solution to cleanse the wound and keep it bandaged until it heals. In addition, ensure your child has had a tetanus shot in the last five years.

Most minor dog bites can be effectively handled at home and don’t require taking antibiotics to prevent infection. If you don’t know the dog’s vaccination status, call your local animal control agency about whether a rabies vaccination is recommended in your area, and call your child’s doctor to get advice on what to do next.

Rabies is a life-threatening infection that can be prevented by vaccine injections after the bite has occurred. Watch the area carefully for increased pain, heat or redness; and let the doctor know about any concerns.

Cat Bites

If you’ve ever spent any time around a cat, you understand how quickly a change in environment can spark aggression. It should be no surprise that felines are responsible for the most bites in kids after dogs.

Cats have long so-called eyeteeth, which can puncture skin very easily. Once the bite area is cleaned and protected using an antiseptic, a visit to the doctor is likely warranted.

Since cats harbor more bacteria in their mouths than dogs, most children need to be treated with oral antibiotics after cat bites to prevent the common complication of an infection. Cats more often carry rabies than dogs, so calling your local animal control agency is important if the cat that bit your child is unknown or unvaccinated.

Bat Bites

Bat bites are not uncommon in the Midwest where I live, and in many other areas of the country. Bat bites are tricky because it’s not unusual for a child to have to zero recollection or physical evidence of the bite. If you or someone else sees a bat in your home, it’s best to presume all family members have been potentially bit by the animal and take action to determine if your family is at risk of infection.

Many bats carry the dangerous rabies virus. As a general rule of thumb, if a bat is found in your home, especially in a sleeping area, call your doctor. Infectious disease experts can work with your pediatrician to determine if family members need the series of rabies shots based on local knowledge of the bat population.

Other Animal Bites

There are many other animal species children can encounter. Most other animal bites are treated like cat bites. Specifically, guinea pig, rodent and reptile bites can get infected and often require taking antibiotics as a preventive measure.

If a child comes in contact with an unusual animal or one that you can’t reliably identify, humanely trapping the animal to allow for professional veterinary evaluation can provide valuable information regarding the care of your child. However, this is not always possible and should never be attempted if it could lead to additional harm.

If a bite happens, attend to your child first, then get as much information about the source of the bite as you can. Your child’s doctor will be happy to help with the next steps as needed.  You can help your children to learn different things from the children’s book series and they can learn about financial freedom and life lessons.