Writing program for child with HF autism?

[Shelly M]

I'm new to the WTM boards, and new to the whole idea of classical education. I have an 11 yo dd with high functioning autism, and I am going crazy trying to figure out the best approach to teaching writing. She is a fairly fluent writer, and is able to write organized paragraphs, but needs to grow in the area of style. Her sentence structure lacks variety, and she is content with tired nouns and verbs.

 

Right now, I am thinking I will go with Rod and Staff english and supplement with ideas from Brave Writer. I'm also considering using some Image Grammar techniques and Kilgallon Sentence Composing.

 

Then, possibly Lost Tools of Writing when she is in 7th or 8th grade...

 

Has anyone here tried an approach like this? Or would I be better off with IEW?

 

Thanks for any insight you can give me.

[Laurie]

I'm new to the WTM boards, and new to the whole idea of classical education. I have an 11 yo dd with high functioning autism, and I am going crazy trying to figure out the best approach to teaching writing. She is a fairly fluent writer, and is able to write organized paragraphs, but needs to grow in the area of style. Her sentence structure lacks variety, and she is content with tired nouns and verbs.

 

Has anyone here tried an approach like this? Or would I be better off with IEW?

 

.

 

My dd (13) also has HFA but struggles more with writing than your dd. I like the Brave Writer "lifestyle" ideas like poetry tea times, etc. and I own the Writer's Jungle. But as my dd has gotten older I've found that IEW is a better fit for us. The structure with everything from key word outlines, banned word lists, to checklists etc. made the writing process very straightforward. I also like the supplements that are available like the portable wall (folder), and the booklet "A Word Write Now". These have been very helpful!

[Julie of KY]

I think IEW would be a good fit, but I can't comment so much on the others.

[Rhonda in TX]

IEW has been a perfect fit for my Aspie. It really breaks it down and gives a strong structure for them to follow.

[dtsmamtj]

We are making progress with Meaningful Composition.

 

T

[Misty]

I have a 13yr old daughter who has very HFA. She is a very talented and obsessive writer. I used 7th grade Lightning Litertature and Composition with her (in 6th grade) and it was a good fit for the most part. But she tends to hate writing programs of any kind so we don't attempt them very often. I bought IEW for her and she wasn't impressed, though I do still want her to go through it.

[Shelly M]

Thanks for your responses to my questions. I am going to the Midwest Homeschool Convention this week, and I will take a good look at IEW, along with the others on my list. I'm not familiar with Meaningful Composition, but I'll check it out online before I go.

 

For those of you who recommend IEW, how are you using it? Student instructional DVDs? Just the teacher training, then use the techniques for writing in the other subject areas?

[canadianmomtofour]

For those of you who recommend IEW, how are you using it? Student instructional DVDs? Just the teacher training, then use the techniques for writing in the other subject areas?

 

:bigear:

[Laurie]

For those of you who recommend IEW, how are you using it? Student instructional DVDs? Just the teacher training, then use the techniques for writing in the other subject areas?

 

My first purchase was TWSS, the teacher training dvds. I enjoyed those so much and ended up purchasing SWI B for my older ds. We watched the dvd lessons together and then he completed the writing assigments.

For my dd, it has worked better to just use the techniques from TWSS. I have also purchased some of the source texts from them (stories/articles, pictures for writing, mini-books) to use for teaching the techniques. These were time savers for me and weren't very expensive.

[Shelly M]

An update for those who responded to my original post:

 

I went to the Midwest Homeschool Convention last week and ended up purchasing Julie Bogart's Writer's Jungle (Brave Writer). I also surprised myself and bought Michael Clay Thompson's language arts program. I was planning to buy his first poetry book, but after hearing him speak, I decided to go with the whole program. It's not what I had planned, but I am hopeful that it will bring some joy back into our homeschool (if there ever was any)!

[K8LYN]

I think the Institue for Excellence in Writing is a great program. The website also has great resources for additional writing ideas: the Myths, Fables, and Fairy Tales looks like a good start.

 

Adding other projects like Wordsmith Apprentice (students writes newspaper articles) is a fun way to encourage more creative writing.

 

Maybe try a poetry writing curriculum for a few weeks to spark some interst in more creative language.

 

Picture Writing is also another good way to encourage students to use imagergy and all five senses in their writing.

 

As a special education teacher, I think this is one of the hardest part not just to teach, but for the students to find meaningful.

 

I hope you find something that works!