WRITING

Writing

Writing is one of the best examples of observable behavior which provides invaluable insight into the developmental progress which the individual has made. The ability of a human to set his thoughts down in writing in an adequately legible handwriting necessary for communication not only demonstrates mastery of learning skills, but also provides evidence of the client’s intellectual accomplishment. The popular opinion that hand-writing is unimportant since we live in the electronic world of computers and word processors is absolutely untenable!

Writing difficulties

It is possible that one could lecture or dictate to a secretary skillfully while finding great difficulty in expressing an idea with pen and paper. Although speech and writing are connected, each domain stands alone. Letters of thought are in my language; I don’t have to think how to spell them. When I want to write, I must concentrate on: the idea, the words and sentences, and bring it down to writing. In order to translate my thoughts into writing, I have to bring down the letters, a contraction which slows the thought process; therefore I must remain focused on the idea in order for the thoughts to flow into the written word.

Sentence construction and the ability to summarize

Sentence construction presents a special challenge for some individuals. Some people can read with understanding but are unable to summarize what they have read or they can summarize orally but not in writing. Difficulty in summarizing is connected with the intellectual ability to contract thoughts into writing; treating these difficulties is one of our specialties. Our intervention allows written expression to reach the same level of abstraction as speech. When the child writes a composition, he takes an idea from his thoughts and expresses it with the right words and then contracts it into writing. This ability also manifests itself in tasks of organization.