Writing Skills for kids is one of the important skills that needs to be developed in children. It doesn’t really matter whether your child goes on to become an acclaimed writer or not, creative writing can always bring personal fulfilment.
Here are four ways in which you can develop writing skills in your kids
1. Encourage your child to read every day.
The foremost tip is to inculcate a reading habit in your children. Try to introduce a variety in their reading habits. While they can read more of the authors and genres they enjoys the most, make sure they explores other genres as well to develop a holistic outlook. Also, encourage them to watch age-appropriate TV programmes and films under your guidance and if possible together. Ask her what they finds most exciting or appealing in the story. Learning to appreciate others’ creative output will open up the channels of her own creativity.
2. Give ample practice in writing by introducing simple exercises with prompts.
One way to do this is to provide a series of words or pictures to serve as cues and then asking your child to use them to make up an interesting story. If the child is small you could ask them to draw and color things they want and then encourage them to tell a story about the picture. For older kids they can try their hand at different forms of writing such as poetry, prose, short stories and plays. Making impromptu songs together can also help bring out the creativity. Observe what they enjoys the best and how good they are in it. Then, you can go on to build on their strengths.
3. Make your child understand what goes into building a story.
This will mean telling them about the various elements such as the plot, characters, settings, dialogues, and so on, and the structure that binds them into a story. Making them read a script or a play are some of the best way to do this is. Perhaps, to give them simple exercises they will enjoy doing like how to build a setting of a scene or write down everything they observed about a place they recently visited. Similarly, to teach them about characterization, get them to write detailed descriptions of the habits and physical traits of people they sees every day like their teacher, dentist or even you.
4. Encourage developing creativity and authenticity.
Give your child the confidence to bring originality into their ideas and develop an individual style and voice. This will come in time with reading and sufficient practice in writing. Also, try to get them to develop the habit of keen observation and possessing an eye for detail. The more she watches and understands the world around her, the more authentic her writing will be.
If your child follows these tips, you can be sure that their creative writing skills will go up by several notches within a few months. To motivate them, you can look for opportunities to showcase his writing. For example, you can stage a play written by him at the next community programme or simply share it with us where we can publish it online on our website. This will give your young writer the much-needed boost to improve their writing.