Capitals, fullstops, spellings HELP!

[TeenAndTween]

This summer I have to crack DD2's writing. She is quite capable of writing 20 lines with no full stops, commas, or capital letters, and with words she knows how to spell correctly, misspelled.

There is some element of learning issues, school have said auditory processing issues. Big sister has dyspraxia. It is effecting her other subjects as teachers cannot always decipher what she is trying to say.

I need suggestions of methods and/or bribes to get her to think as she writes, or at least stop every couple of lines to go back and punctuate etc. I won't be able to get her to focus for more than about 30mins each day. I have ideas of topics to try to write about.

Over the years we have done Apples & Pears, written summer diaries that I have then gone through with her to spot / discuss errors.

I have posted this here as I think primary is more suitable. She is going into year 8.

For full stops and commas I suggest that my (uni) students read it aloud. They are only allowed a breath at a comma and a break with a full stop. I know that she can't always read aloud but it might help over the summer. Some people find reading backwards a word at a time helps with editing and spotting spelling errors. We tend to read a few words at a time so read what we expect to see.

This thread has a number of suggestions.

community.tes.com/threads/children-who-dont-use-full-stops-any-advice.465218/

Does she understand what a sentence actually is? I had to teach my dyspraxic daughter this myself.

Perhaps you could start by getting her to write two sentences on a topic, using correct punctuation. Then after a while, increase the target to 3, etc?

Thank you. So I have:

• using pictures, with one sentence per picture
• ask for a precise number of sentences
• punctuate as they go along, not all at the end
• read out loud
• say how many fullstops are missing / asterix against line
• rewriting

Also reading backwards for spelling checking.

I think I also need to say that if she has written 3 lines with no fullstop she's probably missed at least one, and if she has written 2 lines with no punctuation at all there will be something missing.

Yes, I think trying different strategies - this is an issue that comes up a lot on forums - I think in a lot of cases it's just a habit they've got into - they're allowed to get away with it in school, so they don't have enough incentive to change. I think it is partly a case of getting them to adopt the strategy of slowing down and composing sentences in their heads, before writing them down.

On the other hand, some may not actually know what they need to do - certainly this was the case with my daughter. Good luck!