Getting Students Writing: Supporting 2e and Other Reluctant Students with Dr. Austina De Bonte

One of the most challenging academic areas for twice exceptional students, as well as many other students, is writing. Learn about the five root causes of writing challenges plus the additional impacts of anxiety and perfectionism. We’ll discuss how to figure out what’s going on, and how to support each one. This session synthesizes various methods from specialists and private writing tutors and is full of practical tips and techniques.

Dr. Austina De Bonte (she/her) is President of WA Coalition for Gifted Education, Past President of NW Gifted Child Association, and a consultant at Smart is not Easy. She specializes in helping families get to the root cause(s) of their kids’ twice exceptional (2e) challenges. She also works with schools to improve equitable identification and service models, and better understand their gifted and 2e learners. Dr. De Bonte received the NAGC Carolyn Callahan Doctoral Student Award (2023), People to Watch by Variations 2e (2020), WAETAG Advocacy Award (2019), and three PTA Outstanding Advocate awards. She has a Masters degree from MIT (1998), and an Ed.D. from Bridges Graduate School (2024), where her dissertation was titled “Beyond Universal Screening: Practices and Attitudes that Promote Equity in an Accelerated Program.” 

Expand for Getting Students Writing: Supporting 2e and Other Reluctant Students video transcript

Yael Valek (REEL): Welcome, everyone. This is the first of three writing series talks we're going to have this year because you told us this was a really important topic to you. We had Dr. Austina De Bonte here speaking a year ago, and it was too short; everybody said, "Please, please, we want to hear more from Austina," so she is back. Tonight we're going to talk about getting students writing, supporting twice-exceptional students, and other reluctant writers. Just in case you're not familiar with

REEL, we are a non-profit in Silicon Valley who works to ensure twice-exceptional students thrive in school by doing events like this for parents. We'll talk a little bit more about our parent offerings, as well as doing educator professional development.

So, what is 2E? We like to use this definition from Bridges School, which is a combination of distinguishing strengths, high abilities, or potential in one or more areas in a student, and complex challenges at the same time, such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and others. We like to think of it as combining the yellow and blue to make a green individual, and both the yellow and the blue have to be simultaneously supported, which creates a challenging and complex situation for schools. This is why we created REAL. Our parent services include the Expert Speaker Series, like you're hearing tonight. We also have a free bi-monthly parent support group that's online. We have a Google group that now has over 900 members where you can ask and answer questions about any kind of services, schools, or challenges you're having. We have a new parent toolkit service that Callie will put links to in the chat, where you can download kits about how to start off the school year right, and all kinds of other topics. We have a lot of online resources, including an IEP guide for Twice Exceptional Learners, a schools list and guidance, and a talk coming up soon about how to choose a school for your 2E learner. We also have two paid offerings, which are small, facilitated groups of only up to eight people, on very specific topics that change each quarter, and we offer one-on-one consultations.

We have a very special event, hot off the presses; you are the first to hear about this, called

Walk a Mile in Their Minds, and Callie will put the sign-up link in the chat. This is the neurodiversity simulation we do at schools for educators, where they experience what it might feel like to be a dyslexic learner or a learner with attention challenges, and experience it firsthand. It develops empathy and then makes it really easy to move on to conversations about how to best support these learners. This is our first time doing this for our parents, and so we're really excited to have you come and experience this simulation. As I mentioned, we have a 46-page IEP guide because twice-exceptional learners often have challenges getting an IEP because they're doing too well. This is a whole guide for free for you to download about how to go about getting an IEP for your learner.

As I mentioned, we also have educator services. We do custom professional development, like the Learning Differences Simulation, and we also have a lot of online resources, recorded talks, and a bi-monthly educator newsletter. So, you can share us with your schools, or if you're an educator, you can bring us to your school. REAL has also published the

Dear Real Model, which has specific examples on how to develop connections, embrace flexibility, attend to strengths, and reframe behaviors in the classroom for all ages K-12. You are now attending one of our fall events; the others have been recorded and are available on our website. In a couple of weeks, we are having our private school and educational options panel. We also have an upcoming talk about self-regulation, the

Walk a Mile in Their Minds event, and then Behind the Mask: Understanding Anxiety, Perfectionism, and Masking in 2E Kids, as well as our 2E Parent Support Group coming up. You can follow us, join our Google group, follow us on socials, and watch all of our previous recordings on YouTube.

Now, I would like to introduce our speaker.

Dr. Austina DeBonte is president of the Washington Coalition for Gifted Education, past president of the Northwest Gifted Child Association, and a consultant at Smart Is Not Easy. She specializes in helping families get to the root causes of their kids' 2E challenges. She also works with schools to improve equitable identification and service models and better understand their gifted and 2E learners. Dr. DeBonte received the NAGC Carolyn Callahan Doctoral Student Award,

People to Watch by Variations 2E, the WAETAG Advocacy Award, and three Outstanding PTA Outstanding Advocate Awards. She has a master's degree from MIT and an EdD from Bridges Graduate School, where her dissertation was titled,

Beyond Universal Screening, Practices and Attitudes That Promote Equity in an Accelerated Program. So, thank you so much for coming tonight, and I will let you share your screen. We're so happy to have you.

Dr. Austina De Bonte, Ed.D.: All right, well, hello, everybody. Thank you so much for the invitation; it is great to be back here again. Let me get myself shared here so you can see what I'm seeing. All right, is that in the correct presentation mode? Yes? Fabulous. Okay. Well, hello, everybody. My name is Dr. Austina DeBonte. I come from the Seattle area and I'm involved in a number of nonprofits here in Washington State, as well as my own little consulting business. Our topic today is all about

writing, and my intent is to actually take a very practical, pragmatic approach. We're going to kind of talk about the actual things that get in the way and in a decent amount of specifics. I hope that you will come away not with sort of platitudes, but with some real actionable things that you can take home and help either your kids in your classroom or kids in your house, or kids in your orbit, however you might work with them.

All right, so here's our agenda for tonight. We're going to do just a brief little overview on Twice Exceptional and Neurodiversity as context. We're going to talk a little bit about, "Do kids actually have to write?" because sometimes we ask them to write when they actually don't need to write. Then we're going to spend a lot of time talking about a

root cause approach. How do we really dig into the root cause, and why taking a root cause approach actually really matters, because it helps us make sure that we know how to support. When we apply the wrong support, nothing happens, and then everybody gets frustrated. Then we're going to dive into

five very specific causes of writing challenges. I don't believe that these are the only challenges, but these are by far the most common ones. As an extra bonus, and along the way, we're going to talk about all kinds of supports, strategies, accommodations, interventions, clues, tips, and tricks. In the end, we'll talk a little bit about IEPs, 504s, and artificial intelligence, and a couple of other things just to wrap us up. So, that's where we're going. Sound like what you came for? Then join the ride, because here we go.

All right, so who are twice-exceptional students? We are talking about kids who are both highly capable, as we say in Washington state, and also have some sort of a disability, a learning difference, a mental health issue, some kind of other challenge, or neurodiversity of some flavor. They're a really unique population of students that may fail to demonstrate either high academic performance or obvious disabilities. Their gifts may mask their disabilities, or their disabilities may mask their gifts. A lot of these kids kind of fly under the radar, and we don't always necessarily realize exactly what's going on, often until they really run into trouble, and sometimes the place where they run into trouble first is writing.

Another way to think about twice exceptionality is as

neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is this term that was sort of originally coined in the context of autism, but we understand it now much more broadly. Actually, there's a way in which everybody is neurodiverse, in the sense that every brain is unique. There's actually a really neat functional MRI study demonstrating that every brain is unique, just like a fingerprint. But our twice-exceptional students' brains are kind of

extra unique; we call them a neurodiverse population. They come with a pattern of strengths and challenges, sort of different brain architecture—not better, not worse, different. A different way of seeing the world, a different way of processing things, and actually comes with some really lovely strengths, and also some challenges. It's really important to respect individual differences among twice-exceptional students because twice-exceptional students actually are not all the same. Twice exceptional is kind of this big umbrella term that covers a whole lot of ground, and so any combination of stuff could be going on under this umbrella, and this isn't even a complete list, but it's a lot of the heavy hitters. I'll point out that if you go to a neuropsychologist for a full evaluation, they're only looking at the stuff in the orange box. For all the stuff on the other side, you need individual other providers, other experts, other practitioners to even dig into. Many neuropsychs won't even refer over to the left-hand side of the umbrella. That's an issue that I'm working on in my work, but that's the truth of it, and it's important for parents and teachers to know that.

The bottom line is that

writing is challenging for lots of twice-exceptional students. We sometimes sort of group writing under, "oh, that's a dysgraphia thing, maybe it's a dyslexia thing," but actually, there are a lot of challenges in writing for just about everybody under this umbrella for various reasons, if not for no other reason than because writing is hard. Writing is hard for all students, even on a good day, not just twice-exceptional students. It's a very complex task that we're asking kids to do, and so when we see a kid that's reluctant to write, it's kind of the signal, it's the

canary in the coal mine, that something is going on, and this kid needs some support. Sometimes it really is a writing-specific thing. But sometimes it's actually the first hard thing that we've asked them to do, and there's a whole lot of other stuff bubbling under the surface. We're not going to talk about that so much now, but I do want you to kind of have that in the back of your head, that we're going to sort of talk about the things that are really directly responsible for writing here. But sometimes the thing that kids need support for is actually deeper than that, and it's a foundational thing underneath it all. Also, in classrooms, we're going to have some kids who very clearly need supports, but a lot of other kids will actually benefit from those same supports but aren't going to be so obvious about it. So those of you who are coming here with your teacher hat on, keep that in mind, because writing is a super complex, multi-layered skill; it's hard for lots and lots of kids, and it takes some practice and some real effort to get going.

The first question is, when we're asking kids to do things in school, do they actually have to write? I will quote Dr. Susan Baum from Bridges and the 2E Center, "Don't turn everything into a secret language arts lesson". If you're coming here as a teacher, think hard, like, "What is the learning objective?". If the learning objective is not about writing paragraphs and convincing somebody of something or developing writing conventions, or whatever, if the learning objective is something more like understanding scientific principles or developing reasoning skills, that doesn't actually necessarily have to be in writing; there are other ways to do it. So, let me give you some ideas of what that can look like. Kids can demonstrate their mastery of a topic, of a learning objective, or work with a particular topic area in lots of different ways. Could they draw a diagram? Could they make a poster? Could they make some slides? Could they draw a comic strip? Make a podcast, make a video, or build a model?. We want to give our kids choices and opportunities to really lean into their strengths because there are lots of different ways that kids can demonstrate mastery. So, how do we do that? We get lots more flexible about assignments. We don't have every kid making the same snowman on the wall; we want kids to make different things. Encourage creativity, build on strengths. The point here is not writing; the point is communication of ideas. Lots of different ways to communicate ideas that doesn't have anything to do with writing words and paragraphs.

Okay, but we are here to talk about writing, so let's talk about writing. I'm going to take a real root cause approach. We're going to use this analogy of a tree. In the leaves of the tree are the symptoms; they're the things that we see, but the symptoms, it turns out, don't really tell you all that clearly what's going on. What we really want to understand are the causes, and those are beneath the surface of the soil. They're a little bit more obscured, and so you really have to know what you're looking for. I'm hoping that over the course of the next hour, I'm going to give you some tools and some ways of thinking about it that will help you better dial in on, "Oh, that's probably the cause that's happening with my kid," or, "Actually, that's probably not the cause happening with my kids". You can narrow in on which things need the support, which supports are going to be most helpful, and not waste your time on stuff that's not going to be helpful.

There are lots of different possible causes of writing challenges, some that are indirect, that I've kind of mentioned in passing. We're going to talk about the ones that are more direct for the rest of the time tonight. But no matter what the cause is, the supports and the strategies are different depending on the cause. And when we apply a support that's not the right one, it causes frustration. The kid doesn't actually see anything get easier; the parent is like, "Hey, I thought this was going to make things easier, but it's not. You must not be working hard enough. You must not be doing it properly," and now there's all this tension. When in fact the real problem is not in high fidelity of implementation, it's that it was actually the wrong solution, or it was the wrong support. One thing in the land of writing that tends to get bandied about quite a bit is occupational therapy (OT). "Oh, your kid has trouble with writing? What you need to do is go and do some OT." Well, okay, maybe, but actually OT only addresses one of the five causes we're going to talk about tonight. So let's make sure that it's actually the right thing before you go run off and go work with OT.

If a kid is having trouble with writing, what might we see in the leaves of the tree? What are the symptoms that we would see? Well, we might see that it's hard to get ideas out, or just that there's not a lot of written output. Maybe there's a lot of trouble with grammar, punctuation, and capitalization, things that we might call writing conventions. Maybe there's difficulty with letter formation, or maybe handwriting is just illegible or messy. Maybe the kid just doesn't write all that much; they just avoid writing, and so it's really hard to figure out what's going on because there's just not a lot of it happening. Maybe the kid can write very neatly, but they write very slowly, and the product is really nice, but it just takes a really long time. Maybe they say their hand hurts, or they're kind of cracking their knuckles when they're writing. Maybe it seems like they're not really writing, more like they're drawing; they're drawing letters one stroke at a time. Maybe it's actually an issue with organizing ideas, and, "I've got so many ideas, and I can't quite figure out where to start". Maybe it's an issue with spelling. We have plenty of issues with our kids with funky pencil grip; how much of a problem is that? Is that adjustable? When is it adjustable? We're going to talk about that tonight. We have kids who have a tendency to just go on and on and on with run-on sentences; "okay, where's that coming from?". Maybe even kids are making errors when copying, even with copy work; "Like, why does that happen? When does that happen? What is that telling us?". But the bottom line is all that stuff is happening up top, and when you look at that whole, and you think about which one of those sort of apply to your kid, it's not so easy to figure out what's going on.

Under the surface, there are five different primary causes we're going to talk about tonight. The first primary cause is a fine motor or muscular issue in the hand. This is actually the land of OT. Number two is something that is related but actually not the same, and needs a different set of strategies around automaticity—the muscle memory, the motor memory of making letters. Number three, a very foundational skill, is vision processing. How well are the eyes and the brain actually seeing what's happening on the page, and how is that whole system working? Number four is dyslexia. Often in our Twice Exceptional community, it shows up as stealth dyslexia; it's not so easy to spot. Usually, these kids don't have reading issues per se, or at least not obvious ones, yet it shows up a lot in their writing. So we'll talk about how you figure that out, and whether that's what's going on.

And then number five, ADHD or executive function issues, tend to cause issues with writing, and we'll talk about where that's coming from and what we can do about it. So those are the five big ones we'll talk about, and then there'll be a little bit of bonus at the end. All right, so let's dig in.

If we were to just prune the tree to the things that specifically point to fine motor muscular, this is what you might look at. But it's still a little fuzzy; it's not totally clear by looking at this that for sure you would dial in and say that's just a muscular issue, because some of these things can happen for other reasons. If it's a fine motor muscular issue, let's talk about what the root cause of that actually is. We're talking about the small muscles in the hand, we're also talking about the bigger muscles in the arm, in the forearm, actually even into the core and the trunk. We're talking about stamina in those muscles, as well as coordination in those muscles and muscle groups. If you've got a kid who has a hard time sitting still in a chair to write, or who tends to write sort of funny postures—they're leaning this way, they're leaning that way, they prefer to lie on the ground, they prefer to lie right upside down, anything but sitting in a chair—often there's a muscular issue behind that.

If a kid has a hard time sitting still in a chair to write, or tends to write in funny postures—leaning this way or that way, preferring to lie on the ground, or even lying upside down—there is often a muscular issue behind that. This is the world of Occupational Therapy (OT). An OT can help build muscle stamina and coordination in the hand, forearm, and even the core and trunk.

Supporting Fine Motor and Muscular Issues

If this is the cause, the first thing to address is making the act of writing as physically easy as possible. You should eliminate the need for

handwriting itself, especially for older kids. The most effective accommodation is to switch to keyboarding or dictation. For younger kids, however, you may want to keep working on handwriting to build those foundational skills.

For those who must write by hand, use tools and physical supports to make it easier. Provide a slant board to help with posture and alignment, or use a vertical surface like a chalkboard or whiteboard. You could also try different writing tools: a thicker pencil, a shorter pencil, or a pencil grip. A pencil grip is adjustable, but it's important to know

when it is adjustable, and for whom it's going to work.

You can also try using adaptive paper, such as paper with wider lines or raised lines, which can give the student tactile feedback. For a kid whose hand hurts or who is cracking their knuckles, the writing might feel like a chore because the required

pressure is causing discomfort.

The prognosis for fixing true fine-motor/muscular issues varies depending on age. If a child is under the age of seven or eight, there is a better chance of correcting a funky pencil grip and building those fine motor skills. However, after this age, the necessary intensive intervention is often not practical. If you have an older kid who is struggling, the most practical approach is often to use

keyboarding or dictation to ensure their ideas aren't limited by a physical barrier. For families with a younger child, this is the time to work on it, as the window for change may close later. The therapy must be intensive—an hour a week is likely not enough to see a significant outcome after age eight or so.

Root Cause 2: Automaticity (Motor Memory)

The second cause,

automaticity, is related to the first but is not the same, and it requires a different set of strategies.

Symptoms

The symptoms of a lack of automaticity overlap with fine-motor issues, including messy handwriting, slowness, and high effort. However, this issue is specifically about the brain-based part of letter formation, not the physical strength.

The Root Cause

Automaticity refers to the muscle memory or motor memory of making letters and numbers. Letter formation should be automatic by the second or third grade at the absolute latest. For some students, this muscle memory simply doesn't "snap in," and they are still mentally walking through the steps of making a letter—for example, "around and down for A,"—every time they write. This means they are expending mental energy on the mechanics of writing, which should be reserved for the higher-level task of composing ideas.

In these cases, you will often see:

• Inconsistent Letter Formation: Letters are not written the same way every time; they may start at the top sometimes and the bottom others, and letters on the same page will look different.

  
  

• Messy Handwriting (though not always).

  
  

• Slowness: Writing is very slow because they are "drawing" the letters, not writing them fluidly.

  
  

• High Effort for Neatness: In gifted and twice-exceptional kids, some will try so hard to be neat that their output is nice, but it takes them an inordinately long time.

  
  

The Fix

The solution here is explicit instruction to develop the correct motor pathways, often through a multi-sensory approach. This is sometimes referred to as a Handwriting Without Tears or Fundations program. This needs to be worked on consistently to get the "snap" of automaticity.

If the child is older (e.g., upper elementary school), attempting to correct a pre-existing non-automatic pattern is extremely difficult. You may need to introduce them to a whole new set of shapes that they don't have a bad habit with yet, such as teaching cursive writing. Cursive is a continuous-line form that requires a different set of motor movements and may "reset" the brain for automaticity.

If the child is too resistant to any form of handwriting training, the best solution is again to move them to keyboarding or dictation to bypass the bottleneck.

Root Cause 3: Vision Processing Issues

The third cause is a foundational skill issue known as

vision processing.

Symptoms

This issue can manifest in many ways, including:

• Low Stamina/Avoidance: Avoiding reading or writing tasks due to eye strain.

  
  

• Headaches/Rubbing Eyes: Complaining of headaches or rubbing their eyes, which may be mild and only happen during intensive work.

  
  

• Moving on the Page: Letters and words may appear to move, flip, or float on the page.

  
  

• Copying Errors: Making errors when copying from a book or board, even on copy work.

  
  

• Loss of Place: Losing their place while reading or writing.

  
  

• Letter Reversals: Persistent letter reversals (like 'b' for 'd') after age seven.

  
  

The Root Cause

Vision processing is about how the

eyes and the brain work together. It is not related to visual acuity (20/20 vision), which is what a standard eye doctor checks. A child can have perfect eyesight but still have a vision processing issue.

The issue stems from a failure of the eyes to work in sync, which can lead to:

• Eye Tracking Issues (Saccades): As the eyes move across the page, they should jump together from point to point. If one eye lags behind, the text goes briefly in and out of focus, causing eye strain and stamina issues. The child may not even be aware of the blurriness.

  
  

• Eye Teaming Issues: If the eyes occasionally cross or don't align correctly, it can cause letters and words to move or flip on the page. This is a very common cause of letter reversals, such as 'b' and 'd', which are the same letter flipped.

  
  

The most common time for this to become noticeable is when the demands for

close work increase, such as in second or third grade. The child can cope with the issue until the stamina required exceeds their ability, leading to writing avoidance.

The Fix

The solution is to get a functional vision evaluation from a

developmental or behavioral optometrist. If they find an issue, the recommended treatment is

vision therapy, which is a set of exercises to teach the eyes and brain to work together better. This is often highly effective. Accommodations that can help in the meantime include:

• Text Size and Font: Using larger text or a specialized font like Open Dyslexic.

  
  

• Color Overlays or Reading Strips: Using a color overlay or a reading strip, which changes the background color and helps some people see the text more clearly.

  
  

• Specialized Lenses (Prescription): Some developmental optometrists can prescribe special lenses that help with the tracking issue.

  
  

Root Cause 4: Dyslexia (Stealth Dyslexia)

The fourth cause is

dyslexia, which often presents as stealth dyslexia in the twice-exceptional population.

Symptoms

The primary sign of stealth dyslexia in 2E kids is a problem with

spelling and written expression, not necessarily reading.

• Spelling Difficulties: Trouble with spelling, including memorizing spelling words for tests, only to have them disappear by the following week.

  
  

• Phonological Awareness Issues: Difficulty with rhyming or wordplay, even before they start to read.

  
  

• Sounding Out New Words: Having trouble sounding out a new, multi-syllable word when reading, which often becomes obvious in middle or high school.

  
  

• Trouble with Sight Words: Memorizing high-frequency words can be difficult.

  
  

• Slow Handwriting: Sometimes a secondary symptom due to the effort of translating sounds into letters.

  
  

• Reading Fluency: While they may comprehend the text, their fluency can be choppy.

  
  

The Root Cause

Dyslexia is rooted in a challenge with

phonological processing. This means the brain struggles to connect the

sounds of speech (phonemes) to the symbols (graphemes) that represent them on a page. It is a language-based learning disability that affects reading, spelling, and writing.

In a twice-exceptional student, high intelligence often allows them to develop excellent

compensatory skills. They may use their context knowledge and vocabulary to guess words, which results in excellent reading comprehension, even if they skip over or misread words. They may have excellent fluency and comprehension of elementary texts because the topics are predictable and they have a large knowledge base.

However, when they need to

write, they can't rely on those compensatory skills; they must generate the sound-to-symbol connection, which is difficult, leading to poor spelling and reluctance to write.

The Fix

The intervention for dyslexia is an

Orton-Gillingham (O-G) or O-G-based program. These are multi-sensory, explicit, and systematic programs that teach the structure of the English language. This is usually delivered by a reading specialist or a private tutor.

For accommodations, the goal is to bypass the need for written output so that their ideas can flow:

• Keyboarding/Dictation: Use a computer for writing.

  
  

• Spelling and Grammar Checkers: Utilize these tools (though be aware they are imperfect).

  
  

• Speech-to-Text Software: Tools like Dragon NaturallySpeaking or built-in phone apps allow them to speak their ideas, bypassing the writing mechanic.

  
  

• Focus on Content: Encourage them to focus on getting their ideas out, and worry about the spelling/conventions later (the "messy first draft" concept).

  
  

Root Cause 5: ADHD and Executive Function (EF) Issues

The fifth major cause is related to

ADHD and associated Executive Function (EF) issues.

Symptoms

The writing issues here stem from a challenge with the brain's "operating system," leading to problems with starting, managing, and completing tasks. Symptoms include:

• Difficulty Getting Started (Initiation): They know what they want to write, but they struggle to write the first word.

  
  

• Trouble Staying on Task and Distractibility: Inability to maintain focus during the writing process.

  
  

• Time Management Issues: Struggling to estimate how long a task will take or to allocate time for it.

  
  

• Overwhelm: Having trouble breaking down big projects into small, manageable pieces.

  
  

The most important clue for ADHD is the inconsistency of output. When they are

interested in a topic, they can often produce amazing, high-quality work, but when a task is rote or boring, they struggle.

The Root Cause

The ADHD brain is generally not motivated by the concept of "important" or "future reward"; it is motivated by the "NOW".

Dr. Russell Barkley's theory of motivation

 for ADHDers is often described by the acronym I.N.C.U.P.:

• I (Interest): Is the task intrinsically interesting?.

  
  

• N (Novelty): Is it new and exciting?.

  
  

• C (Challenge): Is it complex and challenging?.

  
  

• U (Urgency): Is there a deadline creating a time crunch? (Do not overuse this one) .

  
  

• P (Pressure/Passion): Is there social pressure (e.g., from a teacher or group project) or personal passion for the topic?.

  
  

The ADHD neurodiversity may simply mean the child

can't engage with tasks that are rote, boring, or easy, even if they are important.

The Fix

The support is to make the task align with one of the I.N.C.U.P. motivators:

• Make it Interesting: Give the student a choice in topics or formats, or align the task with their personal interests.

  
  

• Make it Novel: Introduce the topic in an unusual way to spark excitement.

  
  

• Make it Challenging: Especially for gifted 2E kids, make the topic complex and meaty. If it's too easy, it's a losing battle.

  
  

• Use Social Pressure/Relationships: The relationship a child has with a teacher often acts as the "glue" that makes them willing to do the work.

  
  

• Be Careful with "Extra Time": While extra time is a common accommodation, it doesn't always help an ADHDer; it just delays the problem, as urgency is a key motivator.

  
  

A common struggle for ADHDers is the linear nature of writing (one word at a time) versus their interconnected and vast ideas. To overcome this, use the

Messy First Draft technique:

1. Get the Ideas Out Messy: Have the child talk, scribble, type, or mind-map their ideas in a messy, unorganized way. They should be told they are writing only for themselves, not a teacher.

   
   

2. Organize and Refine Later: Once the ideas are out, the next step is to take those ideas and organize them into a linear format. Use a

   
   

   graphic organizer to move from messy thoughts to structured writing.

   
   

Wrapping Up: General Strategies and Advice

In addition to the specific interventions, here are some general strategies:

Lower the Bar and Go Slow

When a student is struggling with writing,

believe them that it is hard. Lower the bar for the time being, and take small, incremental steps.

• Start with Conversation: Begin by just talking about the topic. Ask them what they think, and once the ideas are developed, you can work up to writing.

  
  

• Write with Them: Sit down and write together. For younger children, this can be

  shared writing where the adult transcribes the child's ideas.

  
  

• Dictation and Scribing: The goal is communication of ideas, so use dictation or have an adult scribe for the child to keep the flow of ideas going.

  
  

The Role of AI, IEPs, and 504s

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): For older students, AI can be a helpful tool, similar to a fancy spell-check or grammar-check. Students can use it to help get their ideas out and then edit the AI's output, essentially engaging in a sophisticated form of

  
  

  revision.

  
  

• IEPs and 504s: These are necessary to formalize accommodations like keyboarding, dictation, and reduced workload. Be sure to use the specific root cause information to justify the requested accommodations (e.g., if it's dyslexia, you ask for an O-G program).

  
  

• Finding the Right Expert: Complex kids may have multi-factor issues (e.g., ADHD and dyslexia). You must find an expert who can accurately tease apart the different root causes to ensure the child receives the correct, targeted support.

  
  

Many students do not truly master the skill of writing until high school, so there is plenty of time to support them. The overall message is to be persistent, take slow steps, and remember that when a student is avoiding writing, it is the canary in the coal mine signaling that support is needed.

The last sections of the transcript, covering the Q&A, general advice, and closing, have been converted into paragraph form below.

Q&A and General Strategies

In addition to the five root causes, here are some general strategies. When a student is struggling with writing,

believe them that it is hard. Lower the bar for the time being, and take small, incremental steps.

Lowering the Bar and Going Slow You can start by just having a

conversation about the topic, forgetting about the writing part entirely. Once the ideas are developed, you can work up to writing. Maybe your first couple of attempts are just talking. Then, you might say, "Okay, here's what you said. Maybe you could actually develop that into something". Take little steps along the way, recognizing that you're not going to get to the prize all in one step. There's plenty of time, as lots of kids don't truly figure out the whole writing process until high school.

Addressing Complex Cases (Vision and Dyslexia) Sometimes, families are confused about the relationship between vision and dyslexia. It is possible for a child to have

only a vision issue with no underlying dyslexia, or vice versa. What is more common, however, is that a complex child has both. A family might address one issue, do some therapy, and then realize they didn't get all the expected benefit, which is a signal they need to look at the other side as well. Both pieces are often required to reach a stable solution for the child. The cool thing about vision therapy is that, unlike dyslexia intervention (which works best for younger children), it works well at any age, even into one's 70s or 80s, though it may take longer. It is truly never too late for vision therapy.

Addressing Writing Anxiety and Avoidance One parent shared a scenario where her autistic teen daughter loved writing for her own interests in elementary school, but writing an essay for school became "like torture". The daughter gets incredibly anxious, waits until the last minute, and stays up late, even though teachers praise the quality of her writing.

The anxiety and avoidance stem from an underlying root cause that must be identified. There is no single answer to this problem, as it depends on the child. Possible contributing factors include an underlying vision issue, dyslexia, or handwriting issue (which can be bypassed with a computer). An underlying ADHD or executive function challenge could also be at play, or it could simply be trauma about writing that needs to be undone. It is likely multifactorial. This is why taking the time to find the expert and go the extra mile is crucial, especially with complex kids. That expertise is needed to tease apart the various issues, because there is no easy answer.

Closing Remarks

Yael Valek (REEL): "Thank you so much. So, we are out of time. There are still a ton more questions," so for those of you who didn't get a chance to have your question answered, Austina has generously offered her contact information. It is in the chat, so please feel free to email her directly. We have gotten a lot of positive feedback in the chat, including, "This is the best talk I've heard," and other lovely things, so we truly thank you for coming tonight.