Is Your Child Struggling with Writing? Here’s What the Research Says...and What You Can Do About It

By Dr. McKinzie Duesenberg-Marshall, PhD, LP, NCSP | Minds in Progress, LLC

Writing is hard. Most parents know this instinctively when they watch their child stare at a blank page, lose their grip on a pencil, or spend 20 minutes producing three sentences that their classmates wrote in five. What parents often don’t know is that this struggle usually has a clear, identifiable cause...and that research-backed strategies exist to address it.

A study recently published in The Reading League Journal by our team at Minds in Progress, along with colleagues at the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota, outlines a framework called Data-Based Individualization (DBI) for writing: a systematic, evidence-based approach to identifying why a child struggles with writing and delivering targeted support. This post breaks down what that research means for your family.

Why Writing Is Harder Than It Looks

Writing isn’t a single skill—it’s actually three distinct skill sets working together simultaneously:

1. Transcription—the physical act of getting words onto paper. This includes handwriting, spelling, typing, punctuation, and capitalization.

2. Text Generation—the mental act of creating ideas, organizing thoughts, choosing words, and constructing sentences and paragraphs.

3. Self-Regulation—the executive function piece: planning before writing, monitoring during writing, and revising afterward.

   
   

Here’s the key insight: all three of these compete for the same limited mental bandwidth. When a child is concentrating hard on forming letters or remembering how to spell a word, there’s very little mental energy left for deciding what to say or how to organize it. This is why a child who is smart and full of ideas can still produce a flat, short, or disorganized piece of writing—their working memory is tied up in the mechanics.

What This Looks Like at Home

Your child takes 45 minutes to write a paragraph that should take 10. They erase constantly. They say, “I don’t know what to write,” even when you know they have plenty to say. They misspell words they’ve seen hundreds of times. These aren’t signs of laziness or not caring—they’re signs that one or more of the three skill areas above needs support.

What Does “Data-Based Individualization” Actually Mean?

In our research, we use a framework called Data-Based Individualization (DBI)—a structured process of assessment and intervention that’s adjusted based on how your child actually responds. Think of it like a doctor adjusting a treatment plan based on how a patient is responding, rather than assuming one medicine works for everyone.

In schools, this process involves:

• Measuring where your child currently is (using brief, standardized writing tasks called Curriculum-Based Measurements)

• Setting an ambitious but realistic goal

• Providing targeted instruction based on identified needs

• Monitoring progress weekly

• Adjusting the approach if your child isn’t making expected gains

  
  

Our published research found that students who received this kind of targeted support significantly outperformed peers who received typical classroom instruction—and importantly, these benefits held across grade levels, special education status, English learner status, and racial and ethnic backgrounds.

What to Watch For—and How to Help—By Age

Early Elementary (Grades K–2)

At this age, transcription is the primary focus. Children are learning how to form letters, decode spelling patterns, and put basic sentences together. This is the most foundational stage, and gaps here compound quickly.

Signs to watch for:

• Letters formed inconsistently or with significant reversals well past first grade

• Avoidance of writing tasks or extreme fatigue when writing

• Difficulty remembering letter sounds or common spelling patterns

• Writing far fewer words than peers in the same time period

  
  

How you can help at home:

• Practice letter formation with multisensory activities—tracing letters in sand, forming them with playdough, or writing large letters on a whiteboard is more effective than repeated pencil-and-paper drills.

• Play word games that reinforce spelling patterns (rhyming, word families, sorting words by ending sounds).

• Keep writing tasks short and meaningful—grocery lists, birthday cards, or captions for drawings remove the pressure of a “school assignment” while building the same skills.

• Praise effort and legibility, not just content.

  
  

What to ask at school:

• “Is my child receiving handwriting instruction, and what approach is being used?” Explicit, systematic handwriting instruction (not just copying) is most effective.

• “Are spelling lists individualized based on what my child is actually misspelling, or is the whole class using the same list?” Research supports lists drawn from a child’s own writing errors.

• “Is my child being progress-monitored in writing? If so, what does the data show?”

  
  

Upper Elementary (Grades 3–5)

By third grade, expectations shift. Writing is no longer just about transcription—children are expected to generate ideas, organize paragraphs, and write in different genres. Students who never fully automated their transcription skills hit a wall here, because the cognitive demands now feel overwhelming.

Signs to watch for:

• Extremely short written responses despite strong verbal ability

• Disorganized writing with ideas that jump around or lack logical flow

• Avoidance of any task that involves writing

• Continued significant spelling errors on common words

• Very simple sentences when the child speaks in complex ones

  
  

How you can help at home:

• Use sentence frames to scaffold writing. Prompt your child with starters like “The most important thing about ___ is ___ because ___” to reduce the cognitive load of generating structure from scratch.

• Practice sentence combining as a game. Write two simple sentences on slips of paper and challenge your child to merge them into one. This builds complexity without requiring original composition.

• Help your child plan before writing. Even a simple three-box graphic organizer (beginning, middle, end) gives the brain a map to follow and frees up working memory.

• Celebrate revision. When your child makes a change that improves their writing, name it explicitly: “You just did something professional writers do—you revised.”

  
  

What to ask at school:

• “What strategies is my child being taught to plan and organize writing before they begin?”

• “Is my child receiving any small-group or individualized writing support? If not, what’s the threshold for that?”

• “Has my child been evaluated for whether a writing difficulty might be connected to something like dyslexia or a language processing difference?”

Middle & High School (Grades 6–12)

By middle school, students are expected to write independently across content areas—science labs, history essays, literary analysis, research papers. For students with unaddressed writing difficulties, this is often when things fall apart visibly. What looked like a “writing preference” in elementary school becomes a significant academic barrier.

Signs to watch for:

• Consistently low grades on written assignments despite understanding the content

• Hours spent on written homework that peers complete in 30 minutes

• Refusal to write or extreme emotional distress around writing tasks

• Strong verbal participation in class but written work that doesn’t reflect that ability

• Ongoing avoidance that’s beginning to affect academic performance across subjects

  
  

How you can help at home:

• Separate the planning from the writing. Encourage your child to talk through what they want to say before they write a word—you can even act as the scribe for the outline. The goal is to reduce how many things compete for working memory at once.

• Introduce self-regulation strategies explicitly. A simple version of the research-based SRSD approach: before writing, have your child answer “Who am I writing for? What is my goal? What do I need to include?” These questions build the habit of purposeful writing.

• Use technology strategically. Text-to-speech tools, speech-to-text software, and word processors with spelling/grammar support are legitimate writing tools—not crutches. They can free up cognitive resources for the actual thinking.

• Don’t wait to seek an evaluation. If writing difficulties are significantly affecting your child’s academic performance or emotional well-being, a comprehensive educational evaluation can identify the specific source of the struggle and inform appropriate support.

  
  

What to ask at school:

• “Has my child ever been evaluated for a learning disability that affects writing? If not, how do I request that?”

• “Are there accommodations in place (extended time, access to technology, reduced writing demands) that might help while support is being put in place?”

• “What does the data show about my child’s writing trajectory? Is it improving, staying flat, or declining?”

The Gap Between “My Child Was Diagnosed” and “My Child Is Getting Help at School”

One of the most frustrating experiences parents encounter: a clinician identifies dysgraphia, dyslexia, ADHD, or another condition that clearly affects writing—and the school still doesn’t provide meaningful support. This happens because clinical diagnoses and school-based eligibility determinations operate under different standards. A diagnosis from a pediatrician or psychologist does not automatically translate into an IEP or meaningful accommodations.

This is a gap our practice was specifically designed to bridge. When MIP conducts evaluations, we document not just what a child has been diagnosed with, but how that profile affects educational performance—using the language schools need to act. If your child has a private diagnosis and you feel the school isn’t responding appropriately, you may have options including requesting an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at the school district’s expense.

How Minds in Progress Can Help

At MIP, we provide comprehensive educational evaluations for children and adolescents who are struggling in school...including children whose primary challenge is writing. Our evaluations go beyond identifying a diagnosis. We assess the specific cognitive and academic skill areas that underlie writing difficulty, explain what those findings mean for your child’s learning, and translate them into actionable recommendations for school teams and families.

We work with families across the full spectrum of need...from a child who is struggling but not yet failing, to a student who has been fighting an unidentified learning difference for years. Early intervention matters, and you don’t have to wait until things are at a crisis point to reach out.

The Bottom Line

Writing difficulties are real, they are identifiable, and they respond to well-designed intervention. The research is clear that when students receive targeted, data-informed support (matched to their specific area of need) outcomes improve. The earlier that support begins, the better.

Trust what you’re seeing. Ask the questions. And know that help exists.

References

Duesenberg-Marshall, M. D., Lembke, E. S., McMaster, K. L., & Sussman-Dawson, K. J. (2026). Data-based individualization in early writing: Research-based guidelines from assessment to intervention. The Reading League Journal, May/June 2026.

McMaster, K. L., Lembke, E. S., Shanahan, E., et al. (2025). Supporting teachers’ data-based individualization of early writing instruction: An efficacy trial. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 58(4), 287–303.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). The Nation’s Report Card: Writing 2011. U.S. Department of Education.