When Your Child Struggles to Write: What a New Study Tells Us About Early Writing Support

If your child has ever cried over a writing assignment, avoided it entirely, or handed in something far below what you know they’re capable of...you’re not alone, and neither are they. Writing is one of the most demanding academic tasks we ask of young learners, and for children with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, or language differences, it can be a genuine daily struggle. As a researcher who studies early writing intervention, I wanted to share findings from a study I co-authored that offers real, evidence-based hope for families and educators navigating this challenge. In this post, you’ll learn what the research found, what it means for your child’s school experience, and practical steps you can take at home and in IEP meetings to make sure your child gets the support they deserve.

What the Study Found:

Writing is one of the most complex skills we ask young children to learn. It requires coordinating handwriting, spelling, word choice, sentence construction, and idea organization...all at the same time. For children with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, executive functioning challenges, language differences, or other learning needs, that coordination can feel impossibly difficult.

Our team (McMaster, Lembke, Shanahan, Choi, An, Schatschneider, and colleagues) recently published a large-scale study in the Journal of Learning Disabilities examining whether a structured teacher training program, called DBI-TLC (Data-Based Instruction: Tools, Learning, and Coaching), could improve outcomes for students with intensive early writing needs. The results were meaningful.

In a randomized controlled trial (the gold standard for research) 154 teachers (primarily special education teachers) across 23 school districts were randomly assigned to either receive DBI-TLC training or continue with their usual instruction. Teachers in the training group received:

•       Structured tools for assessing and planning individualized writing instruction

•       Four intensive learning modules covering how to teach writing and use student data

•       Biweekly coaching support over 20 weeks to help them put it all into practice

Teachers who received the training significantly outperformed those who did not on measures of knowledge, skills, and confidence in teaching writing. More importantly, their students (309 children in Grades 1 through 5 with significant writing difficulties) outperformed students whose teachers did not receive training on every writing measure used in the study.

One of the most encouraging findings: the benefits held across all groups of students. Whether a child had a specific learning disability, autism, other health impairment, was an English learner, or was in any grade — the approach worked. Because teachers were individualizing instruction based on each child's data, the support matched each student's specific needs rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.

What This Means for Your Child:

Writing difficulties in early elementary school are not something children simply outgrow. Without targeted support, gaps tend to widen as grade-level demands increase. This study shows that when teachers are trained to monitor each child's progress and adjust instruction based on that data, rather than delivering the same lesson to everyone, students with intensive needs can and do make meaningful gains.

It also reinforces something we see in practice: struggling writers need support that is specific, frequent, and responsive to how they are actually progressing. A child who is stuck on spelling needs something different from a child who can spell but struggles to form sentences. And a child who isn't making progress after eight weeks of intervention needs the teacher to change something — not wait and hope things improve.

How Parents Can Help at Home:

While the DBI-TLC approach was designed for teachers, there are things you can do at home to support your child's writing development:

1.     Make writing low-stakes and purposeful. Children who already feel like writing is hard are more likely to practice when it feels meaningful. Grocery lists, birthday cards, a short journal about a favorite video game or TV show — brief, real-world writing builds fluency without pressure.

2.     Focus on one thing at a time. Don't correct spelling, handwriting, and ideas all at once. If your goal is to help your child get thoughts on paper, let the spelling go for that session. If you're working on spelling, use a whiteboard or practice together — not on their 'real' writing.

3.     Ask 'what's the most important thing?' After your child writes a sentence or two, ask them: What's the main thing you're trying to say? This mirrors strategies used in evidence-based writing instruction and helps children learn to identify and organize their key ideas.

4.     Short and frequent beats long and occasional. Research consistently shows that brief, regular writing practice (even 10 minutes several times a week) is more effective than infrequent longer sessions.

5.     Know your rights if school support isn't working. If your child has an IEP and writing goals, you're entitled to see data showing whether those goals are being met. If progress is stalling, you can ask what changes are being made to instruction — and you have the right to request an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) if you disagree with how the school has assessed your child's needs.

Why This Matters:

Writing isn't just an academic skill — it's a gateway to participating in school and life. Students who struggle to write often fall behind across all subjects, since so much of school involves expressing knowledge through written language. Research also shows that reading and writing develop together: building one strengthens the other.

This study matters because it was conducted in real schools, with real teachers managing full caseloads, across multiple years and two states. It wasn't a small lab study...it was a large, rigorous trial. And the results hold a clear message: with the right training and ongoing support, teachers can make a genuine difference for the students who need it most.

For families who feel like their child's writing difficulties haven't been fully understood or addressed, this research is both validation and encouragement. The right support exists. The question is whether your child has access to it.

Read More!

McMaster, K. L., Lembke, E. S., Shanahan, E., Choi, S., An, J., Schatschneider, C., Duesenberg-Marshall, M. D., Birinci, S., McCollom, E., Garman, C., & Moore, K. (2024). Supporting teachers’ data-based individualization of early writing instruction: An efficacy trial. Journal of Learning Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222194241300324