Children are taught a lot of things as they grow up. If parents and teachers miss something vital, adult children could have weaker skills and knowledge compared to their peers. It could be a serious problem for the rest of their life. One of the most important things every child must be taught is writing, including essay writing. Today, I’m sharing several reasons to teach essay writing to children, as well as some tips on how to do it.
Why It’s Important to Teach Essay Writing to Children
Children will learn to write all types of writings and essays as they attend school. However, not all are successful with it and oftentimes, only a dependable essay writing service can help. Such services consist of professional writers who know how to turn every essay into a masterpiece quickly and properly. No child wants to fall behind his/her peers. Therefore, the development of essay writing skills is of huge importance. Here are 5 other important reasons to teach essay writing to children:
1 Development of the Brain
One of the first reasons to teach writing to children is that handwriting is essential for brain development and cognition. When children write, they activate the parts of the brain that are responsible for critical thinking, logic, problem-solving, and more. Learning writing is important for the development of motor skills as well. For example, studies have shown that kids who learn to use cursive writing vs print scored higher grades in reading and spelling tests.
2. Helps Early Reading
Another reason to teach essay writing to children is that it helps with reading skills. Reading is just as important as writing. Essay writing turns us into active readers. J. Richard Gentry Ph.D. and his colleague Steve Peha have carried out the research, which proves this statement. Language is based on a sound-symbol system. It also combines segmenting and blending. These fundamentals are essential for early reading.
To write a word, children need to be able to hear how it sounds. They learn to associate those sounds with a letter symbol. This is how their brain teaches them to read. Commonly, the first words read by kids are the first words they’ve already written.
3. Enhances Critical Thinking
Before children begin to write, they gather different pieces of information into a single picture in their heads. They observe, analyze, and reflect. Eventually, they learn how to put that information on paper. In order to do this, they develop and use their critical thinking skills.
4. Fosters Creativity
Another vital reason to teach essay writing to children is the advancement of their creativity. Kids quickly learn that some things are more interesting to read than others. They’ll be curious why it happens. After teachers and parents explain the differences and factors that affect essay writing, the little ones will be interested in writing different essays with some new events, characters, etc. to make their writing vivid. Thus, they begin to form the core of their creativity.
5. Teaches Self-Confidence
Finally, children who are good writers are more self-confident. They know that they won’t fall behind the others and can succeed. Accordingly, their self-esteem elevates. It’s important for the little ones who are very vulnerable and aren’t ready to accept failures. Undoubtedly, healthy self-confidence creates multiple opportunities to be successful in life.
Important Stages of Teaching Writing
Before one can teach essay writing, children must be taught general writing skills. There are 4 major stages and we’ll highlight them right now.
| Stages of Writing | Benefits | How It Works |
| Modeled |
| Children watch as an adult models the way every letter is written and then they try to copy it. In this stage, it is essential to explain everything you do and why. |
| Shared |
| In this stage, a teacher writes or reads the words, but the children are expected to actively participate. Children can express their own ideas about how the story should develop and can even contribute to the story’s completion. |
| Guided |
| This is the stage where children begin to steadily go from directed writing to independent. The teacher attentively checks all the essays and provides feedback to make the necessary adjustments. |
| Independent |
| This is the final stage where students write an assigned essay or their own project. The teacher should provide feedback and say what’s correct and wrong. |
Tips to Help a Child Develop Essay Writing Skills
Now that you know some of the reasons to teach essay writing to children, we can focus on actually teaching essay writing. Below are several crucial tips, all of which can help you teach your child the essential art of essay writing. Consider the following points:
- Begin with basics. First of all, you should ensure that your child has the appropriate building blocks to begin which includes a basic, age- or grade-appropriate understanding of grammar and spelling. Without these basic skills, your attempts at teaching essay writing will only result in frustration to you both.
- Introduce the thesis. Teach your child the concept of a thesis. Explain that this is the “main point” around which the entire essay revolves. Explain that every sentence, paragraph, and page in the essay should be relevant to the main thesis.
- Teach to craft an outline. The next vital point you should teach is how to craft an outline. This is the general layout of the essay which helps create a logical progression of the main idea from sentence-to-sentence, paragraph-to-paragraph. An outline includes the introductory paragraph, the main body of the essay, and the concluding paragraph. Use examples to show how to logically structure the flow of the paragraphs from start to finish.
- Encourage reading. Always inspire your child to read. The more they read the more they’ll learn about how sentences work together and the stronger their essay writing skills will become. This includes reading his/her own essays along with essay samples available online.
- Practice a lot. The most effective way to teach children essay writing is to have them practice doing so over and over. The more they write the better they will get.
Final Thoughts
Writing essays is part of every child’s education. And there are many strong reasons to teach essay writing to children. It’s an important skill that will carry over into their working lives, and one that will affect everything from their self-esteem to their success.