Writing is an important part of later speech and language development. For educators, parents, and SLPS, creative writing is a wonderful tool to impact widespread speech and language development.
Jim Cartwright, MS, CCC-SLP, makes an excellent argument for why creative writing activities help students with a variety of goals, both related to speech and language and beyond. This more open-ended approach to written expression can also promote a positive attitude about writing and help to bridge the gap between oral and written language.
Creative writing can be used in the following ways to address speech and language goals:
- Speech: Have the child write their own books or poems with their target sounds featured in the initial, medial, and final position of words. While editing the written work, repeatedly practice the target words.
- Language: Use creative writing to target building vocabulary, comprehension and use of figurative language.
- Ask the child to create a poem with a new vocabulary word to explore its meaning. The poem can consist of the definition of the word and various ways to use the word in creative but accurate contexts.
- Have the child use idioms, metaphors, similes or other figurative expressions to create a story or poem.
For additional examples of ways to use creative to target speech and language goals, visit: https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.SCM.24122019.32