Writing a letter seems like a lost art in the world of technology. Given the current pandemic, letter writing has also resurfaced and allowed for a personal connection with family and friends whom we are unable to see. It also allows us to express our gratitude to those whom we may never meet but are eternally grateful for their ultimate sacrifice for our country.
In observance of Veteran’s Day and Military Family Appreciation Month, we wanted to share some tips and tricks to help you and your child learn the art of writing a letter! We hope that this will give your child the opportunity to communicate with their loved ones in their own personal way!
Here are our top four tips:
- Use some help!
It can be difficult for children to stay on track when writing something as structured as a letter. We have created a graphic organizer to help your child plan out their work. You can either use the organizer briefly to assist with the structure of your letter or you can turn it into a fun activity with your child. Have your child write out each section of their letter under the defined categories (heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature), then help them to cut those sections out and place them over the coordinating part of the body! Activities like this take a simple activity one step further. This not only works on other skills like fine motor, but also will help your child to remember for the future!
2. Use the acronym “COPS”
As therapists, we use acronyms to help our clients (and ourselves!) to remember certain skills we are working on. “COPS” is the perfect tool to use when working on a letter. “COPS” stands for Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling. Capitalization helps us to remember to capitalize proper nouns and the first letter of words that begin a sentence. Organization brings us back to our graphic organizer as a reference. This ensures that we have included all components in your letter. Punctuation can be tricky for some kids, so try to help them remember to use periods, exclamation points, question marks, and commas appropriately. Always watch out for run- on sentences! This is also a great opportunity to work on any spelling words with your child.
