Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Is it Cheating If...

For a couple months now my daughter has been talking about writing a book. She's written down some of her ideas in a notebook, but gets frustrated because she can't write fast enough to get what she wants down on paper. We've been working on typing, but her typing speed is still too slow for her. I've been thinking of doing the typing for her- she tells me what to write and I can type it. She could also dictate into a recorder and I can write from that.

Would helping her in this way take away from what she is wanting to do? Would it be considered doing it for her, or would it still be considered her work?

Just wanting some thoughts...

I think that it'd be considered her work. It's her ideas and you are just helping her get it down on paper. I actually think that it's a really great idea because you can take the frustrating part of it out for her.

It's ok if you help her type it out.

I think it sounds like a great project for you to work on together Go for it!

When you say - 'cheating' are you talking about if it is 'submitted ' for a prize? or if a publisher wants it? or to your dd's self esteem?

If the child were younger, or going to a 'bricks and mortar' school or even homeschooling but doing the work without you 'keeping her company' I would say, sure, type while she talks it!

In your case, I would encourage you to transcribe from an audio file. And if that didn't work, then maybe sit and type while she talks.

If money is available, then I would sign her up for Online G3
Online G3 offers accelerated and engaging online humanities classes for gifted students. As parents of gifted children ourselves, the instructors and ...
www.onlineg3.com/


I would also seriously bribe her to become a faster touch typist, at age 12 this is certainly possible, even with the LDs and bottlenecks. How many wpm does she have now? How many do you have? A little friendly competition might go a long way in this skill, which I think of as door opener.

Also - see if you can interest her in http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/nowwhat

They have events all year long.

Also - look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Paolini for inspiration, listen to a few interview of him. Very interesting!

Also - this looks interesting: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/677/01/

in particular, you might get a lot out of their 'advice for tutors' such as:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/687/02/

My guess is that 'not getting it down fast enough' is part of her problem, but not all of it. Writting is a big task and requires teaching.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

My just turned 9yo son did NaNoWriMo, and he vastly improved his touch typing to the point of not being frustrated in one month. After the new year, we are going to try and work through and editing process for grammar/spelling at least.

Anyway, if you can get her to do the typing for at least a little bit every day, she will improve and hopefully get tired of "waiting" for you to be able to do the typing for her.

Good luck!

I laughed reading this because I did exactly that with our DS6 and book reports last year.
He was too slow to write so he dictated to me what the story was about and I wrote it down and he later copied it.
I told the teacher this is the only way he will do it. That he won't sit there and write it out.
She said well at least it is his own words and that she can tell when a parent writes it.
So No I do not think it is cheating if the words are hers