In today's world, written communication is a huge part of social participation.

We text friends to grab coffee, send life updates via email, and post our thoughts, stories, and questions to social media. 📲

In fact, when researchers asked people with aphasia about writing, one said:
​"I think writing is everything."

Participants also described writing as deeply tied to their confidence, independence, and staying connected with the people in their lives (Thiel & Conroy, 2022).

Writing is important for life participation.

But how do you work on it? Where do you start? Let's review some writing tasks together.

Writing Tasks & What They Target

(Save or print for easy reference! 📌)

Copying letters or words provides orthographic exposure, but no spelling demand. What's left is the output itself: getting the letters onto the page, either by hand or keyboard.
​✨ Copying Letters, Typing Letters, Copying Single Words, Typing Single Words​

Filling in a missing letter is a small step up from copying. Most of the word is already there, so the demand is low: the patient supplies a single letter.
​✨ Filling in the Missing Letter, Typing in the Missing Letter​

Unscrambling letter tiles works on spelling knowledge and sequencing. Because the letters are provided, the patient arranges rather than retrieves them. They may rely on sounding it out, whole-word knowledge, spelling patterns, and/or trial and error.
​✨ Unscrambling Pictured Words, Unscrambling Spoken Words​

Copy-and-recall adds memory to copying: copy the word, then reproduce it without the model. It's the core of well-established treatments like CART and T-CART.
​✨ Copy & Recall Social Messages​

Writing single words requires full spelling retrieval and output. Be conscious of your stimuli: from a picture, you're adding in word retrieval; from a spoken word, you're adding auditory comprehension and working memory.
​✨ Typing Pictured Words, Typing Spoken Words​

Writing sentences to dictation expands to the sentence level, but doesn't rely on the patient to build their own syntactic framework. Because the target is fixed, your patient can't avoid writing the hard words. This can make it easier to see what types of errors are happening – and why.
​✨ Typing Spoken Sentences​

Open-ended writing has no set target and relies on the patient for word retrieval, syntax, spelling and more. You often lose the ability to pinpoint exactly where a breakdown happened, but you gain the most functional practice: real, self-generated writing.
​✨ Consider conversation starters, problem-solving questions, or pictured scenes​

Writing Treatment Made Easy

Want to skip the prep? All of these writing treatments are ready to go in the Virtual Rehab Center.
(✨ Click any treatment above to learn more & watch a demo).

Get interactive exercises for any writing level, plus:

📊 Difficulty that auto-adjusts based on patient performance

💬 Built-in cues to help your patients when they get stuck

🏋 Unlimited home practice (free for your patients!)

If you're new to the Virtual Rehab Center, I'd love to give you 3 weeks free to try it out!

You'll have access to everything – treatments, handouts, flashcards, homework, and more. 🤩

Let's start with one letter today, and build toward those texts and emails that help your patients stay connected. ♥️

Happy treating,
​-Megan
​

P.S. For a deep dive, check out What SLPs Need to Know: Agraphia. This free article includes types of agraphia, assessment and treatment options, and links to research & resources.

P.P.S. We're working on a new treatment for the fall that focuses on writing notes as a memory strategy. Cognition: ✅. Language: ✅. Functional: ✅.