Writing difficulties make sense when you understand what writing actually demands.
Understanding Writing From the Inside Out
The Attuned Spot is an Australian education and allied health organisation developed by a speech pathologist and an occupational therapist who work within the school system. Our work is grounded in daily practice across classrooms, therapy rooms, and home environments.
At The Attuned Spot, we believe that every child has a story to tell. But for many students, getting those ideas onto paper feels overwhelming, frustrating, or even impossible. Traditional approaches often focus on what is wrong with the writing itself, such as spelling errors, messy handwriting, or incomplete sentences. We take a different approach.
We ask a more useful question.
Why is writing hard for this child?
Writing Is Like Riding a Bicycle
When one part is not working, the whole system struggles.
Learning to write is much like learning to ride a bicycle. Riding only works when multiple systems are working together. Balance, coordination, strength, timing, attention, and confidence all need to align. If one part is missing or overloaded, the bike wobbles or falls, even if the rider knows where they want to go.
Writing works the same way. A child may have strong ideas, just like knowing where they want to ride, but if planning, language, motor skills, or emotional regulation are not yet working together, writing becomes exhausting or distressing. Correcting the final product or asking a child to practise more is like adjusting the helmet while the chain is slipping.
At The Attuned Spot, we focus on the whole system. When the underlying parts are supported and aligned, writing becomes more stable, efficient, and achievable.
Our Approach: Attuned2Write
Writing is not a single skill. It is a coordinated developmental task.
Attuned2Write is a comprehensive framework for understanding, teaching, and assessing writing that addresses the whole child. It was developed by a speech pathologist and an occupational therapist working in Australian schools, in response to the repeated gap they saw between classroom instruction, therapy recommendations, and student outcomes.
Attuned2Write recognises that writing is not just a literacy skill. It is a complex developmental task that requires coordination across thinking skills, language, motor output, and emotional regulation.
The Four Developmental Domains
Every piece of writing draws on multiple systems working together.
Language and Communication
The capacity to express meaning with clarity and flexibility, including vocabulary, syntax, genre understanding, and audience awareness.
Executive Functioning and Cognition
The ability to organise and manage ideas, plan, initiate tasks, sustain attention, and self-monitor.
Motor and Physical Skills
The fluency required to produce written text through handwriting or keyboarding, alongside posture and sensory regulation.
Social-Emotional Regulation
The emotional capacity to remain regulated, motivated, and confident throughout the writing process, including managing anxiety and developing writer identity.
When writing breaks down, it is often because one or more of these systems is overloaded. Attuned2Write helps educators, clinicians, and families identify exactly where and why the breakdown occurs, and what to do about it.
The AWIDA Assessment: Diagnostic Clarity
Assessment should explain why writing is hard, not just describe the outcome.
At the heart of the framework is the Attuned2Write Integrated Writing and Developmental Assessment (AWIDA). AWIDA was designed by a speech pathologist and occupational therapist to fit real school constraints. It can be completed in under 30 minutes and focuses on the writing process rather than the finished product.
AWIDA traces writing difficulties to specific points in the writing process and links them to underlying developmental domains.
It helps answer the questions teachers, clinicians, and parents are already asking.
Is this a language issue?
An attention challenge?
A motor difficulty?
An emotional barrier?
This clarity supports targeted, effective intervention that addresses root causes rather than surface-level symptoms.
A Collaborative Framework
Children progress best when adults work from shared understanding.
Writing development does not happen in isolation. Students move between classrooms, therapy rooms, and home environments, and too often the support they receive in each setting is disconnected.
Attuned2Write was built to create a shared framework and shared language across schools, clinics, and families. Teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and parents work from the same understanding of how writing develops and where a child may be getting stuck.
Our Principles
How we work matters as much as what we teach.
Attuned2Write is trauma-informed, culturally responsive, neurodiversity-affirming, and strengths-based. These principles reflect both clinical ethics and classroom realities.
Why Attuned2Write Matters
Clarity changes outcomes for students, families, and educators.
Writing difficulties are increasing. Teachers are under pressure. Families are confused and anxious. Students are disengaged.
What is missing is not effort or programs.
It is diagnostic clarity.
That is what Attuned2Write provides.
Designed to Work With What You Are Already Doing
Support should strengthen existing practice, not replace it.
Attuned2Write is not a replacement programme. It is designed to sit alongside existing literacy instruction and intervention, helping students access what is already being taught.
Who We Serve
Attuned2Write is designed to work across the systems surrounding a child.
We support:
schools seeking developmentally informed writing assessment and instruction
clinics working with children who struggle to transfer skills into the classroom
families wanting to understand and support writing at home
Our Vision
When writing is understood, students can move forward with confidence.
We envision a world where writing difficulties are understood, not just documented. Where intervention is targeted rather than trial and error. Where schools, clinicians, and families work together with clarity and confidence.
Next step
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