Try these other options if children struggle with writing

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We know for some children, there are barriers when it comes to writing stories - whether that's being able to fully form their ideas on paper, or a struggle in actually writing it down. You may have a child who has just started in school and so has not learnt how to write fully, so here are some other ways you can get that story written down and submitted.

Please remember we can only accept stories that are typed and submitted via our website. Submissions will reopen for the 2024/25 competition on Tuesday 24 September - Friday 8 November at 9pm.

Adult dictation

Father and son are sitting on a bed talking. The father has a tablet resting on a pillow on his lap. He is gesturing at the screen and the son is looking attentively.

Many children have great verbal skills, but struggle with the writing aspect. A way to overcome this is to get a child to recite their story out loud and an adult types up the story for the child and then they can submit the story that way (via the online submission form).

Smartphone or tablet dictation

A young girl in a pink shirt with a grey cardigan is sitting at a wooden table with a bookshelf behind her. She is smiling and speaking into a phone.

If a child is struggling to write their story down, most smartphones and tablets now have the ability to allow us to dictate speech and write the text for us. It’s a very simple process, the child can tap the ‘voice input’ icon on the keyboard, which looks like a microphone. The child can then speak their story out loud and the text will automatically appear on the screen. When the child is finished talking, they just tap the ‘voice input’ icon on the keyboard again and the recording will stop.

Most Apple and Android phones/tablets have the text-to-speech function.

Scanning text

A boy in a blue jumper is smiling enthusiastically as he looks into a phone screen.

Some children will have handwritten their stories but struggle to type it up on a computer. Luckily, smartphones and tablets (with cameras) have a ‘scan-text’ option which means it takes a photo of the text in-frame of the camera and automatically types it up for you.

For android users, open up your camera, and put the paper-based story in frame of the camera, and on the right-hand side of the screen there's a ‘T’ button - press that button and the phone will automatically scan the text and take a photo of the text. Once you’re happy you’ve captured the writing, highlight it all and then there's an option at the top of your screen to ‘extract text’ which will then copy the text and then you can paste the text into your notes or word document and upload your submission that way.

For Apple users, the process is very similar. Open up your camera and ensure the story is in the camera frame and then on the right-hand side there is a little ‘document’ icon, click it and it will highlight the text in-frame. You can then highlight the text and copy and paste the text into your notes or word document and upload the story onto the 500 Words website.

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