Note-Taking Strategies When Writing Is Slow

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-30

To us, notes ask a lot of a child who writes slowly. This page gives steps to try. It also says what school studies found, and where they stop.

Why notes are hard when writing is slow

To us, taking notes is several jobs at once. A child listens, picks out what matters, and writes it down.

To us, a slow writer can miss the next point while writing the last.

To us, the answer to try first is writing less, not writing faster. The steps below are about what to write, not how fast.

Note-taking strategies sit alongside your child's writing teaching, not in place of it.

Handwriting improves most consistently with handwriting practice; motor work alone has not been shown to improve it.

Our page on slow writing speed has more on where the time can go.

Steps to try

1. Listen for the big ideas. Not every word needs to go down.
2. Write key words, not whole sentences. A few words can bring back a whole point.
3. Use a simple frame. Draw a line down the page. Big ideas go on the left. Details go on the right.
4. Shorten common words. Use the same short forms each time, like "w/" for "with".
5. Look over the notes the same day. Fill in what is missing while the lesson is still fresh.
6. Practice at home first. Use a short talk or video on something your child likes.

These steps are our own practice, not a tested method.

In our view, it is worth asking the teacher whether guided notes are an option. Guided notes are handouts from the teacher, with blanks to fill in during the lesson.

In our view, typing is another route. Our page on typing for dysgraphia has more. To us, copying from the board is a separate problem. Our page on copying from the board has more.

What the research we hold says, and where it stops

A trial. One trial had 40 middle schoolers with learning disabilities (Boyle, 2010). Students were put in groups at random. One group was taught the method. They used it while watching a recorded science lesson. They remembered and understood more of it than students who took notes their usual way. Their notes also held more of the lesson's points. The summary does not say how long the gains lasted. We could read only its summary.

Guided notes. One review pooled studies of guided notes (Konrad and colleagues, 2009). It found they helped students take more accurate notes. They also helped students do better in their schoolwork. This was most true for school-age students. We could read only its summary.

Notes and review. Another review pooled 33 studies of taking notes and going over them (Kobayashi, 2006). Taking notes and going over them helped learning more than not doing so. Giving students a framework or the teacher's notes helped more than training alone. What we hold of it does not say who the students were. We could read only its summary.

In our view, Kobayashi's review is a reason to try a frame.

High school. One study compared high schoolers with and without learning disabilities (Oefinger and Peverly, 2020). Students without learning disabilities wrote faster by hand and took better notes. Notes and test scores went mainly with listening and with what students already knew. That is a link in one group of students, not a test of teaching. We could read only its summary.

A recording pen. One study was in ninth-grade English classes (Joyce and Boyle, 2020). Students were taught a note-taking method with a pen that records the lesson. Students with disabilities in the taught group wrote more words in their notes. They also wrote more words on a recall test given right after. What we hold does not say who they were compared with. We could read only its summary.

How far this goes. These studies were of lessons in school, mostly with students who had learning disabilities. They tested methods, handouts and a recording pen, not faster handwriting. We hold no study of note-taking taught by a parent at home. That is a gap in what we hold, not a finding that it does not help.

The note-taking studies we hold with children were done in school lessons. None of them compares notes by hand with typed notes.

Nothing in the studies on this page tested a Learning Success program.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Writing well below your child's other schoolwork.
• A teacher who raises a concern about writing.
• Extreme upset about writing.
• Complete avoidance of writing.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

If no skill has gone, start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.