A new peer-based intervention could help kids learn to write better, research indicates.

On her computer, Cynthia Puranik, associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University, pulls up writing samples from two kindergarteners asked to print words that they know.

“As you can see, individual differences in writing can be seen as early as kindergarten,” says Cynthia Puranik, associate professor in the College of Education & Human Development at Georgia State University.

One child manages “hot,” while the second, incredibly, executes “somber, “sarcasum” [sic], and “redundant.”

Despite the achievements of the second child, test results show that most US students struggle to meet grade-level writing standards. Puranik is working to improve children’s performance on the page. She studies the early development of writing skills and how educators can effectively nurture good writers.

Puranik received $3 million last year from the US Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to study a writing intervention program she developed in which children help teach one another.

Here, she explains the importance of writing and the best way to help children learn to do it well:

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