How to Test Your Writing Skills for Children

No matter how much experience you have with children, what runs through their minds will always surprise you. You may assume what you have written makes perfect sense to a five year-old and be very entertaining. You may find yourself amazed at how they do or do not react. There are many ways to make sure you have truly captured your audience. Here are a few.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• finished manuscript
• children

1. Determine the target age for your manuscript. Who do you think would be most entertained or entranced by it? If you cannot decide on an age range, you could possibly use the next few steps to help you choose.
2. Ask a child of the correct age to read over your work. Have them point out or highlight vocabulary they do not know. Review the story with them to see if they generally understood the plot and the characters. Did they comprehend your message?
3. Set up reading at a public library or school. Call them and ask them what you would need to do to come in. Some may ask you to come and meet the person in charge, others will conduct a background check first, but all will be glad to see someone interested in reading to children. Most public places gladly accept volunteers who wish to read to children. All children will benefit from being read to. It is a win-win situation for all.
4. Briefly survey the audience afterward to see if they understood the story, making note of the age group or demographic of those who seemed to really identify with the story more. This should be your target audience. If you disagree and wish for your work to be for a different audience, you would need to rewrite for the intended audience.
5. If you still need help, ask those around you who work with children such as teachers or friends who have children. Ask them to be completely honest with you, not sparing your feelings. If they spare your feelings, they are not sparing you the extra time and effort it will take to redo your edits later.
6. Thank anyone who helps you with either a free copy of your article or book, or mention them in a thank you list, thank you note or dedication page. Then they will be more than happy to help you again in the future and be able to take pride in knowing they were part of the creative process.