Unit 5 - Writing Disabilities Prepared by: Cicilia Evi GradDiplSc., M. Psi

Brief Introduction 3 major areas of written expression  handwriting, spelling, composition Dysgraphia  written language disorder that concerns with mechanical writing skills  manifest in poor writing performance Characteristics of students with dysgraphia  p. 408

Writing Problems (WP) Letter formation  malformations, poor spacing, extremely slow writing – Far-point copying & near-point copying – Reversal errors  common when children are first learning to read and write Fluency  so slow, seems to draw each letter Poor handwriting can cause  lack of spelling skills  due to eligibility and speed of writing

Near-point Copying

Assessment on WP No need of formal assessment Examine students’ writing and identify parts that need further instructional work Point of copying  far or near P. 412  table 13.1

Monitoring the Progress of WP Curriculum-based assessments  designed to evaluate performance in the particular curriculum to which the students are exposed Probing from teachers  ask students to write in specific period of time  score the results Self-evaluation  improves the quality of handwriting  using plastic overlays showing the correct form of the letters

Intervention for WP Manuscript or cursive ???? Teacher modeling and student practice  p. 413 Reinforcement  effective for ‘near cure’ oriented Self-instruction training  part of CBT  self- guiding statement and self-correction procedure

Can you read it?

Spelling Problem (SP) Spelling error  through spelling test, dictation Read p. 417  characteristics Effects : – Hamper handwriting and vice versa

Assessment of SP Basic methods (p. 418): – Dictation – connected writing – recognition Standardized assessments

Intervention for SP Effective VS less effective spelling instructional practice  p. 422 Remedial intervention  p. 425 Effective Teaching Procedures – Test – Study – Test – Practice Procedure – Time Delay – Morphographic Spelling – Add-a-Word

Composition Problems (CP) Read characteristics on p Fig 13.4  p. 429 Assessment : – Screening  difficult – Planning Composition Instruction – Monitoring  regular evaluation on students’ composition samples

Intervention for CP Expression OR traditional aspects of writing?? Developmental intervention: – Label cut-out pictures and put in their books – Then, writing one sentence about the picture – Followed by two-sentence descriptions – Three-sentence or longer descriptions – Write thematically Basic for instruction  p. 435

Intervention for CP (2) Six principle to prevent and address writing difficulties  p. 435 and table 13.3 Remedial intervention  expressive writing Effective teaching procedure: – Self-regulated strategy development  p. 438 – Learning Strategy Interventions – Explicit teaching of steps in writing process – Explicit teaching on the conventions of a writing genre