1. Causes of Delay and Difficulty in the Production of Written Text
Julie Dockrell
Psychology and Human Development
Faculty of Children & Health

2. Overview Is there a problem? Long term impacts of writing difficulties
Teachers’ knowledge and understanding
Basic premises
Children with Special Educational Needs and problems with text production
The role of developmental models in addressing writing difficulties: profiles and processes
Implications

3. Is there a problem ? a) extent b) nature

4. Extent of the problem
An inability to produce sustained, accurate, and competent writing has been identified as a pervasive weakness for many children.
US National Assessment of Educational Progress
a significant proportion of fourth graders (16 percent) were below basic achievement levels
60 percent had only partial mastery of the writing process.
The most recent published figures illustrated a similar pattern in England (37%)
Difficulties are more pervasive when children have additional learning needs

5. Problems in the production of written text are arguably the most prevalent developmental disability of communication skills (Lerner, 1976 cited in Hooper et al., 2002)

6. Nature of the problems
Children with learning difficulties produce shorter, less interesting and poorly organized text at both the sentence and paragraph level (Hooper et al, 2002).
Texts marred by inordinate numbers of mechanical and grammatical errors (Anderson, 1982; MacArthur and Graham,1987).
Handwriting is less legible and the texts poorly punctuated (Graham and Weintraub, 1996).
Not all children have all difficultes 6

7. Nature of the problems
Texts produced are restricted to knowledge-telling rather than knowledge transforming
Little planning and revising (Troia and Maddox, 2004).
Even when specific strategies are taught, the maintenance and transfer of strategies can be a problem (Troia and Maddox, 2004).
Not all children have all difficultes 7

8. Summary Within child problems: Basic skills
Knowledge of writing processes
Strategic behaviour
Planning
Revising

9. Long term impacts?

10. The long term implications
‘Deficits’ persist unless receive intervention
1970 British cohort study
18% of all cohort members reported some difficulty with writing,
of men and women with lower literacy.
Spelling 35% men, 31% women
15% of men with lower skills
struggled with writing a thank-you letter,
legible handwriting
'to put down in words' what they wanted to say.

11. Without help pupils continue to write at an 8 year old level throughout secondary school (Meltzer, 2007)
Half sentences complete
Simple sentences
Quality of text produced at 11 strong predictor of quality of text produced at 16 but mediated through spelling and reading skills ( Dockrell, Lindsay & Connelly, 2009)

12. Teachers’ knowledge and skills

13. Teacher knowledge and needs
Considerable variation in the time teachers allocate to writing /writing instruction (Cutler & Graham, 2008)
40% make no adaptations for struggling writers (Graham, Murphy et al., 2008)
Emphasis placed on teaching grammar although little evidence to its efficacy Graham & Perrin, 2007)
Limited handwriting instruction (Barnett et al, 2006; Graham et al, 2008)
Teachers report being inadequately prepared to teach writing

14. Basic Premises

15. Premises
Significant minority of children struggle to acquire basic competence in text production
Majority of children with writing difficulties are in mainstream classes
Problem of Equipotentiality

16. Equipotentiality
Many different experiences/problems lead to the same difficulty
Single behavioural outcome different pathways
Interventions based on single models not effective 16

17. Therefore
Requires an understanding of the writing difficulties experienced
Analysis of both product and process
Understanding of problems should drive evidence based practice

18. Children with special educational needs and associated difficulties with the production of written text

19. Developmental disabilities and writing
Disorders of writing concern for over 100 years (Ogle – agraphia)
Writing is the most common problem of 9 to 14 year old students with learning disabilities (Cobb-Morocco et al., 1992; Mayes and Calhoun, 2006).
Unlike some developmental difficulties, problems in writing may not be evident until children are well into formal education, about the age of eight
An important early indication of writing difficulties is the amount of written text produced under timed conditions, and this correlates with the quality of written expression in the primary years (Berninger and Fuller, 1992).
Range of difficulties identified which make it difficult to identify developmental trajectories and appropriate interventions

20. Patterns of difficulty linked to diagnostic criteria ?

21. Manifestation of wide range of developmental difficulties
Predict
General delays
Developmental coordination disorders /dysgraphia
Oral language difficulties (SLI)
Literacy difficulties

22. Confirmed General delays
Slower in acquiring basic research competence (Katims, 2001; Rousseau et al, 1993)
Developmental coordination disorders /dysgraphia (e.g. Barnett et al)
Handwriting lacks consistency
Restricted production of accurate text
Increased errors with spelling
Oral language difficulties (SLI) (e.g. Dockrell et al)
Spelling
Text generation
Grammatical errors
Literacy difficulties/dyslexia (e.g. Connelly et al)
Planning & revising

23. Overlap at the behavioural level
Text
Spelling
Grammar
Handwriting fluency

24. Writing problems a manifestation other difficulties
Surprising ?
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Re et al, 2007)
Bipolar disorders (74%) (Mayes & Calhoun, 2006)
Children with autism (60%) (Mayes & Calhoun, 2006)
Why ?
Insufficient instruction
Working memory

25. Patterns of difficulty linked to diagnostic criteria
Fail to differentiate at the behavioural & cognitive level
Therefore interventions not diagnosis specific?

26. The role of developmental models in addressing writing difficulties: profiles and processes

27. Need a developmental model
Text generation: words, sentences and discourse
Working memory
Transcription: handwriting and spelling
Executive functions: planning, reviewing and revising
Simple view of writing derived from Berninger and Amtmann (2003: 350)

28. Identify cognitive constraints in the process ?
Oral language
Poor oral language skills associated with difficulties in fluency in producing words and clauses
Phonological difficulties affect spelling
Non phonological language dimensions affect idea generation and formulating ideas into text

29. Transcription – handwriting & spelling
Speed of handwriting important factor
Fine motor skill contributes independently through orthography to text production
b) Spelling – based on phonological, orthographic and morphological principles
Delayed or different?
Usually recognizable in English
Deaf
Specific language impairment
c) Lack of automaticity in retrieval of accurate spellings
Loss of ideas and plans

30. Working memory Poor writers have reduced memory capacity –
Predicts text generation more than transcription
Affects punctuation,
Children with writing difficulties have problems in recalling and using punctuation
Planning and revising
Children with learning difficulties spend a disproportionate amount of time revising lower level writing components e.g. spelling and word choice
Changing in processing demands
All writing draws on working memory

31. Summary Developmental disorders can give indication of breakpoint(s)
Profiling skills and competence to identify specific barriers
Interaction effects are to be expected in relation to
Task demands e.g. single word versus text spelling
Genre – narrative versus expository …argumentative
Pressure
Task
Domain

32. Implications for research and practice

33. Cause versus effect? Within child versus educational opportunities
Interaction effect
Lack of practice and instruction
Handwriting (Stainthorp et al, )
Spelling
Text production
Working memory
Within child versus task
Motivation
Poor writers less motivated
Cycle of disadvantage

34. Role of instruction & practice (meta analyses (Graham et al)

35. Further Issues: Level of analysis?
Yes word, sentence and text level product level
Also process level
Task
Single word or different genres?
Motivation to write?
Pathways of development
Need longitudinal writing samples

36. Conclusion Writing is a complex process
Writer’s expertise, the instructional support they receive and the demands of the specific writing task.
Struggling writers have difficulties with basic writing skills and writing processes
Many children with learning difficulties have associated problems with text production
Careful analysis of the writing process and product and an assessment of transcription skills are required to provide appropriate intervention

37. Thank you for listening Any questions?
Institute of Education
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38. Thanks to Collaborators: Vincent Connelly Oxford Brookes University
Geoff Lindsay University of Warwick
Barbara Arfè University of Verona
Clare Mackie Institute of Psychiatry

39. New references:
Graham, S. & Harris, K. (2009). Almost 30 years of writing research” making sense of it all with the Wrath of Kahn. Learning Disability Research, 24, Shumaker, J. & Deschler, D. (2009). Adolescents with learning disabilities as writers: are we selling them short?. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 24, 81-92