How to improve writing skills in kids with dyslexia and learning disabilities
Writing is such an important part of both our academic and everyday lives. We use it for anything from writing a research paper, to a grocery list, sharing our thoughts with others, to communicating with coworkers. We know that many students with learning disabilities and dyslexia struggle with writing, so let’s dive a bit deeper into what the research tells us.
In a 2017 Meta-Analysis[1] of studies around writing and learning disabilities, the researchers found that students with learning disabilities had lower scores than their neurotypical peers on writing outcomes in:
Writing Quality
Organization
Vocabulary
Sentence Fluency
Conventions of Spelling, Grammar, and Handwriting
Genre Elements
Output
Motivation
They found overall that students with learning disabilities experience pervasive writing difficulties, and that in particular “text production skills are difficult for these students and should be a focal point for improvement”.
Does this sound familiar? We see many students who we know have beautiful brains and incredible ideas with little writing output. How frustrating is it as a parent or educator to know that there is so much potential, creativity, and innovation in a brain, but that the information is getting lost in the transfer? How frustrating must it then be for that student who cannot get those ideas out?
So what can we do to help? Let’s look at the research.
There was another study focussing on writing interventions [2] which found that there were four writing treatments that had the biggest impact on the writing of students with learning disabilities. These included:
Strategy Instruction: Planning, writing and revising using strategy instruction; the most effective was using self-regulated strategy development where an instructor models and scaffolds strategies until the students are able to use the writing strategies on their own.
Dictation: Dictating for text to speech rather than composing by hand. This removes the demands of text transcription which are likely having an impact on their writing.
Goal Setting: Setting short goals related to writing, with the idea that many students with learning disabilities have greater abilities than they choose to apply spontaneously in the moment, but when their attention is directed with clear goals of what needs to be done, the writing and revising process is positively impacted.
Process Writing: Learning about the different stages of writing, working on how to approach writing, and learning about writing for authentic purposes (which may also help with low motivation surrounding writing that many students with learning disabilities experience).
One of the overall findings of the study? The writing skills of students with learning disabilities were only improved when time was dedicated to specific and explicit teaching of those skills. When just processes are provided (like graphic organizers, procedures etc.) without modeling, practice, and explicit instruction, then students with learning disabilities do not gain the benefit. The direct teaching and scaffolding helps to provide practice so that students with learning disabilities can internalize the skills.
These will not be easy goals, as students who have learning disabilities do not typically receive a lot of dedicated writing instruction in school. However, we know that writing is a skill that bridges all other subjects, so the importance of it cannot be downplayed. When we know that there are struggles in writing for so many students with learning disabilities, this is not an area that we can push to the side.
Because let’s remember that these kids have INCREDIBLE ideas to get out and it would be a huge injustice to all of us to not hear all the amazing things they have to say. As parents and educators, let’s prioritize finding ways to help them do that.
Click here to learn more about dyslexia and learning differences through some of our other articles and visit our FREE SYT Support Library for videos and resources from leading guest experts!
——-
Written by Jillian Watson, B.Ed., M.Ed., OCT
———————————-
References
Graham, S., Collins, A. A., & Rigby-Wills, H. (2017). Writing Characteristics of Students With Learning Disabilities and Typically Achieving Peers: A Meta-Analysis. Exceptional Children, 83(2), 199–218.
Gillespie, A., & Graham, S. (2014). A Meta-Analysis of Writing Interventions for Students With Learning Disabilities. Exceptional Children, 80(4), 454–473.