The effects of social skills training on the writing skills of middle school students with learning disabilities

Abstract

Writing performance is increasingly included in state assessments of student academic performance such as the Florida Writes exam given in the fourth, eighth and eleventh grades. The importance attributed to writing is also evident at a national level. The Department of Education, through the National Center for Educational Statistics, prepared a 1990 portfolio study to explore new methods for collecting students' school-based writing (Gentile, 1992). The 1990 study revealed the types of writing used by students in grades four and eight. Of the total writing produced by children in grades four and eight, informative writing in grade four comprised 51% of the total writing and in grade eight 59%. Thirty-six percent of the total writing in grade four, and 30% of the total writing in grade eight was narrative. The majority of writing in grades four and eight were either informative or narrative in style. The 1990 study also looked for evidence of process writing strategies in students' writing and it was evident in 38% of the writing of children in grade four and 43% of the writing of children in grade eight. In 1992, further interest in

Speech Recognition Technology for Writing: Usage Patterns and Perceptions of Students with High Incidence Disabilities

“…A student survey was used to collect data on general usage patterns and affinity for SR. To develop the survey questions, the research team searched previous research on this topic. However, a dearth of studies on user perceptions of SR exist and we found only one related study by Mader (2007) examining the effects of SR technology on the writing skills and attitudes of students with LD. As a part of Mader’s study, participants were interviewed to understand their perceptions about using SR. We developed survey questions based on Mader’s interview questions.…”

“…Student and teacher interviews were used to gain a deeper understanding of perceptions of SR. As was the case for survey questions, the research team developed the student and teacher interview questions based on the study conducted by Mader (2007). We further developed and aligned the student and teacher interview questions to the research questions guiding this study (see Appendix).…”