A paragraph text-writing intervention for secondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities: a single case design study

• Main Author: Rodgers, Derek B.
• Other Authors: Datchuk, Shawn M.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of Iowa 2019
• Subjects: autism spectrum disorder; explicit instruction; intellectual disability; text writing; writing fluency; Teacher Education and Professional Development
• Online Access: https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6843; https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8377&context=etd

Written expression can be a critical skill for academic, vocational, and social pursuits. Unfortunately, research suggests that students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) struggle to develop writing skills. Paragraph text-writing is a component of written expression and refers to constructing multiple sentences about a singular topic with appropriate capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. The present study investigated the effects of a multicomponent intervention of explicit instruction and timed practice on the paragraph text-writing skills of four secondary student with IDD. The study included four dependent measures (paragraph text-writing rubric, total words written, and correct and incorrect writing sequences) and used a multiple-probe across participants design. Visual analysis and effect sizes revealed modest results. Three participants showed improvement on at least one of the dependent measures; one participant showed no improvement at all. The practical implications of this study are discussed within the context of existing writing literature, and the limitations are presented.