Children with specific language impairment (SLI) experience significant difficulties with writing due to their deficits in language, phonological processing, and working memory. This study used a multiprobe multiple baseline single-case experimental design to investigate the efficacy of planning and revising strategy instruction on the compare-contrast expository writing performance of fourth to sixth graders with SLI. Strategy instruction in planning also was compared with a sequenced intervention package of planning and revising. Maintenance probes were administered four weeks after the writing instruction ceased. Potential generalization of the intervention effects to writing essays of another uninstructed but related expository text structure, explanation, as well as the impact of strategy instruction on writing self-efficacy were examined. The results showed that all three students with SLI spent time on advanced planning and generated quality written plans after receiving the planning instruction. The students also wrote longer compare-contrast essays, included more text structure elements, and demonstrated better overall writing quality. After receiving the added revising instruction, all the students demonstrated increases in writing accuracy but decreases in planning time, quality of written plans, length, and text structure elements. The added revising instruction didn’t substantially contribute to overall essay quality, either. The gains from the writing instruction were maintained for at least four weeks. The positive gains from the planning and the revising instruction were also found to generalize to writing explanation essays. Two of the students showed enhanced writing self-efficacy after receiving the planning and revising instruction, whereas the third student showed a decline in self-efficacy, possibly indicating that the writing instruction helped this student develop a more realistic perceived competence for writing performance.
Read
