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Evaluating the Effects of a Reader Perspective-Taking Instructional Strategy on the Descriptive Writing Performance of Children with a Specific Learning Disability

Julia R Flanigan, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

Children with a specific learning disability often struggle with written communication compared to their typically-developing peers (Graham & Harris, 2002; Graham et al., 2017; Troia, 2006). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a researcher-created instructional strategy (i.e., Audience and Structure Knowledge) on the descriptive writing performance of children in this special population. Audience and Structure Knowledge (ASK) utilizes a reader perspective-taking approach aimed at enhancing students’ audience awareness and text-structure knowledge. A multiprobe multiple-baseline design across participants was conducted to examine whether the ASK instructional strategy could improve the specificity (i.e., percentage of relevant details) and overall quality of children’s descriptions of pictures. Participants were three children, ages nine, ten, and twelve, who had been diagnosed with a specific learning disability. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study was conducted via Zoom video conferencing. Instruction took place one-on-one and lasted five to seven sessions. The implementation of the ASK instructional strategy resulted in increased specificity and overall quality scores for all three participants. In addition, there was some evidence that children may be able to transfer their skills to descriptive writing tasks not taught during instruction. Conclusions about and future directions for the ASK instructional strategy are discussed.

Subject Area

Special education|Education|Reading instruction

Recommended Citation

Flanigan, Julia R, "Evaluating the Effects of a Reader Perspective-Taking Instructional Strategy on the Descriptive Writing Performance of Children with a Specific Learning Disability" (2021). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI28650448.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI28650448

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