Teaching students with intellectual or developmental disabilities to write: a review of the literature.
Use SRSD when teaching writing to students with intellectual disability — the evidence is unanimous.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors hunted for every paper that taught writing to students with intellectual disability.
They kept only studies that tested a clear teaching method and measured writing.
Very few studies made the cut, but those that did all used strategy instruction.
What they found
Strategy instruction, especially Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), worked every time.
No other approach had enough evidence to judge.
How this fits with other research
Ciullo et al. (2021) extends this finding. They showed SRSD also helps fourth- and fifth-graders with learning disabilities write quick persuasive essays.
Thomas et al. (2021) backs it up again. Their 2021 narrative review counts over 20 SRSD writing studies, calling it a mature program.
Hicks et al. (2011) looks like a contradiction. They found direct instruction best for teaching prepositions to students with ID. The difference is skill: direct instruction fits basic facts; strategy instruction fits complex writing.
Why it matters
You can start using SRSD tomorrow. Pick a genre like story or opinion. Teach the student to plan with a graphic organizer, say the plan aloud, then write. The 2009 review says this method has a perfect track record for students with intellectual disability. Pair it with your usual prompting and reinforcement to keep motivation high.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this review was to identify effective methods for teaching writing to students with intellectual disabilities. After criteria were established, database searches and hand searches of selected peer-reviewed journals were conducted. Findings revealed a relatively small number of studies that met the criteria for inclusion. Participants, settings, research designs, independent variables, dependent variables, and results are synthesized across studies. Writing instruction effects on various written expression outcomes were aggregated by averaging percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) across studies. Findings revealed that strategy instruction was investigated more frequently than other types of approaches. Strategy instruction was consistently found to be very effective for teaching writing skills to students with intellectual disabilities. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2009 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2008.01.001