Developing an intervention for pupils with writing difficulties: Conceptualisation and analysis

Abstract

This study involved evaluating the success of a writing programme that was delivered to 91 pupils in eight urban primary schools. This involved a partial replication of an intervention demonstrated by Berningeret al.(2002) to be effective at improving both spelling and composing. The intervention comprised phonemic awareness training, an element designed to support the development of compositional skills through teacher scaffolding and a cued spelling strategy. Pupils were randomly allocated to an experimental group and a waiting list control group. Sessions of 50 minutes duration were delivered four times a week for 10 weeks to Year 4 children experiencing difficulties in writing. Pre and post measures of the children’s written expression, spelling, metacognition, self perception as a writer and teachers’ attitude towards the children were obtained. The results indicated that, although there was an improvement in the children’s written expression, spelling and metacognitive skills, there was no significant difference in this improvement between the intervention and control groups. Some children, however, made greater progress than others. The factors that predicted which children were likely to make the best progress with writing compositional skills were Year 3 optional Standard Assesment Task (SAT) results, vocabulary score, teacher assessment of the pupil’s attitude to writing and spelling ability. Significantly fewer pupils in the experimental group obtained standard scores that either declined or stayed static following the intervention, when compared to the waiting list control group. The implications in terms of conducting evaluative studies and organization and delivery of interventions are discussed.