Essay-Writing Interventions for Adolescents with High Incidence Disabilities: A Review of Research

Abstract

Many students with disabilities have written language production deficits. As a result, these students are failing to meet the demands of government-initiated standards, higher education, and employment. In this review, quantitative experimental intervention studies for improving persuasive, narrative, and expository compositions for adolescents, 6th – 12th grade, with high incidence disabilities in the United States are evaluated. The review focuses on standard- based essay writing, specifically U.S. Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2013). Twenty- six single subject and group studies were reviewed. Effect sizes for group designs and percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) for single-case designs were provided to enable standardized assessment of intervention strength. Quality indicators were used to evaluate strength of designs. Results indicate Self-Regulated Strategy Development and the Strategic Instruction Model as promising intervention approaches for facilitating essay-writing skills for adolescents with high-incidence disabilities. Further intervention research is needed, specifically in relation to CCSS, and to identify methods for supporting maintenance and generalization skills across content-area curricula.