Teaching Expressive Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis

We present results of a meta-analysis on writing interventions for students with learning disabilities and draw implications for practice. 13 studies designed to teach students with learning disabilities to write better expository or narrative text were analyzed. Results indicated that the interventions used in the research studies consistently produced strong effects on the quality of students' writing as well as students' sense of efficacy and understanding of the writing process. Findings suggested that 3 components should be part of any comprehensive instructional program. Explicit teaching of (a) the steps of the writing process and (b) the critical dimensions of different writing genres should be provided, as well as (c) structures for giving extensive feedback to students on the quality of their writing from either teachers or peers.