Online Writing Processes in Translating Cognition into Language and Transcribing Written Language by Stylus and Keyboard in Upper Elementary and Middle School Students With Persisting Dysgraphia or Dyslexia.

Participants in this study completed an on-line experiment in which they wrote essays by stylus or keyboard. Three translation measures (length of language burst, length of pauses, and rate of pausing) and four transcription measures (total words, total time, words/minute, and percent spelling errors) for composition were analyzed for two research aims. Research Aim 1 addressed whether upper elementary and middle school students with carefully diagnosed transcription disabilities (dysgraphia with impaired handwriting, =18, or dyslexia with impaired spelling, =20) showed significant differences from pretest to posttest, across modes of transcription (stylus or keyboard), and between diagnostic groups.

Emotional and Behavioral Correlates of Persisting Specific Learning Disabilities in Written Language during Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence.

Parents completed the while their children (94 boys, 61 girls; =11 years-11 months) were given tests. Evidence-based profiles of multiple test scores and history (emergence and persistence) were used to assign to groups without specific learning disabilities in written language (SLDs-WL) (= 42 control) or with SLDs-WL: (=29 dysgraphia, =65 dyslexia, or =19 oral and written language learning disability [OWL LD]). Parent ratings fell in the clinical or at risk ranges for some individuals in all groups, but mean ratings showed nine significant main effects for group (n=4): Behavioral Symptoms Index, Internalizing Problems Composite, Adaptive Skills Composite, two Clinical Scales (Atypicality and Attention Problems), and four Adaptive Scales (Adaptability, Activities of Daily Living, Leadership, and Functional Communication).

Understanding Interest and Self-Efficacy in the Reading and Writing of Students with Persisting Specific Learning Disabilities during Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence.

Three methodological approaches were applied to understand the role of interest and self-efficacy in reading and/or writing in students without and with persisting specific learning disabilities (SLDs] in literacy. For each approach students in grades 4 to 9 completed a survey in which they rated 10 reading items and 10 writing items on a Scale 1 to 5; all items were the same but domain varied. The first approach applied Principal Component Analysis with Varimax Rotation to a sample that varied in specific kinds of literacy achievement.

Effects of transcription ability and transcription mode on translation:: Evidence from written compositions, language bursts and pauses when students in grades 4 to 9, with and without persisting dyslexia or dysgraphia, compose by pen or by keyboard.

This study explored the effects of transcription on translation products and processes of adolescent students in grades 4 to 9 with and without persisting specific language disabilities in written language (SLDs-WL). To operationalize transcription ability (handwriting and spelling) and transcription mode (by pen on digital tablet or by standard US keyboard), diagnostic groups contrasting in patterns of transcription ability were compared while composing autobiographical (personal) narratives by handwriting or by keyboarding: Typically developing students (n=15), students with dyslexia (impaired word reading and spelling, n=20), and students with dysgraphia (impaired handwriting, n=19). They were compared on seven outcomes: total words composed, total composing time, words per minute, percent of spelling errors, average length of pauses, average number of pauses per minute, and average length of language bursts.

Relationships between language input and letter output modes in writing notes and summaries for students in grades 4 to 9 with persisting writing disabilities.

This study in programmatic research on technology-supported instruction first identified, through pretesting using evidence-based criteria, students with persisting specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in written language during middle childhood (grades 4-6) and early adolescence (grades 7-9). Participants then completed computerized writing instruction and posttesting. The 12 computer lessons varied output modes (letter production by stylus alternating with hunt and peck keyboarding versus by pencil with grooves alternating with touch typing on keyboard), input (read or heard source material), and task (notes or summaries).