In recent years effective instruction in reading for learners with physical and educational disabilities has received great attention in the schools. However, instruction in the corollary skill of writing has received considerably less emphasis. This review paper notes that through the use of assistive technology, students with a variety of…

Twenty language-disordered and 20 nonimpaired children, aged 9-11, performed story generation and story retelling tasks. For both groups, retold narratives were longer and contained more story grammar components and complete episode structures. Clause length differentiated story generation from story retelling for the language-disordered children…

Narrative abilities of 24 learning disabled (LD) and 27 nondisabled children (ages 7-12.5 years) were compared. Although LD students were able to reconstruct stories as well as were nondisabled students, narrative analysis of both original and retold stories can provide useful information on language skills beyond the sentence level. (Author/DB)

Nine junior high school students with learning disabilities received instruction in story grammar elements and character development. Over a two-month period, students significantly increased the amount they wrote and mildly to moderately increased the quality of the stories produced and the number of internal responses and plans of characters.…

A story format and discourse analysis procedure was used to evaluate the spoken language skills of 20 elementary students with learning disabilities over a 1-year period. Stories from memory were longer and characterized by more as well as different types of errors than were stories from pictures or stories based on games. (Author/DB)