POW Strategy to Improve Written Expression Skills of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Literature Review

Abstract

Writing strategies require effort and are consciously applied by a person to successfully complete a writing task for a specific purpose. Teaching writing strategies provide students with cognitive routines to construct their texts, develop the resulting text, and manage the complexity of writing tasks to support the writing process. It helps students gain more awareness about the difficulties and strengths of writing. The POW Strategy (Pick + Organize + Write) is a writing strategy that supports the development of students' planning and writing skills. This review study aims to introduce the POW Strategy which has been reported to be effective in teaching written expression skills to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within the framework of related studies. In the study, firstly, the theoretical framework about the features of written expression among students with ASD was introduced. Secondly, the POW Strategy and implementation steps are introduced. Thirdly, the relevant research findings examining the effectiveness of the POW Strategy on the written expression skills of students with ASD were introduced and discussed within the framework of the literature. Fourth and lastly, research and implementation suggestions were made for teaching written expression to students with ASD in Turkey in line with the related literature.