Why Children With Dyslexia Struggle With Writing and How to Help Them

Abstract

Purpose Children with dyslexia often have related writing difficulties. In the simple view of writing model, high-quality writing depends on good transcription skills, working memory, and executive function—all of which can be difficult for children with dyslexia and result in poor spelling and low overall writing quality. In this article, we describe the challenges of children with dyslexia in terms of the simple view of writing and instructional strategies to increase spelling and overall writing quality in children with dyslexia. Method For spelling strategies, we conducted systematic searches across 2 databases for studies examining the effectiveness of spelling interventions for students with dyslexia as well as including studies from 2 meta-analyses. To locate other instructional practices to increase writing quality (e.g., handwriting and executive function), we examined recent meta-analyses of writing and supplemented that by conducting forward searches. Results Through the search, we found evidence of effective remedial and compensatory intervention strategies in spelling, transcription, executive function, and working memory. Some strategies included spelling using sound-spellings and morphemes and overall quality using text structure, sentence combining, and self-regulated strategy development. Conclusions Many students with dyslexia experience writing difficulty in multiple areas. However, their writing (and even reading) skills can improve with the instructional strategies identified in this article. We describe instructional procedures and provide links to resources throughout the article.

The Effects of Script and Orthographic Complexity on the Handwriting and Spelling Performance of Children With Dyslexia

“…In total, 30% to 50% of children with dyslexia show significant handwriting difficulties (Di Brina et al, 2018; Montgomery, 2008; Sumner et al, 2014). These difficulties persist in college-age students and are often associated with spelling problems (Connelly et al, 2006; Hebert et al, 2018). Spelling is indeed typically impaired in children and adults with dyslexia (e.g., Berninger et al, 2008; Bruck, 1993; Lefly & Pennington, 1991) and often represents an area of residual deficit in adults who have compensated for their reading difficulties (Maughan et al, 2009).…”

Oral sentence generation training to improve fifth and 10th graders’ writing

“…Although the foundational oral language components of text generation are partly developed before children learn to write (Kent et al, 2014;Pinto et al, 2015), they continue to develop concurrently with written language during upper elementary school years and beyond (Alamargot et al, 2015;Chanquoy & Negro, 1996;Hebert, Bohaty, Nelson, & Roehling, 2018, Hebert, Kearns, Hayes, Bazis, & Cooper, 2018Jones, Myhill, & Bailey, 2013;Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002;Wijekumar et al, 2019). For example, Ravid and Berman (2006) demonstrated that children's oral and written productions in English and Hebrew showed parallel developmental patterns from 9-10 years (Grade 4) to 16-17 years of age (high school), with a turning point in the development of oral and written language abilities in adolescence between ages 12-13 and 16-17.…”

“…The finding that oral language interventions can lead to improvements in writing has practical implications for the teaching of writing, especially considering that, for many students, poor transcription skills represent a significant barrier to their writing development (Graham & Santangelo, 2014;Hebert, Bohaty et al, 2018, Hebert, Kearns et al, 2018Sumner et al, 2016). For these students, as well as for those with language-learning needs (Hoff, 2013), as were probably many of the students in this study, practicing text generation processes without the additional burden of transcription may represent an empowering learning experience that could lead to the development of both language and text generation skills.…”

Changed functional connectivity at rest in functional illiterates after extensive literacy training

“…While the previous studies in dyslexia focused on reading skills, it must be emphasized that dyslexic children and adults also suffer from writing problems [ 28 , 36 , 37 ]. This is true to a greater extent in FI.…”