A meta-analysis of almost 40 Years of research: Unreleasing the power of written expression in students with learning disabilities

Abstract

The current meta-analysis aims at identifying the most effective interventions for students with Learning Disabilities (LD) in improving writing expression over the last 40 years. Specifically, the main purpose of this review was to evaluate the efficacy of interventions focused on writing and integrated reading and writing for students in Grades PreK-12. The review examined a total of 39 experimental and quasi-experimental studies to determine which interventions demonstrated greater effectiveness in enhancing student outcomes. An average effect size (ES) was calculated for all 44 interventions. Additionally, average effect sizes were calculated for 12 intervention categories: sentence combining instruction, pre-writing activities and strategy instruction, process writing without modeling, adding self-regulation to strategy instruction, feedback, no feedback, goal setting, no goal setting, peer tutoring, no peer tutoring, self-efficacy and no self-efficacy. The findings demonstrated that the interventions consistently improved students' writing quality, with the addition of self-regulation to strategy instruction proving highly effective. Moreover, it was found that multicomponent programs incorporating different practices demonstrated their effectiveness in enhancing written expression. Positive outcomes were obtained by implementing interventions into practice in small groups through systematically organized sessions and encouraging cooperation between researchers and educators.