Written Expression Deficit

Special need	Written Expression Deficit
Characteristics	A written expression deficit is the inability to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas in a structure, sequential, and organized form. This disability is commonly in conjunction with other language and processing disabilities and is very rarely isolated to written expression alone. Early Elementary: Since all early elementary students are still developing their writing skills it is hard to distinguish a written expression deficit at an early age. It is important, however, to monitor early signs of dysgraphia and difficulties with language and phonological skills because children that show these signs early are typically later diagnosed with a written expression disorder. These characteristics include: tight or awkward pencil grips, avoiding writing/drawing tasks, trouble forming letters and numbers, inconsistent spacing between letters, and inability to write or draw in a line. Upper Elementary: When students are using writing more frequently in school deficiencies in written expression become more apparent. Characteristics at this stage of development include illegible handwriting, difficulty copying from the board, poor visual-spatial perception resulting in erratic spacing and different letter sizes, incomplete written assignments, lack of vocabulary, incomplete thoughts or sentences, and difficulties with the mechanics and conventions of writing. Students that struggle with written expression typically do better with oral responses and multiple choice assessments. High school/college: Students at higher levels with this learning disability tend to experience trouble with speed, automaticity of writing, difficulty with syntax structure and grammar, and organizing their thoughts in their writing.
Misconceptions	There are misconceptions to all learning disabilities. Students that struggle with expressive writing are sometimes seen as lazy or careless with their work because it is often sloppy and unorganized. Since this disorder is both procedural and developmental, it is important to understand that students may not have the motor skills available to write neatly and/or they are not able to process the ideas in their head correctly onto the paper. Another common misconception is that students with this LD don’t understand how to write in the right way. For example their paragraphs may not be sequenced with a beginning, middle, and end. However, when students give oral responses they are able to correctly sequence events and complete their thoughts. Also, students that have poor spelling or poor handwriting alone may be seen as having a writing expression deficit. These issues alone are not enough evidence for this disorder. They can be addressed by more intensive phonological teaching and fine motor developmental activities.
Resources	http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1835883-workup This website has an overview of the disorder including a list of assessments to test for written expression deficit. http://ldanatl.org - Learning Disabilities Association of America www.ncld.org - National Center for Learning Disabilities http://www.ldonline.org/article/6215 - This website has a lot of good ideas for modifying all areas of literacy to help students with a written expression disorder. http://www.learningstore.org/we1099b.html - A book with strategies for teaching writing to students with learning disabilities.
Curricular Modification(s)	There are several things you could do to modify curriculum to assist a student with a written expression disorder. For assessing content knowledge, allow alternative forms to demonstrate and practice the content such as oral responses. Connecting visual with kinesthetic modes for spelling will benefit their phonics skills. In our classroom we use sand trays each week and write our spelling words and go over phonological sounds. Other teachers have students draw in the air with their fingers. Some other options to adapt curriculum would be to model written work for the student so that they have something to imitate for sentence structure and conventions. Whenever students are doing a writing piece, make sure to use a prewriting activity that will help structure and organize their thoughts. In our classroom we use a variety of thinking maps to begin our writing. Also provide a writing outline to help the student structure their sentences and paragraphs. In addition, try to reduce distractions when doing written work. For upper grades that require more note-taking, it would be beneficial for the student to have a buddy system or be given teacher prepared notes. For written assessments, these students should be given extra time to complete them. There are a few computer programs available for students with a written expression deficit that allow students to dictate notes to the computer for it to write out the notes