A Pilot Study of Sentence Writing Instruction for a First Grader with a Learning Disability

Abstract Sentence writing is a critical early writing skill (Kim et al., 2014) but is often overlooked in empirical literature (McMaster et al., 2018). The current pilot study evaluated the effect of a set of explicit sentence writing lessons on a first grader’s writing and identified the types of errors made before and during instruction. The participant was a 6-year-old white male with a learning disability. An exploratory AB single case design was used to detect and describe participant writing during baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. A series of 12 sentence writing lessons were administered three times per week for four weeks. Lessons focused on writing complete, simple sentences with correct mechanics and incorporated a sentence planning page and a self-checklist. Results indicate the participant improved his capitalization and punctuation (Tau- U = 0.50) but not his sentence length or complexity. He primarily made punctuation errors and wrote incomplete sentences at baseline, both of which improved significantly after lessons were completed. Implications for future research and practical implications are discussed.