Identifier

etd-04122011-182849

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Students are placed under increasing demands for more complex syntax and discourse structure in oral and written language as they age. Children with language and learning disabilities struggle to grasp the organization and relationships between the facts of the topic, making writing an increasingly daunting task. In addition, these students must also master conventions such as vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and syntax to produce a written essay (Schumaker & Deshler, 2003). This study explored the efficacy of graphic organizers as a strategy to facilitate higher complexity of syntactic and discourse structures in sentence and story formation. After seven weeks of intervention, the impact of graphic organizers was assessed by comparing spontaneously written stories to scaffolded stories as well as comparing sentence combining skills from pre- to post-test. The results suggest that graphic organizers can be an effective tool used in the writing process to generate sentences and narratives containing more complex structure of syntax and discourse.

Date

2011

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Norris, Janet

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.2537

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