Cognitive Science 301

Applied Cognitive Science and Education
Fall 2006

Writing and Spelling (Chapter 10)

Developmental Stages of Writing

• summarized in Table 10-1, p 348
• Effective writing demands a stepwise acquisition of skills and ever-increasing demands from many of the neurodevelopmental constructs.
• Imitation (preschool to first grade)
  • this is intimately related to the pre-reading stage of development in terms of awareness of words, print, spaces between words, etc.
  • hand dominance preference begins/pencil grip is established
  • awareness of graphomotor skills in comparison with peers
  • technical skills are variable and poor
• Graphic presentation (grades 1-2)
  • increasing capability for writing lower case and upper case letters
  • greater awareness of rules of grammar and punctuation
  • improving organization of words and writing on the page
  • even greater awareness of graphomotor skills in comparison with peers
  • in school the teacher's major emphasis is "on visual processing and production" (p 350)
  • Overflow movements are still occurring in some individuals
  • graphomotor movements "more finely regulated use of distal joints" (p 351)
• Progressive incorporation (grades 2-4)
  • sophisticated creativity and organization of ideas has low priority
  • language in conversations is more sophisticated that language in writing
  • the educational system introduces cursive writing at this stage
    • this taxes memory and graphomotor skills even more
    • individuals who have not mastered a tripod grip make less successful progress in writing fluency
  • careful organization of writing, words, grammar are essential at this stage
• Automatization (grades 4-7)
  • greater demands on attention (self-monitoring & mental energy control), memory, graphomotor fluency, rules of grammar
  • vocabulary and meaning of what is written (semantics) is starting to become important at this stage
  • the beginnings of metacognitive awareness (of the effectiveness of their writing)
• Elaboration (grades 7-9)
  • individuals become increasingly capable of having a viewpoint and being able to express it in writing
  • there is less emphasis on the mechanics of writing and production of visually accurate documents than on the meaning that is conveyed
  • the volume of writing increases in all subject areas
  • mastery of subject specific vocabulary becomes more important in the individual's writing
  • "Furthermore, students are expected to apply the skills without direction, thus placing substantial demands on attention to detail, self-monitoring, and proofreading ability." (p 353)
  • "Processes of rewriting become methods of rethinking, and students use writing as a method of problem solving that helps them explore their own thought processes." (p 354)
• Personalization-Diversification (grade 9 and beyond)
  • "adolescents develop individualized writing styles and talents" (p 354)
  • creativity in writing plays, poetry and short stories increases in some individuals
  • "Students who are averse to writing or who find such output unrewarding or too difficult may never reach the stage of Personalization-Diversification." (p 354)
  • Increasing rigidity (loss of creativity and flexibility) in writing style may occur by the demands of discipline-specific writing.  There can even be "a regression to the Elaboration Stage" of writing.
• Dysfunction in writing
  • problems in acquisition of any of these steps of writing can delay or completely block further development
  • Weakness in any of the neurodevelopmental constructs can cause developmental dysfunctions.
  • Table 10-2 shows the effects of dysfunction on the mastery of writing complexity, effectiveness, and fluency.
  • Attention: "Children with attention deficits are prone to writing difficulties." (p 357)
    • poor tempo control, lack of previewing, lack of editing, weak working memory for making letters, problems writing words, mastering cursive writing, producing lengthy sentences and paragraphs
  • Spatial production: organization of letters, words, sentences in paragraphs on the page and proofreading. 
    • problems mastering the different styles and their application (reports, stories, poetry, etc.)
  • Sequential production: problems mastering letter formation, organizing letters into words, grammar in sentences, flow of ideas in a paragraph and/or story.
    • language dealing with time concepts may be difficult
    • this may also lead to lack of automatization in writing, and therefore lack of progress through all the developmental stages of writing
  • Memory: "writing demands smoothly synchronized rapid retrieval memory." (P 360)
    • synchronization of spatial and sequential demands of word production, retrieval and memory of the writing process
    • Retrieval memory processes that may be problematic:
      • phonologic memory, semantic memory
      • visualization
      • retrieval of words
      • passage memory (serial flow of ideas)
      • recall of rules (mechanics of writing, grammar, spelling)
      • motor memory (graphomotor)
    • Working memory problems (to hold letters, words, rules, ideas, and sequential organization of all these in working memory at the same time)
      • previewing, planning, problem-solving
  • Language: written language can become more complex than speech and requires mastery of all the neurodevelopmental constructs to create effective written language.
    • metalinguistic awareness is important for monitoring progress
    • poor pragmatics might make it difficult to effectively write for different audiences
    • and all of the other aspects of language
  • Higher-order cognition:  developing ideas and problem solving in writing may be affected
    • logic, developing an argument
    • metacognitive awareness
    • imaginative elaboration?
    • integration of ideas from different sources with different viewpoints (finally written in an essay)
  • Graphomotor skills: hand-eye coordination, planning, motor memory, proprioceptive feedback could be problematic

Main Ideas

1. The stages of writing build upon each other developmentally and each needs to be mastered to progress effectively.
2. One of most important skills to master to increase fluency and release the individual from taxing motor demands is an effective tripod grip.
3. The progression of stages is from mastering production of letters, words, and lines of text on a page to expression of the individual's ideas in a great variety of different written forms.
4. Writing is the most difficult task that an individual needs to master, because of the need for synchronization of most of the neurodevelopmental constructs working effectively (alone and together).
5. Individuals can get stuck in one of the stages or regress to a previous stage based on weaknesses, teaching, and experiences in writing (good and bad).

Questions

1. An accurate assessment of writing would involve which specific tasks?  Explain what each of those tasks would measure.
2. What skills are necessary to enter the automatization stage of writing?
3. Describe the most salient features of each developmental stage of writing.
4. Explain how each of Levine's neurodevelopmental constructs impacts writing.
5. Comment on why writing is the most demanding of all academic areas.