The Impact of Transcription Writing Interventions for First-Grade Students

ABSTRACT

We examined the effects of transcription instruction for students in 1st grade. We selected students in the lowest 70% of the participating schools for the study. We randomly assigned these 81 students to (a) spelling instruction, (b) handwriting instruction, (c) combination spelling and handwriting instruction, or (d) no intervention. Interventionists provided intervention in small groups of 4 students, 25 min a day, 4 days a week for 8 weeks. Students in the spelling condition outperformed the control group on spelling measures, with moderate effect sizes noted for curriculum-based writing measures (e.g., correct word sequences; gs = 0.34–0.68). Students in the handwriting condition outperformed the control group on correct word sequences, with small to moderate effects on other handwriting and writing measures (gs = 0.31–0.71). Students in the combined condition outperformed the control group on correct word sequences, with a small effect on total words written (gs = 0.39–0.84).