Improving Learning Disabled Students' Composition Skills: Self-Control Strategy Training

The present study was conducted to determine whether a self-control strategy training procedure was effective in improving learning disabled students' compositions. Training effects on three objective aspects of compositions (number of different action words, action helpers, and describing words) were investigated using a multiple-baseline-across-behaviors nested within a multiple-baseline-across-subjects design. Results indicated that students' use of the selected parts of speech increased substantially above baseline as did mean number of words per story. Additionally, stories written after training received substantially higher quality ratings than those composed during baseline. Generalization and maintenance probes taken up to 14 weeks after training continued to yield positive results.