Biomedical subjects

Carl W Swartz

Publications and source records attributed to Carl W Swartz.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Aptitude-treatment interactions revisited: effect of metacognitive intervention on subtypes of written expression in elementary school students.

We examined the effectiveness of a metacognitive intervention for written language performance, based on the Hayes model of written expression, for 73 fourth-grade (n = 38) and fifth-grade (n = 35) students. The intervention consisted of twenty 45-min writing lessons designed to improve their awareness of writing as a problem-solving process. Each of the lessons addressed some aspect of planning, translating, and reflecting on written products; their self-regulation of these processes; and actual writing practice. All instruction was conducted in intact classrooms. Prior to the intervention, all students received a battery of neurocognitive tests measuring executive functions, attention, and language. In addition, preintervention writing samples were obtained and analyzed holistically and for errors in syntax, semantics, and spelling. Following the intervention, the writing tasks were readministered and cluster analysis of the neurocognitive data was conducted. Cluster analytic procedures yielded 7 reliable clusters: 4 normal variants, 1 Problem Solving weakness, 1 Problem Solving Language weaknesses, and 1 Problem Solving strength. The response to the single treatment by these various subtypes revealed positive but modest findings. Significant group differences were noted for improvement in syntax errors and spelling, with only spelling showing differential improvement for the Problem Solving Language subtype. In addition, there was a marginally significant group effect for holistic ratings. These findings provide initial evidence that Writing Aptitude (subtype) x Single Treatment interactions exist in writing, but further research is needed with other classification schemes and interventions.

Aptitude↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Executive functions in elementary school children with and without problems in written expression.

This study examined the executive functioning of 55 elementary school children with and without problems in written expression. Two groups reflecting children with and without significant writing problems were defined by an average primary trait rating across two separate narratives. The groups did not differ in terms of chronological age, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, special education status, or presence of attention problems or receptive vocabulary capabilities; however, they did differ in reading decoding ability, and this variable was controlled for in all analyses. Dependent measures included tasks tapping an array of executive functions grouped conceptually in accordance with a model of executive functioning reflecting the following domains: initiate, sustain, set shifting, and inhibition/stopping. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) procedures revealed statistically significant group differences on the initiation and set shift domains, with the sustaining domain approaching significance. Children with writing problems performed more poorly in each of these domains, although the effect sizes were small. A multiple regression that employed these four factors and the reading decoding variable to predict the primary trait score from the written narratives revealed a statistically significant regression function; however, reading decoding contributed most of the unique variance to the writing outcome. These findings point out the importance of executive functions in the written language process for elementary school students, but highlight the need to examine other variables when studying elementary school-age children with written expression problems.

Child↗