PAWS Together: An Investigation of a Combined Reading and Writing Intervention

Abstract

Reading and writing go hand in hand, students who struggle in reading are likely to struggle in writing. Yet, when we research interventions for students with reading difficulties and writing difficulties, we rarely combine the two. In a study by Puranik et al. (2017, 2018) investigating the feasibility and promise of a whole-class peer-assisted writing strategies intervention, the researchers found that students with below average reading skills struggled to improve their early writing skills. In this multiple-probe single case research design, I provided a combined reading and writing intervention to pairs of first grade students with reading difficulties to evaluate the effects of the combined intervention on students’ early writing and reading skills. The individualized writing and reading intervention was provided to pairs of students with reading difficulties via an online video-conferencing platform (i.e., Zoom). Of the five participants who participated in the study as described and intended, three participants had sufficient data to determine the presence of a functional relation. An additional participant received only the writing portions of the intervention as the student demonstrated advanced reading skill, and he demonstrated improvements in his overall early writing skills. All participants made improvements in their early writing skills, and the five participants who were provided targeted reading instruction as described in this study descriptively made improvements in their early reading skills as well. Implications and future directions are discussed.