Effects of SRSD With Social Skills Prompts on the Writing Skills and Problem Behaviors of Students With Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often struggle with simultaneously meeting students’ writing and behavioral needs. Building on existing Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) literature, this study investigated the collateral effects of SRSD with social skills prompts on the writing outcomes and problem behavior of students with EBD. In a multiple probe across participants design study, we taught three upper elementary students with EBD opinion writing using the SRSD instructional framework. Outcome measures included the number of genre elements in participants’ written products, the length (i.e., total words written) and quality of written products, and the level of problem behaviors during 20-min observational sessions. Generalization measure involved the use of video prompts to determine the effects of SRSD on students’ overall writing outcomes. Post-SRSD data showed clear increases in the number of genre elements and length of written products for all participants. Additional holistic scoring revealed moderate improvements in the overall quality of written products across participants. Results on students’ problem behavior reduction were inconclusive. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.