An assessment of the relationship between writing expression skills and cognitive and psychosocial factors

The statement of the problem: The purpose of this research was to examine which cognitive and psychosocial factors have an effect and role on development of writing expression skills. Method: Thirty-eight second grade students of 4 public schools with identical socioeconomic levels in Kağıthane, Beşiktaş and Kadıköy, İstanbul in 2016-2017 were the sample of this study. The experimental group which consists of 18 students with writing expression difficulties, identified according to teacher evaluations and also a pre-assessment of writing; Sentence Completion Test. The control group consisted of 20 students with average academic skills and without any writing problems. These students were chosen by the teachers' evaluations. The students' writing expression skills assessment included 5 different writing tasks; Sentence Completion Test as a pre-assessment, Copying Sentence of Word and Nonword and Writing Words and Nonwords to Dictation. The handwritings of the students' were measured by 'Multidimensional Legibility Scale' developed by Yıldız and Ateş (2007) and 'Writing Errors Form' developed by Erden, Kurdoğlu ve Uslu (2002). Visual perception of the students, which is an important cognitive predictive of writing, was determined with Developmental Test of Visual Perception-2 made by Duru (2008). Conclusion: There was a significant difference between the experimental and control group on visual perception levels. To define students' psychosocial conditions, the parents were asked to fill the Sociodemographic Data Form, CBCL Scale, DSM-5 ADHD scale and the teachers were asked to fill the DSM-5 ADHD scale as well as the Learning Disorder Symptom Scale. According to these datas, it was seen that there was a significant difference between the two groups in activities, social and school sub-dimension of the CBCL Scale. It was also observed that the students with writing deficits reached higher scores of Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity and Oppositional Defiant Disorder sub-dimensions which was significantly different from the children in the control group.