De rol van executieve functies bij de ontwikkeling van schrijfvaardigheid

Executive functions (EF) refer to self-regulative processes that underlie goal-directed activities. While previous research has shown a strong relationship between EF and achievements in school, there is a paucity of empirical research that has examined how EF contribute to writing development in the upper elementary grades. This longitudinal study examined how EF predict development in narrative writing in these grades. Both in fourth and in sixth grade, children’s writing skills were assessed using a narrative picture-elicitation task. In addition, in fourth grade a battery assessing transcription skills, language skills, and EF was administered. The results showed that in fourth grade, EF contributed directly to the quality of the written narrative, and indirectly, with handwriting fluency functioning as a mediator. Furthermore, results revealed that EF in fourth grade predicted development of the syntactic complexity of the written narratives between fourth and sixth grade. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed

Children's use of evaluative devices in spoken and written narratives

This study investigated the development of evaluation in narratives from middle to late childhood, within the context of differentiating between spoken and written modalities. Two parallel forms of a picture story were used to elicit spoken and written narratives from fourth- and sixth-graders. It was expected that, in addition to an increase of evaluative devices with age, written narratives would exhibit a higher frequency and diversity as a result of the intrinsic differences between the two modalities. From a developmental perspective, the results showed that only few categories exhibited the expected increase with age. Qualitative analyses provided a fruitful method to illustrate developmental changes. The results further indicated that modality had the expected impact on the diversity, and on the frequency, of most categories of evaluative language. Specifically, markers of decontextualized language and categories with a high degree of syntactic complexity were prone to modality differences

Planificateur ou formulateur ? Mise en évidence de deux stratégies de rédaction à partir d’un support imagé chez des élèves de CE1 et de CM2

International audienc

The contribution of executive functions to narrative writing in fourth grade children

The present study investigated the contribution of executive functions to narrative writing in fourth grade children, and evaluated to what extent executive functions contribute differentially to different levels of narrative composition. The written skills of 102 Dutch children in fourth grade were assessed using a narrative picture-elicitation task. In addition, a large test battery assessing transcription skills, language skills and executive functions, was administered. The results showed that executive functions contributed both directly and indirectly to narrative composition. More specifically, analyses revealed that inhibition and updating, but not planning, contributed directly to the text length of the narrative, and indirectly, through handwriting, to the text length, syntactic complexity, and story content. The findings underscore the need to assess a variety of executive functions and support the idea that in developing writers executive functions also play a role in more complex written composition tasks, such as narrative writing

How executive functions predict development in syntactic complexity of narrative writing in the upper elementary grades

The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of transcription skills, oral language skills, and executive functions to growth in narrative writing between fourth and sixth grade. While text length and story content of narratives did not increase with age, syntactic complexity of narratives showed a clear developmental progression. Results from path analyses revealed that later syntactic complexity of narrative writing was, in addition to initial syntactic complexity, predicted by oral grammar, inhibition, and planning. These results are discussed in light of the changes that characterize writing development in the upper elementary grades. More specifically, this study emphasizes the relevance of syntactic complexity as a developmental marker as well as the importance of executive functions for later writing development

Le déjà-là dans l'écriture

Le présent numéro met l’accent sur le fait que l’écriture, comme toute activité de production verbale, tire ses ressources des expériences langagières vécues par le sujet. Il a paru intéressant de s’intéresser à ce phénomène sous l’angle de l’appropriation et de la transformation par le scripteur d’un substrat initial, qu’il mobilise de lui-même ou qui lui est fourni, et d’examiner cela pour affiner la compréhension que nous avons des mécanismes de production d’écrit et d’acquisition des compétences scripturales. Une telle thématique ouvre la voie à des approches très diverses, marquées par l’empreinte de conceptions différentes de la compétence scripturale et de son acquisition. Aussi, les dix-neuf articles de ce numéro, qui s’intéressent tous au substrat préexistant à l’écriture – le déjà-là – et à son traitement l’envisagent-ils de deux points de vue différents, selon qu’ils se focalisent préférentiellement sur la transformation opérée par le scripteur lorsqu’il mobilise un substrat langagier pour produire son propre discours, ou qu’ils s’interrogent sur la manière dont ce substrat est mis à disposition du scripteur. La confrontation de ces points de vue, si elle génère de nouveaux questionnements, a aussi vocation à nourrir la réflexion de tous les professionnels s’intéressant à l’apprentissage de l’écriture