ERIC Number: EJ1068956
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Sep
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0922-4777
EISSN: N/A
The Contribution of Executive Functions to Narrative Writing in Fourth Grade Children
Drijbooms, Elise; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo
Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, v28 n7 p989-1011 Sep 2015
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.
Descriptors: Executive Function, Foreign Countries, Writing (Composition), Grade 4, Elementary School Students, Writing Skills, Pictorial Stimuli, Language Skills, Inhibition, Planning, Handwriting, Syntax, Story Telling, Influences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 4; Intermediate Grades; Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Netherlands
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A