Story grammar and comprehension and production of narrative prose by students with learning disabilities

This study investigated both quantitative and qualitative differences between sub-jects with and without learning disabilities (LD) across three grade levels on two tasks requiring active processing of story grammar. There was no evidence, for either task, of developmental differences in relation to either story comprehension or pro-duction. However, there were significant differences between students with LD and normally achieving students in the amount as well as the type of information in-cluded in the retellings and written stories. The results provide support for the hypothesis that students with LD have acquired a rudimentary but not fully developed schema for narrative prose. Comprehending text and expressing ideas in writing are highly valued skills in today's society and are essential for success in school. The difficulties that individuals with learning disabilities ex-perience in reading comprehension and writing place them at a disadvantage i