School referrals of children with writing difficulties: an analysis of the position adopted by their family

ABSTRACT

Purpose:  to analyze family members' views on the complaint by educators and their explanations about the causes for the reported difficulties.

Methods:  it is an exploratory field study, approved by the Ethics Committee on Research with Human Beings 447.163/2013. Thirty-five (35) family members of children referred to psychological/speech-language therapeutic and/ or pedagogical assessment participated. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and analyzed through categories elaborated by the researchers. The sample comprised 33 mothers, 1 grandmother and 1 father, ages ranged between 25 and 68 years old.

Results:  the school complaints were related to: writing difficulties (31%), reading difficulties (26%), cognitive aspects (21%), low academic performance (15%), and psychological/behavioral aspects (6.5%). The mentioned causes of the difficulties were children's typical problems (44%), family problems (23%) and problems in the school setting (3%).

Conclusion:  the importance of family-oriented interviews is pointed out in order to favor family participation in the process of writing acquisition in a more active and thought-provoking way. The results in this research point to the need to implement studies objectifying the analyses of the written language conceptions that underpin families' understanding on the process of children's writing acquisition, as these conceptions interfere in the way they participate in that process.

Keywords: Language disorders; Family; Speech-language therapy