First Author™ Writing Measures are a comprehensive group of measurement tools for beginning student writers. The five measures (the Developmental Writing Scale, text type diversity, topic diversity, total intelligible word, and unique words) monitor writing development in the earliest stages of writing and can be used over time to measure progress. First Author Writing Measures are appropriate for use with elementary and secondary students with complex communication needs, including those who use AAC.

First Author Writing Curriculum

First Author Writing Measures DWS [PDF, 383KB]

“The Developmental Writing Scale: A New Progress Monitoring Tool for Beginning Writers”

Written by Sturm, Janet M.; Cali, Kathleen; Nelson, Nickola W.; Staskowski, Maureen. The full article is available for purchase through the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins website.

http://journals.lww.com/topicsinlanguagedisorders/Abstract/2012/10000/The_Developmental_Writing_Scale__A_New_Progress.3.aspx