Students without which skills struggle with sentence structure and writing mechanics?

The development of syntactic skills is crucial for students when it comes to understanding and constructing sentences. Syntactic skills involve the rules and structures that govern the formation of sentences, including how words combine to form phrases and sentences in a grammatically correct way. Without a solid understanding of syntax, students may struggle to create meaningful and correctly structured sentences, leading to difficulties in both writing mechanics and overall communication.

In contrast, phonology relates to the sounds of language, influencing reading and speaking rather than sentence structure. Orthography pertains to spelling and the correct set of letters in words, impacting writing mechanics but not directly related to sentence structure itself. Morphology involves the structure of words and the formation of their various forms, which also assists in understanding language but does not specifically address the rules for sentence construction. Therefore, the focus on syntactic skills is what directly supports students in mastering sentence structure and writing mechanics.