To evaluate the effects of an intensive tertiary reading intervention, 27 students with severe reading difficulties and disabilities, 14 of whom had demonstrated an inadequate response to 1—2 tiers of prior reading instruction, received a 16-week intervention package involving decoding and fluency skills. The decoding intervention was provided for 2 hours per day for 8 weeks and was based on the Phono-Graphix program. The fluency intervention followed the decoding intervention and involved 1 hour of daily instruction for 8 weeks based on the Read Naturally program. The 16-week intervention resulted in significant improvement in reading decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Although individual responses to the intervention were variable, 12 of the 27 students showed a significant response to these interventions. Students who had participated in previous Tier 1 plus Tier 2 interventions but remained impaired had a stronger response to intervention in the current study than students who had previously participated only in Tier 1 intervention and students who had not received prior intervention outside of special education.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Chard, D.J., Vaughn, S., & Tyler, B. (2002). A synthesis of research on effective interventions for building reading fluency with elementary students with learning disabilities . Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35, 386—406.
2.
Clay, M.M. (2002). An observation survey of early literacy achievement (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
3.
De la Colina, M.G., Parker, R.I., Hasbrouck, J.E., & Alecio, R. (2001). Intensive intervention in reading fluency for at-risk beginning Spanish readers. Bilingual Research Journal , 25, 503-538.
4.
Deno, S.L., Fuchs, L.S., Marston, D., & Shin, J. (2001). Using curriculum-based measurements to establish growth standards for students with learning disabilities. School Psychology Review, 30, 507-524.
5.
Denton, C.A., & Hocker, J.K. (2006). Responsive reading instruction: Flexible intervention for struggling readers in the early grades. Longmont, CO : Sopris West.
6.
Denton, C.A., & Mathes, P.G. (2003). Intervention for struggling readers: Possibilities and challenges. In B. R. Foorman (Ed.), Preventing and remediating reading difficulties: Bringing science to scale (pp. 229—251). Timonium, MD: York Press.
7.
Donovan, M.S., & Cross, C.T. (2002). Minority students in special and gifted education . Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved on May 29, 2006, from http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10128.html
8.
Foorman, B.R., Fletcher, J.M., & Francis, D.J. (2004). Early reading assessment. In W. Evans & H.J. Walberg (Eds.), Student learning, evaluating teaching effectiveness (pp. 81—125). Stanford: Hoover Press.
Francis, D.J., Shaywitz, S.E., Stuebing, K.K., Shaywitz, B.A., & Fletcher, J.M. (1996). Developmental lag versus deficit models of reading disability: A longitudinal, individual growth curves analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 3—17.
11.
Fuchs, L.S., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M.K., & Jenkins, J.R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5, 239—256.
12.
Hasbrouck, J.E., Ihnot, C., & Rogers, G. (1999). Read Naturally: A strategy to increase oral reading fluency. Reading Research and Instruction, 39, 27-38.
13.
Ihnot, C., Mastoff, J., Gavin, J., & Hendrickson, L. (2001). Read naturally. St. Paul, MN: Read Naturally.
14.
Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 students from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437—447.
15.
Lindamood, P., & Lindamood, P. (1998). The Lindamood phoneme sequencing program for reading, spelling, and speech. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
16.
Lyon, G.R., Fletcher, J.M., Fuchs, L., & Chhabra, V. (2006). Learning disabilities. In E. Mash & R. Barkley (Eds.), Treatment of childhood disorders (3rd ed., pp. 512— 591). New York: Guilford .
17.
Mathes, P.G., & Denton, C.A. (2002). The prevention and identification of reading disability . Seminars in Pediatric Neurology, 9, 185—191.
18.
Mathes, P.G., Denton, C.A., Fletcher, J.M., Anthony, J.L., Francis, D.J., & Schatschneider, C. (2005). The effects of theoretically different instruction and student characteristics on the skills of struggling readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 40, 148—182.
Mathes, P.G., Torgesen, J.K., Menchetti, iJ. C. , Wahl, M., & Grek, M.K. (1999). Proactive reading. Available from P. G. Mathes , Institute for Reading Research, Southern Methodist University , P.O. Box 750381, Dallas, TX 75275.
21.
McGuiness, C., McGuiness, D., & McGuiness, G. (1996). Phono-Graphix: A new method for remediating reading difficulties. Annals of Dyslexia, 46, 73—96.
22.
McMaster, K.L., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L.S., & Compton, D.L. (2005). Responding to nonresponders: An experimental field trial of identification and intervention methods. Exceptional Children,71, 445-463.
23.
National Center for Educational Statistics. ( 2003). National Assessment of Educational Progress: The nation's report card. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
24.
National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction . Washington, DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
25.
Papanicolaou, A.C., Simos, P.G., Breier, J.I., Fletcher, J.M., Foorman, B.R., Francis, D.J., et al. (2003). Brain mechanisms for reading in children with and without dyslexia: A review of studies of normal development and plasticity . Developmental Neuropsychology,24, 593—612.
26.
Samuels, S.J. (1979). The method of repeated readings. The Reading Teacher, 32, 403—408.
27.
Samuels, S.J. (1994). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading, revisited. In R. B. Ruddell, M. R. Ruddell, & H. Singer (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (4th ed., pp. 816— 861). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
28.
Simmons, D.C., Kame'enui, E.J., Stoolmiller, M., Coyne, M.D., & Harn, B. (2003). Accelerating growth and maintaining proficiency: A two-year intervention study of kindergarten and first-grade students at risk for reading difficulties. In B. R. Foorman (Ed.), Preventing and remediating reading difficulties: Bringing science to scale (pp. 197—228). Timonium, MD: York Press.
29.
Simos, P.G., Breier, J.I., Wheless, J.W., Maggio, W.W., Fletcher, J.M., Castillo, E.M., et al. (2000). Brain mechanisms for reading: The role of the superior temporal gyrus in word and pseudoword naming. NeuroReport,11, 2443—2447.
30.
Simos, P.G., Fletcher, J.M., Foorman, B.R., Francis, D.J., Castillo, E.M., Davis, R.N., et al. (2002). Brain activation profiles during the early stages of reading acquisition. Journal ofChild Neurology , 17, 159—163.
31.
Snow, C. E., Burns, S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young students . Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
32.
Torgesen, J.K. (2000). Individual differences in response to early interventions in reading: The lingering problem of treatment resisters. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 15, 55—64.
33.
Torgesen, J.K., Alexander, A.W., Wagner, R.K., Rashotte, C.A., Voeller, K., Con-way, T., et al. (2001). Intensive remedial instruction for students with severe reading disabilities: Immediate and long-term outcomes from two instructional approaches. Journal of Learning Disabilities , 34, 33—58.
34.
Torgesen, J.K., & Burgess, S.R. (1998). Consistency of reading-related phonological processes throughout early childhood: Evidence from longitudinal—correlational and instructional studies. In J. Metsala & L. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning reading (pp. 161—188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
35.
Torgesen, J.K., Rashotte, C.A., & Alexander, A.W. (2001). Principles of fluency instruction in reading: Relationships with established empirical outcomes . In M. Wolf (Ed.), Dyslexia, fluency, and the brain (pp. 333—356). Timonium, MD: York Press.
36.
Torgesen, J.K., Wagner, R., & Rashotte, C.A. (1999). Test of word reading efficiency . Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
37.
Vaughn, S., & Fuchs, L.S. (2003). Redefining learning disabilities as inadequate response to instruction: The promise and potential problems. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 18, 137—146.
38.
Vaughn, S., Linan-Thompson, S., & Hick-man, P. (2003). Response to instruction as a means of identifying students with reading/learning disabilities. Exceptional Children , 69, 391—409.
39.
Wechsler, D. (1999). Wechsler abbreviated scales of intelligence. New York: Psychological Corp.
