A Word Identification Strategy for Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Editor's Comment: The purpose of the Interventions section of the journal is to provide professional practitioners with overviews of successful interventions that can be replicated with individuals with learning disabilities. These interventions can be either physiological or psychoeducational and can occur in school settings, clinics, hospitals, homes, communities, or employment sites. The discussion of these interventions generally includes (a) the theory or rationale of the interventions, (b) previous research findings, (c) characteristics of the individuals receiving the interventions, (d) the intervention that was applied, and (e) the criteria used to evaluate its success. The following article by Drs. B. Keith Lenz of the Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities, the University of Kansas, and Charles A. Hughes of the Department of Special Education at Penn State University describes a word identification strategy for use with adolescents with learning disabilities. By using this strategy, 12 students who ranged in age from 13 to 15 years reduced the number of oral reading errors they made. Reading comprehension also increased for most of these students. As a result, this intervention may be effective for other students with learning disabilities when reduction of oral reading errors is the goal in the instruction.---JLW

Students with learning disabilities frequently experience difficulty on reading tasks. This difficulty is heightened for adolescents with learning disabilities who are responsible for reading and understanding materials written at several grade levels above their reading ability. Word identification becomes an increasingly important skill for these students, especially when confronted with unfamiliar, polysyllabic words. The present study investigated the effects of training 12 adolescents with learning disabilities in a word identification strategy, DISSECT. The results indicated that the strategy was effective in reducing reading errors for all subjects. However, it was found that increases in word identification differentially affected reading comprehension and indicate the need for separate and/or simultaneous attention to comprehension processes.