The Efficacy of Phonological Awareness Training with First-Grade Students Who Have Behavior Problems and Reading Difficulties

Abstract

Research has identified a comorbid group of children who have both antisocial and attention problems. Many of these children demonstrate the most deleterious features of both conditions (e.g., aggression and academic underachievement) and experience the most negative outcomes, including school failure, drug and alcohol abuse, and delinquency in adolescence, than either condition alone.Treatment outcome studies, although few in number, suggest that remediation of academic deficits may be associated with reciprocal effects on social and behavioral domains.The purpose of the present study was to conduct a preliminary investigation of the effectiveness of a reading intervention program for first-grade children at risk for conduct and attention problems.Academic, social, and behavioral outcome measures were examined using single case methodology. Findings support the efficacy of early intervention in the area of early reading for these children. However, the findings also suggest that while improvements were noted, the intervention may not have been of sufficient intensity and duration to (a) produce lasting changes and (b) produce beginning reading skill acquisition at a rate commensurate with normally achieving students of the same age.