Integrating Functional and Academic Goals into Literacy Instruction for Adolescents with Significant Cognitive Disabilities through Shared Story Reading

Abstract

A multiple baseline single-case study examined the integration of functional and academic goals in an individualized story-based lesson plan incorporating an adapted text on grade level content for adolescent students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities across three staff–student dyads. The research team collected data on teacher and support staff intervention fidelity as well as scores on weekly social validity surveys. Student data consisted of performance on predetermined academic and functional goals. Staff improved their ability to implement the intervention with fidelity when it was formatted task-analytically. Students also improved their performance on both goals over the duration of the study. Despite student growth, the social validity scores remained relatively stable throughout the entirety of the study. These results suggest that such practices can provide an innovative way for teachers to address functional content while also providing access to the general education curriculum as mandated by IDEA.