A Multi-Component Literacy Intervention with Science Expository Text for Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Students with intellectual disability often receive limited explicit instruction in comprehension strategies. The current study evaluated the effects of a multi-component literacy intervention designed to improve comprehension of high school students with moderate intellectual disability on adapted expository science text. The multi-component intervention incorporated multiple comprehension strategies from the extant literature (i.e., pre-teaching vocabulary, stopping to think and complete a graphic organizer, summarizing) embedded into shared reading of an adapted expository science text. The results from the multiple-baseline study indicate that students improved their ability to independently answer both multiple choice and open ended comprehension questions when instruction included the comprehension strategies. In addition, the student participants and their classroom teacher rated the intervention procedures, goals, and outcomes favorably. Implications for research and practice in comprehension instruction for students with intellectual disability are discussed.