The present study assessed the effects of summer parent tutoring on 3 children with learning disabilities using empirically derived reading interventions. Brief experimental analyses were used to identify customized reading fluency interventions. Parents were trained to use the intervention strategies with their children. Parents implemented the procedures during parent-tutoring sessions at home and results were measured continuously in high-word-overlap and low-word-overlap passages to determine whether generalization occurred. Parent and child satisfaction with the procedures was assessed. Results demonstrated generalized increases in reading fluency in both high-word-overlap and low-word-overlap passages as a function of parent tutoring. Also, acceptability ratings by children and their parents indicated that they viewed the interventions as acceptable and effective. Results are discussed in terms of structuring reading fluency interventions that promote generalization and maintenance of treatment effects.

Choice as an antecedent intervention has been shown to improve student behavior in a variety of ways. This investigation examined whether students could be influenced to choose whether and how to be instructed while directly measuring effects on academic performance. Using a multiple-probe design, the reading fluency of two middle school students with Behavioral Disorders was measured repeatedly across passages. Students could earn a tangible reward for meeting a pre-determined performance criterion in passage reading. Prior to reading the criterion passage, each student was told that he or she could choose to be instructed or not be instructed in a similar passage with high content overlap. Both students consistently chose to be instructed (as well as how they would be instructed) and stable increases in oral reading fluency were obtained. Results are discussed in terms of how motivational variables can be used to influence students' choice of instructional procedures in ways that increase their opportunities to respond and measured learning.

Two experimental investigations of the effects of parent delivered reading interventions were conducted. Tutoring packages consisting of empirically supported intervention components were delivered by parents for at least several weeks after initial parent training. Both experiments used single-case experimental designs and measured participants' oral reading fluency in passages. Experiment 1 used a multiple-probe design across tasks (passages) to evaluate tutoring effects for two students with learning disabilities. Results indicate that both students increased their reading fluency and maintained those increases over time. Experiment 2 used a brief experimental analysis that included both experimenter and parent delivered instructional trials to validate the treatment package. Next, the treatment package was evaluated using an alternating treatments design. Results were uniformly positive. An interesting but not surprising correlation was also found between treatment integrity and student outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the framework and skills that behavior analysts have for working with parents and schools to improve their children's academic responding.

Experimental analyses for improving reading fluency deficits have rarely targeted generalized increases in academic responding. As a consequence, the variables that may help students to generalize newly learned forms of academic responding like reading are not well understood. Furthermore, experimental analyses of reading fluency interventions have not systematically examined difficulty level as a variable that may affect instructional outcomes. The experiment reported in this paper expands (a) the measurement of the dependent variables to include generalized increases across tasks (reading passages) and (b) the combination of independent variables used to produce measurable generalized increases. The results demonstrate the importance of combining reward and instructional variables (including difficulty level) to produce generalized increases and how those variables can be meaningfully investigated prior to making treatment recommendations.

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