Evaluation of use of reading comprehension strategies to improve reading comprehension of adult college students with acquired brain injury

Abstract

Adults with mild to moderate acquired brain injury (ABI) often pursue post-secondary or professional education after their injuries in order to enter or re-enter the job market. An increasing number of these adults report problems with reading-to-learn. The problem is particularly concerning given the growing population of adult survivors of ABI. Despite the rising need, empirical evaluation of reading comprehension interventions for adults with ABI is scarce. This study used a within-subject design to evaluate whether adult college students with ABI with no more than moderate cognitive impairments benefited from using reading comprehension strategies to improve comprehension of expository text. Integrating empirical support from the cognitive rehabilitation and special education literature, the researchers designed a multi-component reading comprehension strategy package. Participants read chapters from an introductory-level college anthropology textbook in two different conditions: strategy and no-strategy. The results indicated that reading comprehension strategy use was associated with recall of more correct information units in immediate and delayed free recall tasks; more efficient recall in the delayed free recall task; and increased accuracy recognising statements from a sentence verification task designed to reflect the local and global coherence of the text. The findings support further research into using reading comprehension strategies as an intervention approach for the adult ABI population. Future research needs include identifying how to match particular reading comprehension strategies to individuals, examining whether reading comprehension performance improves further through the incorporation of systematic training, and evaluating texts from a range of disciplines and genres.

Text-to-speech accommodations for the reading challenges of adults with traumatic brain injury

“…Other strategies that target improved comprehension include ideas such as providing a pre-reading outline or preparatory set of comprehension questions, encouraging the highlighting of important material, separating long passages into small sections and previewing materials for pictures, captions and headings that enhance content meaning and provide additional organizational support [49][50][51][52]. Researchers need to investigate systematically the effects of these types of support when presented in isolation as well as in tandem with TTS accommodations.…”

Toward a Dynamic, Multidimensional Research Framework for Strategic Processing

“…Not only are other concomitant variables such as knowledge and ability important, other strategies employed were also shown to influence strategy use. Griffiths et al (2016) reported that complimentary strategies may be more effective than an individual strategy with regard to academic performance. Similarly, knowing that surface level strategies can be particularly effective for free and serial recall (Bebko et al 2015) while deeper-level processing which included monitoring and linking were better related to more open-ended outcomes-such as argumentation (Anmarkrud et al 2014)-can help inform practice.…”

Supporting the Literacy Skills of Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Some important recent research specifically examining reading deficits and their treatment after TBI is currently only available as unpublished doctoral dissertations, 71,72 but it consistently supports the use of metacognitive strategy instruction with this population of learners. In her study of participants with and without brain injury, Salmen found that both groups performed similarly on lower-level processing aspects of reading, but not on higherlevel processes such as metacomprehension and inference.…”

“…Griffiths 72 and Sohlberg et al 58 address the use of strategies to improve reading for college students with TBI using a structured program that inserted strategy prompts into digital versions of a text. Griffiths compared strategy and no-strategy conditions for adult college students with brain injury (19 to 55 years old), 72 and Sohlberg et al also used strategy and no-strategy conditions, comparing adults with and without TBI who each read expository science texts in both conditions. 58 Texts were presented on a computer screen, and in the strategy prompt condition they were accompanied by prompts for prereading, active reading, and review.…”