Language Abilities and Progress in a Direct Instruction Reading Program for Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Direct instruction reading programs have been found to be a successful way to teach reading to many, but not all, students with learning disabilities. This study investigated whether reading improvement for students with learning disabilities receiving reading instruction through a direct instruction reading program might be related to their language abilities. The reading progress of 26 students (19 male, 7 female), 7 to 10 years old, was measured over 2 years. In addition, phonological and syntactic abilities were assessed. The results indicated that phonological ability was related to progress in word attack skills and that syntactic ability was related to improvement in comprehension skills. These results have implications for the reading instruction of students with learning disabilities.

Selecting Instructional Interventions for Students with Mild Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms

“…Direct instruction is a system of teaching that has been demonstrated to be effective with a range of students (Adams & Engelmann, 1996) including those considered to be disadvantaged (Fredrick, Keel, & Neel, in press;Kaiser, Palumbo, Bialozor, & McLaughlin, 1989;Lum & Morton, 1984;Robinson & Hesse, 1981;Tarver & Jung, 1995) and those with mild disabilities (Anderson & Keel, in press;Darch, 1989;Darch & Carnine, 1986;Kelly, Gersten, & Carnine, 1990;Kuder, 1990Kuder, , 1991Lloyd, Cullinan, Heins, & Epstein, 1980). The components of direct instruction include explicit step-by-step teaching procedures that account for student mastery, immediate feedback, practice, and gradual fading from teacher direction.…”

Promoting Reading Achievement and Countering the “Fourth-Grade Slump”: The Impact of Direct Instruction on Reading Achievement in Fifth Grade

“…These results have appeared with the general student population (e.g., Becker & Carnine, 1980;O'Brien & Ware, 2002;Stebbins, St. Pierre, Proper, Anderson, & Cerva, 1977;Vitale & Joseph, 2008) and with students with disabilities. Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of DI reading programs with students with learning disabilities (Benner, 2007;Benner, Kinder, Beaudoin, Stein, & Hirschmann, 2005;Cooke, Gibbs, Campbell, & Shalvis, 2004;Kuder, 1990Kuder, , 1991Malmgren & Leone, 2000;Scarlato & Asahara, 2004), students with intellectual disabilities (Flores, Shippen, Alberto, & Crowe, 2004;Haring & Krug, 1975;Maggs & Morath, 1976;Malmgren & Leone, 2000;Riepl, Marchand-Martella, & Martella, 2008), children who demonstrate developmental delays (Flores & Ganz, 2007;Riepl et al, 2008), and students identified with emotional disturbance (Benner, 2007;Cook et al, 2004;Malmgren & Leone, 2000;Scarlato & Asahara, 2004;Strong, Wehby, Falk, & Lane, 2004). Additionally, DI reading programs have been effectively implemented outside of traditional elementary schools in a variety of settings, including middle schools (Dowdell, 1996;Grossen, 2004;Lewis, 1982;Shippen, Houchins, Steventon, & Sartor, 2005), high schools (Harris, Marchand-Martella, & Martella, 2000;Marchand-Martella, Martella, Orlob, & Ebey, 2000), a residential treatment center (Scarlato & Asahara, 2004), alternative schools (Steventon & Fredrick, 2003), and juvenile corrections facilities (Drakeford, 2002;Houchins, ...…”

Practitioner Review: Beyond shaken baby syndrome: what influences the outcomes for infants following traumatic brain injury?

“…Because TBI may lead to slower processing of information (Bawden et al., 1985) and executive function problems (Gioia et al, 2002), these children may benefit from a step‐wise incremental curriculum, delivered in a predictable format (Glang et al, 2008b). Direct instruction is an approach which provides this structure and which works for children with a range of difficulties (Humphries, Neufeld, Johnson, Engels, & McKay, 2005; Grossen, 2004; Kuder, 1991; White, 1988). A description of its use with three children following TBI (Glang, Singer, Cooley, & Tish, 1992) suggests that direct instruction can be a useful strategy with this group.…”