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HOME>EVIDENCE BASED INSTRUCTION>READING | |
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Translating Reading Research Into Personnel Development and Practices Teaching Students with Disabilities with Associated Reading Difficulties In a review of research on teaching reading to diverse learners, Chard, Simmons, and Kameenui make the following summary statements. “Our review of the research literature suggested that learning to read words is anything but natural. On the contrary, learning to read words requires integration of numerous complex processes. Successful acquisition of these complex processes appears to be incidental for some children, but for others it must be systematically and planfully taught. (Chard, D.J., Simmons, D.C., & Kameenui, EJ., Word Recognition: (National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators, Curricular and Instructional Implications for Diverse Learners The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has supported a systematic research program to conduct long-term, prospective, longitudinal, and multi-disciplinary work designed to better understand the causes of reading disabilities as well as effective treatments. To date, more than 100 researchers in fourteen research centers have been funded to study these issues. Because of more stringent scientific requirements, the studies have produced a growing body of similarly designed studies conducted by different researchers that consistently demonstrate the same findings. For years educators have been puzzled by children with persistent reading problems, many of whom have average to above average intelligence and come to school with good oral language and rich experiences with books. Many of these students have identified disabilities. Since the early 1960's such students have been considered to have a specific learning disability and/or dyslexia and special educational services have been provided although little was understood about the nature of such disabilities and no consensus existed concerning philosophy of teaching reading or instructional methods. Research focusing on the causes of "unexpected" reading failure indicates that, for many individuals, their difficulties are related to inherited brain differences. Several NICHD studies have found that deficits in working with the sounds (phonemes) of language is related to atypical functioning in specific brain regions. The strongest finding to date is that phonological processing is the primary area in which children with reading difficulties differ from other children. NICHD studies indicate that about 40% of the general population of students have reading problems sufficient to hinder their enjoyment of reading, although for research purposes an arbitrary cutoff point of 20% has been utilized to designate children as reading disabled. For most of these students, however, the primary problem is poor phonological processing and the difference between a student with a learning disability in reading and other poor readers is one of degree (severity) and not a difference in the nature of the problem. The extensive body of research on students with reading disabilities has uncovered two widely held beliefs among educators about children who are having serious and persistent reading problems. First, an IQ-achievement discrepancy, such as used in most states in identifying students with specific learning disabilities, is not important in the determination of reading disabilities. Second, there is very little relationship between learning to fluently decode and the child's measured intelligence level. Phonological processing includes three basic components which have been found to be important for success in reading: (1) phonological awareness, (2) rapid naming, and (3) holding sounds in working memory. Of these components, phonological awareness is the most prevalent area of deficit in disabled readers. Phonemic awareness skills involve the ability to segment words into sounds and to manipulate the sounds of words in different ways. For example, to be a good reader a student must first be able to: recognize that two words have the same beginning, ending or middle sound; segment words into syllables and phonemes; blend syllables and sounds into words; and count, add, and delete sounds within words. Students must also know that letters represent sounds and must be able to map speech onto print. Students with weaknesses in phonological awareness will have difficulty developing these skills which will impact their ability to develop beginning reading skills. Such students do not understand the alphabetic principle of English and fail to develop adequate decoding (letter to sound) skills for reading or encoding (sound to letter) skills for spelling. They may be unable to produce good invented spellings because they do not have the requisite skills necessary to segment words into sounds and map those sounds onto the appropriate letters. Such students tend to rely on their knowledge of words memorized as "sight words' and attempt to read new words based on context or by guessing based on partial letter cues (such as the first and last letters of the word). They may not recognize the common spelling patterns in words so do not benefit from the regularities that exist in the English language. Deficits in decoding (and encoding) are the most critical factors in poor reading for the majority of students. Studies clearly indicate that a major portion of the difficulty students have in reading comprehension is related to inaccurate identification of the individual words encountered which is, in turn, strongly related to decoding skills. It is, of course, possible to read words accurately and still have problems with comprehension and this is an area which is now being studied more carefully. Students with difficulties in rapid naming are characterized by slow and difficult naming of items such as letters, numbers, and colors. Such students often have difficulty learning letter names/sounds in kindergarten and irregular, high frequency words in first grade; teachers and parents remark that these students seem to learn the information only to have forgotten it later. For such students, learning the names of items requires multiple repetitions over a long period of time and they may be slow to recall the names of the items even when they have been learned. Because they may not be able to accurately or quickly recall letter-sound associations, such children often make "reversal errors" such as hearing the sound of /b/ and writing the letter 'd'- such errors are not related to "seeing" the letter backwards. The result of naming problems is that learning to read is very difficult - decoding and encoding will be affected by the difficulty such students have learning letter-sound associations and memorization of sight words is equally difficult. Even when such students learn to decode accurately, they often have to decode the same words over and over rather than recognizing those words quickly and automatically. Thus, reading is very slow and laborious and these students typically hate reading and avoid practicing. NC SIP II has divided the necessary teacher training leading to the demonstration of appropriate reading instruction skills and knowledge into two phases: Phase 1: Reading Instruction Foundation Training Phase 1: Reading Instruction Foundation Training The NC SIP II staff development resource program has adopted a staff development program entitled Teaching Students with Persistent Reading Problems. The content and media in this program have been developed by Rebecca Felton and David Lillie in partnership with the Guilford County School System in North Carolina. The staff development program has been designed to introduce teachers to the knowledge, skills and procedures needed to provide effective instruction for students with persistent reading difficulties. The teaching principles, techniques and strategies presented in the program are supported by an extensive body of instructional research involving students with reading difficulties. The program is designed to provide teachers with a solid foundation of knowledge and skills needed to deliver effective instruction for students, who, after several years of instruction and learning experiences in reading, still have difficulties reading fluently and are significantly behind their age peers. The program consists of nine units and provides a solid foundation on which to build an effective reading instruction program. The content and teaching techniques presented in the program are derived directly from the extensive research-based literature available on teaching students with severe reading difficulties. The program reflects the findings of two recent National reports addressing the instructional needs of students with reading problems: Teaching Children to Read, a report of the National Reading Panel, and Preventing Reading Problems of Young Children, a report sponsored by the National Reading Council of the National Academy of Sciences.
Phase 2: Training in the Use of a Specific Proven and Tested Teaching Procedure and Materials Model or Approach The staff development program, Teaching Students with Persistent Reading Problems, is designed to be use as a self-directed learning program and a primary training resource in support of staff development programs for practicing teachers or as a supplemental program for pre-service teacher education courses. It provides a prerequisite solid foundation of knowledge and skills to begin using research-proven teaching strategies and to make long range decisions about the use of instructional procedures and materials.
The staff development program is organized into nine units.
1. Reading Instruction Foundation Training: Research to Practice The Wilson Reading System (Video) 2. Learning to Read, A National Problem Unit 2 presents an overview of the increasing scope of the reading problem in the United States. The research literature indicates that a significant percentage of students with reading difficulties are identified as having a learning disability or dyslexia. 3. The Structure of Language
Units 3 focuses on basic principles to guide instruction and what teachers need to know about the structure of the English language in order to deliver effective instruction in reading. Students’ current reading abilities must be assessed to plan effective instruction.
4. Assessment of Basic Reading Skills
In Unit 4 you will be provided information about reading skills assessment and you will be asked to practice using assessment tools which are necessary for planning instruction.
5. Teaching Phonological Awareness In Units 5 through 7 an overview of explicit instructional techniques is provided for teaching phonemic awareness, letter-sound associations, and word identification.
8. Developing Automaticity and Fluency The ultimate goal of word identification and decoding instruction is the immediate, facile translation of a printed word into its spoken equivalent (Suzanne Carreker, Teaching Reading in Birsh, J.R., Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills, 1999, Baltimore: Brookes Publishing). To this end, Unit 8 presents teaching and learning techniques for developing automaticity and fluency. Fluent and automatic word identification permits the student to concentrate on the comprehension of what is being read, which is addressed in Unit 9.
Selecting and Implementing an Effective Reading Program
The first instructional unit addresses the selection and implementation of a comprehensive reading program, which incorporates the features discussed throughout this program. In addition to the basic foundation knowledge and skill developed using this program, all teachers (including learning disability, reading and language specialists) who work with students with persistent reading difficulties should have the background knowledge and skills to effectively use one or more carefully selected sets of procedures and materials. However, it is not the intent of this program to teach you how to effectively use a specific set of materials or procedures. Currently there are a number of well-designed, comprehensive programs that focus on procedures and materials for teaching students with reading problems that incorporate the instructional principles derived from the research-based literature. Information about several specific reading programs is provided for the staff development participants consideration:
Each of these approaches has been specifically designed to facilitate substantial growth in reading skills of students who, after one or more years of reading instruction, are significantly behind their classmates in reading abilities.
Evidence of Effectiveness: Each of these approaches has reported evaluation information supporting the use of the model. There is a great deal of variation, however, across the models in the amount and type of evaluation information reported.
Use Over Time: Each of these programs has been used successfully in a variety of settings and over a number of years.
It is important to note that the programs presented in Unit 1 are examples of programs that meet the above criteria and do not comprise the only programs available that may meet these criteria.
The following links provide additional information and research summaries on the need for research-based instruction when teaching students with disabilities to read:
> NIH News Release: Children’s Reading Disability Attributed To Brain Impairment
> National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators: NCITE's purpose is to advance the quality and effectiveness of technology, media, and materials for individuals with disabilities. NCITE creates a marketplace demand for the selection and appropriate use of research-based technology, media, and materials (TMM).
> Whole Language Lives On - The Illusion of "Balanced" Reading Instruction: by Louisa Cook Moats, October 2000.
> LD OnLine's Special Report: Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, Susan L. Hall
> The NICHD Research Program in Reading Development, Reading Disorders and Reading Instruction, 1999: A comprehensive overview of the findings of years of reading research conducted at the National Institutes of Health. Includes AUDIO file.
> Beginning to Read: ERIC Digest #E565, 1998 - An overview of the critical role that phonological awareness and word recognition play in teaching beginning reading to children with diverse learning needs - plus tips for teaching.
> A Scientific Approach to Reading Instruction: B. Foorman, J. Fletcher, & D. Francis, Reading research findings from the University of Houston Learning Disabilities Intervention Project.
> Learning to Read...Reading to Learn, Helping Children With Learning Disabilities To Succeed: The National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators - An information kit containing principles for learning to read; tips for parents and teachers; researcher as resources and more, based on a synthesis of validated and recognized research on teaching reading to children with learning disabilities.
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