Training in phonological awareness has brought about well-documented positive effects on learning to read in lower-primary grades. Less is known about long-term gains extending to upper-primary and junior high school. The few longitudinal studies covering at least 5 years suggest that gains in decoding are sustained, whereas effects on reading…

We examine the efficacy of an intervention to improve word reading and reading comprehension in fourth- and fifth-grade students with significant reading problems. Using a randomized control trial design, we compare the fourth- and fifth-grade reading outcomes of students with severe reading difficulties who were provided a researcher-developed…

This randomized control trial examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at improving multisyllabic word reading (MWR) skills among fourth- and fifth-grade struggling readers (n = 109, 48.6% male), as well as the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs training component. This study was a closely aligned replication of our earlier…

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second…

An approach to teaching writing and reading to learning disabled adolescents involves controlling the vowel from the simplist word constructions to the most difficult of orthographic constructions. Teaching strategies are based on a model that views most words as regular (categorical)--some more regular (categorical) than others. (Author)

A total of 46 children in Grades 2 and 3 with low word-level skills were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that received supplemental phonics-based reading instruction. One group received intervention October through March (21.5 hours), and one group served as a control from October through March and later received intervention March through May…

The reading achievement of students with learning disabilities (N=24) who received DISTAR instruction was compared to that of similar students using basal reader materials. The overall reading scores were not significantly different following one and two years of instruction, although DISTAR students had somewhat better word attack skills. (DB)

The study with 26 learning disabled students (7- to 10-years old) receiving a direct reading instruction program found that phonological ability was related to progress in word attack skills and that syntactic ability was related to improvement in comprehension skills. (DB)

To test the effects of selective attention on decoding skills, 23 children (grades 2 through 6) with learning disabilities were studied. Results showed that treatment directly improved the ability of the experimental groups to transfer spelling patterns learned in isolation to unknown words containing those patterns and improved the ability of Ss…

A study compared the effectiveness of phonemic awareness and decoding training for 58 first graders with and without severe lexical retrieval weaknesses. All students demonstrated poor phonemic awareness. Students with relatively strong lexical retrieval skills responded more favorably to beginning reading instruction than did students with weak…

Blending and spelling training were compared to determine which intervention would improve the decoding skills of two first-grade boys with learning disabilities. Although neither intervention proved superior, the children met the learning criterion with both interventions and demonstrated both maintenance and generalization of their skills. (DB)

Elementary learning-disabled boys (N=48) were randomly assigned to four feedback treatment conditions that involved orally reading nonsense words. Results demonstrated significant differences for: any type of feedback compared to no feedback, corrective feedback (modeling and sound-it-out) compared to general feedback, and modeling compared to…