The Strategic Incremental Rehearsal (SIR) intervention, a modified version of Incremental Rehearsal, is an efficient flashcard procedure that has demonstrated effectiveness on sight word acquisition for children who exhibit reading difficulties. However, to date, the procedure has not been evaluated with children identified with a reading…

The purpose of this study was to examine word learning efficiency in at-risk first grade students (N = 93) participating in a yearlong study evaluating a multicomponent intervention targeting word reading and decoding skills. As part of each intervention lesson, students participated in a 1 to 3-min sight word reading activity in which…

The present study investigated the identification of end of first grade (n = 125) and end of third grade (n = 77) reading comprehension difficulties using beginning of first grade decoding-related and language-related predictors. Reading comprehension was defined using a composite of three standardized reading comprehension measures. Students at…

This quasi-experimental study explored a response-to-intervention (RTI) design in which Tiers 2 and 3 were inverted for the most at-risk first grade students in reading intervention in seven classrooms (n = 24) across two culturally diverse schools. These students were matched using propensity scores and compared to a second group of first grade…

For learners who need sight-word practice, including young students and struggling readers, digital flash cards may promote automatic word recognition when used as a supplemental activity to regular reading instruction. A novel use of common presentation software efficiently supports this practice strategy.

The present study examined the construct and predictive validity of a dynamic test of decoding. In theory, a dynamic test provides a direct measure of potential for learning. In this study, children were taught 3 novel letters and how to blend the sounds of those into new words, then they were tested on different words comprising the 3 letters.…

The authors examined whether Reading Rescue continues to be an effective literacy intervention and factors that impact its effectiveness. Data were collected on 143 first-grade students, tutored by 104 tutors at 38 schools. There was significant growth on all foundational skills (ps < 0.001) and significant change in proportion of students…

In this study we examined the effectiveness of a reading intervention targeting a group of 24 struggling readers in ten primary schools in Ireland. The intervention consisted of two components; component one consisted of 15-20 minutes delivery of the Toe-by-Toe programme (a well established systematic synthetic phonics programme) and the second…

The simple view of reading proposes that reading comprehension is the product of word reading and language comprehension. In this study, we used the simple view framework to examine the early prediction of reading comprehension abilities. Using multiple measures for all constructs, we assessed word reading precursors (i.e., letter knowledge,…

The present study used a randomized control trial to examine the effects of a widely used multicomponent Tier 2-type intervention, Passport to Literacy, on the reading ability of 221 fourth graders who initially scored at or below the 30th percentile in reading comprehension. Intervention was provided by research staff to groups of 4-7 students…

The present study used a randomized control trial to examine the effects of a widely-used multi-component Tier 2 type intervention, Passport to Literacy, on the reading ability of 221 fourth graders who initially scored at or below the 30th percentile in reading comprehension. Intervention was provided by research staff to groups of 4-7 students…

We compared the effects of two approaches to decoding on the word reading skills of struggling first-grade students: decontextualized, teacher directed decoding practice with manipulative letters and embedded, incidental decoding practice. Participants were 98 students at risk for reading disability. We randomly assigned participants to three…

The positive effect of early intervention upon the reading abilities of struggling students has been well documented by research. Unfortunately, the current economic situation has eliminated the positions of many interventionists serving in school districts across the country. Cross-age tutoring has been implemented in many places as a replacement…

The present study used two letter detection tasks, the classic missing letter effect paradigm and a single word versus familiar word compound version of this paradigm, to study bottom-up and top-down processes involved in reading in normally achieving as compared to low achieving elementary school readers. The research participants were children…