Students with reading disabilities require instruction and intensive intervention targeted to their current learning needs. Through data-based instruction, educators can monitor student's performance and make adjustments to instruction to better address student needs using both progress monitoring and diagnostic assessment. This article provides…

Word reading disabilities (WRD) represent the most common disability in reading; however, questions remain regarding how to design instruction that results in significant, long-lasting effects on word reading outcomes for individuals who experience considerable difficulties that persist within and beyond primary grades. Two related studies…

Explicit instruction is a high-leverage practice for special education and is associated with improved learning for students with disabilities (Hughes et al., 2019). The high-leverage practices are 22 critical practices in special education that are effective for improving outcomes for a broad range of students with and at risk for disabilities…

The term "Science of Reading" (SOR) has become a popular phrase in practitioner circles. To best serve students, it is important that teachers and interventionists are knowledgeable about the SOR. This article provides a special educator's guide to the SOR by reviewing critical elements that have emerged in public discourse about the…

More than 800,000 students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are served in U.S. public schools, a number that has increased annually for almost 20 years since Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) included ASD as an eligibility category. These students often experience widespread and persistent reading comprehension challenges. A…

There is limited research about Tier 3 interventions provided during typical school Response to Intervention (RTI) implementation. As part of a larger RTI exploration study designed to focus on students with the most intensive reading needs, our goal was to contrast their Tier 1 core reading instruction with their Tier 3 intervention. Schools…

In this article, I provide an examination of research evidence concerning the effects of classroom instruction (Tier 1) for students with dyslexia and other reading problems. I discuss the suitability and limitations of different types of research evidence that may be used to determine how best to support the learning of these students in the…

This review of research examines definitions of reading motivation, instruments for measuring reading motivation, reading motivation interventions and instructional designs, and student outcomes related to reading motivation. The population for this review was restricted to middle or high school students who: (a) have a qualifying disability in…

Laws, practices, and research about reading difficulties have been gradually and rapidly changing since the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1974. It is difficult for schools to keep up, especially when it takes approximately 16 years for research to reach widespread public knowledge. In this article, I frame the…

Looking at Cape Henlopen School District as a whole, most students within the district are proficient in reading. When looking at data for young adults (18-22) with autism and other severe disabilities in the Sussex Consortium Life Skills Program, students were not proficient in reading. They could not read functional words within context. This…

Reading can be a way to increase students' social interaction and writing, especially for the need to continue to a higher level of education. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show deficits in reading skills. Recent research shows that there is heterogeneity in this population, which is accompanied by a lack of personalized learning…

There is a strong connection between word-reading and spelling development. Students' spelling can provide insight into their word-level reading skills and inform intensive reading interventions delivered within a data-based individualization framework. The purpose of this article is to describe the linguistic knowledge bases that connect word…

The current study meta-analyzed 27 effects from 21 studies to determine the effect assessment of text difficulty had on reading fluency interventions, which resulted in an overall weighted effect size (ES) = 0.43 (95% CI = [0.25, 0.62], p < 0.001). Using reading passages that represented an instructional level based on accuracy criteria led to…

Reading comprehension is a critical skill for student success in school, the workplace, and daily life, yet many students display significant reading comprehension deficits. This article describes the impact effective strategy instruction can have on the reading outcomes of students with learning disabilities and related challenges. A discussion…

More than two thirds of students with disabilities enter secondary school with reading difficulties (Capin et al., 2022). Moreover, half of all secondary students who struggle with reading may still have word recognition difficulties (Hock et al., 2009; Leach et al., 2003; Spear-Swerling, 2015) making lack of attention to reading instruction a…