The Impact of Sight Word Drills on Reading Fluency for Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Jonae Alexander
Concordia University
A Research Report Presented to
The Graduate Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Masters in Education
Concordia University - Portland
January 2015
Review of the Literature
This paper focuses on the impact of sight word trials on reading fluency of students with learning disabilities. More specifically, this paper focuses on the certain types of sight word training, and their results. Sight word practice is a commonly used teaching strategy for improving reading and word fluency in special education classrooms. However, finding which approach best teaches special education …show more content…
We have established that literacy is extremely important to students with Autism and all other students. In fact, literacy skills help special need students to access assessments (Akcin, 2012). The review of the literature suggests that discrimination training, error response, or delayed response training methods are what is best for teaching sight words to students with autism and cognitive disabilities. For example, student with disabilities responds well to time delay procedure, which is a method that involves error-minimizing learning. One study found that even remedial strategies such as whole-word error correction (student repeating what he or she heard the tutor say) were more effective than phonetic prompts (Barbetta, el at., 1993). Another study compared two error-correction response conditions: active student response (ASR) and no-response (NS) to test the training benefits for special needs students. The results indicated that the ASR error correction condition was more effective than the NS error correction condition. The procedure in the comparison of ASR and NS error correction condition was informative and enlightening. The students learned, maintained and generalized more words on ASR error correction instead of NR error correction method. Results of the study show that whole-word error correction is more effective when it includes the student 's emission …show more content…
M., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (1993). Effects of active student response during error correction on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of sight words by students with developmental disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26111-119. doi:10.1901/jaba.1993.26-111
Belfiore, P. J., Skinner, C. H., & Ferkis, M. A. (1995). Effects of response and trial repetition on sight-word training for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28(3), 347–348. doi:10.1901/jaba.1995.28-347
Groff, P. (1987). Preventing reading failure: An examination of the myths of reading instruction. National Book Company, 333 Southwest Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205-3784.
Hopewell, K., McLaughlin, T. F., & Derby, K. M. (2011). The effects of reading racetracks with direct instruction flashcards and a token system on sight word acquisition for two primary students with severe conduct disorders. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 9(2), 693-710.
Spector, J. E. (2011). Sight word instruction for students with autism: An evaluation of the evidence base. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(10), 1411-1422.
Jonae Alexander
Concordia University
A Research Report Presented to
The Graduate Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Masters in Education
Concordia University - Portland
January 2015
Review of the Literature
This paper focuses on the impact of sight word trials on reading fluency of students with learning disabilities. More specifically, this paper focuses on the certain types of sight word training, and their results. Sight word practice is a commonly used teaching strategy for improving reading and word fluency in special education classrooms. However, finding which approach best teaches special education …show more content…
We have established that literacy is extremely important to students with Autism and all other students. In fact, literacy skills help special need students to access assessments (Akcin, 2012). The review of the literature suggests that discrimination training, error response, or delayed response training methods are what is best for teaching sight words to students with autism and cognitive disabilities. For example, student with disabilities responds well to time delay procedure, which is a method that involves error-minimizing learning. One study found that even remedial strategies such as whole-word error correction (student repeating what he or she heard the tutor say) were more effective than phonetic prompts (Barbetta, el at., 1993). Another study compared two error-correction response conditions: active student response (ASR) and no-response (NS) to test the training benefits for special needs students. The results indicated that the ASR error correction condition was more effective than the NS error correction condition. The procedure in the comparison of ASR and NS error correction condition was informative and enlightening. The students learned, maintained and generalized more words on ASR error correction instead of NR error correction method. Results of the study show that whole-word error correction is more effective when it includes the student 's emission …show more content…
M., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (1993). Effects of active student response during error correction on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of sight words by students with developmental disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26111-119. doi:10.1901/jaba.1993.26-111
Belfiore, P. J., Skinner, C. H., & Ferkis, M. A. (1995). Effects of response and trial repetition on sight-word training for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 28(3), 347–348. doi:10.1901/jaba.1995.28-347
Groff, P. (1987). Preventing reading failure: An examination of the myths of reading instruction. National Book Company, 333 Southwest Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205-3784.
Hopewell, K., McLaughlin, T. F., & Derby, K. M. (2011). The effects of reading racetracks with direct instruction flashcards and a token system on sight word acquisition for two primary students with severe conduct disorders. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 9(2), 693-710.
Spector, J. E. (2011). Sight word instruction for students with autism: An evaluation of the evidence base. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(10), 1411-1422.