Effects of a Repeated Reading Intervention on the Reading Fluency of Adolescents with Intellectual Disability.

Abstract

Background. Adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) often have difficulties in developing reading fluency skills, a necessary component of reading comprehension and independent reading. Repeated reading (RR) interventions have been widely shown to be effective in improving reading fluency in typically developing students. However, studies conducted with students with ID are scarce. Method. A single case experimental study with multiple baseline design across participants was used to examine the effects of an 8-week RR intervention on the reading fluency skills of three adolescents with ID. Target behaviour was measured repeatedly with correct words per minute for reading rate and errors per minute for accuracy. Results. Both systematic visual analysis and data nonoverlap statistics were used to evaluate the data. Increases in reading fluency skills occurred during the intervention phase on trained texts for all three students, with large effect sizes for reading rate and moderate to large effect sizes for accuracy. Generalization of fluency skills to untrained texts was also observed at the end of the intervention phase, with large effect sizes for reading rate and small to moderate effect sizes for accuracy. The social validity of the intervention was positively rated both by teachers and students. Conclusions. The findings suggest that evidence- based RR interventions, when slightly adapted to meet the specific needs of students with ID, can be beneficial for them. Implications for future research and specific instructional components for students with ID are discussed.