This article reports the results from a randomized control field trial that investigated the impact of an enhanced decoding and spelling curriculum on the development of adult basic education (ABE) learners’ reading skills. Sixteen ABE programs that offered class-based instruction to Low-Intermediate level learners were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group. Reading instructors in the 8 treatment programs taught decoding and spelling using the study-developed curriculum, Making Sense of Decoding and Spelling (MSDS), and instructors in the 8 control programs used their existing reading instruction. A comparison group of 7 ABE programs whose instructors used K-3 structured curricula adapted for use with ABE learners were included for supplemental analyses. Seventy-one reading classes, 34 instructors, and 349 adult learners with pre- and posttests participated in the study. The study found a small but significant effect on one measure of decoding skills, which was the proximal target of the curriculum. No overall significant effects were found for word recognition, spelling, fluency, or comprehension. Pretest to posttest gains for word recognition were small to moderate, but not significantly better than the control classes. Adult learners who were born and educated outside of the U.S. made larger gains on 7 of the 11 reading measures than learners who were born and educated within the U.S. However, participation in the treatment curriculum was more beneficial for learners who were born and educated in the U.S. in developing their word recognition skills.
In 1993, the Tennessee General Assembly voted funds to establish a model unit of integrated services and research to address the full scope of issues associated with dyslexia. Dyslexia is characterized as significant difficulty in reading and spelling individual words. In the Tennessee Center for the Study and Treatment of Dyslexia, these problems are presumed to be the consequence of a phonological core deficit. When compared to typical readers, matched for age or reading level, dyslexic readers evidence average listening comprehension, a relative strength in reading comprehension, deficits in word recognition and spelling, and severe deficits in word analysis as well as in awareness and manipulation of phonemes. Integration of this information yields a diagnostic profile that may be applied in the differential diagnosis of dyslexia both in clinical and school settings. This paper presents an overview of the Tennessee Center for Dyslexia and the services it provides as well as its guidelines for interpreting the results of norm-referenced tests and criterion-referenced measures to diagnose dyslexia and plan appropriate intervention. Frith's (1985, 1986) developmental framework for reading acquisition is integrated with the assessment data to outline an instructional plan that addresses mastery of skills within and across the hierarchical phases-logographic, alphabetic, and orthographic-of reading development.
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