This longitudinal experimental study investigated the reading progress of students with IQs ranging from 40 to 69 (i.e., range for students with mild or moderate mental retardation or intellectual disabilities [ID]) across at least two academic years, as well as the effectiveness of a comprehensive reading intervention for these students across the same period of time. Participants were 59 elementary students who were randomly placed into treatment and contrast groups. Students in the treatment condition received daily, comprehensive reading instruction in small groups of 1–4 students for 40–50 minutes per session across two or three academic years. Measures of phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, comprehension, and oral language were included. Findings indicate that students with IQs in the ID range made significant progress on multiple standardized measures of reading. Furthermore, significant differences between the treatment group and contrast group were found on several measures, including progress‐monitoring measures of phoneme segmentation, phonics, and oral reading fluency. Results demonstrate that, on average, students with ID, even those with IQs in the moderate range, learn basic reading skills given consistent, explicit, and comprehensive reading instruction across an extended period of time. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This longitudinal randomized-control trial investigated the effectiveness of scientifically based reading instruction for students with IQs ranging from 40 to 80, including students with intellectual disability (ID). Students were randomly assigned into treatment ( n = 76) and contrast ( n = 65) groups. Students in the treatment group received intervention instruction daily in small groups of 1 to 4 for approximately 40 to 50 min for 1 to 4 academic years. On average, students in the treatment group made significantly greater progress than students in the contrast condition on nearly all language and literacy measures. Results demonstrate the ability of students with low IQs, including students with mild to moderate ID, to learn basic reading skills when provided appropriate, comprehensive reading instruction for an extended period of time.

This article describes and summarizes research studies that analyze the shared and unique contributions of phonemic awareness and rapid naming to reading development. Three questions were addressed. Does phonemic awareness account for a proportion of the variance in reading development that is not accounted for by rapid naming? Conversely, does rapid naming account for a proportion of the variance not accounted for by phonemic awareness? Finally, do phonemic awareness and rapid naming contribute differentially to various subskills of reading development? Findings of the studies and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the promise and feasibility of a newly developed curriculum to teach early literacy skills to students with intellectual disability (ID) and students with low IQs. The curriculum texts were written to include familiar settings, high frequency words, natural syntax, and cumulative practice. A single-case design was used with multiple baseline across levels of instruction and included eight participants who had IQs spanning from 40 to 63. The study was conducted across one academic year in two private schools for students with special needs. Results showed that all eight students demonstrated significant growth on proximal measures of taught words, as well as growth on at least some curriculum-based distal measures. Additionally, the program was demonstrated to be feasible; the teachers implemented the intervention with high degrees of fidelity and expressed satisfaction with the effectiveness and practicality of the program.

This article describes a two-year study addressing the effectiveness of a highly structured, systematic tutoring intervention implemented by minimally trained college students with two cohorts of at-risk first-grade readers. Participants were 61 first-grade children in Cohort 1 and 76 first-grade children in Cohort 2. Tutors participated in three one-hour training sessions and received occasional on-site assistance. Individual tutoring sessions were scheduled for three to four times each week for one school year, with each cohort receiving approximately 10-14 hours of instruction across 44 sessions. The curriculum included a game to teach phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondence, structured word-study activities, reading of leveled books, and simple comprehension strategies. Significant differences were found on measures of phonemic awareness and nonsense word reading for both cohorts. For Cohort 1, but not Cohort 2, significant differences were also detected for real-word identification. Our results support using tutors to provide additional assistance and instruction in early reading, even when tutors are not professionally trained teachers.Students considered at risk for reading difficulties need to be provided with consistent opportunities to develop and apply critical literacy skills. Although many teachRequests for reprints should be sent to