Evaluating the effectiveness of a phonologically based reading intervention for struggling readers with varying language profiles

Abstract

This study evaluates Reading Intervention-a 10-week supplementary reading programme emphasising the link between phonological awareness and reading-when delivered in a realistic educational setting. Twenty-nine 6-year-olds with reading difficulties participated in Reading Intervention and their progress and attainments were compared with those of a representative control group from the same classes, matched on age and gender. Language profiles were also explored. Children with reading difficulties showed weaknesses in phonological awareness and literacy as well as nonphonological oral language skills and nonverbal reasoning. During the intervention, the intervention group made significantly greater progress than the control group in early word reading, phoneme awareness and phonetic spelling. Over a 6-month follow-up period, the intervention group maintained its gains but during this time made significantly less progress on single word reading, phoneme awareness and phonetic spelling than the control group. These findings provide evidence that reading interventions can be delivered effectively in standard educational settings. We argue that a better understanding of how to manage withdrawal of intervention and how to address poor readers' additional oral language weaknesses is needed.

Integrating MRI brain imaging studies of pre-reading children with current theories of developmental dyslexia: a review and quantitative meta-analysis

“…the ability to process and manipulate the sound structure of words), is widely recognized as an underlying cause of dyslexia [25,28]. The phonological deficit theory is supported by behavioral evidence from longitudinal studies showing pre-reading phonological deficits [29], and from phonological training studies yielding improved reading [30]. …”

Synthetic phonics and decodable instructional reading texts: How far do these support poor readers?

“…This impacts on their ability to "blend" the sounds, a technique that is required in a synthetic phonics approach (Corriveau, Goswami, & Thomson, 2010;Corriveau, Pasquini, & Goswami, 2007;Duff, Hayiou-Thomas, & Hulme, 2012;Kuppen, Huss, Fosker, Fegan, & Goswami, 2011;McArthur & Castles, 2013;Wallach, 2011). This impacts on their ability to "blend" the sounds, a technique that is required in a synthetic phonics approach (Corriveau, Goswami, & Thomson, 2010;Corriveau, Pasquini, & Goswami, 2007;Duff, Hayiou-Thomas, & Hulme, 2012;Kuppen, Huss, Fosker, Fegan, & Goswami, 2011;McArthur & Castles, 2013;Wallach, 2011).…”

“…Children, who have impaired detection of speech segmentation and tone duration, experience difficulty with mapping speech sounds to letters. This impacts on their ability to "blend" the sounds, a technique that is required in a synthetic phonics approach (Corriveau, Goswami, & Thomson, 2010;Corriveau, Pasquini, & Goswami, 2007;Duff, Hayiou-Thomas, & Hulme, 2012;Kuppen, Huss, Fosker, Fegan, & Goswami, 2011;McArthur & Castles, 2013;Wallach, 2011). There is evidence that a difficulty with blending sounds sequentially results from having limited short-term/working memory often associated with dyslexia (McMurray & McVeigh, 2016).…”

A Phonologically Based Intervention for School-Age Children With Language Impairment

“…In addition, deficient phonological/phonemic awareness has been found to lead to difficulties in the acquisition of word decoding, which negatively impacts reading comprehension and fluency (Catts et al, 2001;Lyon et al, 2003;Stanovich, 2000). When the reader is using most effect on their subsequent reading skills (Duff, Haylou-Thomas, & Hulme, 2012;Lundberg et al, 1988;Schneider, Ennemoser, Roth, & Kuspert, 1999;Schuele & Boudreau, 2008;Ukrainetz, Ross, & Harm, 2009;. Studies also have shown that children who are developing normally and receive PAI are more successful with developing reading skills than those who do not receive the intervention (e.g., Bradley & Bryant, 1983;Bus & van IJzendoorn, 1999;Hatcher, Hulme, & Snowling, 2004;Lewis et al, 2006;Lonigan, 2003;Lundberg et al, 1988;McCutchen et al, 2002).…”