“…Hulme and Snowling (2013) described the three cognitive foundations of learning to read, which have been shown to account for individual differences in, and be predictive of, reading skills: Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) skills-a visual-verbal learning mechanism, letter knowledge and phonemic awareness.Reading has historically been de-emphasized for students with intellectual disabilities (Browder et al, 2009). It has been assumed that reading is linked to cognitive ability or IQ, and that expressive language and communication skills are necessary before teaching reading can begin (Browder et al, 2009). Prerequisite literacy skills, such as picture matching, have been targeted (Lawson, Layton, Goldbart, Lacey, & Miller, 2012), and when literacy teaching has occurred, it has often focused on recognition of key words using a sight word approach (Porter, 2005).…”