Children's Learning Institute, Pediatrics

There is reliable evidence that new vocabulary is primarily acquired through wide independent reading. However, struggling readers tend to avoid reading, resulting in limited word encounters and inadequate vocabulary growth, and they often have difficulties inferring the meanings of new words from context. While there are no clear solutions to the problem of vocabulary acquisition for older students with reading difficulties, there are instructional approaches that have some evidence of effectiveness for this population. We describe the research base and promising practices related to three aspects of vocabulary instruction: (1) creating a verbal learning environment that fosters word consciousness, (2) selecting and teaching specific words, and (3) teaching an independent word learning strategy through a combination of contextual and morphemic analysis. These instructional approaches are grounded in overarching principles recognized by researchers as being characteristic of effective instruction for students with learning difficulties, including explicit instruction, promoting cognitive and collaborative engagement, and providing many opportunities for practice, including distributed practice, with teacher feedback. Finally, we discuss the possibilities inherent in a cross-content schoolwide approach to vocabulary instruction at the secondary level. We conclude with a call for additional research examining the effectiveness of instructional approaches to vocabulary development for secondary school students with reading difficulties, including a schoolwide collaborative model.

The cerebellar hypothesis of dyslexia posits that cerebellar defi cits are associated with reading disabilities and may explain why some individuals with reading disabilities fail to respond to reading interventions. We tested these hypotheses in a sample of children who participated in a grade 1 reading intervention study ( n = 174) and a group of typically achieving children ( n = 62). At posttest, children were classifi ed as adequately responding to the intervention ( n = 82), inadequately responding with decoding and fl uency defi cits ( n = 36), or inadequately responding with only fl uency defi cits ( n = 56). Based on the Bead Threading and Postural Stability subtests from the Dyslexia Screening Test-Junior, we found little evidence that assessments of cerebellar functions were associated with academic performance or responder status. In addition, we did not fi nd evidence supporting the hypothesis that cerebellar defi cits are more prominent for poor readers with "specifi c" reading disabilities (i.e., with discrepancies relative to IQ) than for poor readers with reading scores consistent with IQ. In contrast, measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and vocabulary were strongly associated with responder status and academic outcomes. These results add to accumulating evidence that fails to associate cerebellar functions with reading diffi culties. ( JINS , 2010, 16 , 526-536.)

Intervention-related changes in spatiotemporal profiles of regional brain activation were examined by whole-head magnetoencephalography in 15 children with severe reading difficulties who had failed to show adequate progress to quality reading instruction during Grade 1. Intensive intervention initially focused on phonological decoding skills (for 8 weeks) and, during the subsequent 8 weeks, on rapid word recognition ability. Clinically significant improvement in reading skills was noted in 8 children who showed "normalizing" changes in their spatiotemporal profiles of regional brain activity (increased duration of activity in the left temporoparietal region and a shift in the relative timing of activity in temporoparietal and inferior frontal regions). Seven children who demonstrated "compensatory" changes in brain activity (increased duration of activity in the right temporoparietal region and frontal areas, bilaterally) did not show adequate response to intervention. Nonimpaired readers did not show systematic changes in brain activity across visits. 496 SIMOS ET AL.

This longitudinal study examined the development of the brain mechanism involved in phonological decoding in beginning readers using Magnetic Source Imaging. Kindergarten students were assigned to two groups: those who showed mastery of skills that are important predictors of proficient reading (Low Risk group--LR) and those who initially did not show mastery, but later benefited from systematic reading instruction and developed average-range reading skills at the end of Grade 1 (High Risk Responders--HR-R). Spatiotemporal profiles of brain activity were obtained during performance of letter-sound and pseudoword naming tasks before and after Grade 1 instruction. With few exceptions, LR children showed early development of brain activation profiles that are typical of older skilled readers. Provided that temporoparietal and visual association areas were recruited into the brain mechanism that supported reading, the majority of HR-R children benefited from systematic reading instruction and developed adequate reading abilities.

This study investigated the effectiveness of a multicomponent reading intervention implemented with middle school students with severe reading difficulties, all of whom had received remedial and/or special education for several years with minimal response to intervention. Participants were 38 students in grades 6–8 who had severe deficits in word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Most were Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) with identified disabilities. Nearly all demonstrated severely limited oral vocabularies in English and, for ELLs, in both English and Spanish. Students were randomly assigned to receive the research intervention (n= 20) or typical instruction provided in their school's remedial reading or special education classes (n= 18). Students in the treatment group received daily explicit and systematic small-group intervention for 40 minutes over 13 weeks, consisting of a modified version of a phonics-based remedial program augmented with English as a Second Language practices and instruction in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension strategies. Results indicated that treatment students did not demonstrate significantly higher outcomes in word recognition, comprehension, or fluency than students who received the school's typical instruction and that neither group demonstrated significant growth over the course of the study. Significant correlations were found between scores on teachers' ratings of students' social skills and problem behaviors and posttest decoding and spelling scores, and between English oral vocabulary scores and scores in word identification and comprehension. The researchers hypothesize that middle school students with the most severe reading difficulties, particularly those who are ELLs and those with limited oral vocabularies, may require intervention of considerably greater intensity than that provided in this study. Further research directly addressing features of effective remediation for these students is needed.

In order to better understand the extent to which operationalizations of response to intervention (RTI) overlap and agree in identifying adequate and inadequate responders, an existing database of 399 first grade students was evaluated in relation to cut-points, measures, and methods frequently cited for the identification of inadequate responders to instruction. A series of 543 2×2 measures of association (808 total comparisons) were computed to address the agreement of different operationalizations of RTI. The results indicate that agreement is generally poor and that different methods tend to identify different students as inadequate responders, although agreement for identifying adequate responders is higher. Approaches to the assessment of responder status must use multiple criteria and avoid formulaic decision making.

This article reviews research related to intensive interventions within a Response to Intervention framework. We review the research from studies that provided different levels of intensity of intervention with the goal of establishing a case that movement through less intensive tiers of intervention may not be an effective and responsible approach to addressing the reading difficulties of some students, particularly those with significant reading difficulties or disabilities. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This study reports findings on the relative effects from a yearlong secondary intervention contrasting large-group, small-group, and school-provided interventions emphasizing word study, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension with seventh- and eighth-graders with reading difficulties. Findings indicate that few statistically significant results or clinically significant gains were associated with group size or intervention. Findings also indicate that a significant acceleration of reading outcomes for seventh- and eighth-graders from high-poverty schools is unlikely to result from a 50 min daily class. Instead, the findings indicate, achieving this outcome will require more comprehensive models including more extensive intervention (e.g., more time, even smaller groups), interventions that are longer in duration (multiple years), and interventions that vary in emphasis based on specific students’ needs (e.g., increased focus on comprehension or word study).

Children determined to be at risk (n=24) or not at risk (n=13) for reading difficulty listened to tokens from a voice onset time (VOT) (/ga/–/ka/) or tone series played in a continuous unbroken rhythm. Changes between tokens occurred at random intervals and children were asked to press a button as soon as they detected a change. For the VOT series, at-risk children were less sensitive than not-at-risk children to changes between tokens that crossed the phonetic boundary. Maps of group stimulus space produced using multidimensional scaling of reaction times for the VOT series indicated that at-risk children may attend less to the phonological information available in the speech stimuli and more to subtle acoustic differences between phonetically similar stimuli than not-at-risk children. Better phonological processing was associated with greater sensitivity to changes between VOT tokens that crossed the phonetic boundary and greater relative weighting of the phonological compared to the acoustic dimension across both groups.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations among oral and silent reading fluency and reading comprehension for students in Grades 6 to 8 (n = 1,421) and the use of fluency scores to identify middle school students who are at risk for failure on a high-stakes reading test. Results indicated moderate positive relations between measures of fluency and comprehension. Oral reading fluency (ORF) on passages was more strongly related to reading comprehension than ORF on word lists. A group-administered silent reading sentence verification test approximated the classification accuracy of individually administered ORF passages. The correlation between a maze task and comprehension was weaker than has been reported for elementary students. The best predictor of a high-stakes reading comprehension test was the previous year's administration of the grade-appropriate test; fluency and verbal knowledge measures accounted for only small amounts of unique variance beyond that accounted for by the previous year's administration.

There is abundant evidence that intervention for the prevention of reading disability is effective in dramatically reducing the prevalence of reading disability. This article explores the current state of knowledge regarding the causation and prevalence of reading disability, along with evidence that the incidence of this condition can be dramatically reduced through quality intervention. Specifically, we (1) explore what is known about the nature and causes of reading disability, (2) examine how reading disability can best be identified, and (3) estimate the percentage of children that have severe reading difficulties that indicate the true presence of a disability.

The use of student assessment data is a key component of a model of instructional coaching, Student-Focused Coaching (Hasbrouck & Denton, 2005), designed to support student achievement by engaging reading teachers in a collaborative problem-solving process to modify instructional strategies with the goal of enhanced student outcomes. In this paper, we describe the role of student assessments in a technology-based implementation of the Student-Focused Coaching model provided to reading intervention teachers within a study of scaling-up research-validated educational innovations. Examination of transcripts of teacher–coach interchanges in the technology-based implementation of Student-Focused Coaching supported the key role of assessment in that model, revealing that coaches frequently (a) answered teachers’ questions related to assessment, (b) suggested that teachers implement specific instructional strategies based on assessment results, (c) engaged teachers in examining assessment results and observing students for specific purposes, and (d) provided feedback, especially encouragement, to teachers about students’ progress based on assessment results. Further, these classes of interactions were observed between coaches and teachers in both a flexible intervention heavily dependent on teacher decision-making and in a highly prescriptive intervention program.