title: The effects of direct instruction on the single-word reading skills of children who require augmentative and alternative communication.
abstract: Current literature suggests a lack of empirically validated strategies for teaching reading skills to children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The current study implemented a single-subject, multiple-probe-across-subjects design to investigate the effects of direct instruction in single-word reading on the performance of students who use AAC. The instructional program targeted the reading skills of 5 participants who had severe speech impairments and ranged in age from 9 to 14 years old. All 5 participants reached criterion for matching targeted written words to corresponding pictures. Three of the 5 participants demonstrated generalization of reading skills to novel-word reading, and 4 of the 5 generalized reading skills to book contexts. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Special Education and Clinical Services, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA 15705-1087, USA. kfallon@iup.edu
authors.forename: Karen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Fallon
authors.forename: Janice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Light
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McNaughton
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Drager
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004519:Education, Special; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013663:Teaching; D014825:Vocabulary