title: An evaluation of intensive intervention for students with persistent reading difficulties.
abstract: To evaluate the effects of an intensive tertiary reading intervention, 27 students with severe reading difficulties and disabilities, 14 of whom had demonstrated an inadequate response to 1-2 tiers of prior reading instruction, received a 16-week intervention package involving decoding and fluency skills. The decoding intervention was provided for 2 hours per day for 8 weeks and was based on the Phono-Graphix program. The fluency intervention followed the decoding intervention and involved 1 hour of daily instruction for 8 weeks based on the Read Naturally program. The 16-week intervention resulted in significant improvement in reading decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Although individual responses to the intervention were variable, 12 of the 27 students showed a significant response to these interventions. Students who had participated in previous Tier 1 plus Tier 2 interventions but remained impaired had a stronger response to intervention in the current study than students who had previously participated only in Tier 1 intervention and students who had not received prior intervention outside of special education.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Austin, Department of Special Education, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Carolyn A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Denton
authors.forename: Jack M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Jason L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Anthony
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Francis
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010700:Phonetics; D012073:Remedial Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013334:Students; D016896:Treatment Outcome