Impact of Intensive Summer Reading Intervention for Children With Reading Disabilities and Difficulties in Early Elementary School

• Published in: Journal of learning disabilities Vol. 50; no. 2; pp. 115 - 127
• Main Authors: Christodoulou, Joanna A., Cyr, Abigail, Murtagh, Jack, Chang, Patricia, Lin, Jiayi, Guarino, Anthony J., Hook, Pamela, Gabrieli, John D. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2017; SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - rehabilitation; Child; Child Behavior; Children; Control Groups; Dyslexia; Dyslexia - rehabilitation; Early Intervention; Education, Special - methods; Elementary education; Elementary School Students; Elementary schools; Emergent Literacy; Experimental Groups; Female; Fluency; Humans; Imagery; Intelligence Tests; Intervention; Learning disabilities; Male; Multivariate Analysis; Oral Reading; Parents; Pretests Posttests; Program Effectiveness; Rating Scales; Reading; Reading Difficulties; Reading disabilities; Reading Fluency; Reading instruction; Reading Programs; Reading Tests; Special education; Statistical Analysis; Students with disabilities; Summer Programs; Verbal Ability; Vocabulary; Word Recognition; Massachusetts; elementary; treatment; early identification/intervention; dyslexia
• ISSN: 0022-2194; 1538-4780
• DOI: 10.1177/0022219415617163

Efficacy of an intensive reading intervention implemented during the nonacademic summer was evaluated in children with reading disabilities or difficulties (RD). Students (ages 6–9) were randomly assigned to receive Lindamood-Bell’s Seeing Stars program (n = 23) as an intervention or to a waiting-list control group (n = 24). Analysis of pre- and posttesting revealed significant interactions in favor of the intervention group for untimed word and pseudoword reading, timed pseudoword reading, oral reading fluency, and symbol imagery. The interactions mostly reflected (a) significant declines in the nonintervention group from pre- to posttesting, and (2) no decline in the intervention group. The current study offers direct evidence for widening differences in reading abilities between students with RD who do and do not receive intensive summer reading instruction. Intervention implications for RD children are discussed, especially in relation to the relevance of summer intervention to prevent further decline in struggling early readers.