Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 2010, 45(4), 500 511

Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Methods for Increasing the Intensity of Reading Instruction

for Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Jill H. Allor, Tammi M. Champlin, Diane B. Gifford, and Patricia G. Mathes
Southern Methodist University
Abstract: Current research is demonstrating the effectiveness of comprehensive reading instruction for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID; Allor, Mathes, Roberts, Cheatham, & Champlin, 2010; Allor, Mathes,
Roberts, Jones, & Champlin, 2010; Browder, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Courtade, Gibbs, & Flowers, 2008). One
overarching finding from these studies is that intense amounts of repetition and practice on critical literacy skills
are needed to produce meaningful gains. Providing intensive instruction in the school setting is extremely
challenging. The purpose of this article is to describe the various strategies used in one research project to
intensify early literacy instruction for students with ID, including methods for providing practice outside of
teacher-led instruction. Specifically, we describe (a) key factors in planning intensive instruction, (b) general
strategies for increasing intensity during teacher-led lessons, and (c) selecting and designing specific activities
to increase intensity.
The most fundamental job of this nations
education system is to teach children to read
(National Federation of Teachers, 1999; No
Child Left Behind Act, 2002). In spite of this
manifesto, teaching children with intellectual
disabilities (ID) to read has been largely ignored in the national rhetoric. Typically it has
been assumed that reading is a skill beyond
the intellectual capabilities of most students
with ID and that at best they might be taught
to recognize a limited number of sight words
(i.e., high frequency words). As such, four in
five children with mild to moderate ID never
achieve even minimal levels of literacy (Katims, 2001). Recent research supports the view
that this group of students should be taught to
read in a manner similar to other students

The work presented in this article was supported

by Grant No. H324K040011-05 from the Institute of
Education Sciences. This article does not necessarily
reflect the positions or policies of this funding
agency and no official endorsement should be inferred. We thank the teachers and students who
participated in this research. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jill H.
Allor, Department of Teaching and Learning, Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and
Human Development, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750381, Dallas, TX 75275-0381. Email: jallor@smu.edu

500

who struggle to learn to read (Allor, Mathes,

Roberts, Cheatham, et al., 2010; Allor, Mathes,
Roberts, Jones, et al., 2010; Browder et al.,
2008). Specifically, students with ID should be
taught to read using strategies and techniques
that will provide them with the skills necessary
to fully process individual words in connected
text and derive meaning from the text. These
findings suggest that when given scientificallybased and rigorously intensive reading instruction over an extended period of time,
these children respond positively, making important gains in literacy development. Instruction must be systematic and explicit, including
all reading components; repetitive in its use of
routines and instructional language; fastpaced; and highly motivating. Lessons should
be fully implemented by teachers skilled in
effective reading instruction. Students with ID
require large amounts of repetition to make
meaningful progress. Increasing practice of
critical skills is extremely challenging. Resources are finite; therefore, we must find feasible methods for increasing the intensity of
interventions. The purpose of this article is to
describe ways in which teachers may intensify
reading instruction for students with mild or
moderate ID. Intensive instruction is required
to provide all children with the opportunity to
develop the skills necessary to become literate

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-December 2010

adults. Before describing specific techniques

for increasing intensity, we describe the current status of the research in teaching reading
to students with ID.
Current Status of the Research
In the last decade, several pertinent studies
have been conducted that suggest that individuals with ID can learn isolated word reading skills with appropriate instructional interventions (see Browder, Wakeman, Spooner,
Ahlgrim-Delzell, & Algozzine, 2006; Browder
& Xin, 1998; Joseph & Seery, 2004). These
skills include sight word recognition and, to a
lesser extent, phonemic awareness and phonics. Until recently, however, no research has
been conducted with students with ID that
implemented a comprehensive approach to
teaching reading and included phonemic
awareness and systematic decoding, as well as
oral language and comprehension. A review
of these studies follows.
Sight word recognition. Sight word reading
in which students receive stimulus control
prompting techniques has garnered the most
attention. In 1998, Browder and Xin conducted a meta-analysis of 48 studies dating
back to 1980. The review focused on studies
that taught systematic sight word recognition
to individuals, most who were classified as having moderate ID. Overall, the instructional
interventions used were found to be highly
effective with students learning to recognize a
large corpus of words. Additionally, in a comprehensive review of literature, Browder and
colleagues (2006) examined the evidence
base of 128 studies that focused on teaching
reading to individuals with significant cognitive disabilities. In support of prior research,
they found studies of sufficient number, quality and effect size that revealed a strong evidence base for teaching sight words systematically in repeated trial formats to individuals
with either moderate or severe ID. Findings
also included evidence for using sight words
in the context of functional activities and concrete word to picture matching to teach reading comprehension.
Phonics.
The teaching of the more isolated subskills of phonics, such as letter-sound
correspondence, has also been examined.
Conners (1992) identified seven studies that

promoted teaching phonics to individuals

with moderate ID. Particularly beneficial in
some of these studies was the use of stimulusconnected prompting and fading techniques
as well as phonics error correction analyses. In
a subsequent review of the literature from
1990 to 2002, Joseph and Seery (2004) found
an additional seven studies teaching phonics
to individuals with moderate or mild ID. Results indicated that in spite of the lack of
direct or explicit instruction students were
able to benefit from phonics instruction. As
further support of the effectiveness of phonics
instruction for students with ID, Conners,
Rosenquist, Sligh, Atwell, and Kiser (2006)
conducted a 10-week intervention program
for twenty children with ID. Phonological
reading skills, including some sounding out
activities, were taught. As a result of the intervention, students were better able to sound
out words compared to a control group, although final ability was found to be dependent on the initial general language skills of
the individual participants.
Comprehensive reading instruction.
While
these studies have been important in showing
that individuals with ID can grow in isolated
skills, recent studies have demonstrated the
effectiveness of instructionally comprehensive
programs for individuals with below average
IQs (Allor, Mathes, Roberts, Cheatham, et al.,
2010; Allor, Mathes, Roberts, Jones, et al.,
2010; Browder et al., 2008). Browder and colleagues reported on the outcome of a study
that evaluated the effect of an early literacy
curriculum for students who were either nonverbal or had limited language and cognitive
skills. The Early Literacy Skills Builder curriculum (ELSB; Browder, Gibbs, Ahlgrim-Delzell,
Courtade, & Lee, 2007) introduced progressively more difficult reading skills and gave
multiple opportunities to practice those skills
before advancing to more difficult activities
and lessons. Moreover, the curriculum used
direct instruction strategies to teach phonemic blending and segmenting, abilities essential for decoding and fully processing print,
which leads to the ability to connect print with
meaning. Both the experimental group and
the contrast group also participated in literacy
experiences targeting concepts of print. Two
researcher-designed assessments of early literacy and two standardized measures were ad-

Increasing Intensity

501

ministered to all students. In a series of mixed

analyses of variances, which looked at the interactions between the experimental conditions, results indicated that students in the
treatment condition made greater gains than
those in the control group and that these
differences were statistically significant.
In our research we also found important
and meaningful gains in literacy development
for students with ID (Allor, Mathes, Roberts,
Cheatham, et al., 2010; Allor, Mathes, Roberts,
Jones, et al., 2010). We have reported on year
two and year three, respectively, of a four-year
longitudinal study in which we examined the
effectiveness of a comprehensive phonicsbased, direct instruction reading program in
teaching early reading and language skills to
students with IQs ranging from 40 79. The
students were all verbal and in grades 1 to 4
when they began the study. Within IQ category and schools, students were randomly assigned to treatment and control conditions.
Research teachers followed scripted lessons
and provided the intervention daily for 40 50
minutes. After 23 years of instruction, results
indicated that on standardized measures of
reading and language, students in the treatment condition made educationally meaningful progress at a faster rate than the control
group and these differences were statistically
significant. On progress monitoring measures, statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups were
also found for phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding (word attack and Nonsense
Word Fluency), and oral reading fluency. Effect sizes were moderate to high for word
recognition, vocabulary, and listening comprehension as well. No differences were found
in reading comprehension. Even though student performance in these studies was highly
variable, strong conclusions can be drawn.
Specifically, after its third year of implementation, evidence supported the effectiveness of
a reading program that is comprehensive in
scope, including multiple dimensions of reading development; instruction that is intensive,
repetitive and long-term; and teaching that is
explicit in nature. Understanding ways in
which these conclusions translate to classroom
practices is critical for student success.
As would be expected, one overarching
finding from these studies is that intense

502

amounts of repetition and practice on critical

literacy skills were needed to produce meaningful gains. Providing intensive instruction in
the school setting is extremely challenging. In
our own research, federal research funds were
available to hire teachers specifically to provide our intervention. Yet, even with these
additional resources, we faced a variety of logistical obstacles common in the school setting, including scheduling conflicts, typical interruptions to instruction (e.g. field trips,
assemblies), and absences, which were sometimes excessive due to higher frequencies of
health problems within this group of students.
Further, students with ID require practice that
is carefully designed to meet their specific
ability levels. Educators must assess frequently
and provide targeted practice. Another challenge in providing intensive practice is that
students with ID often have difficulty practicing independently, particularly in the early
stages of reading development. Support from
an experienced teacher is often needed to
provide meaningful practice that targets the
specific needs of students.
The purpose of this article is to describe the
various strategies we used in our research to
intensify early literacy instruction for students
with ID, including methods for providing
practice outside of teacher-led instruction.
Specifically, we describe (a) key factors in
planning intensive instruction, (b) general
strategies for increasing intensity during
teacher-led lessons, and (c) methods for selecting and designing specific activities to increase intensity.

Key Factors in Planning Intensive Instruction

In our research we identified four key factors
that appear to be critical to effectively increasing the intensity of reading instruction. Although these factors apply to all students who
are learning to read, this article specifically
focuses on the application of these factors to
instruction for students with ID. When planning instruction and designing specific activities, it is important to consider the following:
level of intensity, appropriate level of difficulty, motivation, and meaningfulness to the
student.

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-December 2010

Level of Intensity
The most obvious consideration when planning instruction to optimize intensity was simply quantity. We planned daily teacher-led instructional sessions that were 40 50 minutes
in length. Early in our intervention, we developed behavior modification plans for students
who had difficulty participating actively for
the entire instructional session. Within several
weeks, all students were able to actively participate for full sessions; however, some students
required ongoing reinforcement for on-task
behavior. This level of intensity was necessary
to produce meaningful literacy growth. Even
with these daily sessions, most of our students
required at least three years to reach reading
levels equivalent to those typically achieved
approximately halfway through first grade.
For further discussion, see Allor, Mathes,
Jones, Champlin, and Cheatham (2010).
We also looked for ways to encourage additional practice outside of teacher-led small
group or individual sessions, such as independent or supported practice. When students
had very minimal literacy skills, providing independent practice was difficult; however, as
students literacy skills developed, independent practice became more practical and feasible. Throughout our study, we found many
ways to encourage supported practice (i.e.
reading appropriate texts and/or completing
reading activities), including practicing with
peers during the school day, practicing at
home with family members, practicing with
paraprofessionals or volunteers, and participating in technology-based practice. Technology-based practice can be highly motivating
and effective; however, we carefully selected
and monitored technology-based practice, as
quality varies widely and students often required support for this practice to be effective.
We wish to emphasize the critical role of the
teacher in encouraging and planning independent and supported practice. Although
peers and other adults were valuable resources, the teachers role in planning and
monitoring these activities was essential to success. We planned activities that were easily
implemented by others and met the needs of
students based on current assessment data.
We monitored implementation and fostered
motivation through the selection of activities,

as well as tracking progress and providing reinforcers.

Appropriate Skills and Difficulty Level
A second important factor we considered was
determining which skills were most critical for
students to practice at any given point in time.
During teacher-led implementation of our intervention, teachers routinely monitored student mastery of skills to determine which lessons and activities needed to be repeated.
With careful monitoring, we could focus instructional time on key skills, not spending
time on skills the student no longer needed to
review (i.e., the student has clearly mastered)
or on skills that were too difficult for the
student at that time (i.e., the student was
making frequent errors and was likely to be
frustrated). Ongoing monitoring during
teacher-led instruction, along with progress
monitoring data, provided us with the information needed to plan activities to be conducted outside teacher-led instruction (i.e.,
independent practice or supported practice
with someone other than the teacher). During
teacher-led sessions and during other practice
activities, we planned carefully to select activities and implement them with adequate support to ensure that students could perform
them with relatively high degrees of accuracy.
If students were not successful in an activity,
we either returned to the prerequisite skill or
increased scaffolding until student responses
were accurate. Making instructional decisions
based on assessment data was an ongoing process throughout the study.
Motivation
A third consideration for increasing intensity
was ensuring high levels of motivation. In our
research study, we found that to participate
actively in lessons and outside practice most
students required some type of tangible reinforcer that was delivered on a frequent basis.
For many students we were able to move from
more tangible to less tangible reinforcers, as
well as decrease the frequency with which we
delivered reinforcers. Another technique that
appeared to be helpful with our students was
to set goals with the students, helping them to
develop self-determination and a sense of con-

Increasing Intensity

503

trol over their learning. In this way students

took responsibility for their own growth and
became more independent, though highly
supported, learners. In setting goals, we
graphed both the amount of practice and the
amount of progress they made on target skills.

Practice Meaningful to Students

The fourth consideration was ensuring that
practice was meaningful to students. This was
relevant to increasing intensity because more
meaningful practice increased the likelihood
that practice would be effective and foster
comprehension. Our program was comprehensive, targeting general knowledge, as well
as vocabulary and narrative language. We recognized that these skills were important to
comprehension, as well as the development of
phonics and word recognition skills. If words
were not in a students oral vocabulary, for
example, they would be less likely to successfully decode the word in print and remember
the word the next time they come across it in
text. Although certain activities targeted
sounds and print, teachers routinely connected these activities to words and concepts
that were meaningful to students. We avoided
words we did not think would be in the students spoken vocabulary even if they were
made up of common letters and sounds. For
example, we avoided the word fig because our
students were unlikely to be familiar with the
meaning of fig. In this example fig would function as a nonsense word until the students
were taught the meaning of the word. We did
use nonsense words in our assessment tools,
but we did not use nonsense words in our
teaching. We also connected individual words
to their meaning through pictures and/or
brief conversation. Words being practiced
were included in sentences and text as soon as
possible. For example, once a student could
identify a few words (by sounding out or by
sight), these words were combined into sentences. Examples of how we provided meaningful word level practice, sentence level practice, and text level practice will be described
later in this article.

504

General Strategies for Increasing Intensity

during Teacher-led Lessons
We employed several management and general instructional techniques to increase intensity during teacher-led lessons. First, lessons were presented at a fast pace, increasing
the number of opportunities for students to
respond. Lessons were designed to introduce
new skills quickly and provide cumulative review within a series of brief, fast-paced activities. Activities focusing on letter sounds and
words were very short, ranging from 15 minutes, while activities focusing on fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension were usually a
little longer. Teachers moved quickly from
one activity to the next. Pacing within activities was as quick as possible, while allowing
students adequate processing time. Sound
and word activities were designed to promote
automaticity; therefore, teachers gradually reduced processing time until student responses
became quick and automatic. Second, behavior management techniques were used to decrease time off task. Teachers developed routine prompts to quickly remind students to
stay on task, and they reinforced on-task behavior. A third method for increasing intensity was to spend less time on clearly mastered
skills, allowing more practice time for skills
not mastered. The students in our study required extensive practice on all skills, yet their
skill development was sometimes uneven
across skills. For example, often students had
clearly mastered letter-sound correspondences reviewed in a lesson, yet struggled with
the phonemic awareness activities within the
same lesson. Therefore, we reduced the time
spent on letter-sound correspondences, reviewing these briefly in each lesson or skipping that activity on some days.
Methods for Selecting and Designing
Activities for Additional Practice
During our project, we developed additional
activities to enable us to better provide the
extensive practice needed for our students to
master skills. Through these activities students
practiced the skills and strategies taught
within the primary curriculum. Some of these
additional activities were used during teacherled sessions, but many were specifically de-

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-December 2010

signed to provide independent practice and

practice supported by peers or adults other
than the teacher. We have organized our recommendations for specific activities into four
primary categories: (a) word level practice,
(b) sentence level practice, (c) text level practice, and (d) words within text practice (i.e.,
responding to word level errors occurring
during text reading). As we discuss each of
these activities, we will explain how we applied
the key factors described earlier.
Designing Word Level Activities
We created puzzles and games to provide interesting and motivating ways to practice individual words and word recognition strategies
taught in the primary curriculum. As is common practice in teaching early reading, students were taught to recognize irregularly
spelled, high frequency sight words (e.g., was,
come) and they were taught to sound out regularly spelled decodable words (e.g., can, sit).
As students advanced, they learned increasingly complex spelling patterns (e.g. ar, aw).
We developed sets of words designed specifically to provide practice applying strategies,
cumulative review, and multiple exposure to
common words. Many students struggled to
unitize words, meaning they experienced difficulty reaching the stage of reading when
words were recognized quickly and automatically without slowly sounding out words one
sound at a time. Over time, students mastered
sounding out words, but even after repeated
exposure to common words during teacherled lessons, they were not unitizing these
words. Rather, they still needed to sound each
word out to identify it. We used the word
games and puzzles to provide extensive exposure to words, particularly common words.
One student who experienced significant
challenges unitizing words was Jacob, a student with moderate ID who was 11 years old by
the end of the study. His teacher began each
lesson with a quick flashcard review of common words. He also completed puzzle pages
at home and played flashcard games with his
peers. Jacob responded well to these additional activities, generalizing his skills to books
and oral reading fluency passages. By the end
of the study, Jacobs scores on Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (Good & Kaminski,

2002) improved, with Oral Reading Fluency

scores increasing to 36 correct words per
minute (on first-grade level passages) and
Nonsense Word Fluency scores increasing to
76 sounds per minute. Importantly, Jacob began reading the nonsense words as whole
words, rather than reading sound by sound,
demonstrating his ability to transfer his ability
to unitize to words he had not practiced. We
also wish to emphasize the length of time
required for Jacob to acquire these skills. He
participated in our study for four years and
did not begin unitizing words until the final
year of the study. For further information
about Jacobs progress during the first three
years of the study, see Allor, Mathes, Jones, et
al. (2010).
We employed several techniques in selecting words to practice in activities. We selected
words from the curriculum and words made
up of the sound patterns taught in the curriculum. We targeted high frequency words,
both those that students had been taught to
memorize (i.e., irregularly spelled words such
as was and come) and those they had been
taught the necessary skills to sound words out
(i.e., regularly spelled words such as had and
sit). See Table 1 for a partial list of words that
are both high in frequency and regularly
spelled. The advantage of using these words
was that students could apply their decoding
strategies to words that they would likely see
frequently in connected text. In addition to
the high frequency words (i.e. both regularly
spelled high frequency words and irregularly
spelled high frequency words), we included
other regularly spelled words that we thought
would be meaningful to our students. Although these words are not on popular highfrequency word lists, they are words typically
used by young children in both oral and written language. They provided students with
opportunities to apply their decoding skills
and ensured that students were processing all
of the letters in words. For example, we included the word sand because it was likely to
be meaningful and students needed to look at
every letter in sand to differentiate it from
high frequency words, such as said and sad.
We avoided words we thought would be unfamiliar to our students, even if they were regularly spelled (e.g., fig, tam). By avoiding these

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505

TABLE 1
Partial List of High-Frequency Regular Words
a

am
an
and
ask
at
bag
can
cat
dad
fast
fat
had
hand
hat
land
last
man
pan
ran
sat

bed
best
end
get
help
hen
left
leg
let
men
pet
red
set
tell
ten
well
went

big
did
hill
him
if
in
it
its
miss
pig
sit
six
will

words, we were able to reinforce the concept

that reading always includes meaning.
After developing sets of words emphasizing
high frequency words and meaningful words
made up of skills taught in the primary curriculum, we created cards and word puzzles for
students to use both independently and in
supported practice (i.e., with a peer or adult).
We made sets of cards that included two cards
for each word in a set of words so students
could play matching games including Concentration, Old Maid, or Go Fish (see Figure 1).
We also created word puzzles, such as the one
in Figure 2. Occasionally, the games were
played during teacher-led sessions, but most
often they were used during supported practice with peers, volunteers, or paraprofessionals. They were also sent home where they
could be played with family members. Similarly, the puzzle pages could be completed
either independently or with the support of
peers or adults.

o
dog
got
hop
hot
lost
mom
not
off
on

u
bus
but
cut
fun
jump
just
must
run
sun
up
us

most activities. Most puzzle pages included

practice with sentences. For example, in the
activity in Figure 3, students cut out words,
unscrambled them to form sentences, and
then wrote the sentences on the page. In
other puzzles, students read sentences and

Designing Sentence Level Activities

As soon as students knew enough words to
build sentences, sentences were included in

506

Figure 1. Word Level Activity Example

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-December 2010

Figure 2. Word Puzzle Example

Figure 4. Sentence Puzzle Example

then matched them to pictures representing

the sentence or they identified words to complete sentences, as in the crossword puzzle in

Figure 3. Sentence Puzzle Example

Figure 4. Basic practice pages, such as the one

in Figure 5, were also developed to provide
students with targeted reading practice that
could easily be supported by peers or adults
other than the teacher. These were frequently
read during the day to peers and volunteers or
sent home to be read to a family member.
Another activity we used frequently during
teacher-led lessons was to put the words or
phrases of a sentence in order. Teachers wrote
sentences on sentence strips and then cut the
sentences into words and/or phrases. Students practiced reading the words and then
used those words to build sentences. In this
activity they practiced word recognition, comprehension and oral language skills. Teachers
created sentences using words the students
had been taught or they selected sentences
from the connected text being read by the
student. One student who responded well to
this activity was Bart, a student with moderate
ID who participated in our study three years.
He began the study when he was seven years
old with very few literacy skills and limited oral

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507

and fostering oral language development and

comprehension.
Designing Text Level Activities

Figure 5. Word and Sentence Level Practice Activity

language skills. Barts teacher selected sentences from the stories that were critical to the
story development. After Bart would read the
words and put them into a meaningful sentence, his teacher would discuss the meaning
of the sentence with him. When rereading the
story later, his teacher found that his fluency,
including prosody improved, along with his
comprehension as he was able to discuss the
basic events in the story more readily after
having practiced sentences in isolation. Although Barts reading did not reach high levels of fluency prior to the end of the study
(i.e., his Oral Reading Fluency scores were 38
words per minute at the end of the study), he
did read simple mid first-grade level text successfully, identifying words accurately and describing the main events in stories (See Allor,
Mathes, Jones, et al., 2010, for further information about his progress). To make the activity even more meaningful to students,
teachers added occasional words the students
chose, even if students had not been taught to
recognize those words in print (e.g., baseball,
gymnastics). These words were used less frequently as they did not provide opportunities
to practice word recognition skills, but they
were helpful in increasing student interest

508

In our study, we supplemented the text from

our curriculum in two ways. First, for students
who were successfully moving through our
curriculum, we worked to ensure that they
were reading books at an appropriate difficulty level outside of teacher-led instruction.
We taught our students how to select appropriate text and assisted them in locating text
that would be meaningful and interesting to
them but not frustrating. Students were
taught that if they missed more than one word
out of any ten words in a book, it was probably
too difficult. We also located books with them
using various resources, including websites of
leveled text such as www.lexile.com/findabook/ and www.readinga-z.com/. We tracked
their progress, providing forms on which they
could write down the titles of books read and
the amount of time spent reading. Forms were
signed by family members, teachers, or schoolbased volunteers. We used incentive programs
sponsored by corporations who supplied various rewards for reaching goals. These included everything from free pizza to free
theme park tickets. We even collaborated with
a local professional sports organization to provide incentives for students. Students with disabilities may not always be included in these
types of programs, so it is important for special education teachers to ensure that they
have access to incentive programs. Another
way we encouraged motivation was by reinforcing oral reading fluency goals with tangible rewards. Teachers shared graphs of
progress with students, discussing their
progress in relation to their goals and working
together to map out ways to improve or maintain growth. Students needed to be explicitly
taught that their hard work and practice resulted in meaningful improvement. Of
course, ensuring that books were not too difficult for students and were interesting to students was extremely important.
A second way we supplemented the text in
the curriculum was by creating lessons specifically designed to teach students to transfer
skills to connected text. Several students experienced extreme difficulty applying skills in

Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities-December 2010

Figure 6. Sample text from book, Up at Bat

text. Words they read correctly during our

intervention were frequently missed in connected text. Further, these students read the
stories in our curriculum multiple times;
therefore, new stories were needed to increase
motivation. In our study, we wrote several stories that were at an appropriate difficulty level
and then created a series of lessons for students to practice the exact words from those
stories. See Figure 6 for sample text. Although
teachers do not have the time to write books
specifically for their students, they could create application lessons that parallel their curriculum and prepare students to read new
text. We did this by implementing the same
activities used in our curriculum (Mathes &
Torgesen, 2005) with the exact words from
the new text. See Figures 7 and 8 for example
scripts and presentation pages from one of
our application lessons. To create these, we
used the same language as the lessons in our
primary curriculum.
One student who responded particularly
well to the application lessons was Kristen, a
student with moderate ID who participated in
our study for three years. Kristen, who was 12
years old by the end of the study, was able to
successfully participate in many activities
within the curriculum and showed progress
on letter-sound correspondence and phonemic awareness. She was not successful in connected text even though she was able to de-

Figure 7. Application Lessons: Sounding Out

Example

code a few very simple regular words and

recognize a few sight words during teacher-led
lessons. After participating in the application
lessons, she recognized the words in connected text more readily and began to see the
relationship between reading lessons and
reading books. Before participating in the application lessons, Kristen was able to quickly
(within two to three seconds each) identify
only five of the words in the newly written
books. After participating in application lessons and reading three books, she was able to
identify 50 words quickly. These were a combination of regularly spelled short vowel words
and a set of irregularly spelled high frequency
words. (See Allor, Gifford, Champlin,
Oliphint, & Miller, 2010 for further information.)
Designing Activities to Target Words within Text
In addition to increasing the amount of text
read, we also worked to ensure that the errors
students made when reading text were cor-

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509

Figure 8. Application Lessons: Sight Word Example

rected and individual words requiring more

instruction or practice were identified and incorporated into future lessons or practice activities. When reading passages during teacher-led instruction, teachers kept notes of
which words were missed. We used a simple
error analysis chart (see Figure 9) to keep
track of errors. The chart included a column
to write the word from the text as well as a
column to write the way the student pronounced the word. For example, from the
chart in Figure 9 we see that the student did
not correctly identify the word sport. Teachers

then responded to errors by including the

word and/or skill (e.g. words with or) in teacher-led lessons or in other practice activities.
The teachers also taught volunteers and paraprofessionals to complete the same chart as
the students read to them.
Another technique we used was to encourage the students to write any words they were
learning in a word journal or mark them with
removable adhesive flags. Students were instructed to write or mark any words that they
did not read very quickly. This technique was
helpful, particularly for older students, because it increased their independence and
motivation. In this way they could see difficult
words as opportunities to learn new words,
rather than be frustrated by them. This also
helped teachers to quickly and easily recognize when books were too difficult and students needed to be encouraged to select more
appropriate books. These words were then
incorporated into teacher-led lessons and additional practice activities.
Summary
In summary, educators who teach students
with ID to read need to provide instruction
and practice that is extremely intense. Students need consistent, explicit, systematic
teacher-led instruction over a long period of
time. Students with ID require extensive practice on critical skills to make meaningful literacy gains. Educators must be creative and persistent as they plan instruction and reading
practice that is intense, motivating, and meaningful. Further, educators must use ongoing
progress monitoring data to ensure that instruction and practice matches the students
current stage of reading development. We
hope the techniques and activities described
in this article will assist educators in effectively
teaching reading to students with ID.
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Figure 9. Error Analysis Chart Example

510

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