|
|
Press RoomFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: New Research Demonstrates Gains in Emergent Reading Skills for Adolescents with Autism and Intellectual DisabilitiesAccess to age/ability-appropriate books help teachers improve reading skills
April 14, 2010—Volo, IL—
Don
Johnston Incorporated, publisher of assistive technologies and literacy
software for students with special needs, has shared new research to
demonstrate improvements in the emergent reading skills of adolescents
with autism, intellectual and multiple disabilities. The research was
conducted by Penelope Hatch, Ph.D., CCC-SLP at the Center for Literacy
and Disability Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.The seven-week intervention studied 43 students in total, ages 12 to 21, with diverse ethnicities and exceptionalities. Dr. Hatch designed the study to determine the effects on students' daily reading experiences using age/ability-appropriate text with two groups of teachers: those trained to teach comprehensive literacy instruction and teachers without this training. Each student group read Don Johnston's Start-to-Finish Literacy Starters, a collection of computer and paperback books designed for non-readers and students reading at beginning levels. They read for 30 minutes a day in self-selected reading assignments, teacher-led instruction or a combination of the two practices. "Traditionally, special education teachers kept their approach narrow when teaching students with significant disabilities to read," said Dr. Hatch. "This approach typically involves using sight words only or learning the alphabet through decontextualized drill and practice. Our study set out to determine: 1) if students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities could improve their reading skills when given daily access to age/ability-appropriate books; and 2) if students made more improvement when taught by teachers who were trained and familiar with teaching comprehensive literacy instruction." The results in Table I demonstrate that both student groups (those with teachers who were trained with comprehensive literacy instruction and those who did not receive the training) achieved literacy gains measured in a pre-test/post test assessment of emergent literacy skills. There was a significant difference between the average pretest and posttest performance for the 43 students. The first group improved their scores by 5%. Students in Group 2 who were taught by teachers trained on comprehensive literacy instruction improved by 8%. These students focused on word and vocabulary instruction, reading comprehension and writing.
"In schools today we need to question our assumptions about the literacy potential of adolescents with severe disabilities and whether our assumptions are based on fact or erroneous perceptions," said Dr. Hatch. Additional observations in the research include:
The
complete research study is entitled, Adolescents
with Autism, Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities Improve Emergent
Reading Skills in 7-Week Study, and you can read it on the
Don Johnston website at www.donjohnston.com,
under Case Studies. Resource Links:
Dr. Penny
Hatch's research
###
About Don Johnston IncorporatedDon Johnston empowers educators with specialized accessible technologies and supported reading and writing tools for students with cognitive, physical, and learning differences. Since 1980, the company has partnered with literacy experts, assistive technology specialists, speech language pathologists, psychologists, teachers, researchers, universities and scientists to develop over a dozen assistive technology products. The company also publishes Start-to-Finish®, a collection of paperback, audio and computer books for students who read below grade level. Download a PDF of this release
Photos accompanying this Press Release are the property of Don Johnston Incorporated and may only be used and/or published as accompanying photos with the information found in this release or with specific written approval from Don Johnston or members of his marketing staff. Don Johnston Incorporated | |||||||||||||