Closing the Gap:
Can embedded supports help students with learning
disabilities comprehend grade level science text?
Andrea Boykin, George Mason University
Introduction
• Government mandates require students with disabilities educated in
separate facilities or self contained classroom to access grade level
standards (Cawley, 2002).
• Students with learning disabilities may find content area text especially
challenging to read (Garjia, 2007).
• Students in special education accessing grade level curriculum require
supports to access and succeed within the curriculum.
• Regardless of a students disability, assistive technology paired with specific
strategies can help students access grade level text.
Previous Research
Text to Speech
• Research has determined that audio text, including text to speech, can
increase student comprehension. (Dolan, 2005; Mooram, 2010, Dawson,
2000,)
Graphic Organizers
• Research presents conflicting results for the use of graphic organizers with
TTS to support student comprehension (Boyle, 2002;Douglas, 2011).
Purpose
• Although both TTS and graphic organizers can support comprehension,
very little research has combined graphic organizers and TTS features as a
combined strategy in supporting the comprehension of middle school
students accessing grade level curriculum.
Research Questions
Is there a functional relation between text to speech with dynamic
highlighting and graphic organizers that would cause an increase in
expository text comprehension of middle school students with learning
disabilities?
Is there a differential effect that would result in an immediate level
change between expository text comprehension of elementary students
with learning disabilities when accessing digital text with text to speech
features and dynamic highlighting compared to utilizing text to speech
features with the support of digital graphic organizers and dynamic
highlighting?
Procedures
Participants
Name
Grade
Disability
Gender Ethnicity
Independent
Passage
Reading Level Comprehension
Ania
7th
LD
F
A.A
1st grade
1st grade
Yuri
7th
LD
M
A.A
4th grade
4th grade
Zeke
6th
LD, OHI
M
A.A
2.2 grade
2.4 grade
Chris
7th
Autism, LD,
OHI
M
A.A
2.0 grade
1.4
-6th and 7th grade students with LD as one of their disabilities were included in the study. Students must have an independent
comprehension two years or more below grade level and perform poorly on in class comprehension activities. Students were
excluded from study who have receptive language deficits.
Students read a randomly selected
passage out loud in baseline.
In Treatment, students read
randomly selected passage with
either TTS and graphic organizer or
TTS and dynamic highlighting.
Responses were scored using
scoring rubrics.
The student could read the passage
again, but no students looked over
the passage before answering
questions.
Students then were asked content
interview questions and responded
out loud.
Once the study stated they were
ready to answer questions, each
multiple choice question was read
twice, and the answer selections
once.
The student viewed questions and
answer selections on a computer.
Once the student selected an
answer, the researcher highlighted
that choice.
-Italicized scores are from Woodcock Johnson Reading Assessment
Setting
• A private special education school located in an urban city on the east
coast.
Results
Method
• Multiple baseline and alternating treatment single subject design
replicated across participants. Minimum of five treatment points in
baseline and ten for treatment.
• Alternating treatment design was replicated across participants and
utilized with each participant receiving the same treatment and passage
at the same time.
• Multiple choice data had high variability in baseline and treatment. Overall
PEM for embedded supports combined, TTS, and graphic organizers is 34%,
34%, 41%, respectively.
• Content interview responses have less variability in baseline and treatment.
Overall PEM for embedded supports combined, TTS, and graphic organizers is
83%, 80%, 86% respectively.
Multiple Choice
Variables
Dependent
5 researcher created
multiple choice questions
per passage
Content Interview
Chris
Independent
Chris
Ania
Ania
Yuri
Yuri
Software program:
Read Out Loud
Zeke
4 researcher created
content interview
questions per passage.
Pre and post self-efficacy
questionnaire
Zeke
Embedded graphic
organizer
Text to speech and
dynamic highlighting
Science Passages
• Passages pulled from the Jason Project, an online science curriculum for
middle school students that correspond to state standards from 6th and
7th grade level.
• Text ranged from 4-12th grade. Each passage was modified to have a
readability level of 8.9 to 9.9. Number of words ranged from 220 to 290.
Discussion
• Embedded support features increased
comprehension.
• Graphic organizers had a greater impact on
comprehension compared to TTS alone.
• Multiple choice may accurately reflect student comprehension.
• Teachers should utilize TTS with embedded supports to help students
with learning disabilities access grade level text and utilize multiple
methods of assessment to determine a students comprehension.
This document was produced under U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs No. H327S120011. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the
positions or policies of the Department of Education. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this publication is
intended or should be inferred. This product is public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted.