The Effects of Phonological Awareness Instruction to Improve Reading Performance for Primary Students with Disabilities Regina D. Ross Directed Readings In Research SPED 7782 Fall 2023 Dr. Schwab Introduction Students with disabilities struggle with all aspects of reading from phonemic awareness to reading comprehension.(Chard, Ketterlin-Geller, Baker,Doabler, & Apichatabutra, 2009) Students with disabilities perform 3 years below students without disabilities Students with disabilities have a difficult time accessing the curriculum Three different types of developmental reading disabiliites have been identified as phonological deficit, processing speed/orthographic processing deficit, and comprehension deficit( Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009) • Students with poor phonological awareness struggle with reading acquisition(Milankov et al., 2021) • Students with disabilities struggle with mastering sounds • • • • Reading is essential for academic success (Lacal et al., 2018). Phonological Awareness is the most important indicator of reading success (Melby-Lervag et al.,2012). Adequate phonological awareness may help in the prevention of learning disabilities (Amorim et al., 2020). Poor reading skills are linked to low self-esteem and behavior problems (Cruz, et al., 2014; Eloranta et al., 2018). • Teachers of students with disabilities need more effective methods to ensure that the students are learning the foundational skills that are needed for reading success Intervention • Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum will be utilized as the intervention in this proposed research study. • Dr. Michael Heggerty developed this curriculum in 2003 based on results from his classroom assessments that indicated his students were lacking phonological and phonemic awareness skills • Dr. Heggerty conducted research on phonemic awareness and developed lessons that would be engaging and provide his students with repeated practice and instruction . There are 35 weeks of lessons. • Heggerty follows the Science of Reading • Heggerty provides explicit, systematic, and consistent instruction with explicit modeling • Based on research presented by The National Reading Panel Report phonological awareness instruction produced a positive effect on word reading(The National Reading Panel Report , 2000) Systematic and explicit instruction and phonological instruction has shown to improve reading outcomes of students with disabilities (SWD) • Literacy skills are important to students with intellectual limitations (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). • According to Lemons et al. (2013) a large number of people with disabilities have reading problems or are illiterate.(Lemons et al., 2013; Ratz & Lenhard, 2013) • Phonics instruction focuses on teaching students to change letters into sounds (Castle et al.,2018). • The National Reading Panel research showed that systematic phonics programs were more effective in teaching students with disabilities (NICCHHD, 2000). Systematic and explicit instruction and phonological instruction has shown to improve reading outcomes of students with disabilities (SWD) • The growth impact of systematic phonics instruction on reading growth was similar on reading growth no matter how instruction was delivered (McArthur, 2015). • According to Finnegan (2012) reading instruction in studies conducted by 3 researchers solely taught phonics. Students were taught to decode words using letter-sound correspondence, naming letter sounds, and blending sounds (Finnegan 2012). • A group of students with disabilities were taught using common rimes and how to combine them with letters and sounds using a program called Road to Reading. It also used word boxes to teach them how to spell and decode (Lemons, 2015). • Study found that many students had not mastered letter and sound correspondence when teachers used fluency instruction, comprehension instruction, and vocabulary instruction (Allor, 2010). Current Study • Previous studies have been conducted at all grade levels pertaining to reading problems of students with disabilities. Researchers have tested students with learning disabilities and students with speech-language deficits (Otaiba et al., 2009). • Studies have been conducted using different computer-based programs as well as the type of instructional methods utilized by the teacher (Lovett et al., 2017). • Current research studies have focused more on specific interventions for students with dyslexia (Otaiba et al., 2022). • Researchers and practitioners are more knowledgeable about how students learn to read. There has been a plethora of research conducted on the Science of Reading (Hoffman et al., 2021). Purpose and Research Question • The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of phonological and phonemic awareness interventions and their effect on the reading acquisition of students with disabilities • Research Question 1: Is there a functional relationship between Heggerty Phonemic Awareness interventions and increased reading performance for students with disabilities? Method: Research Design • This study will implement a single case multiple probes across participants design in order to determine the effectiveness of the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum on the phonological awareness of students with disabilities. • There will be three students involved in this study • A multiple baseline design was chosen because this research project is focused on academics. • This design can easily be duplicated. • According to Slocum et al., (FIX CITATION) multiple baseline designs address potential threats to internal validity . • Academics can not be withdrawn or unlearned and only one intervention is being utilized.) Method: Dependent Variable • The dependent variable for the study will be phonological awareness skills probes that consist of 4 weekly brief 10-12 minute sessions to access the following: word discrimination, rhyme recognition, rhyme production, syllable blending, syllable segmentation, syllable deletion, phoneme recognition, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, and phoneme deletion. • The score will be determined by scoring correct responses with 1 and incorrect responses with 0. • Mastery is considered to be 7 out of 10 correct or 70%. Method: Independent Variable • The intervention that will be utilized is Heggerty • Heggerty will be used to provide explicit and systematic phonological and phonemic awareness lessons 4 times per week. • The teacher will introduce 8 phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge skills • The lessons will be implemented in one on one lessons • Lessons will last 10-12 minutes The Heggerty Intervention Steps • The Heggerty Intervention will consist of the following interventions: • Rhyme recognition • Onset fluency • Blending sounds • Isolating final sounds Rhyme Recognition Intervention • The teacher will say a pair of words and the student will repeat the words pairs • The student will show a thumbs up if the word rhymes and a thumbs down if it does not rhyme Onset Fluency Intervention • The teacher says the word and the student repeats the word • The student isolates the onset Blending Sounds Intervention • The teacher says two words with a pause between them • The student repeats the two words with a pause and says the compound word using the blending hand motion Isolating Final Sound Intervention • Teacher states the word and the student will repeat the word • The student will isolate the final sound • The teacher will model punch it out using the hand motions Method: Data Collection • During baseline students will be given a short phonological awareness skills probe. • This will be a scripted assessment • The teacher will read the script and ask students to answer • Correct responses will be scored with a 1 • Incorrect responses will be scored with a 0 • Baseline testing will continue until 5 data points are established • During baseline students will be given the phonological awareness skills screeners without any additional instruction from the teacher Method Data Collection • Once the baseline has been established, a student will be given Heggerty interventions for 10-12 minutes a day for 4 days a week. • Once the mastery criteria of 70% is achieved on the first section of the Phonological Assessment Skills Screener, student B will enter Heggerty interventions • Student C will remain in the baseline phase without any interventions • During intervention each student will be given a phonological awareness probe after the 4th intervention session each week. • A phonological awareness probe will be given on day 5 • The instructor will score each probe and the results will be entered into a chart and graphed • Interventions will last until 5 data points have been collected Method: Graphs This is an example of a graph that could be used to chart data References • Khasawneh, M. (2021). The impact of phonological awareness in improving sequential memory among students with Learning disabilities. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. DOI: 10.1080/1034912X.2021.1995853. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F1034912X.2021.1995853&area=0000000000000001 • • Otaiba, S., McMaster, K., Wanzek, J. & Zaru, M. (2022). What we know and need to know about literacy interventions for elementary students with reading difficulties and disabilities, including dyslexia. International Literature Association.49(4)829-842 https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.458 • • • Barrueco, S., Cabell, S., Hoffman, J., Hollins, E., & Pearson, D. (2021). Critical issues in the science of reading: Striving for a wide-angle view in research. https://doi.org/10.1177/23813377211032195 • • • • • • • • Lovett, M. W., Frijters, J. C., Wolf, M., Steinbach, K. A., Sevcik, R. A., & Morris, R. D. (2017). Early intervention for children at risk for reading disabilities: The impact of grade at intervention and individual differences on intervention outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(7), 889–914. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000181 lucero, Margarie and Vargas, Danilo, READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION AMONG GRADE ONE PUPILS (March 18, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3807141 or http://dx.doi. org/10.2139/ssrn.3807141 • READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION AMONG GRADE ONE PUPILS Margarie Dela cruz-lucero1 and Danilo S. Vargas2 Department of Education1 Central Luzon State University2 margariedelacruzlucero@yahoo.com1 dsvargas@clsu.edu.ph • Authors: Genevieve McArthu, Anne Castles, Saskia Kohnen, Linda Larsen, Kristy Jones, Thushara Anandakumar, Erin Banales. • Article: Sight Word and Phonics Training in Children With Dyslexia. • Publication: Journal of Learning Disabilities (Sage Journals). 48(4), 391–407 2013 | DOI: 10.1177/0022219413504996 • [Full Text] • Citation:McArthur, G., Castles, A., Kohnen, S., Larsen, L., Jones, K., Anandakumar, T., & Banales, E. (2015). Sight Word and Phonics Training in Children With Dyslexia. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(4), 391–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219413504996 • Excerpts from Full Text / Notes:
