RESEARCH ARTICLE


The Effects of Using Direct Instruction Curricula in the Home to Teach Reading Comprehension to a 12-Year-Old Student with Cerebral Palsy



Anna Owens, Amy Violette, Kimberly P. Weber, T. F. McLaughlin*
Department of Special Education, Gonzaga University, 502 East Boone Avenue, Spokane, WA 99258- 0102, USA.

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2009
Volume: 2
First Page: 9
Last Page: 14
Publisher Id: TOFAMSJ-2-9
DOI: 10.2174/1874922400902010009

Article History:

Received Date: 17/12/2008
Revision Received Date: 13/1/2009
Acceptance Date: 14/1/2009
Electronic publication date: 6/2/2009
Collection year: 2009

© 2009 Owens et al;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Special Education, Gonzaga University, 502 East Boone Avenue, Spokane, WA 99258- 0102, USA; Tel: +5093133508; Fax: 5093135965; E-mails: tim.mclaughlin6@comcast.net, mclaughlin@gonzaga.edu


Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of Direct Instruction curricula for teaching reading comprehension skills in the home. The participant was a 12-year-old girl who was enrolled in the seventh grade at a public middle school in the Pacific Northwest. She had been unable to pass her Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) in the sixth grade. Two undergraduate students served as instructors. Each session began by asking 12 systematically random comprehension questions from the lessons of Corrective Reading Comprehension Skills Book B1. These comprehension questions served as the major dependent variable. The results indicated an increase number of correct reading comprehensions when Direct Instruction materials and procedures were employed. The use of Direct Instruction was cost effective, required little training to correctly implement, and was time efficient. The participant enjoyed the procedures and was proud of her improvements in reading.