Comprehending expository text: Promising strategies for struggling readers and students with reading disabilities?

Abstract

Abstract This article examines studies that have attempted to help increase comprehension of expository text for students who are struggling readers and/or have reading disabilities. In doing so, this review reveals that (a) few studies have explicitly claimed to include these students in their work and (b) future research needs to include larger numbers of these students in such studies. This review also shows that the majority of work that has been done in this area has used social studies texts. Few studies exist that were designed to help increase comprehension of mathematics and/or science text. Finally, this review questions the texts that were used in these studies and suggests that different results may have been found if researchers had used texts written at students instructional, rather than frustration, levels.