Exceptional Children最新文献

This article introduces the special section on adaptive interventions and sequential multiple-assignment randomized trial (SMART) research designs. In addition to describing the two accompanying articles, we discuss features of adaptive interventions (AIs) and describe the use of SMART design to optimize AIs in the context of multitiered systems of support (MTSS) and integrated MTSS. AI is a treatment delivery model that explicitly specifies how information about individuals should be used to decide which treatment to provide in practice. Principles that apply to the design of AIs may help to more clearly operationalize MTSS-based programs, improve their implementation in school settings, and increase their efficacy when used according to evidence-based decision rules. A SMART is a research design for developing and optimizing MTSS-based programs. We provide a running example of a SMART design to optimize an MTSS-aligned AI that integrates academic and behavioral interventions.

Over the past decade, parent advocacy groups led a grassroots movement resulting in most states adopting dyslexia-specific legislation, with many states mandating the use of the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction. Orton-Gillingham is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive approach to reading for students with or at risk for word-level reading disabilities (WLRD). Evidence from a prior synthesis and What Works Clearinghouse reports yielded findings lacking support for the effectiveness of Orton-Gillingham interventions. We conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effects of Orton-Gillingham reading interventions on the reading outcomes of students with or at risk for WLRD. Findings suggested Orton-Gillingham reading interventions do not statistically significantly improve foundational skill outcomes (i.e., phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, spelling; effect size [ES] = 0.22; p = .40), although the mean ES was positive in favor of Orton-Gillingham-based approaches. Similarly, there were not significant differences for vocabulary and comprehension outcomes (ES = 0.14; p = .59) for students with or at risk for WLRD. More high-quality, rigorous research with larger samples of students with WLRD is needed to fully understand the effects of Orton-Gillingham interventions on the reading outcomes for this population.

Because of the importance of teaching reading comprehension to struggling young readers and the infrequency with which it has been implemented and evaluated, we designed a comprehensive first-grade reading comprehension program. We conducted a component analysis of the program's decoding/fluency (DF) and reading comprehension (COMP) dimensions, creating DF and DF+COMP treatments to parse the value of COMP. Students (N = 125) were randomly assigned to the 2 active treatments and controls. Treatment children were tutored 3 times per week for 21 weeks in 45-min sessions. Children in DF and DF+COMP together performed more strongly than controls on word reading and comprehension. However, pretreatment word reading appeared to moderate these results such that children with weaker beginning word reading across the treatments outperformed similarly low-performing controls to a significantly greater extent than treatment children with stronger beginning word reading outperformed comparable controls. DF+COMP children did not perform better than DF children. Study limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.