Slide 1

Carly Roberts Reading Instruction for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

Slide 2

Background Reading instruction for students with moderate to severe developmental disabilities has an overemphasis on sight words and lacks a clear focus It is difficult to focus on authentic reading and beginning skills during adolescence when the focus is often on transition skills Middle school students with severe disabilities may not have skills to engage with books You can adapt age appropriate novels/books to create meaningful literacy lessons Systematic prompting procedures (time delay) are used to teach sight words but can also be incorporated in story based lessons Task analyses can be incorporated into lesson plan formats

Slide 3

The Article Browder, D. M., Trela, K., & Jimenez, B. (2007). Training teachers to follow a task analysis to engage middle school students with moderate and severe developmental disabilities in grade-appropriate literature. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 22, 206-219.

Slide 4

Purpose Train teachers to monitor their own use of a task analysis for sharing literature typical of middle school language arts and to promote the skills of the participating students for engaging with books Modify age-appropriate books and lessons using the Universal Design for Learning approach Teachers use systematic prompting to engage students in a story

Slide 5

Teacher Participants Teachers who served middle school students with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities or autism Teachers certified in special education Limited literacy preparation

Slide 6

Student Participants 6 students total Non-readers Verbal or non-verbal IQ below 55 12-14 years old 2 used AAC

Slide 7

Design Single-subject design Multiple-probe across participants Data taken on teacher behavior and student behavior Three phases Prebaseline prior to training Baseline after general training Observations after intervention

Slide 8

Procedures Adapted grade level novels Text modified Symbols added Vocabulary definitions embedded within Utilized story retelling Created Task Analyses Teachers used lesson plan format and followed steps on the task analyses

Slide 9

Example of Adapted Text

Slide 10

Lesson Plan Task Analysis

Slide 11

Results All three teachers improved their percentage of steps accurately followed for the task analysis when the template was provided All 6 students significantly increased their number of independent responses during literacy lessons Teachers reported satisfaction with the intervention

Slide 12

Teachers Pre-baseline: literacy instruction as usual Baseline: attended literacy instruction workshop, planned lesson with general education teacher, given adapted books Intervention: trained using lesson plan task analysis How effective was the intervention?

Slide 13

Students Independent responses during literacy lessons How effective was the intervention?

Slide 14

Important Big Ideas Story based lessons are a way to increase meaningful participation of students in literacy lessons Adapting grade level books can make these lessons age appropriate for adolescents Task analytic instruction and systematic prompting can be used in literacy lessons for students with moderate to severe disabilities Task analyses can help teachers monitor their own instruction

Slide 15

Some questions to consider Does this strategy seem practitioner friendly? In this study, the interventionists modified the books, would teachers be able to do this? Do they have the time? Do you think self-monitoring by teachers leads to better educational outcomes for students? What are other ways they can do this besides the task analyses? Can teachers incorporate this strategy in an inclusive environment? What are other ways in which we can engage students with moderate to severe disabilities in meaningful literacy instruction?

Slide 16

Some questions to consider Are there ways to adapt other grade level appropriate materials for students with significant cognitive disabilities? How do we currently prepare teachers to teach reading to students with significant cognitive disabilities? What implications do these findings have on the way we prepare pre-service teachers?