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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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?