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DOI: 10.1055/s-2008-1042624
© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York
Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills to Spina Bifida Children
Publication History
Publication Date:
25 March 2008 (online)
Abstract
Thirteen children with spina bifida (mean age 11 yrs 11 mths) and a mean reading comprehension reading deficit of 10.5 mths were enrolled into a remedial programme. The withdrawal single case study methodology was used (baseline - 5 weeks, treatment - 5 weeks, withdrawal - 12 weeks). Each child was seen twice a week for 15 minutes during both the baseline and treatment stages. A teaching programme based on a cloze technique was utilized only during the treatment stage. The technique involved teaching each child a strategy for systematically examining a text for meaning.
A halving of the comprehension deficit was observed by the end of the treatment stage, with a mean regression of almost 3 months at the end of the withdrawal stage. No relationship between IQ and gains in reading comprehension was observed. The results may indicate that, in part, reading comprehension deficits are performance deficits which, in turn, may be mediated by attentional strategies.
Key words
Reading skills - Remedial teaching - Spina bifida