This study examined the efficacy of systematic and explicit instruction in phonic decoding for 6 elementary students with moderate intellectual disabilities. A multiple probe across behaviors with embedded changing conditions design was employed in order to analyze the effect of Direct Instruction on teaching the following skills with regard to consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words: letter-sound identification, continuous sound blending, sounding out, and decoding (sounding out then telescoping). One student did not master the letter-sound correspondences. The remaining 5 students mastered all of the instructed items in letter-sound identification, continuous sound blending, sounding out, and the decoding of CVC words. In addition, all 5 students demonstrated a generalized understanding of letter-sound correspondence and a generalized skill in sounding out untaught words. However, only 2 students were able to fully decode (sound out then telescope) untaught words. These findings provide evidence that Direct Instruction techniques can be used to teach letter-sound correspondence and decoding to some students with moderate intellectual disabilities. The results have implications for instructional methods and reading expectations for students with moderate intellectual disabilities. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)