The process of learning to read is more difficult for English language learners (ELLs) because they are often learning a new language as they are trying to learn to read. Learning irregular/high-frequency words (sight words) may be especially challenging for ELL students. Limited research exists on the effects of interventions designed to help ELL…

Assessing a student's acquisition rates (ARs) is a reliable way to determine how many new words should be taught in one lesson without reducing retention. Exceeding a student's AR can result in frustration and problem behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of AR on the off-task behavior of kindergarten students while…

Little is known about the content and quality of reading instruction provided to students with intellectual disability. This study aimed to describe the reading instruction provided to students with intellectual disability who were not yet readers in self-contained elementary classrooms. The teachers of 24 classrooms participated in the study.…

Working with a post-secondary student with intellectual disability, an adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare sight-word acquisition across three computer-delivered learning trial interventions: one with fixed 5-s response intervals, another with fixed 1-s response intervals, and a third with self-determined intervals. Visual…

We evaluated a procedure for teaching two children, one typically developing and one with autism, a higher-order generalized operant response class of unscrambling sight words. The procedures were efficacious in teaching the participants to unscramble words appearing in isolation and in the context of a sentence, with 98% of the presented…

Students with intellectual disability often have difficulty reading commonly used words. Researchers have found altering printed text from fluent, easy-to-read font, to disfluent, difficult-to-read font can enhance comprehension and recall. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare sight-word acquisition and…

Teaching children too many words during a lesson reduces retention. The amount of new information a student can successfully rehearse and recall later is called acquisition rate (AR), which has been reliably measured with students in first, third, and fifth grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of assessing AR for sight…

Despite the importance of literacy in today's educational curriculum, learning to read is a challenge for many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of the foundational skills of early literacy learning is the ability to recognize sight words. This study used a single-subject, multiple-probe, across-participants design, to investigate…

For the purpose of this research, a concurrent multiple baseline design was used to measure the effects of a Constant Time Delay (CTD) intervention. CTD was implemented as an intervention to support four transition students' abilities to recognize functional sight words. The sessions were held during a summer transition program on a large…

The English language plays a major role around the world, making it important to learn English in order to participate and communicate in our globalized age. Adequate foreign language (L2) skills are important for everyday life and can even enhance performance in one's first language (L1). A growing number of very heterogeneous classrooms make it…

The authors of the current investigation developed and evaluated the effects of a tutoring system based on a small-group arrangement to two young adults with autism spectrum disorder on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of sight words. The tutoring system was comprised of a virtual teacher to instruct sight words, and a humanoid…

In a test-driven educational environment, teachers see a great need for more engaging resources that produce the literacy results needed for students to thrive academically. In 2015, The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 36% of fourth graders scored at or above the Proficient level of reading. This statistic was…

Incremental Rehearsal (IR) is an effective, evidence-based intervention for teaching words that uses high repetition and a high ratio of unknown and known items. The purpose of the present research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using Incremental Rehearsal to improve the fluency in reading sight words for three elementary students…

Languages differ in the way that speech and meaning are represented in written form: in English, the correspondences are variable. Thus, in learning to read in English there is need for an approach that combines alphabetic decoding and a mastery of sight vocabulary. Teaching children to read should develop from an analysis of the skills and…

School psychologists will likely become more involved in supporting the reading achievement of English language learners (ELLs). This requires evidence-based interventions that are validated for ELL students. Incremental rehearsal (IR) is an evidence-based intervention for teaching words, but the resource intensity often precludes its use. Using…