Read Naturally®: Effect on Reading Fluency

The current investigation explored the effects of the Read Naturally® program on the reading fluency of students with disabilities in an elementary school setting. Participants were eight students with disabilities grades three through six who were screened and found ready to receive a fluency intervention. Reading fluency pre-post measures were collected. Weekly progress monitoring was carried out and data was compared to national norms as described by the 2005 Hasbrouck-Tindal Table of Oral Reading Fluency Norms. All three female participants showed a downward trend in their progress monitoring data. In contrast, all male participants showed an upward trend. All except two participants showed fluency gains between the pre and post benchmark fluency data, however, only one of the participants reached the 50th percentile norm fluency rate for their grade level. The majority of the students expressed reading satisfaction and the program was implemented with fidelity except for communication with parents. The teachers and aides also expressed satisfaction with the program. The Read Naturally® program was implemented for the minimum recommended time, therefore, sufficient gains were not made to close the gap between students with disabilities using the Read Naturally® program and students remaining in the classroom for core instruction without interventions. Future research should replicate these findings in a larger, normative sample and encourage maximum recommended time for the implementation of the Read Naturally® program