The Impact of Text Reader Training and Teacher Strategies on a Six-week Reading Program

This study investigates the effects of intensive remediation in reading and assistive technology skills combined with the use of a computer based text to speech reader in a six-week intensive reading program for junior-age students with reading disabilities. The study reports on the strategies used by the teachers, week-by-week student progress, and the results of a criterion-referenced reading assessment. Other themes include student attitudes towards the technology and barriers to implementation. Findings indicate that a computer based text to speech reader provides significant compensatory support, resulting in improved fluency and comprehension scores. Students using technology were able to access paper and on-line text at a higher level. A model which builds on the work of Dyck and Pemberton (2002) and Edyburn (2004b, 2007) is proposed which provides a theoretical framework to assist schools in decisions about remediation or compensation for struggling readers in primary, junior, intermediate, and senior grades.MAS