Visual Imagery and Self-Questioning: Strategies to Improve Comprehension of Written Material

Two learning strategies, visual imagery and self-questioning, designed to increase reading comprehension, were taught to six learning disabled students using a multiple baseline across strategies design. The visual imagery strategy requires the student to read a passage and to create visual images representative of the content of the passage. The self-questioning strategy teaches the student to form questions about the content of a passage as he or she reads to maintain interest and to enhance recall. Specific instructional procedures were followed that included: (a) testing the student's current level of functioning, (b) describing the strategy, (c) modeling the strategy, (d) verbal rehearsal of strategy steps, (e) practice in reading ability level material, and if) practice in grade level material. Results of the study indicate that LD students can learn the two strategies and can apply them in both reading ability level and grade level materials. The students ' use of the strategies resulted in greater comprehension scores from the pretest in baseline to the posttest after training. Instructional time for each strategy ranged from five to seven hours