Presents the selective synthesis of instructional research with children and adolescents with learning disabilities, analyzing studies across instructional domains, sample characteristics, intervention parameters, and sampling procedures. Synthesis indicates that reading is the most researched domain, and intervention studies that produce the highest effect sizes were related to derivations of cognitive and/or direct instruction.
From NASP:
A Selective Synthesis of Intervention Research for Students with Learning Disabilities" by H. L. Swanson, Cristi Carson, and Carole M. Sachse-Lee
EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTIONS FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES: H. L. Swanson, Cristi Carson, and Carole Sachse-Lee of the University of California, Riverside, reviewed the results of 78 studies that tested educational interventions for children with learning disabilities. They reported several findings: First, reading is the most widely researched academic area, whereas mathematics interventions are not well researched. Second, interventions that yielded the highest academic gains taught cognitive strategies, followed by those using direct instruction and remedial instruction. Third, the higher the number of intervention sessions per week, the higher the gains in academic functioning. Fourth, cognitive strategy instruction is most effective when taught within an academic domain, rather than as isolated skills. Fifth, the effectiveness of specific strategies may vary as a function the academic domain. That is, Swanson and his colleagues reported that cognitive a strategy instruction and direct instruction are the most effective interventions for teaching reading comprehension: whereas phonetic (decoding) strategy training and remedial instruction are most effective for improving word recognition and spelling skills. Cognitive strategy instruction also is effective for improving communication and language skills. School psychologists are well advised to consider such research findings when making recommendations for students with learning disabilities. |
Concerned about your child's development? Want to know more about a specific disability and the organizations that focus on that disability? Connect here with information about development, fact sheets on disability categories that qualify children for special education and related services, and much more. |
What do we do when disability affects a student’s ability to learn math skills? That’s the reality for literally millions of students in our schools; certain disabilities do add to the challenge of learning an already challenging subject. Therefore, what the research has to say about effective math instruction for students with disabilities is a vital tool in the hands of school personnel responsible for designing and delivering math programming. This publication offers just such research-based tools and guidance to teachers, administrators, and families. |
This article summarizes a comprehensive synthesis of experimental intervention studies that have included students with learning disabilities. Effect sizes for 180 intervention studies were analyzed across instructional domains, sample characteristics, intervention parameters, methodological procedures, and article characteristics. The overall mean effect size of instructional intervention was positive and of high magnitude (M = 0.79). Effect sizes were more positive for a combined model that included components of direct and strategy instruction than for competing models. Interventions that included instructional components related to controlling task difficulty, small interactive groups, and directed responses and questioning of students were significant predictors of effect size, and interventions that varied from control conditions in terms of setting, teacher, and number of instructional steps yielded larger effect sizes than studies that failed to control for such variations. The results are supportive of the pervasive influence of cognitive strategy and direct instruction models for remediating the academic difficulties for children with learning disabilities. |
A meta-analysis (37 published studies) that summarized treatment outcomes associated with skills training with antisocial youth was performed. As is consistent with the hypothesis, results indicate that skills training interventions delivered in the context of homogeneous groups of deviant peers produced smaller benefits than did skills training interventions delivered in the context of mixed groups of prosocial and deviant peers, or individual treatment. Also, as expected, treatment provided in the context of deviant-only groups attenuated treatment benefits more for more severely disordered groups such as those who are incarcerated or placed in a class for behavioral or emotional problems, than for youth who might only be at-risk for such conditions. |
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