The effect of using a tablet and a meta-cognitive strategy to improve reading comprehension skills for students with SLD

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) who struggle with reading at the early elementary school grades are at risk of having delayed reading skills and may struggle when they move to the upper grades. Students in the early grades read to learn reading; however, they need to read to learn school subjects as they move toward the upper grades. Thus, this study tested reading comprehension interventions appropriate for young learners. One method to help these students improve their reading skills is to teach them a comprehension strategy that directs their attention to what they are reading. At the same time, it is important to address the reading skills that are necessary to identify letters and words (i.e., decoding and fluency skills).

This study compared two reading interventions (repeated reading vs. tablet text-to-speech) combined with a comprehension strategy (question generation). Three times per week, each student received an intervention. In the first intervention, the students were required to read a passage (average of 100 words) three times. Before and after reading the passage, participants were asked to read and answer five generic questions. In the tablet intervention, the participants were asked to follow the same procedures, but they were required to listen to the passage on the tablet only once. The results of the study showed that two participants improved their reading comprehension skills with slight differences between the interventions. Also, the time required to administer the tablet intervention was shorter than that of the RAAC intervention.