Given the current emphasis on how to teach reading, also known as the debate on the "Science of Reading," this text addresses the fundamentals of reading instruction and provides practical evidence-based research and strategies to support students who may be experiencing reading challenges. With a keen focus on how to apply knowledge of…

Considerable attention and legislation are currently focused on developmental dyslexia. A major challenge to these efforts is how to define and operationalize dyslexia. In this article, we argue that rather than defining dyslexia on the basis of an underlying condition, dyslexia is best viewed as a label for an unexpected reading disability. This…

The reading ability of learners in the Foundation Phase through the development of reading proficiency at an early age could determine learning. With the study reported on here I intended to explore the challenges faced by Foundation Phase teachers in teaching reading. I used a qualitative approach and employed an explanatory case study design.…

This dissertation is comprised of five distinct chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to Direct Instruction reading interventions as well as an explanation of the challenges experienced by struggling readers identified with emotional disturbances. The next three chapters serve as standalone papers. Chapter 2 is a systematic literature…

Some students with visual impairments have not learned to read print or braille due to a variety of factors. The inability to read proficiently affects all areas of a person's life. Thus, it is essential that teachers of students with visual impairments (hereafter called "teachers") are systematic and use research-based practices in…

The contribution of self-regulation to academic achievement is supported by robust research evidence. Incorporating practices to enhance self-regulation during small-group reading instruction is associated with improved outcomes for upper-elementary students with learning disabilities in reading. Two evidence-based self-regulation practices are…

Reading can be a way to increase students' social interaction and writing, especially for the need to continue to a higher level of education. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show deficits in reading skills. Recent research shows that there is heterogeneity in this population, which is accompanied by a lack of personalized learning…

Some Swedish schools do not identify and support students with reading difficulties efficiently enough during the first years at school. A longitudinal design was used to examine a multitiered RtI-model for identifying and supporting students at risk of reading difficulties in a Swedish school context. The results demonstrated that the RtI-model…

Background: Despite evidence that synthetic phonics teaching has increased reading attainments, a sizable minority of children struggle to acquire phonics skills and teachers lack clear principles for deciding what types of "additional" support are most beneficial. Synthetic phonics teaches children to read using a decoding strategy to…

Educators have, to this point, largely viewed the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Response to Intervention (RtI) as important but unrelated initiatives. This view is problematic because it fails to acknowledge the potential for RtI to support readers who struggle to meet sophisticated standards and because it fails to attend to ways in…

Based on 52 studies with samples mostly from English-speaking countries, the current study used Bayesian network meta-analysis to investigate the intervention effectiveness of different reading comprehension strategy combinations on reading comprehension among students with reading difficulties in 3rd through 12th grade. We focused on commonly…

Reading is fundamental to academic success, but international reading surveys indicate current pedagogy fails a fifth of adolescents, disproportionately from lower-socioeconomic groups. This UK, mixed-method study evaluated the impact of two whole-text reading approaches on comprehension, using standardised tests. Twenty teachers of English and…

In this study, we randomly assigned struggling readers in special needs education (n = 23; 8-12 years of age) to a dog-assisted reading intervention or a similar intervention without a dog present. Students participated in 30-minute reading sessions twice a week for a total of six weeks. Using two standardised tests we measured reading skills…

Metacognition and reading comprehension skills are believed to influence students' academic success. However, many studies report that students' understanding of texts is still low even though they have been able to read fluently. This study aims to investigate and describe students' metacognitive awareness in reading comprehension learning…

The current study meta-analyzed 27 effects from 21 studies to determine the effect assessment of text difficulty had on reading fluency interventions, which resulted in an overall weighted effect size (ES) = 0.43 (95% CI = [0.25, 0.62], p < 0.001). Using reading passages that represented an instructional level based on accuracy criteria led to…