The authors reviewed studies on teaching reading comprehension to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with a focus on text (academic reading) comprehension and sight word (functional) comprehension. Eleven of 754 studies met the inclusion criteria: participants with ASD, published in English in a peer-reviewed journal, and use of an…

Sight-word instruction can improve functioning with various daily, recreational, and work-related tasks among children with moderate to severe disabilities. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of drill methods to teach sight words if the model contains at least 50% known items, which would also increase the number of opportunities…

Two programs that may be used for instruction of handicapped or remedial students in sight word recognition--the EDMARK Reading Program and the Essential Sight Words Program--are reviewed and compared in terms of words taught, program design, and potential usefulness. (CL)

A theoretical perspective on acquiring sight vocabulary and developing meaningful vocabulary is presented. Dual Coding Theory assumes that cognition occurs in two independent but connected codes: a verbal code for language and a nonverbal code for mental imagery. The mixed research literature on using pictures in teaching sight vocabulary is…

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of activity-based intervention and didactic instruction to teach sight word reading to four young children with developmental delays attending an inclusive child care centre. Following the collection of baseline measures, the two interventions, counterbalanced for word lists…

This 41-item bibliography of word lists and reading and writing vocabularies includes such entries as "Basic Elementary Reading Vocabularies,""The Functional Reading Word List for Adults,""Sight Words for Beginning Reading," and "A Basic Vocabulary for Elementary School Children." (TS)

Presents the 500 words which appeared most frequently in an extensive sampling of third grade materials, drawn from the Word Frequency Book,'' and compares the list to other existing sight word lists. (AN)

The author offers 16 sight word "tricks" that children can use to remember the spelling of 25 common sight words. Materials and techniques for teaching sight words are also suggested. (SBH)

The author created these engaging mini-books to help her own kindergarten students learn and practice sight words. They are now collected in one place. Each reproducible mini-book introduces one or two new sight words and reviews others, so the books are progressively more difficult. A quick assessment form helps teachers choose the book that is…

Three hundred children from two metropolitan areas were studied for 1 year to determine (1) the relationship between letter-name knowledge and reading success, (2) the relationship between letter-name learning and phonic learning, and (3) the ease and efficiency of vowel identification. The study concluded that the sooner a child learns the letter…

Six pairs of moderately or severely handicapped adults were taught to identify sight words, with those words directly taught to one student serving as words indirectly presented to the other. Results of probes revealed that most of the adults learned incidentally presented words and maintained performance across sets of words. (Author/CL)

When 99 elementary school learning disabled and normal children participated in one of four conditions (word identification and meaning aids, sentence aids, purpose setting aids, and prior knowledge aids), sentence aids were significantly more effective in improving comprehension than prior knowledge for both learning disabled and similarly…

This article provides a case study perspective of one child's literacy learning over the first semester of first grade. This young learner moves from creating stories for picture books to reading, and from stringing letters to using letter names and spelling sight words. Drawing from this data, a cross-analysis of "what was going on at the same…

Differential effects of three training procedures to teach sight words to 13 children with moderate to mild mental retardation were investigated in an alternating treatments design. Number of correct responses was assessed during probe sessions in word-alone (word was presented without picture), integrated-picture (word was presented with…

PCI Education sought scientifically based evidence on the effectiveness of the "PCI Reading Program--Level One" for students with severe disabilities. During the 2007-2008 academic year. Empirical Education conducted a randomized control trial (RCT) in two Florida districts, Brevard and Miami-Dade County Public Schools. For this…