A comparison of two flash-card methods for improving sight-word reading

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Early Literacy Interventions

Background:

• Flash cards are effective tools for teaching sight-word reading.
• Incremental rehearsal (IR) is the current leading flash-card method, involving interspersing unknown words with known ones.
• Existing methods may be enhanced by incorporating learner response data and systematic prompting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the efficacy of strategic incremental rehearsal (SIR) against traditional incremental rehearsal (IR).
• To investigate if SIR improves sight-word acquisition by integrating increased response opportunities and adaptive learning strategies.
• To evaluate the impact of systematic prompting within the SIR procedure.

Main Methods:

• An A-B-A-B single-subject design was employed to compare IR and SIR.
• Four elementary school students participated in the study.
• Instructional effectiveness was measured by the number of correctly read sight words.

Main Results:

• Students demonstrated higher rates of correct sight-word reading when using the SIR method compared to IR.
• The benefits of SIR were maintained at a 2-week follow-up assessment.
• Adaptive learning components within SIR appeared to enhance word acquisition.

Conclusions:

• Strategic incremental rehearsal (SIR) is a more effective intervention for improving sight-word reading than traditional incremental rehearsal (IR).
• Incorporating learner responding and systematic prompting into flash-card instruction can significantly boost reading acquisition.
• SIR offers a promising, data-driven approach for early literacy interventions.