Decoding intervention for young students with mild intellectual disabilities: A single-subject design study

Area of Science:

• Special Education
• Developmental Psychology
• Applied Linguistics

Background:

• Students with intellectual disabilities require explicit instruction and more time for word decoding development.
• Prior intervention research in this area is predominantly based on English language studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of a Swedish word-decoding intervention for students with intellectual disabilities.
• To assess the impact on decoding skills in a non-English speaking context.

Main Methods:

• A single-subject-design study involving five fourth-grade students with mild intellectual disabilities.
• The Wolff Intensive Program, focusing on phonemic decoding and reading fluency, was administered over 25 sessions by special education teachers.
• Word and non-word decoding were measured during baseline and intervention phases.

Main Results:

• All participating students demonstrated improved decoding abilities.
• Students increased their speed of decoding words (NAP=0.84-1.00) and reduced decoding errors in both word and non-word tasks (NAP=0.72-1.00).

Conclusions:

• The Swedish word-decoding intervention shows promising results for improving reading skills in students with intellectual disabilities.
• Further research is recommended to confirm these findings in larger, diverse populations.