Content area
Full Text
The use of a three-step decoding strategy with constant time delay for teaching decoding and word reading to students with mild and moderate mental retardation was investigated in this study. A multiple probe design was used to examine the percentage of words correctly decoded and read as well as the percentage of sounds correctly decoded. The data indicate that all five students learned to read words using the three-step decoding strategy with constant time delay. This was replicated with increased learning efficiency using a second set of phonetically similar words. Implications of this study on phonological memory and reading ability are discussed.
Keywords: decoding; time delay; mental retardation; instruction; literacy
Reading at the individual word level involves decoding, analogy, prediction, and sight word vocabulary (Ehri & McCormack, 1998). Deficiencies in phonological coding are implicated in poor reading performance among students with mental retardation (Conners, Atwell, Rosenquist, & Sligh, 2001). Students with mental retardation may be untrained in these skills or have less effective strategies for their use (Stanovich, 1985). Torgesen (2001) found that intensive remediation in deficits in phonological coding skills, specifically systematic and explicit instruction focused on phonemic awareness and phonemic decoding skills, resulted in substantial gains in reading ability of students with severe reading disabilities. This suggests that some poor readers may benefit from increasing their phonological coding ability.
The Role of IQ and Memory Difficulties in Reading Ability
Memory difficulties affecting reading appear to be related to phonological working memory and specifically to the rehearsal process in students with mild and moderate mental retardation (Conners et al., 2001). Phonological working memory is used for such tasks as processing and recalling strings of letters, words, or the words of a sentence or those in which the materials to be memorized involve words or object names requiring verbal encoding (Liberman & Shankweiler, 1991; Mann & Liberman, 1984). Memory for phonological information does not necessarily translate to memory for other types of information (Mann, 1985; Stanovich, 1985). The rehearsal process provides a means to refresh phonological codes in working memory. Conners et al. found that the strongest predictor of decoding ability was rehearsal process. Additional factors affecting decoding ability were age (with older individuals being better decoders), strong language skills, and phonemic awareness. IQ...