Results of the study over three years show that LD children fall progressively farther behind their normal peers in reading comprehension. In math, they stay relatively the same distance below their peers. The LD Ss' behavior is suboptimal for classroom learning, with less on-task and more off-task behavior. (Author/CL)

This 5-month action research project examined effects of a short-term interactive vocabulary instruction on reading comprehension with four intermediate grade students identified as having learning disabilities in reading. Participants read a narrative text and an expository text without vocabulary instruction and then received vocabulary…

Learning-disabled (LD) students showed significantly less argument on the importance ratings of story idea units than did normal students. Cue selection before recall depressed performance of the LD subjects relative to that of normal college students. (Author/PN)

Reports on regression analyses that determined the predictability of each of three oral reading behaviors on comprehension (unaided recall of story propositions) with adjustments for the effects of other variables so that the effect of a single oral reading behavior on comprehension could be independently determined. (HOD)

LD readers' failures were associated with a greater number of word recognition and vocabulary errors suggesting that LD readers were unable to extract enough relevant information to apply a successful line of reasoning. For related information see EC 132 758-768. (Author)

The study involving 46 learning disabled children (mean age eight years) was designed to determine the effects of training in paradigmatic language structures on the reading process of Ss. Findings lent support for the semantic and syntactic relativity of words and for the meaning inherent in the nucleus of key verbal elements linking ideas to one…

The article, the sixth in a series discussing specific tests of the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude (DTLA), deals with verbal opposites (word meanings in isolation) and verbal absurdities (word meanings in context). (DLS)

Students (N=120) with learning disabilities in grades 6-9 were assessed on comprehension of silently read materials under conditions of adjunct questioning, oral recitation questioning methods, and middle/end and end-only question placement. Results indicated a significant effect of method and a significant interaction between level and focus of…

The ability of 54 learning-disabled high-school students to monitor their comprehension was compared under three prereading conditions: self-questions only, structured overviews and self-questions, and a control condition. Subjects receiving both the overviews and self-questions were best able to detect errors during reading. (Author/DB)

The study compared the effectiveness of providing elementary students with learning disabilities with either (1) instruction in both story structure and self-questioning techniques or (2) just training in story structure identification. The combined self-questioning and story structure group demonstrated the greatest gains in reading…

The need for direct, systematic vocabulary instruction in improving language comprehension abilities of hearing-impaired and learning-disabled students is discussed. Vocabulary instruction should be knowledge-based and should be combined with extensive reading opportunities. Sample instructional techniques, such as word maps, semantic feature…

Research on text processing is reviewed including the role of text structure and summarization ability. Implications for the instruction of learning-disabled students include strategy instruction and instruction in such text processing skills as identifying main idea and identifying text structure. (DB)

In a repeated measures design, third grade students with learning disabilities (N=16) read under three treatment conditions: corrective feedback on every oral reading error, correction on meaning change errors only, and no feedback regardless of error. Corrective feedback on oral reading errors improved both word recognition accuracy and reading…

Results of two experiments involving 206 upper elementary school students supported the hypothesis that less-skilled readers suffer working memory deficits that contribute to comprehension problems independent of their problems in phonological coding. Results also suggest that constraints in an executive system may contribute to reading…

Student Assistant for Learning from Text (SALT) is a software system for developing hypermedia versions of textbooks for students with reading difficulties. Ten students with learning disabilities in grades 9 and 10 read passages from a science textbook in either the basic or computer-enhanced version. Students using the enhanced version received…