Children at risk for developing reading difficulties: A remediation study

Abstract

This article reports two different experiments as part of a longitudinal study. The first experiment examines the long-term efficacy of two brief remedial procedures (a Meaning-Based procedure versus a cognitive remediation program, the PASS Reading Enhancement Program [PREP]) focusing on the differences in phonological and cognitive test performance of 40 children who needed remediation for poor word decoding in Grade 1. The second study reports the outcomes of an intensified version of the PREP program that emphasizes strengthening the cognitive processes underlying reading in a remaining group of 24 difficult-to-remediate Grade 2 students. Follow-up data are also reported for this group. The results of the first study indicated that the PREP group improved significantly more in pseudo-word reading compared to the meaning-based group right after remediation in Grade 1. These differences, however, were somewhat reduced when re-testing occurred in Grade 2 and may be due to the influence of classroom instruction. Indeed, when both groups were compared to the norming sample, they appeared to continue to develop at an accelerated rate. As for the results of the second study, which focused on the longitudinal development of those 24 children who exhibited a history of chronic low reading performance, it was shown that PREP remediation kept producing significant gains, especially in word-decoding, a finding consistent with the theoretical framework of PREP.