Special Education Intervention Strategies

Lisa Harper

Professor Ramer

October 29, 2008

Problem: Alice is having trouble reading orally and fluently on grade level due to visual motor integration problems.

Interventions/Accommodations

Use of passage previewing activities

Research by Thomas and Wexler (2007) on 10 Ways to Teach and Support Struggling Adolescent Readers indicates that passage previewing material improves reading fluency and comprehension.

The implementation of this intervention has certain steps to follow to give the reader the basis for better reading skills with fluency and comprehension. The teacher has the student listen to an audiotape or another person reading so they can have an introduction to the material. After they have heard the information once the student reads the passage aloud themselves. The teacher provides corrective feedback. As an adaptation the student may listen to the audiotape several times before attempting to read themselves. Students with visual motor integration disabilities cannot see the whole picture and must have several instances with the information to process it as a whole. By allowing the student to have many opportunities to listen to the passage the student can slowly picture what is being read aloud without trying to comprehend it while reading it.

Citation: Thomas, Cathy and Wexler, Jade (Fall 2007). 10 Ways to Teach and Support Struggling Adolescent Readers. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 22-29

Use Organizers to present information

Research by Salend in 2005 found in the article Teaching Social Studies toHigh School Students withLearning Problems by Marcee Steele in 2007 indicates that information that is organized can simplify material that may seem too complex to understand visually.

The idea of the intervention is to bring out the most important points of the information. The students should get organizers before reading so they can be familiar with the material. This idea is one of previewing what the reading will be about as an introduction. After the reading has concluded the student should get a summary of the material and a review. The type of organizer should be chosen to one that would best suit the needs of the student. They can consist of charts, webs, timelines or oral presentation. For a student with visual motor integration disabilities the visual image ones may need to be used as a constant for their viewing or an oral version where the student can listen and gain the information needed as they could hear it several times to get a better image.

Citation: Steele, Marcee (March 2007). Teaching Social Studies to High School Students with Learning Problems. Social Studies, 98 (2), 59-63