EFFECTIVE

INTERVENTIONS FOR
WORD DECODING AND
READING
COMPREHENSION

Mayra A. Garza
Luz Maria Lavalle
Estefania Walters
 INTRODUCTION

• Children with reading difficulties are a

heterogeneous population
• Many children present with comorbid deficits in
one or more aspects of oral language
• Instructional techniques used to improve
reading outcomes will vary according to the
nature of the reading problem, and the factors
contributing to it
 TARGET POPULATIONS

• Dyslexia or specific reading deficit: reading problems

children experience primarily because of difficulties in decoding
or word recognition
• Specific comprehension deficit: reading problems of children
who have reasonably good decoding skills but experience
significant difficulties in listening comprehension
• Mixed reading disability (MRD): subgroup of poor readers
who demonstrate difficulties in both decoding and listening
comprehension
• Non-specified reading disorder: problems in reading
comprehension that cannot be attributed with any certainty to
weakness in either decoding or listening comprehension
 TARGET AREAS OF INTERVENTION

Phonological
Awareness Oral Language

Letter-sound
correspondance
Reading Text Structure
Word Decoding Comprehension

Word Recognition

Comprehension
Strategy Instruction
Fluency
 PROCESSES UNDERLYING WORD-
LEVEL DECODING

• Beginner readers must coordinate many cognitive processes to read

accurately and fluently
• These include recognizing words, constructing the meanings of sentences and
text, and retaining the information read in memory
• Comprehension of print occurs by learning the alphabetic system
• Awareness of phonemes (sounds)
• Graphemes (letters)
• Phoneme-grapheme correspondences
• Phonological and Ortographic patterns, and the rules governing the internal
phonological organization of words in their language.
• Mental graphemic representations
• Are ortographic patterns learned and stored after direct instruction and/or
repeated experiences with print. Examples such as ight in words like right,
fight, and light
 WORD DECODING

• Depends on the mastery of a number of subskills

• Phonological Awareness
• Sound-letter correspondence, letter name knowledge,
and knowledge of ortographic patterns
• Reading Fluency
• Vocabulary Knowledge
• Establishing strong skills for fluent word
recognition, and vocabulary knowledge is critical
to the task of making sense of text
 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS (PA)

• A metalinguistic ability by which children become aware that

their language comprises separate sounds.
• One of the most important factors contributing to the
development of proficient word recognition.
• This ability assists children in:
• Mapping spoken sounds onto the letters of the alphabet
• Recognizing orthographic patterns and regularities in printed
words.
 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
TRAINING

• Same instruction than other children, but more

intensive
• Individual and small group settings
• Additional guided practice
• More opportunities to practice
• Successful interventions include
• Intrinsically rewarding activities that are fun and
engaging to the child
• Computerized programs
• Sound-counting technique
 LEVEL OF PA SKILL
DIFFICULTY

Simplest WORD Counting words in a

sentence
SYLLABLE Counting syllables
Segmenting syllables
Identifying first, last,
middle syllables
Blending syllables
Manipulating syllables
PHONOLOGICAL (adding, deleting,
substituting)
AWARENESS
Complex ONSET-RIME Blending onset and rime
SKILLS Generating rhyming
words

Most PHONEMIC Identifying sounds in

Complex AWARENES words
S Blending sounds to form
a syllable
Segmenting sounds in a
syllable
 SOUND-LETTER CORRESPONDENCE
(PHONICS)

• Phonics is the matching of the sounds of the language to the

letters/graphemes of the alphabet
• Letter name knowledge
• Experience with print, allows children to become familiar with
orthographic patterns, and leads to automatic, fluent reading
• Training programs include:
• Mnemonic techniques—link a symbol to a particular sound and letter
being learned.
• Systematic phonics instruction—Stresses the acquisition of letter-sound
correspondences and their use to read and spell words

Synthetic convert letters into phonemes and then blend

phonics these sounds to form recognizable words
Avoids the pronunciation of sounds in isolation,
Analytic instead they analyze letter-sound relations once
phonics the word is identified

Analogy teach children to use parts of written words they

phonics already know to identify new words
Phonics
through
spelling to transform sounds into letters to write words
 READING FLUENCY INSTRUCTION

• Reading Fluency Instruction—the speed, accuracy, and expressiveness

with which children read orally.
• Reading effortlessly and accurately allows children to devote cognitive resources
to the comprehension task.
• Nonfluent readers: read slowly, laboriously, and inaccurately. 
• Children with language learning impairments: make frequent oral reading errors,
known as miscues. 
• Focus of intervention:
• Fluency to improve automatic word recognition 
• Reading comprehension
 Listening
Repeated
Passage
Reading(RR
Preview(LP
)
P)
Wide
Echo
Reading (W
E V I D E N C E -B ASE D Reading
R)
S T RATE GIE S FOR
I M P ROVE M E N T OF
R E A D IN G FLUE N CY Guided
Choral
Oral
Reading
Reading

Partner
Reading
 COMMON APPROACHES
FOR IMPROVEMENT OF FLUENCY

• Repeated reading (RR)

• The practice of reading a text more than once, three to five times
• Improvements are noted in: word recognition, reading rate, and passage
comprehension.
• Intervention program:
• Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)—conducted in a classroom
setting with whole-class and individual peer-tutoring.
• Components include: partner reading, paragraph summarization, and
instruction in predicting outcomes in stories
• Significant improvement in word reading accuracy, reading rate, and
passage comprehension for children with learning disabilities (LD), and
for children who are low to low-average readers
 COMMON APPROACHES
FOR IMPROVEMENT OF FLUENCY

• Listening Passage Preview (LPP)

• Asks participants to listen as the interventionist reads a passage
while they follow along silently before reading it aloud themselves.

• Nonrepetitive reading or “wide reading” (WR)

• The task involves a single reading (echo or unison) of a wide variety
of narratives (e.g. storybooks).
• Substantial results for: word recognition in isolation, prosody, correct
words per minute, and comprehension.  
 READING FLUENCY

• Echo reading: the adult reads a short passage to the

student(s)/the student rereads the same passage aloud.
• Choral reading: groups of children read passages together, so
that weaker readers are supported by stronger ones.
• Guided oral reading: the adult reads first and provides a model
of fluent reading. The students reread passages 3 to 5 times with
feedback and guidance from the adult.
• Partner reading: two students read the same text aloud in
unison, or alternate turns reading while the partner listens and
provides feedback
 VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

• Studies have shown that students with more extensive vocabularies

do better in reading comprehension as well as in oral language
activities.
• Limited vocabulary knowledge and poor reading comprehension are
closely related. 
 EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS

• One of the first tasks associated with designing effective vocabulary instruction is to select
which word meanings to teach.
• Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2002, 2008) suggested that words may be classified into one of
three tiers of word meanings:

Tier One
• Consist of basic words that occur frequently in life (e.g. baby, ball, happy,
walk).
Tier Two-
• Highly frequent in terms of use by mature English language users. Found
in sophisticated literature and across a variety of knowledge domains
(e.g. coincidence, fortunate).
• Direct instruction can have major impact on verbal functioning, reading,
and writing development.
Tier Three
• Used infrequently.
• They tend to be limited to specific knowledge domains (e.g. math, music,
medicine). Examples: carburator, isotope, strabismus.
 EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS

• Follow Beck & colleagues use of “student friendly” definitions and

explanations when teaching Tier two and three.
• 1. Describe the word meaning using Tier One words if possible
• 2. Explain how the word meaning is used in everyday
language
• 3. Invite students to explain the word meaning to you or a
peer
 Keyword, or
Direct instruction Cognitive strategy Activity-based
mnemonic strategy
(DI) techniques instruction instruction (ABI)
instruction
• Children are reminded • Children learn • active approach in • Children learn new
of a word or series of through explicit, which children vocabulary in the
words that sound like systematic participate in a context of daily
a new vocabulary procedures. number of different activities.
word that they are • Ex. Locating a new activities designed to • Ex: Children
learning. word in the text, link new words to participating in a
• A picture of the having a discussion prior knowledge or series of lessons each
keyword interacting of its definition, experience week in order to learn
with the “meaning” of using the word in a • Ex. List important about ocean
the new vocabulary sentence. concepts and creatures. 
word (imagery) to • Computer-assisted vocabulary found in
help them remember instruction (CAI) text passages and
it. • Remediation rate how closely
• Ex:aplomb =plum presented on a they relate to each
computer other.
• Useful to improve • Children might
reading skills for brainstorm
students with meanings of the
learning disabilities. words, write
• Effective when sentences using
teaching practices their definitions,
such as explicit, and/or answer
strategic, and questions about the
scaffolded vocabulary
instruction are identified using
employed.   relational maps they
• Constant time have designed.
delay(CTD) method
• Children are shown
vocabulary words,
 READING COMPREHENSION
INTERVENTIONS

• The Reader: brings his or her capabilities such as attention, memory, analytic

ability, language knowledge, motivation, background knowledge, and life
experience.
• The Text: includes the words on the page, the ideas behind those words, and
the mental models that are taken in the text.
• The Activity: involves processing the text, which includes decoding the text,
higher-level processing of the meaning, and self-monitoring for comprehension.
• The Context: in which reading is taught, since all learning occurs within a
context of the socio-cultural environments in which children live and learn to
read.

• Oral Language
• Text Structure
• Comprehension Strategy Instruction
 ORAL LANGUAGE

• Help children to expand their knowledge and increasing their vocabulary

to improve reading comprehension.
• Understanding academic language: language used in books and in
teachers’ explanations and instructions that many students will be
unfamiliar with.
• Domain-specific vocabulary and words richer and more abstract than the words
we use in everyday social speech
• Understanding figurative language: it has a meaning other than the
literal meaning of the word/phrase.
• It can be confusing for concrete thinkers and second language learners
• Idioms – “a stitch in time saves nine”
• Metaphors –”time flies when you are having fun”
• Colloquial expressions – “you look blue”
• Robust Vocabulary Instruction:
• A large vocab repertoire facilitates becoming an
educated person to the extent that vocabulary
knowledge is strongly related to reading proficiency in
particular and school achievement in general
• Vocab is tightly related to reading comprehension
across the age span
• Primary grades, intermediate grades, high school,
and with adults
• A robust approach to vocabulary involves directly
explaining the meanings of words along with thought-
provoking, playful, and interactive follow-up
 TEXT STRUCTURE

• Knowledge of text structure has been effective in improving

reading comprehension
• Metacognitive
• Identify where the difficulty occurs
• Identify what the difficulty is
• Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words
• Look back through the text
• Look forward in the text for information that might help them
• Narrative structure: it has an organizational structure that
help with reading comprehension
• Setting, characters, problem/conflict, actions or solutions that are
attempted, climax or resolution of the story
 COMPREHENSION STRATEGY
INSTRUCTION
• Elements most important for good reading comprehension:
background knowledge, vocabulary, and the ability to think
critically.
• Monitoring comprehension: children awareness, as reading, of
whether they understand what they are reading.
• Be aware of what they do understand
• Identify what they do not understand
• Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension
• Graphic organizers: illustrate concepts and relationships
between concepts in a text.
• Focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts
• Read and understand textbooks and picture books
• Write will-organized summaries of a text
EXAMPLES OFGRAPHIC ORGANIZERS
• Venn-Diagrams: Used to compare or contrast information
from two sources.
• Comparing two Dr. Seuss books.
• Storyboard/Chain of events: Used to order or sequence
events within a text.
• Listing the steps for brushing your teeth.
• Story map: Used to chart the story structure. These can be
organized into fiction and nonfiction text structures.
• Defining characters, setting, events, problem, resolution in a fiction
story; however in a nonfiction story, main idea and details would be
identified.
• Cause/Effect: Used to illustrate the cause and effects told
within a text.
• Staying in the sun too long may lead to a painful sunburn.
• Questioning techniques: encourages students to learn how to
answer questions better.
• Give students a purpose for reading
• Focus students' attention on what they are to learn
• Help students to think actively as they read
• Encourage students to monitor their comprehension
• Help students to review content and relate what they have learned to what
they already know
• Four types of questions:
1. Right there: ask students to find the one right answer located in
the text in one place as a word or a sentence in the passage.
2. Think and search: based on the recall of facts that can be found
directly in the text. 
3. Author and you: require students to use what they already know,
as well as what they have learned from reading the text.
4. On your own: Questions are answered based on a students’ prior
knowledge and experiences. 
• Summarization: requires students to
determine what is important in what
they are reading and to put it into their
own words.
• Identify or generate main ideas
• Connect the main or central ideas
• Put aside for the moment ideas or information
that are less important
• Remember what they read
 REFERENCES
• Phonological awareness (PA)
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