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Abstract: This study investigated the effects of a peer-delivered system of least prompts intervention and adapted grade-level science read-alouds on correct listening comprehension responses for participants with moderate intellectual disability. The intervention package included prompts in which selected text was read again. Participants directed the amount of assistance they received from peer tutors by asking for help when needed and self-monitored their independent correct responses. Text was adapted from fourth grade science curricula currently being used by the general education fourth grade class. A question template was used to create factual recall and inferential questions and a multiple probe design across participants was used to determine the functional relationship between the system of least prompts intervention and listening comprehension. Outcomes indicated that the intervention was effective for teaching listening comprehension for all participants, but intervention effects did not generalize to untrained lessons. The study's contributions to research, limitations, need for future research, and implications for practice are discussed.
Comprehension of text should be a strong focus of instruction for all students, including students with moderate and severe intellectual disability. In contrast, a comprehensive review of the literature on reading for these students found few studies measured or taught com- prehension (Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, & Algozzine, 2006). When students with moderate and severe intellectual disability are nonreaders or read significantly below their grade level, they may need a reader to read the text aloud for them (e.g., read-alouds). Read-alouds are especially needed when the student's reading skills are at an early literacy level and the literature of their peer group is much higher (e.g., chapter books).
Shared story reading (or read-alouds) is an evidenced-based practice that has been used to improve comprehension of text for stu- dents with moderate and severe intellectual disability (for a review of this literature, see Hudson & Test, 2011). For example, Browder, Trela, and Jimenez (2007) used read-alouds of adapted middle school novels (e.g., Call of the Wild, London, 1903; Island of the Blue Dolphin, O'Dell, 1987) to teach students with moderate and severe intellectual disability and autism to answer comprehension questions.
Most shared story reading studies have used the system of least prompts as one part of the intervention package to teach participa- tion skills (e.g., turn the...