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ABSTRACT A repeated measures multiple baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate the effects of story mapping instruction on the reading comprehension of four upper-elementary school students with behavioral disorders. Individually administered story mapping instruction focused on teaching students to identify the characters, setting, problems, events, and outcomes inherent in narrative text. Over all, story mapping instruction improved students' abilities to comprehend narrative text. Performance on comprehension questions related to story settings, problems, and major events showed the greatest improvement, although proficiency in identifying story settings for all students and problems for two of the four was not demonstrated. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Failure to achieve in school is characteristic of students with behavioral disorders (BD) (Bower, 1961; Foley & Epstein, 1992; Mastropieri, Jenkins, & Scruggs, 1985). Results from teacher estimates of academic performance (Kauffman, Cullinan, & Epstein, 1987) and standardized measures (Fessler, Rosenberg, & Rosenberg, 1991) indicate that students with BD perform poorly in reading, math, and written language. It has been suggested that the academic performance of students with BD and learning disabilities (LD) is similar (Fessler et al., 1991; Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1986) and that students classified as having BD should be evaluated carefully to determine whether or not they also have LID (Glassberg, Hooper, & Mattison, 1999).
Research shows that differences exist between the reading abilities of students with BD or behavioral problems and their peers without disabilities. From a sample of 124 children ages 5 to 15 admitted to a hospital for behavioral and emotional problems, Fessler and colleagues (1991) found discrepancies of one or more standard deviations on standardized achievement tests of ability and reading and/or language achievment for 39.1% of the sample. In a comparison study of six subgroups of kindergarten children, Vaughn, Hogan, Lancelotta, Shapiro, and Walker (1992) found that children with mild behavioral problems did not differ from those with more severe behavioral problems in terms of reading achievement, although all groups experiencing behavioral problems scored significantly lower than a control group without behavioral problems on a standardized reading assessment.
Coutinho (1986) examined the reading achievement scores of secondary students with BD in comparison to their peers without disabilities and found that differences of 1.5 to 2.0...