Comparison of using Words with Pictures and Words alone with Simultaneous Prompting to Teach Sight-Word Reading to Students with Mild Intellectual Disability

Abstract

This study compares the effectiveness and efficiency of using words with pictures and words alone with simultaneous prompting (SP) to teach sight word reading to four students, 8 to 11 years of age, with mild intellectual disabilities (ID). An adapted alternating treatment design was used to assess the two methods. The results suggest that both procedures were equally effective. Maintenance data showed that all students were able to maintain the acquired skills through the two teaching procedures, although words with picture resulted in a slightly higher maintenance level. words with pictures were more efficient according to four efficiency measures. All participants learned the words in fewer sessions and trials, made less errors, and needed less instructional time when they were presented with pictures rather than alone. Although pictures do assist in sight word acquisition, participant were unable to read all words in the absence of the picture. This finding is consistent with the phenomenon of overshadowing (pictures can be extra stimulus prompt where it distracts the learner's attention from the word) and blocking effect where the learner associates the spoken word with the picture and not with the written word.