Comprehension monitoring strategy intervention in children with hearing loss: a single case design study

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe objective of this single case design study was to examine the effectiveness of teaching comprehension monitoring strategy on strategy use as well as on reading comprehension performance. Four children with bilateral severe-profound hearing loss between the ages of 10–11 years and enrolled in the 3rd–5th grade classroom in a regional day school for the deaf participated in the study. Two comprehension monitoring strategies, namely retell and questioning, were taught to all four children. A third strategy, namely prediction, was used as a control strategy. Children received intervention for 20 min, twice a week for 13 weeks across a total of 26 sessions. During the first three sessions, children participated in probe sessions only. Following this baseline period, children participated in one intervention session and one probe session each week. Sessions were videotaped to monitor for treatment fidelity and to code for strategy use. Results showed a moderate evidence for a functional relation between comprehension strategy instruction and strategy use. Similarly, across participants, data also revealed moderate evidence for a functional relation between strategy implementation and reading comprehension performance. Future studies should investigate the effects of teaching a combination of reading comprehension monitoring strategies by increasing the duration and number of intervention sessions on reading comprehension performance by a larger group of children with hearing loss.