Effects of a Mindful Breathing Exercise During Reading Fluency Intervention for Students with Attentional Difficulties

Abstract

Students with attentional difficulties are at greater risk for reading difficulties. To address this concern, we examined the extent to which adding a mindful breathing exercise to individual reading fluency interventions would improve gains in reading fluency, student-reported attention, and student-reported stress. In a restricted alternating design, four students in grades 3–5 with teacher-reported difficulties in attention and reading participated in 12 intervention sessions that included reading fluency instructional strategies only or a mindful breathing exercise plus reading fluency instructional strategies. Based on visual and Bayesian analyses, there were no differences in within-session gains in reading fluency between conditions; however, one student had greater self-reported attention and less reported stress in intervention sessions that included the mindful breathing component. Implications of the study for future research integrating mindfulness practices in academic interventions are discussed.