Reading Intervention in Second-grade Children with Poor Reading Abilities

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate a newly developed teaching program that fosters the reading abilities of eleven second grade poor readers. This study is part of the intervention study Improving Language And Reading Skills (LARS) in children with German as a first or second language. The present study uses a controlled pre-posttest design. The intervention was applied as individual and small group courses (never more than three children) for children with very poor reading skills who were supported three times a week for nearly five months. Project team members worked with these children on the syllabic principle, decoding and reading skills with small texts and thematically adjusted vocabulary material. The children's reading and language abilities were obtained before and after the intervention period. The results indicate that there are some remarkable learning achievements regarding reading fluency and also slight to moderate gains in reading comprehension in most of the children, whereas the language skills did not improve much.