View in EDS HTML Full Text PDF Full Text

Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in a Secondary School: An Evaluation Study.

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in a Secondary School: An Evaluation Study.
Language: English
Authors: Lynch, Lisa, Fawcett, Angela J., Nicolson, Roderick I.
Source: British Journal of Educational Technology. Oct 2000 31(4):333-348.
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 16
Publication Date: 2000
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Computer Assisted Instruction, Computer Oriented Programs, Educational Technology, Elementary Secondary Education, Instructional Effectiveness, Literacy, Reading Improvement, Reading Instruction, Reading Skills, Skill Development
ISSN: 0007-1013
Abstract: RITA (Reader's Interactive Teaching Assistant) is a computer-based literacy support system that assists, rather than replaces, the teacher in providing support tailored to each child's profile of reading attainments. This study evaluated the effectiveness of RITA in secondary school with 8 children having very seriously disadvantaged literacy skills. The RITA intervention over a 10-week period led to effective and cost-effective literacy gains. (Contains 40 references.) (AEF)
Journal Code: CIJAPR2001
Entry Date: 2001
Accession Number: EJ615302
Database: ERIC
Full text is not displayed to guests.
FullText Links:
  – Type: pdflink
    Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwHwOWzgvIp22_KrxENmcCq2AAAA4TCB3gYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHQMIHNAgEAMIHHBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDNpa4XMxQeyNU6fKMwIBEICBmd1g7XH_EsTe0LhfEU_pLawRI9gZdMeRomIFRH10iN7naMX_PA-6CaaeAlz-kGM7s9ixlHf7TM95ndGZP84Q10Mx0HwjeYaXSvyhOehEp0XGMeLaQ_sPZtw-jJ-zwwdzeU6Hp5Lb5BHqr0nXIfysNNgJ_UR4XdfYJA03MWX6hDoVEg8HqudTbp8alxfrkQv5DU9BzPAiyaw9AA==
Text:
  Availability: 1
  Value: <anid>AN0003731115;58i01oct.00;2000Nov16.15:21;v4.1</anid> <title id="AN0003731115-1">COMPUTER-ASSISTED READING INTERVENTION IN A SECONDARY SCHOOL: AN EVALUATION STUDY </title> <hd id="AN0003731115-2"> Abstract </hd> <p>There is widespread concern over literacy standards in UK schools and growing evidence that problems become increasingly intractable as children grow older. Computer-based reading instruction may provide a 'fresh start' that helps a child to rediscover the path to literacy. Recent controlled studies demonstrated that infant and junior school children could be given very cost-effective support using RITA, a computer-based literacy support system that assists, rather than replaces, the teacher in providing support tailored to each child's profile of reading attainments. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of RITA in secondary school with 8 children (mean age 11.7 years) who were initially very seriously disadvantaged in terms of literacy skills (mean reading age 7.3 years). The RITA intervention over a 10 week period led to effective and cost-effective literacy gains. Significant overall improvements were made in the skills targeted, including reading standard scores, and reading speed, accuracy and comprehension. All children reacted positively to the RITA lessons, and most made good progress towards their Individual Education Plans. It is suggested that computer-assisted reading support can be effective in supporting the majority of children with reading failure, even in secondary school. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-3"> Introduction </hd> <p>Acquisition of literacy skills is one of the outstanding problems facing children in this information age. Particular problems arise for children with special needs. There is considerable evidence (Strag, 1972; Bradley, 1988; Lundberg et al., 1988; Nicolson et al., 1999; Fawcett et al., 2000) that early intervention can be both effective and cost-effective. However, there is also extensive and worrying evidence (Strag, 1972) that the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions diminish markedly with years at school. Dyslexic children in particular appear to be resistant to instruction and the effects of remedial treatment on reading ability are small when the deficit is severe and the students are relatively old (Van der Leij, 1997). There are of course many reasons for declining effectiveness, in that, following an initial failure to learn to read fluently, a child will suffer from a vicious circle of reduced exposure to print, reduced motivation, reduced self esteem, and reduced opportunities for participating in literacy-based class activities. These factors, dubbed by Stanovich (1986) the Matthew Effect (a biblical reference to the poor getting poorer), operate over and above any initial source of literacy difficulties, making it increasingly difficult to remedy any reading problems. </p> <p>Use of new technology is a potent method for increasing motivation and self-esteem (Malone, 1981). Thomson (1984) noted several potentially crucial advantages of computer-based presentation for dyslexic children, namely: that it provides immediate feedback, it can go at the child's own pace, it is non-judgmental and predictable, it can provide essential overlearning, it can store and access information about the learner, and, perhaps most important, it can provide new motivation. Given the capability of exploiting synthesised or digitised speech, together with the use of icon and mouse rather then keyboard, the modern generation of multimedia-capable micros appear to present an ideal opportunity for literacy support. </p> <p>Most of the standard techniques used in traditional reading support, whether they follow the whole language approach or a reading subskills approach, can be recreated on the computer. The comparative merits of different approaches to teaching reading have been discussed at length in the literature and will only be touched on lightly here (see instead Pressley, 1998 for a description of the whole language/reading subskills approaches, and Brewster-Clark, 1988 for a review of reading intervention programs). However, the computerised interventions inspired by such approaches have often led to significant improvements in literacy skills. Dutch researchers have fostered fast word recognition skills by training children with reading problems to recognise words flashed rapidly on a computer screen whilst listening to either the whole word or it's sub lexical parts spoken by the computer (Van Deal and Reitsma, 1990). Furthermore, Das-Smaal et el. (1996), noted that good readers analyse uncertain words in terms of orthographic letter units, these are smaller than the whole word but bigger than single letters (e.g. Goswami and Bryant, 1990). Consequently, they trained children in fast processing of letter strings. An initial 'target' group of letters was presented on the computer screen followed by rapid tachioscopic presentation of target and distractor letter groups. The training was found to increase response rate and accuracy, and this benefit generalised to new letter sequences and flashed real words. </p> <p>Computerised interventions have also proved beneficial for reading whole passages from books. Olson and Wise (1992) found students using their 'ROSS' program (Reading with Orthographic and Speech Support), gained twice as much as untrained controls in reading. The Ross system allows children to read stories with accurate high-quality speech support allowing decoding of difficult words in context. Wise and Olson (1994) concluded that this 'talking computer' approach can provide valuable and effective support, but only if adults are also present providing further guidance. They also found that children with lower initial phonemic awareness started lower and gained less than students who started with relatively higher awareness (Wise et el., 1997). Evidence suggesting that (dyslexic) children have problems with their phonological word analysis skills (Olson et al., 1989; Rack, Snowling and Olson, 1992) combined with suggestions of a causal role for phoneme awareness in reading disabilities lead to later studies (Wise et al., 1997) emphasising the importance of phonological decoding instruction in addition to reading stories. </p> <p>Indeed many studies have demonstrated that prior and concurrent traditional training in phoneme analysis and phonological analysis, without computers, alongside reading instruction can improve later reading and spelling in both early and remedial readers (Ball and Blachman, 1991; Bradley and Bryant, 1983; Hatcher, Hulme and Ellis, 1994; Lundberg, Frost and Petersen, 1988). Phonemic instruction has formed the basis of many commercially available intervention packages. </p> <p>An example of the power of multimedia techniques for improving spelling was the SelfSpell environment (Nicolson et al., 1991). SelfSpell provided an integrated environment for learning to spell that used synthesised sound to make words accessible to poor readers and very poor spellers. It supported both mastery and mnemonic based learning techniques and encouraged children to enter their own spellings, their own passages, and their own mnemonics. Controlled studies demonstrated excellent learning coupled with profound enjoyment even in dyslexic children with spelling age as low as 6 years (Fawcett et al., 1993). </p> <p>It is notable that the interventions described so far, although successful, offer only a piecemeal solution to problems of literacy development and offer little in the way of flexibility to teachers, having built in assumptions about literacy instruction. A more flexible approach to computer based reading instruction has been developed by Nicolson and was found to be at least as effective and cost-effective as a traditional approach to support with children in junior school (Nicolson et al., 1999b). The study undertook a precise replication of previous studies of the cost-effectiveness of carefully constructed traditional interventions for children at risk of reading failure in infant and junior schools. The results indicated that the RITA support led to highly effective and cost-effective support, with comparable cost-effectiveness to the traditional method for 6 year old children, and greater cost-effectiveness for 8 year children. All groups of children reacted very positively to the RITA lessons. It was suggested that computer-assisted reading support can be effective in supporting the majority of children at risk of reading failure, even in junior school. The key objective of the present study was to evaluate whether the RITA system could be effective even in a secondary school context. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-4"> The RITA system </hd> <p>This derives from an approach (Nicolson, 1990) combining the advantages of human and computer support by creating an 'intelligent teaching assistant' (ITA). Rather than attempting to replace the human teacher, an ITA acts as assistant to the teacher, thereby greatly increasing the cost-effectiveness of the instruction and the involvement of the teacher. The objective for an ITA is to free the teacher to undertake those tasks where human instruction is indispensable, by allowing the computer to carry out those tasks for which it is particularly well-suited (motivating, engaging, repetitive, nonjudgmental, with immediate feedback, automatic record keeping and replay etc.). </p> <p>The teacher can specify 'activities', from a single session to a 'workbook' comprising a whole course unit. RITA first provides a series of suggestions (based on the child's current progress, the IA&T step-by-step guidelines, and the resources available), and the teacher selects those appropriate (or selects alternative options as wished). A single 30 minute session might then be pre-programmed as a series of up to three 'activities'. These instructions are then stored and interpreted by the scheduler to undertake the appropriate programs, automatically storing and 'analysing the results. Note that the teacher might elect to be present at any or all of these activities. For a more autonomous learner it is possible to let the computer take over the scheduling automatically, or to allow the learner some responsibility for deciding what to do next. The resources referred to in the Resource library would be the programs and also computerised versions of books and sounds. A list of frequently used activities is given in Appendix 1. </p> <p>A critical design principle for RITA is that the teacher should have the central role whereas the computer should act as assistant rather than director! We intended that this procedure would allow the teacher to adapt the materials to those used at the school; would give the teacher the feeling of control necessary for a positive approach to new technology; and would allow flexibility of presentation, so that the approach could be adapted on an individual basis, and, indeed, non-computer methods could be integrated seamlessly within the overall lesson plan. To this end, the RITA system was designed so that teachers could construct their own 'workcards' for a particular activity. These workcards were then available for selection just as though they had been part of the original package. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-5"> The Interactive Assessment and Teaching (IA&T) Reading Programme </hd> <p>For any ITA approach to work effectively, it is necessary to have a model of a good teaching system for the skill involved. In the infant and junior school traditional interventions discussed above (Nicolson et al., 1999; Fawcett et al., 2000) we adopted the IA&T scheme (Reason and Boote, 1994), which is a well-tested, theoretically sound, pragmatically based approach well-tuned to the problems of dyslexia and other learning disabilities, and crucially, it is ideally suited to the ITA methodology, and it therefore formed the teaching foundation for our reading ITA, RITA--the Reader's Interactive Teaching Assistant. </p> <p>Key aspects of the IA&T approach are described in Nicolson et al. (1999), and a brief outline must suffice here. The IA&T model of literacy development highlights three separate aspects of literacy--meaning, phonics and fluency. While beginning readers often have difficulties with 'meaning'--understanding the 'rules of the reading game', it is with phonics and fluency that dyslexic children suffer, and indeed these difficulties also remain for 18 year old dyslexic children (Fawcett and Nicolson, 1995). On the basis of this theoretical and pragmatic analysis of development of the skills and knowledge in reading, Reason and Boote developed their 'step by step' approach to tailoring the reading support to the individual capabilities of each reader. This involves five steps: First make an initial assessment (in reading & writing in terms of the four stages for Meaning, Phonics and Fluency separately). Second, decide on priority teaching areas (phonics, for instance). Third develop a support plan, in terms of the objectives and the learning steps involved, making sure that each step is achievable. Fourth, select appropriate teaching methods and teach each step, trying to ensure variety and motivation. They provide extensive workcards and exercises for the range of teaching methods required. Finally, record and evaluate progress, keeping records for each step-the date started, the date mastered, and the date of a subsequent skill maintenance check. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-6"> Method </hd> <hd id="AN0003731115-7"> Design </hd> <p>The study was designed to provide an evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the RITA approach in secondary school, providing a short-term intervention realistic in a limited funding climate. Children worked in pairs, replicating the regime of the junior traditional intervention (Nicolson et al., 2000), but each with access to a computer. Intervention comprised three weekly 20 minute sessions, over a period of 10 weeks, with the interventions taking place at the times when the children involved were having support from their Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. Performance of the groups on reading-related standardised tests was measured both before and after the 10 week training period. The critical variable was the amount of improvement for the experimental group from pre-test to post-test, with the experimental group acting as their own controls. The improvement of the experimental group, compared with their estimated performance improvement prior to the intervention would give an indication of the effectiveness of the intervention. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-8"> Selection of children and groups </hd> <p>The study took place at a mixed ability comprehensive school in Sheffield and was undertaken with children in the first year at the school. Out of a first year cohort of around 300 children, 8 had already been identified as needing intensive extra literacy support, and all 8 children participated in the study. They were first screened for performance on the Wechsler Objective Reading Dimension (WORD) Reading and Spelling tests. Further pre-tests were also administered, specifically the Dyslexia Screening Test (Fawcett and Nicolson, 1996) and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (Dunn et al., 1982). Three of the children had been statemented as having dyslexia/ specific learning difficulties (DYS), three were non-dyslexic poor readers (NDys) and two had English as their Second Language (ESL). The numbers, ages and initial performance of children are shown in Table 1. It may be seen that the children have severe literacy problems, with performance on reading and spelling falling over 4 years behind their chronological age. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-9"> Intervention methods </hd> <p>The two researchers (LL and AJF) carried out the interventions, interacting fully with the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo). Basic support in use of the RITA system was given by RIN, who had designed and programmed it. In order to provide a realistic background, the SENCo was given minimal non-computing advice during the course of the study. The researchers were encouraged to use their initiative to develop an initial training regime that best fitted the capabilities of RITA and the requirements of the children. Following this initial period of intervention, the SENCo evaluated the targets, and incorporated the schools, and her own approach to reading support. Help was given in creating workcards appropriate to the preferred teaching method. </p> <p>Following the standard procedures laid down in the English Code of Practice for Children with Special Educational Needs (1994), following the initial performance evaluations a separate 'Individual Education Plan' (IEP) was derived for each participating child by the SENCo and the researchers. The researchers, in conjunction with the SENCo, then derived a set of RITA activities for each child. Brief descriptions of the IEP targets for each child are given in the second column of Table 1. Following an initial period in which two researchers participated, the approach adopted was modified to make it appropriate for one researcher working with two children, reflecting the situation for most Special Needs classes. Children were paired so that one child could work autonomously, while the other child received more intensive individual support. Where appropriate, new activities (e.g., comprehension passages and cloze procedures) were introduced using the 'workcard' facility, but no extra programs were written. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-10"> Tests used </hd> <p>As noted earlier, the WORD tests of reading and spelling were administered at pre-test for screening purposes, as were the DST and the BPVS. In order to allow more detailed investigation of changes in reading, further tests were also administered, both at pretest and post-test. These tests included the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (1989). The Neale test allows reading accuracy, reading rate and reading comprehension to be assessed separately, giving a richer description of the reading processes than is available from other tests. The Neale test has parallel forms and is therefore suitable for a true comparison of pre-test and post-test performance, uncontaminated by any possible passage learning factors. There is an artefact in the scoring of the Neale such that as a child progresses to the next (more complex) passage, the rate of reading artificially drops, because the child is inevitably slowed by the greater difficulty of this passage. Consequently, reading rate was measured on corresponding passages at pre-test and post-test. </p> <p>In addition, the nonsense passage sub-test of the DST was also administered at post-test. This involves reading of a 'Jabberwock'-type passage of coherent text in which 10 words have been replaced by phonetically regular nonwords. These nonwords can only be read correctly if the reader is aware of some of the rules of graphemephoneme correspondence. It is therefore a useful indicator of word attack skills. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-11"> Results </hd> <hd id="AN0003731115-12"> Group improvements on standardised tests </hd> <p>Results from the WORD reading and spelling tests have been converted into Standard Scores (SS) for ease of comparison. Standard scores automatically take age into effect, so a stationary value indicates that a child is maintaining normal progress and an improvement in SS represents an acceleration in the rate of progress, catching up with ones peers. The group improvements of 2.4 SS points in reading and 1.7 SS points for the composite literacy score show both an improvement in performance and acceleration in the rate of progress during the intervention period. The individual, and group reading SS, spelling SS and literacy SS mean and standard deviations are collated in Table 1. One-tailed t-tests were undertaken on the group data to identity, which improvements were statistically significant. A significant effect of training was obtained for WORD reading SS but not for WORD spelling SS [t(<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref1">7</reflink>) = 1.94, p is less than .05; t(<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref2">7</reflink>) = 0.60, NS respectively]. </p> <p>The Neale tests of reading accuracy, reading rate and reading comprehension were also administered to assess different aspects of the reading process. Mean group performance on all three measures improved from pre-test to post-test. Scores on these tests are presented in terms of age equivalents. Accuracy improved from 8.34 to 8.47 years [t(<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref3">7</reflink>) = 1.93, p is less than .05]. Encouragingly large improvements were found in terms of comprehension, from 7.95 to 8.55 years [t(<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref4">7</reflink>) = 2.12, p is less than 0.05] and for rate from 8.4 to 8.95 years [NS]. </p> <p>In intervention studies of this type it is normal to convert the improvement to an 'effect size' that gives an index of the improvement relative to the original performance mean and variation of the class (Cohen, 1977). This allows comparisons between intervention studies to be made. Effect size analyses for reading, spelling and literacy standard scores were 0.49, 0.18 and 0.39 respectively. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-13"> Individual performance on reading components </hd> <p>Individual performance on the three components of the Neale reading test is shown in Figure 1. The figure should be read in conjunction with the reading targets for each child (see column 2 of Table 1). It is apparent that neither of the two ESL children (GA and SA) made progress on the Neale measures, and neither did CD. By contrast, all the other five children made quite substantial progress on at least some of the measures. All four children who had fluency targeted made noticeable improvements in reading rate (mean 1.2 7 years, range 0.42 to 2.25) and three of the four who had comprehension targeted made marked gains (mean 1.04 years, range -0.08 to 1.75). Word attack skills, as assessed by the DST nonsense passage reading test, also showed heartening improvement. Of the four children for whom word attack was targeted, only SA made no progress. All the remaining 3 (including CD, who had made little progress on the Neale tests) made substantial progress (mean improvement in words read: 13.5, mean improvement in age equivalent: 2.33 years). </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-14"> Discussion </hd> <p>The study reported here was designed to investigate the issue of whether computer-assisted intervention at secondary school can be used to implement the Individual Education Plans derived for severely disabled readers; together with an evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the interventions compared with similar studies undertaken in infant and junior schools. We will consider these issues in turn. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-15"> Effectiveness on standardised reading and spelling tests </hd> <p>There is no doubt that the RITA interventions were effective overall. The children improved significantly in reading standard score over the course of the study. This is particularly heartening in view of the fact that dyslexic children's reading and spelling performances have been found to progress at a slower rate. Thomson (1984) estimated that on average a dyslexic child may make only 2 months improvement in spelling and 5 months improvement in reading during a year. Thomson's analysis holds for the present group of children severely disabled in literacy, who prior to the study, had on average lost 5 points in Standard Score per year from the age of 5. The RITA intervention reversed this downward slide. </p> <p>The effect sizes were moderate, being 0.5 for reading, and less for spelling. These are noticeably below those obtained in previous studies using RITA with infant and junior school children. However, it should be noted that the children in this study were considerably further behind in their literacy than the groups in the corresponding infant and junior studies. Furthermore, the objective of the intervention was different in the present study, in that each child had an individually-determined IEP, independent of performance on the WORD spelling and reading tests. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-16"> Effectiveness in implementing Individual Education Plans </hd> <p>It was possible to derive different IEPs for each child on the basis of the pretest performance (Table 1, column 2). In addition to basic phonics work, five aspects of the reading process were addressed in the IEPs, namely: sound differentiation, word attack, fluency, spelling and comprehension. Each of these five components might in principle be addressed by one or more of the RITA programs (Appendix 1). The only component for which there was prior evidence that RITA was effective was for spelling (Fawcett, Nicolson and Morris, 1993). Interestingly, RITA proved very effective for all five components except for sound differentiation (for which it was not designed) and for spelling. It is clear from Figure I that considerable strides in performance have been achieved for each child over a relatively short time-scale. Exceptional progress was made in fluency, word attack skills and comprehension by those children for whom those skills were targeted (see Figure 1). We shall consider each component in turn. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-17"> Sound differentiation </hd> <p>The most disappointing aspect of the RITA intervention was for the ESL children for whom progress on standardised tests was comparatively slight. The main difficulties were that these children, whose first language was Somali, had difficulty distinguishing key English phonemes, primarily /b/, /p/ and /d/, which are not differentiated in Somali. The quality of the computer-generated speech was too low to assist with these difficulties, and specialist support would be needed for qualified personnel. There was also a mismatch between the skills these children wished to attempt, and those which they were able to tackle with any chance of success, and, given also a marked tendency to distractibility, the lack of progress was understandable. </p> <p>The most successful approach adopted was to select the problem sounds p, b, v and d in the Start and End Sounds program to support sound differentiation, and explicitly train the children in phoneme-grapheme conversion. In addition to the standard procedure in which the computer named the picture, the researchers named the pictures themselves, and the children repeated the word to segment out the first or last sound, and selected the appropriate word from the four underneath the picture (see Appendix 1). Interestingly, this approach maintained the children's interest because they found the task quite challenging and they needed to concentrate to make sure they followed the instructions. This modification to the basic program gave them practice in their specific areas of difficulty, and they made satisfactory progress in both speed and accuracy, with analysis of the computer data showing they achieved 100% correct performance. Above all, they began to appreciate that subtle differences between the letter sounds are significant in English, and therefore the key to reading and spelling. However, progress of this type is more difficult to quantify than generalised improvement in standardised tests. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-18"> Spelling </hd> <p>The second disappointment was the variable performance on spelling, with around half of the children improving and the other half deteriorating (effect size only 0.19). This outcome was surprising in view of very positive outcomes with previous uses of the Self-Spell program, from which the RITA spelling program was derived (see Nicolson and Fawcett, 1994 for a review). Furthermore, in a study of RITA with infant and primary school children (Nicolson et el., 2000), effect sizes for spelling were greater than for reading. We consider that this disappointing outcome may be attributable to a well-intentioned but counter-productive attempt to integrate the group's spelling practice with a whole-year spelling initiative taking place during the intervention period. Unfortunately, the children in the Special Needs group found the words inappropriate and well beyond their level of ability, resulting in confusion, distress and further disillusion. This episode shows very clearly the difficulties of attempting to 'bootstrap' a single component of the reading process without ensuring that the necessary subskills are in place. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-19"> Fluency and word attack </hd> <p>The most satisfying improvement for the group overall lay in their improved rate of reading, suggesting that RITA had increased their confidence and their word attack skills, which had generalised to the fluency of their reading on the Neale passages. Word attack skills proved a second successful domain (except for one ESL child). The improvements on nonsense passage reading were very clear, and were specific to children who had word attack targets. The RITA program suite includes a specific word attack program together with a nonsense word reading program (see Appendix 1). The improvement in nonsense passage reading is particularly encouraging because acquisition of the grapheme-phoneme translation processes required has long been considered a specific weakness of dyslexic children (Frith, 1985). </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-20"> Comprehension </hd> <p>Equally satisfactory, the third area that improved substantially following the RITA training was comprehension ability--the goal of reading after all. TS and JJ (dyslexic) were targeted to improve their comprehension ability, and made gains of 1.75 years in their performance, while improving their rate 0.92 and 0.67 years respectively. DH (non-dyslexic) made 0.75 years improvement in comprehension, while improving his rate by 0.67 years. These are particularly striking improvements, bearing in mind that they were achieved in a 10 week time frame, and that in their previous years in school, their performance had consistently dropped further behind their peers. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-21"> Cost effectiveness of the interventions </hd> <p>In earlier research (Nicolson, Fawcett and Nicolson, 1999), we compared the effectiveness of RITA with traditional intervention, leading to a pattern of rough equivalence, with the RITA intervention having a slightly lower effect size than the traditional for the infants (0.92 vs 0.95) and a higher effect size for the juniors (1.01 vs 0.67). In the current study the children were even more highly selected as being at risk, and the researchers implementing much of the intervention were not trained teachers, and were therefore 'feeling their way' in developing strategies and IEP's for the children. Furthermore, key components of the intervention targets (such as comprehension) are not measured by the WORD literacy tests used. Consequently the mean effect size of 0.5 for reading is a reasonably encouraging one. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-22"> Conclusions </hd> <p>The aim of the study reported here was to evaluate the effectiveness of the RITA computer-assisted intervention for secondary school children, with particular emphasis on the feasibility of providing support tailored to each child's particular literacy targets. Findings for RITA were, in the main, in line with those for the infant and junior school traditional approach, with excellent effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. The RITA intervention proved most effective for non-dyslexic children, who included the one child in the group showing only mild risk on the DST. One very noticeable advantage of the computer-based presentation was that the children participating showed significantly higher levels of enthusiasm and commitment than with the traditional approach. </p> <p>We interpret the findings of the study as indicating the following: </p> <p>(i) It is possible to provide intervention in secondary school in which the skills targeted are set at the appropriate level for each child and the IEP is followed. There was a clear differentiation of outcome between different children with, in the main, significant progress in those areas targeted, with relatively modest progress in areas not targeted. </p> <p>(ii) The RITA system proved effective for the acquisition of phonics, word attack, fluency and comprehension skills. Striking gains were made in all of these areas. </p> <p>(iii) The RITA system was less satisfactory for spelling, though this was probably attributable to a school spelling initiative that proved counterproductive for the children in the intervention group. Previous studies of RITA have found excellent results for spelling. </p> <p>(iv) The RITA system was unsatisfactory for the children with English as a second language. Higher quality speech output is needed for children who need to learn to distinguish the English phonemes. </p> <p>(v) If a child is in need of extensive support in secondary school, computer-assisted support may prove more effective than purely traditional methods. Even so there is a likelihood that continuing support will need to be provided. Nevertheless, the results obtained with this RITA intervention are most encouraging, with significant improvements in reading standardised scores, together with reading rate, accuracy and comprehension, with several children making improvements of twelve months or greater on curriculum-based tests following this 10 week intervention. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-23"> Acknowledgements </hd> <p>The RITA system was developed with support from the Leverhulme Trust, as was the intervention study reported here. We are also grateful to Mrs F. Lawton of Tapton School, Sheffield for her support and participation in the project. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-24">Table 1: Changes in WORD reading and spelling standard scores</hd> <ct id="AN0003731115-25"> Legend for Chart: A - Intervention Targets B - Age, Pre C - Age, Post D - Reading Standard Score, Pre E - Reading Standard Score, Post F - Spelling Standard Score, Pre G - Spelling Standard Score, Post H - 'Literacy' Standard Score, Pre I - 'Literacy' Standard Score, Post A B C D E F G H I ESL GA Sound differentiation, sight vocabulary, spelling 11.81 12.01 64 67 69 67 67 67 SA letter sounds, phonics, word attack 11.49 11.7 68 72 64 66 66 69 Dyslexic CP Fluency, word attack 11.58 11.79 68 67 67 64 68 66 TS comprehension, fluency, spelling 11.60 11.81 73 70 69 73 71 72 JJ comprehension, fluency, spelling 11.65 11.84 72 73 73 67 73 70 Non-Dys DM comprehension, word attack 11.41 11.62 74 79 65 70 70 75 NH comprehension, memory, attention 11.59 11.81 79 87 74 84 77 86 CD more complex phonics, word attack 12.07 12.28 76 78 80 78 78 78 Mean -- (SD) 11.64 11.86 71.75 74.13 (0.21) (0.21) (4.86) (6.85) 70.13 71.13 70.94 72.63 (5.30) (6.85) (4.49) (6.57)</ct> <p>'Literacy' standard score is the average of the reading and spelling standard scores </p> <p>GRAPH: Figure 1: Effects of the interventions on the Neale reading scores for accuracy, rate and comprehension </p> <hd1 id="AN0003731115-26"> References </hd1> <p>Ball E and Blachman B A (1991) Does phoneme awareness training in kindergarten make a difference in early word recognition and developmental spelling? Reading Research Quarterly 26 49-66. </p> <p>Brewster-Clark D (1988) Dyslexia: Theory and Practice of Remedial Instruction York Press Parkton, Maryland. </p> <p>Bradley L (1988) Making connections in learning to read and to spell Applied Cognitive Psychology 2 3-18. </p> <p>Bradley L and Bryant P (1983) Categorising sounds and learning to read; a causal connection Nature 301 419-421. </p> <p>Clay M M (1993) An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement Heinemann, Auckland, New Zealand. </p> <p>Cohen J (1977) Statistical Power Analyses for the Behavior Sciences Academic Press, New York. </p> <p>Das-Smaal E, Klapkijk A and Van der Leij A (1996) Training of perceptual unit processing in children with a reading disability Cognition and Instruction 14 221-250. </p> <p>Department for Education (1994) The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs HMSO, London. </p> <p>Dunn L I M, Dunn L M, Whetton C and Pintillie D (1982) The British Picture Vocabulary Scale NFER-Nelson, Windsor. </p> <p>Fawcett A J and Nicolson R I (1995) Persistence of phonological awareness deficits in older children with dyslexia Reading and Writing: an Interdisciplinary Journal 7 361-376. </p> <p>Fawcett A J and Nicolson R I (1996) The Dyslexia Screening Test The Psychological Corporation, London. </p> <p>Fawcett A J, Nicolson R I and Morris S (1993) Spelling remediation for dyslexic children Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 9 171-183. </p> <p>Fawcett A J, Nicolson R I, Moss H, Nicolson M K and Reason R (2000) Effectiveness of reading intervention in junior school British Journal of Educational Psychology (submitted). </p> <p>Frith U (1985) Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia in Patterson K E, Marshall J C and Coltheart M (eds) Surface Dyslexia Lawrence Erlbaum, London. </p> <p>Goswami U and Bryant P E (1990) Phonological Skills and Learning to Read Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ. </p> <p>Hatcher P J, Hulme C and Ellis A W (1994) Ameliorating early reading failure by integrating the teaching of reading and phonological skills: the phonological linkage hypothesis Child Development 65 41-57. </p> <p>Lundberg I, Frost J and Petersen O P (1988) Long term effects of a pre-school training program in phonological awareness Reading Research Quarterly 28 263-284. </p> <p>Malone T W (1981) Towards a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction Cognitive Science 4 333-369. </p> <p>Neale M D (1989) The Neale Analysis of Reading Ability-Revised NFER-Nelson. Windsor, Berks. </p> <p>Nicolson R I (1990) Design and Evaluation of the SUMIT Intelligent Tutoring Assistant for Arithmetic Interactive Learning Environments 1 265-287. </p> <p>Nicolson R I (1992) Diagnosis can help in intelligent tutoring in Kruschke J K (ed) Proceedings of the 14th Cognitive Science Society Conference Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, 635-640. </p> <p>Nicolson R I and Fawcett A J (1991) Open learning for dyslexic children using HyperCard in Singleton C (ed) Computers and Literacy Skills BDA Publications, Hull. </p> <p>Nicolson R I and Fawcett A J (1994) Spelling remediation for dyslexic children: a skills approach in Brown G D A and Ellis N C Handbook of Spelling: Theory, Process and Intervention Wiley, Chichester. 505-528. </p> <p>Nicolson R I and Fawcett A J (1996) The Dyslexia Early Screeching Test The Psychological Corporation, London. </p> <p>Nicolson R I, Fawcett A J, Moss H, Nicolson M K and Reason R (1999) An early reading intervention study: evaluation and implications British Journal of Educational Psychology 69 47-62. </p> <p>Nicolson R I, Fawcett A J and Nicolson M K (2000) Evaluation of a computer-based reading intervention in infant and junior schools Journal of Research in Reading (in press). </p> <p>Nicolson R I, Pickering S and Fawcett A J (1991) A HyperCard spelling support environment for dyslexic children Computers and Education 16, 203-209. </p> <p>Olson R K and Wise B W (1992) Reading on the computer with orthographic and speech feedback Reading and Writing 4 107-144. </p> <p>Olson R K, Wise B W, Conners F, Rack J and Fulker D (1989) Specific deficits in component reading and language skills: genetic and environmental influences Journal of Learning Disabilities 22 339-348. </p> <p>Pressley M (1998) Reading Instruction that Works The Guildford Press, New York. </p> <p>Psychological Corporation (1993) Wechsler Objective Reading Dimensions The Psychological Corporation Europe, Sidcup, UK. </p> <p>Rack J, Snowling M and Olson R (1992) The nonword reading deficit in developmental dyslexia: a review Reading Research Quarterly 27 28-53. </p> <p>Reason R and Boote R (1994) Helping Children with Reading and Spelling: a Special Needs Manual Routledge, London. </p> <p>Stanovich K E (1986) Matthew effects in reading: some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy Reading Research Quarterly 21 360-407. </p> <p>Strag G (1972) Comparative behavioural ratings of parents with severe mentally retarded, special learning disability, and normal children journal of Learning Disabilities 5 5256. </p> <p>Thomson M E (1984) Developmental Dyslexia: its Nature, Assessment and Remediation Edward Arnold, London. </p> <p>Van Daal V and Reitsma P (1990) Processing units in word reading by disabled readers Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 24 83-88. </p> <p>Van der Leij A (1997) Resistance to Change--Evidence from a Longitudinal, Interventional and Cross Sectional Study of Severely Dyslexic Students Paper presented at the British Dyslexia Association 'Dyslexia: Biology, Cognition and Intervention' conference, York. </p> <p>Wise B W and Olson R K (1994) Using computers to teach spelling to children with learning disabilities in Brown G D A and Ellis N C Handbook of Spelling: Theory, Process and Intervention Wiley, Chichester, 481-504. </p> <p>Wise B W, Olson R K and Ring J (1997) Teaching phonological awareness with and without the computer in Hulme C and Snowling M Dyslexia: Biology, Cognition and Intervention Whurr, London, 254-273. </p> <hd id="AN0003731115-27">Appendix 1. A brief overview of the RITA programs used in the secondary school study</hd> <ct id="AN0003731115-28"> Legend for Chart: A - Program B - School Year C - Example Screen Dump D - Description of Program A B C D Start and End Sounds Y0-1 -- Training on first and last sounds. cvc picture is shown, and child has to click on the word (out of four choices) that starts (or ends) with the same sound. Can choose to have 'start', 'end' or 'both' Screen dump shows 'cup' with user about to click correctly on 'cat' (has been asked for same start sound). Note that there is always a decoy with the same last sound (or start - if asked for same end sound). Word Choice Y0-1 -- Shows picture with four possible spellings. User has to click on the right one. Y0-2 -- Intended to develop intra-word (sublexical) skills. Onset/Rime -- -- Program can select one of 20 rimes at random (eg 'at'), and user has to drag the correct onset letter string (at bottom) to a corresponding slot on LHS. Vocabulary Y0-4 -- Computer selects a list of 4-16 words from one of the vocabulary lists, then presents them on the page. It then says one word. and the user has to click on the word a.s.a.p. Feedback as to whether right. Words correct and speed stored. Vocabulary available includes the new Literacy Strategy words. All these have digitised form available. Sight Words Y1-4 -- Lists of words are selected, and the child has to read each word before the computer does. Vocabulary available includes the new Literacy Strategy words. All these have digitised form available. They are presented in screens of 3 or 4, but the full set of words can be presented in this way. I've also classified the words into 1-2 letters, 3 letters etc., to make a graded series. This can also used as part of an assessment program to see which digraphs etc are known/not known. Word Reading Y1-4 -- User selects a word list (eg. -an) from one of the 80+ word families lists, then presents them on the page. It then says each word in order, and the user has to try to say the word before the computer says it. Delay time selected by user. On subsequent goes, can elect to have the computer make the odd mistake to keep up the interest. Can also have it go faster on subsequent goes. Spelling Y1-4 -- User selects a list of spellings (typically 8 per list) and computer presents them one at a time, in groups of 4, focusing on those that are causing problems. Can store and display a hint if required. If mistake made, correct spelling is shown below the entry box, and user types in a letter at a time. Dictation L2+ -- This dictates a pre-stored passage, a few words at a time. and checks for mistakes at the end. User can then correct mistakes before finishing. Comprehension L2+ -- This shows a pre-stored passage, and asks comprehension questions. User does a multiple-choice on it. Can ask to speak the passage (underlining each word as it says it), or give a hint (highlighting the relevant portion of the passage). If click on a word in the passage it will say it for you. Fix Bugs L2+ -- This displays a pre-stored 'buggy' passage. User has to correct all the mistakes. User clicks on a word, then on the 'bug' icon. If it is a mistake, user is then asked to try to spell it. Various hints are available. Following a correct spelling, the word is changed to the correct version and the bug count updated.</ct> <aug> <p>By Lisa Lynch; Angela J Fawcett and Roderick I Nicolson </p> <p></p> <p>Address for correspondence: Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TP, UK. </p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib7" firstref="ref1"></nolink>
Header DbId: eric
DbLabel: ERIC
An: EJ615302
AccessLevel: 3
PubType: Academic Journal
PubTypeId: academicJournal
PreciseRelevancyScore: 0
IllustrationInfo
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in a Secondary School: An Evaluation Study.
– Name: Language
  Label: Language
  Group: Lang
  Data: English
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Lynch%2C+Lisa%22">Lynch, Lisa</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Fawcett%2C+Angela+J%2E%22">Fawcett, Angela J.</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Nicolson%2C+Roderick+I%2E%22">Nicolson, Roderick I.</searchLink>
– Name: TitleSource
  Label: Source
  Group: Src
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22British+Journal+of+Educational+Technology%22"><i>British Journal of Educational Technology</i></searchLink>. Oct 2000 31(4):333-348.
– Name: PeerReviewed
  Label: Peer Reviewed
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: Y
– Name: Pages
  Label: Page Count
  Group: Src
  Data: 16
– Name: DatePubCY
  Label: Publication Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2000
– Name: TypeDocument
  Label: Document Type
  Group: TypDoc
  Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Research
– Name: Subject
  Label: Descriptors
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+Assisted+Instruction%22">Computer Assisted Instruction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Computer+Oriented+Programs%22">Computer Oriented Programs</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Technology%22">Educational Technology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Elementary+Secondary+Education%22">Elementary Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Instructional+Effectiveness%22">Instructional Effectiveness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Literacy%22">Literacy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Improvement%22">Reading Improvement</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Instruction%22">Reading Instruction</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+Skills%22">Reading Skills</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Skill+Development%22">Skill Development</searchLink>
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0007-1013
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: RITA (Reader's Interactive Teaching Assistant) is a computer-based literacy support system that assists, rather than replaces, the teacher in providing support tailored to each child's profile of reading attainments. This study evaluated the effectiveness of RITA in secondary school with 8 children having very seriously disadvantaged literacy skills. The RITA intervention over a 10-week period led to effective and cost-effective literacy gains. (Contains 40 references.) (AEF)
– Name: CodeSource
  Label: Journal Code
  Group: SrcInfo
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JC" term="%22CIJAPR2001%22">CIJAPR2001</searchLink>
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2001
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ615302
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ615302
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 16
        StartPage: 333
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Computer Assisted Instruction
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Computer Oriented Programs
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Educational Technology
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Elementary Secondary Education
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Instructional Effectiveness
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Literacy
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Improvement
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Instruction
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading Skills
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Skill Development
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Computer-Assisted Reading Intervention in a Secondary School: An Evaluation Study.
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Lynch, Lisa
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Fawcett, Angela J.
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Nicolson, Roderick I.
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2000
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0007-1013
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 31
            – Type: issue
              Value: 4
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: British Journal of Educational Technology
              Type: main
ResultId 1