The purpose of the study was to investigate the efficacy of a 'Reading Recovery' or an
'Extra Lesson' program in comparison to no intervention for children having difficulty
reading in their second year at school.
'Reading Recovery' is an intervention program developed by Marie Clay to assist
children who are showing signs of having difficulty learning to read after the first year
at school. 'Reading Recovery' uses a whole language approach. The assumption is that
given a second chance in a 1:1 structured learning environment, with a trained
Reading Recovery teacher, the child will learn to read at an age appropriate level.
The 'Extra Lesson' intervention is based on the paradigm of Rudolf Steiner's concept
of education, which is a holistic developmental approach. The assumption is that there
is a relationship between learning and development in the first seven years of the
child's life. The 'Extra Lesson' assessment tests for and identifies developmental
difficulties within the first seven years of the child's life and skills testing clarifies if
the child has any significant learning difficulty. The 'Extra Lesson' intervention is a
1:1 program, based on a holistic developmental perspective of Rudolf Steiner, to work
with the child's difficulties.
The efficacy of both interventions was evaluated by using a case study design with
embedded forms of analysis and a pre-test post-test non equivalent control group
quasi-experimental design to measure the changes in the children's reading skills,
processing speed, short term auditory memory and awareness of body geography.
Follow up tests were administered 10 months after the post-tests. Case studies have
been used to present the data collated for individual subjects and graphs were used for
the analysis of group data.
All the subjects showed an improvement in reading skills from the pre to the post-test.
At follow up all the subjects tested continued to show an improvement in reading
skills. Both interventions were shown to affect the subjects reading skills. A
comparison of groups showed a slight measurable difference between the 'Reading
Recovery', 'Extra Lesson' and Control group, with the 'Extra Lesson' showing a
slightly larger improvement in sight word recognition. The treatment and Control
groups' Writing Vocabulary increased from the pre to the post-test. The 'Reading
Recovery' and Control groups' Writing Vocabulary decreased and the Extra Lesson
group continued to improve at follow up.
All the groups showed an improvement in short term auditory memory at the post-test
and the Control and 'Extra lesson' groups continued to increase slightly at follow up
and the 'Reading Recovery' group remained relatively constant. All the groups had
relatively constant scores on Processing Speed from the pre to the post- test and at
follow up. Neither intervention showed a measurable effect on Processing Speed.
All the groups showed an improvement in graphical representation of body geography
at the post-test and at follow up. The 'Extra Lesson' group showed the largest
improvement at the post-test and long-term. The 'Extra Lesson' intervention had a
positive and measurable effect on graphical representation of body geography after the
intervention and long-term.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219065 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Judd, Mariane, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Professional & Community Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Mariane Judd |
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