The Differential Responsiveness of Youth with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Learning Disabilities to Intensive Remedial Reading Instruction

This study examined the collective and differentiated effects of a remedial reading intervention, Corrective Reading Decoding Level B, on the reading skills and social adjustment of elementary and middle school students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and learning disabilities (LD). Students were provided an average of three 40–45 min lessons per week over the course of nearly 4 months. Statistically significant reading skill improvements were found between students who received the intervention (n = 45) and those in the comparison condition (n = 23). The mean average basic reading skills of students with EBD (n = 10) improved from the low average range at pretest to the average range at posttest. Statistically significant differences were found between the posttest basic reading skills of students with EBD and their counterparts with LD (n = 35). Statistically significant reductions in the overall social adjustment problems and internalizing problems of participating students were found. The total problems of students with EBD moved from the clinical to the normal range at posttest. Except for performance on measures of oral reading fluency, students with EBD were significantly more responsive than their LD counterparts on measures of core reading skills, attention problems, ADHD Problems, and anxiety problems. Limitations, implications, and future research directions are discussed.