| A small, randomized experimental study of school-aged participants with reading disabilities was undertaken to examine the effects of computer-based phonological processing intervention on phonological processing and reading achievement. A sample of 16 children (ages 6--12, grades 1--5) who attended a public school and had been identified by a multidisciplinary team as having reading disabilities were given 9 pretests to assess their level of phonological processing and reading achievement. Eight participants were randomly assigned to be part of the treatment group. The treatment group received half-hour sessions of computer-based phonological training four times per week for four weeks. At the end of the treatment period, both treatment and control participants were re-administered all nine phonological processing and reading achievement tests. An examination of the group means indicated that the treatment group participants showed more improvement than the control group on four of the nine subtests. The WJ-R Basic Reading was the only measure that showed a significant difference between treatment and control in their pretest minus posttest (change) scores. The treatment group participants improved more than the control group participants on the WJ-R Basic Reading Cluster (p = .015), suggesting that the computer-based intervention improved reading achievement. The information produced from this study is exciting and should be used as a springboard to develop further studies utilizing more intense computer-based interventions (e.g., Longer treatment times and more intervention tasks) and larger sample sizes to better understand how to develop and utilize effective computer-based reading interventions for children with reading disabilities. |
