The development of students’ skills in reading is a key task for teachers to guarantee that children can perceive and understand the written information. However, students with learning disabilities can experience problems while developing their skills in reading texts. In their research, Decker and Buggey (2014) have studied the approaches to improving reading fluency in students with learning disabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a review and summary of the article while focusing on its objective, participants, and results.
Purpose
In their study, Decker and Buggey (2014) have focused on studying the role of self- and peer modeling in improving the fluency of reading in students with learning disabilities. Thus, some researchers note that peer modeling as the demonstration of reading skills by students with similar fluency levels and self-modeling as the use of individuals’ videos and recordings can have positive effects on developing skills in children with disabilities (Decker & Buggey, 2014). As a result, the purposes of the study were to examine whether the discussed modeling approaches could be effective to influence the reading fluency and to compare the results for self- and peer modeling to determine the most effective approach.
Participants
Decker and Buggey (2014) have involved six students aged 8-12 years in their study. Two students were males, and four students were females. These students, who studied in the third, fourth, and fifth grades, were determined to have a learning disability related to reading. They were selected for the study from a special education group. The other three students were selected to participate in the study as a control group.
Dependent Variables
In their study, the authors have chosen to measure the reading fluency of students who had problems with reading texts as a dependent variable. The focus was on examining any differences in reading which were caused by applying self- and peer modeling techniques (Decker & Buggey, 2014). The procedure was divided into such stages as the baseline, the intervention, and the follow-up during which the students’ results were measured with the help of protocols.
Results
As a result of conducting the study, Decker and Buggey (2014) have found that those students who were trained with the help of two modeling approaches demonstrated significant increases in their reading fluency. Students from the control group showed similar results. Even though there were no significant differences between the effects of self-modeling and peer modeling, students who were taught with the help of self-modeling demonstrated positive results quicker than the students from the second group. Positive gains for students improved depending on the number of hours they watched videos.
Reaction and Evaluation
The article is helpful to provide evidence regarding the use of self- and peer modeling techniques to improve the fluency of students’ reading. It can be a challenging process for teachers to motivate students with learning disabilities to improve their results in reading. In this context, the use of self- and peer modeling can become an effective reinforcer and an appropriate teaching tool to help students improve their results.
Conclusion
This paper provides a summary of the results presented in the article by Decker and Buggey. According to the authors, both self-modeling and peer modeling approaches are effective to facilitate the fluency of reading in students who have learning disabilities. From this point, the study can be viewed as interesting to special education professionals.
Reference
Decker, M. M., & Buggey, T. (2014). Using video self- and peer modeling to facilitate reading fluency in children with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 47(2), 167-177.