Forty Years of Reading Intervention Research for Elementary Students with or at Risk for Dyslexia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Reading Research Quarterly

Hall, C., Dahl-Leonard, K., et al. (2023).

Reading Research Quarterly, 58(2), 285-312.

This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the effects of reading interventions for elementary school-aged children with or at risk of dyslexia. 

Harrison Family Foundation

The data in this systematic review formed the basis for the following article, which can be found elsewhere in the Evidence Maps:<br /> <ul> <li>Cho, E., Dahl-Leonard, K., et al. (2023). Motivational Practices in Reading Interventions for Students With or at Risk for Dyslexia: Literature Synthesis and Meta-Analysis. <em>Topics in Language Disorders, 43</em>(2), 119-145, <a title="https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000312" href="https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000312" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000312</a></li> </ul>

January 1, 1980 to January 1, 2020

Experimental or quasi-experimental designs with treatment comparison groups and at least 15 participants per group

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Findings demonstrated a overall significant, positive effect for reading interventions on norm-referenced reading outcomes in elementary school-aged children with or at risk of dyslexia (g= 0.33; 95% CI= 0.25 to 0.41, p&lt;0.01). The following findings were noted regarding potential moderators of treatment effect: <br /> <ul> <li><span style="color: #333333;">Grade level was not a significant moderator of treatment effect. </span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">Dosage was a significant moderator (t= 2.21, df= 12.40, p&lt;0.05), with each additional hour of services correlating to an effect size increase of 0.002.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;"> Interventions with combined spelling and word-reading components (g= 0.37) resulted in improved outcomes over those without a spelling component (g= 0.23). </span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">No significant changes were noted for combined treatments of word-reading and either phonological awareness, morphology, or vocabulary instruction when compared to word-reading alone treatments. </span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">No significant differences were noted between multisensory and non-multisensory treatments.</span></li> <li><span style="color: #333333;">No significant differences were noted as a result of group size (i.e., individual versus small group).</span></li> </ul>