Effectiveness of Treatment Approaches for Children and Adolescents With Reading Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
PLoS One
Galuschka, K., Ise, E., et al. (2014).
PLoS One, 9(2), e89900.
This meta-analysis investigates the effects of reading treatments on children and adolescents with reading disabilities.
Bundesverband fur Legasthenie und Dyskalkulie e.V. (Germany); Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Kinder-und Jugendpsychiatrie, Psychosomatik und Psychotherapie (Germany)
Up to June 2013
Randomized controlled trials
22
A sub-analysis was performed to determine the impact of various service delivery variables on the reading and spelling outcomes of children with reading difficulties. While no clear conclusions could be drawn for specific reading interventions, the findings suggest that "interventions with higher amounts of treatment or longer durations of treatment seem to be more effective in improving the literacy skills than therapies with small amounts of treatment or short-time interventions" (p. 10).
The majority of studies included in the review investigated the use of phonics instruction. The mean effect size for phonics instruction was .32 suggesting a small, but significant, effect on the reading and spelling outcomes of children with reading difficulties. No differential effects were found for other reading interventions studies (e.g., reading comprehension training, reading fluency interventions).
Three studies examined reading comprehension training with children with reading difficulties. Negligible to small effect sizes were reported across studies on reading comprehension outcomes. The authors caution interpretation of these findings, since they were based on studies by the same author; further research is needed.
Three studies examined the use of auditory training to improve children's reading and spelling skills; no significant improvements were reported.
Three studies examined phonemic awareness interventions and five studies examined reading fluency interventions; no significant effects were found on the reading and spelling skills of school-aged children with reading difficulties. However, the findings suggest that the combined phonemic awareness and reading fluency treatment has "the potential to increase the reading and spelling performance of children and adolescents with reading disabilities" (p. 9).
