The Effects of Rime Based Instruction on Adolescent Struggling Readers: The Impact of Color-Coded Vowels

Abstract

Efficient word reading skills are required by secondary students to comprehend academic texts. Adolescents who continue to struggle with basic word reading experience decreased academic success and decreased motivation for reading. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a color-coded rime intervention (Sound Effects) on adolescents with word reading disabilities. An initial single-case design study was conducted with three high school students to investigate the significance of Sound Effect's use of color for supporting accurate vowel pronunciations. The color-cued rime condition resulted in increased accuracy of vowel pronunciations when compared to the baseline and uncolored rime conditions. A second study used a comparison group design with 47 middle school students in grades 5-8. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: Sound Effects, Corrective Reading, or a no-treatment control group. After 15 tutoring sessions neither of the intervention groups exhibited statistically significant gains on word reading variables, though both Sound Effects and Corrective significantly improved students' spelling. Results from a measure of reading self-concept indicated that students in the Corrective intervention experienced decreased reading attitude from pre- to post-testing. A measure of social acceptability indicated that Sound Effect was perceived as acceptable to the participants.