Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

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Gharekhani A, Hassanzadeh S, Afrooz G. Developing an Applied Reading Program and Evaluation of its Effectiveness on Reading Performance on daily Life Situations in Children with Down syndrome. MEJDS 2019; 9 :91-91
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-1026-en.html

Background & Objective: Learning of reading and writing are basic skills, which unfortunately some children have problem in this process. Review of related literature supports this idea that many children and adolescents with Down syndrome, who have learned reading materials from an early age, could improve their spoken language and memory skills. Patients with more efforts and simplified tasks could learn to read in the same way as typically developing children. They build on their good visual memory skills but find it more difficult to use phonics. Reading skills in the patients, is one of the most basic tools for communication and social function. The present research addressed the developing an applied reading program and evaluation of its effectiveness on understanding written material on daily life situations in patients. 
Methods: The research was a quasi–experimental one with pretest–posttest design for two experimental and control groups. The research sample comprised 30 children and adolescents with Down syndrome who were selected through availability sampling among students of two special schools in Hamedan city (Hamedan province, West of Iran). Subjects were randomly assigned into two experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) groups. The research instruments included: A) the Wechsler intelligence scale for children– revised version (WISC–R), which this test has five primary index scores, the verbal comprehension index (VCI), visual spatial index (VSI), fluid reasoning index (FRI), working memory index (WMI) and processing speed index (PSI). Two subtests had to be administered to obtain each of the primary index scores; thus, 10 subtests were primary subtests. The full scale IQ was derived from 7 of 10 primary subtests: both verbal comprehension subtests, one visual spatial subtest, two fluid reasoning subtests, one working memory subtest, and one processing speed subtest. B) The Persian version of test of language development–primary 3 (TOLD–P3), which this test consists of 5 core subtests (picture vocabulary, oral vocabulary, grammatical understanding, sentence imitation and grammatical completion) which then comprise the overall composite score (language quotient). Three supplemental subtests (word discrimination, phonemic analysis, and word articulation) were provided for an expanded clinical analysis of “speech” systems, and C) two researcher–made written tasks as the pretest and post–test, they used to measure the written texts comprehension in the experimental and control groups. The intervention program was conducted in 12 sessions. Each session was 30 minutes. Some tasks were taken to parents as home tasks. This program was included basic reading skill tasks (phonological awareness, visual decoding tasks and vocabulary development). 
Results: Results of covariance analysis showed that Applied Reading Program had a significant effect on comprehension of written material in students with Down Syndrome (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, teachers and pediatricians of children with Down syndrome are recommended to use a reading program that improves understanding of the written material and reading performance in these children. The intervention evaluated here was novel in its integrated approach to reading and language instruction for children with Down syndrome and is educationally realistic.