Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Background & Objective: Slow–paced students with Down syndrome often have language deficits that acquire a reading challenge. Sight word instruction of daily living skills is a method of intervention that benefits students with severe disabilities who have not achieved literacy. Slow–paced (intellectual disability) students with Down syndrome can use from instruction in functional reading that enhances their daily living. A vital feature of the functional curriculum involves a curriculum focused on skills needed to function in adult life. Thus, a functional curriculum is multifaceted and typically considered to be composed of the following components: functional academics, vocational education, community access, daily living, financial, independent living, transportation, social/relationships, and self–determination. In the absence of implementing educational programs adapted to the abilities based on students’ needs and differences of them decrease the beneficial effect. In addition to the fact that school learning will not be carried out properly, the consequences would be such as incur high costs without satisfying results, passing of the golden age of student learning, will reduce the motivation of teachers, students and parents to learn less than expected. Through research conducted by Afrooz and his colleagues, more than 50% of offenders were people who had been selected due to learning difficulties and lack of proper training. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction functional reading texts on reading skills of slow–paced (intellectual disability) students with Down syndrome by using family–centered individualized education program approach.
Methods: The research method was semi–experimental with pretest–posttest one with the control group. The statistical population of all slow–paced students with Down syndrome was from Hamedan city (west of Iran), who studied in exceptional schools in the academic year 2016–17. The sample consisted of 20 slow–paced students with Down syndrome, which was selected by purposive sampling method. Then, they randomly divided into two experimental (n=10) and control (n=10) groups. Data collected by researcher–made reading tests used. Content validity was used to determine the validity of the test, and the percentage of agreement was used to assess its reliability. In the end, the results analyzed in two levels of descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation,...) and analytical statistics (Kolmogorov–Smirnov Test, Levine Test, Test of Homogeneity of Variances and Analysis of Covariance).
Results: Results by analysis of covariance showed that of instruction functional reading texts by using family–centered individualized education program approach had a significant effect on the accuracy, speed, and comprehension of readings of Slow–paced students (p<0.001). Besides, its impact on reading speed was more significant than reading accuracy and reading comprehension (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The findings showed that the instruction functional reading texts by using family–centered individualized education program approach increases the reading performance of slow–paced students with Down syndrome.