Reading Intervention for Children With Intellectual Disabilities Who Require Augmentative and Alternative Communication

The goal of this multiple single case study with multiple randomized baseline (with four starting points and 18 measurements across time) is to conduct a reading intervention for 40 children with intellectual disabilities who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).The main questions to answer are:Is there a functional relation between the use of "Lesing for alle" (Reading for all) and increased accuracy of sound blending by students age 6-14 with intellectual disabilities who require AAC?Is there a functional relation between the use of "Lesing for alle" (Lesing for alle) and improved acquisition of letter sound correspondence by students age 6-14 with intellectual disabilities who require AAC?Is there a functional relation between the use of "Lesing for alle" (Reading for all) and improved acquisition of phoneme segmentation by students age 6-14 with intellectual disabilities who require AAC?Is there a functional relation between the use of "Lesing for alle" (Reading for all) and improved acquisition of recognition of sight words by students age 6-14 with intellectual disabilities who require AAC?Is there a functional relation between the use of "Lesing for alle" (Reading for all) and improved acquisition of decoding by students age 6-14 with intellectual disabilities who require AAC?Is there a positive and strong correlation between increasing skills from 1-3 and 4-5? Meaning, is there a transfer from lower level skills (phonological skills) to decoding skills?The participants (age 6-14) will receive daily instruction in a reading material that follows all the strategies of Accessible Literacy Learning, developed by Janice Light and David McNaughton. It is the teachers who will carry out the teaching in the students fixed and familiar place at school. The reading material consist of tasks in sound blending, letter-sound correspondence, phoneme segmentation, sight words and decoding. The reading material will use explicit instruction, distributed and cumulative practice, and immediate and corrective feedback. The intervention will take place for a total of 18 months.

Inclusion Criteria:Students between 6 and 14Students who are diagnosed with intellectual disabilitiesStudents who do not have a functional speech, i.e. require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to understand and/or make oneself understood.Students must use AAC as their primary form of communicationStudents cannot follow ordinary curricula (LK20) but have their own education plan.Exclusion Criteria:Students younger than six years and older than 14 yearsStudents who have not been diagnosed within intellectual disabilitiesStudents who have a functional speech and do not require AACStudents who follow ordinary education