The Effect of Visualization Intervention on Sixth-Grade Special Education Students’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of visualization reading instruction on the reading comprehension of sixth-grade special education students with reading difficulties. The null hypothesis predicted no significant relationship between visualization reading instruction and special education sixth-grade students’ reading comprehension. The study’s quasi-experimental design used the Performance Series Computer-Adaptive Reading Test as both a pre- and post-test to measure reading comprehension. Visualization instruction using students’ instructional-level texts was administered twice weekly for 25 minutes over an eight-week period. The results of the study failed to reject the null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between the struggling readers’ comprehension and visualization instruction, but suggested that there is room for further research about visualization and other reading strategy instruction to investigate what is most beneficial to readers who have difficulty accessing grade-level text. Additional research would benefit from a larger and more diverse sample and an extended research period.