The Systematic Instruction Of Students With Severe Reading Disabilities: Two Case Studies

The way in which students with severe reading disabilities are instructed in a public school system was investigated. Interviews regarding the perceptions and beliefs which guide the instruction of severely disabled readers were conducted with educators in a western North Carolina county. The results of these interviews indicated that educators were employing ineffective methods to educate severely disabled readers. Two case studies were then presented in which severely disabled readers were instructed using a systematic alphabetic-code based approach. These severely disabled readers made significant progress in response to this systematic instruction. Implications for the instruction of severely disabled readers in the public school setting were drawn from both the interviews and the two case studies. Both the interviews conducted with educators and the two case studies conclusively indicated that in order to effectively instruct severely disabled readers in the public school system, the system must provide the proper methods, conditions, and teachers.