Participants:
This study requires 30 participants aged between ten and twelve years. The main inclusion criterion for the study is that all the selected participants require a positive diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Random sampling will find use in selecting the participants to be included into the study. Once selected, the participants will be divided into two main groups each with fifteen participants. These are the control and treatment group. Random assignment will find use in dividing the participants into the two groups. The control group will serve as the baseline for the study, while the treatment group will provide a comparison point for the use of effective teaching strategies aimed towards improving the children’s reading and comprehension. Parents will provide the much-needed permission to include their children into the study. In order to achieve this, the parents or guardians will sign a consent form before a child is included into the study. The consent form will provide a brief overview of the research topic, aims, objectives, significance, and the use of the data collected.
Procedure:
The study will rely on a pre and posttest experimental design and requires a period of twelve weeks to complete. As mentioned earlier, the study needs thirty children with autism aged between ten and twelve years. The researcher will approach the parents to the identified children in order to provide consent for their inclusion into the study. The study will divide these children into two main groups. These are the control, and the treatment group.
Pre-test:
At the beginning of the study, a pre-test is essential in an effort to assess the children’s reading and comprehension skills before applying an intervention. For the test, children will be required to read a passage and answer a few questions orally based on the passage read in class. The instructor will score each student based on the ease with which they read the passage, the number of words read correctly, and the number of oral questions answered correctly. The data collected from the pre-test will be organized and recorded for further analysis.
Intervention:
For the control group, children will receive standardized reading and comprehension instruction. This is the normal reading and comprehension instruction provided for all children in schools. This standardized instruction will be provided four times a week in 2-hour sessions. The lesson plan will start at level 1 and end at level 12 over the course of the study. Each level will take a week to complete and will increase in reading difficulty from level 1 through to level 12. For the control group, the instructor will use only standardized teaching methods in an effort to improve the children’s reading and comprehension skills. It is imperative to note that the standardized instructions are not tailored to meet the children’s learning disability. Therefore, the control group will act as the baseline for the study and will provided an excellent comparison in order to determine the effectiveness of adopting effective teaching methods for children with autism.
On the other hand, for the treatment group children will receive tailored instruction aimed at meeting the learning needs of the autistic children. For this group, a special lesson plan will be tailored for the children. The lesson plan will start at level 1 and end at level 12 over the course of the study. Each level will take a week to complete and will increase in reading difficulty from level 1 through to level 12. Each week, the lesson will also be appropriately themed (for example animal, and superhero themes just to mention a few) in order to improve reading and comprehension skills. The main purpose of the themes is to increase the children’s concentration, interest, as well as, attention span. The lesson plan will also greatly rely on pictures and diagrams. The main aim of this is to ensure that the children in the treatment group easily understand the passages read over the course of the study. Similar to the control group, this instruction will be provided four times a week in 2-hour sessions.
Post-test:
At the end of each level, a post-test will be carried out. Similar to the pre-test the instructor will score each student based on the ease with which they read the passage, the number of words read correctly, and the number of oral questions answered correctly.
Material needed:
A set of reading comprehensions
Desks and chairs for the students
Analysis:
The data collected requires analysis in order to draw effective conclusions on the effectiveness of the learning intervention and strategy used with the treatment group. First, the pre-test data will be analyzed for both the control and treatment group. This will involve determining the pre-test average score for students from both groups. Secondly, the average of the posttest over the different reading levels will be calculated for both the treatment and control groups. This is in an effort to determine the post-test average score for students from both groups.
A t-test will find use in determining the significance of the mean difference between the control group and treatment groups. This implies running two t-tests, one for the pre-test data and the second for the post-test data. Based on the significance of the t-tests it is possible to draw conclusion on the effectiveness of the teaching strategy employed in the treatment group. The main reason a t-test has been selected is that it will help in determining the significance of the mean difference between the pre and posttest results obtained from the control and treatment group (Mitchell & Jolley, 2013).
Results:
Discussion:
The results of the study will be significant in answering the research question proposed. This is attributable to the fact that the results will show whether the adoption of effective teaching methods greatly influences learning outcomes for students with autism. The study will also provide great insight into the tools required to improve reading and comprehension skills for children with autism. For example, the study will reveal the effectiveness of themes and diagrams in improving reading and comprehension for children with autism. This is critical towards improving the teaching methods adopted for students with learning disabilities.
Reference
Mitchell, M. L., & Jolley, J. M. (2013). Research design explained. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
