Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 3-12 With Significant Word Reading Difficulties.

Most students with reading difficulties struggle to read words. We examined intervention effects for students with word reading difficulties (SWRD; standard score of 80 on at least one pretest measure of word reading), which includes individuals with or at risk for dyslexia. We investigated: (a) What are the effects of reading interventions for students in Grades 3-12 with SWRD? and (b) What intervention features (i.e., instructional components and elements of dosage) are related to improved reading outcomes for the target population? A meta-analysis of 22 studies and 208 effect sizes revealed a statistically significant, positive, mean effect ( = 0.14, standard error [] = 0.04, = .01, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.04, 0.23]) of interventions for the target population. Subset analyses revealed positive, statistically significant intervention effects on measures of pseudoword reading ( = 0.38, = 0.07, = .0003, 95% CI [0.21, 0.54]) and pseudoword reading fluency ( = 0.29, = 0.09, = .010, 95% CI [0.09, 0.49]). Moderator analyses yielded statistically significant, positive effects associated with increased total hours of intervention, β = 0.003, = 0.0009, (8.31) = 3.58, = .007. Overall, findings indicate a need for interventions that improve generalized real-world reading for the target population.