The Effects of Self-Questioning with Prompt Fading on Reading Comprehension of Middle School Students with Dyslexia

Students with learning disabilities (LD) and dyslexia often struggle with a variety of literacy skills, including reading comprehension. Self-questioning, a strategy that requires students to generate questions while reading a passage, is one reading comprehension strategy validated to be effective across a range of age and ability levels. Generating questions can be challenging for all students, especially those with disabilities. Systematic prompt fading (i.e., gradually removing instructional prompts) is a way to teach students to generate their own questions. Previous research demonstrates that teaching self-questioning using a systematic prompt fading procedure is effective for improving reading comprehension. This study used a multiple baseline across participants design to examine the effects of a self-questioning with prompt fading intervention package on the reading comprehension of sixth graders with dyslexia. Results demonstrated that the self-questioning intervention was functionally related to improved reading comprehension quiz scores. Additionally, all participants demonstrated generalization of the strategy to reading passages in a different content area.