Paraprofessional Implementation of Incremental Rehearsal
Location
CSU Ballroom
Start Date
20-4-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
20-4-2015 3:30 PM
Student's Major
Psychology
Student's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Mentor's Name
Carlos Panahon
Mentor's Email Address
carlos.panahon@mnsu.edu
Mentor's Department
Psychology
Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Second Mentor's Name
Shawna Petersen-Brown
Second Mentor's Email Address
shawna.petersen-brown@mnsu.edu
Second Mentor's Department
Psychology
Second Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Third Mentor's Name
Cassandra Schreiber
Third Mentor's Deparment
Psychology
Third Mentor's College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Description
Reading skills are an essential part of student success. These skills must be developed as soon as possible so that students can benefit from their education. However, many schools are plagued by a lack of resources to implement research-based interventions to enhance reading skills. One way to enhance the skills of at-risk students is to use paraprofessionals as interventionists. Incremental Rehearsal (IR) is an empirically supported, explicit intervention typically delivered one-on-one; it requires minimal training and therefore may be appropriate for paraprofessional use. Within IR, flashcards are used to target a basic skill (e.g. sight words). It is estimated that the success of IR may rely on the controlled and repetitive manner in which items are presented, resulting in less stress on the working memory in the brain (Peterson et al., 2014). The purpose of this study was to train paraprofessionals how to implement IR with at-risk students. Within this study, one paraprofessional was trained in IR and implemented the flash card intervention with one second-grade student and two third-grade students using a multiple baseline design. Unknown words were identified from a list of high-utility sight words. For 8 weeks, the three students were taught 15 words per week in 3-4 sessions. One-week retention was obtained for taught words. Results showed that all three students maintained words taught through IR at a higher rate than what would be expected if target words were not taught. Implications for future research as well as limitations are also discussed.
Paraprofessional Implementation of Incremental Rehearsal
CSU Ballroom
Reading skills are an essential part of student success. These skills must be developed as soon as possible so that students can benefit from their education. However, many schools are plagued by a lack of resources to implement research-based interventions to enhance reading skills. One way to enhance the skills of at-risk students is to use paraprofessionals as interventionists. Incremental Rehearsal (IR) is an empirically supported, explicit intervention typically delivered one-on-one; it requires minimal training and therefore may be appropriate for paraprofessional use. Within IR, flashcards are used to target a basic skill (e.g. sight words). It is estimated that the success of IR may rely on the controlled and repetitive manner in which items are presented, resulting in less stress on the working memory in the brain (Peterson et al., 2014). The purpose of this study was to train paraprofessionals how to implement IR with at-risk students. Within this study, one paraprofessional was trained in IR and implemented the flash card intervention with one second-grade student and two third-grade students using a multiple baseline design. Unknown words were identified from a list of high-utility sight words. For 8 weeks, the three students were taught 15 words per week in 3-4 sessions. One-week retention was obtained for taught words. Results showed that all three students maintained words taught through IR at a higher rate than what would be expected if target words were not taught. Implications for future research as well as limitations are also discussed.
Recommended Citation
Hayes, Rosa. "Paraprofessional Implementation of Incremental Rehearsal." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 20, 2015.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2015/poster_session_B/35
