About Us

Project Maximize

Maximizing Literacy Learning Among Children With Mild to Moderate Mental Retardation (2005-09)

Project Maximize, funded in 2005 by the Office of Special Education Projects (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education, is a 4-year longitudinal study examining methods for teaching reading to students with severe reading difficulties including students with intellectual disabilities (mental retardation) and autism. Instruction began in the fall of 2005 in an urban school district with 137 children. Half of the students were assigned to treatment or control groups; those in treatment receive daily instruction in reading in small groups of 2-4 students or in some cases, one-on-one instruction.  The project is currently in its fourth and final year.

Purpose

The current state of research for reading instruction for students with ID beyond identifying sight words is minimal, but what does exist is very promising.   It has been well established that systematic instruction can lead students with ID to learn to recognize a list of sight words (Browder & Xin, 1998; Browder, Wakeman, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, & Algozzine, 2006), yet the research demonstrating effective instruction of phonics of phonemic awareness (PA) for students with ID is less conclusive.  The Office of Special Education Programs recognized the importance of this issue and recently funded three national centers to explore methods for teaching students with ID to read.  As one of these nationally funded centers, we seek to determine the effectiveness of a comprehensive, phonics-based reading program in teaching students with ID to fully process print and meaning of connected text. 

Procedures

This study is being conducted as a randomized trial with two groups. One group of students is receiving a special education program that represents current best practices, which are provided by the Ft Worth Independent School District. The second group of students is receiving the Early Interventions in Reading intervention from highly trained teachers. Students meet daily either one-on-one or in groups of 2 or 3 for 40-55 minute sessions.  Instruction includes Early Interventions in Reading and supplemental language instruction.

To determine the impact of reading instruction as compared to "current best practice," the study collects measures of multiple dimensions of reading, language, and intellect, including measures pretest/posttest and continuous progressive measures collected every 2 to 4 weeks across all 4 years.  Further, we observe during experimental and contrast instruction and measure level of fidelity of the intervention at multiple points each year.  Last, we collect student IEP records and conduct teacher and parent interviews to allow us to determine if our interventions facilitate access to the general education curriculum.

Preliminary Findings

Initial analysis of the data for students with moderate ID favors the treatment group.  Means favored the intervention group with moderate to strong effect sizes on all measures.  Despite low statistical power due to the small sample size (16 in the intervention group and 12 in the contrast group), statistically significant differences were found on multiple measures, including measures of phonemic awareness, phonics, words recognition, vocabulary, and comprehension.   

Presentations

Presentations (PDFs) describing aspects of Project Maximize are attached.

Video Clips

Curriculum Information/Materials

  • Foundation Level. pre-publication; 2010 expected copyright
    The foundation level of the curriculum teaches kindergarten-level reading skills including print awareness, concepts about print, phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, and oral language.  Like all levels of the intervention, the Foundation level is designed to be implemented with small groups of children.  Trade books, letter-sound correspondence cards, and a puppet are included in the lessons for the Foundation level.  

  • Level One: Early Interventions in Reading through SRA
    The first level of the curriculum teaches first grade level reading skills and has been found to be effective through several research studies (link) and is available for purchase from SRA.  The curriculum is designed to maximize the level of student engagement and to provide students with optimum success in each lesson. The lessons proceed quickly, keeping student engagement high and providing maximum opportunities for each student to practice skills.  Level One focuses on letter and word work, fluency practice, teacher-supported reading, basic comprehension strategies, and regular assessment of progress.

  • Level Two. Early Interventions in Reading through SRA
    The second level of the curriculum teaches second through fourth grade reading skills.  Building on the skills and strategies learned in Level One, Level Two reviews foundational skills while focusing more on vocabulary and comprehension.  Students spend significant time engaged in reading texts and using vocabulary in context.  Concepts maps and other comprehension activities strengthen understanding, while repeated readings increase fluency.  By the end of Level Two students are successful, fluent readers who can read texts with understanding.  

  • Stop and Go Game. pre-publication
    This game is played individually with students, and teaches children to blend sounds to make words.  Student practice segmenting spoken words into individual phonemes and blending individual phonemes into spoken words.  The game provides practice in letter-sound correspondence, decoding, segmenting, and blending, while focusing on phonemic awareness.  See the attached video link of it being played.  The game can be obtained via request at champlin@smu.edu.

  • Home Component. pre-publication
    The home component supplements Level One and consists of activity pages students can do on their own at home.  The home component provides students with additional practice reading target words and sentences in fun formats including cross-word puzzles, scrambled words, and other game-like activities.  There are different home component activities for different units within each level.

  • Language Component. pre-publication
    This component of the curriculum was added to enhance vocabulary skills.  The goal is to expand vocabulary and general knowledge through both narrative and expository texts.  In narrative text structures, students are guided to identify the beginning, middle, and ending events in the story.  With expository text, students have opportunities to discuss related knowledge.

Press Links (PDFs)

Useful Websites

  • Reading Rockets - This project provides information and resources to teachers and parents about reading instruction to young children.
    www.ReadingRockets.org

  • SRA Publishing - Makes available direct-instruction curricula that have proven to be effective in teaching reading to struggling students.
    www.sra.com

  • Division of Developmental Disabilities - This division of the CEC provides specific support to those working with students with cognitive disabilities, autism, and other related disabilities.
    www.dddcec.org/

  • DIBELS - These assessments were used to monitor the student's progress on key reading skills. The website also provides links to good curricular activities to support reading.
    dibels.uoregon.edu/

  • Council for Exceptional Children - This professional organization is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted. It provides information and resources for parents and teachers on issues related to policy, advocacy, and professional development.
    www.cec.sped.org

  • Project Raise - This project coordinates with Maximize. Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte are investigating teaching reading to students with moderate to severe mental retardation.
    http://education.uncc.edu/access/RAISEProject.htm

Resource Literature

  • Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kameenui, E. J., & Tarver, S. G. (2004). Direct Instruction Reading. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

  • O'Connor, R.E. (2007). Teaching Word Recognition: Effective Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

  • Klingner, J.K., Vaughn, S., & Boardman, A. (2007). Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Learning Difficulties. New York, NY: The Guildford Press.

  • Bear, R.D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnson, F. (2008) Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction (4e). Upper Saddle, NY: Pearson Merril Prentice Hall.

To learn more, contact:
Tammi Champlin, Project Coordinator (champlin@smu.edu)