THE EFFECT OF EMBEDDED TEXT-TO-SPEECH AND VOCABULARY EBOOK SCAFFOLDS ON THE COMPREHENSION OF STUDENTS WITH READING DISABILITIES

Abstract

Limited research exists concerning the effect of interactive electronic texts or eBooks on the reading comprehension of students with reading disabilities. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant difference in oral retelling and comprehension performance on multiple-choice questions when 17 students with reading disabilities in third (n = 10) and fourth (n = 7) grade read eBooks under three different book formats. Participants read text presented in 3 formats with varying levels of built-in scaffolds including text-to-speech and vocabulary supports. Results of a Friedman’s Test revealed a significant effect of the different book formats on comprehension measured by oral retelling, but not for comprehension measured by multiple-choice questions. ...