Sopena, J. M. 1 , López-Sala, A. 2 , Gilboy, E. 1 , Jacas, C. 3 & Andreu, L. 4
1 Departament de Psicologia Bàsica, Universitat de Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
2 Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
3 Hospital Vall d' Hebron, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
4 Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
Currently there is a great interest in developing effective methods for teaching reading that help all children acquire adequate reading skills. The present study was designed to assess the effectiveness of an intensive tutorial intervention designed to develop and improve the literacy skills of both normal readers (kids learning fine in regular classrooms) and low-performing first-grade students. The sample comprises 853 Catalan-speaking children who were enrolled in first grade during the 2011-2012 school years in Catalonia. The classrooms participants were randomly assigned to experimental or control group. All children were screened to determine initial status for reading. Children with lower scores in reading fluency variable were assigned to low-performing group and the rest to the normal readers group. Experimental group received a two tiered model of intervention system. This Response to Intervention program included a primary prevention for all the students of the experimental group and supplemental intervention for students identified as low performers for reading difficulties. Daily monitoring progresses were used to decide if the child continued receiving an intervention in two levels or only one. Results showed that children of the experimental group, both low-performing and normal readers, increased significantly more in words, non-words and text reading than control group.