The Effect of a Neuro-Linguistic Programming Modeled-Reading Comprehension Strategy on Special Education Students

Abstract

This study was designed to test the effectiveness of a Neuro-Linguistic Programming modeled-reading comprehension strategy. This lower order thinking strategy treatment was tested on seven special education students from three suburban middle schools in western New York. This treatment was intended to develop the subject's ability to create images from written language. First, students drew pictures of sentences read to them by their teacher. Next, the teacher asked students questions about the visual, auditory and kinesthetic submodalities of their pictures; students were urged to add missing details. Once students could draw and sequence pictures adequately, they were instructed to make pictures in their mind of sentences read. When they were able to comprehend a paragraph at a time, they continued the strategy with silent reading. Subjects were pre- and posttested using the Ekwall Informal Reading Inventory (1986). A related t-test indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the pre and post test results.