Effects of Adding Multisensory Components to a Supplemental Reading Program on the Decoding Skills of Treatment Resisters

A multiple-baseline across participants was used to analyze the effects of adding multisensory elements to an explicit, systematic phonics program on the reading achievement of six students identified as treatment resisters. Participants were given 10 minutes of daily instruction in the supplemental program in addition to instruction in the evidence-based school-wide curriculum. The multisensory additions included finger tapping, letter formation onto carpet squares, and the use of magnetic letters. Fluency of nonsense word reading was used as the dependent variable and fluency of sound recognition within nonsense words was used as a collateral measure. Generalization of the decoding skills was assessed through oral reading fluency on first-grade and grade- level passages.