Parents Using Explicit Reading Instruction with Their Children At-Risk for Reading Difficulties

Kindergarten students at-risk for reading difficulties were selected for participation in a parent implemented reading program. Each parent provided instruction to his or her child using the reading program Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (TYCTR; Engelmann, Haddox, & Bruner, 1983). Parents were expected to use TYCTR with their child 15 minutes a night, five nights a week. The intervention consisted of parents teaching 15 letter sounds and phonemic awareness skills within 30 formatted lessons. The experimenter assessed students daily at the school to measure correct words read on sentence list sheets. The experimenter also recorded categories of parents’ questions and comments. Classification of responses occurred after instruction for the reading program ended and parent teaching of the child had begun. A multi-probe design demonstrated increased words read correctly. Parents had a high rate fidelity following the steps of each lesson with their child. Discussion of the results and implications for future research are presented.