Effects of TWA on Science Text Comprehension of Students with Emotional and Behavior Disorders in a Special Day School

An emerging intervention for increasing reading comprehension in students with emotional and behavioral disorders is self-regulated strategy development (SRSD). The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the TWA (Think before reading, think While reading, and think After reading) SRSD reading strategy when used with students with emotional and behavioral disorders in a special day school. TWA is a form of SRSD where the student is taught to self-monitor and self-evaluate while reading. This study specifically focused on increasing reading comprehension of science text. Results of a piecewise hierarchical linear model suggest significant gains in reading comprehension during intervention as compared to baseline, with secondary level predicting both students’ performance and response to the intervention. Results of treatment fidelity and social validity are also reported. Limitations and directions for future researchers are presented.