Struggling Readers with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders and Their Teachers: Perceptions of Corrective Reading

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) experience deficits in social, behavioral, and academic areas. Of great importance in the academic area is reading achievement. Students with E/BD who struggle with reading tend to have negative in-school and post-school outcomes. Due to the severity of potential outcomes, it is essential to effectively remediate the reading problems of students with E/BD. This study examined the perceptions of teachers and students who participated in an eight-week Corrective Reading intervention. Corrective Reading is an evidence-based, explicit reading program used with struggling readers for grades 3-12. Four teachers completed an interview and 18 students participated in focus groups. The Constant Comparative Method was used to analyze the interview and focus group responses to develop themes across respondents. The identified themes are described and discussed along with future directions and implications for practice.