EvidenceBased Practice in Literacy: A Morphological Intervention Case Study

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 Evidence-Based Practice in Literacy A
Morphological Intervention Case Study

• Lisa Phillips, M.S. CCC/SLP,
• Westford Public Schools
• Laura Green, Ph.D., CCC/SLP,
• Texas Womans University

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Evidence-Based Practice

• The use of only those treatment methods that are
  supported by controlled and replicated research
  evidence.
• Requires an integration of best evidence for
  diagnostic and treatment methods with sound
  clinical expertise/judgment.
• Takes into consideration what is best for an
  individual patient and his/her preferences.

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Outcome-Based Intervention

• Process of systematic collection and reporting of
  client outcomes of our management
• A special research methodology all its own
• Careful analysis of the use of a theoretically
  sound treatment approach in a clinical setting
• The beginning of the evidence base

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Morphology and Literacy

• Derivational morphology employs principles of
  both phonology and orthography.
• Morphological knowledge increases vocabulary
  skills which, in turn, contribute to successful
  reading comprehension.
• Knowledge of morphemes and their spellings
  fosters quicker recognition of word parts and,
  thus, more efficient decoding.

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Treatment Rationale

• Students need to understand the concept of using
  morphology changing meaning.
• Students need intervention that incorporates all
  three literacy codes (phonemic, orthographic and
  morphological).
• Students need repeated practice with newly
  learned information.
• Students need to apply newly-learned skills in
  functional reading comprehension contexts.

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Description of Participants

• 2 Caucasian males age 11-1(Student A) 10-8
  (Student B)
• Both presented with a Specific Learning and
  Communication Impairment
• Inclusion level of support for 3 years while on
  an Individualized Education Program
• Weekly Speech/Language Service Delivery 2 x 30
  Inclusion 1 x 30 pullout

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Participants Clinical Issues

• Both students had limited success in their
  application of spelling rules, which typically
  focused on memorization of weekly spelling lists.
  
• Both students had specific difficulty with text
  comprehension, understanding of mathematical
  vocabulary within word problems and
  content-specific language (e.g. social studies,
  science).

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Informal Assessment Measure

• Syntactic Task Individually administered,
  30-item task in which students were presented
  with a base word and asked to complete a sentence
  that required a derivation of the base. The
  measure was completed pre and post treatment.
• Example item Given five, complete the
  sentence A line formed and Sue was
  _____________.

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Informal Assessment Measure

• Morphology Probes 5-item multiple choice
  tasks, where a derived nonsense word was read and
  an appropriate sentence context selected. Probe
  tasks were administered before, during and after
  treatment.
• Example item
• brushable
• a.    Will you brushable the dog?
• b.    Bobs hair is not very brushable.
• c.    Lee found a brushable in the drawer.
• d. The hair stylist learned to brushable
  peoples hair.

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Lesson Format

• Students participated in 2 50-minute sessions
  weekly for 6 weeks. Each session included
• 10 minutes Explanation of concept/Introduction
  of new suffixes and their meanings and
  spellings/Review of previous suffixes
• 25 minutes Students complete 3 practice
  worksheet-based activities with discussion
  scaffolded by the clinician
• 15 minutes Students complete a reading
  comprehension activity that utilizes words from
  the current and previous lessons and encourages
  use of morphological strategies to ascertain word
  meaning.

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Morphological Explanation

• We are going to be learning about words and
  word parts in a way that will help you become a
  better reader and speller. Words can be broken up
  into parts that have meaning and we call those
  parts morphemes. Morphing words means changing
  them to change meaning. Have you heard of base
  words and suffixes before? A base word can stand
  all by itself and has meaning. Its the power of
  the word and tells us what the word is about. A
  base word might be read. Then we can add a
  suffix to that base to help us change the meaning
  a little bit. The suffix can make a change. An
  example would be er, so we change read to
  reader.

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Example Activity Word Detective

• See if you can find the base word and the
  suffix
• (-ive, -ful, -er) in the following words.
  Underline the base and circle the suffix. Then,
  read the word.
• singer painter
• protective joyful
• hopeful creative
• teacher careful
• wishful drummer

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Example Activity Reading Comprehension

• Look at the passage below and underline the
  words with the or, -able, and ation suffixes.
  Read the passage to yourself. Then, we will work
  together to answer the questions.
• Sarah had a wild imagination. She
  liked to daydream. Sometimes she was a brave
  warrior. Other times she was a sailor on a boat
  in the ocean. There was always the temptation to
  daydream at school. Her teacher said this was
  not acceptable. He wanted Sarah to pay attention
  in class. Sarah did want to learn. She was
  agreeable and tried to listen carefully to class
  information. Her teacher helped her use her
  imagination in different ways. He let Sarah be
  the illustrator of class stories. He let her be a
  lead actor in the school play. Sarah had to do a
  lot of preparation for these jobs. But she
  thought it was fun. She even had the admiration
  of her friends. She enjoyed daydreaming at home
  and trying new things at school.
•  
•  

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Example Reading Comprehension Questions

• What did Sarah daydream about?  
• Why was it not acceptable to daydream at school?
   
• How did Sarah use her imagination in different
  ways?
• Why did she have to do a lot of preparation?

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Example Activity Build the Word/Use the Word

• Add y to the words below. Then put those
  words in complete sentences that make sense. The
  first one is done for you.
• Base Word New Word Sentence
• powder powdery The new snow was very
  powdery
• cheer ___________________________________ 
  
• grass ____________________________________ 
  
• sweat ____________________________________

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Example Activity Mystery Word

• See if you can use the clues to figure out the
  mystery words described below. All of the words
  have a suffix that weve learned and were
  somewhere in todays lesson.
• Who am I? I work at a place where people
  deposit their money and cash their
  checks.(banker)
• What am I? You could describe me with this word
  because I always tell things the way they really
  happened and I dont lie. (truthful)
• What am I? You could describe me with this word
  because I am from Sweden. (Swedish)

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Syntactic Task Pre- Post Test Data
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Pre-Treatment, Treatment, and Post-Treatment
Probe Data
StudentA
StudentBB
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Conclusions

• Both students demonstrated improvement in their
  ability to utilize morphological knowledge to
  facilitate reading, spelling and comprehension.
• Teachers reported that students demonstrated
  transfer of skill into the classroom setting.
• The programs review and repetition as well as
  interactive elements provided a facilitative
  learning environment for both students.

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Directions for Future Research

• Allow for collection of additional pre-
  post-test data regarding key language and
  literacy skills (e.g. reading comprehension
  measures)
• Administer intervention in a treatment vs.
  wait-listed control group design to further
  examine potential treatment effects