Teaching Foundational Reading Skills to Students With Intellectual Disabilities

According to research by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD; 2000), reading is the single most important skill a child will learn in life. Reading proficiency is a powerful predictor of academic success, on-time graduation, and future earning potential in the workforce. Children who reach adulthood without adequate reading skills are at risk for low self-esteem, unemployment, and poverty (Kutner et al., 2007). For students with disabilities, literacy is crucial to future independence given that nearly every aspect of adult life--from following a bus schedule to filling out a job application to deciphering the instructions on a medication bottle--is dependent upon the ability to read. Extensive research has demonstrated that children with intellectual disabilities (ID) learn to read using the same evidence-based strategies employed with other struggling readers (Allor et al., 2010; Bradford et al., 2006; Browder et al., 2013; Burgoyne et al., 2012; Lemons et al., 2012). Yet, many teachers have not been trained to apply what is known about effective reading instruction with children with ID (Ricci & Osipova, 2018) and often resort to limited, functional sight-word programs (Browder et al., 2009). This article discusses the elements of effective reading instruction, learning profiles of students with ID, and how to adapt structured literacy programs to meet the needs of learners with ID.