Reading Comprehension Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disabilities:A Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review was conducted to determine the effects of reading comprehension instruction beyond vocabulary instruction for students with intellectual disabilities. Database and ancestral searches from 2000 to 2018 were conducted to identify experimental and quasi-experimental studies that were published in peer-reviewed journals. The studies had to consist of implementing reading comprehension instruction beyond just vocabulary instruction to students with intellectual disabilities. The studies also had to include an assessment of reading comprehension performance as an outcome measure. Twenty-two studies published between 2000 and 2018 in peer-reviewed journals were identified. Across the studies, reading comprehension instruction varied and outcome measures were assessed in a multitude of ways across studies. Studies revealed that various types of reading comprehension instruction helped students with intellectual disabilities improve their reading comprehension performance. In particular, instructional delivery practices that involved teaching students with ID to comprehend text through modelling, guided practice opportunities, and corrective feedback appeared to have the greatest impact on improving this population's reading comprehension performance. Discussion about the findings including limitations and directions for future research are presented.