Examination of the effectiveness of the listening passage preview strategy in the development of reading and understanding skills of students with mental disability

The aim of this study is to determine whether the vocabulary recognition and reading comprehension skills curriculum, which is prepared in accordance with the Listening Passage Preview Strategy which is one of the strategies developed for accurate and fluent reading, is effective for students with mild intellectual disabilities. The subjects of the study were three students, one seventh grade and two eight grade students, who have mild mental deficiency and have prerequisite skills determined for the research. The subjects of the research dwell in the Havza country of Samsun province and enroll at Çiftlik Naciye Öngel Primary Scholl. The readings of the students were evaluated using the "Running Records'' . As a result of the assessment, students' reading levels are divided into three groups as free reading, teaching and anxiety levels. Reading errors made by students during reading aloud were determined and their word recognition skills and reading comprehension skills were determined with the answers to the questions asked at the end of silent reading. The data obtained from the three students at the beginning level of the research show that the students are at the level of anxiety. In the research, multiple probe model between subjects which is one of the single subject research methods was used. Instructional plans were developed in line with the Listening Passage Preview Strategy by using sixteen reading passages to teach targeted reading comprehension and word recognition skills. At the end of the research, the evaluation of the obtained data was done by graphical analysis. As a result of the study, it was determined that the reading comprehension and word recognition skills curriculum developed in line with the Listening Passage Preview Strategy was effective in learning comprehension and word recognition skills of the three students with intellectual disabilities and the students reached the determined reading level. Key words: Reading, Listening Passage Preview Strategy, Running Records, Word recognition, Reading comprehension