Comparing the effectivenes of before, while and after reading tecniques in improving story comprehension of students with mental retardation

The purpose of this research was to determine the most effective technique in improving story comprehension of students with mental retardation by comparing four reading techiques; before reading, while reading, after reading and combined technique which included both while reading and after reading.Two girls and one boy students with mental retardation participated in the research. Participant students met the following study criteria a) ability to read 45 words per minute b) ability to read 80% of the given text correctly c) able to answer correctly three out of 10 questions related to the story used in the research. Two of the subjects were attending to a special education classroom in Ankara, and one subject was attending to an inclusive program. One of the students was 15 years 9 months and two of them were 15 years 8 months old. One student was also attending to 6th grade a classroom and remaining two students were attending 7th grade classroom.The research was implemented by using Alternating Treatments Design. 4th grade texts were decided to be used in the research based on teacher interview. 21 stories were chosen from 4th grade Turkish Language text books.In the experimental procedure, baseline probe was collected for one session for each student. Students were allowed to read the text once silently and 10 questions related to the text were asked during the baseline. After implementing the baseline, before reading, while reading, after reading, and combined techniques were applied alternatingly to each student for at least four sessions. After implementing of each techique, 10 questions were asked related to the text to the students and students answers were recorded. Baseline data were also recorded for at least four times alternatingly during implementation of interventions. The result were visually analized.The result of the research showed that combined technique was the most effective technique in story reading comprehension for all three students.