How Learning Disabled Student's Failure to Attend to Suffixes Affects Their Oral Reading Performance

This research trained learning disabled students to attend to suffixes (-ed, -ing) and examined the resulting effects on their oral reading performance. The study indicated that oral reading performance improved when children were trained to correctly read -ed and -ing verb endings. Implications of the research for classroom reading instruction were as follows: (a) pinpointing individual errors was useful in teaching LD children: (b) providing a structured format for teaching the suffixes was effective; and (c) LD students' oral reading performance improved significantly after this instruction. The translation of the teaching methods into classroom practice also are discussed.