THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF DIRECT INSTRUCTION FLASHCARDS AND READING RACETRACKS ON SIGHT WORD ACCURACY FOR THREE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Direct Instruction (DI) flashcards and reading racetrack procedures to improve sight word skills. The participants were three elementary students with learning disabilities enrolled in a special education resource room. A multiple baseline design across participants and sets of first-grade sight words was employed to evaluate the efficacy of DI flashcards and reading racetracks. Two of our three participants quickly improved their sight words skills during the intervention. One student made less progress in learning sight his words. The reasons that some of our participants did not improve was due to poor school attendance and effect of high stakes testing in general education. However, our participants enjoyed the procedures and looked forward to working on their sight words each session.