Foundations in Audio-Supported Reading for Students Who ...



Foundations in Audio-Supported Reading for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired with An Annotated Bibliography By Richard Jackson and Valerie HendricksPublished: 2014The content of this document was developed under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, #H327Z140001. However, this content does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer: Michael Slade, Ed.D.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Jackson, R. & Hendricks, V. (2014). Foundations in Audio-Supported Reading for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired with An Annotated Bibliography. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved [insert date] from in Audio-Supported Reading for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired with An Annotated BibliographyAudio-Supported Reading or ASR was first proposed by the AIM Center (Jackson, 2012) as an approach for students with vision impairments to make efficient and effective use of NIMAS-derived digital materials in either braille or large text formats. NIMAS provides a standard for publishers of core instructional materials to participate in the production and distribution of those materials in accessible formats in a more timely fashion for student use in schools. For example, NIMAS filesets allow blind and low vision students to read large print on screen or lines of braille on electronic, refreshable displays. Once accessible instructional materials (AIM) are in the hands of students and teachers in schools, the challenge remains of how to make best use of these resources for purposes of learning.Well over thirty years of research on braille and print reading by students with vision impairments reveals that very few students match their typically seeing counterparts in words read correctly per minute. Moreover, neither intensity of instruction nor method of teaching has been able to remedy this comparative limitation in reading rate. Prior to the age of digital media and technology tools for accessing those media, embossed braille and large print materials were in scarce supply. Students and their teachers had to make the most of what they had available or could create on their own. Without timely and direct access to accessible materials for reading, audio supplementation proved to be a viable option for many students struggling to keep up with steadily increasing reading demands while advancing through school. Audio supplementation also had the additional advantage of compensating for those notoriously depressed reading rates. As part of their educational programs, students with vision impairments were taught how to make effective use of volunteer human readers, analogue voice recordings, systems for beep/tone indexing and compressed audio files of human speech. At no time was the importance of establishing a primary reading medium in either braille or print called into question. However, supplementation of students’ preferred reading medium with human voice through such resources as NLS’s Talking Book Program, Recordings for the Blind (predecessor to Learning Ally), and local radio reading services greatly enhanced the options for access to learning for many throughout the latter half of the 20th Century.As technologies for generating and manipulating speech advanced during the 1960s and 1970s, a number of research avenues were pursued in order to determine how listening to text could improve learning. Researchers asked questions such as the following:How fast can blind students listen, with and without training, to accelerated speech?What is the effect of passive versus active listening on comprehension and retention?How does synthesized audio versus human recorded speech differ in regard to listener rate, retention, and comprehension?How do reading comprehension and listening comprehension develop in individual learners? Does this development align? Is this development continuous or discontinuous (marked by stages)?How does genre impact reading comprehension via listening?Do listening and visual reading comprehension differ substantially, or are they both central to basic language and cognitive processing?Answers to many of these questions have been examined empirically; but, relative to the technologies available today, they may need revisiting. Presently in the 21st Century technologies for generating and manipulating speech are widely available, affordable, and multimedia capable. Consequently more important and pertinent questions can be pursued, most notably involving the mixing of auditory, visual, and tactile modalities in a single presentation.In the AIM Center’s ASR concept paper, ASR was presented as an approach for augmenting and enhancing access to core instructional materials for students with vision impairments. By leveraging widely available technologies, NIMAS-derived digital files can be accessed with simultaneously presented speech and screen magnification or simultaneously presented speech and refreshable braille. In both cases, the user has executive control over the rate of text flow and the portion of attention paid to distinct modalities for input. That is, a user with low vision would have the option of primarily using screen magnification or largely relying on speech. Conversely, a braille user would have the option of primarily relying on input from a refreshable braille display or mainly paying attention to speech. While braille and speech or text and speech are presented concurrently, the combination of focus or attention is chosen by the student. In Getting Started with ASR (2013), examples including large screen displays, tablets, and smart phones are presented in which the user demonstrates the allocation of cognitive load depending on such factors as perceived task difficulty or familiarity with subject matter.As students interact with text, whether supplied visually, tactually, or auditorily—or any modality combination thereof—they are thinking and purposefully making sense out of what they are reading. Behaviorally, their actions involve pacing, pausing, previewing, and reviewing. Such actions are carried out in large part by eye movements, hand movements, and sound track manipulation using technology. Cognitively, what drives these actions can only be inferred from observation or obtained introspectively. What should I be taking away from this reading? Am I going to be able to understand this material? Can I relate to the author? Such self-questioning provokes the framing of strategies a reader uses to comprehend the text. A great deal of thinking or metacognition goes into the process of a reader transforming literal words on a page into meaning. Importantly, this level of thinking and strategizing need not rely on a single modality, such as vision, touch, or sound alone. But while audio support offers a dramatic boost in reading rate, many questions persist for educators, advocates, parents, and other stakeholders: Is braille reading better than print reading for students with visual impairment? Can listening to text ever take the place of print reading? Can speech generated by technology eliminate the need for braille?ASR examines the possibility that these are no longer important or relevant questions. Print and/or braille reading are irreplaceable for the foreseeable future, given that both provide direct as well as independent contact with the orthography of text. A more pertinent question may be, Can braille or print alone be sufficient for students now pursuing career and college-ready standards to ensure an equal opportunity to learn and succeed? Given the slow rate at which students using either braille or large print access the general education curriculum, are there not technologies readily available to build upon and maximize the use of braille and/or large print using ASR? Starting with accessible digital media derived from NIMAS files, students can now use technology to mix their choice and proportion of media for accessing and working with text. They can rapidly listen to familiar text or they can closely read complex and demanding text in either braille or large print. Moreover, they can monitor their understanding of what they are learning as they move through text while adjusting the proportion of working memory devoted to listening versus their primary medium: braille or large print. These technologies are readily available, but how will they be merged with English/Language Arts standards or integrated into a literacy curriculum? This question remains for answering. Currently, students with vision challenges are learning to read through the medium of either large print or braille, following or coinciding with a Learning Media Assessment (LMA). They are also learning to use universally designed or assistive technologies, which may or may not be infused with their school’s technology curriculum. They may or may not be receiving explicit instruction in listening. Moving forward it would be most advantageous to develop a curriculum that would combine basic literacy instruction in either braille or print with explicit instruction in aural language comprehension using technologies widely available in many schools today. Inclusive schools where multi-tiered systems of instructional support are in place would provide a fertile environment for creating a curriculum for effectively blending literacy, aural language, and technology. In order to advance such an agenda for curriculum design, several knowledge areas are suggested below , within which foundational sources are cited and annotated.Braille Reading_____. (2007). Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study (ABC Braille Study). American Printing House for the Blind.The ABC Braille Study describes a five-year quantitative and qualitative research study conducted between 2002 and 2007 with students using either contracted or uncontracted Braille for beginning reading instruction. Its formal research question was, “Are there differences in reading rates and comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, word recognition, and reading achievement levels between” contracted and uncontracted Braille readers? The Study examined student achievement in “vocabulary, spelling, and reading level” over the course of five years and its findings are detailed in this report.Veispak, A., Boets, B., & Ghesquière, P. (2013). Differential cognitive and perceptual correlates of print reading versus braille reading. Research in Developmental Disabilities 34(1), 372-385.This paper examines the connections between and the impact of cognitive and perceptual processes and reading performance in blind braille readers compared to sighted print readers. Specific skills examined included reading, listening, speech, and phonological and tactile spatial performance.Veispak, A., Boets, B., & Ghesquière, P. (2012). Parallel versus sequential processing in print and braille reading. Research in Developmental Disabilities 33(6), 2153-2163.This study examined accuracy and speed in “word, pseudoword, and story reading” in children and adults reading braille or print. Different reading tasks results were compared between print and braille readers and the outcomes discussed.Veispak, A. & Ghesquière, P. (2010). Could specific braille reading difficulties result from developmental dyslexia? Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 104(4).This paper uses the theory of developmental dyslexia as a temporal-processing deficit as a lens through which to examine data on reading difficulties among children with visual impairment.Wright, T., Wormsley, D.P., & Kamei-Hannan, C. (2009). Hand movements and braille reading efficiency: Data from the alphabetic braille and contracted braille study. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 103(10), 649-661.This paper analyzes the “patterns and characteristics of hand movements as predictors of reading performance” among braille readers, using data from the Alphabetic Braille and Contracted Braille Study (from the abstract).Learning to ReadChard, D.J., Vaughn, S., & Tyler, B-J. (2002). A Synthesis of Research on Effective Interventions for Building Reading Fluency with Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities 35(5), 386-406.This article aggregates two dozen research studies focused on improving reading fluency for students with learning disabilities. It describes a variety of instructional interventions and their relative effectiveness in helping students with learning disabilities to achieve fluent reading skills. Coyne, M.D., Zipoli, Jr., R.P., Chard, D.J., Faggella-Luby, M., Ruby, M., Santoro, L.E., & Baker, S. (2009). Direct Instruction of Comprehension: Instructional Examples from Intervention Research on Listening and Reading Comprehension. Reading & Writing Quarterly 25(2), 221-245.This article “examines the role of direct instruction in promoting listening and reading comprehension” for students with varying levels of skill using the Story Read-Aloud Program and the Embedded Story Structure Routine. The role of direct instruction in regard to cognitive strategy development is also considered.Erin, J.N. (2009). The Case of the Reluctant Reader: Insights from Three Professionals. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 103(2), 69-77..This article recounts several anecdotes relating instructional solutions for struggling readers from the perspective of their former teachers. It focuses on the variety of influences upon the reading process and the role of teacher experience in motivating students and in creating opportunities for positive change.Ferrell, K.A., Mason, L., Young, III, J., & Cooney, J. (2006). Forty Years of Literacy Research in Blindness and Visual Impairment. (Technical Report.) Greely, CO: National Center on Low-Incidence Disabilities.This report discusses the social and economic implications of literacy with a focus on information exchange. Literacy, or the lack thereof, and its impact on opportunity for those with visual impairment, is discussed in depth.Gersten, R., Fuchs, L.S., Williams, J.P., & Baker, S. (2001). Teaching reading comprehension strategies to students with learning disabilities: A review of research. Review of Educational Research 7(2), 279-320.This literature review covers the period between 1980–2000 and focuses on intervention research on instruction in reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities. Successful teaching strategies are recommended as well as suggestions for areas of further research.Hudson, R.F., Lane, H.B., & Pullen, P.C. (2005). Reading fluency assessment and instruction: What, why, and how? The Reading Teacher 58(8), 702-714. International Reading Association.This article discusses fluency in relation to reading proficiency and provides ideas for increasing student achievement in fluency using both instructional and assessment methods.Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C.M., & Durand, M. (2004). Hidden language impairments in children: Parallels between poor reading comprehension and specific language impairment? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47(1), 199-211.“This study investigates the oral language skills of 8-year-old children with impaired reading comprehension” (from the abstract). Specific skills areas tested included pholonolgy, semantics, and morphosyntax; and results were examined in relation to language and reading impairment in study participants.National Reading Panel (NRP). (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.This report is the result of a 1997 Congressional charge to the NICHD to “assess the status of research-based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read” (from the introduction).Perfetti, C.A., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M.J. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.) The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227-247). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.This publication discusses aspects and characteristics of reading comprehension and its development in trying to answer the question, “How do people acquire skill at comprehending what they read?” (from the introduction).Low Vision ReadingCom, A.L., Wall, R.S., Jose, R.T., Bell, J. K., Wilcox, K., & Perez, A. (2002). An Initial Study of Reading and Comprehension Rates for Students Who Received Optical Devices. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 96, 322-334This study examined the question of whether or not students with low vision who were provided with optical reading devices were able to improve their “silent reading speeds and comprehension rates” to increase their literacy skills.MacDonald, J.T., Kutzbach, B.R., Holleschau, A.M., Wyckoff, S., & Summers, C.G. (2012). Reading Skills in Children and Adults with Albinism: The Role of Visual Impairment. Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus 49(3), 184-188.This study of reading fluency in those with albinism examines skill acquisition in the context of vision impairment.Reading and Cognitive ProcessesBaddeley, A. (2003). Working memory and language: an overview. Journal of Communication Disorders 36,189-208.This paper describes and discusses the neurological sub-systems involved in working memory as it relates to language, including verbal and acoustic information or the “phonological loop,” visual-spatial processes, executive functions, and the “episodic buffer.” It emphasizes the role of working memory in language learning.Borella, E., & de Ribaupierre, A. (2014). The role of working memory, inhibition, and processing speed in text comprehension in children. Journal of Learning and Individual Differences 34, 86-92.This study examined reading comprehension in 10- and 12-year-old children using comprehension, inhibition, and processing speed tasks. The goal of the study was to determine the age-related differences, if any, between the participants’ performance on these tasks with an emphasis on the potential significance of working memory.Cowan, N. (2014). Working memory underpins cognitive development, learning, and education. Educational Psychology Review 26, 197-223.This paper describes the history and development of the concept of working memory, as well as contemporary debate and discussion surrounding the topic, in relation to education and learning. Suggestions are provided for further research into working memory cognitive functions as well as recommendations for improved teaching methods.Reading through ListeningAarnoutse, C.A.J., van den Bos, K.P., & Brand-Gruwel, S. (1998). Effects of Listening Comprehension Training on Listening and Reading. The Journal of Special Education 32(2), 115-126.Effects of Listening Comprehension Training on Listening and Reading describes a program designed to teach “text strategy instruction in a listening mode” for students with poor decoding skills, poor reading comprehension, and—in part of the study group—poor listening skills. Students received instruction in “clarifying, summarizing, predicting, and questioning” strategies and the results of their program participation are outlined.Esteves, K.J. (2007). Audio-Assisted Reading with Digital Audiobooks for Upper Elementary Students with Reading Disabilities. Western Michigan University, dissertation.This dissertation examines student use of “audio-assisted reading with digital audio books against the traditional practice of sustained silent reading in terms of reading fluency rates and reading attitude scores” by those with reading disabilities.Hagtvet, B.E. (2003). Listening comprehension and reading comprehension in poor decoders: Evidence for the importance of syntactic and semantic skills as well as phonological skills. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 16, 505-539.This study examined the relationships between literacy skills, specifically listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and decoding within a segmented group of students with good, average, and poor decoding skills. Results as well as patterns of outcomes are discussed.Johnstone, C., Thurlow, M., Thompson, S., & Clapper, A.T. (2008). The Potential for Multi-Modal Approaches to Reading for Students With Disabilities as Found in State Reading Standards. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 18(4), 219-229.This article discusses K–12 educational state standards for reading “from a perspective of accessibility for students with a variety of sensory and learning disabilities.” It explores how reading standards impact student options, especially in relation to access to instructional materials.Lesnick, J. K. (2006). A Mixed-Method Multi-Level Randomized Evaluation of the Implementation and Impact of an Audio-Assisted Reading Program for Struggling Readers. University of Pennsylvania, dissertation.This dissertation “describes the methods and findings of a mixed-methods multilevel randomized evaluation study of the impact of the New Heights Reading Program on the fluency and comprehension of struggling readers.” Students who participated in the study were in third and fifth grade and were found to be reading nine months behind grade level. A series of standardized assessments were used to evaluate students’ reading fluency and comprehension, correlated with the degree of implementation of the program during the study.Nalder, S. (2002). The Effectiveness of Rainbow Reading: An Audio-Assisted Reading Program (Summary).This report explores the usefulness of a six-level fiction and nonfiction reading program that employs the use of text with audio (audio-assisted reading) to improve reading fluency as well as mastery of text-related activities in K–12 education.Sha, G. (2010). Using TTS voices to develop audio materials for listening comprehension: A digital approach. British Journal of Educational Technology 41(4), 632-641 .This paper evaluates the use of text-to-speech (TTS)-generated audio files (i.e., synthetic voice) in the development of alternate-format materials for listening comprehension instruction.Sticht, T.G., Beck, L.J., & Hauke, R.N. (1974). Auding and Reading: A Developmental Model. Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO).This review presents a model of the “development of oracy and literacy skills” as a framework from which to evaluate relevant research studies in order to produce a more valuable literature review. It concerns four primary process categories, with a focus on information-processing activities as they relate to literacy skills and successful reading.Swalm, J. E. (1972). A Comparison of Oral Reading, Silent Reading and Listening Comprehension. Education 92(4), 111-115.This study examined students participating in three forms of reading with a view to discovering the comparative effectiveness of each form.Tuncer, A.T., & Altunay, B. (2006). The Effect of a Summarization-Based Cumulative Retelling Strategy on Listening Comprehension of College Students with Visual Impairments. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness 100(6), 353-365.This study explored the “effectiveness of summarization-based cumulative retelling strategy on listening comprehension” among undergraduate students who are visually impaired. The strategy’s impact on the students’ listening comprehension skills are discussed. ................
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