Using a Folding-in Intervention and Self-Graphing to Improve Reading Fluency for Students With Disabilities

Folding-in, similar to incremental rehearsal, is a flashcard procedure that, when paired with repeated reading and self-graphing, has shown promise for improving oral reading fluency. This study used a multiple-probe design across participants to examine the use of folding-in and repeated reading to teach unknown words from nonfiction reading passages for three fifth-grade students with disabilities. In addition, self-graphing was added to a second phase of intervention to examine additional effects. Results indicated that reading fluency improved for all three participants compared with baseline, but the addition of self-graphing did not clearly provide an additional benefit for the participants. Participants generalized skills to novel passages throughout the intervention and maintained increases in reading fluency after the intervention. The folding-in intervention combined with repeated reading is effective for improving reading fluency; however, the addition of self-graphing may not provide an additional benefit for students.