The efficacy of a program designed to remediate the spoken language deficits of students with specific reading disability was evaluated. The study investigated the learning of program content and the effects of training spoken language on reading accuracy and reading comprehension ability. The program consisted of two parts: one providing explicit instruction in phonological processing skills and the other providing training in semantic-syntactic skills. Ten students, aged between 10–12 years, who had demonstrated severe difficulties on written and higher-level spoken language tasks during the 2 years before the current study, participated in the intervention program. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups. Group 1 received the phonological training program first followed by the semantic-syntactic training program, and Group 2 received the programs in the reverse order. Subjects were trained for 12 hours over a 6-week period on each of the programs in their regular school environment. Results indicated that the phonological and semantic-syntactic deficits of students with specific reading disability can be remediated successfully. Improvement in these skills had significant positive effects on reading accuracy and comprehension performance. Training in phonological processing skills had a greater impact on reading accuracy than training in semantic-syntactic skills, but both programs contributed to improved reading comprehension ability. Results are discussed in terms of current theories of reading disability and implications for speech-language pathologists are addressed.
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