Comparison of sight word training procedures with validation of the most practical procedure in teaching reading for daily living.
Plain feedback teaches sight words as fast as fancier tactics and is the easiest to carry into real life.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three adults with intellectual disability joined a reading class. The teacher tried four ways to teach sight words: stimulus fading, stimulus shaping, time delay, and feedback-only.
Each method showed up in rotating sessions. The team tracked how fast each adult learned new words and which method felt easiest to run.
What they found
All four methods taught the words in about the same number of trials. The feedback-only route won the practicality vote.
When the adults later shopped or ordered food, the words they had learned with feedback-only still worked in the real world.
How this fits with other research
Davison et al. (1991) had already said several sight-word tactics work; this study simply tested them head-to-head and added a community check.
Klaus et al. (2019) repeated the same race with kids on the spectrum. They also saw no speed gap, but one child needed stimulus fading after the first two methods failed—hinting that adults with ID may be a smoother fit for simple feedback.
Coleman et al. (2015) stretched the idea to elementary students and computers. Their teacher-led prompting edged out the screen, matching the 1993 view that simpler, low-tech delivery often wins.
Why it matters
You do not need fancy fading or high-tech gear to teach functional sight words. Start with plain feedback—show the card, wait for a response, praise or correct—then take the learner to the real place to use the word. If progress stalls, pivot to stimulus fading, but most adults with ID will move ahead with the easiest tool.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effectiveness and efficiency (training trials and training errors through criterion) of stimulus fading, stimulus shaping, time delay, and a feedback only procedure were compared in teaching three adults with moderate developmental delays sight words encountered in activities of daily living. In Experiment 1, the four procedures were assessed during training in a controlled environment to identify the most effective and efficient procedure for each participant. All three adults acquired the target words, and the four procedures were found to be of comparable efficiency in total training sessions, whereas individual differences were found in training errors to criterion. In Experiment 2, the feedback only procedure was used to teach the three participants sight words in community settings. Participants learned new words in the community settings and used the previously trained words in daily living activities. The benefit of conducting a preliminary evaluation of instructional procedures during controlled training is discussed.
Research in developmental disabilities, 1993 · doi:10.1016/0891-4222(93)90015-c