Case Report Volume 8 Issue 4 - July 2021 DOI: 10.19080/GJIDD.2021.08.555744 Glob J Intellect Dev Disabil Copyright © All rights are reserved by Harry M Voulgarakis Harry M Voulgarakis* and Kerry Ann Conde Department of Child Study, St. Joseph’s College, USA Submission: May 26, 2021; Published: July 12, 2021 *Corresponding author: Harry M Voulgarakis, Department of Child Study, St. Joseph’s College, USA. Glob J Intellect Dev Disabil 8(4): GJIDD.MS.ID.555744 (2021) 001 The Effects of Antecedent Interventions on Oral Reading Fluency: A Case Report Global Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities ISSN: 2575-8586 Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder marked by deficits in social communication and the presence of restricted and repetitive behavior. ASD affects many areas of psychological and behavioral functioning including cognition, social abilities, and adaptive and daily living skills. Both children and adults with ASD can also present with complex educational profiles, despite in-tact cognitive abilities. Notably, reading and literacy are often areas of weakness [2]. Oral reading is used to measure an individual’s overall reading performance to examine various aspects of reading abilities such as rate, accuracy, and fluency that can otherwise not be observed from silent reading. These abilities have also been shown to be strongly correlated with comprehension; that is, students with stronger oral reading abilities (i.e., rate, fluency, and accuracy) consistent with age and grade expectations tend to do better with respect to reading comprehension [2,3]. Previous research has demonstrated that repeated oral reading and listening to a model are effective antecedent interventions to improve fluency for “troubled” youth and those with and without disabilities [4,5]. Individuals with ASD may demonstrate above average word recognition (i.e., hyperlexia), but below average reading comprehension, both of which develop independently of each other [2]. 65% of children with ASD who have measurable reading skills have difficulties with reading comprehension [6] underscoring the need for individualized reading interventions that focus on decoding and fluency [2,5]. Therefore, in order to better understand behavioral interventions that can support the development of oral reading abilities, the present study seeks to determine effective antecedent procedures to reduce miscues during oral reading in a student with ASD. Reading aloud and listening to a model will be compared to determine which intervention is more effective for an individual with High Functioning Autism and a learning disability. Methods Participant and setting This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at St. Joseph’s College. This single subject study included one participant, “Peter”, under the age of 18, who had been identified as having a learning disability, specifically with respect to reading. The student has also been diagnosed with ASD, with intact cognitive abilities falling in the Low Average range based on previous IQ testing. The student has been tested and found not to have dyslexia, but a broad disorder in reading ability. Intervention was conducted one on one in the school setting. Abstract Individuals with autism spectrum disorders present with many behavioral, cognitive, and psychological deficits that impact their learning. Literacy and reading fluency are often areas of concerns. Miscues or oral reading errors are frequently used as a metric for measuring fluency within a reading passage. This study employs an alternating treatments design to compare two antecedent interventions to promote oral reading fluency: silent text preview and oral/listening preview. Data from these interventions demonstrate increased oral reading fluency resulting from both interventions, with listening previewing showing greater treatment effect by reduction of miscues. Strengths, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed [1]. Keywords: Oral reading; Antecedent intervention; Miscue analysis