Effectiveness of peer-assisted learning strategies on oral reading fluency for students with a learning disability

The purpose of this study was to examine whether Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) was an effective method for improving oral reading fluency (ORF) of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) in familiar text, and whether the ORF skills acquired will generalize to unfamiliar text. Four elementary-aged students with SLD participated in the study. A multiple probe design across students was used to investigate the effectiveness of PALS with Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM) as the dependent variable across all conditions. Results indicated that PALS was an effective and efficient means of improving ORF for students as all students improved WCPM during the intervention condition and generalized ORF skills to unfamiliar text.