A longitudinal study of the efficacy of the Cellfield reading intervention in a South African context

Abstract

Internationally, including in South Africa, many children do not acquire ageappropriate reading skills in the suggested timeframe. As a result, many children are at-risk of not achieving academic success, since reading does not develop into an efficient tool that allows children to read for meaning. Various theories have been developed to explain why some children struggle to develop reading skills. These theories form the foundation of interventions to assist struggling readers. The Cellfield intervention is based on the multi-deficit theory of reading difficulties, and as such, addresses several foundation reading skills simultaneously. Existing research has confirmed that the Cellfield intervention leads to improvement in reading skill directly following the intervention, but no research exists to determine the long-term efficacy of the Cellfield intervention. The broad aim of this study was to determine the long-term efficacy of the Cellfield intervention in a group of South African learners (n = 41) whose reading was below age-appropriate level. Using a quasi-experimental design, participants were assessed before and after the Cellfield intervention which was typically conducted over a two to three-week period, and then again, a minimum of one year following the intervention. Using standardised reading tests (the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test and by the Gray Oral Reading Test), six reading variables were measured, including Word Identification, Word Attack, Comprehension, Reading Rate, Reading Fluency and Passage Comprehension. Additionally, the results obtained from the treatment group were compared to a control group (n =11) who had also been found to be behind in reading, but who did not undergo the Cellfield intervention. Statistical analyses of the findings revealed that the Cellfield intervention had a statistically significant effect on reading skills and that these improvements were maintained in the long-term. Furthermore, the results suggested that the change in reading skill in the treatment group were steeper, compared to the control group.