The Impact of Text-To-Speech on Comprehension for Students with Learning Disabilities in an Urban School Tolulope Olayemi Sulaim

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THE IMPACT OF TEXT-TO-SPEECH ON COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS

WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN AN URBAN SCHOOL

TOLULOPE OLAYEMI SULAIMON

Bachelor of Arts in Education Administration

University of Lagos

October 2011

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement for the degree

MASTER OF SPECIAL EDUCATION

at the

CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY

August 2019

©COPYRIGHT BY TOLULOPE SULAIMON 2019

We hereby approve the thesis

for

TOLULOPE OLAYEMI SULAIMON

Candidate for the Master of Education degree for the

Department of Teacher Education

And

CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY’S

College of Graduate Studies by

______John Schaefer (Thesis Committee Chairman)

Department of Teacher Education

______Amanda Yurick (Thesis Committee)

Department of Teacher Education

______Terri Purcell (Thesis Committee)

Department of Teacher Education

July 23, 2019 Student’s Date of Defense

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to give thanks to Almighty God for the grace and wisdom he has given me complete this study. He gave me the knowledge, strength and courage to carry on.

This would not have been possible with the support of family, friends and all committee members for their contribution and guidance throughout the course of this research. Working with Jeffery Dell has been very crucial in choosing my research topic.

He was very supportive in training me on the use of this TTS program as well as other assistive technology devices. I would like to thank every staff member of the Office of

Disability Service as well.

I received endless motivation from my parents, Adeyemi Solomon and

Oluwakemi Solomon, my sister, Sunkanmi and Sumbo and my girlfriend, Shaina, to keep me focused on my research.

Most importantly, I wish to thank my committee chair, Dr. John Schaefer for his encouragement, tutelage, valued wisdom and inspiration throughout this study. I wish to thank Dr. Amanda Yurick and Dr. Terri Purcell for their contribution as they provided expertise and insight towards the success of this study.

THE IMPACT OF TEXT-TO-SPEECH ON COMPREHENSION FOR STUDENTS

WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES IN AN URBAN SCHOOL.

TOLULOPE SULAIMON

ABSTRACT

The A-B-A-B withdrawal design was used to explore the effects of Text-to- speech (TTS) program (Read & Write Gold 11) on comprehension for 2 fourth grade students with learning disability in an urban school while accessing grade level comprehension text. Participants read fourth-grade level comprehension passages from a reading instruction resource. For each session, the student was timed for 35 minutes to read and answer the comprehension passage. The students manipulated the speech option

(Pitch, speed, voice and word pause) of the TTS program to suit them. Results show that the TTS program affected the students’ comprehension score. All participants’ scores increased when the TTS program was introduced to read the comprehension passages. In addition, the participants found the TTS program easy to use with less or no support.

Limitation and implications for future research are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: Assistive technology, comprehension, text-to-speech, reading, learning disability

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………… iv

LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………………… vii

LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………… viii

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………. 1

II. METHODS…………………………………………………… 8

Participants and setting…………………………………… 8

Dependent Variable………………………………………. 9

Independent Variable…………………………………….. 9

Experimental Design……………………………………… 10

Inter-observer Agreement and Treatment Integrity……… 10

III. PROCEDURE……………………………………………… 12

Baseline………………………………………………… 12

Training Phase………………………………………… 12

Intervention…………………………………………… 13

Social Validity………………………………………… 14

IV. RESULT………………………………………………….. 15

Social Validity……………………………………….. 16

V. DISCUSSION…………………………………………… 18

Implication for Practice………………………………… 19

Implication for Future Research…………………………. 20

Limitations………………………………………………. 20

Conclusion………………………………………………. 21

REFERENCE……………………………………………………….. 22

APPENDIX

A. Visual analysis of students ‘scores…………………………… 26

B. Social Validity Scores……………………………………….. 27

C. Read and Write Training Checklist………………………….. 28

D. Social Validation survey Likert scale………………………… 29

E. Intervention Steps…………………………………………… 30

F. Sample of Comprehension passage…………………………. 31

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Social validity scores of both participants …………………… 27

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Number of questions, answered correctly at the end of each session... 26

viii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) defines an assistive technology device as "any item, piece of equipment, or product system, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child and specifically excludes a medical device that is surgically implanted or the replacement of such device." The emergence of technology in education has brought about a new dimension to the delivery of instructions to learners. One of the two arguments made by

Collins & Halverson (2009), on why new technologies will revolutionize schooling is technology will provide enhanced capabilities for educating learners. One of the means of making every learner access the curriculum and instruction is the infusion of technology. Over the years, technology has been introduced to accommodate students with special education in the general education setting, and these technologies are referred to as assistive technology.

According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the report as of

2015 is that 35 percent of children receiving special education services had specific learning disabilities as compared to 20 percent with speech or language impairment, 9 percent had autism, and 6 percent had an intellectual disability. Sec.300.8 (c) (10)

Individual with Disabilities Education Act (n.d.), defines Specific learning disabilities as:

“disorders in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.”

Reading is a fundamental element of education. Students with specific learning disabilities often struggle with this element, which in the long run will affect their learning. The proper implementation of assistive technology (AT) in the classroom is to assist students in being successful in the general education classroom. The Office of

Special Education Program (OSEP) stated that assistive technology should be considered when designing IEP for students with disabilities when seen as appropriate. IDEA 2004 required every student with disabilities to be educated to the greatest extent possible in the general education setting.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (2017) shows that 68 percent of students with disabilities were below basic in reading compared to 27 percent of students without disability in 4th grade. Twenty percent of the student with disabilities were at basic in reading, 10 percent at proficient, and 0 percent at the advanced level. Compared to 33 percent of students without a disability on a basic level, 30 percent on the proficient level and 10 percent at an advanced level in reading.

Technology can be compelling in the classroom, but when considering students with disabilities, it goes beyond that. It becomes the pathway to access content and demonstrate knowledge in ways that provide support around the students' learning needs

(Krakower & Plante, 2016). Assistive technology is not designed to improve particular skills but to provide means for the user to work around the learning differences (Raskind,

1993), Most times, students with disabilities rely on their parents, siblings, peers, and teachers for help. But assistive technology helps increase the independence of persons with learning differences.

According to Simpson, McBride, Spencer, Lowdermilk, & Lynch (2009), the purpose of assistive technology is to “help students with disabilities participate in and complete tasks they would not otherwise be able to complete” (p.173). Bruinsma (2011) asserted the use of assistive technology gives students with disabilities a sense of belonging in the classroom when they complete tasks like other students without disabilities.

For students with LD must overcome barriers imposed by printed materials while reading to gain meaningful access to the curriculum and instructions. These barriers can be overcome when technology is introduced to enable students with LD access printed materials when in e-text format. (Eugene, 2007). There is a wide gap between the level at which students with LD perform and the demands of the curriculum which they are expected to meet. This has had a significant effect on the achievement gap between students with LD and students without disabilities (Kennedy & Deshler, 2010). The

National Longitudinal Transition Study II found that 21% of students with LD are five or more levels below in reading, 31% drop out of school compared to 9.4% of students without disabilities while 11% of students with LD attend postsecondary institutions

(Wagner, Newman, Cameto, & Levin 2005). Hence, Bouck and Flanagan (2009) asserted it is essential to understand the importance of assistive technology to teach students with

learning disabilities because they will benefit from it. There are numerous AT that is available, to include students with learning disabilities in the general education classroom. There has been a various effort by the National Center for Supported e-text

(NNCSeT) to help students’ access text not just through changes to colors, sizes but also improving students decoding, fluency and comprehension (Kennedy & Deshler, 2010).

Reading is a national educational priority, and the policies over the past decades placed great emphasis on reading. The NCLB and Reading First emphasized reading proficiency is a fundamental skill that is critical to academic learning and success in school (Kolba, 2005). Students with learning disabilities mostly struggle with reading, and a result of this, they fall behind their peers. The provision of various AT has been on the forefront for teaching literacy to students with language and learning disabilities

(O'Neil & Dalton as cited in Glenn & Gentry, 2008). Also, Erikson, Hatch & Clendon

(2010) stated the provision of the appropriate AT reduces the challenges faced by students with disabilities. Goldfus & Gotesman (2010), asserted that assistive technology has proven to be effective in assisting students with LD to perform better, gain knowledge and confidence, and develop independence in performing a task. They concluded from their study that text-to-speech software has great potential for improving not only reading level but also the confidence to engage with the text and develops more positive self-esteem.

Numerous researches has shown the relationship between developing students' reading fluency and comprehension. Reading fluency has been dubbed as one of the five elements of reading by the National Reading Panel (2000) because it constructs a way for reading comprehension (Uysal & Bilge, 2018). Stankovich (1980), argued what

distinguishes a struggling reader from a good reader is the automaticity component of fluency. On the other hand, reading speed is an outcome of automaticity, which happens to be a requirement for reading comprehension. Though fluency is not enough to ensure high levels of reading achievement, it is necessary for the reading achievement because it reflects comprehension.

Though text-to-speech (TTS) was initially to enable students who are visually impaired to access printed text until early advocate recognized its potentials for students with reading disabilities (Anderson-Inma & Horney, 2007). Elkind, Cohen, and Murray

(1993) concluded text-to-speech has a significant positive impact on reading comprehension on students with dyslexia but has no measure on vocabulary (as cited in

Anderson-Inma & Horney, 2007). Provision of e-text and other types of resources for students struggling with reading has been embraced by assistive technology specialist and reading disability experts (Anderson-Inma & Horney, 2007). Most e-text software has other supportive documents, which increased the collaboration between the developers and academic researchers to evaluate the impacts of these supportive features on reading comprehension of students with reading disabilities (Anderson-Inma & Horney, 2007).

Izzo, Yurick & McArell (2009), examined the effects of text-to-speech on access and achievement for high school students with disabilities. Their findings suggested t there was an increase in the unit quiz and reading comprehension passages with a large effect size.

Wood, Moxley, Tighe & Wagner (2017), concluded that oral presentation of text with the use of TTS positively affect the comprehension test scores of students with disabilities. Most studies have used a different text-to-speech program. The use of TTS

does not just only benefit students with an average IQ in comprehension but also students with below-average IQ (Lance, McPhillips, Mulhern, & Wylie, 2006). The study by

Lundberg, Montali & Lewandowski concluded that the frustration of inaccurate decoding for students with LD is reduced when text-to-speech programs are used and that text-to- speech programs allow for a complete comprehension of text (as cited in Forgave, 2002).

Schmitt, Hale, McCallum & Mauck (2010) concluded from their findings that the use of

TTS for accommodating poor and dysfluent word decoding skills is not enough to improve reading comprehension of low-level readers when engaged with their grade- level material. Their study also concluded that the TTS program did not differently impact factual and inferential comprehension. On the contrary, Young (2017) from her findings, found that lowest readers benefitted more from TTS, as they outperform students with reading abilities not as low as theirs. From the study, all participants’ comprehension of the text increased when the TTS was introduced.

TTS tools are used to compensate for word-level skill deficits and provides access to written materials. With these devices, students can access the texts (Wood, Moxley,

Tighe & Wagner, 2018). Without the ability to decode words accurately, reading becomes a struggle because a significant amount of time is spent on the decoding of each word. Fluency is significantly improved when TTS software is used (Meihami, 2013). It went further to conclude that the working memory will have more room to construct the meaning of the text read as the TTS software is used for decoding the words. A study conducted by Lundberg & Olofsson (1993) concluded that when TTS was employed for

25 sessions across ten weeks by secondary school students with reading disabilities, their comprehension improved compared to students that did not make use of TTS. When TTS

was used for students with dyslexia in middle school, a study by Elkind, Cohen &

Murray (1993) concluded that there was a substantial gain in comprehension when TTS that supplemented instruction after 20 hours of reading as compared with students that did not make use of TTS.

There have been numerous studies on the impact of text-to-speech on reading comprehension on students with reading disabilities in upper-grade levels both in middle school and high school, but few studies have concentrated on the effects of TTS program on reading comprehension of students with disabilities in lower grade level in urban schools. It is said that students learn to read from kindergarten through third grade, while they begin to read to learn from fourth grade. Because of this, this study focused on the impact of text-to-speech on fourth-grade students with reading disabilities' comprehension.

Therefore, this study was designed to use the reversal design across participants to address the question:

1. In comparison to reading on paper, to what extent does the TTS program affect the

reading comprehension of students with reading disabilities in an urban school?

2. Given training, are TTS programs accessible and acceptable supports for reading

comprehension for lower grade students?

CHAPTER II

METHOD

Participants and Setting

The participants for this study were two fourth grade students with a deficit in reading comprehension will be carefully selected from an urban school. The selected students have been diagnosed with a language-related disability and have a reading intervention for comprehension goal in Individual Education Plan (IEP). This group of students also receive their education with their peers in the general education classroom.

Mary was a fourth-grade s 11-year-old Caucasian female-identified with a deficit in reading comprehension. Mary’s oral reading fluency (ORF) was 134 correct word per minute (CWPM). Mary's IEP contains an IEP goal in reading comprehension. She preferred to read aloud during comprehension tasks. Kelvin was a fourth-grade 11-year- old African-American male identified as having a deficit in reading comprehension.

Kevin's ORF was 95 CWPM. He was interested in science and basketball. Kelvin preferred to read to himself when completing his comprehension tasks.

The study took place in the reading section of an urban elementary school in

Cleveland, Ohio, during the student's free time. The reading section is an area in front of

8 the class where students meet with the school librarian for reading. Students worked individually during each phase of the study

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable in this study was the percentage of comprehension questions based on the passages answered correctly. As recommended by the teacher.

Each comprehension passage was made up of ten comprehension questions. The comprehension passage questions were made up of five multiple-choice questions, and five short answers that vary from direct questions, inferential questions to predictive questions. Each passage has three direct questions, one inferential question, and one predictive question. See Appendix E. The short answer questions, and the multiple-choice questions were answered in written form and verbally. The short answer questions will be evaluated based on correct answers and words per minute. The responses were recorded for inter observers reliability purposes. A checklist during the training phase to ensure each student go through the different steps using the assistive software. See Appendix A.

Independent Variable

The independent variable for this study was the student using TTS technology to read the passage. Specifically, this study used Read and Write Gold. Each participant chose the most suitable speech setting. For Kelvin, his pitch setting was 65%, 87% in volume, speed was 30%, 0 microseconds in word pause, and the selected voice was US

Tom. For Mary, his pitch setting was 65%, 87% in volume, speed was 30%, 0 microseconds in word pause, and the selected voice was US Tom. The speech settings were adjusted and tested to the most suitable point for each student for each component.

Experimental Design

This study used a single subject research design repeated across multiple participants. The reversal design (A-B-A-B) was applied individually to each participant to determine the impact of reading the selected TTS software on reading comprehension.

The reversal design allows for a clear demonstration of experimental control because it requires the repeated introduction and removal of an intervention contingent on the participant demonstrating a predicted change in behavior (Gast & Ledford, 2014). The target behavior (comprehension) was measured under the baseline and intervention conditions until a steady state of responding is observed. The intervention was pulled out after the dependent variable stabilized during the intervention. When the behavior returns consistently to baseline levels, the intervention was re-introduced to attempt to observe a second therapeutic change.

Inter-observer Agreement and Treatment Integrity

A trained second observer collected inter-observer data for each student’s reading comprehension across all phases of the study by listening to the verbal response of the participants and using the answer key for each comprehension passage. The inter- observer agreement was calculated for each of the dependent variables during each session across all participants by dividing the number of agreements by the sum of agreements and disagreements and multiplying that number by 100. Inter-observer agreement data were collected for both Mary and Kelvin were recorded for 20% across the baseline and intervention phase. The agreement for comprehension was 90%.

An independent observer was present for at least two sessions during the intervention phase using a checklist to ensure that all students receive the same

instructions and comprehension passages for each session. The participants completed the seven steps in opening a pdf on the Read and Write Gold program. The second observer was directed to mark the steps the trainer completed correctly. IOA was not taken during the assessment of the first author’s treatment integrity, but the treatment integrity was

100% across all intervention sessions for all participants. See Appendix C for the checklist.

CHAPTER III

PROCEDURES

Baseline

During baseline, students read fourth-grade level comprehension passages from

K12 Reader reading instruction resources without the text-to-speech support. For each comprehension task, the students will answer ten questions after reading through the comprehension passages. Each passage was made up of five short answers and five multiple choices. For each session, the student was timed for 35 minutes to read and answer the comprehension passage. They were allowed to go back to the passage when necessary to confirm their answer. The questions were read to the student, and the student verbally said the answer before putting it down in writing. Both students completed five sessions during the first baseline phase before introducing the text-to-speech program.

For the withdrawal/ second baseline phase, both students completed three sessions.

Training phase

Following the baseline, the researcher trained each student individually on Read and Write Gold program. The researcher demonstrates the process by opening the comprehension passage, accessing the software and adjusted the speech options in terms

12 of pitch, speed, volume, and word pause, to meet preference before asking the students to go through the process. The students were instructed on how to log on to the computer to access the comprehension passage through the Read and Write Gold program. This was done by clicking on the Read & Write program on the desktop and clicking on the pdf drop button to select the comprehension text that was to be worked on from the comprehension folder on the desktop. The students mastered the process with 100 percent accuracy and met every requirement on the checklist before the researcher moved to the intervention phase. The students were able to learn the process within an hour in three consecutive successful trials. See Appendix A.

Intervention

Each participant entered the intervention phase only after a persistent decline and steadily low performance in the comprehension scores for a period of five sessions working independently without the text-to-speech program. The students read fourth- grade level comprehension passages from K12 Reader and North Carolina State

University reading instruction resources on a laptop computer with the text-to-speech support. For each comprehension task, the students answered ten questions after reading through the comprehension passages. These questions range from short answers to multiple choice. Example of a short answer question from one of the comprehension text is “What is the difference between representation in the House and representation in the

Senate?” Another example of a multiple-choice answer from the text is “What court is the highest in our nation? a) High court, b) Court of Appeal, c) Supreme Court or d) District court.”

Each session in these phases was limited to 35 minutes, and the students were allowed to go back to the passage when necessary to confirm their answer. The TTS program read the questions to the students. The students paused the program after the questions had been read so that they could write down their answers on the answer booklet. Both students entered the intervention phases after there was a steady decline in the number of correct answers in five sessions in the first baseline phase and three sessions in the second baseline phase. See table in Appendix D for the instructions for the intervention phase. The intervention was withdrawn to assess the maturation and history threats to internal validity (Gast & Ledford, 2014). The intervention was removed to determine if any other factors changed the behavior.

Social Validity

For social validity, the perception of the participants on the intervention will be gathered via a questionnaire geared towards getting information about the effectiveness of the TTS program, which was introduced after the second intervention phase. The researcher used a five-point rating scale (i.e., 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = strongly agree) to ask the participants’ agreement with the view of the use of the TTS program.

CHAPTER IV

RESULTS

The visual analysis of the data demonstrates each student’s performance during baseline phases and intervention phases of the study. Figure 1 summarizes the participants' percentage of comprehension questions answered correctly for each reading passage. Figure 1shows the analysis of each participant’s data in terms of level, trend, and variability as these data pertain to our original research questions is discussed below for each student.

The visual inspection of both participants depicts a low baseline level when they read the comprehension passages without the TTS program. Mary's comprehension baseline scores range from 30 to 50% with a mean score of 42% for the five sessions of the baseline phase, while Kelvin’s baseline mean score was as low as 40% with scores range from 20-60%. Mary’s mean score on comprehension passage jumped to 80% with a range of 70-90%, while that of Kevin’s mean score was 73% with a range of 50-90% during the four sessions when she read with the TTS program. This shows a stable high- level increasing trend for both participants. When the intervention was withdrawn when there was a stable increase in the number of correct answers, Mary's mean score dropped to 43% during the withdrawal phase, which produced ranges of 30-60% for a period of

15 three sessions. On the other hand, Kelvin’s mean score dropped to 23% with ranges of

20-30%. The mean score for Mary and Kelvin jumped to 73% and 73% respectively, with a range score of 70-80% and 60-80% when the TTS program was re-introduced for a period of three sessions.

Social Validity

Result averages for each statement indicate that both participants agreed that the

TTS was easy to access. The participants felt that the TTS program helped them to understand the comprehension better. Mary went further to say that she prefers the program because she felt less stressed out when she read with TTS program. They firmly believe that they understood the text better when the TTS program read the text to them as compared to when they read themselves. With regards to the participants' view on if they would want to use the TTS program in the future for a class assignment, the survey indicated Mary and Kelvin agreed they would want to use the program. Mary agreed that the words were clear and easy to understand when she used the TTS program. Also, the survey indicated that Kelvin agreed to the clarity of the words and that the words were easy to understand.

For the questions regarding navigating the program without assistance, Mary agreed that she was able to use the program without support. Kelvin strongly agreed that he was able to navigate through the program without assistance. Mary strongly agreed that she liked following the highlighting features because it kept her on task, while

Kelvin also strongly agreed to go along with the highlighting feature when the TTS program read to him. were both agreed to on by the participants. The results from the social validity survey made it clear that the students TTS provided the support needed to

improve the participants' comprehension. Table 1 includes the participants’ responses in each category.

CHAPTER V

DISCUSSION

Reading may be frustrating when a child struggles with comprehension, and this has been a substantial challenge for students with a learning disability. Without the ability to decode words fluently, reading may become a struggle because a considerable amount of time is spent on the decoding of each word. Text-to-speech programs have served as a tool for struggling students to access text and comprehend text read because it was designed to allow students bypass difficulties with decoding and concentrate on meaning

(Lange et al., 2006). There have been numerous studies on the impact of text-to-speech on comprehension for students in upper grades and colleges, but a very few on it impact on comprehension for struggling readers in lower grades, but this study focused on its impact on the comprehension of lower grade students that struggle with reading. In fourth grade, reading takes a different dimension, has focus is on reading to learn rather than learning to read, which is more of the emphasis from kindergarten to third grade. If the focus is more on reading to learn, students that struggle with reading will fall behind their peers. This study used a TTS program to read comprehension text to students. Results from the study show that was changed in the students' scores when the TTS program was introduced compared to when they read by themselves. This result extends the literature

18 in two keys ways. First, these results confirm the previous study on the impact of TTS on comprehension for students with a learning disability. When Lange et al., (2006) concluded that the group that used the TTS program (Read and Write Gold), showed substantial improvement in reading comprehension compared to the other two groups that used Microsoft word and read without any device. TTS software has speech settings that student can adjust in terms of pitch, volume, and word pause. TTS oral presentation of text increased the reading comprehension scores of students with LD (Wood et al., 2018).

Higgins and Raskind (1997) proposed that speech synthesis facilitates reading comprehension as it performs the decoding task for the student, which allows the students to focus on the comprehension task. When students with LD had increased intensity of

TTS program, the comprehension of the students increased (Young, 2017).

The result from the survey to examine the social validity of the TTS program shows that the participants were able to navigate independently with no support from the investigator. This indicates that TTS is appropriate for lower grades students. Also, the participants understood the comprehension texts better when they used the TTS program compared to when they read without it. Young (2017) social validity finding claimed that all three participants in the study agreed that they remembered more information after using the TTS program, and they all felt that the TTS program was easy to use.

Implication for Practice

As reading intervention goes on the side, teachers should expand the use of TTS programs in lower grades when delivering core content and not just for reading but other classes for students with LD. Teachers should ensure that the TTS program should be

included as accommodation in every IEP of students with a deficit in reading comprehension.

Implications for Future Research

Previous research on TTS has shown that there the speech synthesis program increases comprehension of struggling readers (Wood et al., 2018; Young, 2017; Izzo et al., 2009). Future research is needed to increase generalization on the impact of TTS to remain on task when reading passages.

As students begin to read to learn from 4th grade, comprehension is essential in other subjects such as Math, Science, and Social Studies. Future research should examine the use of TTS programs across other subjects for struggling readers.

With the different speech options that come with the TTS program, future research should study if these speech options (e.g., pitch, speech, voice, and word pause) impact the comprehension of struggling readers. Also, there should be further study on whether the different speech options available on different TTS program impact the comprehension of struggling readers.

Limitations

This study may have been limited in part because of time constraints. The study occurred towards the end of the school year, which made it difficult to extend the length of intervention also to generalization and maintenance phase. We would have seen further outcomes of the impact of the TTS program after two weeks of the intervention phase and also the impact of the TTS in other subjects’ content such as social science and science.

Another limitation of the study is the sample size. Since the study is single-subject research, findings cannot be generalized across the population without significant replication.

Finally, the dependent variable for this study was limited to the percentage of comprehension questions based on the passages that were answered correctly but failed to determine if the TTS program affects other dimensions of demonstrating comprehension such as length of sentences, the complexity of response and how detailed the answer was.

Conclusion

Students with learning disabilities struggle with comprehension, most notably those with a deficit in reading. Reading fluency and decoding are the main elements of reading that students with LD struggle with. Text-to-speech serves as a tool to help students with LD in terms of fluency and decoding for comprehension to take place. This study goes further to demonstrate that TTS programs have an impact on comprehension of struggling readers in lower grades as they showed an increase in comprehension scores when TTS was introduced. Though TTS program only provide access to the content, reading intervention should continue on the side.

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APPENDIX A

Mary's comprehension performance across phases Baseline Intervention Baseline Intervention 100 90 80 70 60 50 40

30 Percentage Correct Percentage 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Sessions

Kelvin's comprehension performanve across all phases

Baseline Intervention Baseline Intervention 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 Percentage Correct Percentage 20 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Sessions

Figure1. Comprehension, as measured by the number of questions, answered correctly at the end of each session.

APPENDIX B

Table 1. Social validity scores of both participants.

Social Validity Statement Mary’s Rating Kelvin’s Rating

Read and write program is easy to access 3 3

I understood the text better when I used the Read 4 4 and Write Gold program

I would want to use Read and Write program in 3 3 the future for class assignments

The words were clear and easy to understand 3 3

I was able to navigate through the program 3 4 without any assistance

I liked following the words with the highlighting 4 4 features

APPENDIX C

Training phase

Student’s name: ______

Read and Write Training checklist

Task Completed Not completed

Select a log on into a computer and ☐ ☐

The trainer will inform the ☐ ☐ participant which comprehension passage to open

Open Read and Write Gold program ☐ ☐ from the desktop

Click on PDF bar located among the ☐ ☐ tool at the top of the screen.

Select PDF file on from document ☐ ☐

Click on open ☐ ☐

Put the cursor on the first word in ☐ ☐ the first paragraph.

APPENDIX D

SOCIAL VALIDATION SURVEY LIKERT SCALE

ASKING PARTICIPANTS QUESTIONS REGARDING TTS

Student name (Pseudonym): ______

Grade: ______

Gender: ______

S/N Item Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree

1. Read and write program is ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ easy to access

2. I understood the text better when I used the Read and ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Write gold program

3. I would want to use Read and Write program in the ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ future for a class assignment

4. The words were clear and ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ easy to understand

5. I was able to navigate through the program ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ without any assistance

6. I liked following the words with the highlighting ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ features

APPENDIX E

Intervention Steps

Instruction Yes No

The teacher asks participants to log into the Read and Write ☐ ☐ Gold program on the desktop and access the comprehension passage

Teacher ask the participants to put on earbuds or ☐ ☐ headphones.

Participants completely read the passage on their own with ☐ ☐ Text-to-Speech support.

The teacher reads the question to the student ☐ ☐

If the student does not respond after three seconds, the ☐ ☐ teacher asks the question again to the student.

If there is no response after ten seconds, the teacher moves ☐ ☐ to the next question

APPENDIX F

BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT

There are three different levels of government in the United States: federal, state, and local. Officials in each level are elected by the people to serve and protect the people within the jurisdiction, or area of authority. The federal government handles relations between the United States and other countries, including war, peace treaties and trade. It is also in charge of printing money and running the military. State governments are responsible for public education, health, and safety. Local governments provide services, such as parks, police, and fire protection, to members of the community.

The federal government is the national level of government. It is divided into three separate branches: the legislative branch, the judicial branch, and the executive branch. The three branches work together to make sure the power is balanced, and no individual branch becomes too powerful. This is known as a system of checks and balances. Congress is the legislative branch. It is responsible for making laws.

Congress is made up of two separate chambers: the Senate, and the House of

Representatives. Each state is represented in each chamber. A state elects two senators to the Senate. Each state’s representation in the House of Representatives is based on the state’s population.

The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting laws and for hearing court cases. These court cases decide if a law has been broken or if a law is unjust. The

Supreme Court is our nation's highest court and has power over all lower courts when deciding matters concerning in the U.S. Constitution.

The executive branch is responsible for executing or carrying out laws. The president of the United States is in charge of this branch and is assisted by his cabinet of advisors. The president signs bills into law and can also veto proposed laws. In addition, the president is commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces.

The three branches of the federal government work together to ensure that the rights of citizens are not lost. The ultimate power in the U.S. government belongs to the people. Citizens entrust their power to government officials by voting to elect them.

Answer the following questions based on the reading passage. Don’t forget to go back to the passage whenever necessary to find or confirm your answers.

1. Why do you think each branch of government checks the activities of each

branch?

2. Which of the branches of the federal government is divided into two separate

chambers? What are the chambers?

3. What is the difference between representation in the House and representation in

the Senate?

4. What is the judicial branch responsible for?

5. The president of the U.S. is in charge of which branch of government?

6. Which is a legislative branch?

a) Congress

b) Department of justice

c) FBI

d) Supreme court

7. How many chambers are the congress made up of?

a) 5

b) 3

c) 2

d) 4

8. The branch of government responsible for carrying out laws?

a) Legislative

b) Judicial

c) Executive

d) All of the above

9. Who is the commander in chief of the U.S armed forces?

a) Major general

b) The president

c) Speaker of the house

d) FBI director

10. What court is the highest court in our nation?

a) High court

b) Court of Appeal

c) Supreme Court

d) District court