Title: The Effects of a Curriculum Sequence on the Emergence of Reading Comprehension Involving Derived Relations in First Grade Students
Description: I conducted 2 experiments to analyze the effects of a reading curriculum, Corrective Reading, which has a sequence that trains derived relations, on the emission of (a) derived relations defined as combinatorial entailment in Relational Frame Theory and (b) metaphors with first grade students. In Experiment 1, I compared the curriculum, which has the sequence to train derived relations to a well-known reading curriculum, RAZ Kids. RAZ Kids served as the content control. I used an experimental group design with a simultaneous treatment and a crossover feature. I selected 14 participants, who were matched then randomly assigned into 2 groups of 7. Both groups received matched instructional trials either in Corrective Reading or RAZ Kids condition, and each group was post-tested. Upon completion of the Post intervention 1 probes, each group was placed in an alternative condition, where Group 1 received the content control intervention, and Group 2 received instruction from the curriculum that has the sequence to train derived relations.

Both groups increased in number of correct responses following the Corrective Reading intervention. Two kinds of analyses were done, small group and individual. In Experiment 2, I replicated Experiment I using a delayed multiple probe design across 2 first-grade dyads without a content control curriculum. I tested the effects of 5 lessons of the curriculum that has the sequence to train derived relations on the same dependent measures with an addition of implicit/explicit reading comprehension probes. The results showed that the curriculum sequence found within Corrective Reading was effective in increasing the number of correct derived relation responses, while also improving reading comprehension responses.