Establishing Component-to-Composite Textual Responses: A Common Obstacle in Learning to Read

A common difficulty in introducing reading instruction involves teaching students to blend letter sounds to form words. Often, this difficulty can occur with and without textual stimuli. In 2 experiments, we tested the effects of behavioral momentum blending on acquisition of textual and spelling responses with 11 preschool students. The 3- and 4-year-old participants presented with language and social delays and were selected due to their explicit difficulty in blending as beginning readers. Prior to intervention, we taught participants to rapidly respond to mastered words with up to 5 phoneme–grapheme correspondences. During intervention, textual responses to mastered words were followed by the presentation of a novel word. Participants heard vocal models of component phonemes prior to requiring a blended textual response; models and the behavioral momentum antecedents were faded within sessions. Dependent measures consisted of novel textual and spelling responses and vocally blended responses. In Experiment 2, we added a response-to-extinction measure to compare the reinforcing value of observing text prior to and following intervention. Increases in textual and spelling responses occurred for all participants as well as a shift in reinforcement value in Experiment 2. Results highlight the educational significance of blending when establishing textual responding.