Effectiveness of the Story-Mapping Strategy in Students with Disabilities: Meta-Analysis of Single-Case Experimental Design Studies

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine whether the story-mapping strategy used for developing narrative text comprehension skills in students with disabilities is an evidence-based strategy and to evaluate the moderator variables that are thought to be effective in reading comprehension. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted for determining studies that implemented the story-mapping strategy. As a result of the review, 13 single-case experimental design (SCED) studies that met the inclusion criteria were analyzed using the design standards that were developed by Kratochwill et al. At the end of the visual analysis, the effect size of seven (7) SCED studies that were determined to have evidence of a strong/moderate effect was calculated by using Tau U. These studies were also evaluated with the quality indicators that were developed by Horner et al. The results of the study revealed that the story-mapping strategy was an evidence-based and very effective strategy (the weighted aggregated Tau U = 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [77.2%, 99.5%]) in developing narrative text comprehension skills in certain students with disabilities. It was also found that the story mapping strategy is an effective strategy for certain disability categories within certain conditions.