Positive Practice Overcorrection of Oral Reading Errors

This study evaluated the effects of two treatment procedures on uncorrected oral reading errors and self-corrections of errors by four moderately mentally retarded girls. In an alternating treatments design, the efficacy of positive practice alone, in combination with positive reinforcement and a no-treatment control were compared. With positive practice alone, each incorrectly read word had to be repeated five times and the sentence in which the word occurred, correctly repeated once. For the combination procedure, in addition, each self-corrected error was reinforced. No assistance was provided in the no-treatment control condition. Both treatment procedures reduced uncorrected reading errors and increased self-correction, but the addition of positive reinforcement was superior to positive practice alone. No changes were observed in the no-treatment control condition. Total errors, whether subsequently self-corrected or not, generally increased during the treatment phase but declined in a later remediation phase when only the combination treatment was used. During this remediation phase, self-corrections remained high and uncorrected errors declined further.