Wilson Reading

Intervention Program
Lauren Golubski, Cynthia Nixon, Juliya
Pattammady, Dan Klonowski
 Created by Barbara Wilson in 1988 to
Purpose provide:

● Reading Intervention program

● Reach students 2 - 12 grade with Dyslexia

● ESL, SPED, and diverse learners

● Gain skills of:

○ Phonemic awareness
○ Phonics
○ Fluency
○ Vocabulary
○ Comprehension

● Other skills:
○ Sound Tapping
○ Wordlists
○ Visualization
Importance

● Tier 3
program

● Systematic
Instruction

● Training
Lesson Plan Independently or Small Group (69-111)

1. Quick Drill (Sound cards - phonemes)

2. Teach/Review Concepts for Reading
(Blank/Letter Cards, Blending, Finger Tapping)
3. Word Cards (Single Words on Flash Cards)
4. Charting (Word lists, controlled words)
5. Sentence Reading
6. Quick Drill in Reverse (Phoneme sound - Letter)
7. Teaching and Reviewing Concepts for
Spelling (finger tapping)
8. Dictation (Repeat, spelled orally)
 Implementation in the School and
Classroom Setting

Who?

● Originally created for students with dyslexia.

● Students with a language-based disability.
● Students that have not yet been successful with other teaching methods.

Outcomes

● The intended outcome of this program is to develop students’ reading skills

to increase their reading and writing success.
Implementation in the School and Classroom
Setting Con’t
Setting

● The program has shown success in a variety of settings ranging from public
schools to correctional facilities.
● Can occur 1-on-1 or in a small group of up to 6.

Stages of Implementation:

● The teacher must be certified to teach the curriculum.

● There are 12 sequential steps that are not correlated to Grade Level.
● Follows a 10-part, 90 minute lesson.
● Can take up to 2-3 years to complete the 12 steps.
The 12 Steps
1. Closed Syllable (Steps 1-3)
2. Vowel-Consonant-e (Step 4)
3. Open Syllable (Step 5)
4. Consonant-le (Step 6)
5. R-controlled syllable (Step 8)
6. Vowel digraph/diphthong “D” syllable (Step 9)

Steps 1-6:

● Provide consistent patterns to establish a strong foundation of word knowledge.

Steps 7-12:

● Focus on complex word structures that target reading and spelling within a lesson.
Research - (Duff, D 2016)

-main goal of study: to determine if exposure to the Wilson Reading system

posed significant impact on reading.

-results: based on compared data, students using the Wilson Reading System
had an increase in reading fluency and comprehension.

-Fidelity: 51 students participated in the study. 80% received free/reduced lunch.

The study determined significant reading growth in oral fluency and
comprehension (improved at a greater rate - tier 3 program)
Research - (Torgeson et. al., 2006)

-main goal of study: looking at the cost-effectiveness of the program

-results: in terms of overall costs, Wilson reading system is a cheaper route to

go, costing $6,696 per student, while Corrective Reading is $10,108 per student.

---teacher training, program framework, targets of reading instruction

Overall, school leaders should think carefully about what specific reading indicators their student
population needs to improve on, in order to get the most value for their limited
How effective is the program?
Best practice if...
● Students need most work in
alphabetics (One-to-one
correspondence, decoding,
phonetics, etc) (Torgeson, 2006)
● Very specified resources
(personnel must be specially
certified)
Reconsider if...
● Lacking the SPECIFIC resources
to implement faithfully (certified
staff, implementation time /
space, budgeting for staff,
training, materials).
● One-on-one / group needs align
more closely with FLUENCY /
COMPREHENSION (in lower
grades).
Will the shoe fit in urban schools?
Do your learners have very specific feet?

Fidelity - staff / student

time, dedicated space
Emerging-level: not yet
Reading disability mastered letter-sound
learners (esp. dyslexia) correspondences.
 References
Duff, D., Stebbins, M. S., Stormont, M., Lembke, E. S., & Wilson, D. J. (2016). Using curriculum-based measurement data to monitor the
effectiveness of the wilson reading system for students with disabilities: An exploratory study. International Journal on Disability and Human
Development, 15(1), 93-100. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1515/ijdhd-2015-0007

Fiona M. Hollands, Michael J. Kieffer, Robert Shand, Yilin Pan, Henan Cheng & Henry M. Levin (2016) Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Early Reading
Programs: A Demonstration With Recommendations for Future Research, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 9:1, 30-53, DOI:
10.1080/19345747.2015.1055639

Wilson Reading System. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/wilson-reading-system/