Reading Is an Occupation: A Client-Centered Literacy Program to Improve Reading Attitudes

This evidence-based project aims to investigate the impact of a client-centered literacy program on improving the reading attitudes of middle school students. Approximately 43.0 million adults in the United States have demonstrated low literacy abilities (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Literacy is vital for improving formal education participation, independent living skills, and employability. Based on current evidence, there is a lack of available research on effective reading interventions for adolescents and a decrease in reading-related intrinsic motivation as children move into middle school (Lovett et al., 2021). Occupational therapists have a holistic perspective that allows them to examine the multiple facets of student engagement. That said, little research has been shown to address how occupational therapy, through client-centered interventions, affects a student’s interests or preferences toward participating in reading (Grajo et al., 2020). This 7-week project employed a pretest/posttest design, recruiting students from a special education school for emotional and behavioral disturbances. Inclusion criteria for this project were: (1) the student must be in grades 6–8 and (2) the student must be English-speaking. The program implements individualized guided reading of books based on student interests and interventions to support reading engagement. Reading attitudes were assessed using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory – Reading, administered by the primary investigator before and after the program had concluded. Descriptive statistics are being used to analyze the outcome of this project. The implications of successful outcomes of this evidence-based capstone project could potentially assist in expanding the role of occupational therapists to assist with literacy. Occupational therapists can address literacy challenges beyond prerequisite skill acquisition to evaluate clients through a holistic and multidimensional lens.

References

Grajo, L.C., Candler, C., & Sarafian, A. (2020). Interventions within the scope of occupational therapy to improve children’s academic participation: A systematic review. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(2), 7402180030p1–7402180030p32. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2020.039016

Lovett, M. W., Frijters, J. C., Steinbach, K. A., Sevcik, R. A., & Morris, R. D. (2021). Effective intervention for adolescents with reading disabilities: Combining reading and motivational remediation to improve outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113(4), 656–689. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000639

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). Adult literacy in the United States. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp