Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties: The Interactive Strategies Approach

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Donna M. Scanlon, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Literacy Teaching and Learning at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Dr. Scanlon has spent most of her career studying children’s reading difficulties. Her studies have focused on the relationships between instructional characteristics and success in learning to read and on developing and evaluating approaches to preventing and remediating reading difficulties. Findings from studies that she and her colleagues conducted contributed to the emergence of response to intervention as a process for preventing reading difficulties and avoiding inappropriate and inaccurate learning disability classifications. Most recently, Dr. Scanlon’s work has focused on the development of teacher knowledge and teaching skill among both preservice and inservice teachers for the purpose of helping teachers to prevent reading difficulties in young children and remediate reading difficulties among older children.

Kimberly L. Anderson, PhD, is Assistant Professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, where she teaches K-2 literacy methods courses in the Department of Literacy Studies, English Education, and History Education. Her current research focuses on improving small-group, supported literacy instruction in the kindergarten classroom and the relationships between teacher knowledge, teacher practice, and student outcomes with regard to the foundations of reading development. Dr. Anderson worked for several years as a research associate at the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, and has contributed to the research on the Interactive Strategies Approach (ISA) by serving as an intervention teacher in an early study; by providing professional development for teachers learning to implement the ISA in the early primary grades in both classroom and intervention settings; and by collaborating with preservice educators from institutions across New York State on enhancing preservice teacher knowledge related to early literacy development and instruction.

Joan M. Sweeney, MSEd, is a Reading/Literacy Specialist in the North Colonie Central School District in Latham, New York. Previously, she was a research associate in the Child Research and Study Center, University at Albany, where she provided intervention for struggling readers, supervised intervention teachers, and coached classroom teachers utilizing the ISA to support children’s literacy development.