Summary of Findings:

The study’s purpose was to determine if visual attention therapy had any influence on improvement in reading comprehension of sixth graders with moderate reading disabilities. Thirty students from New York City schools were divided equally into treatment and control groups.

The treatment group made significant gains on both the comprehension (p<.05) (GE 4.1 to GE 5.2) and attention test (p<.01) (95 to113). The control group showed no significant improvement in either comprehension (GE 4.3 to GE 4.4) or attention (94 to 106). This study supported the findings that visual attention therapy can have a beneficial effect on reading comprehension of those with reading disabilities.

“The mean standard attention and reading comprehension scores of the experimental group had improved significantly. The control group, however, showed no significant improvement in reading comprehension scores after 12 weeks.”