HCC: Large: Collaborative Research: Delivery of Personalized Reading Strategies for People with Cognitive Impairments in Post-Secondary Settings

阅读理解能力的缺陷是普遍的不成比例的中学后学生。 这些学生有认知障碍，影响高水平的文本处理技能，并导致不同的阅读配置文件的技能，如辨别相关和不相关的信息，作出推论，连接背景知识，新的学习，并保留和应用所学的知识在以后的日期困难。 通常，这种缺陷是通过教授使用学习技能策略来管理的。 虽然这些做法有很强的表面有效性，但缺乏基于证据的做法，几乎没有关于候选人资格或什么类型的缺陷最适合什么类型的策略和支持的信息。 在技术方面，电子阅读平板电脑的普及提供了一个平台，可以提供支持，以提高大学生的阅读理解力和记忆力。 该项目旨在通过开发技术来弥合差距，以支持具有高水平阅读障碍的大学生高度可采用的形式的各种阅读策略，通过进行必要的科学来定义可以评估每个学生的过程，并通过规定一套最终将在硬件软件包中交付的策略。 本研究通过一个迭代的设计过程和一个参与式的行动研究模型，将做出以下贡献：一个将阅读特征/障碍与策略支持相匹配的动态评估过程;一个将阅读障碍与阅读策略相映射的过程;一个将阅读策略转化为电子阅读平板的过程;一个使用我们的软件工程模型的个性化和适应性的示范过程。以及一个使用开源软件和硬件来提供研究工具的传播包，该工具可供设计商业化阅读平板电脑的公司使用。 为了实现这些目标，PI将与三个在中学后教育环境中拥有大量挣扎读者的机构合作：两个支持和培训退伍军人重返教育环境的VA设施，以及一个大型城市州立大学的学生残疾服务计划。 这些团体有普遍的经验，高水平的阅读的挑战，阻止教育的成功，并提供自然的背景下，以评估PI的模型和形状的工具，从这项研究产生的。 将采用试点研究、实验室实验和纵向研究来开发和评估动态阅读评估和支持工具的技术。更广泛的影响：越来越多的人口不能满足大学和社区学院课程的阅读需求，这是大量从伊拉克和阿富汗返回的退伍军人寻求教育和培训福利。 据估计，这些退伍军人中有15-20%遭受了足以影响学术能力的轻度脑损伤。 另一大群在阅读理解方面遇到困难的中学后学生是那些患有发育性疾病的学生，包括成人注意力缺陷和多动障碍（ADHD）和注意力缺陷障碍（ADD）。 据估计，在大学入学的学生中，有2%至8%的人报告有临床意义的ADHD或ADD症状;大约25%的接受残疾支持服务的学生正在接受ADHD。 PI预计这项工作将产生两个重要成果：将阅读障碍与阅读策略联系起来的文献中缺少的科学;以及建立在科学基础上的支持评估过程和交付机制的演示工具。 考虑到后一种结果，PI打算在项目的第5年投入很大一部分时间，使他的工具对那些拥有向目标人群提供产品的基础设施的公司具有高度吸引力。

Reading comprehension deficits are pervasive for a disproportionate number of post-secondary students. These students have cognitive impairments that impact high level text processing skills and result in diverse reading profiles with difficulties in skills such as discerning between relevant and irrelevant information, drawing inferences, connecting background knowledge to new learning, and retaining and applying what was learned at a later date. Typically such deficits are managed by teaching the use of study-skills strategies. While there is strong face validity for these practices there is a lack of evidence-based practice, and virtually no information on candidacy or what types of deficits respond best to what types of strategies and supports. On the technology side, the popularity of electronic reading tablets offers a platform to deliver supports to improve reading comprehension and retention that could be adopted by college students. This project seeks to bridge the gap by developing the technology to support a diverse set of reading strategies in a highly adoptable form for college students with high-level reading impairments, by doing the science necessary to define a process that can assess each individual student, and by prescribing a set of strategies that eventually will be delivered in a hardware-software package. By using an iterative design process and a participatory action research model, this research will make the following contributions: a dynamic assessment process that matches reading profiles/impairments to strategy supports; a mapping of reading impairments to reading strategies; translation of reading strategies to delivery on electronic reading tablets; a demonstration that personalization and adaptation are possible using our software engineering models; and a dissemination package that uses open source software and hardware to deliver a research tool that could be used by companies designing commercialized reading tablets. To achieve these goals, the PI will partner with three institutions that have large populations of struggling readers in post-secondary educational settings: two VA facilities that support and train veterans returning to educational settings, and a student disability services program at a large urban state university. These groups have experience with the pervasive, high level reading challenges preventing educational success, and provide the natural contexts to evaluate the PI's models and shape the tools generated from this research. Pilot studies, laboratory experiments and longitudinal studies will be employed to develop and evaluate the technology for a dynamic reading assessment and support tool.Broader Impacts: A growing population not able to meet the reading demands of college and community college courses is the large number of veterans returning form Iraq and Afghanistan seeking education and training benefits. It is estimated that 15-20% of these veterans have suffered mild brain injury sufficient to affect academic ability. Another large group of post-secondary students that is challenged by difficulties with reading comprehension are those with developmental conditions including adult attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD). Estimates regarding the number of students enrolled in colleges who report clinically significant ADHD or ADD symptoms vary between 2% to 8%; approximately 25% of students receiving disability support services are receiving those for ADHD. The PI expects two important outcomes from this work: the science missing from the literature that links reading impairments with reading strategies; and a demonstration tool, built on the science, that supports an assessment process and a delivery mechanism. With this latter outcome in mind, the PI intends to devote a large part of Year 5 of the project to making his tool highly attractive to companies who have the infrastructure to deliver products to the target populations.