Reader's Theatre: Specific Learning Disabilities

In the field of education, there are many different types of students. Each student learns differently from the other because each student is unique. With that being said, some students need more in-depth teaching as well as special education services because they have a physical, intellectual, or learning disability. Some common disabilities include, autism, ADHD, traumatic brain injury, and specific learning disabilities. According to IDEA (2017), the most common occurring disability in education is Specific Learning Disability. Students with Specific Learning Disabilities represent over half of the student population who receive special education services in schools. Learning Disability, or Specific Learning Disability is defined

This intervention can be used to help students with fluency. Fluency is essential with reading, as it is needed to understand vocabulary and gain comprehension of the text that is being read. Readers who are not fluent lose focus and do not comprehend what they are reading. Reader’s Theatre uses several strategies within to help students build fluency. Some strategies used in Reader’s Theatre are: repeated readings, sight word vocabulary, and decoding skills. Reader’s Theatre is a great strategy to use for students who are resistant with reading. When given acting parts of a Reader’s Theatre matched with their comfort level, students are given a chance to read, practice, and showcase their performance when they feel ready. The students are allowed to keep their scripts while performing and are encouraged to act their part. The students do not perform until they feel ready. By waiting for the children to feel ready, the students are more likely to read out loud successfully. Corcoran and Davis (2005) stated, “This causes a noticeable rise in student self-confidence, oral fluency, and motivation to read out loud.” Reader’s Theatre also promotes and increases the use of prosody while the students