Training Metacognitive Skills in Backward Readers: A Pilot Study

Summary A review of past work shows that children with reading difficulties should make substantial improvements through intervention programmes which focus explicitly on the development of phonological abilities, metalinguistic concepts and the promotion of metacognitive skills to increase pupils’ awareness of effective strategies for the solution of reading tasks. The paper describes the content and implementation of one such programme in a pilot study conducted with eleven backward readers in a primary school. During the intervention period with the experimental group of children significant improvements were observed in phonological abilities and in the capacity to approach reading/spelling tasks strategically. Intra‐task transfer and initial generalisation of the skills and strategies developed within the programme also occurred. However formal test results were inconclusive as measures of pupil progress within the programme so treatment effects were not definitely proved. Deficiencies in the instructional methods used and implications for future intervention work are discussed.