Colleen M. Conley, K. Mark Derby, Michelle Roberts-Gwinn, Kimberly P. Weber, & T. F. McLaughlin (2004).
An analysis of initial acquisition and maintenance of sight words following picture matching and copy, cover, and compare teaching methods.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,
37, 339-350.
This study compared the copy, cover, and compare method to a picture–word matching method
for teaching sight word recognition. Participants were 5 kindergarten students with less than
preprimer sight word vocabularies who were enrolled in a public school in the Pacific Northwest.
A multielement design was used to evaluate the effects of the two interventions. Outcomes
suggested that sight words taught using the copy, cover, and compare method resulted in better
maintenance of word recognition when compared to the picture-matching intervention. Benefits
to students and the practicality of employing the word-level teaching methods are discussed.
DESCRIPTORS: copy, cover, and compare method, reading acquisition, word recognition