Early Intervention in Reading

The Early Intervention in Reading Program (EIR) is a small-group intervention for struggling readers that is used within the regular classroom. Regular classroom teachers carry out the program, usually with the help of instructional aides or older students. EIR is designed to help kindergarten and first-grade students succeed in school and to help children continue to make good progress in reading in grades 2 through 4. Kindergarten is a whole class literature-based emergent literacy/oral language program with small group follow-up for children who need extra help. Children in first and second grade receive 20 to 30 minutes a day of instruction as a portion of the school's regular reading program, with a focus on word recognition, fluency (reading with speed, accuracy and proper expression), and comprehension instruction. In the first-grade program, emphasis is placed on developing students' phonemic awareness (i.e., their awareness of how to properly sound out words and letters) and their understanding of the alphabet, and on helping students to apply phonics while reading connected text (i.e., grouped words). In grades 3 and 4, students continue to apply their phonics knowledge and word recognition strategies to the reading of connected text and work on fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

The goal of this program is to improve reading skills for elementary school students.

The evaluations of the EIR program indicate that treatment-group students have experienced significant improvements in their reading skills as compared with no-treatment control group students who have not experienced similar improvements.