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Faculty member recognized for research in childhood reading impairments |
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Terry Biel |
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Oct 22, 2005 |
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Dr. Richard Welsch, UT assistant professor of special education, was recently named Researcher of the Year by the Council for Learning Disabilities in recognition of a study on childhood reading fluency in students with learning disabilities.
His study will be presented in a future issue of Learning Disabilities Quarterly and at the annual Council for Learning Disabilities convention in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
According to Welsch, previous studies of reading fluency focused on unimpaired learners, filling a gap in educational literature and making his research the first of students with diagnosed learning disabilities. Teachers of such students require more advanced approaches. “You’re already at a disadvantage because the student is behind his grade-level peers,” he said.
Using a series of one-minute capability probes, Welsch’s research refined methods of quickly isolating and alleviating individual problems with reading fluency. “Not every student responds to the same strategy,” he said, adding that data collected from these probes helps teachers to personalize their instruction.
Welsch said he conveys the knowledge gained from his research to the students he teaches at UT. To be a good special education teacher, he explained teachers must put formal data-collecting strategies to use in their daily instruction. All UT students of special education at both the undergraduate and graduate level study the one-minute probing processes he refined as part of their required course work.
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