Flashcard Interventions to Teach Sight Words and Math Facts

Abstract

Many elementary students struggle with the acquisition of sight words which can hinder development of complex reading skills. Additionally, students who lack fluency with computation of basic math facts may struggle with higher-order math concepts. In this study, we compared the efficacy of two flashcard interventions for teaching sight words and math facts to 4 elementary students. The results showed that Strategic Incremental Rehearsal (SIR) was generally superior to Incremental Rehearsal (IR) in that more targets were mastered. We assessed student preference for the flashcard interventions and found that 2 students showed preference for each of the flashcard interventions. In addition, we evaluated social validity of the flashcard procedures with 6 teachers from the students’ school, and all rated both interventions favorably