BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT

published: 23 April 2020

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00751

The Use of New Technologies for

Improving Reading Comprehension
Agnese Capodieci 1* , Cesare Cornoldi 1 , Elizabeth Doerr 1 , Laura Bertolo 2* and
Barbara Carretti 1
1
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy, 2 Azienda Sociosanitaria Ligure 5 Spezzino, La
Spezia, Italy

Since the introduction of writing systems, reading comprehension has always been a
foundation for achievement in several areas within the educational system, as well as
a prerequisite for successful participation in most areas of adult life. The increased
availability of technologies and web-based resources can be a really valid support,
both in the educational and clinical field, to devise training activities that can also
be carried out remotely. There are studies in current literature that has examined the
efficacy of internet-based programs for reading comprehension for children with reading
Edited by:
Ana Lucia Pereira, comprehension difficulties but almost none considered distance rehabilitation programs.
Universidade Estadual de Ponta The present paper reports data concerning a distance program Cloze, developed in Italy,
Grossa, Brazil
for improving language and reading comprehension. Twenty-eight children from 3rd to
Reviewed by:
Gaston Saux, 6th grade with comprehension difficulties were involved. These children completed the
National Council for Scientific distance program for 15–20 min for at least three times a week for about 4 months. The
and Technical Research (CONICET),
program was presented separately to each child, with a degree of difficulty adapted to
Argentina
Giovanna Bubbico, his/her characteristics. Text reading comprehension (assessed distinguishing between
G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti narrative and informative texts) increased after intervention. These findings have clinical
and Pescara, Italy
and educational implications as they suggest that it is possible to promote reading
*Correspondence:
Agnese Capodieci comprehension with a distance individualized program, avoiding the need for the child
[email protected] displacements, necessary for reaching a rehabilitation center.
Laura Bertolo
[email protected] Keywords: reading comprehension, training, distance rehabilitation program, digital device, Cloze app

Specialty section:
This article was submitted to INTRODUCTION
Educational Psychology,
a section of the journal Reading comprehension is a fundamental cognitive ability for children, that supports school
Frontiers in Psychology achievement and successively participation in most areas of adult life (Hulme and Snowling,
Received: 20 November 2019 2011). Therefore, children with learning disabilities (LD) and special educational needs who show
Accepted: 27 March 2020 difficulties in text comprehension, sometimes also in association with other problems, may have
Published: 23 April 2020
an increased risk of life and school failure (Woolley, 2011). Reading comprehension is, indeed,
Citation: a complex cognitive ability which involves not only linguistic (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical
Capodieci A, Cornoldi C, Doerr E, knowledge), but also cognitive (such as working memory, De Beni and Palladino, 2000), and
Bertolo L and Carretti B (2020) The
metacognitive skills (both for the aspects of knowledge and control, Channa et al., 2015),
Use of New Technologies
for Improving Reading
and, more specifically, higher order comprehension skills such as the generation of inferences
Comprehension. (Oakhill et al., 2003).
Front. Psychol. 11:751. Recently, due to the diffusion of technology in many fields of daily life, text comprehension
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00751 at school, at home during homework, and at work is based on an increasing number of

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Capodieci et al. Technologies for Reading Comprehension

digital reading devices (computers and laptops, e-books, and 2011; Wijekumar et al., 2012, 2013, 2017), with the objective
tablet devices) that can become a fundamental support to to support activities based on identifying main parts and key
improve traditional reading comprehension and learning skills words in a text and classifying information in a hierarchical
(e.g., inference generation). order. Positive outcomes were found also with such program
Some authors contrasted in children with typical since students who followed the ITSS program significantly
development the effects of the technological interface on improved text comprehension compared to their peers in
reading comprehension vs printed texts (Kerr and Symons, the control group.
2006; Rideout et al., 2010; Mangen et al., 2013; Singer and Although most of the literature deals with typical
Alexander, 2017; Delgado et al., 2018). Results were consistent development, also cases of students with learning difficulties
and showed a worse comprehension performance in screen were considered. For example, Potocki et al. (2013) (see also
texts compared to printed texts for children (Mangen et al., Potocki et al., 2015) examined the effects of two different
2013; Delgado et al., 2018) and adolescents who nonetheless computerized programs with specific aims: one focusing on
showed a preference for digital texts compared to printed comprehension features, such as inference making and the
texts (Singer and Alexander, 2017). Regarding children analysis of text structure, the other considering decoding skills.
with learning problems, only few studies considered the Both training programs brought some benefits to reading
differences between printed texts and digital devices (Chen, comprehension, however larger effects were found with the
2009; Gonzalez, 2014; Krieger, 2017) finding no significant program focused on comprehension with long-lasting effects
differences, suggesting that the use of compensative digital tools in listening and reading comprehension (see also Kleinsz
for children with a learning difficulty could be a valid alternative et al., 2017). Studies by Johnson-Glenberg (2005) and Kim
with respect to the traditional written texts in facilitating et al. (2006), using respectively the programs 3D Readers
their academic and work performance. This conclusion is and CACSR, were able to promote reading comprehension
also supported by the results of a meta-analysis (Moran abilities in middle school students through metacognitive
et al., 2008), regarding the use of digital tools and learning activities. Thanks to these programs students also became
environments for enhancing literacy acquisition in middle more aware of reading strategies and implemented them
school students, which demonstrates that technology can more successfully during text comprehension. In particular,
improve reading comprehension. a study by Niedo et al. (2014), obtained positive results on
Different procedures and abilities are targeted in the silent reading in a small group of children struggling with
international literature concerning computerized training reading using the “cloze” procedure. This procedure proposes
programs for reading comprehension. In particular, various exercises in which parts of a text, typically words, are missing
studies include activities promoting cognitive (e.g., vocabulary, and participants are required to complete the text guessing
inference making) and metacognitive (e.g., the use of strategies, what is missing.
comprehension monitoring, and identification of relevant parts Thus, computerized programs generally seem to improve
in a text) components of reading comprehension. Table 1 reports reading comprehension skills. However, it should be noticed
the list of papers proposing computerized training programs with that, in most cases, students were trained at school, without
a summary of the findings encountered. Participants involved the personalized support of a clinician taking into consideration
cover different ages and school grades, the majority belonging the cognitive and psychological needs of the child. In particular,
to middle school and high school. The general outcome of to our knowledge, no program examined the effects of an
the studies is positive due to a significant improvement in internet-based distance reading comprehension program which
comprehension skills after the training program with long- allows the child to be trained at home in a personalized way.
lasting effects also during follow-up; indeed, the majority of A useful aspect of an internet-based distance training is that
participants involved in training programs outperformed their the psychologist can monitor with the application (app) the
peers assigned to comparison groups and maintained their child’s results and activities and write him/her some motivational
improvements. Specifically, several studies (O’Reilly et al., messages, reducing the attritions present in programs carried
2004; Magliano et al., 2005; McNamara et al., 2006) used the out at home with the only supervision of parents. Literature
iSTART program with adolescents and young adults. This concerning distance trainings is still rare, however, some
program promotes self-explanation, prior knowledge and evidence suggests that these programs may represent a good
reading strategies to enhance understanding of descriptive integration to other types of intervention, usually carried
scientific texts. Results demonstrated that students who followed out at school, in a rehabilitation center or at home (e.g.,
the iSTART program received more benefits than their peers, Mich et al., 2013).
improving self-explanation and summarization. Additionally, Therefore, despite still preliminary, we think that it is
strategic knowledge was a relevant factor for the outcome relevant to present data about a distance program developed
in comprehension tasks including multiple choice questions: in Italy named Cloze (Cornoldi and Bertolo, 2013), devised
students who already possessed good strategic knowledge for rehabilitation purposes but with potential implication
improved their accuracy when answering to bridging inference also for educational contexts. Cloze has been developed to
questions, whereas students with low strategic knowledge promote inferential abilities both at a sentence- and discourse-
became more accurate with text-based questions. Another level using the “cloze” procedure. Several findings in the
program, ITSS, was used with younger students (Meyer et al., literature demonstrate that abilities, such as anticipating

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Capodieci et al.
TABLE 1 | Synthesis of the main results of the computerized training programs on comprehension present in the literature.

Author/s Computerized Type of Trained reading comprehension School grade Measures Efficacy (during/after post-test)
training program control group components

Typical Development
O’Reilly et al. (2004) iSTART Active Cognitive (textual information, End of 7th–8th Reading I>C
connecting text sentences) Prior Knowledge Effects on comprehension
Metacognitive (self-explanation, prior Reading strategy knowledge Improvement in comprehension questions
knowledge, reading strategies) regardless of the initial strategy knowledge level
Magliano et al. (2005) iSTART Active (live Cognitive (textual information, Undergraduate Reading Skilled and less skilled readers improved with the
training) connecting text sentences) Self-explanation program
Metacognitive (self-explanation, prior Less skilled readers from the live training improved
knowledge, reading strategies) more in text-based question, whereas skilled
readers improved with inference questions
Both treatments brought similar effects
McNamara et al. (2006) iSTART Active Cognitive (textual information, 8th–9th Reading strategy knowledge I>C
connecting text sentences) Self-explanation tests Effects on comprehension and self-explanation
Metacognitive (self-explanation, prior Correlation between self-explanation and
knowledge, reading strategies) comprehension questions was stronger in the
intervention group
Meyer et al. (2011) ITSS No control Cognitive (recall specific text structure, 5th Reading comprehension Both groups improved
(comparison identify key words, classification of More improvement with the individualized version
between information)
standardized or
tailored version
3

of ITSS).
Wijekumar et al. (2012) ITSS Active Cognitive (recall specific text structure, 4th Reading comprehension I>C
identify key words, classification of Small but significant effects on comprehension
information)
Wijekumar et al. (2013) ITSS Active Cognitive (recall specific text structure, 4th–5th Silent Reading I > C;
identify key words, classification of Small but significant effects on comprehension
information)
Ortlieb et al. (2014) myON R 3 Groups Cognitive (online reading and text 4th Reading All groups improved in comprehension
Print-based analysis) Comprehension myON group was outperformed by the other two
Hybrid when using printed material
myON myON group improved reading comprehension in
the digital format
Wijekumar et al. (2017) ITSS Active Cognitive (text structure recognition, 7th Reading comprehension I > C (in all measures)

Technologies for Reading Comprehension

hierarchical classification of information) Small but significant effects on comprehension
Learning Difficulties
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Leong (1992) DECtalk Active Cognitive (vocabulary, text-to-speech 6th–8th Vocabulary C > I (when combining the program with online
skills) Reading comprehension reading explanations)
Johnson-Glenberg (2005) 3D Readers Within groups Metacognitive (comprehension 6th–7th Comprehension Higher performance in comprehension and longer
design with monitoring, graphic organizers, assessed with open-ended answers rereading time in the metacognitive condition
control question answering, question Comprehension assessed
conditions generation, summarization) with vocabulary gains
Rereading assessed with ScrollBacks
Question generation

(Continued)
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Capodieci et al.
TABLE 1 | Continued

Author/s Computerized Type of control group Trained reading comprehension School grade Measures Efficacy (during/after post-test)
training program components

Kim et al. (2006) CACSR Active Cognitive (recognition or relevant Middle-school Comprehension I>C
elements of the text, connecting text Writing main ideas from a text Positive effects on comprehension
sentences) Decoding Perceived improvement from
Metacognitive (monitoring before, students and teachers
during and after reading, previous
knowledge)
Potocki et al. (2013) LoCoTex (reading Active Cognitive (inference making, text 2nd Word reading I>C
comprehension, analysis) Non-verbal intelligence Positive effects on reading and
intervention group) Word span; listening comprehension
v.s. Chassymo Updating Effects on monitoring and
(decoding, control Listening and reading comprehension vocabulary (significative only until
group) Vocabulary; follow-up)
Comprehension monitoring
Niedo et al. (2014) RAP Active Cognitive (sentence logic, Cloze 4th Word reading Both groups improved
technique, paragraph understanding) Pseudoword reading Attention and working memory
Reading comprehension accuracy predicted post-test accuracy (silent
Silent word reading reading comprehension)
Silent sentence reading
Working memory
Attention and hyperactivity rating
4

Cullen et al. (2014) Headsprout No control Cognitive (vocabulary, text analysis, 3rd and 5th Reading comprehension Substantial improvement in reading
Comprehension answering questions) comprehension
Program
Potocki et al. (2015) LoCoTex vs 4 Groups Cognitive (inference making, text 6th–7th Silent word reading Improved fluency with decoding
Chassymo normal readers analysis) Fluency training
poor decoders Listening comprehension Improvement in word recognition,
poor comprehenders listening and reading
general poor readers comprehension with
comprehension training
Kleinsz et al. (2017) LoCoTex vs 3 Groups: Cognitive (inference making, text 2nd Written word recognition Difficulties in working memory
Chassymo Specific decoding difficulty analysis) Listening and reading comprehension during testing phases in all three
Specific comprehension Decoding groups
difficulty Phonological skills Improvements in word decoding

Technologies for Reading Comprehension

General reading difficulty Decoding fluency and phonological awareness with
Vocabulary decoding training
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Comprehension monitoring Improvements in vocabulary,

Working memory comprehension monitoring,
Non-verbal reasoning decoding fluency and accuracy,
word-recognition with
comprehension training

I > C, intervention group outperformed control group; iSTART, Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking; ITSS, Intelligent Tutoring for the Structure Strategy; DECtalk, Text-to-speech program; CASR,
Computer-Assisted Collaborative Strategic Reading; PILE, ProgramaInformatizado de LeituraEstratégica; RAP, Rapid Accelerated-reading Program. Active control: group not involved in the experimental training but
receiving some kind of treatments (for example other exercises or games).
Capodieci et al. Technologies for Reading Comprehension

TABLE 2 | Main characteristics of the sample in terms of reading and cognitive MATERIALS AND METHODS
abilities.

Task Mean Standard deviation Pre-/Post-test Assessment and

Reading assessment Procedure of the Training
Text reading speed (syllables per seconds) 2.70 0.81 Each child started a training program through the distance
Text reading speed (syllables per seconds) z score −0.81 0.77 rehabilitation platform Ridinet, using the Cloze app, after
Text reading errors 4.32 3.7 the assessment of learning and cognitive abilities, including
Words reading (syllables per seconds) 2.37 0.75 comprehension assessment with two texts, one narrative and
Words reading (syllables per seconds) z score −0.75 1.03 one informative (Cornoldi and Carretti, 2016; Cornoldi et al.,
Words reading errors 4.79 2.3 2017). Connection to the Ridinet web site was required in
Non-word reading (syllables per seconds) 1.73 0.66 order to access to the app, three or four times a week for
Non-word reading (syllables per seconds) z score −0.13 1.14 more or less 15/20 min. The period of use was of 3 months
Non-word reading (syllables per seconds) errors 7.04 3.13 for 6 children and 4 months for 22 children. After this period
Cognitive assessment children’s comprehension was assessed again. Additionally, some
Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) 97.61 10.24 questions were asked to parents and children about the app’s
Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI) 103.04 11.29 utility and pleasantness. In particular, children were asked:
Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI) 103.29 11.52 “Do you think the program helped you improve your text
Working Memory Index (WMI) 90.56 9.80 comprehension skills?,” “Did you like doing this program instead
Processing Speed Index (PSI) 92.44 11.46 of the same exercises on paper?”; and parents were asked: “Was
it difficult to start the Cloze activities on days when it had to
be done?,” “Compared to the beginning of the treatment, how
do you currently judge the ability of your child to understand
text parts and inference making, bring improvements in
the texts?”. For all questions, except the last one, the answer
text comprehension (e.g., Yuill and Oakhill, 1988) and
had to be given on a 5-point scale with 1 = not at all,
it has been shown that one way to promote inferential
2 = a little, 3 = enough, 4 = very, 5 = very much. For
competences is to improve the ability to predict parts of
the last question the answer changed on a 4-point scale with
the text that are missing or that follow, considering the
1 = got worse, 2 = unchanged, 3 = slightly improved, and
available information: the “cloze” technique appears to
4 = greatly improved.
be one of the most successful ways for this purpose (e.g.,
Greene, 2001).
In the current study the effectiveness of this training program Comprehension Tasks
has been tested on a clinical population who exhibited, for various Reading comprehension was assessed with two texts, the first
reasons, difficulties in reading comprehension. Participants were narrative and the other informative, taken from Italian batteries
28 children (16 male and 12 female) attending a private practice for the assessment of reading (Cornoldi and Carretti, 2016;
for learning difficulties in the city of La Spezia, in the north- Cornoldi et al., 2017). The texts range between 226 and 455
west of Italy, from 3rd to 6th school grade (5 of 3rd, 9 of 4th, words in length, and their length increases with school grade
11 of 5th and 3 of 6th grade), with a mean age of children of (in order to have texts and questions matching the degrees of
M = 9.79 years (SD = 1.03). Seventeen children had a current expertise at different grades the batteries include a different pair
or past speech disorder: of these children 10 also had a LD of texts for each grade). Students read the text in silence at
(Learning Disabilities) and one was bilingual (speech problems their own pace, then answer a variable number of multiple-
were not due to bilingualism). The other 11 children had a choice questions (depending on school grade), choosing one
LD or important learning difficulties, and one of them had of four possible answers. There is no time limit, and students
also ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). For the can reread the text whenever they wish. The final score is
goals of the study, all these children were considered together calculated as the total number of correct answers for each text.
as they all presented a severe reading comprehension difficulty Alpha coefficients, as reported by the manuals, range between
as reported by parents and teachers and confirmed by the 0.61 and 0.83. For the purposes of the study we decided
initial assessment. to use the same two comprehension texts, at pre-test and
All children had received a comprehensive psychological post-test, as the procedure offered the opportunity of directly
assessment (see Table 2), adapted to their particular needs examining and showing to parents changes in comprehension
and ages. In particular all children had an IQ >80 assessed and previous evidence had shown the absence of relevant retest
with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV (WISC- effects with this material in a retest carried out after 3 months
IV; Wechsler, 2003) and did not have anxiety disorders, mood (Viola and Carretti, 2019).
affective disorders or other developmental disorders, with the
exception of the cases with language disorder and the case with Distance Rehabilitation Program: Cloze
ADHD. Children were not receiving any additional treatment, Cloze (Cornoldi and Bertolo, 2013) is an app for the promotion
including medication. Written consent was obtained from the of text comprehension with the specific aim to recover processes
children’s parents in the context of the private practice. of lexical and semantic inference. At each work session the

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child works with texts that lack words and must complete the TABLE 3 | Changes in performance in relations to norms (provided by the manual)
after the training program Cloze.
empty spaces by choosing the correct alternative from those
automatically proposed by the app, so that the text becomes Pre-test Post-test
congruent. The program is adaptive, as text complexity and
proportion of missing words vary according to the previous z < −2 −2 < z < −1 z > −1 z < −2 −2 < z < −1 z > −1
level of response, and is designed for children who have
Text 1 (narrative) 4 13 12 1 3 23
weaknesses in written text comprehension, mainly due to poor
Text 2 (informative) 6 16 5 1 7 19
skills in lexical and semantic inferential processes. The app also
allows to enhance a set of language skills (phonology, syntax,
semantics) which contribute to ensuring the fluidity of text Pearson correlations were computed between the STG
and production processing. The recommended age range for and the variable collected at pre-test (reading speed and
the use of this program is between 7 and 14 years. In this errors, WISC IV – Full scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension,
study the semantic mode (only content words may be missing Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing
and no syntactic cues can be used for deciding between the Speed indexes). The only significant correlation was between
alternatives) was proposed to 21 children and the syntactic mode STG of the narrative text and Verbal Comprehension
(where all words may be missing) to 7 children. The mode Index of the WISC-IV Scale (r = 0.38, p = 0.048).
type selected for each child depends from the performance at Finally, individual improvements from pre- to post-test
pre-test and diagnosis. A clinician, co-author of the present were also confirmed considering changes in performance
study (LB), monitored the child’s results and activities with the in terms of standard deviation in relations to norms
app and sent him/her from time to time some motivational (provided by the manual). Table 3 shows the number
messages. The motivational messages were typically sent once of children for each comprehension text who improved
a week for congratulating with children for the work done and their performance moving from a performance at least 2
check with him/her possible problems emerged. Training lasted standard deviations or between 1 and 2 negative standard
from 3 to 4 months and involved between 3 and 4 sessions deviations under the mean to a performance above one negative
of 15–20 min per week. The variation in duration depended standard deviation.
on the decision of each individual family. In fact, children
were required to use the software for about 4 months or in Perceived Utility, Pleasantness, Parents
any case for a minimum period of 3 months (choice made and Child’s Improvements of Cloze
by six families). Results concerning the answers of parents and children
about utility, pleasantness and self-perceived efficacy of the
RESULTS app, were also analyzed. At the first question, addressing
children’s perceived improvement in comprehension skills,
Effects on Reading Comprehension of more than half of the sample chose the alternatives “very”
or “very much” (15 “very” and 5 “very much”), only 1
Cloze Training child answered “a little” and the others chose “enough.”
All analyses were carried out with SPSS 25 (IBM Corp, At the second question, about the pleasure of doing this
2017). A preliminary analysis found that all the examined kind of activity instead of pen and paper activities, all
variables met the assumptions of normality (K-S between children answered “very” or “very much.” Concerning parents’
0.106 and 0.143, p > 0.05). Then, we compared the reading questions, at the first question about the difficulty to start
comprehension performance of children before and after the the Cloze activity, only one parent answered “enough,” a
computerized training with Cloze. For this analysis, a repeated quarter of the sample chose “a little” (seven families) and
measure Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted on all the other 20 families chose the alternative “not at all.”
comprehension scores to examine the differences in the At the last question about the perceived training efficacy
whole group of children between the scores obtained before on their child’s performance, the large majority of the
and after the training. A significant difference was found families chose “slightly improved” or “greatly improved”
for both comprehension texts [F(1,27) = 22.37, p < 0.001, and only three parents thought their children’s ability had
η2 p = 0.453 and F(1,27) = 38.90, p < 0.001, η2 p = 0.599, remained unchanged. However, no correlations between parents
respectively]. Possible differences between the two training and child’s perceived improvements and STG in reading
modalities (semantic vs syntactic) and between different training comprehension were found.
periods (3 months vs 4 months) were then analyzed; no
significant differences emerged between groups in both cases
[F(1,27) < 1]. CONCLUSION
Secondly, to analyze the role of individual differences
at pre-test, the standardized training gain score (STG; The present study examined the effects of the use of Cloze, a
Jaeggi et al., 2011) – computed by subtracting post-test distance rehabilitation program focused on inference skills, for
score minus pre-test score, divided by the SD of the pre- improving reading comprehension, on the basis of the hypothesis
test – was calculated for the two texts comprehension. that, being inference making related to reading comprehension

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at different ages (e.g., Oakhill and Cain, 2012), positive one type of text through the Cloze. The activities probably
effects of the training activities on reading comprehension required to develop some kind of strategies, and for this
should be found. reason students with larger verbal intellectual resources, who
Concerning the efficacy of computer-assisted training were presumably more able to develop new strategies, were
programs, literature highlights that many training programs more advantaged. Indeed, this amplification effect is usually
are devised for an educational context. Results are generally found when training activities require the development of
encouraging with positive effects on reading comprehension, strategies (von Bastian and Oberauer, 2014). Such result has
measured with materials different from those practiced during clinical and educational implications, inviting professionals
the training. However, few studies analyzed the efficacy in and teachers to consider children’s starting resources and, if
children with specific reading comprehension problems, necessary, to combine activities conducted through distance
and no studies considered the possibility of carrying out rehabilitation programs with personal intervention sessions
a training at home under the distance supervision of an that could teach strategies and promote a metacognitive
expert. The latter characteristics are those that make the approach to reading comprehension. However, some limitations
Cloze peculiar compared to the existent literature. Cloze of the present study must be acknowledged. Firstly, study
is indeed based on a rehabilitation online platform which did not include a control group, therefore findings should
allows the child to complete personalized training activities be taken with caution, although normative data and previous
several times a week, without moving from his/her home, results obtained with the same test offer support to the
and concurrently enabling the clinician to monitor the child’s robustness of our results and the use of normative data
progress or manage activities’ characteristics. The advantage offers a control measure of how reading comprehension skills
of this procedure is twofold: on one hand it increases the are acquired in typically developing children without specific
potential number of training sessions per week, on the training, therefore functioning as a sort of passive control
other hand it permits to save the necessary time to reach group. Secondly, the treated group, although characterized
the center for rehabilitation and to reduce the costs of by a common reading comprehension difficulty, was partly
the intervention. heterogeneous, as children attended different grades and
The preliminary data on Cloze were generally positive: could have different diagnoses. Unfortunately, the limited
children, working on either two slightly different versions number of subjects, with the consequence that it was not
of the same program, showed a generalized improvement possible to form groups defined both by the grade and
in reading comprehension tasks and, together with their the diagnosis, did not permit to make analyses taking into
families, expressed appreciation for the pleasantness and the account the grade and the diagnosis as between-subjects
efficacy of the program. Encouraging results emerged also factors. Future studies should examine a more homogeneous
from the analysis of individual improvements referring to population or consider a larger sample of children, giving
normative scores, as reported in Table 3: most of the more information about the efficacy of training in different
children’s performance migrated from a highly negative level to children population. Additionally, the fact that the treatment
an average level. was concluded with the post-training assessment did not
It is noticeable that the efficacy of the training was assessed offer the opportunity to further examine the procedure and
with materials different from those practiced during the maintenance effects with a follow-up. Despite the limitations,
training sessions, since reading comprehension tasks required this study offers evidence concerning the efficacy of new
to read a paper text and complete a series of multiple- methods, based on computer-assisted training programs that
choice questions. In future studies it would be interesting could be beneficial in training high-level skills such as
to analyze the effects of the program on skills known to comprehension and inference generation. Such tools can
be related to text comprehension, such as vocabulary or be extremely worthwhile for struggling readers who may
comprehension monitoring, for example. There is good need to receive further attention in mastering higher level
reason to believe that since these variables are highly reading comprehension.
predictive of comprehension skills (and given that training
in these skills sometimes improve comprehension; e.g.,
Beck et al., 1982; see also Hulme and Snowling, 2011),
training that specifically targets comprehension might, in DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
turn, lead to improvements in vocabulary or comprehension
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to
monitoring skills. Further studies are needed to explore
the corresponding author.
this hypothesis.
A second relevant finding of the present study is the
presence of a positive correlation between the gain obtained
in one of the reading comprehension text (the narrative one) ETHICS STATEMENT
and the Verbal Comprehension Intelligence Quotient (VCIQ)
index of the WISC-IV battery, showing that children who Ethical review and approval was not required for the study
started with more resources in verbal intelligence achieved on human participants in accordance with the local legislation
greater improvements in text comprehension at least with and institutional requirements. Written informed consent

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Capodieci et al. Technologies for Reading Comprehension

to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal contributed to the manuscript revision, read and approved the
guardian/next of kin. Written informed consent was obtained submitted version.
from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially
identifiable images or data included in this article.
FUNDING
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS The present work was carried out within the scope of the research
program Dipartimenti di Eccellenza (art.1, commi 314-337 legge
AC, CC and BC contributed to the design and implementation 232/2016), which was supported by a grant from MIUR to the
of the research. LB provided the data. BC organized the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua and
database. AC performed the statistical analysis. ED did the partially supported by a grant (PRIN 2015, 2015AR52F9_003) to
literature research and wrote the section about the review Cesare Cornoldi funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and
of the literature. AC and BC wrote the other sections. CC Education (MIUR).

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