Intensifying Instruction to Address Treatment Resistance to Early Mathematics Interventions

Previous studies demonstrate the positive effects of explicit mathematics intervention on the mathematics outcomes of students at risk for mathematics difficulties (MD). One such intervention was the Tier 2 Booster Intervention (T2BI), a supplemental mathematics intervention focused on whole number concepts and skills that detailed the explicit and systematic instructional design of T2BI. However, findings from past research suggest that some students do not adequately respond to this purposefully designed intervention. Against that backdrop, the focus of this study is to address this notion of minimal response to intervention by integrating a select set of validated Cognitive Learning Principles (CLPs) into T2BI and investigating the extent to which students with MD respond favorably to the resulting intervention. Employing a multiple baseline design, our results showed a functional relation between the provision of an intervention with CLPs and increasing accuracy scores on both proximal and distal measures across the four participants with MD. These findings and their broader implications using CLPs to reduce minimal response to well-designed mathematics interventions are discussed.