Teachers’ practices in reading and writing education for students with disorders of intellectual development: a national survey

This study aimed to explore teachers’ practices in reading and writing education for students with disorders of intellectual development (DID) to enhance understanding of teacher practices and the students’ educational context. An electronic survey was distributed to teachers of grades 1–10 across Norway; 263 teachers were included. The most frequently reported approaches were a combination of synthetic and analytical methods (62%) and the logographic method (54%). Most teachers used teacher-made learning resources (57%), while few reported the use of reading and writing technology functions (2–34%). On average, the teachers “often” organized reading and writing education outside the students’ classrooms. These results indicate a need to develop reading and writing resources for students with DID through research-practitioner partnerships, ensuring inclusive research-based interventions that are useful for practice. Today's digital society has the potential to make this possible.