This study compared the impact of incorporating Interactive Metronome (IM) training into traditional reading interventions for children diagnosed with co-occurring language and reading impairments. The cohort consisted of 49 school-age children (grades 2-5) attending a summer language and reading program at Baylor University.

The children were randomly assigned to two groups: the experimental group (28 children) received IM training for 15 minutes per day, 4 days per week for 4 weeks, in addition to the traditional reading interventions. The control group (21 children) received only the traditional reading interventions for the same duration.

Reading and language progress were measured using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills-6 Oral Reading Fluency (DIBELS-6 ORF), the Read Naturally Test (assessing oral reading fluency), and the Gray Oral Reading Test–Fourth Edition (GORT-4), which evaluated reading rate, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.

Before the intervention period, there were no significant differences between the two groups. However, the study found that after just 4 hours of IM training over a 4-week period, the experimental group demonstrated larger gains in most areas of reading achievement compared to the control group. The improvements included +5.48 in Read Naturally scores, +5.77 in DIBELS-6 ORF scores, and improvements in GORT-4 scores for reading rate (+0.96), fluency (+0.32), and comprehension (+0.77).

In conclusion, incorporating Interactive Metronome training into traditional reading interventions can boost the reading rate, fluency, and comprehension in children with language and reading impairments.