Specific learning disabilities and the response to intervention model: A systematic review

Abstract

Specific learning difficulties are one of the most common typologies of students with specific educational support needs. Due to their high prevalence and their consequences for students, in recent years many initiatives have emerged with the aim of helping to identify, at an early stage, those students who may be at risk of suffering a learning problem in academic instrumental skills. The Response to Intervention model is an interesting alternative to the IQ-performance discrepancy model. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of the Response to Intervention model in the three basic instrumental skills: reading, writing, and mathematics. A systematic review of the literature has been carried out following the PRISMA guidelines for scientific systematic reviews. Studies were selected from all Web of Science and Scopus databases, in a search period between 2011 and 2021. The review was conducted on the basis of 15 selected studies, six of which investigated the effectiveness of the Response to Intervention model in reading, four in writing, and five in mathematics. The results obtained show the Response to Intervention model as an effective tool for the early detection of students at risk of ASD in reading, writing, and mathematics.