Reading is one of the key skills that children are supposed to acquire in their early years of schooling. Yet, general reading instruction in school has not proven sufficient for all children, since about 3 to 11 percent of all students are diagnosed with a reading disability (Moll et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2022). These children need to be supported from early on through interventions that focus on individual difficulties and should be based on phonics instruction and/or reading comprehension (Al Otaiba et al., 2023).

Frequently, students with low reading skills are also at an increased risk of simultaneously experiencing social-emotional difficulties (Moll et al., 2020). Previous research has shown this co-occurrence for different age groups for reading difficulties and internalizing problems (e.g., depression, anxiety and social withdrawal) as well as externalizing problems (ADHD and disruptive / oppositional behaviour) (Francis et al., 2019; Vieira et al., 2024; Visser et al., 2020). A meta-analysis by Francis et al. (2019) found a moderate association between poor reading skills and internalizing problems, with anxiety showing stronger correlations than depression.

To properly support students with both reading and social-emotional difficulties, it is recommended to simultaneously address both skills (Boyes et al., 2020). Social-emotional skills can be enhanced through social-emotional learning (SEL), focusing on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. SEL programs can additionally help children to improve their well-being and to reduce problem behaviors (Taylor et al., 2017).

The current study evaluates the effectiveness of a reading intervention combined with a SEL intervention for children with difficulties in these specific areas. The reading instruction is based on the “Kieler Leseaufbau” (Dummer-Smoch & Hackethal, 2021) and related materials. It focuses phonics instruction and reading comprehension through repeated reading of syllables, words and short texts. The SEL intervention is based on a whole-class SEL intervention program. We specifically address potential social-emotional difficulties for children with low reading skills (e.g., being afraid of reading out loud in front of the class) und want to promote self-efficacy, emotion regulation skills and social problem-solving.

Currently, we are implementing a two-phase intervention in small groups. Phase 1 includes 20 sessions à 50 minutes of phonics instruction, which are conducted twice a week. Later on, in Phase 2, 30 minutes of phonics instruction and 20 minutes of SEL are combined within one session, also 20 times. Reading and social-emotional skills are assessed before the intervention (t1), before the start of the SEL intervention (t2), at the end of the interventions (t3) and at follow-up (t4). Students with low reading and social-emotional skills were screened (t0) and randomly assigned at class level to intervention (IG) or control (CG) groups.

In this presentation we want to address following research questions:

• What is the effect of a combined intervention (reading + SEL, 40 sessions) on reading skills (fluency, accuracy, reading comprehension) in second grade students with reading and social-emotional difficulties?
• What is the effect of a combined intervention (reading + SEL, 40 sessions) on social-emotional skills and behavioral problems in second grade students with reading and social-emotional difficulties?

We hypothesize, that at each measurement time following t1, reading skills will be higher in the IG than in the CG. We also hypothesize, that the improvement in social-emotional skills and decrease in behavioral problems will be greater in the IG compared to the CG.

This quasi-experimental study was pre-registered (https://osf.io/2n4ux/?view_only=1fb78626700642d6b8ba1600ad93adb5, November 2nd, 2024) and uses a pre-post-follow-up design to evaluate the intervention. The intervention is conducted from December 2024 to May 2025 in small groups of 2-3 children within their schools, twice a week across 40 sessions (20 sessions per phase). In total, participants receive 1600 minutes of reading/phonics instruction and 400 minutes of SEL. Participants. A total of 499 second grade students (M = 7.67, SD = 0.43, 51% female) participated in the screening process for low reading and low social-emotional skills. Children scoring below the 20th percentile in reading and with the lowest social-emotional skills were identified. These children were then pre-tested and eligible children (German as a first language or average German proficiency (GraWO), IQ > 70 (CFT 1-R), low to average hyperactivity scores rated by teachers) were assigned to either the IG (n = 23) or the CG (n = 20). A priori power analysis indicated that this sample size is sufficient to detect significant intervention effects. Both groups are comparable in terms of gender, first language, cognitive skills, German vocabulary and reading skills, all measured with standardized tests. The CG initially receives no intervention but it will participate in four sessions of reading instruction after t4 in October 2025. Material. Reading skills are assessed using a one-minute word reading and one-minute pseudoword reading (DiLe-D; Paleczek et al., 2017) and reading comprehension (ELFE II; Lenhard et al., 2020) test. Social-emotional skills are measured via teacher ratings (hyperactivity, withdrawal, victimization, depression, aggression/disruptive behavior, prosocial behavior; based on SDQ) and student ratings (emotion regulation strategies, emotion recognition, prosocial behavior, internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, assertive behavior, social withdrawal; GraSEF (Kogler et al., 2025)). Analysis. Analysis will be conducted using R and SPSS.

As shown by Al Otaiba et al. (2023), early reading interventions for children with difficulties are effective, demonstrating moderate effect sizes (g = .39). Usually, the implementation of SEL interventions lead to an improvement of social-emotional skills as well as a reduction of behavioral problems (Taylor et al., 2017). As the intervention is currently still ongoing (from December 2024 to May 2025), data on the students’ reading and social-emotional skills are not yet available for all measurement times. However, our hypotheses are clear: We expect that the children in the IG to show greater improvements in both reading and social-emotional skills compared to the CG after both phases (post-test). In addition, we expect to already find higher reading skills after the reading-focused Phase 1 of our intervention when comparing the children of the IG to the children of the CG. It has not yet been clarified whether SEL interventions can successfully be integrated with reading interventions or should be offered as a follow-up (Moll et al., 2020). In our presentation, we will address the question whether a combined intervention might be effective for the students and what conclusions we can draw from our experiences. As there is little evidence available in German-speaking countries for systematic reading instruction and SEL for students with reading difficulties, the results are important to provide the best possible support for those students with both reading and social-emotional difficulties.

Al Otaiba, S., McMaster, K., Wanzek, J., & Zaru, M. W. (2023). What We Know and Need to Know about Literacy Interventions for Elementary Students with Reading Difficulties and Disabilities, including Dyslexia. Reading Research Quarterly, 58(2), 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.458 Boyes, M. E., Leitão, S., Claessen, M., Badcock, N. A., & Nayton, M. (2020). Correlates of externalising and internalising problems in children with dyslexia: An analysis of data from clinical casefiles. Australian Psychologist, 55(1), 62–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12409 Dummer-Smoch, L., & Hackethal, R. (2021). Kieler Leseaufbau: Handbuch (10. Auflage). Veris. Francis, D. A., Caruana, N., Hudson, J. L., & McArthur, G. M. (2019). The association between poor reading and internalising problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 67, 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2018.09.002 Kogler, A., Gasteiger-Klicpera, B., Prinz, K., & Paleczek, L. (2025). Digitally Assessing Social-Emotional Skills in Early School Years: Initial Validation of a Screening Instrument. Frontiers in Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1529083 Lenhard, W., Lenhard, A., & Schneider, W. (2020). ELFE II: Ein Leseverständnistest für Erst- bis Siebtklässler – Version II (4., unveränderte Auflage). Moll, K., Kunze, S., Neuhoff, N., Bruder, J., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2014). Specific learning disorder: Prevalence and gender differences. PloS One, 9(7), e103537. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103537 Moll, K., Snowling, M. J., & Hulme, C. (2020). Introduction to the Special Issue “Comorbidities between Reading Disorders and Other Developmental Disorders”. Scientific Studies of Reading, 24(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2019.1702045 Paleczek, L., Seifert, S., Obendrauf, T., Schwab, S., & Gasteiger-Klicpera, B. (2017). DiLe-D: Differenzierter Lesetest - Dekodieren. Hogrefe. Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Promoting Positive Youth Development Through School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A Meta-Analysis of Follow-Up Effects. Child Development, 88(4), 1156–1171. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12864 Vieira, A. P. A., Peng, P., Antoniuk, A., DeVries, J., Rothou, K., Parrila, R., & Georgiou, G. (2024). Internalizing problems in individuals with reading, mathematics and unspecified learning difficulties: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Dyslexia, 74(1), 4–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-023-00294-4 Yang, L., Li, C., Li, X., Zhai, M., An, Q., Zhang, Y., Zhao, J., & Weng, X. (2022). Prevalence of Developmental Dyslexia in Primary School Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Brain Sciences, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12020240