Fluency Training Research Articles

The Effects of a Fluency Training Package on Paraprofessionals’ Presentation of a Reading Intervention

Paraprofessionals are widely employed in response to intervention (RTI) settings to provide instruction to students at-risk for reading disabilities. However, little research has addressed effective and efficient ways to train these paraprofessionals to deliver instruction with high fidelity. In addition, given the limited time and finances available in most districts, training needs to be as efficient as possible. This study assessed the effects of a 5-hour fluency training package on the presentation rates, praise rates, and error correction accuracy of five paraprofessionals providing supplemental reading instruction within an RTI system using a multiple baseline design across participants. Students’ reading accuracy and percentage of intervals with on-task behavior were evaluated. Paraprofessionals generally increased their presentation rates, praise rates, and error correction accuracy. Students’ behaviors were affected less.

Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Vision

Learning disabilities constitute a diverse group of disorders in which children who generally possess at least average intelligence have problems processing information or generating output. Their etiologies are multifactorial and reflect genetic influences and dysfunction of brain systems. Reading disability, or dyslexia, is the most common learning disability. It is a receptive language-based learning disability that is characterized by difficulties with decoding, fluent word recognition, rapid automatic naming, and/or reading-comprehension skills. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonologic component of language that makes it difficult to use the alphabetic code to decode the written word. Early recognition and referral to qualified professionals for evidence-based evaluations and treatments are necessary to achieve the best possible outcome. Because dyslexia is a language-based disorder, treatment should be directed at this etiology. Remedial programs should include specific instruction in decoding, fluency training, vocabulary, and comprehension. Most programs include daily intensive individualized instruction that explicitly teaches phonemic awareness and the application of phonics. Vision problems can interfere with the process of reading, but children with dyslexia or related learning disabilities have the same visual function and ocular health as children without such conditions. Currently, there is inadequate scientific evidence to support the view that subtle eye or visual problems cause or increase the severity of learning disabilities. Because they are difficult for the public to understand and for educators to treat, learning disabilities have spawned a wide variety of scientifically unsupported vision-based diagnostic and treatment procedures. Scientific evidence does not support the claims that visual training, muscle exercises, ocular pursuit-and-tracking exercises, behavioral/perceptual vision therapy, "training" glasses, prisms, and colored lenses and filters are effective direct or indirect treatments for learning disabilities. There is no valid evidence that children who participate in vision therapy are more responsive to educational instruction than children who do not participate.

Does Foreign Language Writing Benefit From Increased Lexical Fluency? Evidence From a Classroom Experiment

We report a classroom experiment directed at increasing lexical fluency in writing. Participants were 107 Dutch students in bilingual (EFL) education (Grades 10 and 11). According to current theories of writing such fluency allows writers to devote more attention to higher order aspects of text production, such as idea generation, selection and organization, and revision of content. Two contrasting assumptions are studied: the inhibition assumption that effortful word production prevents writers from attending to higher order aspects and the compensation assumption that writers compensate for effortful word production processes by sequential processing strategies. Results show that a group trained in writing and fluency in the deployment of useful words for writing in specific tasks outperformed a group receiving the same writing lessons but without fluency training both in fluency of trained words and in frequency of use of the target words in writing. However, the lexical fluency group did not produce foreign language texts of better quality than the group that received no fluency training. Both groups, however, outperformed a baseline control group that had not received writing lessons. The results are interpreted as support for the compensation assumption.

Fluency Training in the ESL Classroom: An Experimental Study of Fluency Development and Proceduralization

The present study investigates the role of speech repetition in oral fluency development. Twenty‐four students enrolled in English‐as‐a‐second‐language classes performed three training sessions in which they recorded three speeches, of 4, 3, and 2 min, respectively. Some students spoke about the same topic three times, whereas others spoke about three different topics. It was found that fluency improved for both groups during training but was maintained on posttests only by the students who repeated their speeches. These students had used more words repeatedly across speeches, most of which were not specifically related to the topic. It is argued that proceduralization of linguistic knowledge represented a change in underlying cognitive mechanisms, resulting in improvements in observable fluency.

Does speed matter? A comparison of the effectiveness of fluency and discrete trial training for teaching noun labels to children with autism

AbstractThis study used an alternating‐treatment design to compare the efficacy of discrete trial training (DTT) with fluency training (FT) for the acquisition, stimulus generalization, and retention of noun labels in children with autism. Four elementary‐age students diagnosed with autism were taught to expressively label nouns using a DTT format and a FT format. A between‐treatments comparison of the total number of nouns retained at 6 weeks post intervention was also conducted to compare retention. The results of this study showed that FT was superior to DTT in all of these areas. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cognitive Modification versus Therapeutic Support for Internalizing Distress and Positive Thinking: A Randomized Technique Evaluation Trial

It is important to evaluate not only comprehensive treatment packages, but also specific procedures to determine their contribution to the change process. The current study examined the efficacy of cognitive modification (CM) techniques compared to supportive therapy (ST) for university students reporting significant internalizing distress. CM consisted of three sessions of Fluency Training (FT) to increase positive self-statements and three sessions of Thought Record (TR) training in challenging negative thoughts. Participants (N = 57) were randomized to CM or ST and assessed at pre-, mid-, post-treatment, 1- and 3-month follow-ups. Intent-to-treat analyses suggested that CM produced greater changes in internalizing distress and positive thinking, which was especially apparent at midtreatment with small-to-medium differences consistently favoring CM at post-treatment and follow-up. These data suggest that change in CM was beyond that attributable to time spent with an engaged therapist who provided a treatment rationale, subsequent intervention and homework assignment.

On the use of fluency training in the behavioral treatment of autism: A commentary

The substantial demand for behavior-analytic treatment of early childhood autism has been associated with rapid dissemination of treatment procedures to practitioners and caregivers. This level of demand could plausibly induce premature dissemination of treatments that do not yet have sufficient empirical support. We argue that this might have happened with the use of fluency training for learners with autism and identify four areas of research that are necessary to ensure that dissemination efforts are better matched to the available empirical support for this instructional strategy.

Strengthen Requirements for Fluency Training

Strengthen Requirements for Fluency Training

The importance of fluency outcomes in learners with autism.

Increasingly, fluency is being recognized as a critical outcome of instruction for learners with autism. Binder (1996) defined fluency as fluid combination of accuracy plus speed that characterizes competent (Binder, 1996, p. 164). In the classroom, fluent performance would be exemplified by highly accurate and quick responses that require seemingly low effort (more automatic) on the part of the learner. From a teaching perspective, this concept represents a departure from measuring learning outcomes based solely on percent of correct responses which is the basis of discrete trial instruction (DTI). While DTI is a proven and effective teaching method for learners with autism, the reliance on percent correct achievement may overlook a learner's latencies in response time and/or difficulties in the motor response itself. These deficits are common among learners with autism and the use of ratebuilding instruction and timed practice to achieve greater fluency in responses may help overcome some of these performance deficits. Why is it important to focus on remediating these deficits? Fluency problems in learners with autism can manifest in many ways including effortful or laborious motor responses, long durations of responses and long latencies in responding, all of which can result in poor learning and social outcomes. For example, in a classroom setting, if a learner is asked a question by the teacher and fails to respond within an appropriate amount of time or the response is disorganized, it is assumed she is not prepared or does not know the answer. For many with autism, such difficulties with responses are common, even when the student knows the answer. As a result, missed opportunities to participate in learning and group instruction occur. Slow response times may also impact the degree to which a student can keep up with the larger group. Both speed of response and accuracy impact how well a learner integrates into an educational environment. If a student can correctly do all the problems on a math worksheet, but takes three times the amount of time to complete it as other students in class, he or she will inevitably fall behind. Endurance and perseverance in responses are also important instructional outcomes to consider to ensure that students with autism can perform skills for sufficiently functional lengths of time. While time to complete academic tasks will vary significantly depending on the activity, fluency-based instruction focuses on building overall performance endurance, which will, in turn, increase the likelihood that a student will persevere through longer tasks. This is especially important for learners with autism, who tend to have fleeting attention, brief effort, and difficulties with sustaining responses. It is important to build the duration of responses and increase their ability to sustain their effort. If they can engage in activities for longer periods of time, opportunities for obtaining reinforcement on naturally thinned schedules are also greatly increased. This may not be of great significance in specialized instructional settings where reinforcement schedules are rich, but may be critical to maintaining a student's performance in more natural settings where reinforcement is much more intermittent (Fabrizio and Moors, 2003). Further, improving endurance will also potentially increase the learner's level of flexibility when engaging in varied academic tasks, an important skill that is necessary for academic success but often inherently lacking in learners with autism. Unpredictably, academic tasks can vary in complexity and level of demand. In addition, some academic tasks and topics will be preferred or high interest, while others will be neutral or disliked, resulting in varied levels of motivation on the part of the learner. The gains in automaticity, endurance and flexibility achieved in fluency training may help reduce the extent to which motivational variation could negatively impact the student's performance. …

The Role of Working Memory and Fluency Practice on the Reading Comprehension of Students Who Are Dysfluent Readers

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with untreated dysfluent and fluent readers on posttest measures of fluency, word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (a) The influence of WM on text comprehension was not related to fluency training, (b) dysfluent readers in the continuous-reading condition had higher posttest scores than dysfluent readers in the other conditions on measures of text comprehension but not on vocabulary, and (c) individual differences in WM better predicted posttest comprehension performance than word-attack skills. In general, the results suggested that although continuous reading increased comprehension, fluency practice did not compensate for WM demands. The results were interpreted within a model that viewed reading comprehension processes as competing for a limited supply of WM resources that operate independent of fluency.

Fluency Training a Writing Skill: Editing for Concision

The goal of this study was to design and evaluate fluency-based training units to help students eliminate inconcision. Participants first completed a 1.5-hr lesson on writing concisely and then a 5-min test during which they edited sentences containing inconcise text from the training units. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to an intervention package that included fluency training or an intervention package that included control activities. After about 5 weeks, all participants retook the test. In 2 such experiments, relative to their initial rates, fluency-trained participants improved more than did control participants; the improvement for fluency-trained participants was often maintained for 5 weeks. The findings' limitations are discussed, as well as their implications for enhancing student writing and further research.

A Comparison of the Effects of Fluency Training and Accuracy Training on Application and Retention

The effects of fluency training on the acquisition and retention of a composite skill were compared with those of training to accuracy only. Participants were 30 college students, and the task was a stimulus equivalence task, similar to the one used by Binder (1995) in earlier assessments. Participants learned associations between Hebrew symbols and nonsense syllables and between nonsense syllables and Arabic numerals. Immediately after training and every 2 or 4 weeks for 16 weeks, they were tested on a composite task that required both associations. Retention of the original component associations was also assessed after 4 months. With respect to the composite skill, fluency training resulted in: a) higher response rates immediately after training and across the 16 weeks; b) better accuracy 4 and 16 weeks after training; and c) less deterioration of accuracy after 16 weeks. Effects on the component skills were similar. The results document that for skilled adult learners, fluency training can aid the acquisition of a higher level skill and increase the retention of accuracy for both the component and composite skills.

Orthographic analysis of words during fluency training promotes reading of new similar words

Remediation of a serious lack in reading fluency often takes the form of repeated reading exercises. The present study examines whether transfer of training effects to untrained (neighbour) words can be enhanced by training with an orthographic focus as compared with emphasising semantics. The effect of oral versus silent reading during training is studied as well. Two groups of reading‐disabled children (mean age=7 years, 11 months) were given repeated reading training with limited exposure duration (350 ms) in which 15 target words were repeated 20 times in exercises focused on either orthography (N=26) or semantics (N=25). The children were required to either read the target words aloud or perform the exercises silently, but this requirement appeared to have no effect on the training results. The results show that untrained neighbour words benefited more from training targets with an orthographic focus than from exercises with a semantic emphasis.

Precision teaching and education: Is fluency the missing link between success and failure?

The Department of Education in the United Kingdom established ambitious targets for achievement in the three core areas of English, maths and science measured by national curriculum testing. Annual results of the assessment for 2005 indicate that the government is some way off achieving these targets, currently 85%, for the academic years 2006–2008, but results indicate a steady improvement from the levels achieved in 1998. If these ambitious targets are to be realised, the consideration of new techniques in the classroom is suggested. Precision teaching has been advocated by a number of academics in the psychological and educational fields. Precision teaching is an effective instructional technology which adopts fluency (accuracy plus speed) as a benchmark of teaching success. This article highlights findings which suggest that fluency training assists higher academic achievement for all learners, and that cumulative dysfluency maybe the antecedent of academic underachievement.

Effects of Prior Attention Training on Child Dyslexics' Response to Composition Instruction

Twenty children (Grades 4 to 6) who met research criteria for dyslexia were randomly assigned to a treatment (attention training) or contact control (reading fluency training) group during their regular language arts block at a school that had emphasized multisensory, structured language treatment for reading disability. A university team provided either individual attention training (sustained, selective, alternating, and divided attention) or reading fluency training during the first 10 sessions and group composition instruction during the next 10 sessions. Analysis of variance evaluated the significance of Treatment × Session interactions from pretest to midtest (before composition instruction began) and midtest to posttest (when compositon instruction ends). Treatment × Time interactions were not significant between pretest and midtest, but the Treatment × Time interactions were significant from midtest to posttest for Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition Written Composition and Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System Verbal Fluency (attention treatment group improved more over time). Individual children showed the same pattern as group results. For child dyslexics in upper elementary school, attention training did not transfer directly to improved composition but prior attention training led to faster improvement in composing and oral verbal fluency once composition instruction was introduced. Effective instruction for dyslexia may depend on the sequencing as well as the nature of instructional components and require specialized instruction for writing as well as reading.

Self-statement modification techniques for distressed college students with low self-esteem and depressive symptoms.

Thirty students (73% female, M = 21 years) reporting significant distress, low self-esteem, and depressive symptoms were randomly assigned to three sessions of either: (a) restructuring of negative self-thoughts (via training and daily practice using the Thought Record) or (b) enhancement of positive self-statements (via fluency training and daily flashcard rehearsal). Both methods were associated with clinically significant improvement that persisted at follow-up. Using existing studies as benchmarks, this improvement met or exceeded that of related treatment conditions and clearly exceeded that of control conditions. Results suggest both disputation of negative and enhancement of positive self-thoughts can be beneficial.

Effects of Fluency Training on the Application of Linguistic Operations in Writing

In this article we report the results of a classroom experiment in grades 5 and 6 of primary education directed at improving children’s writing skills. Our theoretical assumption is that increased fluency in the use of linguistic operations facilitates students’ attention to the meaning level of their texts, resulting in better comprehensibility. We discriminated four conditions for improving linguistic fluency: (1) implicit instruction with attention to linguistic forms, (2) explicit instruction with attention to linguistic forms, (3) implicit instruction with attention to meaning, and (4) explicit instruction with attention to meaning. The experiment consisted of a post test-only design with randomised assignment to experimental groups within a classroom. Effects of instructional conditions on children’s ability to use linguistic operations were explored in writing tasks with less constraints (LCT) or more constraints (MCT) on the translation process. Results show that the students in the experimental conditions performed better in the semantic application of linguistic operations in the LCT task, but not in the MCT task, compared to the control group. This result supports our theoretical assumption that increased fluency results in a better control of the semantic consequences of linguistic operations and therefore in better writing.

Precision teaching and fluency training across cognitive, physical, and academic tasks in children with traumatic brain injury: a multiple baseline study

AbstractChildren with traumatic brain injuries present significant challenges in terms of interrupted development and loss of previously mastered skills. The sequelae of pediatric brain injury develop in time whereas injury to an adult brain tends to create static deficits. Children with brain injuries present unique problems in their ability to form enduring memories of verbal material and performance strategies. Precision teaching and fluency training methodologies present teachers with powerful tools to capitalize upon over learning as a method of improving persistence of a new repertoire. In this series of studies precision teaching and fluency training were used across academic, communicative, and physical skill repertoires, to demonstrate the utility, efficiency, and efficacy of these methodologies. Significant improvements were reached in all functional target areas. By utilizing data‐based decision methods therapists can rapidly assess and adjust treatment to keep clients progressing. In this age of limited length of stay within the therapeutic treatment environment fast and effective treatment is a mandate. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effect of fluency training on math and reading skills in neuropsychiatric diagnosis children: a multiple baseline design

AbstractFluency (fast and accurate responding) has been found to facilitate the retention, maintenance, endurance, and application of learned skills. Fluency training has been employed effectively in academic, vocational, industrial, and rehabilitative settings. Using a multiple baseline design, this study expanded previous applications by targeting academic deficits of children with neurological and psychiatric diagnoses in a residential treatment facility. Total response rates were measured in 60 second timed probes. Academic tool skills increased and error rates decreased for all participants after implementation of fluency training. Implications for improving attention to task and targeting minimum competency skills are discussed, as is determining the role that practice plays in increasing fluency rate. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reading Acceleration Program: A Schoolwide Intervention

This article shares the research‐based instructional techniques used in a reading program (Reading Acceleration Program, or RAP) in a school in which the majority of the students were English‐language learners and came from low‐income families. In this model, special education and general education teachers collaborated in order to intervene on behalf of struggling readers, both identified special education students and low‐performing general education students. Fluency training using cassette‐taped selections from grade‐level literature books was a key component of the program. Aspects of the traditional neurological impress method were employed in the fluency training. Phonemic awareness, music, rhythm, and fun were other major components of RAP. Participating students showed gains in reading skills as demonstrated by scaled score results on California Achievement Tests and on school‐based assessments.