Lower Reading Fluency Research Articles

Fluent contextual reading is associated with greater synchronization of the visual and auditory networks, fluent reading and better speed of processing in children with dyslexia

The asynchrony theory of dyslexia postulates weaker visual (orthographical processing) and auditory (phonological processing) network synchrony in dyslexic readers. The weaker visual-auditory network synchronization is suggested to contribute to slow processing speed, which supports cognitive control, contributing to single-word reading difficulty and lower reading fluency. The current study aims to determine the neurobiological signature for this theory and to examine if prompting enhanced reading speed through deleted text is associated with a greater synchronization of functional connectivity of the visual and auditory networks in children with dyslexia and typical readers (TRs). We further aimed to determine if the change in visual-auditory connectivity prompted by deleted text is associated with reading fluency and processing speed abilities. Nineteen children with dyslexia and 21 typical readers ages 8–12 years old participated in a fMRI under two types of reading conditions: a still text condition and deleted text condition, in which letters was sequentially deleted from the screen. Effects of diagnostic group and condition on functional connectivity (FC) of visual and auditory networks were examined. Results revealed a significant overall effect of condition with a marginally significant Group × Condition interaction, such that as compared with TRs, children with dyslexia showed a significantly greater increase in visual-auditory FC between the still and deleted text conditions. Additionally, for children with dyslexia, this FC increase was significantly correlated with better reading fluency and verbal/nonverbal processing speed.These results support a relationship between the synchronization of the visual and auditory networks, fluent reading and increased speed of processing abilities in children with dyslexia, which can help guide fluency-based intervention strategies.

What's morphology got to do with it: Oral reading fluency in adolescents with dyslexia.

Individuals with dyslexia often present phonological difficulties, ultimately impacting their reading and writing. Nevertheless, an individual with dyslexia may circumvent these difficulties through a reliance on linguistic units with more consistent spellings, such as morphemes. The increased use of morphological information by individuals with dyslexia has been argued to be a form of compensation. However, the contribution of morphological skills to reading fluency is still unclear. In this study, French adolescents with and without dyslexia were assessed on their morphological awareness and processing skills, along with reading fluency. Morphological awareness was assessed with a suffixation decision task, while a primed lexical decision task was used to assess morphological processing. Primes shared four possible relationships with the targets: morphological, semantic, orthographic, or unrelated. Group differences were not found for morphological awareness. In contrast, the group of adolescents with dyslexia showed a greater benefit of morphological priming. A continuous approach where reading fluency is seen as a broad spectrum was then used for future analyses. Benefits from morphological and orthographic priming were found to be inversely related to reading fluency. Morphological processing was found to be relatively high for individuals with low reading fluency proficiency, which suggests its use as a compensatory strategy in this population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive skills, self-beliefs and task interest in children with low reading and/or arithmetic fluency

This study examined the identifiability and early cognitive and motivational markers of low reading and arithmetic fluency. Comparisons of these characteristics between Finnish third graders (n = 197) with low fluency in reading, arithmetic, or both revealed, first, that the majority of third graders with low arithmetic fluency showed low arithmetic skills already at first-grade spring, whereas children with low reading fluency were identified from the second-grade fall onward. Second, all groups with low fluency showed low rapid automatized naming and counting skills across the primary school years, while in other cognitive skills these groups showed different patterns. Third, all groups with fluency problems demonstrated low self-efficacy and self-concept in the domain in which they had difficulties. The present findings enhance understanding about the emergence, stability and potential early cognitive and motivational markers of single and comorbid fluency problems in reading and arithmetic.

From the Editors

From the Editors

Small Group Skills Based Instruction and Reading Fluency: A Fourth Grade Classroom Study

Reading fluency instruction takes place in schools across the nation. Fluency assesses how many correct words a student can read per minute, while also using speed, accuracy, and expression. Many schools across the nation report low reading fluency scores. Students who struggle with reading fluency can lead to essential problems as a child grows causing behavior and social issues, along with unemployment. Students may lack confidence or improvement when they are reading stories out of their level because of poor instruction. Reading fluency issues increase from inconsistent practice, inappropriate reading passages for their levels, and lack of differentiated instruction. Educators may lack proper training in fluency causing them to teach ineffectively or neglect fluency altogether. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of small group reading instruction and reading fluency scores compared to whole group instruction. Twenty-three fourth grade students from an urban school district will be part of a research group to test whether small group instruction using learning styles benefits their fluency scores. The independent variables are small group and whole group instruction, while the dependent variable is the FAST reading fluency score. The hypothesis is that small group instruction focused on learning styles will improve fourth grade reading fluency more than whole group instruction. The results showed both whole group and small group instruction improved reading fluency scores, but small group instruction had more improvement. The hypothesis proved to be true that small group instruction using learning styles would improve reading fluency scores more than whole group instruction.

Two‐step tier three interventions for children in grade three with low reading fluency

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a tier three intervention, response‐to‐intervention design, on children with low reading ability in grade three. Twenty‐eight children (12 females and 16 males) participated in this study. The participants were given out a battery of reading tests including decoding and reading comprehension tests, and in total, the children received 20 reading intervention sessions in two waves, during 4 weeks. The results showed substantial gains with large effect sizes (d 0.78–2.95) on all the reading tests after the intervention period. A short, intensive and individualised intervention has a substantially positive effect on children's reading ability. For a majority of the children, the increased ability sustains even 4 years after the end of the interventions. However, as boys seem to have the greatest problem to sustain their increased ability, the authors claim that it is important to continue the intervention even after the research interventions have ended.

English

The purpose of this study is to identify the sources of reading difficulties and to evaluate reading fluency of 9th grade students which aims to improve students’ reading and their understanding of complex literary texts. The sample is composed of 120 students selected from 9th grade of 10 different high schools in central province of Ankara in Turkey. The schools are chosen with probability-based sampling methods. Students were asked to read a text which is proposed by Turkish literature curriculum. Data was gathered using “Miscue analysis form” and “Questionnaire” as the main research tools to understand the sources of students’ reading difficulties. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) program was used for data analysis. According to findings, it was seen that students have reading difficulties even though they are 9th grade students. The results showed that students read inaccurately and they do not pay attention to punctuation marks. It can be also said students with low reading fluency have low competency. The result of this study indicates that most of the teachers who were participated in this study do not assess their students’ reading performance and they do not have any analysis form for assessing students’ reading performance.   Key words: Reading, literature education, fluent reading, reading errors, reading instruction.

Infant ERPs separate children at risk of dyslexia who become good readers from those who become poor readers

Dyslexia is heritable and associated with phonological processing deficits that can be reflected in the event-related potentials (ERPs). Here, we recorded ERPs from 2-month-old infants at risk of dyslexia and from a control group to investigate whether their auditory system processes /bAk/ and /dAk/ changes differently. The speech sounds were presented in an oddball paradigm. The children were followed longitudinally and performed a word reading fluency test in second grade. The infant ERPs were subsequently analyzed according to high or low reading fluency in order to find a neurophysiological precursor of poor reading fluency. The results show that the fluent reading children (from both the at-risk and the control group) processed the speech sound changes differentially in infancy as indicated by a mismatch response (MMR). In the control group the MMR was frontally positive and in the fluent at-risk group the MMR was parietally positive. The non-fluent at-risk group did not show an MMR. We conclude that at-risk children who became fluent readers were better at speech processing in infancy than those who became non-fluent readers. This indicates a very early speech processing deficit in the group of later non-fluent readers.

The Relationship of Error Rate and Comprehension in Second and Third Grade Oral Reading Fluency

This study explored the relationships of oral reading speed and error rate on comprehension with second and third grade students with identified reading risk. The study included 920 second and 974 third graders. Results found a significant relationship between error rate, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension performance, and grade-specific guidelines for appropriate error rate levels. Low reading fluency and high error rates predicted the level of passage comprehension performance. For both second and third grade students, fall assessment error rate predicted comprehension performance. The acceptable third grade error rate cut point was 14%. Instructional implication are discussed.

Reading Skills in Children and Adults With Albinism: The Role of Visual Impairment

To evaluate whether visual impairment in albinism contributes significantly to the acquisition of normal reading skills. The authors administered standardized reading tests to 41 children and 18 adults with albinism. The Young Children's Achievement Test was used for children between 4 and 6 years old and the Woodcock-Johnson III was used for children 7 years and older and adults. Parents of children and adult subjects also completed a questionnaire to document developmental, academic, and/or work experiences. The Spearman test was used to evaluate the relationship between binocular best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and reading test results. Standardized reading tests in both children and adults with albinism showed a normal distribution of scores. BCVA did not appear to play a significant role in the development of normal reading ability in these individuals who were visually impaired except for a mild correlation of decreased reading fluency on the Woodcock-Johnson III with decreased BCVA (r = 0.287, P = .046). Many young children with albinism had superior reading skills despite having a BCVA of 20/200 or worse (legal blindness). This study of cognitively normal children and adults with albinism demonstrates that impaired vision during childhood does not by itself significantly impede a child's ability to acquire normal reading skills. However, the lower reading fluency that occurs in the more visually impaired individuals suggests they would benefit, both in the school system and workplace, with an accommodation involving more time to complete reading tasks.