Sight Word Reading Research Articles

Phonological processing is uniquely associated with neuro-metabolic concentration

Reading is a complex process involving recruitment and coordination of a distributed network of brain regions. The present study sought to establish a methodologically sound evidentiary base relating specific reading and phonological skills to neuro-metabolic concentration. Single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed to measure metabolite concentration in a left hemisphere region around the angular gyrus for 31 young adults with a range of reading and phonological abilities. Correlation data demonstrated a significant negative association between phonological decoding and normalized choline concentration and as well as a trend toward a significant negative association between sight word reading and normalized choline concentration, indicating that lower scores on these measures are associated with higher concentrations of choline. Regression analyses indicated that choline concentration accounted for a unique proportion of variance in the phonological decoding measure after accounting for age, cognitive ability and sight word reading skill. This pattern of results suggests some specificity for the negative relationship between choline concentration and phonological decoding. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence that choline concentration in the angular region may be related to phonological skills independently of other reading skills, general cognitive ability, and age. These results may have important implications for the study and treatment of reading disability, a disorder which has been related to deficits in phonological decoding and abnormalities in the angular gyrus.

Evaluating a Computer-Based Sight-Word Reading Intervention in a Student With Intellectual Disabilities

The authors used a multiple-baseline-across-behaviors (i.e., word lists) design to evaluate a computer-based flashcard intervention on automatic sight-word reading in a 4th-grade student with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Immediately after the intervention was applied to each of three lists of sight words, the student made rapid gains in her ability to read those words within 2 s. Approximately 8 weeks after the final intervention session, evidence for maintenance and generalization were collected when the student read words learned during the computer-based flashcard procedure that were hand written on index cards, as opposed to displayed on the computer screen. The authors’ discussion focuses on the contextual validity (e.g., sustainability, efficiency) of this computer-based intervention.

Individual differences in skilled adult readers reveal dissociable patterns of neural activity associated with component processes of reading

We used fMRI to examine patterns of brain activity associated with component processes of visual word recognition and their relationships to individual differences in reading skill. We manipulated both the judgments adults made on written stimuli and the characteristics of the stimuli. Phonological processing led to activation in left inferior frontal and temporal regions whereas semantic processing was associated with bilateral middle frontal activation. Individual differences in reading subskills were reflected in differences in the degree to which cortical regions were engaged during reading. Variation in sight word reading efficiency was associated with degree of activation in visual cortex. Increased phonological decoding skill was associated with greater activation in left temporo-parietal cortex. Greater reading comprehension ability was associated with decreased activation in anterior cingulate and temporal regions. Notably, associations between reading ability and neural activation indicate that brain/behavior relationships among skilled readers differ from patterns associated with dyslexia and reading development.

A COMPARISON OF TWO FLASH-CARD METHODS FOR IMPROVING SIGHT-WORD READING

Flash cards have been shown to be useful for teaching sight-word reading. To date, the most effective flash-card instruction method is incremental rehearsal (IR). This method involves the instructor interspersing unknown stimulus items into the presentation of known stimulus items. In this study, we compared IR to a modified IR procedure-strategic incremental rehearsal (SIR)-to determine whether the effects of IR might be improved by incorporating variables likely to increase word acquisition. These included increased opportunities to respond to unknown stimuli, using learner responding as a basis for changing instructional items, and systematic prompting methods. An A-B-A-B design was used to compare the effects of IR and SIR for increasing sight-word reading with 4 elementary school students. Results indicated that students read more words correctly with SIR than with IR. In addition, similar patterns of responding were seen at a 2-week follow-up.

RESPONSE REPETITION AS AN ERROR‐CORRECTION PROCEDURE FOR ACQUISITION OF MATH FACTS AND MATH COMPUTATION

We used nonconcurrent and concurrent multiple baseline designs to evaluate the extent to which error correction with response repetition (RR) produced acquisition of math facts and correct math computation for four individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The results show that RR increased correct responding on (i) targeted math problems for three of four participants and (ii) math problems presented in alternative formats for two of two participants. The results are consistent with prior studies that used RR to increase correct sight‐word reading for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The findings are discussed in terms of how RR might be implemented in typical classroom settings. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Efficacy of a Reading Intervention for Middle School Students with Learning Disabilities

This experimental study reports findings on the effects from a year-long reading intervention providing daily, 50-minute sessions to middle-school students with identified learning disabilities (n = 65) compared with similar students who did not receive the reading intervention (n = 55). All students continued to receive their special education services as provided by the school. Results indicated statistically significant findings favoring the treatment group for sight word reading fluency following intervention. Small effects were found for phonemic decoding fluency and passage comprehension. No other statistically significant differences were noted between groups. The findings suggest that while gains on word reading fluency resulted from the additional reading treatment, accelerating the reading performance of students identified with learning disabilities may be unlikely to result from a one-year, daily intervention provided to students in groups of 10-15.

What Discrete and Serial Rapid Automatized Naming Can Reveal About Reading

Serial rapid automized naming (RAN) has been often found to correlate more strongly with reading than discrete RAN. This study aimed to demonstrate that the strength of the RAN–reading fluency relationship is dependent on the format of both RAN and the reading task if the reading task consists of sight words. Seventy-one first-grade, 74 second-grade, and 127 fourth-grade children were administered discrete and serial measures of RAN and word reading. The results showed that in second- and fourth-grade readers similar formats of RAN and reading were more strongly related than dissimilar formats. However, in first-grade readers serial RAN was more strongly related to reading than discrete RAN, irrespective of the format of the reading measure. Implications of these results are discussed for the interpretation of RAN and the tracking of the use of sight word reading.

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF PICTURE INTERFERENCE WHEN TEACHING WORD RECOGNITION TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Previous research indicates that pairing pictures with associated words when teaching sight-word reading may hinder acquisition (e.g., Didden, Prinsen, & Sigafoos, 2000; Singh & Solman, 1990; Solman & Singh, 1992). The purpose of the current study was to determine whether this phenomenon was due to a previously learned association between the spoken word and picture (i.e., blocking) or due to the mere presence of a picture as an extrastimulus prompt (i.e., overshadowing). Three participants were taught to recognize words that were presented alone or paired with pictures that the participants either could or could not identify prior to training. All participants learned the words more quickly when they were presented alone rather than with pictures, regardless of their prior learning history with respect to pictures representing the words. This finding is consistent with the phenomenon of overshadowing. Nonetheless, consistent with blocking, all participants also acquired the words presented alone more quickly if they could not identify the associated pictures prior to training. Together, these findings have important implications for using prompts when teaching skills to individuals with developmental disabilities.

Extending Research on a Computer-Based Sight-Word Reading Intervention to a Student with Autism

A multiple-baseline design across tasks (i.e., word lists) was used to evaluate the effects of a computer-based sight-word reading intervention (CBSWRI) on the sight-word reading of a sixth-grade student with Autism. Across 3 lists of primer and first-grade Dolch words, the student showed immediate increases in sight-word reading after the CBSWRI was applied. As the student learned 25 words in 16 brief (i.e., 200 s) sessions, the efficiency and sustainability of the CBSWRI are discussed along with future research.

Response repetition as an error‐correction procedure for sight‐word reading: A replication and extension

AbstractWe evaluated the effects of response repetition (RR) as an error‐correction procedure for increasing sight‐word reading for four individuals using a multiple baseline design. The results for each participant showed that correct responding increased following the introduction of the RR procedure. In addition, responding for three of four participants showed evidence of stimulus generalization, response generalization, or both. Likewise, we found that comparable behavior changes were produced when a participant's paraprofessional implemented RR in a typical classroom. These findings are briefly discussed in terms of procedures that promote behavior acquisition and generalization via negative reinforcement. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Variability in children’s early reading strategies

The present study examines the development of sight word reading in young children by examining changes in their self‐reported reading strategies over time. A sample of 65 five to seven year olds were asked to read 40 real word items, all carefully matched for letter length and word frequency, on three separate occasions. Changes in the children’s word identifications were measured using immediately retrospective verbal self‐reports. Overall, the results showed some variability in the children’s self‐reported reading strategies. Over time the children relied less on phonological strategies and moved towards reliance on directly retrieving words from memory. This change was most evident in the older children; while both year groups showed similar patterns of shifting reliance from explicit phonological strategies to retrieval, this shift was simply less frequent among the younger children. An analysis of word‐specific changes in reading strategies showed that the older children had a better sight vocabulary for more complex word items. These findings provide further support for Ehri’s mediated phase theory in explaining children’s development in learning to read.

Crosslinguistic influence on phonological awareness for Korean–English bilingual children

This study examined (1) the potential influence of oral language characteristics of two languages that bilingual children acquire on their PA and (2) the relationship of PA in L1 with PA and literacy skills in L2, using data from Korean–English bilingual children. Thirty three Korean–English bilingual children, composed of two subsamples from two different locations/bilingual programs, participated in the study. The findings showed that the sample of bilingual children from two bilingual programs differed in their mean performances on intrasyllabic phonological awareness in Korean (i.e., rime awareness and body awareness). Furthermore, children’s Korean rime awareness, but not body awareness, was positively related to their phonological awareness and literacy skills in English. Finally, these children’s phonological awareness in Korean made a positive contribution to English decoding skills even after controlling for their English sight word reading skills. The results are discussed in light of interlingual influence on bilingual children’s phonological awareness.

Poor readers’ use of orthographic information in learning to read new words: A visual bias or a phonological deficit?

In this study, we examined the ability of 11-year-old poor readers and reading age controls to learn new print vocabulary. It was found that the poor readers were slower than the controls to learn to read a set of nonwords accurately but that, when asked to pick out the nonwords in a visual recognition memory task, they reached criterion much more quickly than did the controls. However, when the groups were compared on auditory recall of the items being learned, the poor readers were at a disadvantage. Thus, the poor readers developed a visual store for the nonwords more quickly than did the controls but were slower to establish phonological representations for the nonwords. It was concluded that the poor readers were slower to establish a form of sight word reading that was well underpinned in memory by connections between the letters in the spelling and the phonemes in the pronunciation, suggesting that they had a greater reliance on an orthographic-semantic pathway in word recognition than did the controls.

Teaching Sight Word Recognition to Preschoolers with Delays Using Activity-Based Intervention and Didactic Instruction: A Comparison Study

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of activity‐based intervention and didactic instruction to teach sight word reading to four young children with developmental delays attending an inclusive child care centre. Following the collection of baseline measures, the two interventions, counterbalanced for word lists and order of intervention, were implemented twice a week for six weeks. Acquisition of the sight words was assessed by the interventionist in pre‐teaching probes and also by a special education teacher known to the children but independent of the research team. Maintenance data were collected three weeks after the intervention was completed. The results indicated that there were no differences between the two instructional approaches in relation to acquisition and maintenance of sight word reading for three of the four children. Features of each intervention and the implications of the findings are discussed.

Teaching Sight Word Recognition to Preschoolers with Delays Using Activity-Based Intervention and Didactic Instruction: A Comparison Study

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of activity-based intervention and didactic instruction to teach sight word reading to four young children with developmental delays attending an inclusive child care centre. Following the collection of baseline measures, the two interventions, counterbalanced for word lists and order of intervention, were implemented twice a week for six weeks. Acquisition of the sight words was assessed by the interventionist in pre-teaching probes and also by a special education teacher known to the children but independent of the research team. Maintenance data were collected three weeks after the intervention was completed. The results indicated that there were no differences between the two instructional approaches in relation to acquisition and maintenance of sight word reading for three of the four children. Features of each intervention and the implications of the findings are discussed.

Phonological Processing and Reading in Children With Speech Sound Disorders

To examine the relationship between phonological processing skills prior to kindergarten entry and reading skills at the end of 1st grade, in children with speech sound disorders (SSD). The participants were 17 children with SSD and poor phonological processing skills (SSD-low PP), 16 children with SSD and good phonological processing skills (SSD-high PP), and 35 children with typical speech who were first assessed during their prekindergarten year using measures of phonological processing (i.e., speech perception, rime awareness, and onset awareness tests), speech production, receptive and expressive language, and phonological awareness skills. This assessment was repeated when the children were completing 1st grade. The Test of Word Reading Efficiency was also conducted at that time. First-grade sight word and nonword reading performance was compared across these groups. At the end of 1st grade, the SSD-low PP group achieved significantly lower nonword decoding scores than the SSD-high PP and typical speech groups. The 2 SSD groups demonstrated similarly good receptive language skills and similarly poor articulation skills at that time, however. No between-group differences in sight word reading were observed. All but 1 child (in the SSD-low PP group) obtained reading scores that were within normal limits. Weaknesses in phonological processing were stable for the SSD-low PP subgroup over a 2-year period.

Impact of SMART Board Technology: An Investigation of Sight Word Reading and Observational Learning

The effects of SMART Board technology, an interactive electronic whiteboard, and a 3s constant time delay (CTD) procedure was evaluated for teaching sight word reading to students with moderate intellectual disabilties within a small group arrangment. A multiple probe design across three word sets and replicated with three students was used to evaluate the effectiveness of SMART Board technology on: (a) reading target grocery words; (b) matching grocery item photos to target grocery words; (c) reading other students' target grocery words through observational learning; and (d) matching grocery item photos to observational grocery words. Results support use of this tool to teach multiple students at one time and its effects on observational learning of non-target information.

Teaching Employees with Intellectual Disabilities to Manage Changing Work Routines Using Varied Sight-Word Checklists

This study examined the effects of teaching employees with moderate intellectual disabilities to use sight-word checklists as antecedent prompts to self-initiate job tasks in varied and novel sequences. The intervention package consisted of (a) sight word reading and comprehension instruction, and (b) self-management training using first a consistently ordered sight-word checklist and then varied checklists in which the word order representing job sequences varied across sessions. A multiple probe design across participants was used to evaluate (a) the effects of sight word instruction and self-management training on the participants' self-initiations of job tasks, and b) the effects of a consistently ordered (i.e., single exemplar) versus varied (i.e., multiple exemplars) checklists on the participants' performance across novel job sequences. Results indicated that the training package was effective in teaching the employees to use sight-word checklists to initiate job tasks, but only when the employees were trained on varied checklists were they able to initiate job tasks across novel varied job sequences. The advantages of instructing across varied sight-word checklists for promoting independence in changing work environments are discussed.

Intensive Instruction Affects Brain Magnetic Activity Associated with Oral Word Reading in Children with Persistent Reading Disabilities

Fifteen children ages 7 to 9 years who had persistent reading difficulties despite adequate instruction were provided with intensive tutorial interventions. The interventions targeted deficient phonological processing and decoding skills for 8 weeks (2 hours per day) followed by an 8-week, 1-hour-per-day intervention that focused on the development of reading fluency skills. Spatiotemporal brain activation profiles were obtained at baseline and after each 8-week intervention program using magnetoencephalography during the performance of an oral sight-word reading task. Changes in brain activity were found in the posterior part of the middle temporal gyrus (Brodmann's Area [BA] 21: increased degree of activity and reduced onset latency), the lateral occipitotemporal region (BA 19/37: decreased onset latency of activation), and the premotor cortex (increased onset latency). Overall changes associated with the intervention were primarily normalizing, as indicated by (a) increased activity in a region that is typically involved in lexical--semantic processing (BA 21) and (b) a shift in the relative timing of regional activity in temporal and frontal cortices to a pattern typically seen in unimpaired readers. These findings extend previous results in demonstrating significant changes in the spatiotemporal profile of activation associated with word reading in response to reading remediation.

Effects of superimposition and background fading on the sight-word reading of a boy with autism

We used a multiple-baseline design across materials to assess the effects of stimulus superimposition and background fading on the sight-word reading skills of a 6-year-old boy with autism. Before the study began, the boy was taught to make verbal responses when shown 15 photographs of physical education activities and equipment. During baseline and teaching, probes of target words relevant to the photographs (e.g., slide, swing) were conducted in discrete-trial sessions. When teaching began, three sets of target sight words were successively superimposed on photographs of the corresponding activities and backgrounds were then faded by removing portions of the photographs until only the text was visible. After all fading steps were completed, the student correctly read 14–15 of the 15 target words and these skills maintained on a 44-day follow up probe. Further, generalization measures showed that reading skills transferred across text size and color. Superimposition and background fading quickly expanded the sight-word reading repertoire of a youngster with autism.