Word Attack Test Research Articles

The effectiveness of the Success for All reading programme on primary EAL pupils in Hong Kong

The Success for All Foundation’s Alphie’s lagoon® phonics and reading programme is a research‐based reform model developed by Robert Slavin and Nancy Madden at Johns Hopkins University. Results from research conducted by the Success for All (SFA) programme developers and external evaluators have shown the SFA programme to be effective in enhancing the reading achievement of both native and non‐native English‐speaking pupils in the USA. This project investigated whether the beneficial result of SFA in the USA could be replicated with Chinese primary‐school pupils in Hong Kong who are learning English. This one‐year matched control study showed that after a year of participating in the SFA programme, pupils from the treatment group improved in their English language skills, with particularly higher scores for the Word Attack test, as compared with pupils from the control group. The outcomes of the study provided potentially promising corroborative evidence of the effect of the SFA programme on Chinese prima...

Success for All: First-Year Results From the National Randomized Field Trial

This article reports first-year achievement outcomes of a national randomized evaluation of Success for All, a comprehensive reading reform model. Forty-one schools were recruited for the study and were randomly assigned to implement Success for All or control methods. No statistically significant differences between experimental and control groups were found in regard to pretests or demographic characteristics. Hierarchical linear model analyses revealed a statistically significant school-level effect of assignment to Success for All of nearly one quarter of a standard deviation—or more than 2 months of additional learning—on individual Word Attack test scores, but there were no school-level differences on the three other posttest measures assessed. These results are similar to those of earlier matched experiments and correspond with the Success for All program theory.

M-Cell deficit and reading disability: a preliminary study of the effects of temporal vision-processing therapy

This study examines the following questions: In moderately disabled readers, will temporal vision-processing therapy procedures that benefit reading comprehension, visual attention, and oculomotor skills ameliorate M-cell processing deficits as measured with coherent motion threshold testing? And will the results show a corresponding improvement in oral reading and verbal skills? A sample of 16 moderately disabled readers, evaluated in a study completed 6 months earlier, were retested with another form of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test. Each participant was additionally tested for coherent motion, oral reading, and word attack skills. During the succeeding 6 months, fifteen 45-minute therapy sessions were administered once a week (as the school schedule permitted). After completing 15 therapy sessions, the initial testing procedures were repeated. All four variables--namely, Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, Coherent Motion Threshold Test, Gray Oral Reading Test, and Woodcock-Johnson Word Attack Test--revealed significant improvements after temporal vision therapy. Half of the 16 participants improved 2 or more years in reading comprehension, compared to no significant mean difference following the 6-month "control period" before the onset of therapy. This research supports the value of rendering temporal vision therapy to children identified as moderately reading disabled (RD). The diagnostic procedures and the dynamic therapeutic techniques discussed in this article have not been previously used for the specific purpose of ameliorating an M-cell deficit. Improved temporal visual-processing skills and enhanced visual motion discrimination appear to have a salutary effect on magnocellular processing and reading comprehension in RD children with M-cell deficits.

Digit Naming Speed Performance Among Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study compared the Digit Naming Speed Test (DNS) performance of 20 children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to 20 carefully matched peers without ADHD. Matching variables included age, grade, gender, and word reading ability. Sample construction included procedures that allowed for the identification and removal from the sample those children with reading disabilities (RD) and those children with ADHD who had predominantly hyperactive symptoms. Despite similar word identification and word attack test scores, contrary to previous research, and contrary to the researchers’ expectations, children with ADHD were significantly slower at naming numbers than were children without ADHD. Explanations for these findings, theoretical and practical implications, and limitations and future study are discussed.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the Woodcock reading mastery tests–revised with special education students

AbstractThe factor structure of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests–Revised (WRMT‐R) was analyzed using data from a sample of 140 special education students with learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and serious emotional disturbance. Woodcock asserted that the WRMT‐R measured two important aspects of reading ability: Basic Skills and Reading Comprehension. According to Woodcock, the Word Identification and Word Attack Tests measure two elements of Basic Skills, and the Word Comprehension and Passage Comprehension Tests measure two elements of Reading Comprehension. Together, Basic Skills and Reading Comprehension produce the Total Reading Full‐Scale score. Principal axis factor analysis with a promax rotation and confirmatory factor analysis were used to evaluate evidence that the four tests of the WRMT‐R combine to form the two factors: Basic Skills and Reading Comprehension. The results of the analyses indicated a robust single factor (Total Reading Full‐Scale), and provided little support for Woodcock's hypothesized two‐factor structure. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Factor Structure of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised, Forms G and H

The Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised (WRMT-R) is a test battery that is used to measure basic reading skills, reading comprehension skills, and total reading achievement. According to Woodcock (1987), the Word Identification and Word Attack tests measure two elements of basic reading skills, whereas the Word Comprehension and Passage Comprehension tests measure two elements of reading comprehension. Collectively, according to Woodcock, the four tests measure an individual's total reading achievement. This study evaluated Woodcock's claims by analyzing the factor structure of the WRMT-R for Forms G and H. Principal axis factor analyses with promax rotations were used to evaluate evidence that the WRMT-R contains a large unrotated general factor and, when rotated obliquely, two correlated factors representing basic skills and reading comprehension. Variables with pattern coefficients of .55 or greater were considered to be significant. Using these criteria, the WRMT-R produced a robust unrotated general factor for both forms. When the factor matrices were rotated obliquely, two factors emerged for each form based on the pattern coefficients. However, based upon the large interfactor correlations ( rs = .84, and .77), one might question the practical distinction between the two factors. Thus, Woodcock's assertions regarding the factor structure of the WRMT-R were partially supported.

Predictors of Cognitive Test Patterns in Autism Families

In a case-control study of cognitive performance, tests of intelligence, reading, spelling, and pragmatic language were administered to the parents and siblings of 90 community-ascertained probands with autism (AU group) and to the parents and siblings of 40 similarly ascertained probands with trisomy 21 Down syndrome (DS group). The two samples were comparable for age and parents' education; both groups were well-educated and had above-average intelligence. AU parents scored slightly but significantly lower on the WAIS-R Full Scale and Performance IQ, on two subtests (Picture Arrangement and Picture Completion), and on the Word Attack Test (reading nonsense words) from the Woodcock-Johnson battery. There were no differences between AU and DS siblings. As in earlier studies, AU parents, more often than DS parents, reported a history of early language-related cognitive difficulties; we were not able to replicate this in siblings. AU parents who reported such difficulties scored significantly lower on Verbal IQ, spelling, and the nonsense reading test. AU parents without a history of early language-related cognitive difficulties often had a Verbal IQ that exceeded Performance IQ by more than one standard deviation. AU siblings with early language-related difficulties had similar findings: lower Verbal IQ, poorer spelling, and poorer reading scores, compared to AU siblings without such a history. Parents with a positive history also scored worse on a measure of pragmatic language,the Pragmatic Rating Scale, but not on measures of social-related components of the broader autism phenotype. We propose that cognitive differences in a subset of autism family members are manifestations of the language-related component of the broader autism phenotype, and separate from the social-related component. This is consistent with the hypothesis that there are several genes that may interact to cause autism which segregate independently and have distinguishable manifestations in family members. The hypothesis would be further supported by finding different patterns of genetic loci linked to autism in families where one or both parents has language difficulties.

LEARNING TO READ IN ARABIC: READING, SYNTACTIC, ORTHOGRAPHIC AND WORKING MEMORY SKILLS IN NORMALLY ACHIEVING AND POOR ARABIC READERS

ABSTRACT While many studies point to a positive relationship between phonological skills and reading in English, little is known about these relationships for children learning to read in Arabic. Arabic orthography is considered deep if it is not vowelized but shallow if it is vowelized. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among reading ability, phonological, semantic, orthographic and syntactic skills in Arabic. The participants were 143 Arab children, aged 8‐11, in Arab villages of central Israel. They were administered working memory, visual, oral close, phonological, word recognition, spelling, orthographic, and word attack tests. The results showed that word recognition test was highly correlated with phonological skills, semantic processing, syntactic knowledge and short‐term memory. Poor readers showed a significant lag in the development of these skills, the problems being most significant at phonological and semantic levels and less so at the visual levels. The similarities and differences between the acquisition of reading skills in Arabic and English are discussed.

The Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test and Early Reading Achievement

This study assessed the usefulness of the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization (LAC) Test in identifying students “at risk” for reading failure using a sample of 433 elementary school students from kindergarten, Grades 1 and 2. The test was found to be reliable, but use of the recommended minimum score resulted in the majority of children in each grade and age group failing to reach criterion. For both Grades 1 and 2, the LAC was the best predictor of reading performance as measured by word identification and word attack tests. Post hoc analyses revealed a consistent relationship between poor reading performance and poor performance on the LAC. However, over a quarter of the readers scoring above the 93rd percentile on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests also failed the LAC criterion, suggesting that LAC scores require individual interpretation in the context of students' performances on a range of diagnostic tools. Further reference data and revision of scoring criteria are required before the LAC can be ...