Measures Of Word Reading Research Articles

Young Children's Concepts about Print and Reading: Toward a Model of Word Reading Acquisition

THE AUTHORS tested theoretical models of the development of print concepts and word reading. Eighteen measures of print concepts and word reading were obtained from 81 children three to seven years of age. A five-component model hypothesized from previous findings fit the data better than a fouror two-component model. The five component model included a concepts-about-print component which influenced a graphic awareness component, which in turn influenced a phonemic awareness component, which influenced a grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge component, which ultimately influenced a word reading component; in addition, concepts about print also influenced grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge. According to results of developmental analyses, children expand their knowledge in each of these print components with age.

Methodological Issues in Curriculum-Based Reading Assessment

A series of three studies examined methodological issues in curriculum-based reading assessment. First, 30- and 60-second word reading measures and reading comprehension tests were administered to 45 elemeentary grade students to explore the influence of sample duration on the measures' concurrent validity. Second, a multiple baseline/reversal design was employed with two second-graders to access the effect of sample duration on the level, slope, and instability of performance. Finally, 20 elementary grade pupils were measured repeatedly from domains of three sizes to explore the effect of domain size on characteristics of measurement. Results indicated that (a) whereas sample duration did not affect concurrent validity, increasing duration reduced performance instability and increased performance slopes and (b) domain size was related inversely to performance slope but did not affect performance stability. Implications for accessing student progress in special education are discussed