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This study examined the heterogeneity of literacy profiles for adolescents with and without a specific learning disability (SLD) in the U.S. state of Florida Student subgroups displaying common patterns of performance in word-level skills and reading comprehension were identified through latent profile analysis. Results indicate most of the total sample demonstrated below-average performance in one or both areas with word-level skill difficulties being more common than difficulties in reading comprehension alone. Changes in reading performance by profile over time (Grades 6–8) were examined through a latent transition analysis revealing consistent patterns in the SLD sample and variable patterns in the typically developing sample. Resulting profiles were utilized to predict performance on an end-of-year broad reading comprehension measure indicating very little change in performance over time. Findings suggest large numbers of adolescents with concurrent word-level and reading comprehension difficulties likely need sustained intervention in word-level skills to support their reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the response of two students in the Southwestern United States with autism spectrum disorder and IQ in the intellectual disability range to a comprehensive, text-based reading intervention. The intervention, Friends on the Block, includes multiple strands of literacy providing explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, high-frequency irregular or temporarily irregular words, decoding, vocabulary, oral language, and comprehension. Multiple supports for students with intensive needs are embedded within the intervention, such as specially designed multi-criteria books, extensive scaffolding, and intensive cumulative review. Teachers customize the program to address the varying needs of students. We used single-case multiple baselines across levels of instruction design to assess growth on a measure of reading (words read correctly). Results indicated a positive, functional relation between reading intervention and word reading. Both students also demonstrated modest growth on measures of phonemic awareness, letter–sound knowledge, and word identification from pre- to post-intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is a powerful predictor of reading fluency, and many digitized dyslexia screeners include RAN as an essential component. However, the validity of digitized RAN has not been established. Using a sample of 174 second-graders, this study tested (1) the comparability between paper and digitized versions of RAN and (2) the validity of the digitized version. We found that paper and digital versions were highly correlated, and such correlation was consistent across students' reading levels. Further, the digital RAN predicted children's word reading proficiency as well as the paper version. Moreover, the constructs measured by paper and digital versions of RAN were comparable. We conclude that the digitized RAN is a valid alternative to the traditional paper version for this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from sounding out unfamiliar words to effortlessly reading connected text does not occur all at once or at the same rate for students. The purpose of this study was to explore the accuracy of three decision rules (data point, median, and trend line) applied to progress monitoring outcomes of alphabetic principle (nonsense word fluency [NWF]) and oral reading rate (curriculum-based measurement of reading [CBM-R]). Outcomes from a sample of U.S. students receiving Tier-2 supports in oral reading and decoding were analyzed to generate model parameters. Scores were simulated for NWF and CBM-R, and decision rules were applied to schedules where one observation was collected per week. The trend-line rule was viable with NWF after 7 weeks and 9 to 10 weeks with CBM-R. Differences in base rates of non-proficiency between measures call into question the utility of NWF to capture student improvement in alphabetic principle as they encounter increasingly complex word types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on a school-based randomized control trial study comparing two morphological interventions with untaught controls: one focusing on direct instruction targeting print morphological decoding (direct decoding condition) and the other on inquiry-focused pedagogy using oral morphological analysis (inquiry-analysis condition). We identified 63 Grade 3 children with below-average morphological awareness following screening (from N = 163). This sub-sample showed average pseudoword decoding but poor language and word reading abilities. Following a 13-week supplemental intervention randomized within the 63 children, results showed a statistically significant main effect of intervention on standardized reading vocabulary measures at immediate post-test in the direct decoding condition. Pre-test morphological awareness moderated reading vocabulary effects for the untaught control group. Statistically significant moderation of growth in sentence comprehension at post- by pre-test morphological awareness was also evident in the inquiry-analysis condition. Universal screening for below-average morphological awareness followed by inquiry-based or direct instruction interventions focusing on the meaning dimensions of morphemes may be modestly efficacious for supporting reading vocabulary and sentence comprehension in such at risk learners, potentially aiding school-wide literacy improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Words read correctly per minute (WCPM) is the reporting score metric in oral reading fluency (ORF) assessments, which is popularly utilized as part of curriculum-based measurements to screen at-risk readers and to monitor progress of students who receive interventions. Just like other types of assessments with multiple forms, equating would be necessary when WCPM scores are obtained from multiple ORF passages to be compared both between and within students. This article proposes a model-based approach for equating WCPM scores. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the model-based equating approach along with some observed-score equating methods with external anchor test design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) powerfully predicts word-level reading fluency in the first 2 years of school as well as further reading development. Here, we analyze various RAN stimuli (objects and digits) and oral/silent word reading (OWR/SWR) modalities to find feasible measures for predicting early reading development. The RAN performances of 127 children starting first grade were assessed. The children's oral and silent word reading skills were then reassessed in the second grade. Linear regression models and relative weight analysis were used to compare reading and screening modalities and further precursors of reading such as phonological awareness and nonverbal IQ were controlled. Scores from the first grade RAN assessment did not differentially predict second grade OWR versus SWR levels. RAN digits predicted word reading development more strongly than RAN objects, which contributed uniquely when predictions used only RAN variables. However, when different precursors of reading were controlled, only RAN digits helped to predict early reading performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the content and quality of reading instruction provided to students with intellectual disability. This study aimed to describe the reading instruction provided to students with intellectual disability who were not yet readers in self-contained elementary classrooms. The teachers of 24 classrooms participated in the study. Systematic observations of reading lessons, follow-up interviews with the teachers, review of teaching material, and content analysis of students' individualized education plans were conducted. Findings indicate that phonics and phonological awareness were taught in most of the classrooms. However, phonics was taught systematically, as recommended in the research, in only less than half of the classes. Sight-word instruction and vocabulary instruction were observed in more than half of the classes. Comprehension instruction of texts read aloud by the teacher was observed in only about a third of the classrooms. Recommendations to support teachers in enhancing the quality of reading instruction are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor comprehenders are a significant subgroup of poor readers who, due to their ability to read aloud accurately, are often difficult to identify. This study aimed to determine whether assessment using two oral language tasks, mapped onto the two components of the Simple View of Reading, would provide an efficient approach to identification. Children (N = 218) from School Years 3 to 6 (ages 7; 8–12; 1) attending two schools in Australia were assessed, and 45 identified as potential poor comprehenders, based on a profile of average phonological awareness but poor listening comprehension. Subsequent assessment of decoding and text reading comprehension confirmed 24 of these children to be poor comprehenders, consistent with reported prevalence rates. Five of these children were judged to be weak readers by their classroom teacher. The oral tasks alone overidentified this group; however, the findings suggest that using the tasks as an initial phase, followed up with a reading assessment, could be effective in identifying poor comprehenders, and reduce time spent in testing as this would only involve at-risk children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined (a) the identification of various reading groups across languages in Chinese (L1) adolescents learning English as a second language (ESL), in terms of their word-reading and reading comprehension skills, (b) overlap in reading group membership across languages, and (c) the performance of the various reading groups on reading-related language comprehension measures in English. The participants were 246 eighth-grade students from an English-immersion program in a middle school in China. Latent profile analysis identified three reading groups in each language: (a) a typically developing reader group with average or above-average word-reading and reading comprehension, (b) a group with poor decoding/word-reading skills and weak reading comprehension, and (c) a group with poor reading comprehension in the absence of poor decoding/word reading. The overlap in profile characteristics across languages for typically developing readers and poor decoders was high (about 68% for typically developing readers and 54% for poor decoders), whereas the overlap for being poor comprehenders in each language was moderate (about 37%). Furthermore, poor decoders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor comprehender groups on word reading in the other language, while poor comprehenders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor decoder groups on reading comprehension in the other language. The comparison of the reading groups' performance on English reading-related language comprehension measures showed that poor comprehenders and poor decoders performed worse than typically developing readers. Implications for identification and instruction of ESL children with reading difficulties are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The internet has become an increasingly popular resource among sports medicine patients seeking injury-related information. Numerous organizations recommend that patient educational materials (PEMs) should not exceed sixth-grade reading level. Despite this, studies have consistently shown the reading grade level (RGL) of PEMs to be too demanding across a range of surgical specialties. Purpose: To determine the readability of online sports medicine PEMs. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Methods: The readability of 363 articles pertaining to sports medicine from 5 leading North American websites was assessed using 8 readability formulas: Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease Score, Raygor Estimate, Fry Readability Formula, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Coleman-Liau Index, FORCAST Readability Formula, and Gunning Fog Index. The mean RGL of each article was compared with the sixth- and eighth-grade reading level in the United States. The cumulative mean website RGL was also compared among individual websites. Results: The overall cumulative mean RGL was 12.2 (range, 7.0-17.7). No article (0%) was written at a sixth-grade reading level, and only 3 articles (0.8%) were written at or below the eighth-grade reading level. The overall cumulative mean RGL was significantly higher than the sixth-grade [95% CI for the difference, 6.0-6.5; P <.001] and eighth-grade (95% CI, 4.0-4.5; P <.001) reading levels. There was a significant difference among the cumulative mean RGLs of the 5 websites assessed. Conclusion: Sports medicine PEMs produced by leading North American specialty websites have readability scores that are above the recommended levels. Given the increasing preference of patients for online health care materials, the imperative role of health literacy in patient outcomes, and the growing body of online resources, significant work needs to be undertaken to improve the readability of these materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic review synthesizes fluency intervention research for struggling readers in Grades 6 through 12 from January 2006 to October 2019. The search yielded 17 studies examining reading fluency and comprehension outcomes. Most studies examined repeated reading (RR) interventions to improve reading fluency for struggling readers at these grade levels, resulting in improved fluency but few positive effects on reading comprehension outcomes, similar to trends observed in prior systematic reviews. Reading connected text with an equivalent word count to word counts of RR sessions did not result in increased reading fluency, a finding aligned with a prior synthesis. Few studies used a fluent reader as a model prior to RRs, despite previous support for modeling within fluency interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achievement tests are used to make high-stakes (e.g., special education placement) decisions, and previous research on norm-referenced assessment suggests that errors are ubiquitous. In our study of 42 teacher trainees, utilizing five of the six core subtests of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Third Edition (KTEA-3), we found that while most trainees make errors, they do not make a large number per person with the exception of a few error-prone trainees. In addition, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests indicated that reading comprehension was the most prone subtest to administration (T = 120; p <.001) and clerical (T = 45; p <.01) errors. However, subtests pairwise comparisons indicated nonsignificant differences between error rates across subtests. Based on these findings, we recommend that training programs focus extra attention on reading comprehension and remediating students who make a disproportionate number of errors. Implications for future research are also noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning science is important for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as knowledge of science allows students to understand their natural world, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is increasingly emphasized in schools. Reading to learn science is, therefore, a vital skill in today's schools for all students. Using a single-case reversal design, this study evaluated the effectiveness of Reading to Engage Children with Autism in Language and Literacy (RECALL; a shared reading intervention) combined with a concept map on the ability of young children with ASD to answer comprehension questions from science text. Two 5-year-old boys with ASD participated in this study. Results indicated that RECALL combined with a concept map was effective in increasing participants' correct responding to comprehension questions from science text. Implications for intervention and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the potential transfer effects on reading comprehension skills of two different training programs administered to 9- to 10-year-old children attending fourth grade classes. One training program was based on a working memory updating paradigm (i.e., words, digits, sentence and text updating working memory tasks). The other program was based on metacomprehension activities focused on text structures, genres, text sensitivity, and text comprehension strategies. Performance was compared pre and post training on running memory, text updating, and reading comprehension tasks. The results showed that significant gains were obtained in both text updating and reading comprehension tasks, with a far transfer effect for both types of training. Limited nearest transfer effects suggest that gains could be due to acquisition of effective strategies in both programs, with training suitable for improving written text processing; however, performance did not differ between programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examined three instructional approaches for improving teachers' curriculum-based measurement (CBM) graph comprehension, each differing in the extent to which reading the data, interpreting the data, and linking the data to instruction were emphasized. Participants were 164 elementary school teachers who were randomly assigned to one of three CBM instructional approaches or a control condition. Instruction was delivered via videos. Prior to and after receiving instruction, teachers completed a CBM graph-comprehension task. They also evaluated the instructional videos. Teachers in the three instructional groups improved more in CBM graph comprehension than control teachers. Improvements were seen primarily in interpreting and linking the data to instruction, two important but difficult aspects of CBM graph comprehension. Differences between the instructional groups were found for interpreting the data. Teachers evaluated the videos positively. Results indicate that teachers' CBM graph comprehension can be improved via video instruction. Implications for teaching teachers to implement CBM are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we performed a latent profile analysis of reading and related skills in a large (n = 733) sibpair sample of Russian readers at risk for reading difficulties. The analysis suggested the presence of seven latent profiles, of which two were characterized by relatively high performance on measures of spelling and reading comprehension and the remaining five included severely as well as moderately affected readers with deficits in the domains of phonological, orthographic, and morphological processing. The results suggest that the development and manifestation of reading difficulties in Russian is mappable on a complex pattern of interactions between different types and severities of processing deficits. The results point to the psychological reality of multiple different suboptimal patterns of deficits in reading and reading-related skills and support the multifactorial view of the disorder, with intriguing implications for future neurobiological studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We systematically assessed the relationships between growth of four components of verbal ability—Information, Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale–Revised—and longitudinal growth from Grades 1 to 9 of the Woodcock–Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Passage Comprehension subtest while controlling for Word Identification and Word Attack, using multilevel growth models on a sample of 414 children. Growth was assessed over all grades (1-9), and separately for early grades (1-5) and later grades (5-9). Over all grades, growth in Word Identification had a substantial standardized loading to Passage Comprehension, and all four verbal abilities had smaller, but significant standardized loadings to Passage Comprehension (p < .05), with Information and Vocabulary having slightly higher loadings than Similarities and Comprehension. For early grades, results were similar to the overall results, with the exception of Vocabulary, which had a nonsignificant loading to Passage Comprehension. For later grades, Word Identification again had the largest, but substantially smaller standardized loading on Passage Comprehension and standardized loadings of all four verbal abilities were statistically significant with Vocabulary and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised (WISC-R) Comprehension having appreciably higher loadings than in the previous analyses. Conversation- and interaction-based intervention and instruction in oral language in general, and vocabulary in particular throughout early childhood and continuing throughout the school years, combined with evidence-based instruction that systematically develops the skills of phonologic awareness, decoding, word reading, fluency, and comprehension in school, may provide a pathway to reducing the achievement gap in reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is easy enough to theorize about the impact of literary reading on empathic reactions, but to empirically prove such effects is more difficult. This article provides a concise overview of the theoretical and empirical evidence that literary reading has an effect on empathy (in its multiple forms), distinguishing between the effects of literariness, narrativity and fictionality. Subsequently, it discusses the results of 2 recently conducted studies into reading and empathic understanding. As will become clear, we are still quite a long way from knowing when and how (literary) reading has an effect on empathy for others. Suggestions are offered how future studies can tackle this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reading of fiction has been found to confer benefits, including increased empathy and understanding of others. Among ongoing research questions are those of how people engage in imagined worlds while keeping in touch with the currently perceived world, as well as how far stories were important in human evolution and how the brain is involved understanding them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors provide a summary of the articles in the special series on reading development in different orthographies from various writing systems and scripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asking questions to promote higher-level thinking is often promoted as a way to challenge students, especially talented readers, to think more deeply about text and share their thinking. Recent research in a variety of educational fields has indicated that follow-up questions may be used to move all students forward in their abilities to understand and respond to such questions accessing higher-level thinking. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to identify the types of follow-up questions frequently asked by three teachers at a small, urban elementary school in the Northeastern region of the United States and whether those types varied by students’ reading readiness levels. Results indicated that the teachers asked a variety of follow-up questions accessing both higher- and lower-level thinking during reading conferences with students whose reading levels varied; the results also indicated that each teacher tended to ask a greater percentage of higher-level questions of his or her higher-level students than of other students. The identified follow-up question types may be helpful in supporting other elementary reading teachers to expand their repertoire of questions to ask students during discourse around text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of writing and reading training on preferred font type and size in low-vision students was evaluated in 35 children. An ophthalmologist confirmed low vision according to ICD-10-CM. Children identified the font type and size they could best read. The writing subtest of the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test, read in 1 min., and legibility as measured by the number of readable written letters were used in evaluating the children. A writing and reading treatment program was conducted, beginning with the child's preferred font type and size, for 3 months, 2 days per week, for 45 min. per day at the child's school. Before treatment, the most preferred font type was Verdana; after treatment, the preferred font type and size changed. Students had gained reading and writing speed after training, but their writing legibility was not significantly better. Training might affect the preferred font type and size of students with low vision. Surprisingly, serif and sans-serif fonts were preferred about equally after treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors explore a newly constructed dynamic assessment (DA) intended to tap inference-making skills that they hypothesize will be predictive of future comprehension performance. The authors administered the test to 100 second-grade children using a dynamic format to consider the concurrent validity of the measure. The dynamic portion of the assessment comprised teaching children to be “reading detectives” by using textual clues to solve what was happening in the story. During the DA children listened to short passages and answered three inferential questions (i.e., one setting, two causal). If children were unable to answer a question, they were reminded what a reading detective would do and given a set of increasingly concrete prompts and clues to orient them to the relevant portion of text until they could answer the question correctly. Results showed that the DA correlated significantly with a standardized measure of reading comprehension and explained a small but significant amount of unique variance in reading comprehension above and beyond vocabulary and word identification skills. In addition, results suggest that DA may be better than the standardized measure of reading comprehension at identifying intraindividual differences in young children’s reading abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on the series of notebooks called "Cool Memories," written by Jean Baudrillard in France. He attempted to write in an aphoristic, fragmented mode to grasp the world without finding a central point, a point of interpretation. The author claims that the notebooks examines the kind of writing which was envisaged as providing a mode of access to radical modernity beyond any possibility of interpretation. It suggests that the series can be considered as Baudrillard's way of living in the world as a tension between radical empiricism and mastery in the symbolic order. Moreover, it presents the reader with an impossible dilemma between critique or jouissance

Focusing on the issue of readability, this article examines problems that readability formulas present to the technical communicator, especially in terms of interaction with government agencies, and focuses on readability formula requirements mandated by The Office of Health and Industry programs [OHIP] for medical technology product support literature. Because the Flesch Reading Ease and the Flesch-Kincaid formulas are widely available, they are probably the ones most frequently used. Contemporary readability scholars have overlooked the Golub Syntactic Density Formula, which evaluates prose according to a sentence's syntax at a deeper level than the number of words per sentence and the number of syllables per word. The authors recommend it as a tool for evaluating readability. How it might be applied with current computer applications is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fog Index was used to compute readability scores for 10 journals over a 20 year time period. A master's degree is required to easily read and understand the journals analyzed. Journals have not become easier to read despite complaints that articles in the journals are difficult to read and comprehend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]