Learning from their miscues: Differences across reading ability and text difficulty

This study explores children’s use of three language cueing systems for reading. Differences are investigated across reading ability and text difficulty. Errors (miscues) were coded in order to analyse patterns across the oral reading strategies used by 100 students from Grades Preparatory, 1 and 2 ranging in age from 5 to 8 years old. Analysis of miscues revealed that Average and Above Average readers used the visual and sound properties of text to aid their reading more frequently than did Below Average readers. Grammatical relationships in text were more likely to be maintained by students when reading easier texts while sound cues were used more frequently when reading difficult texts. The study showed that the use of the grapho-phonic cueing system plays an important role in reading.