Syllables per second versus seconds per syllable when measuring reading speed

The diagnosis of developmental dyslexiarequires measures of reading ability tobe at least two standard deviations (SD)below age mean, encompassing accu-racy, speed, and comprehension (ICD-10, WHO, 1992). Reading speed is typ-ically measured in either seconds persyllable (sec/syll) or syllables per sec-ond (syll/sec). Although syll/sec seems tobe more common in text or sentencereading tests while sec/syll seems to bepreferred for word and non-word read-ing tests, the two scores are often pro-vided interchangeably for the