Development of Skill in Reading-while-Listening.

First and third grade children's ability to coordinate reading and listening was studied using a "mismatch detection" task. A total of 15 first grade children and 15 third grade children of average to below average reading ability read printed texts while listening to recordings of the same texts, in which extraneous spoken words were occasionally substituted for words appearing on the page. The children were instructed to signal each time they detected a mismatch between what they were reading and what they heard. The data indicated that even the first graders had little difficulty simultaneously extracting information from aural and printed versions of texts recorded at rates slower than that of typical "read-along" tape recordings, but that children in both grades performed poorly at typical "read-along" rates. The results suggest that many primary school children might have difficulty reading along with the audiotapes of books and stories currently available for instructional use. (Author/GT)