The Strategic Incremental Rehearsal (SIR) intervention, a modified version of Incremental Rehearsal, is an efficient flashcard procedure that has demonstrated effectiveness on sight word acquisition for children who exhibit reading difficulties. However, to date, the procedure has not been evaluated with children identified with a reading…

Discrimination of reversible mirrored letters (e.g., d and b) poses a challenge when learning to read as it requires overcoming "mirror invariance," an evolutionary-old perceptual tendency of processing mirror images as equivalent. The present study investigated "when," in reading development, mirror-image discrimination…

Automation of frequently used words is a key component in the development of reading fluency. However, acquiring fast word recognition skills is a serious challenge for many children in their early years of formal education. Lagging word recognition leads to general reading problems, as fluency is a vital prerequisite for text comprehension.…

We modeled word reading growth in typically developing (n = 118) and children with dyslexia (n = 20), Grades 2-5, across multiple exposures to 30 words. We explored the facilitative versus inhibitory effects of exposures to differential mixes of words that support high- versus low-frequency vowel pronunciations. One training corpus contained a…

Teaching children too many words during a lesson reduces retention. The amount of new information a student can successfully rehearse and recall later is called acquisition rate (AR), which has been reliably measured with students in first, third, and fifth grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of assessing AR for sight…

Incremental rehearsal (IR) is a flashcard technique that has produced strong effects for a variety of outcomes including word recognition. We utilized theory-based modifications to IR to enhance maintenance and generalization of sight words. We utilized a within-subjects design in which 41 participants in 2nd and 3rd grade were taught seven…

Grounded in the simple view of reading, this study tracked the development of print-processing skill in high-, average-, and low-achieving readers at six time points across grades 1-3. Results showed large between-group differences in sight vocabulary, oral reading accuracy, and oral reading rate that remained stable from beginning of first grade…

Over the years, teachers have looked for the best way to teach their students to read. There are those who believe that teaching sight words is the best way to teach while others believe that a foundation in phonics instruction is a must. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect that phonics instruction has on the oral reading fluency…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of reading racetracks with three 8-year-old students with learning disabilities. All three children were performing well below grade level in reading. A single subject reversal design was used to evaluate the effects of employing reading racetracks. Corrects responses and errors were…

The important role of reading fluency in the comprehension and motivation of readers is well documented. Two reading rate intervention programs were compared in a cluster-randomized clinical trial of students who were considered at-risk for reading failure. One program focused instruction at the word level; the second program focused instruction…

The simple view of reading posits that reading comprehension can be decomposed into a print-specific component (concerning decoding and sight word reading) and a language comprehension component (concerning verbal and metalinguistic skills not related to print). One might properly consider lexical skills, indexed by vocabulary measures, part of…

Students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often struggle with spelling. Research shows this population benefits from self-management interventions, structured practice opportunities, and immediate feedback--all components of the copy-cover-compare strategy. This empirical investigation used a multiple-baseline experimental…

While the English language boasts a century of research into its most frequently-used words, no such attempt has ever formally been made in the Arab world. This pioneering study presents a list of 500 commonly-used words in the Arabic language based on compilations of words gathered from a number of popular reading series in Lebanon, spanning…

In order for students to learn how to construct meaning from text, teachers must apply instructional strategies that will help readers transition from simple decoding of words to fluent word identification. This article will provide an overview of the literature related to the role of fluency in reading; explain research-based recommendations for…

The increasing numbers of English language learners who are enrolled in schools across the nation, combined with the escalating academic demands placed on all students, warrant the evaluation of instructional strategies designed to improve English language learners' reading performance. In this study, the authors used a multiple baseline design…