We examined the relative contribution of visual abilities, accessibility of letter names, and phonological awareness, to text reading speed and accuracy of Arabic in first, third, and fifth grades. The results revealed that for all levels of skill, phonological awareness contributes significantly to reading accuracy, to the same degree. For…

The acquisition of reading skill was studied in 503 Italian children in first to eighth grade using a task that required reading of lists of words and non-words. Analysis of the metric characteristics of the measures indicated that reading speed but not accuracy was normally distributed across all ages considered. The role of specific effects…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate rapid automatized naming skills (RAN) and immediate memory processes in 243 Chinese Mandarin-speaking elementary readers (ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 5). For RAN subtests, the mean naming time decreased monotonically with grade level in good and average readers, and a similar trajectory was found in poor…

Outcomes of three different types of computerized training in sub-lexical items (word-initial consonant clusters) on reading speed for 39 German-speaking poor readers in Grades 2 and 3 were evaluated. A phonological-orthographic association group, a reading aloud group, and a combined group were compared in performance with an untrained control…

Identifying an effective instructional intervention for English language learners experiencing reading problems is a difficult task given the vast individual differences in language proficiency, motivation, and school experience for these students. To address this issue, this study investigated the utility of brief experimental analysis as a means…

This study examined young children's growth, over time, in phonics knowledge, word-recognition, and fluent oral reading. Correlations and causal relationships among these variables were explored in an attempt to identify the foundational knowledge and skills needed for reading fluency. Measures of phonics knowledge, word-recognition development,…

The effects of tutor- or computer-assisted word recognition were assessed in a sample of third grade children. At pre-test, students' reading accuracy and fluency were evaluated on a training word list, generalization word list, and reading passages. Students were then randomly assigned to one of three group conditions--control (students practiced…

Parsimonious models of word recognition and reading comprehension were validated in a sample of third-grade readers. Word recognition was modeled as phonological awareness, decoding skill, and word processing rate. This model demonstrated the importance of unitization of letter clusters for efficient word reading. A curvilinear relation between…