The relationship of reading performance to difficulty level of material was the focus of this study. Participants in the study were 83 fourth graders from four urban schools. Each student was administered passages at different levels of challenge (independent, instructional, frustration) based on word identification accuracy. Passages were scored…

Preliminary findings are consistent with the view that less experienced readers transform graphic to aural input before deriving a semantic interpretation. (RB)

Presents and discusses findings from exploratory research on the effect of grouping and pace on reading acquisition. (RB)

Acknowledges that symbol naming speed is an important correlate of reading skill. Proposes an informal model and reviews evidence for several of its links. Concludes that use of such a model may focus research questions more finely and lead to a more precise conceptualization of the basis for naming speed-reading relationships. (SG)

Concludes that phonological coding occurs at different rates after graphemic and semantic coding. (RB)

The latest thinking on reading rate and flexibility is discussed in this paper. Included are highlights of the recently completed reading rate portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The current state of knowledge is assessed and promising research and useful writings in English and Spanish are cited. (Author/WR) Aspect of…

This study extended the exploration of the development of word identification speed to younger skilled and less skilled readers. It focused on the attainment of unitized speeds to determine when the final phase in reading development (the speed of processing) is reached for familiar words during the early years. (Author/PN)

Reports that children's reading speed for paragraphs in which either words, syllables, or letters were spaced widely apart was a good predictor of reading ability in grades one through three, but not in grades four through six. (GT)

This study examined the contributions of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and verbal memory to the reading and spelling skills of 54 children (ages 7-12) with severe reading disabilities. Five academic tasks were examined: word attack, word identification, spelling, prose passage speed and accuracy, and reading comprehension. (Author/JDD)

The development of rapid word processing skills was investigated using a visual search task. Visual displays of varying orthographic structure (words, pseudowords, nonwords) were presented to college students and to kindergarten, second-grade, and fourth-grade children. Response latencies were measured as subjects indicated whether a previously…

Establishes a suitable composite index which combines speed and accuracy in the measurement of decoding skill. Examines whether speed acts as a confounding factor in the measurement of decoding ability. Sees whether familiarity with the word acts as a confounding factor in the assessment of spelling skills. Indicates that including word-naming…

Three experiments examined the relationship between reading skill and decoding. Children decoded and matched words and pseudowords of different syllable lengths presented in both aural and printed form. Prior verbal experience was manipulated. Decoding differences were not wholly attributable to prior experience with word units, as processes…

Suggests that inner speech is a manifestation of the need to prestructure oral utterances. Among the results, inner speech was found to be acquired by normally developing readers between the ages of 8 and 11, and children comprehended text better when certain prosodic features were made visible on the text. (Author/CB)

Analyzes the roles of verbal coding skills, processing efficiency, and memory ability in accounting for individual and developmental differences in the reading comprehension of children in grades 3 through 8. Results indicate that skill differences can arise through ability differences at two independent levels--processing speed and memory.…

Methods shown to be effective in helping less fluent readers develop fluency suggest a set of principles that teachers may find helpful in designing regular classroom activities for fluency development. These principles include: (1) repeated reading of one text or meeting target words repeatedly in a variety of texts; (2) teacher modeling of…