Improving the predictive validity of reading comprehension using response times of correct item responses.

This study examined the development of beginning writing skills in kindergarten and the relationship between early writing skills and early reading skills. Sixty children were assessed on beginning writing skills (including letter writing, individual sound spelling, and real and nonsense word spelling) and beginning reading skills (including letter name and letter sound knowledge, global early reading ability, phonological awareness, and word reading). Children's beginning writing abilities are described, and they exhibited a range of proficiency in their ability to write letters, spell sounds, and spell real and nonsense words. Global early reading proficiency, phonological awareness, and/or letter sound fluency predicted letter writing, sound spelling, and spelling of real and nonsense words.

This longitudinal investigation evaluated the validity of letter-name fluency (LNF) and nonsense word fluency (NWF) measures as indicators of early reading skill with a sample of 39 kindergarten children.In the spring of kindergarten and first grade, these children responded to a battery of language, readingrelated, and reading measures. Construct and social consequential validity were evaluated through concurrent and predictive criterion-related validity coefficients, multiple regression analyses, and classification analysis. Evidence supportive of validity was found for both fluency measures, with NWF receiving the strongest support. Both fluency measures were more sensitive to poor reader status in first grade than any other measure when reading was defined by oral reading fluency. These findings extend the usefulness of NWF to the early identification of kindergarten students.

Orton-Gillingham (OG) and Orton-Gillingham—based reading instructional programs are commonly implemented reading programs in the United States. Twelve studies that employed quasi-experimental or experimental designs are reviewed. These studies included elementary students, adolescents, and college students. Of the 12 studies, 5 reported that the OG instruction was more effective than were comparison or control interventions for all measured outcomes, 4 reported that the OG instruction was more effective for at least 1 (but not all) outcomes in comparison to other intervention(s), 2 reported that the alternate instruction was more effective than the OG instruction, and 1 reported no significant differences once covariates were included. The largest effects were reported for word attack and non-word reading outcomes, with mean effect size of .82, and comprehension outcomes, with a mean effect size of .76. Following a summary of each study, limitations of the current review and implications for future research and practice are described. Given the small number of studies, the lack of methodological rigor of the existing studies, and the inconclusive findings of the effectiveness of OG programs, additional research is needed before the scientific basis can be established.

The purpose of this study was to examine the development of oral reading fluency in a sample of first-grade children. Using growth curve analysis, models of growth were identified for a combined sample of at-risk (AR) and not-at-risk (NAR) children, and predictors of growth were identified for the longitudinal AR sample in first and second grade. Large and serious differences in reading fluency growth between the AR and NAR samples were apparent early, replicating other reports. Theories of sight-word learning and reading fluency were supported, in that letter-sound fluency was a uniquely significant predictor of first-grade reading fluency. The effects of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming were mediated by the other variables in the model. Growth in first-grade oral reading fluency accounted for the most unique variance in second-grade growth and end-of-year performance. The results suggest that word reading fluency should be regarded as developing concomitantly with early word recognition rather than as a later-developing skill.