Training reading fluency: is it important to practice reading aloud and is generalization possible?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Poor reading skills in children can significantly impact academic achievement.
• Sub-lexical units, such as consonant clusters, are crucial for decoding and reading fluency.
• Targeted interventions may improve reading speed and accuracy in struggling readers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of three computerized training methods on reading speed in poor readers.
• To assess the impact of training on reading specific trained sub-lexical items and related words.
• To investigate the generalization of training effects to pseudoword reading and overall reading speed.

Main Methods:

• 39 German-speaking poor readers in Grades 2 and 3 participated.
• Intervention groups received computerized training in phonological-orthographic associations, reading aloud, or a combined approach.
• A control group received no training.
• Reading speed for trained items, words with trained segments, and pseudowords was measured.

Main Results:

• Intervention groups showed significant improvements in reading speed for trained sub-lexical items and words containing trained segments compared to the control group.
• No significant differences in reading speed gains were observed between the three intervention groups.
• Training did not lead to differential improvements in pseudoword reading.
• Generalization to pseudoword reading was similar regardless of how trained segments appeared in pseudowords.
• Gains were specific to trained materials and did not improve general reading speed.

Conclusions:

• Computerized training on sub-lexical items can enhance reading speed for specific trained words in poor readers.
• The type of computerized training (phonological-orthographic vs. reading aloud) did not yield differential benefits.
• Training effects did not generalize to pseudoword reading or overall reading speed, suggesting limited transferability.
• Interventions should consider the specific components of reading that need improvement for broader gains.