Readers Recruit Executive Functions to Self-Correct Miscues During Oral Reading Fluency

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Reading fluency is fundamental to reading competence.
• The specific contribution of executive functions (EF) to reading fluency, particularly error correction, remains underexplored in children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between children's reading fluency and executive functions (EF).
• To determine if EF predicts the ability to self-correct reading miscues beyond general reading and language skills.

Main Methods:

• Standardized assessments were used to evaluate reading and language performance in 82 children.
• Parental questionnaires assessed children's executive functions (EF).
• Statistical analyses examined the predictive power of reading, language, and EF on reading miscues and self-corrections.

Main Results:

• Poorer reading and language performance, along with lower EF, were associated with producing more reading miscues.
• Better executive functions (EF) significantly predicted the ability to self-correct reading miscues, independent of reading and language abilities.
• Executive functions (EF) were found to partially mediate the link between reading abilities and self-correction.

Conclusions:

• Executive functions (EF) play a critical role in children's reading fluency, especially in the self-correction of errors.
• Self-correction in reading involves both domain-specific reading processes and domain-general executive functions.
• These findings suggest that interventions targeting EF may enhance reading self-correction abilities in children.