Repetitive naming and the detection of word retrieval deficits in the beginning reader

The claim has been advanced that children with severe reading disability are generally deficient in word retrieval compared with normal readers. Support for the claim is based largely on studies of rapid naming of repetitively presented pictured objects or other nameable stimuli, a task which is apparently more sensitive to retrieval problems than the confrontation naming of items presented singly. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a general relationship between word retrieval speed and reading ability in beginning readers. Although such a relationship has not been detected with confrontation naming, repetitive naming may provide a more sensitive test. Accordingly, second-grade children were required to name as rapidly as possible repeated presentations of five pictured items drawn from a single category. Separate naming tests were made for objects, colors, animals, letters, and words. The results showed that there was no relationship between reading ability and naming times when the test items were selected from sets of objects, colors, or animals, whereas on letters and words, a significant relationship was found. The less-skilled readers were not, therefore, consistently slower in all repetitive naming situations. Instead their word retrieval deficits extended only to the orthographic materials.