Practical, effective, evidence-based reading interventions that change students' lives Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties is a practical, accessible, in-depth guide to reading assessment and intervention. It provides a detailed discussion of the nature and causes of reading difficulties, which will help develop the knowledge and confidence needed to accurately assess why a student is struggling. Readers will learn a framework for organizing testing results from current assessment batteries such as the WJ-IV, KTEA-3, and CTOPP-2. Case studies illustrate each of the concepts covered. A thorough discussion is provided on the assessment of phonics skills, phonological awareness, word recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Formatted for easy reading as well as quick reference, the text includes bullet points, icons, callout boxes, and other design elements to call attention to important information.
Although a substantial amount of research has shown that most reading difficulties can be prevented or corrected, standard reading remediation efforts have proven largely ineffective. School psychologists are routinely called upon to evaluate students with reading difficulties and to make recommendations to address such difficulties. This book provides an overview of the best assessment and intervention techniques, backed by the most current research findings.
- Bridge the gap between research and practice
- Accurately assess the reason(s) why a student struggles in reading
- Improve reading skills using the most highly effective evidence-based techniques
Reading may well be the most important thing students are taught during their school careers. It is a skill they will use every day of their lives; one that will dictate, in part, later life success. Struggling students need help now, and Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties shows how to get these students on track.
Series Preface xv
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
One Introduction 1
The Unfair Race 1
The Importance of Reading 2
The Gap Between Reading Research and Classroom Practice 4
The Unfortunate Reality About Reading Research: Nobody Knows About It! 4
Why IsThere a Gap Between Research and Classroom Practice? 6
The Powerful Research Results We Have Been Missing 11
Acknowledging and Responding to the Gap Between Research and Practice 14
Summary 20
Two How We Teach Reading and Why It Does Not Work With Struggling Readers 23
A Very Brief History of Reading Instruction 24
Why Our Current Approaches to Reading Instruction Are Ineffective With Struggling Readers 26
The Visual Memory Hypothesis of Word Reading 30
The Three Cueing Systems Model of Reading 35
The Phonics Approach to Reading 41
Summary 42
Three A Practical Framework for Understanding and Assessing Reading Skills 46
The Simple View of Reading 46
Types of Reading Difficulties/Disabilities 54
The Components of Reading 58
The Components of Word-Level Reading 60
The Components of Linguistic Comprehension 73
Summary 77
Four Understanding Word Recognition Difficulties 80
The Importance of This Chapter 80
Introducing Orthographic Mapping 81
How Skilled Word Reading Develops 83
The Early Stages of the Reading Process 91
Learning to Read Irregular Words 104
The Research on Orthographic Mapping 109
How the Phonological-Core Deficit Hinders Reading Development 114
Word-Reading Fluency and Orthographic Mapping 121
Students Whose Native Language Is Not English 125
Answers to the Questions Posed About Reading Difficulties 127
Summary 129
Five Understanding Reading Comprehension Difficulties 133
Specific Reading Comprehension Impairment 134
What Is Required for Skilled Reading Comprehension? 135
Reader Abilities 136
Text Factors 143
Task Factors 144
Students Whose First Language Is Not English 144
Summary 145
Six Assessing Phonological Processing Skills 149
An Introduction to Intervention-Oriented Assessment of Reading 149
Issues in Assessing Phonological Skills 154
Phonological Awareness Assessment 165
Phonological Blending Assessment 170
The Rationale for Assessing Rapid Automatized Naming and Working Memory 172
Summary 179
Seven Assessing Phonics Skills 182
Orthographic Knowledge 183
Assessing Phonics Skills 187
Summary 196
Eight Assessing Word Identification and Reading Fluency 199
The Assessment of Word-Reading Skills 199
Untangling the Confound Between Word Recognition and Word Identification 202
Word Identification Subtests 208
The Assessment of Word-Reading Fluency 212
Types of Fluency Tasks 214
Summary 219
Nine Assessing Reading Comprehension and Related Skills 222
Reading Comprehension Assessment 223
Tests of Reading Comprehension 231
Tests of Listening Comprehension 233
Assessment of Skills That Contribute to Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension 235
Summary 244
Ten Effective Approaches for Preventing Reading Difficulties 247
Prevention: Removing the Hurdles Before the Race Begins 247
Experimental Support for Phonological Awareness Instruction 253
Experimental Support for Explicit and Systematic Letter-Sound Instruction 265
Practical Considerations Regarding Teaching Letter-Sound Skills and Phonics 269
The Centrality of Phonology in Word Reading 275
Phonological Awareness Training Programs 276
Preventing Literacy-Related Language Difficulties 280
Summary 283
Eleven Effective Approaches for Overcoming or Minimizing Reading Difficulties 286
Intervention with Word-Level Reading Difficulties 289
Popular Reading Interventions With Modest or Minimal Results 293
Reading Intervention Research With Minimal to Modest Results 301
The Phonological Awareness Intervention Continuum 302
Reading Intervention Studies with Highly Successful Results 304
Specific Programs Used in Highly Successful Outcome Studies 318
Addressing Comprehension Difficulties 322
Making It Work: Practical Intervention Issues 326
Summary 329
Twelve Case Illustrations 332
Mild Dyslexic Pattern 333
Severe Dyslexic Pattern 334
ELL Student 336
Compensator Pattern 337
Mixed Type 340
Hyperlexic Type 342
Summary 343
Thirteen Reading Difficulties and Learning Disability Identification 344
Far Fewer Students with SLD? 345
Characteristics That Suggest an Educational Disability—Part 1: SLD in Word-Level Reading 346
Characteristics That Suggest an Educational Disability—Part 2: Reading Comprehension 348
General Guidelines for Identifying a Reading Disability 349
Summary 357
Afterword 359
Glossary 361
Further Reading 367
References 369
About the Author 399
About the Online Resources 400
Index 401
Other versions by this Author
