Examining Word Reading Efficiency Among Struggling Readers: Does Slow and Steady Win the Race? M. Pierce 1, T. Katzir 1, M. Wolf 2, G. Noam 3 1 Harvard University, 2 Tufts University, 3 McLean Hospital  The study of reading disabilities has traditionally focused on reading accuracy, examining children with difficulty decoding or recognizing visually presented words.  In recent years a growing number of studies have examined both rate and accuracy of word reading, based on research suggesting that disabled readers also show deficits in reading rate, which is particularly difficult to remediate (Thaler et al., 2004).  This change in focus is consistent with a developmental, componential view of fluency (Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001), emphasizing the importance of accurate and automatic processing at the letter, word, connected text level in support of effortless, smooth, and prosodic reading.  This study examines the relationship between word reading rate (independent of accuracy) and performance on other literacy measures to characterize more completely the literacy difficulties exhibited by struggling readers in urban schools. INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH QUESTIONS: 1.What is the relationship between word reading rate and other literacy skills (such as spelling and passage reading rate, accuracy, and comprehension), controlling for word reading accuracy? RESULTS: Regression  These results confirm that word reading rate and accuracy are associated with performance on a number of literacy measures in this sample of struggling readers.  Although highly correlated, word reading accuracy and efficiency have unique association with several other literacy measures.  Regression models predicting receptive spelling and passage accuracy included both word reading efficiency and word reading accuracy as significant, independent predictors (along with grade level).  A regression model predicting passage reading identified word reading accuracy, grade level, and an interaction between grade level and word reading efficiency as significant, independent predictors. SUMMARY: RESULTS: Partial Correlations Table 2. Partial correlations between word reading efficiency and other literacy measures, controlling for word reading accuracy. Figure 2. Relative contributions of word reading accuracy (set to its average), word reading efficiency, and grade level to receptive spelling skill. RESULTS: Full Correlations ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Correlations With Word Reading Measures  The timed and untimed word reading measures (SWE and WID) show a strong and significant correlation in this sample of at-risk readers.  Both measures are also moderately correlated with other literacy measures including spelling, passage reading, rapid naming, and phonological awareness and memory.  The timed measure shows a stronger correlation with passage reading while the untimed measure shows a stronger correlation with phonological awareness and memory. Table 1. Full correlations between word reading and other literacy measures. * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Partial Correlations Controlling for Word Reading Accuracy  Controlling for word reading accuracy (as measured by WID), word reading efficiency still shows a moderate and significant correlation with passage reading rate, passage reading accuracy, and spelling. Predicting Receptive Spelling  Word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, and grade level make independent contributions to receptive spelling, as measured by the spelling subtest of the PIAT.  These results suggest that, controlling for word reading accuracy and efficiency, second graders earn higher spelling scores than third graders on average. Figure 3. Relative contributions of word reading accuracy (set to its average), word reading efficiency, and grade level to passage reading accuracy. Predicting Passage Reading Accuracy  Word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, and grade level make independent contributions to passage reading accuracy, as measured by the GORT accuracy score.  These results suggest that, controlling for word reading accuracy and efficiency, third graders earn high passage accuracy scores than second graders. Figure 4. Relative contributions of word reading accuracy (set to its average), word reading efficiency, and grade level to passage reading rate. Predicting Passage Reading Rate  Word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, and grade level make an independent contribution to passage reading rate.  Controlling for word reading accuracy, children with low word reading efficiency scores tend to have low passage rate scores, with grade level adding very little explanatory power.  In contrast, children with higher word reading efficiency scores tend to have higher passage rate scores, with third graders earning higher rate scores than second graders, on average. RESULTS: Regression (Cont.) CONCLUSIONS:  Despite the observed correlation between word reading accuracy and efficiency, word reading efficiency is associated with various literacy measures including spelling, passage accuracy, and passage rate, even after controlling for word reading accuracy.  These findings are consistent with Perfetti’s verbal efficiency theory (1985), which suggests that inefficient word reading can obstruct a child’s ability to hold chunks of text in working memory, resulting in diminished attention to comprehension and syntax. Conversely, children who read words more efficiently can focus on the syntax and meaning of the phrase guiding accuracy and and therefore rate via top-down processing.  Another interesting set of findings involves the predictive power of grade level, controlling for word reading skills. These findings may be explained in part by the changing requirements for efficient processing from second to third grade.  These relationships should be examined in older struggling readers to characterize more fully the changing role of word reading efficiency. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were 129 second and third graders from five schools in Boston and Phoenix Selection criteria: 2/3 or more SD below the mean on a subtest or composite of the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE); a standard score of 70 or above on the PPVT As identified by parents: 56% were Hispanic/Latino; 44% were Non-Hispanic/Latino 47% were white; 13% were black or African American 53% spoke English as a first language; 41% spoke another language as a first language METHODS: Literacy Measures  The children were assessed with measures of phonological awareness and memory (CTOPP, 1999), rapid letter naming (RAN, 2004), word and nonword reading (TOWRE, 1999; WRMT, 1998), passage reading and comprehension (GORT, 1999), and spelling (PIAT, 1998).  With the exception of the RAN scores which are presented in raw latency, raw scores for the measures were converted to standard scores using age-based norms. SWEWIDRAN PHN AWR PHN MEM PAS RT PAS AC PAS CMP SPL SWE 1.817**-.300**.325** **.680**.404**.720** WID **.402**.259**.648**.640**.383**.757** CRL: WIDSWEPDEWARAN PHN AWR PHN MEM PAS RT PAS AC PAS CMP SPL SWE * **.347** ** Figure 1. Changes in R-Square from hierarchical regression analyses predicting PIAT spelling, GORT rate, and GORT accuracy. R =.785 R2 =.617 p =.000 R =.743 R2 =.553 p =.000 R =.777 R2 =.604 p =.000 Perfetti, C.A. (1985). Reading Ability. New York: Oxford Press. Thaler, V., Ebner, E.M., Wimmer, H., & Landerl, K. (2004). Training reading fluency in dysfluent readers with high reading accuracy: Word specific effects but low transfer to untrained words. Annals of Dyslexia, 54(1), Wolf, M., & Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), REFERENCES: