Higher-Level Language Strategy-Based Intervention for Poor Comprehenders: A pilot single case experimental design

In contrast to the large body of research investigating intervention for poor decoding skills, far fewer studies have evaluated interventions for reading comprehension. There is even less research on children with more specific difficulties with reading comprehension, often referred to as “poor comprehenders”. Levels of effectiveness have varied for interventions targeting lower- and higher-level language, including inference making, on trained measures, with little transfer to generalised reading comprehension measures in both skilled and less-skilled readers. Outcomes have been more positive for poor comprehenders, however findings have been inconsistent as to which programme components have led to gains in reading comprehension. This pilot study utilised a case series design to explore whether a novel intervention targeting oral inference making and comprehension monitoring was effective in improving the targeted skills and reading comprehension of 11 children, aged 9;2–12;3 years, with average-for-age phonological and lower-level language skills but weak inferencing. All participants improved on the primary inference subtest post-intervention and continued to score higher at maintenance than at pre-intervention. Results on the remaining higher-level language tasks were more varied, as were the results for reading comprehension, with fewer participants demonstrating generalisation to these tasks, particularly the nonfiction texts. While the results are preliminary and descriptive, they suggest that improvements can be made in higher-level language in a 10-session intervention, and provide directions for future research.

Lancaster_etal_2021_JRR_preprint

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between selective visual attention (SVA), reading decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension in children with and without a reading disorder.Methods: We used longitudinal data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). We split children into four groups: Typical Readers, Dyslexics, Poor Comprehenders, and Comorbid Reading Disorder. We included measures of single word reading, nonword reading, spelling, phonological processing, vocabulary, receptive language, nonverbal intelligence, selective attention, and reading comprehension. We used ANOVA, correlations, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationship between SVA and reading. We fit two possible models: SVA Indirect and SVA Direct. The difference between these models was the inclusion of a direct path from SVA to reading comprehension.Results: We examined an indirect model, where SVA predicted reading comprehension through word decoding and listening comprehension, and a direct model, which included a pathway from SVA to reading comprehension. Based on our ANOVA and correlation results, we collapsed the Dyslexic, Poor Comprehenders, and Comorbid Reading Disorder Groups for the SEM. We found evidence that for Typical Readers, an indirect model was the best fit, whereas the direct model was the best model for children with a reading disorder.Conclusions: Selective visual attention is related to reading comprehension. This relationship differs for children with and without a reading disorder.

Profiles of Poor Decoders, Poor Comprehenders, and Typically Developing Readers in Adolescents Learning English as a Second Language

This study examined (a) the identification of various reading groups across languages in Chinese (L1) adolescents learning English as a second language (ESL), in terms of their word-reading and reading comprehension skills, (b) overlap in reading group membership across languages, and (c) the performance of the various reading groups on reading-related language comprehension measures in English. The participants were 246 eighth-grade students from an English-immersion program in a middle school in China. Latent profile analysis identified three reading groups in each language: (a) a typically developing reader group with average or above-average word-reading and reading comprehension, (b) a group with poor decoding/word-reading skills and weak reading comprehension, and (c) a group with poor reading comprehension in the absence of poor decoding/word reading. The overlap in profile characteristics across languages for typically developing readers and poor decoders was high (about 68% for typically developing readers and 54% for poor decoders), whereas the overlap for being poor comprehenders in each language was moderate (about 37%). Furthermore, poor decoders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor comprehender groups on word reading in the other language, while poor comprehenders in either language performed more poorly than the typically developing and poor decoder groups on reading comprehension in the other language. The comparison of the reading groups’ performance on English reading-related language comprehension measures showed that poor comprehenders and poor decoders performed worse than typically developing readers. Implications for identification and instruction of ESL children with reading difficulties are discussed.

Hidden Reading Difficulties: Identifying Children Who Are Poor Comprehenders

Poor comprehenders are a significant subgroup of poor readers who, due to their ability to read aloud accurately, are often difficult to identify. This study aimed to determine whether assessment using two oral language tasks, mapped onto the two components of the Simple View of Reading, would provide an efficient approach to identification. Children ( N = 218) from School Years 3 to 6 (aged 7; 8–12; 1) attending two schools in Australia were assessed, and 45 identified as potential poor comprehenders, based on a profile of average phonological awareness but poor listening comprehension. Subsequent assessment of decoding and text reading comprehension confirmed 24 of these children to be poor comprehenders, consistent with reported prevalence rates. Five of these children were judged to be weak readers by their classroom teacher. The oral tasks alone overidentified this group; however, the findings suggest that using the tasks as an initial phase, followed up with a reading assessment, could be effective in identifying poor comprehenders, and reduce time spent in testing as this would only involve at-risk children.

Subgrouping of Korean Readers Based on Reading Achievement and the Relation of Cognitive-Linguistic Variables to the Subgroups

The purpose of this study was to classify Korean readers into subgroups based on their reading achievement and to examine the relationships between these subgroups and a set of cognitive-linguistic variables. The reading achievement and cognitive-linguistic skills of 394 elementary school students were measured and the data were analyzed by disaggregating into primary grade level (i.e., Grades 1–3) and intermediate grade level (i.e., Grades 4–6). The main results are summarized as follows. First, three subgroups of readers were found based on the reading achievement for the primary grade level: “very poor word readers and poor comprehenders,” “poor readers,” and “average readers.” Second, four subgroups of readers were found based on the reading achievement for the intermediate grade level: “very significantly poor readers,” “very poor readers,” “average word readers but poor comprehenders,” and “average readers.” Third, vocabulary, rapid naming, phonological memory, and phonological awareness were cognitive-linguistic variables that significantly differentiated “very poor readers” and “poor readers” from “average readers” for the primary grade level. Fourth, phonological memory, rapid naming, sentence repetition, and listening comprehension were cognitive-linguistic variables that significantly differentiated “very poor readers” and “poor readers” from “average readers” for the intermediate grade level. This article also discusses the limits of this research and the implications in practice. Finally, this article touches upon the direction of future studies.

APA-Style Citations Can Create a Roadblock to Textbook Comprehension for Less Skilled Readers

We examined the effect of in-text American Psychological Association (APA)-style citations on quiz performance as a function of structure building ability, measured by the Multi-Media Comprehension Battery. Participants were randomly assigned to either APA or no citation conditions and asked to read an expository text followed by a comprehension quiz. Less skilled structure builders performed significantly lower on a comprehension quiz and read faster in the APA citation compared to the no citation condition. In contrast, skilled structure builders performed equally well on the comprehension quiz but had to reduce their reading speed in the APA citation condition. The results challenge the utility of in-text APA citations in textbooks targeted at general populations of students, particularly for moderate to poor comprehenders.

Lexical-semantic integration by good and poor reading comprehenders

In this paper, we investigate the level of vocabulary knowledge and the lexical-integration ability of good and poor comprehenders at the 8th grade of Elementary School. The participants were assessed in the following tasks: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, decoding, vocabulary, lexical-semantic integration and incongruence detection. The performance comparison revealed that good comprehenders performed significantly better than poor comprehenders in the measures of vocabulary and integration. The difference in the accuracy of the integration tasks remained significant after controlling for word knowledge. The results suggest that good and poor comprehenders differentiate not only in lexical semantic knowledge but also in lexical-semantic processing.