Reading Difficulties

Seventh Edition
Reading
Difficulties
Their Diagnosis and Correction
Guy L. Bond
Miles A. linker
Barbara B. Wasson
Moorhead State University
John B. Wasson
Moorhead State University
Allyn and Bacon

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bond, Guy Loraine

Reading difficulties their diagnosis and correction / Guy L.
Bond... [et al.]. — 7th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-205-15091-8
1. Reading—Remedial teaching. 2. Reading disability. L Title.
LB1O5O.5.B6 1993
372.4'3—dc2O 93-6583
CIP
Printed in the United States of America

10987654321 989796959493
''.- -". —
Contents
Pref ace vii
Introduction 1
Nature of Reading Development 1
Point of View 9
Plan of This Book 11
2 Adjusting Instruction to Individual Differences 13

Individual Differences in the Classroom 13
Basic Considerations in Adjusting to Individual Differences in Reading 18
Meeting Individual Differences in Reading 25
Diagnostic Teaching in the Classroom 28
Summary 31
Study Questions 33
Selected Readings 33
3 Description of Children with Reading Disabilities 35

Identifying Children with Reading Disabilities 36
Categories of Reading Problems 45
Summary 47
Study Questions 47
4 Causes of Reading Disability: Physical Factors 49

Visual Impairment 50
Auditory Impairment 54
Speech Impairment 56
111
iv Contents
Neurological Impairment 57
General Health Impairment 60
Summary 61
Study Questions 62
5 Causes of Reading Disability: Cognitive and Language Factors 63

Intellectual Limitations 63
Cognitive Factors 64
Language Factors 68
Summary 71
Study Questions 71
6 Causes of Reading Disability: Emotional, Environmental, and

Educational Factors 73
Personal and Social Adjustment 73
Environmental Factors 78
Educational Factors 84
Summary 89
Study Questions 90
7 Basic Considerations in Diagnosing Reading Difficulties 93

General Principles of Diagnosis 93
Analyzing Reading Dfflculties 100
Illustration of an Analysis of Reading Difficulties 110
Summary 116
Study Questions 117
8 Use of Specific Assessment Procedures 119

Tests Used in General Diagnosis in Reading 121
Tests Used in Specific Diagnosis in Reading 123
Tests Used in Child-Study Diagnosis in Reading 125
Informal Diagnosis 126
Use of Standardized Reading Diagnostic Tests in Combination with
Informal Procedures 136
Summary 138
Study Questions 138
9 Planning Appropriate Remediation 141

Individualizing the Remedial Plan 143
Contents v
Encouraging the Reader 145

Choosing Appropriate Materials 149
Using Effective Teaching Procedures 153
Enlisting the Cooperation of Others 156
Summary 158
Study Questions 159
10 Correcting Insufficient Attention to Meaning in Word Recognition 161

Failure to Associate Meaning with Printed Symbols 166
Insufficient Sight Vocabulary 169
Failure to Use Meaning Clues 173
Case Study of a Primary Grade Student Who Had Difficulty Relating Meaning
to Printed Symbols 177
Summary 180
Study Questions 181
11 Correcting Ineffective Perceptual and Decoding Skills in

Word Recognition 183
Suggestions for Corrective Instruction in Word Recognition 183
Ineffective Visual-Perceptual Habits 185
Limited Knowledge of Word Elements 193
Difficulty in Oral and Visual Synthesis 200
Case Study of an Upper Elementary Grade Student with Difficulty in
Word Recognition 203
Summary 206
Study Questions 207
12 'Theating Students with Extreme Reading Disability 209

Methods of Treatment 209
Treating Orientational Difficulties 217
Summary 224
Study Questions 225
13 Adapting Instruction for Children with Disabilities 227

The Child with Visual Impairment 228
The Child with Auditory Impairment 230
The Child with Neurological Impairment 231
The Child with Behavioral Problems 235
The Child with a Mental Disability 237
The Child with Speech Impairment 240
vi Contents
Case Study of an Upper Elementary Grade Student with a Basic

Word-Recognition Problem and an Auditory Limitation 240
Summary 244
Study Questions 246
14 Correcting Basic Comprehension Deficiencies 247

Limited Meaning Vocabulary 250
Ineffective Use of Sentence Sense 259
Insufficient Comprehension of Longer Units 265
Summary 268
Study Questions 268
15 Overcoming Specific Comprehension Limitations 271

Limitations in Specific Comprehension Abilities 272
Insufficient Development of Basic Study Skills 277
Deficiencies in Reading Content 280
Summary 287
Study Questions 288
16 Correcting Reading Rates and Oral Reading Difficulties 291

Correcting Inefficient Rates of Comprehension 291
Overcoming Ineffective Oral Reading 303
Case Study of a High School Student with a Basic Comprehension Limitation and
Poor Rate of Reading 308
Summary 312
Study Questions 312
17 Encouraging Continued Growth in Reading 315

Developing a Pennanent Interest in Reading 315
Establishing Independence in Reading 321
Continuing Progress in Reading after Remediation 322
Study Questions 323
References 325
Author Index 337
Subject Index 341

Preface
Deficiencies in reading ability among children and adults have become a serious
national concern. Severe disability in reading, in modern times, makes finding
employment difficult, changing employment problematical, and advancing in
employment nearly impossible. The seventh edition of Reading Difficulties: Their
Diagnosis and Correction has major changes in emphasis from the previous edi-
tions.
Current research exploring the many causes of reading difficulties is dis-
cussed. Areas of exceptional importance include research on linguistic abilities,
phonological abilities, cognitive functioning, and home environmental factors.
New reading diagnostic methods are presented and evaluated, along with ai
extended description of observational methods.
The use of good literature with students who have reading difficulties is
emphasized, as is the value of integrating reading and writing with these stu-
dents. Instructional methods are presented that promote independence as well as
skill in reading, that encourage active, engaged learning, and that facilitate coop-
eration among students and among the professionals who serve them.
As in the past, this book is written with the, knowledge that learning to read
is a dynamic, continuing process. It is also written with respect for the dedicated
professional teacher.
The aim of the book is to help classroom teachers, resource teachers, and
reading specialists diagnose and correct the various kinds of problems involved
in preventing and correcting reading difficulties. The authors are keenly aware of
the fact that learning to read is complex and that there are many possible confu-
sions along the route. If the classroom teacher can detect and correct these diffi-
culties early, many minor problems that could lead to a major reading disability
may be prevented. This book is designed to give the teacher specific help by
describing how to diagnose and correct reading difficulties in their formative
stages.
vii
viii Preface
Certain children will persist in their reading difficulties to the point that they
will need more detailed diagnosis and individualized remedial training. The
classroom teacher cannot be expected to make these more detailed and complex
analyses, but the book discusses the various reading disabilities in a sufficiently
detailed and direct manner that a thorough understanding of the most complex
cases is possible. Finally, there are specific suggestions for diagnosingand correct-
ing even the most stubborn kinds of problems, so that all who are concerned with
readers with disabilities will have the information necessary to understand the
adjustments required.
We have drawn heavily on our own and many coworkers' experiences in
helping children overcome reading difficulties. For their contributions to this
book, we specifically want to thank Leslie Crawford, Virginia McKinnon Deitz,
Elynn Severson, and Carol Sibley. We also want to thank the many in-service
teachers who presented their insights while discussing the problems of reading
instruction in advanced courses and seminars. We also want to thank the review-
ers of the manuscript: Roger J. DeSanti, University of New Orleans; Desmond V.
Rice, Lamar University; and Molly M. Wilson, Idaho State University. Finally, we
want to thank the numerous classroom, reading, and learning disabilities teachers
who invited us into their classrooms and resource rooms so that we could share
knowledge concerning the reading problems of their students.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Being able to read well is a valuable attribute. At work, at home, at school, and
even at leisure, reading is required to some extent. Reading is a needed channel
of communication with the global community.
Consideration of the daily activities of almost any adult reveals a need for
reading. These activities are made possible or are aided by information gained
from reading. Magazines, newspapers, books, maps, directories, pamphlets,
signs, and catalogs all assist the reader in making plans and in carrying them out.
People read to obtain information, to buy wisely, to solve problems, for pleasure,
and for many other reasons. More people read now than ever before.
Nature of Reading Development

Preparation for reading does not start when a child enters school for the first time.
It has begun long before this. Even before an infant talks, there is communication
among parents, the infant, and others. From infancy until the child enters school,
a multitude of experiences and the child's reactions and adjustments to them help
to prepare each youngster for the demands of learning to read. In a few short
years, children progress from the point at which they can only pat the pictures in
their books to learning to point out and name familiar objects in the pictures. Soon
they willingly listen when read to and then recite little rhymes and talk about the
stories in books. These steps are gains in verbalization and in recognition of form
and meaning. Progress in readiness for reading can be extensive and significant
during the preschool years.
When taught with any of the usual approaches used in learning to read, the
child must understand the relationship of printed language to oral language—
must understand that a printed word stands for a spoken word and has the same
1
2 Chapter One
meaning as the spoken word. In beginning reading, the printed word should be
in the child's speaking and meaning vocabulary so the child will associate the
printed word with both the sound and meaning of the spoken word.
The printed words in any writing are merely symbols for the meanings
intended by the author. These symbols serve as cues to the reader, who must
organize an understanding of what is meant. The ease with which a reader can
do this depends largely upon his background of experiences. For a beginning
reader, these meanings are acquired through the reader's previous experiences
and previously acquired facility with language. The child reads using his experi-
ence and language skill, interrelating them to derive meaning from printed
symbols.
To a large degree, a child's thinking requires verbal manipulations. When the
child begins to read, this is important to consider, for thinking is essential to
reading at all stages of development. In fact, reading as a tool for learning will be
ineffective unless it is accompanied by thinking. Learning to read and reading to
learn should develop together throughout the school years.
Reading is both a subject of instruction and a tool for studying. Special skills
should be taught as they are needed, and they should be taught in the appropriate
context. For example, the special skills needed for reading science text should be
taught with material similar to that used in science instruction. Although this
emphasizes reading as a tool, it also teaches reading.
Growth in reading abilities is developmental. New learning is an addition to
or an expansion or refinement of a previous attainment that facilitates the
learner's participation in meaningful communication through reading. Growth in
reading involves the gradual acquisition of skills that synchronize together to
enable the learner to interpret printed symbols correctly. These skills are devel-
oped concurrently with their use in the act of reading itself. Reading development
is the result of the completion of tasks that are neither easy nor simple. Each new
learning rests upon a child's previously acquired achievements. Each new learn-
ing requires that the child apply newly developing skills to increasingly more
complex reading tasks. Instruction must maintain balances among the various
skills and abilities that are essential to effective reading and must be geared to the
needs and characteristics of the children being taught.
Definition of Reading
Our definition of reading is as follows: Reading is the recognition of printed or written
symbols that serve as stimuli to the recall of meanings built up through the reader's past
experience. New meanings are derived through the manipulation of concepts
already in the reader's possession. The organization of these meanings is gov-
erned by purposes that are clearly defined by the reader. In short, the reading
process involves both the acquisition of meanings intended by the writer and the
reader's own contributions in the form of interpretation and evaluation of and
reflection on those meanings.
Introduction 3
Description of Normal Reading Growth

To identify those children who have failed to make satisfactory progress in read-
ing, it is necessary to have in mind some standards of reading growth. There are
marked individual differences in rate of reading attainment. Some children begin
to read early and progress rapidly. Others start late and move forward slowly.
Between these are the average learners. It should also be noted that a child may
progress at different rates during different stages in the development of reading
abilities. Generally, however, growth in reading tends to be continuous and de-
velopmental in nature. At each stage, the skills essential to success at the next
level are acquired. When this progress is continued without serious interruption,
the child eventually becomes a mature reader.
The Prereading Period
Soon after birth, the child begins to acquire experience essential to learning to
read. When, in addition, the child matures in mental ability and emotional adjust-
ment and acquires increasing interests, she becomes ready to begin reading. A
listening and speaking vocabulary develops gradually. In time, sentences are
understood and properly used. Meanwhile, the child develops skill in auditory
and visual discrimination. Varieties of concepts are formed. Under favorable
circumstances, the child is able to focus attention, enabling her to listen to and
comprehend stories. If the child's experience has been extensive, if many clear
concepts have been acquired, and if adequate facility in the understanding and
use of language has been achieved, the child has a distinct advantage in getting
ready for reading.
A child's experiences affect the rate of development of skills up to the time
reading instruction is begun. To acquire auditory and visual skills and facilily
with language, a child must have both appropriate experiences and guidance.
The child must be encouraged to discriminate sounds and visual details and to
listen to and use words. It is important for adults to talk to and with the child.
Stories should be read with the child while she looks at the pictures and talks
about them. Crayons and paper should be provided so that the child can express
her own thoughts through drawings and scribblings. The child who is accumu-
lating experience with such items as picture books, crayons, and paper is also
preparing for reading.
Under favorable circumstances, provided that mental growth, personal ad-
justment, and physical development are normal, the child will not only be ready
to read, but should also be eager to read. There are marked differences in the rate
at which children acquire reading readiness. A few are ready even before entering
kindergarten, others by the time they enter first grade. Many become ready soon
after beginning first grade, but a few are not ready until later.
Progress in Reading Readiness

The child is ready to begin a reading program only after reaching sufficient
mental maturity achieving satisfactory classroom adjustment, maintaining nor-
4 Chapter One
mal physical development, acquiring an adequate background of experiences,

and developing positive attitudes toward reading. As already noted, there are
many degrees of readiness among children at the beginning of Grade 1. After an
evaluation of each child, the teacher provides instruction to compensate for
whatever deficiencies in reading readiness he discovers.
It should be pointed out here that the concept of readiness is basic to the
development of reading ability at all levels, from kindergarten on. With each new
unit of instruction, the child should be prepared to accomplish the reading and
thinking activities involved in it. For success in any specific reading task, the child
must possess the necessary concepts, the vocabulary, and the ability to handle the
language relationships involved. The child must also select and organize ideas
and details related to her purpose. All this implies instruction and guidance so
that the student will be ready to read each new unit proficiently.
Introduction to Reading
After proper preparation, the child is introduced to reading in Grade 1. The child
begins to accumulate a sight vocabulary and at the same time learns that printed
and written symbols stand for meanings in a variety of situations. Training in
auditory and visual discrimination continues. New word meanings are acquired.
The teacher helps the child use elementary techniques and clues for word identi-
fication. Meanwhile, the child is progressing naturally from reading labels, words
standing for actions, short signs, and notes to reading a book, the preprimer. Such
systematic training in reading a book leads to success at the primer level and so
on to the first reader. All along, learnings are practiced through the judicious use
of exercises suggested in manuals, through selected work sheets, and through
supplementary materials such as storybooks for beginning readers.
There will be noticeable individual differences in the reading progress made
by first-grade students. By the end of the first grade, the average learners will
have acquired a considerable stock of sight words, some independence in using
techniques of word recognition, and much skill in both oral and silent reading of
easy materials, including those in the public library
Progress in the Primary Grades
To a great extent, the reading instruction in Grades 2 and 3 consists of extension,
refinement, and amplification of the program begun in Grade 1. New techniques
of reading are introduced, and the child begins to learn them when she is ready.
Throughout the primary grades, there are no abrupt distinctions in progressing
from one part of the program to the next. Under favorable circumstances, the
average child will have achieved the following goals by the end of Grade 3:
(1) marked progress in mastering techniques of word recognition and the other
fundamentals of reading, (2) considerable independence in reading, (3) a degree
of flexibility in the use of reading skills, (4) a sound basis for study-type reading,
(5) greater speed in silent rather than oral reading, and (6) positive attitudes
toward reading. With normal progress, by the end of Grade 3 the child will have
acquired a sound foundation for future reading, although there will be many
Introduction 5
skills in word recognition, comprehension, and techniques of study to be devel-

oped later.
Reading instruction in Grades 4 through 6 is an extension of the developmen-
tal program begun in the primary grades. Besides improving the basic abilities, it
focuses on developing the specialized abilities and study skills required for read-
ing subject matter in the content areas and other work-type materials. Beginning
in Grade 4, children move into a phase of increasing diversification of learning in
which reading is the essential tool. To an accelerating degree, reading becomes a
means of gathering information and achieving pleasure. When there has been
normal progress in the earlier grades, the consolidation of basic reading abilities
and the extension of these abilities in specialized directions in the intermediate
grades proceeds at a relatively rapid pace. The child reads more independently
and more widely. Although the relative emphasis upon silent reading increases,
oral reading should not be neglected. By the time the sixth grade is finished, the
child who has made normal progress will have achieved the basis for reading in
later years. Additional instruction in reading in the junior and senior high school
years is necessary to assure proficiency. This is especially true in perfecting the
special skills needed for serious study and for the comprehension of difficult
materials.
Progress in the Basic Reading Abilities

Throughout the grades, there tends to be a steady growth in the acquisition of
words, word-recognition skills, and comprehension skills. Progress is develop-
mental or sequential, and each learning provides a basis for learnings similar to
it. Reading readiness plays an important role. A child is ready to advance to a
more complex level of a learning sequence only when mastery of previously
taught skills is sufficient to ensure success in more mature learning. In word
recognition, for example, the child learns letter and phonogram sounds in the
early years. This equips the child for the more mature features of word recogni-
tion taught in the intermediate grades, which include syllabication and recogni-
tion of prefixes, suffixes, and word roots. Basic reading abilities are acquired, not
in isolation, but as part of a well-integrated sequential reading program.
Progress in the Special Reading Abilities

Acquisition of the special abilities necessary for proficient reading in the content
areas, such as reading to organize, begins early and progresses at a gradual pace
for most students. Since the reading of some content material is introduced in
Grade 1 in many reading programs, it is necessary to teach the elementary
features of the special abilities during the primary grades. By Grade 3, such
guidance receives a good deal of emphasis. When the special abilities are stressed,
the progress of the average pupil in reading to learn has advanced far enough by
the end of the primary grades that a smooth transition to the major reading tasks
in the intermediate grades will be achieved.
As the child moves through Grade 3 and through the intermediate grades, the
study skills are added to the special reading abilities. Mastery of the basic reading
6 Chapter One
skills, together with continuing improvement in special reading skills and study
skills, is coordinated into proficient reading. With normal progress, the child will
have developed much flexibility in adapting these skills to the purposes and
subject-matter requirements of each of the content areas. The child will also have
learned the supplementary skills necessary for dealing with reading programs
unique to a particular subject. Although complete mastery of the special reading
abilities cannot be achieved by the end of Grade 6, there will have been good
progress in this direction. The child will have a sound foundation for further
progress in the reading tasks in the junior and senior high school years. However,
a sound foundation is not enough. Because the materials read in high school are
more mature than those used in elementary school, the child must be taught how
to meet more advanced reading demands.
Goals of Reading Instruction

An effective reading program does more than develop the abilities and skills,
both basic and special, outlined in the preceding section. Nevertheless, the
broader goals of the reading program are built upon these foundations. Reading
is more than skill in identifying and recognizing words, in grouping words into
thought units, and in noting details and following directions. It is more than the
sum of all reading skills and techniques.
The overall goal of reading instruction is to help each pupil become as able
and diversified a reader as his capabilities, the available facilities, and the instruc-
tional program permit. To achieve this, certain subgoals must be considered.
These goals are present during early reading experiences and become more
apparent as reading develops through the grades. It should be recognized that
there is interdependence among the goals of reading instruction. One goal is not
necessarily more important than another. These goals will be discussed in the
paragraphs that follow.
Basic Understanding of Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, and

Entire Selections
Growth in understanding words, sentences, paragraphs, and whole selections is
essential if the student is to develop into a mature reader. Word meanings are
derived from experience. As language facility increases and words are used with
newly experienced situations, concepts are clarified and enriched. Growth is
continuous but gradual. The instructional program for developing a child's un-
derstanding and use of words to express meanings provides a variety of appro-
priate firsthand and vicarious experiences, wide and extensive reading, and
study of words in context. It also develops the habit of attending to the meaning
of words, so that if an unusual or expressive word is used, the child will note it
and its meaning. An understanding of words is basic to an understanding of
sentences, paragraphs, and selections.
The understanding of sentence structure affects reading comprehension. Be-
sides knowing the meanings of words in a sentence, the reader must grasp the
Introduction 7
relationships between words and between groups of words. The kind and
amount of instruction are determined by individual needs. With one child, the
instruction may involve proper phrasing and interpretation of punctuation. An-
other child may need instruction in interpreting figures of speech and using a
word whose meaning fits the verbal context. A third may need help in sorting out
and properly relating several ideas incorporated in one sentence.
Along with understanding words and sentences, comprehending a para-
graph requires understanding the relationship among sentences in that para-
graph. The instructional task involves guiding the student in identifying the
topical sentence containing the key idea and in interpreting its relationship to the
explanatory or amplifying sentences. In a similar manner, attention should be
devoted to the relationship between paragraphs in longer selections.
Understanding words, sentences, and paragraphs is essential to comprehend-
ing reading selections. Also involved is a child's ability to listen to and under-
stand a selection read aloud. Some children, when they begin school, are skilled
at listening to and understanding stories. Others have acquired little or no story
sense by that time. These will need guidance and instruction in how to listen
carefully to what is said and in how to follow a sequence of events in stories. Story
sense is never completely developed for any child by the time reading instruction
is begun, and guidance in listening attentively and in following sequences of
events should be an integral part of reading instruction at least through the
primary grades. After the primary grades, because of the more complex plots and
more complicated organization of ideas encountered, the child must learn to
sense the author's organization in order to grasp the meanings of the longer
selections.
Maturity in Reading Habits and Attitudes

Developing reading habits and attitudes begins early and continues for as long as
the child is growing in reading capability. The child learns to appreciate and to
care for books. The child develops intellectual curiosity and comes to realize that
books can help satisfy the need to know, to solve problems, and to contribute to
group enterprises. The habit of attending to words and demanding an under-
standing of their meanings should be encouraged at all levels. Finally, the habit
of relying on one's own resources and energetically attacking reading material
should be encouraged early, to establish a realistic amount of independence
throughout the instructional program.
Independence in Reading
To begin to read well and to be able to continue developing as a reader after
formal education is finished, the child must develop independence in reading.
There are several aspects to achieving this independence. The child must be able
to recognize words quickly and easily in order to understand and consider con-
tent. Independence in reading depends on the ability to work out the pronuncia-
tion and understanding of new words. The independent reader also knows
appropriate sources where new information can be found, is able to select rele-
8 Chapter One
vant subject matter from these sources, and can judge the suitability of that
subject matter. Independence in reading is also shown by the ability of the child
to initiate reading activities, to appreciate reading problems, and to set reading
purposes. Reading programs organized into major experience units that require
related reading and cooperative group activities promote independence in read-
ing and encourage cooperation among students. The teacher's guidance plays an
important role in the development of independence in reading.
Efficiency in the Use of Basic Study Skills
A number of skills are involved in this goal. The ability to locate information
through such aids as tables of contents, indexes, and glossaries is one example.
Instruction in the elementary techniques of finding information begins early. The
more complex skills are taught in sequential order. Proficiency in the use of
general reference material is a second example of a basic study skill. Beginning
with simple alphabetizing, the child progresses to being able to use such reference
sources as dictionaries and encyclopedias.
Additional skills include abilities in the interpretation of pictures, maps,
graphs, and charts. Teaching begins in kindergarten and progresses in a develop-
mental manner through the school years.
Finally, organizational skills must be included as essential study skills. This
important group of skills includes the ability to outline, classify materials under
main headings and subheadings, organize sentences in experience charts in se-
quential order, and order selected materials in sequence. Being able to construct
time lines, two-way charts, and classification tables are other examples. The
ability to organize materials is essential to well-rounded growth in reading pro-
ficiency.
Maturity in Essential Comprehension Skills
The development of five interrelated comprehension skills is a major goal of
reading instruction. These skills are the abilities to (1) read for specific informa-
tion, (2) read to organize, (3) read to evaluate, (4) read to interpret, and (5) read
to appreciate. They are ever-present goals of reading instruction and they should
not be postponed so that they have to be initiated in the more advanced grades.
Maturity in Choosing Suitable Strategies for Various

Reading Purposes
To communicate their ideas to readers, authors write in ways appropriate to their
goals. To mature in reading proficiency, a child must learn to adjust his reading
to the requirements of the specific type of material being read. An example is the
contrast between how a child reads and solves an arithmetic story problem and
how a child reads and enjoys a standard short story. Such adjustments are made
through coordinating the basic reading proficiencies, the different abilities in-
volved in comprehension, and the study skills. The reader must choose, from his
repertory of skills, those that are best for reading a particular selection effectively
for a specific purpose.
Introduction 9
A young child starts to develop different strategies for reading various types
of material as soon as he reads a science unit in his basic reader or reads scientific
writing in a supplementary book. Versatility in this sort of adjustment improves
from grade to grade. The teacher should instruct the child in why these adjust-
ments are needed and when and how to make them. The achievement of facility
in using different strategies for different reading purposes is a goal of reading
instruction at all grade levels.
Breadth of Interest and Maturity of Taste in Reading

To be successful, a reading program must go beyond developing the basic and
special abilities and the study skills. The child must also want to read widely. The
amount, the variety, and the quality of what is read reflect the quality of the
teaching program.
Point of View
We, the authors of this book, believe that reading problems develop because one
or more factors within the child or in the environment, or both, prevent her from
reaching her learning capacity. Reading difficulty may occur at any stage of a
child's school career, from the first grade throughout the grades. We also believe
that reading difficulties can be corrected through proper diagnosis and remedial
instruction. Nothing is accomplished by blaming the difficulty on low intelli-
gence, lack of interest, laziness, or the home. For one reason or another, school
instruction has not capitalized on the child's mental ability or developed motiva-
tion by appealing to the child's interests.
If all the skills and abilities necessary for growth toward reading maturity are
to be acquired, the learner must be motivated and energetic, work smoothly at
her own level of accomplishment, and also be a comfortable learner. Each child
must be able to sense that her proficiency in reading is increasing and that the
enterprise is worth the effort.
In recent years, the teaching of reading has gained an important position in
our schools. Research has been carried out, teachers are better trained, reading
materials have multiplied, and techniques and devices for teaching have im-
proved. Nevertheless, a surprising number of students fail to make the progress
in reading expected from their potential.
The presence of reading difficulties in our schools is a serious problem at all
grade levels. Many reading difficulties can be prevented altogether. The class-
room teacher can correct others in their initial stages, when correction is relatively
easy. A sound preventive program stresses at least three kinds of instruction: (1) a
thoroughgoing reading readiness program to prepare the child for beginning
reading and for reading at successively higher levels; (2) proper adjustment of
instruction to individual differences; and (3) systematic developmental programs
at all levels.
10 Chapter One
A well-organized instructional program works to prevent reading difficulties.

If it were possible in day-to-day classroom teaching to instruct each student
according to her exact instructional needs, there would be less need for remedial
work. Even with the best teaching and the best organized, systematic program,
certain children will experience serious difficulties. With less than the best teach-
ing, the incidence of reading difficulties will increase. In any case, there will be an
appreciable number of students who have serious difficulties with their reading,
and there must be remedial help available to correct those difficulties.
View on Causes
We know that the causes of reading difficulties are multiple and tend to be com-
plex. In the more difficult cases, a pattern of interacting factors usually operates,
each contributing its part to the difficulty and each impeding future growth. The
reading specialist must search out as many as possible of these limiting condi-
tions operating in a particular case and apply the proper corrective measures.
In general, we believe that most reading difficulties are created and are not
inherent. Reading difficulties are sometimes the result of unrecognized, predis-
posing conditions within the child, but for the most part they are caused by
elements of the child's environment at home, at play, and at school. Without
appropriate guidance or proper instruction, the child fails to acquire the skills
needed to develop normal reading ability.
Reading difficulties vary from minor to very severe. When minor difficulties
occur and are not recognized and corrected promptly, their deleterious effects
become cumulative and may result in a severe disability.
Although we emphasize educational factors as causes of reading difficulties,
we also recognize that there are other factors that may and often do contribute to
a complex pattern of causes. These include immaturity, associated sometimes
with low socioeconomic status; personal adjustment problems; physical deficien-
cies; and excessive pressure for achievement from home or school. There seldom
is a single factor that causes reading difficulty but one factor may be relatively
more important than others.
We are aware that failure to recognize a child's handicaps and failure to adjust
instruction to lessen their effects upon learning can contribute to a reading diffi-
culty. Unless all educational, physical, and behavioral factors that can hinder
normal progress in learning to read are identified early and corrected if possible,
along with making proper instructional adjustments, reading difficulty is apt to
develop.
View on Remedial Instruction
We maintain that remedial instruction in reading is essentially the same as good
classroom teaching, but is more individualized. The teacher works with the child,
using essential regular teaching methods, but concentrates on the skill in which
the child is deficient. Effort is concentrated on the child's needs, assuming that
there has been a thorough diagnosis of his strengths and weaknesses.
Introduction 11
We believe that the best results in remedial instruction are attained by design-
ing an individual instructional plan that utilizes a combination of approaches. The
remedial plan, however, should include any one approach or any combination of
approaches suggested by the results of the diagnosis.
Effective remedial instruction is given by a good reading teacher—a teacher
who is familiar with the principles and practices of sound reading instruction.
Above all, the teacher must be versatile in adapting materials and techniques to
specific needs based on formal and informal diagnosis and on the specific events
of daily instruction. Instructional tasks may need to be broken down into small,
manageable units. Extra effort is usually needed to give clear introductions to
activities for students who have difficulty understanding what to do and to
ensure that students are actively involved in learning. The teacher must employ
patience, understanding, and empathy.
Success in remedial work is achieved only when there is a positive interaction
between teacher and child and when the student is strongly motivated toward
reading improvement. Even in group remediation, some individual attention by
the teacher is important. To help the student view reading as enjoyable and
worthwhile, the teacher must present lessons and activities that are as pleasant,
interesting, and meaningful as possible. Sufficient variety helps maintain interest.
However, it is not simply instructional methods that impart positive attitudes and
motivation for reading improvement to children. Of great importance are the
expressed attitudes and observed actions of the teacher; enthusiasm is essential.
A good many poor readers dislike reading due to previous failures. The wise
remedial reading teacher knows how to dramatize progress in order to demon-
strate success. Spoken remarks, written comments or evaluations, and even the
use of stickers or stars provide valuable information to the child about progress
and success. Such feedback should be frequent and honest and should always
stress what the child has done well or any evidence of improvement. Progress
charts may be used on which units of improvement are small enough that pro-
gress can be frequently recorded. Take-home samples of the child's work, sight-
word files, progress charts, and similar materials that illustrate to parents the
child's improvement in reading also help demonstrate success.
We are convinced that well-conceived remedial instruction results in im-
proved reading. Theoretically, the instruction should bring the child up to the
reading grade that is consistent with her learning potential. This should be pos-
sible, except in those cases that are complicated by factors beyond the ability of
the teacher to correct. It is, however, most unusual when a skilled teacher is not
able to bring about a significant improvement in reading, given a reasonable
amount of time.
Plan of This Book

This book discusses a practical approach to reading based on research findings
and sound instructional procedures. Our chief concern is the child who experi-
12 Chapter One
ences difficulty in his attempts to learn to read. We are convinced that both the
classroom teacher and the reading specialist must be equipped to diagnose and
correct reading deficiencies whenever they arise.
We will present the treatment of learning problems in ways that apply to both
the classroom teacher and the reading specialist. Chapter 2 is concerned with the
extent of individual differences and the problems of adjusting instruction to meet
those differences.
The next four chapters deal with diagnosing reading difficulties. Chapter 7
discusses the principles and levels of diagnosis and treats questions to be an-
swered by the diagnostician in analyzing reading difficulties. Chapter 8 describes
specific standardized and informal diagnostic procedures. Chapter 9 examines
the principles involved in using the diagnostic findings to formulate an appropri-
ate educational plan of remediation.
The techniques used in the treatment of word-recognition difficulties are
described in the next four chapters. The techniques used to overcome deficiencies
in basic meaning clues necessary for successful word recognition are discussed in
Chapter 10. Remedial techniques used to correct faulty decoding skills in word
recognition are presented in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 concentrates on the remedial
teaching necessary to deal with the complex reading problems of children with
extreme reading difficulties, and Chapter 13 presents the adjustments needed to
assist the child with reading difficulties who is disabled physically, emotionally,
intellectually, or environmentally.
The last four chapters focus on the problems of basic comprehension abilities
and more specific types of disabilities related to comprehension. Chapter 14
identifies remedial techniques for correcting basic comprehension difficulties.
Chapter 15 deals with remedial treatment for weaknesses in specific comprehen-
sion abilities and basic study skills and with reading materials in several fields of
endeavor. Chapter 16 is concerned with improving inefficient rates of comprehen-
sion and overcoming ineffective oral reading, and Chapter 17 covers ways to
encourage continuous growth in reading by expanding interests in reading, in-
creasing independence, and providing follow-up help.
To help the readers of this book identify antecedents, we have used the labels
remedial teacher and reading specialist according to the phase of work being done,
whether it be by resource teachers, reading specialists, or classroom teachers.
Also, although we have tended to use the word child in our writing, the principles
of diagnosis and treatment are equally applicable to all persons with reading
difficulties, from the early grades to adult.
Chapter 2
Adjusting Instruction
to Individual Differences
The teacher's goal is to provide instruction and learning opportunities in the

classroom that will encourage maximal growth in reading development and in
achievement in all the other outcomes of the curriculum for each child she
instructs. The organization of classroom activities and the adjustment of methods
and materials to the wide variations found among children are two of the most
crucial and complex problems that education must solve.
In any plan of school organization, the teacher is the main contributor to
adjusting instruction in reading to the individual differences among the children
she teaches. The teacher must know the nature of reading growth, the types of
reading difficulties that might impede growth, and the characteristics of each
child that might predispose the child to reading difficulties.
Individual Differences in the Classroom

The classroom teacher needs to be a keen observer and student to follow the
reading growth of all the children. The knowledge she has of each child's general
level of reading capability, while important, is not sufficient for maximum accom-
plishment or for preventing serious reading problems. The teacher must also
study the attainment of specific skills and abilities, so that any faulty learning can
be detected and corrected early and so that any omissions or overemphasis can
be avoided.
A class made up of 25 to 30 children cannot be taught as though all members
of the class had the same interests, desires, intellectual capabilities, or physical
characteristics; nor can it be taught as though they had reached the same levels of
13
14 Chapter Two
attainment in reading or possessed identical instructional needs. Each child must

be given material that is as nearly suitable to his level of reading growth as is
possible. The child must be taught by methods compatible with his characteristics
and capabilities. For him, those phases of reading instruction that demand imme-
diate attention must be emphasized. Reading instruction, to be effective, must
proceed on an individual basis.
The teacher, however, is teaching a class and not just one child. It is her
responsibility to organize instruction so that a class may be taught as a commu-
nity, with all of its members engaged cooperatively in educationally worthwhile
activities. At the same time, instruction must be adjusted to meet the needs and
characteristics of individuals. It must be organized so that, for at least part of the
time, the teacher is free to devote attention to those children needing special
guidance. Adjusting instruction to individual differences in large classes is prob-
ably the most difficult instructional problem faced by the teacher.
Improved Methods and Materials

Fortunately, today's teachers are better prepared to adjust instruction toindivid-
ual differences in reading than were teachers in the past. As a result of research
and classroom practice, the teacher of today is equipped with more and better
teaching techniques. The teacher is an effective caring professional whorealizes
that reading growth is developed gradually over the years in an orderly, system-
atic manner and is facilitated by businesslike, energetic, and organized instruc-
tion.
Today's teachers are more aware of the individual instructional needs of
children than were teachers of the past because there is an ever-increasing diver-
sity of instructional needs in every classroom. Fortunately, children's individual
needs can be diagnosed far better today than formerly. As a result, many serious
reading problems are prevented, and those reading problems that do develop are
corrected more successfully. It is also true that more information is available to
teachers so that they may adjust instructional programs to meet the known needs
of the class.
Basic reading programs, supplementary reading materials, and library and
media center materials, as well as opportunities to work with computers and
other special equipment, provide the resources needed for carefully planned
systematic instruction and for attention to individual needs.
Reasons for Increased Attention to Differences

in Reading
The contemporary teacher is better equipped to adjust instruction to individual
differences than was the teacher of the past. There are several reasons why this is
good. First, awareness of the importance of education and of reading ability in
modern society has caused a greater concern for the reading capability of the
growing child than there has ever been before. Second, children who have diffi-
Adjusting Instruction to Individual Differences
culty reading are no longer allowed to drop out of school. Every child who enters
the first grade is expected to go on developing reading proficiency up to the level
of her capabilities as the child progresses through the elementary and secondary
schools. Third, because the great majority of children progress through secondary
education, reading ability is no longer used as the sole criterion for promotion.
Children now, for the most part, are promoted in school so that they will be with
other children of their own age, interests, and stage of development. This policy,
in some respects, makes the problem of adjusting reading instruction to individ-
ual differences more difficult. Fourth, improved instruction has increased the
need for adjusting instruction to individual rates of growth. The only way to
make children equal in reading ability is not to teach any of them. Then they
would all have the same stature in reading—none of them would be able to read.
But instruction that allows each child to grow as rapidly as she is able encourages
differences in reading capability. Under improved instruction, a wide range of
reading ability can be expected at any grade level. It would be unrealistic to
expect children with divergent interests, with different backgrounds, and with
unequal linguistic ability, physical stamina, hearing ability vision, and intellect to
grow at the same rate in a complicated set of skills and abilities such as those used
in learning to read.
Range in Reading Ability to Be Expected

At any grade level, then, it is reasonable to expect that there will be a wide range
in reading ability. In the fifth grade, for example, it is quite normal to find a 6- or
7-year difference between the least and the most competent reader. This range of
reading ability within a fifth-grade class cannot and should not be prevented, but
it must be recognized and adjustments must be made.
Failure to adjust the material and the instruction to the range of reading
capabilities found within the classroom is a major cause of reading difficulties.
This failure limits the usefulness of the printed page as a tool of learning through-
out the curriculum. The teacher must know how to make appropriate adjust-
ments in class organization and in instruction to meet the range of reading talent
and the variety of instructional needs.
Every teacher is aware that children grow 'in reading capability at different
rates and that in any class there is a wide range of reading capabilities. Teachers
know that there is a vast difference in the difficulty of a paragraph that can be
read and understood by the most able and the least able within the class. Teachers
know that some children read extensively and that others read very little. They
know that many children initiate their own reading activities and that others
must be urged to read. They know that some read books of high quality and
others appear to be satisfied with relatively immature writing. They are aware
that some children read broadly and others confine their readings to a single type
or to what satisfies a single interest.
It is little wonder that children grow at different rates. A child learns to read
with his eyes, ears, energy, background of experience, interests, drives, emotional
16 Chapter Two
stamina, and intelligence. Any differences found within children in any of these
traits will affect the rate at which they learn to read. Teachers know that it is quite
normal for children to have differences in auditory acuity, in physical stamina,
and in intelligence. The problem of adjusting to individual differences is one of
recognizing these differences and their varying rates of growth and, thus, of
adjusting materials and instruction so that the child may be an energetic,comfort-
able learner absorbed in the learning situation The instructional program should
allow the ciil I neither to dawdle nor to be placed in situations that are so difficult
that the child may become confused and discouraged.
Most teachers quickly recognize that individual differences in reading exist
within their classroom. Teacher are also aware that each child varies in his own
reading capabilities. They know that just because a certain child excels in reading
and understanding science, it does not necessarily follow that the same child will
also excel at oral reading of poetry. It is often evident that a child, by grasping the
overall meaning of a sentence, is able to recognize unfamiliar words, even though
his knowledge of phonics remains limited. Another child may have a high degree
of independence in working out words but is unable to group them into thought
units. The extent of these variations, the ways of diagnosing them, and the
importance of making adjustments for individual differences are frequently not
fully understood.
Figure 2—1 illustrates the range of reading abilities found within selected
classrooms at various grade levels for students whose reading instruction was the
responsibility of the classroom teacher. As the graph shows, the range of reading
capabilities increases as students progress through school. The total range be-
tween the best and the poorest reader in the second-grade class is 2 years and 5
months. In the third grade the range is 3 years and 6 months, in the fourth grade
4 years and 8 months, in the fifth grade 6 years and 1 month, and in the sixth
grade 7 years. At the secondary school level, the range of reading becomes very
large indeed. These data approximate the range of reading abilities that is usually
found and that the teacher must be prepared to handle at the various grade levels.
Probably the most important information about a typical class is the great
range in reading talent that is to be found in the upper
and lower third of the class. Also,
the fact that the middle third is relatively homogeneous in reading capability is
important. In Grade 5, for example, the difference between the best and the
poorest reader in the upper third of the distribution is spread overabout 2 years
and 6 months. Some members of this upper third will find themselves comfort-
ablç with books suited to typical students halfway through the fifth grade, while
others can profitably read books appropriate to the early months of Grade 8.
The problem of adjusting to this wide range of reading capabilities makes it
important for the teacher to diversify instructpn for the superior readers. Simi-
larly, the lowest third of a fifth-grade class has a great range of readingabilities—
about 2 years and 5 months. A few of the pupils in this third will find material
suited tp the typical beginning second-grader somewhat difficult. Others within
this lowest third will profitably read material suited to pupils halfway through
Adjusting Instruction to Individual DWerences 17
RANGE
2.5 5.3 6.7 9.5
6.0 I I
I I
6.0
III
LG MG HG
2.0 4.5 5.5 8.1
Ii
5.0
I
5.0
LG MG HG
1.7 3.6 4.4 6.5
4.0
I
4.0
LG MG HG
1.4 2.7 3.3 5.0
3.0 I
3.0
LG MG HG
1.3' 1.82.2 3.8
2,0
II
2.0
LG MG HG
I I
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
LEGEND: LG—Lowest group; MG—Middle group, HG—Highest group
FIGURE 2—1 Range of Reading Ability Found in Selected Classrooms of

Grades 2 through 6 at the Beginning of the School Year
the fourth grade. Thus, the lowest group also needs diversification of instruction
to meet its wide range of reading capabilities.
The problems of adjusting instruction to fit the large range of reading capa-
bilities found in the upper third and in the lowest third of a fifth-grade class are,
however, quite different. The pupils in the upper third of the distribution are
competent, independent readers, and the teacher, in adjusting to their individual
differences, can depend upon their proficiency and their independence. Adjust-
ment to the large range found in the lowest third of the distribution is compli-
cated by the fact that these pupils are somewhat less than competent and are not
independent readers at all. The problem is still more difficult in planning for the
poorer readers because there are not as many reading materials suitable to their
age and interest level or to their reading level. The teacher is fortunate that
superior readers are easily guided to select materials suitable to their reading
abilities, interests, and intellectual capabilities.
Most teachers who use grouping to adjust to individual differences vary the
number of pupils in the reading groups. A teacher might make the middle group
the largest because it is more homogeneous than the other groups, the advanced
group next largest because it is more independent, and the lowest group quite
small because it heeds closer diagnosis and more help.
18 Chapter Tho
Basic Considerations in Adjusting to Individual

Differences in Reading
The problem of adjusting to the wide range of reading capabilities resultingfrom
the different rates of growth found in any classroom has many dimensions. Each
of these dimensions must be considered in formulating programs for adjusting to
individual differences in reading. Among the more important facts to be consid-
ered when formulating an instructional approach are the following:
1. Children are alike in many ways.
2. Children develop in ways other than in reading attainment.
3. Children's development in reading is not always uniform.
4. Reading is a complex learning process.
5. Adjustments to individual differences change through the grades.
6. Adjustments to individual differences change according to the type of read-
ing performed.
7. Adjustments to individual differences change with changes in school organi-
zation.
8. Adjustment to individual differences must be realistic in the time required.
9. Teachers' energy and time for preparation must be considered.
These facts must be recognized in formulating classroom organization and pro-
cedures to adjust to individual differences in reading. They are so crucial that
neglecting any one of them limits the adequacy of the adjustment. Quite obvi-
ously, an adjustment that so dissociates one child from another so that learning is
no longer a shared experience is unwise, an approach that takes more of the
teacher's time in preparation than is reasonable must be rejected, and a method
that freezes a child in a less advanced group so that she cannot advance if her rate
of learning accelerates cannot be recommended. Adjustments toindividual differ-
ences in reading, then, must recognize and provide for the many dimensions of
the problem.
Children Are Alike in Many Ways

A program of adjustment to individual differences in reading must recognize the
similarities as well as the differences among children. Each child in the classroom
is an important individual. Each child has many drives, motives, and desires.
Children of any given age are likely to be interested in many of the same things.
Each child in a class needs to be recognized as an important member of the
classroom community. The poor reader, as well as the good one, must have
friends and be an integral part of the class, must make contributions to the class,
and must not be forced into a position of inferiority Every child shouldbe helped
to preserve feelings of personal worth. All children need to feel that they are
progressing and continually becoming better readers, even though some may
recognize that their rate of growth in reading is somewhat slower than that of
Adjusting Instruction to Individual Differences
other children. When each child is of recognized personal worth, each will have
a feeling of confidence, security and well-being that will encourage comfortable
and efficient growth in reading for all children.
Children Develop in Ways Other than in

Reading Attainment
Any adjustments must take into account the many characteristics of child growth
and development besides level of attainment in reading. Children are changing
in physical size, in social adaptability, and in interests. They are developing
proficiencies in many skills and abilities.
It is sometimes suggested that within a school system, children could be
grouped placing all those with the same reading needs in the same classroom.
The teacher could then use more uniform approaches in teaching them. The
problem with this grouping plan is that differences between children within
classrooms would soon become apparent. The children might be equal in reading
capability at the onset of instruction, but they would soon become heterogeneous.
The differences in rates of reading growth would show up almost immediately.
Moreover, children grouped according to reading ability would not be similar in
many other characteristics. There would be almost as great a range in chronologi-
cal age within a group classified according to reading ability as there is now in
reading ability among children classified according to chronological age. Meth-
ods of adjustment, then, that place children of different ages and interest levels
within the same classroom are unfortunate. Programs of adjustment that keep
children, as nearly as possible, with others at their own levels of overall develop-
ment are the ones that are most likely to succeed. Adjustment to individuel
differences in reading will have to be done in ways other than homogeneous
grouping according to reading ability at any level of instruction.
Childrens' Development in Reading Is Not

Always Uniform
Any adjustment that does not provide for moving the child from one group to
another is unwise. One child, for example, may find reading a very difficult
undertaking at the outset, but as the child progresses, his rate of growth may be
accelerated. This child may have high general intelligence but be limited in
auditory acuity. At the beginning, the child would find the establishment of
word-recognition techniques somewhat difficult. As a result, his growth in read-
ing would be slow. But as the program advanced and as the role of reasoning
became increasingly important, his rate of growth in reading would accelerate.
Another child might start out being relatively good in the reading program, as
long as building basic sight vocabulary and word-recognition techniques was the
important determinant of success. But if this child was somewhat limited in the
more complex reasoning abilities, such as the ability to make accurate judgments
20 Chapter Two
and to visualize what is read, his rate of growth would taper off as the program,
at more mature levels, began to emphasize these abilities.
The correlation between intelligence and reading ability at the end of the first
grade is approximately .50 (Bond & Dykstra, 1967). The relationship rises through
the grades (Rubin, 1982, p. 50), to approximately .70 at the upper elementarylevel
and .80 at the high school level. To the extent that organization within the class-
room allows the child to grow comfortably and energetically in reading, and
remains flexible enough to adjust to varying rates of growth, progress canbe
optimized.
Reading Is Complex Learning

Reading ability is not a specific or single attribute. It is made of a hierarchy of
many skills and abilities, attitudes, and tastes. A well-rounded basic reading
program encourages relatively uniform growth in the many components of read-
indicates that no child devel-
ing ability. Nonetheless, a study of reading profiles
ops skills, abilities, attitudes, interests, and tastes in the same manner. There will
be marked differences in degree of maturity of reading development in the
various outcomes of reading instruction.
A fifth-grade child, for example, may show as great a difference as3 or 4 years
between her most mature reading capability and her least mature one. She may
have a high degree of proficiency in using word-recognition techniques,'buther
ability to read or to understand the fundamental idea in a selection may be
relatively immature. Or the child may, given an unlimited amount of time, be able
to work out words independently as well as the usual seventh grader, while her
efficiency in understanding what the passage is about may onlybe equal to that
of the beginning third grader. Another child may be relatively efficient in reading
material of the narrative type, but may be relatively inefficient in reading exposi-
tory materials in particular content areas. Uneven profiles of reading, produced
by the complex nature of learning, are unfortunate and indicate the need for
corrective work.
The child is rare whose areas of best and worst performances in the complex
task of learning to read are separated by less than a year. The reading program
must be flexible enough to adjust to the differences in reading capabilities found
in the individual child. The program cannot be so formalizedthat the adjustments
cannot vary according to the type of reading done at a given time. The child who
has difficulty understanding the general idea of a passage should get consider-
ably more emphasis on that type of reading than shedoes on the development of
word recognition in the basic program. Similarly, the child who reads narrative
text satisfactorily but is poor at reading text from a particular content area must
have the level of difficulty of the latter material adjusted to the developmentof
her comprehension abilities and to the application of these to reading material in
that area.
A reading program designed to meet the individual needs ofchildren must
take into account not only the range of general reading achievementfound within
Adjusting Instruction to Individual Differences 21
a classroom, but also the characteristics of each child's reading growth pattern.
Undoubtedly, the complex nature of reading and the resultant unevenness in
children's growth in reading make adjusting to individual differences in reading
difficult. Teachers who are successful in meeting the individual reading needs of
their students must be aware of the reading attainments of each student and must
employ teaching methods that allow for individual adjustments.
Adjustments to Individual Differences Change

through the Grades
The problem of adjusting to individual differences changes in at least three ways
during the school years. First, the range of reading capability found within any
classroom increases as the pupils become more and more proficient in reading.
Recall that a beginning second-grade class has a range of reading capability of
about 21/2 years, while a beginning sixth-grade class has a range of approximately
7 years. The range increases at each higher grade level, through high school and
beyond. This difference in range does not necessarily mean that the teacher at
_4dgher grade levels has more difficult problems adjusting to individual differ-
nces than do teachers at lower grade levels. It does mean, however, that there
will have to be a greater difference between the levels of difficulty in the
materials used. An inspection of the difference between the material that the
average fourth grader can read and the material that the average sixth grader
can read will not be as apparent as the difference between the material that an
average second-grade child can read and the material that a child approximately
halfway through the first grade can read. The rate of reading growth during the
early grades is very rapid, and the fineness of adjustment required to meet thç
reading capabilities within a second-grade class is more demanding than the
adjustment needed to meet the range of reading capabilities in the sixth grade or
beyond.
The second way in which adjustment to individual differences changes
through the grades is found in the relative independence of students at the higher
levels, as contrasted with children in the second grade. Teachers in the first and
second grades have very few who can be called independent readers, while
teachers at higher grade levels find an increasing proportion of independent
J readers. Although there are many independent readers at upper grade levels, this
does not mean that adjustment to individual needs is not necessary but it does
mean that teachers can rely more upon individual assignments and small-group
activities that can be completed independently of assistance. In the basic reading
program, however, in which skills and abilities are developed, the problem of the
sixth-grade teacher is similar to that of the second-grade teacher.
The need for basic reading instruction is not diminished as the child ad-
vances. The teacher of the intermediate grades must be alert to the need for
adjusting to the level of development in each child's reading skills and abilities.
The teacher must be aware of the need for adjusting to the child's range of
capabilities, of the importance of identifying his reading needs, and of giving
22 Chapter Two
systematic
instruction to ensure balanced growth. It cannot be overemphasized
that a systematic, well-organized program of instruction in reading is essential to
the intermediate grades. Incidental reading instruction with, for example, social
studies material will not suffice.
Another way in which adjustment to individual differences changes as stu-
dents progress is in the amount of available and suitable reading material. The
teacher in the intermediate grades has more material, at various levels, for the
range of reading talent found within these grades than does the primary teacher.
The secondary teacher has an even wider range of materials from which to
choose. It must be remembered that even the poorest group of readers in a
sixth-grade class are just as mature readers as the most competent readers in a
beginning second-grade class.
In formulating programs for adjusting to individual differences, it isessential
to recognize the changes that occur throughout the school years. It is fortunate
that as the range of reading capability increases, the independenceof the children
in the class is increasing and that there is a wider selection of suitable materials
available. It also should be remembered that at all levels of instructionthere is an
abundance of materials suitable for the capable readers. The problem is difficult
only for the poor readers. Fortunately, the number of materials suitable for poor
readers increases in the higher grades.

According to the Type of Reading Performed
The child, at all levels of advancement, must have at least four types of reading
experiences to become a proficient reader. First, the child must progress through
a systematic set of reading experiences designed to show her how to read. Sec-
ond, the child must participate in those reading experiences inwhich reading is
used as an aid in gaining understanding and knowledge within subject matter
areas. Third, the child must have reading experiences designed to enhance per-
sonal development, interests, and tastes. These are experiences that give broad
contacts with children's literature, enhance understanding of self, enlarge aware-
ness of social relationships, and develop aesthetic appreciations. Fourth, the child
must have experiences designed to correct reading. faults. This phase of the
program can be described as reeducative or corrective. There is probably no child
who, from time to time, does not have reading faults or who does not need more
practice in some reading skill or ability.
The adjustment to individual needs and capabilities in each of these phases
of the reading program is a different problem. Adjustments suitable for one phase
of the reading curriculum are not necessarily good for another. If the child's goal
is to develop skills and abilities in reading, the adjustment to individual differ-
ences in reading is different than if the goal is to understand content. The goals
set by the teacher in these two situations are different. When the teacher is
teaching social studies, his primary concern is developing the outcomes of social
studies instruction, even though the children are using books for that purpose.
Adjusting Instruction to Individual Dferences 23
When the teacher is teaching reading, his primary concern must be the develop-
ment of skills and abilities in reading, even though the children may be reading
material of the social studies type in their basic readers. It would be unfortunate
if teachers thought that reading skills and abilities could be learned incidentally
when the basic purpose is learning the subject matter of any given content area.
It would be equally unfortunate if the basic reading program failed to give
systematic instruction in the skills and abilities necessary to read materials in
those areas.
In sum, adjustment in the four types of reading experience is dictated by the
results expected and the use of reading. In the basic reading program, some form
of group instruction is advisable. In the second type—reading in other branches
of the curriculum—it is desirable for groups of children to work cooperatively on
topics within a unit of the curriculum. In reading for personal development, a
highly individualized approach emphasizing the "right book for the right child"
is most feasible. When children who have similar interests form a reading circle
to share comments on the books they are reading, they will expand and enrich
their enjoyment of reading.
In the reeducation or corrective phase of the program, the skill that needs
attention prescribes the type of instruction needed and who among the children
should work together. Much of the controversy over the most effective way to
adjust to individual differences stems from the fact that proponents of one type
of adjustment over another are actually concerned with one particular phase of
the reading program that especially interests them. It should be remembered that
the phases are not completely discrete. For example, when the children have a
social studies lesson, the teacher may discern that certain of them are having
difficulty finding places on a map and may surmise that the cause of their
difficulty is that they are ineffective in interpreting the marginal key numbers and
letters. The teacher would then call these children aside and reeducate them in
the skill needed in map reading. Although this skill was covered in the basic
reading program, these children failed to learn it.

with Changes in School Organization
As the child progresses through the grades, the school organization changes. The
usual type of organization in the primary grades is a self-contained classroom. A
single teacher is responsible for learning activities in the primary class. This
changes in the intermediate grades. In most school systems, there are special
teachers for music, art, physical education, and other specialized areas. In some
school systems, there are departmentalized arrangements in which teachers de-
vote their entire day to teaching arithmetic, reading, or some other subject. In
most secondary schools, the students have different teachers for each subject.
In the secondary school, understanding a student as fully as is necessary for
adjusting to his reading needs is more difficult than in the primary grades. This
is so because the secondary school teacher may be teaching as many as 150
24 Chapter TWo
teacher lives
different students in five classes for an hour a day, while the primary
rather closely with some 25 or more children during the day. It is fortunate that
reading growth begins when the teacher and children live and work together
throughout the entire day, because a detailed understanding of the child's inter-
ests, needs, drives, and levels of reading competency is necessary if proper
provision for his reading needs is to be made. The application of this detailed
information is crucial when the child is a relatively immature and dependent
learner.
As stated, differences in school organization can complicate the problem of
recommending adjustments to individual differences. In the secondary school,
the need for guidance programs to collect information about the students and to
see that it reaches the teachers who must make the adjustments has to be fulfilled.
This is not so essential a recommendation in the primary grades, for the teacher
in this case can observe the children throughout the year.
Adjustment to Individual Differences Must Be

Realistic in the Time Required
In considering suitable methods of adjusting to individual differences in reading,
the time required becomes exceedingly important. The time that can be devoted
to basic instruction in reading, for example, is limited. At all levels of instruction,
other learning is taking place during the school day, and the efficient use of time
in all school activities is fundamental. Reading is no exception. Those methods of
adjustment, then, that make undue demands on either the teacher's instructional
time or the class's working time must be rejected. A teacher must organize her
class in the most efficient way. She cannot, for example, devote her entire time to
developing reading skills and abilities for just one child at the expense of the
other members of the class, no matter how urgent the child's need.
Programs that recommend that each child have a different book for her
individual needs for basic instruction are unrealistic. It is necessary for the
teacher, in developing reading skills and abilities, to introduce the material, to
establish purposes, to develop a background, to introduce new vocabulary, to
and to discuss the selection after it is
guide reading through pertinent questions,
read. The new words must be related to previously learned words in order to
develop word-recognition techniques, and the selectionmust be used creatively
so that the children feel they have completed the experience. Faced with such
instructional demands, it is apparent that the teacher cannot have each child
reading a different book while she is teaching the class to develop skills and
abilities in reading. There simply would not be enough time. If we assume that
the teacher devotes an hour a day to systematic instructionin reading develop-
ment, she would have somewhat less than 2 minutes in which to accomplish the
fundamentals of reading instruction for each different selection that some 25
children were reading.
Because of the time factor, some form of grouping for basic readinginstruc-
tion is recommended. It must be recognized that even if the class is divided into
three groups, each reading a different topic, the teacher who devotes an hour a
day to basic reading instruction must divide her time among each of the three
groups. Whatever method of adjusting to individual differences in reading is
adopted, the efficient use of the teacher's and the class's time must receive careful
consideration.
The Teacher's Energy and Time for Preparation

Must Be Considered
Methods of adjusting to individual differences and of adopting a class organiza-
tion must be realistic in their demands on the teacher. Sometimes it is suggested,
for example, that teachers prepare the exercises to correct faulty learning or to
reinforce skills and abilities that the children have only partially learned. These
recommendations are justified. But if the teacher were to prepare materials to
meet all of the reeducative or practice needs of a class of 25 pupils, he would need
more than a 24-hour day. The use of commercially prepared supplementary
materials suitable to the child's level of development is recommended as one
means of saving the teacher's energy and preparation time.
In certain methods of group instruction in the basic reading program, the
teacher is expected to teach three discrete sections in reading and therefore is
expected to make three preparations. These involve the collection of pictures and
other means of developing readiness, background, interest, and understanding of
word meanings. They also include analyses of the stories or selections to be read
by each group and the preparation necessary to develop the specific comprehen-
sion abilities and word-recognition techniques for three separate lessons. They
entail finding three separate sets of related reading materials and planning three
separate activities related to what is being read.
Although there are many plans for adjusting to individual differences in
reading, whichever is used, the fact that the teacher is a person whose time and
energy are not unlimited must be taken into account. The fact that children like
to work and do things cooperatively must also be recognized. It must be remem-
bered when formulating the approach to basic reading instruction that they are
growing in many ways other than in reading capability, that their reading devel-
opment is not necessarily uniform, that reading is very complex learning, and
that class time is limited. All these considerations have to be taken into account
when planning adjustments to individual rates of growth in reading.
Meeting Individual Differences in Reading

A major responsibility of the school is to help each child develop to the limit of
his capabilities. Any failure in the instructional program to adjust to individual
differences in reading has two effects: First, failure to adjust materials and meth-
ods in reading instruction to the range of reading capabilities found within any
classroom impedes growth in reading; second, failure to adjust the difficulty of
26 Chapter Tho
reading material to the known reading capabilities of individual pupils in the

classroom reduces the usefulness of printed material as an aid to learning in
all areas. In addition, material that does not challenge the capable learners in
the various subject matter areas limits the possibility of superior achievement
in those areas for the brighter children and also limits their growth in read-
ing. Exposing the less able readers to materials that are too difficult reduces
the usefulness of printed material as an aid to learning for them, and it can
cause serious confusions and rejection of reading, thereby causing reading diffi-
culties.
The entire reading curriculum of the children in a classroom must be adjusted
to their individual reading capabilities if the printed page is to become an effec-
tive tool of learning and if reading problems are to be prevented. A fifth-grade
child, for example, who can read material of seventh-grade difficulty with ease
and accomplishment should have many reading experiences at that level of
difficulty A fifth-grade child who is unable to read third-grade material comfort-
ably will not accomplish much from holding a fifth-grade book inhis hands and
staring at it. This child would accomplish much more by reading a book more
appropriate to his reading capabilities.
Individual differences in reading must be provided for throughout the cur-
riculum if textual material is to become an effective aid to learning for all the
members of the class and if maximum growth in reading is to be achieved. The
adjustment of instruction to individual differences in reading is morethan just an
approach: It is a combination of approaches and adaptations of methods of
instruction that encourages individual rates of growth.
The various approaches to meeting individual differences in teaching reading
are difficult to discuss and evaluate, because each phase of the reading curricu-
lum has special problems. The basic program in reading is probably the most
complex in the curriculum in adjusting to individual differences. This phase of
the curriculum must assume responsibility for developing, in an orderly, sequen-
tial manner, the skills and abilities needed for success in all other reading activi-
ties. Adjustment to individual differences in the basic reading program must be
such that there is little chance for gaps in learning, for overemphases resulting in
loss of balance among the skills and abilities, and for the persistence of faulty
habits with consequent confusion and deterioration of reading progress. When
reading is used as an aid to learning, adjusting to individual differences is con-
siderably less complex and resolves itself into bringing children andbooks to-
gether realistically so that the topics under consideration can be studied
effectively. In reading for personal development, the problem is still less complex.
This phase of the reading curriculum can be individual, with guided reading
programs in which children and books are brought together according to each
child's level of reading maturity, interests, personal growth, and needs. Neither
an orderly sequence of skill development nor the knowledge and understanding
of a curricular field needs to be considered. The sole problem here is that of
guiding each child into books that can be read comfortably and with pleasure and
that develop him as a person.
Adjusting Instruction to Individual Dfferences 27
The importance of finding suitable material for every situation cannot be

overemphasized. In all reading, the child must have material that he can read
effectively. At times there should be material with which he must struggle, but he
must be able to win. In this way, the child will increase stature in reading. More
often, the child must read material that causes little or no difficulty It is through
such reading that the child gains fluency and the ability to understand the ideas
of the author.
In the basic reading program, the difficulty of the material is ever increasing.
As soon as the child is comfortable reading, the difficulty is increased so that the
learner is continually challenged. Fortunately, material is introduced well, diffi-
culties are anticipated, and instruction on how to proceed is given.
Material that the child reads independently in other phases of the curriculum
should be somewhat less difficult than those in his basic reading program. This
is especially true of the guided reading program. The teacher does not have time
to give the necessary instruction in reading for 25 different references. The mate-
rials for learning subject matter and those for personal development should be at
such a level of difficulty that they can be studied and read independently without
faulty reading.
There are many ways in which the problem of adjusting to individual differ-
ences in the program of basic instruction in reading can be attacked. Many
administrative and curricular plans involving schoolwide adjustments have been
tried. Some of the better known are ability grouping among the classes according
to intelligence, reading capability, or average achievement; yearly retention or
advancement based upon overall educational advancement or reading achieve-
ment; continuous growth or ungraded primary plans in which the child is advanced
to a higher reading level upon completion of the current reading program; team
teaching, which involves a large group of children taught together by sever'al
teachers in one large room for many lessons and then separately for reading
instruction according to level of advancement; and special rooms, where children
of like reading maturity are taught reading, but for the rest of the day are in the
regular classroom with other children of their own ages. As yet, an adequate
solution to the problem has not been found, and maybe it never will be.
Flexible grouping plans are very likely the best and most widely used ap-
proaches in adjusting to individual differences in reading. In the basic reading
program, in which an orderly introduction of reading skills and abilities is essen-
tial and a gradual expansion of vocabulary is demanded, it is likely that for
certain parts of the instruction, three reading groups are desirable. There can be
no method of promotion or any static method of grouping that will solve the
problem. When grouping is flexible, many of the difficulties are avoided, and
grouping becomes one of the best single means of individualizing instruction in
reading.
Grouping procedures must be flexible in three ways. First, the group formed
for basic reading instruction should be used for that phase of the curriculum only,
and the children should be regrouped according to need in other phases of the
curriculum. Second, the children who need instruction in a certain reading skill
28 Chapter Th,o
or ability should form a temporary instructional group, even if they come from
different basic reading groups. Third, a child should be able to move readily from
one group to another if he improves in reading ability enough to bebetter suited
to a more advanced group. A child also should be able to move to a less advanced
group without stigma if he has been absent or if, for any other reason, he needs
to be with a less mature reading group. A child may even meet with two groups
for a time.
When the children use reading as an aid to learning subject matter, the class
often benefits by working together as well as by working in cooperative interest
groups. There is a continuing need for material, differentiated in difficulty, in
learning subject matter, so that the individual differences in reading can be met
realistically and practically. When reading children's literature, it is often wise to
have the entire class working together. A book shared by the teacher or librarian
through reading aloud or through a book talk could involve the entire class. In
the reeducative phase of the reading program, the entire class might profit from
a demonstration of a word-recognition technique and could be taught together.
Instruction with multiple, flexible grouping and with materials that allow
each child to participate actively while working with material he can read will do
much to allow children to grow in reading at the best rate for each. When
adjustments to levels of reading capability are combined with attention to indi-
vidual needs, the teaching of reading can be adjusted to individual differences.
This instruction will do much to prevent minor misunderstandings from accumu-
lating to the point at which the child becomes confused and develops reading
difficulties.
This administrative plan for meeting individual differences is designed to
give a good teacher a more reasonable chance of making the necessary adjust-
ments. But no matter what arrangement is adopted, the crux of the adjustments
lies in the ability of the teacher to diagnose the needs of the children and to be
ready to provide whatever corrective help is needed.
Diagnostic Teaching in the Classroom

The effectiveness of diagnostic teaching is based on the extent to which the
teacher knows each child within the classroom. In order to attain maximum
growth in reading and to avoid confusions in learning, the teacher mustbe aware
of and adjust to each child's capacities, physiological condition, emotional and
social adjustments, interests, attitudes, and general level of reading ability.
Besides these personal, cognitive, and physical characteristics, the teacher
must know the child's reading development. It is to the child's growth in the
specific skills and abilities in reading, above all else, that the instructional pro-
gram must be geared. Diagnostic teaching is based on an understanding of the
reading strengths and needs of each child. This knowledge must be used to modify
instructional procedures so that teaching, adjusted to the changing needs of the
children, can be maintained. Such teaching centers on continuous diagnosis of the
skill development of each child and on flexibility in instruction so that the teacher
can alter the general procedures or methods to meet the specific needs of the
individual.
One child may find most learning relatively easy, but some difficult and time
consuming. Another child may find the knowledge of sound-symbol relation-
ships relatively easy to learn, whereas she may acquire little skill in using mean-
ing clues to recognize words. In the same class with the same instruction, yet
another child may quickly develop too much dependence upon meaning clues
and too little skill in sound-symbol relationships. Fortunately, most children
maintain a rather consistent balance among the essential skills and abilities of
reading and need only a small and infrequent amount of attention to maintain
growth. Even for these children, however, the teacher should be alert to neglected
skills or knowledge. Sometimes, serious disabilities are simply the result of minor
confusions that have been allowed to continue.
Most children maintain consistent, reasonable achievement in reading. These
children are helped if the teacher recognizes their minor deviations from effec-
tive, balanced reading growth and gives added or modified instruction to over-
come any faulty or inadequate learning. Some children require more careful and
continuous diagnosis than do others. Children who have more complex difficul-
ties learning to read make up only a small percentage of those being taught.
Usually there are no more than 2 or 3 in a classroom of 25 children. In these
instances, more thorough and time-consuming appraisals may be needed. Such
children may also require a more intensive program of remediation. Some of their
difficulties may be too time consuming or too complex to be diagnosed and
corrected by the classroom teacher. However, a thorough diagnosis of a particular
child's reading problem, accompanied by an appropriate individual educational plai,z
of remediation made by a reading specialist, will enable the classroom teacher to
correct the difficulty without interfering with the progress of the rest of the class.
In other cases, the child can be served best in a reading center. These are decisions
that must be made cooperatively by the classroom teacher and the reading spe-
cialist.
Every child's reading growth must be appraised continuously if her progress
is to be at a high level and if any confusion is to be detected before the more
stubborn problems develop. Work samples, always present in the day-by-day
teaching and learning activities of a class, enable the expert teacher to gain
familiarity with each child's needs. More systematic observations may be made
through informal diagnosis or standardized testing. In studying the children's
reading patterns, the teacher uses many sources of information to decide on the
instructional modifications. These sources will be discussed later in the book.
Many teachers keep a diagnostic notebook in which they list the children
within each instructional group. As the teacher studies each child's reading pat-
tern, he makes a notation of any reading characteristic that might limit the child's
reading growth and of any indication of visual difficulty, auditory limitation,
negative attitude, tendency toward fatigue, or anything else he observes. For
example, a teacher might notice that one child, poor in comprehension, is a
30 Chapter Two
word-by-word reader; another child, good in using analytical skills, is ineffective

in using context clues as an aid to word recognition; a third child has a limited
meaning vocabulary; another reads rapidly, but with many inaccuracies,because
of uncertainty about initial blends and digraphs; still another child reads slowly
because he overarticulates as he reads; and another has excellent word-recogni-
tion capabilities and is able to comprehend all the details in a passage, but is
relatively ineffective in organizing, evaluating, and reflecting on whatshe has
read. The teacher rightly feels that all of these types of problems can be corrected
while teaching the group as a whole.
The expert teacher makes individual adjustments in the regular reading
lessons. As the children progress through the reading lesson, the teacher has
many opportunities to give each one the experiences needed to overcome particu-
lar problems.
Knowing the results of all the appraisals, including his daily observations,the
teacher is able to modify the general approach to reading so as to adjust instruc-
tion. The more diversified the approach, the greater is the opportunity for the
teacher to make such adjustments. This may be one reason why combined ap-
proaches to reading prove more effective than do narrow programs.
Most reading lessons can be separated into introductory, guided reading, and
follow-up phases. During the introductory phase, which includes introducingthe
lesson, developing concepts and word meanings, introducing unknown word
patterns, and setting purposes for reading a selection, instructional adjustments
can be made to help children with certain types of reading problems. In the
guided silent reading and discussion phase, other types of instructional modifi-
cations are possible. During the follow-up phase of teaching the lesson, which
includes exercises to develop specific skills and abilities and related recreational
and self-selected reading, there are many other opportunities for fulfilling indi-
vidual needs.
During the introductory phase of teaching a selection, the teacher givesthe
child who is weak in the use of context clues more opportunities to select, from
among the new words being introduced, those that fit the context of oral sen-
tences or those presented on the chalkboard. The teacher gives the child having
difficulty with initial blends more opportunities to work on those presentations
that emphasize the similarity of initial blends in known and unknown words. The
child with a limited meaning vocabulary should discuss the pictures and concepts
for clarification of word meanings. She should be encouraged to attend to the
meanings of all words introduced, so that the habit of attending to words and
their meanings is fostered. When the purposes for reading are being developed,
children limited in specific types of comprehension should be given more oppor-
tunities to discuss how to read for a specific purpose. The teacher might even
adjust the purpose for reading. For example, the child who reads to note details,
but is poor in reflecting on what is read, might be asked to read a selection in
order to tell in one sentence what it was about or to write a title for it.
During the guided reading and discussion phase, the teacher might call upon
the children to relate some of the content of the selection. If there is a misconcep-
tion, the teacher should use this as an instructional opportunity to correct the
faulty reading, instead of calling upon another child for the correct response. The
teacher should have the child who made the mistake find the place where the idea
was presented and then determine with her how the error came about. In this
way, the error could be used to help the child overcome the problem.
In the follow-up phase, the teacher has unlimited scope in adapting to indi-
vidual needs. In the skill and ability exercises prepared by the teacher, emphasis
can be placed where it is needed. In the skill development workbooks, the teacher
may excuse a child who depends too much on context clues from those exercises
emphasizing their use. Or the word-by-word reader may be excused from word-
drill exercises and be encouraged to prepare a conversational selection for read-
ing aloud, stressing reading the selection the way people talk.
Most of these adjustments are made by the classroom teacher who is sensitive
to the needs of each child and who makes modifications to correct any confusion
before it becomes seriously limitingto the child's future growth. Such a teacher
is a diagnostic teacher. If this kind of teaching is coupled with a flexible grouping
plan, the broad use of children's literature, and a stimulating learning environ-
ment in which children feel free to participate and express themselves, the read-
ing program will provide maximum growth for all and will limit the frequency
of reading difficulties, because it is the teacher who makes the difference in adjusting
to individual differences. The classroom teacher, however, cannot be expected to
solve all problems in reading instruction. His work must be supplemented, for
each child who needs it, with a diagnostic and remedial program. The classroom
teacher cannot spend the time necessary to correct the more complex reading
problems. Therefore, every school should have the services of a reading specialist.
The reading specialist has three responsibilities: being a consultant, a diagnosti
clan, and a remedial teacher. The classroom teacher's responsibilities are to pre-
vent reading problems, to aid in their early detection, and to carry out those
corrective procedures appropriate to the classroom. It is our fervent hope that this
book will aid both the classroom teacher and the reading specialist in helping all
pupils to become more effective readers.
Summary
One of the most complex problems confronting the teacher is that of adjusting
instruction to individual differences in reading. The children within any class-
room vary greatly in reading maturity, reading habits, intellectual capabilities,
and physical characteristics. The teacher must organize the class and the instruc-
tion so that each child can work up to capacity. The teachers of today are better
equipped, with better professional training, improved materials, and more effec-
tive assessment procedures necessary for making adjustments, than were the
teachers of the past.
The range of reading abilities found in any classroom is large. The better the
instruction and the longer it continues, the greater will be the range in reading
32 Chapter Two
achievement. If the instruction is excellent, not only will the average reading
performance of the class be raised, but also, the range of reading achievement
within the class will become greater. Each succeeding year of instruction increases
the range of reading achievement within the class. There will be extensive over-
lapping in the reading capabilities found in the various grades. Indeed, there is
so much that the teacher, at any grade level, must be able to fulfill the reading
needs of the children for grades above and below the one she is teaching. If the
teacher organizes the class into three instructional groups, the range within the
upper and the lower groups will still be so great that further grouping is required.
Adjustment to the upper group is somewhat easier than it is to the lower group
because of the reading competence and independence of the children in the upper
group and the greater availability of appropriate materials for them.
Among the more important considerations in meeting individual differences
in reading are the similarities and differences in children, the nature of individual
reading development, the complexities in learning to read, the changes of ap-
proach due to differences in curriculum and school organization, the differences
at the various grade levels, and the need for realistic use of class time and
teachers' energies.
The need for adjusting to individual differences in reading throughout the
entire curriculum makes adaptation somewhat more complicated than adjusting
to the basic reading program alone. The methods and class organization effective
for one type of reading will not always be good for another. The types of reading
may be classified roughly as basic instruction in reading, reading and study in
other phases of the curriculum, independent personal development or recrea-
tional reading, and reeducative or remedial reading. These phases of reading are
not completely separate. In general, the approaches to individual differences used
in them are different, arid much of the controversy over methods stems from the
fact that the proponents of one approach over another are emphasizing different
phases of reading instruction.
Some approaches that have been tried include retention, curriculum adjust-
ment plans, fixed grouping plans, and flexible grouping plans. Among these, the
flexible grouping plans, utilizing materials written on many levels of difficulty
seem to have the most promise. Whatever approach is used, the teacher should
be sure that groups are not fixed, but can be adjusted to facilitate the outcomes
expected from the instruction. Also, the number and size of the groupsshould be
compatible with the maturity and independence of the children. In many in-
stances, the groups should be reading about a topic of concern to the entire class,
and the best and the poorest readers should have opportunities to work together.
Notwithstanding the type of school and classroom organization used to aid
the teacher in adjusting to differences in reading growth, the skill of the teacher
is the most important factor. The crux of meeting the individual differences found
among children lies in the ability of the teacher to diagnose the needs of the
children and to correct their minor confusions in reading before these confusions
become major. Even under the best classroom instruction, a limited number of
Adjusting Instruction to Individual Dfferences 33
pupils develop reading difficulties that can be solved only by special diagnostic
and remedial procedures.
Study Questions
1. Why is adjusting to individual differences important?
2. Why might accommodating individual differences in reading be easier for a
teacher in the higher grades than for a teacher in the lower grades, even
though the range of reading achievement is much greater as the students
reach the higher grades?
3. If students were grouped according to their reading achievements, why
would individual differences still be an important concern?
4. What are the four types of reading experiences necessary for proficient read-
ing? For each type, describe a whole-class and a small-group activity that
would provide a helpful reading experience.
5. Why should children be grouped for reading instruction?
6. What is a diagnostic teacher?
Selected Readings
Gilet, J. W, & Temple, C. (1990). Understanding reading problems: Assessment and instruction
(3rd ed.) (pp. 1—8). Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Harris, A. J., & Sipay, E. R. (1990). How to increase reading ability (9th ed.) (pp. 117—149). New
York: Longman.
Jewell, M. G., & Zintz, M. V. (1986). Learning to read naturally. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
National Institute of Education. (1985). Becoming a nation of readers. Washington, DC:
Author.
Rupley, W. H., & Blair, T. R. (1989). Reading diagnosis and remediation (3rd ed.) (pp. 3—17).
Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Chapter
Description of Children with
Reading Disabilities
Most children grow in reading in a reasonable fashion, with a relatively desirable

pattern of reading abilities. Their reading achievement is, in general, consistent
with their overall learning capability. These children's instructional needs can be
met effectively by the classroom teacher using the approaches suggested in Chap-
ter 2 for adjusting to individual differences in reading. There are some children,
however, whose reading growth is so atypical, so different from that of the usual
child, that they may be said to have a reading disability. These children constitute
an instructional challenge. Often, the classroom teacher can assess their disability
and give them the corrective or reeducative help that they need, so that they can
continue to progress in reading. At other times, these children become so con-
fused that they require more time for individual help than the classroom teacher
can devote to them. In both instances, the nature and severity of the disability
determine whether or not individual help is warranted.
In considering the nature of a reading disability, it is necessary to isolate the
group of children to be discussed, define them, explain the characteristics that set
them apart from the general population, and describe the categories into which
they fall.
The child with a reading disability cannot be described as one whose reading
ability is below his achievement in other school subjects. Although some such
readers can be so described, the majority will be low both in reading and in
general achievement. This is true because poor reading ability so limits other
achievement, that it is the rare child who can attain success in school in spite of
having a reading disability. It also is important to note that the child who is low
in both reading and general achievement may or may not have a reading disabil-
35
36 Chapter Three
ity. A child may be poor in reading and poor in the other school subjects for
reasons other than a disability in reading.
The child who has a reading disability jeopardizes his educational career. Not
only is the child's educational growth impeded, but frequently, his reading pat-
terns are so confused that future growth in reading becomes improbable. Such a
child is ineffective in using print as an aid to learning. He is often a discouraged
student who thoroughly dislikes reading. In many cases, he becomes so frus-
trated over his inability to read that his personal adjustment suffers. He may feel
quite anxious while reading or may sometimes demonstrate maladaptive adjust-
ment in general.
Alberto illustrated his dislike of reading when he said, "1 don't want to read
about a boy that has a boat. I want to have one myself." Many children who have
trouble reading complain about the material not meeting their needs, but when
they can read the same material with ease, they find a new interest.
Amy displayed a functional disorder when it became apparent that she could
not read even for 2 or 3 minutes without developing a headache and an upset
stomach. She claimed to have eye trouble, although this could not be detected by
thorough examination. She would work on puzzle-type material andnumbers for
long periods of time with no signs of visual discomfort or stomach unrest. After
she attained success in reading by careful, individually planned work based on a
complete diagnosis, she showed no signs of her former disorders. Not all children
who both read poorly and have poor personal adjustment can be said to be that
way as a result of poor growth in reading. Sometimes the child is disturbed for
other reasons, and reading suffers along with other achievements.
Typically, the child with a reading disability is a child of intellectual capability
who has (for reasons to be discussed in the chapters that follow) failed to grow in
reading. The child is not living up to potential as a learner in reading. He is likely
to be ineffective in all that is expected in school and may reject reading, become
discouraged, acquire maladaptive adjustment patterns, and become increasingly
less able to learn. He is in need of educational help.
Identifying Children with Reading Disabilities

The problem confronting us here is different from the one discussed in the
preceding chapter. The identification of children with reading disabilities is much
more complicated than sectioning a class into reading groups or even finding the
right level at which to start instruction for each child in a class. A reading test
alone is not enough to identify these children in a school. There are many poor
readers in every class who cannot be classified as having a reading disability and
there are some seemingly adequate readers who nonetheless do have such a
disability. Therefore, we must discuss the factors that need to be considered in
order to determine whether a pupil has a reading disability or is just a poor
reader.
Children with Reading Disabilities 37
Opportunity to Learn
The child who is classified as having a disability must be distinguished from the
child who has not had an opportunity to learn. If we did not take into account the
opportunity a child has or does not have to learn, we would have to say that
nearly all children have a reading disability before they enter the first grade.
Although, at that time, it is true that their ability to find meaning in the printed
page is negligible and in no way in keeping with their ability to listen, they cannot
have a reading disability, because they have not yet been taught to read. They
have had no opportunity to learn. They may have a relatively large listening
vocabulary, but the typical child entering the first grade cannot read many more
words than her own name. Most children, for example, cannot read the word
STOP if it is taken off the octagonal sign on which they are accustomed to seeing
it. They seem to have had the opportunity to learn, because there has always been
printed matter before them. But they did not receive systematic, organized in-
struction, so, in reality, they have not had the opportunity to learn. Even though
the child entering the first grade is not able to read as well as she can listen, she
does not have a reading disability, because she is doing as well as could be
expected of her.
The older child who has come from a non-English-speaking country to the
United States would not be considered to have a reading disability either, even
though he does have an instructional problem. He may need to start learning to
read elementary English, but he cannot be said to have a reading disability. He
should have material different from that for the 6-year-old beginner, and he will
need special methods of instruction. But he does not have a reading disability. He
is a child who cannot read English because he did not have the opportunity to
learn.
The lack of opportunity to learn is even more complicated than is indicated
in the case of the child who has not yet entered school or is non-English speaking.
Some children will be poor in reading in comparison to their other intellectual
achievements because they did not start to learn to read as early as they started
other verbal learnings. A gifted child, for example, who is just entering the third
grade may have the verbal facility of the usual sixth-grade child. However, he
could not be expected to read as well as a typical sixth-grade child, because he
has received reading instruction for only 2 years, while his general language has
developed over a period of 8 years.
Verbal Competency
The listening ability of a child is frequently used to indicate the level at which we
can expect her to read. If a child has a superior listening vocabulary, she may be
expected to read at a higher level than can other children of her age. If the child
is able to understand paragraphs of more than usual difficulty read aloud to her,
she should be able to read better than those children who have less listening
38 Chapter Three
ability. The child's verbal ability is measured by a test such as listening compre-
hension on the Diagnostic Reading Scales (Spache, 1981).
There are two considerations the diagnostician must recognize in using the
child's general verbal competence as an indicator of the reading level she can be
expected to attain. The first is that it may not be safe to assume that a child who
is low in both reading and verbal ability does not have a reading disability. Poor
performance on listening comprehension tests may indicate that the child has had
one avenue of developing verbal ability closed to her. A child, for example, who
has been a poor reader from the first grade to the sixth will not have had an
opportunity to develop language equal to that of a peer who has always been a
good reader. In general, poor readers will not have had as much experience with
words, because they have not read as widely as good readers (Siegel, 1989a;
Torgesen, 1989). Nor will they have had as much experience understanding
paragraphs.
Children with reading disabilities have been found to score lower on the
verbal scale of the Wechsler Intelligence Scales (Revised) than they do on the
performance scale (Brock, 1982; Moore & Wielan, 1981; Nichols, Inglis, Lawson,
& MacKay, 1988; Roberts, 1983). These findings could indicate either that these
children have native limitations in verbal ability compared with their general
intelligence and are therefore poor readers (Bowers, Steffy, & Tate, 1988; Leong,
1989) or that they are limited in developing language because they are poor
readers and therefore lack verbal experience. Data presented by Nichols et al.
(1988) confirming a progressive deterioration in verbal ability, but not nonverbal
ability, among 224 poor readers suggest the latter, as do results obtained by
Sinatra (1989) from his study of 14 disabled readers. An able child who is a poor
reader cannot be expected to develop as extensive a vocabulary and other verbal
abilities as can a good reader. Accordingly, the use of a discrepancy between
verbal ability and reading level as a criterion in diagnosing reading disabilities
might classify certain children as merely verbally inept, although, in truth, they
have a reading disability and would benefit from remedial instruction.
The second problem in using a discrepancy between verbal ability and read-
ing level to classify a child as a disabled reader is that it does not take into account
the opportunity the child has or has not had to learn. Two children, for example,
may have the same measured verbal ability. One, however, is only a second-grade
child, while the other is a sixth-grade child. The second grader has had only 1
year of reading instruction, while the other child has had 5. The younger child
cannot be expected to read as well as the older child, who has had five times as
much reading instruction, even though they measure the same on an oral vocabu-
lary test or a test of ability to understand paragraphs read aloud.
Verbal competency certainly should be one consideration in classifying a
child as having a reading disability, but it will often mislead the teacher or
diagnostician if used as the only criterion. The length of time in school and the
opportunity to learn to read must also be considered. The accuracy of the estimate
of verbal aptitude also must be taken into account if all the children who are in
need of specific help in reading are to be located and if a child is not to be

misjudged.
In identifying the child with a reading disability, teachers often compare the
child's reading achievement with his degree of success in subjects requiring a
minimum of reading. Frequently, arithmetical computation is used as one subject
in which success is less influenced by reading achievement. If the child is doing
well in arithmetic and poorly in reading, the child is likely to have a reading
disability. Such information adds to the accuracy of locating children with reading
disabilities, rather than poor readers who are doing almost as well as can ex-
pected.
Success in fields that do not require much reading does indicate in most cases
how well children are able to apply themselves to learning situations other than
reading. If they are not motivated to achieve, they are likely to show ineffective
learning in those fields as well as in reading. If they have limited ability to learn,
they will also do poorly in those fields as in reading. But when children are
successful in such fields, yet have difficulty reading, they are likely to be able,
motivated children who have reading disabilities because of faulty learning.
These children can usually be helped a great deal by remedial instruction in
reading. Although success in fields that require minimal reading is insufficient
evidence by itself to classify children as having a reading disability it is often used
as one fact to be considered in making such a classification.
Monroe (1932), also cited in Harris and Sipay (1990, pp. 171—172), used arith-
metic achievement as one of the criteria for selecting children who would profit
from remedial instruction in reading. She used a reading index (R.I.) to find those
children who were farther behind in reading than was reasonable to expect. The
index was determined by using the child's average reading age (R.A.), chronQ
logical age (C.A.), arithmetic age (A.A.), and mental age (M.A.). The reading
index (R.I.) can be calculated with the formula
R.A.
RI
(C.A.+M.A.+A.A.)÷3
Experience shows that a child with a reading index of 0.80 or below practi-
cally always has a reading disability. Those with indexes between 0.80 and 0.90
tend to be borderline. Some of the latter will need remedial instruction, while
others will not. All of those who are borderline should be tested further to see
whether irregularities in their reading profiles indicate serious problems.
Mental Ability
Mental ability is related to reading achievement. The mere fact that the child has
bi,h intellectual ability does not itseli guarantee that she will be successful in
reading, especially in the early years. Nor does the fact that a child has trouble in
reading indicate that the child is mentally limited. Evidence shows that the
40 Chapter Three
relationship between intelligence and reading success becomes greater when

populations are sampled at successively higher grade levels (Bond & Dykstra,
1967; Rubin, 1982, p. 50). The relationship ranges from approximately .50 at the
end of the first grade to .80 at the high school level. Torgesen (1989) reports
relationships between word reading and intelligence of about .40 for children in
first through third grade and of about .80 for children in fourth through sixth
grade. These correlations indicate that factors in addition to mental age influence
a child's success in reading. Some children, who begin relatively slowly in the
primary grades, later increase their rate of learning and surpass some of their
contemporaries. Thus, early floundering does not necessarily indicate ultimate
reading failure.
These comparative relationships seem reasonable. In the early stages of their
reading development, children are concerned with the mechanical aspects of
reading. For instance, word-recognition skills lean heavily upon visual and audi-
tory discrimination. In the higher grades, the complexities of reading and study
demand fine verbal discrimination, logical reasoning, abstract analysis, and other
comprehension skills that require a high level of mental ability. It is not surprising
that mental age and reading capability become more and more closely related as
the reader progresses into more and more mature materials and reads for more
and more mature purposes.
The mental ability of the child is often used as the basic measure with which
to compare reading capability in order to judge whether a reading disability
exists. The customary method of making this comparison is to use the mental age
of the child as the key to reading expectancy. When the child's average reading
level is felt to be significantly lower than that appropriate for his mental age, the
child is thought to have a reading disability. While undoubtedly, the true mental
ability of the child should be used as a basic consideration in classifying a child
in this manner, caution is necessary for two reasons: First, the determination of
the mental capacity of a poor reader is difficult; second, the problem is compli-
cated by the fact that although mental age is calculated from birth, the child is not
introduced to systematic instruction in reading until he is 6 or more years old.
In an attempt to consider chronological age as well as mental age, Harris and
Sipay (1980) proposed the following formula for reading expectancy age:
2MA ÷ CA
Reading Expectancy Age (R Exp A)
Thus, using a division process, one can compare a child's present reading level
with his expected reading level, to assess whether or not the child has a
reading disability.
Assessing Mental Age

Among the many types of tests that may be used to assess mental age, four are
common: group verbal mental tests, group nonverbal mental tests, individual
Children with Reading Disabilities
verbal mental tests, and individual performance mental tests. Each of these tests
has its advantages and limitations. In classifying a child as having a reading
disability, the particular test used must be considered carefully.
Group Verbal Mental Tests. These are of little use in selecting children who will
profit from remedial work in reading. They are, to a great extent, reading tests,
and therefore, the poor reader cannot demonstrate her true mental ability. Clymer
(1952) has shown that at the fifth-grade level, certain group intelligence tests give
no valid measure of the mental ability of the children reading in the lowest 40
percent of the class. To show the extent of misinterpretation possible by the
uncritical use of such tests for children with reading disabilities, consider the
following example. At the end of kindergarten, Bianca was given an individual
intelligence test which indicated that she had an I.Q. of 115. In grade four, she was
given a group verbal mental test that assessed her I.Q. as 80. Inasmuch as her
reading achievement and general school performance were consistent with the 80
no mismeasurement was suspected. She went into junior high school and, in
the ninth grade, was given a group verbal mental test. Because of her reading
difficulties, Bianca could read neither the questions nor the answers. She marked
her answer form mostly by guessing. She received an I.Q. of 56. This result, while
somewhat consistent with her scholastic performance, seemed unreasonable to
the counselor, so a complete assessment of Bianca was made. When an individual
intelligence test was given, the results indicated that she had an I.Q. of 104.
Bianca, in reality, had a marked reading disability Her reading achievement
measured at a third-grade level. She had ineffective decoding skills. She could
comprehend but little and therefore could not show her true mental ability on a
test that required reading.
Group verbal mental tests are often inappropriate for making comparisons
between reading growth and mental growth. The one advantage to such tests is
that they can be given to large groups. The results are useful in making compari-
sons among typical students. But they are worse than worthless in the case of
poor readers, because the results are often considered accurate.
Group Nonverbal Mental Tests. These tests can be used as a criterion for deter-
mining reading expectancy. They can be given to large groups and therefore save
a great deal of testing time. They are useful in identifying children who have a
notable discrepancy between their mental age and their reading age. Although
these tests are paper-and-pencil tests, they do not require reading matter as a
means of presenting the items on them. Therefore, the child with a reading
disability can take them unhampered by his poor reading. The major difficulties
with these tests are two: First, they are not as accurate in measurement as is
desirable for individual diagnosis; second, they do not appear to measure the
type of mental ability needed for success in reading. They are, to some degree,
performance tests rather than tests of reasoning ability. Nonetheless, they have
merit as screening tests and can be administered by the classroom teacher, thus
42 Chapter Three
saving testing time. When a reading disability is suspected, however, the results
should be checked by more accurate, individual tests.
Individual Verbal Mental Tests. These are the most suitable measures of mental
growth to be used with children with reading disabilities. The Wechsler Intelli-
gence Scale for Children, Revised (WISC-R), and the revised Stanford-Binet Intel-
ligence Scale are popular and useful tests of this type. They give an accurate
measure of mental ability for able readers and have been shown to be affected
only slightly by the lack of reading ability of children with reading disabilities.
Individual Performance Mental Tests. These tests are useful in diagnosing cer-
tain types of reading problems. They aid in measuring the mental ability of
children who are hearing impaired, those who have marked oral-expressive
problems, and those who have other handicaps. They have the same limitations
as other individual tests, being time consuming and requiring trained examiners.
Also, they do not fully consider the verbal aspects of intellectual growth.
Relating Mental Growth to Reading Expectancy

The problem of relating a child's mental growth to reading growth in order to
estimate the level at which the child should be able to read is a complicated one.
The usual way in which this judgment is made is to consider that the child should
have reached a reading age or grade roughly comparable to her mental age or
grade. Then, if the child's reading grade is significantly lower than her mental
grade, the child is classified as having a reading disability The amount of discrep-
ancy between reading grade and mental grade considered significant increases as
the child grows older. In the primary grades, from one-half to three-quarters of a
grade difference is taken to be enough to classify the child that way. In the
intermediate grades, a difference of 1 to 1/4 grades is used. Thus, a second-grade
child whose mental grade is 2.8 and whose reading grade is 2.2 would be thought
to have a reading disability. Similarly, in the second grade, a very able child whose
mental grade is 4.0 and whose reading grade is 3.4 would also be considered to
have such a disability There is a serious question, however, as to whether this
latter conclusion is justified.
For example, the child with an I.Q. of 150 who enters the first grade at age 6.5
cannot be expected to read at a 4.3 grade level, even though that would be about
her mental grade. As a matter of fact, this child would be able to read little, if
anything, because she has not yet been taught. The child has had no real oppor-
tunity to learn to read.
There are many possible ways of using the general intelligence of the child as
a yardstick against which to judge reading growth. The results of mental tests in
classifying a child as having a reading disability have been used with the mental
age or grade as the level at which the child is expected to read. Most studies of
overachievement and underachievement have used the mental age criterion to
estimate who were the good and who were the poor achievers. These studies
universally found that bright children underachieve and dull children over-
achieve in comparison to their mental age.
The assumption that a child should be achieving up to his mental age thus
needs careful inspection. Although it is true that certain kinds of learning, such as
listening or speaking vocabulary, can be so judged, other learning cannot be
expected to be related in the same way. The child with a 150 I.Q. who is 10 years
old has a mental age of 15. This means that he should, for example, on the basis
of his mental grade, be doing mathematics equal to that of about a tenth grader
instead of a fifth-grade child. But it is doubtful if such a child would know algebra
and geometry, because the child has not yet met them. Reading achievement acts
in much the same way.
Systematic instruction in reading is usually not begun before the first grade.
The typical child, regardless of I.Q., has little if any measurable reading ability
when starting the first grade. At this time, the child would be said to read at the
1.0 grade level. If we assume that the I.Q. is, in one respect, an index of rate of
learning, we can estimate the reading potential of each child by means of the
(
reading expectancy formula:
x years of reading instruction) + 1.0 = Reading Expectancy
The 1.0 is added because the child who is just starting to learn to read is given a
1.0 grade score, and after 1 year of instruction the typical child will be classified
as a 2.0 reader.
By this formula, the typical child with an I.Q. of 70 could be expected to read
at the level of 1.7 at the end of 1 year of instruction, and at the end of 2 years of
reading instruction, she should read at the 2.4 grade level. Still using the same
formula, the child with a 100 I.Q. would be expected to read at the 3.0 grade level
after 2 years of reading instruction, and the able child with a 150 I.Q. would be
expected to read at 4.0. At the end of 3'/z years, a child with a 130 I.Q. could be
expected to read at a 5.6 grade level [(130/100 x 3.5) + 1.0 = 5.551. To the extent
that all other elements that influence reading success are favorable, she could
learn somewhat faster, thus exceeding her reading expectancy. If, on the other
hand, these other conditions were unfavorable, she would not read up to her
expectancy level and might even be so far behind that she would be considered
to have a reading disability.
Experience and research have shown the foregoing formula to be surprisingly
accurate in estimating the potential reading ability of the typical child. As can be
seen, the formula is easy to calculate, but the following considerations should be
kept in mind:
1. The time of reading instruction is the number of years and months in school
from the time systematic reading instruction was started. This typically be-
gins with first grade. (Some slower learning children may have a delay of a
year or so in starting to learn to read.)
44 Chapter Three
2. Readiness training in kindergarten is not counted, even though such instruc-

tion does much to diminish the chances of disabilities from occurring once
reading instruction has started.
3. If an I.Q. obtained from a Binet or Wechsler intelligence test is not available,
it is suggested that a Slosson Intelligence Test given by the teacher or a group
performance intelligence test score be substituted temporarily.
We must now consider the extent of the discrepancy between the child's
reading expectancy grade level and actual average reading grade that would
indicate that he is a disabled reader. Table 3—1 shows that this discrepancy in-
creases grade by grade. In the first grade, for example, 1 half-year is a sufficiently
large difference between reading expectancy and reading achievement to indicate
a serious problem. Even children who are three-tenths of a year lower in reading
achievement than we would expect them to be are considered seriously enough
behind to be studied further as possibly having a disability. At Grade 7 or above,
the difference must be 2 or more years to be classified as a disability, and there
must be a 1.3- to 2-year lag to indicate a possible disability if supported by other
evidence.
A child of superior intellect with a possible reading disability may appear to
be progressing reasonably well in reading in comparison with the other children
in her grade. The child may appear, for example, to be an efficient reader of
third-grade material, even though she is only just finishing the second grade. Her
achievement in reading in comparison with her reading expectancy would place
her in the region of doubt (possibly having a disability), but not significantly low
enough to classify her as disabled. A study of her reading skill development
might show irregularities, indicating that she was using faulty skills that, if
allowed to persist, would limit her at more advanced levels.
Many reading disabilities that could have been discovered early do not be-
come apparent until faulty reading techniques have become so entrenched that
they interfere with reading at a more mature level. The tasks involved in reading
change as materials become more difficult in structure and content and increasing
demands are placed upon the reader. A reader's dependence upon the use of
TABLE 3—1 Discrepancies Between Reading Expectancy and

Achievement That Indicate Disability at Each Grade Level
GRADE IN SCHOOL ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
GRADE SCORE 7 and
DISCREPANCY 1 2 3 4 5 6 Above
0.5 .66 .75 1.0 1.5 1.75 2.0

Indicating
Disability or more or more or more or more or more or more or more
Indicating
Possible .4—.66 .5—.75 .7—1.0 .9—1.5 1.1—1.75 1.3—2.0
Disability
immature skills can preclude the development of more advanced skills, eventu-
ally resulting in a reading disability. Yet such a disability might have been
avoided easily if faulty reading techniques were identified and corrected early.
The child with a reading disability is, in general, a child who has had an
opportunity to learn to read, but who is not reading as well as could be expected
according to verbal ability mental capacity, and success in nonreading learnings.
She is, in reality, the child who is at the lower end of the reading distribution
when compared with other children of the same age and general capability. She
is at the lower end for reasons that will be discussed in the chapters that follow
It should be noted, however, that there are other equally capable children who are
as far advanced in reading as she is behind. These advanced readers have been
fortunate and probably have been favorably endowed in other ways that influ-
ence effective reading growth.
Categories of Reading Problems

Children with reading problems can be classified into four categories:
1. General reading immaturity. This category is composed of children who are
significantly behind in reading, compared with other children of their general
reading expectancy. There are no unusual characteristics about their reading
patterns. Although these children are immature in reading, there is nothing
especially wrong with the reading they do.
Juan, a fifth-grade boy of average intelligence, has always been disinterested
in reading. As a result, he has read very little—far less than most of his classmates.
Currently, he has great difficulty reading fifth-grade material, but reads thirdt
grade material well and possesses reading skills typical of a normal third-grade
child. Juan may be classified in the general reading immaturity group. Many
children with reading disabilities show general reading immaturity due to a
variety of causes.
Reinediation. Instruction should involve giving more experience in reading and

systematic instruction at the child's level of reading achievement. These children
do not require a reeducation in reading, but they do need adjustment in materials
and instruction. If they are asked to read books that are too difficult for them, or
if they are not given systematic instruction in reading at their level, they will very
likely develop more complex reading disabilities.
2. Specific reading immaturity. This classification is used for children who have
specific limitations in their reading patterns. For example, Joan is able to read and
understand the general significance of paragraphs difficult enough to challenge
the reading skill of children of her age and intelligence. She cannot, however, read
to follow directions or to organize longer selections. She has acquired general
basic reading skills, but she has not learned to adapt them to all her reading
purposes.
46 Chapter Three
Reinediation. Instruction should involve specific training in the areas in which the
child is weak. Other adjustments will depend on the child's overall reading
achievement. Many children with specific reading immaturity read at an accept-
able level in general and require few adjustments other than the provision of
specific training. Others may require adjusted materials.
3. Limiting reading disability. This classification concerns those children with
reading disabilities who have serious deficiencies in their basic skills that limit
their entire reading growth. Children who have a word-recognition deficiency,
limiting mechanical habits, or inability to sense thought units, for example, fall
into this category
David has a limiting disability. He is a capable fifth-grade boy who scores
quite low in all types of reading. His intelligence enables him to grasp the
significant ideas in a passage relatively well, even though he reads less well for
specific detail. His ability to recognize words is even more immature. He often
does not recognize words in isolation, although in reading sentences and para-
graphs, he does pick up on contextual clues. His basic problem, as detected
through his oral reading and written work, appears to involve an inadequate
approach to attacking words. This limitation not only is the probable cause of
David's reading disability, but also threatens to impede any future growth unless
corrected by careful remedial work.
Remediation. Children in this group need reeducation. Instruction must serve to
help them unlearn some of the reading strategies they are currently employing
and to teach them some new basic approaches to reading. Often, these children
are compensating in an unproductive manner because they failed to learn skills
basic to continued reading growth. They need the help of well-planned, system-
atic remedial programs to correct their faulty reading approaches and to develop
the skills that they lack.
4. Complex reading disability. This classification is really a subtype of the
limiting reading disability. Not only do children with this disability have deficien-
cies in their reading that limit further growth in reading, but in addition, instruct-
ing them in reading is complicated by their negative attitudes toward reading and
by their undesirable adjustments to their reading failure. Reeducating these chil-
dren may be complicated further when they have sensory, physical, or other
disabilities.
Remediation. Children in this group need careful assessment by a team of profes-

sionals in order to provide an appropriate remedial program. These children's
learning disabilities must be recognized and planned for in order for successful
reading remediation to be achieved. Constitutional and environmental factors
involved in reading disabilities will be discussed in the next three chapters.
Modifications needed in the remedial treatment of complex reading disabilities
are discussed in Chapter 13.
Summary
Children with reading disabilities are more than just children who cannot read
well. They are children who are not reading as well as could be expected from
their intellectual or verbal maturity. No two such children are the same, and it is
likely that no two disabilities are caused by the same set of circumstances. Many
of these children become discouraged and frustrated when they read.
The classification of a child as having a reading disability rather than as just
a poor reader, must be based upon learning opportunity, verbal ability, achieve-
ment in learning situations other than reading, and the child's general mental
ability. The mental ability of the child is used most often in assessing reading
expectancy. Care must be taken in measuring the mental ability of a child with a
reading disability, because most tests require reading ability For this reason,
individual mental tests are the most suitable instruments.
The problem of using mental growth as a means of assessing reading expec-
tancy is a complicated one. The use of mental age or grade as the sole criterion of
expected attainment in reading is of questionable validity. A more sensible and
useful approach would be to depend on calculations based on number of years of
reading instruction and the child's I.Q.
Children with reading disabilities can be grouped into descriptive categories
according to the seriousness of the problem they have and the nature of the
adjustment needed. General reading immaturity refers to those children whose
reading ability is generally immature but otherwise well balanced. Children with
specific reading immaturity are low in one or more types of reading, but are
competent in basic reading skills and abilities. Children with limiting reading
disability are deficient in basic reading abilities that preclude further growth in
reading. Children with complex reading disability cannot grow further in reading
because of deficiencies in basic reading abilities. Their problems are complicated
by additional learning problems such as rejection of reading, accompanying
personality problems, and sensory or physical limitations.
Study Questions
1. I-low does verbal competency relate to reading competency? How is verbal
competency measured?
2. Success in fields that require minimal reading and mental ability are used to
predict reading success. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each
as a predictor?
3. What is the reading expectancy of a child with an I.Q. of 80 who is just
beginning sixth grade and has had 5 years of reading instruction (Grades 1
through 5)? If this child's reading achievement is at a beginning third-grade
level, is reading disability indicated?
4. Hiro was a pleasant, cooperative seventh-grade student of average intelli-
gence. He participated in many school activities and had many friends. How-
48 Chapter Three
ever, he seemed to have unusual difficulty understanding and completing

reading assignments in social studies. In other course work he did well,
especially in math. When the reading teacher assessed Hiro's reading skills,
she found that he was excellent in all aspects of word recognition and in
understanding the details of his reading. However, he was a somewhat slow
reader and was poor in isolating major ideas and themes in longer selections.
Which classification seems to suit Hiro best—general reading immaturity.
specific reading immaturity, limiting reading disability, or complex reading
disability?
Selected Readings
Collins, M. D., & Cheek, E. H. (1989). Diagnostic-prescriptiVe reading instruction (3rd ed.)
(pp. 102—149). Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
York: Longman.
McCormick, S. (1987). Remedial and clinical reading instruction (pp. 83—163). Columbus, OH:
Merrill.
New York: Basic
Roswell, F. G., & Natchez, G. (1989). Reading disability (4th ed.) (pp. 57—76).
Books.
Rubin, D. (1991). Diagnosis and correction in reading instruction (2nd ed.) (pp. 124—148).
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Searls, E. F (1985). How to use WISC-R scores in reading/learning disability diagnosis (pp. 1—3,
42—57). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
classroom and clinic
Wilson, it M., & Clelarid, C. J. (1985). Diagnostic and remedial reading for
(5th ed.) (pp. 43—89). Columbus, OH: Merrill.
Chapter 4
Causes of Reading
Disability: Physical Factors
Causes of reading disability are numerous. Rarely will a teacher or clinician find
that a single factor has caused a child to have a reading disability. It is almost
always true that a reading disability is the result of several factors working
together to impede progress in reading. Reading is a complex process. Proficient
reading depends upon the acquisition and versatile application of many intri-
cately coordinated skills. These skills are acquired only through long, motivated
practice under good guidance. Because reading is so complex, there are marty
opportunities for unfortunate complications to retard its growth. Various factors,
operating singly or, more often, together can block further progress in reading
until they are discovered and eliminated, or until corrective instructional proce-
dures can be devised to adjust to, or to circumvent, their effects.
Labels, such as dyslexia, sound serious, but do not provide so much as a hint
of how to help a child, do not even have an accepted meaning, and certainly do
more harm than good. Labeling usually does not provide useful remedial infor-
mation. Finding out as precisely as possible what is needed to teach a child to
read and then providing that help is more valuable. A further complication in
some cases is that it is difficult or impossible to distinguish cause from effect. It is
easy, for example, to mistake emotional stress or behavioral problems as the cause
of reading failure when they are often the effect of a child's awareness of his
failures in reading.
This chapter will discuss and evaluate the roles of various physical deficien-
cies or conditions as contributing causes of reading disability. Visual, auditory,
and speech impairments, neurological status, and conditions of general health
will all be considered.
49
50 Chapter Four
Visual Impairment
Rutherford (1967, pp. 503—507) cites an extreme case of visual impairment. Janice
seemed to be a well-adjusted child before entering first grade, but then had great
difficulty learning to read. Professional examination revealed severe visual im-
pairment. On the way home, after receiving her corrective lenses, she asked her
mother about the signboards along the streçt, the rear lights of cars, and even the
leaves on trees. Of course Janice had seen them before, but not in the form and
dimension in which they now appeared to her, which made them look so different
that she could not identify them. It is no wonder that Janice was not able to learn
to read before getting glasses.
It seems axiomatic that ocular comfort and visual efficiency are prerequisite
to easy reading. When a child first shows signs of having a reading disability, the
tendency of both teachers and parents is to think of visual problems. It is truethat
a child's eyesight may be so poor that it is practically impossible to read. How-
ever, there are a number of less severe eye defects that affect reading. With these
defects, when children attempt to read, they become uncomfortable, squirmy,
fatigued, and so distraught that they can continue reading for only a short time.
They may refuse to read at all. Although certain mild defects may not interfere
with learning to read, they may make reading for a lengthy period fatiguing. It is
not surprising, therefore, that many studies have concentrated upon visual im-
pairments as causes of reading disability
Considerable historical research relating visual deficiency to reading diffi-
culty has resulted in conflicting findings. For a selective bibliographyof research
associating vision problems and reading problems, see Weintraub and Cowan
(1982). In general, research does not support a strong relationship between visual
problems and reading problems (Poostay and Aaron, 1982). In the midst of
disagreement and controversy, however, a few fairly consistent findings have
been established:
1. There is a slightly greater percentage of visual defects among children with

reading disabilities than among children without reading disabilities.
2. Children with visual defects, as a group, tend to read more poorly than
children without visual defects.
3. On the other hand, many children with visual defects learn to read as well as
or better than children without visual defects
4. No matter what kind or type of visual deficiency is studied, some children
can be found who have that specific kind or type of visual deficiencyand who
are making good progress in reading.
Most types of visual defects appear to increase the possibility of reading
disability, but none appears to be sufficient in itself to preclude reading success.
Perhaps the answer is that some children with visual defects fail to learn to read
because of the extra effort required of them to master reading, whereas other
children with the same visual defects do learn to read successfully because they,
Physical Factors 51
for one reason or another, try so hard that they overcome their disability. In any
event, children with visual deficiencies who do read well probably have learned
under conditions of visual stress and fatigue. The wise teacher is alert to signs of
fatigue among visually impaired children when they are required to complete
demanding visual tasks and makes appropriate adjustments. The appropriate
educational adjustments for these visual problems will be discussed in Chap-
ter 13.
Types of Visual Deficiency

Faulty focus of light rays that enter the eyes—refractive errors—may be associated
with reading disability. However, certain types of refractive errors are more
closely associated with reading disability than others (Eames, 1935; Wharry and
Kirkpatrick, 1986; Young, 1963). The farsighted—hyperopic——child, who can bring
far targets into clear focus easily, but who finds it difficult to focus clearly on near
targets, is more likely to have a reading disability than is the child with normal
vision. On the other hand, the nearsighted—myopic—-child, who can bring near
targets into clear focus easily, but who finds far targets difficult, is less likely to
have a reading disability than is the child with normal vision. According to
research by Wharry and Kirkpatrick (1986), even among children with a learning
disability, myopic children outperform normal and hyperopic children in read-
ing. This seems reasonable when one considers the nature of the reading task,
which involves prolonged periods of close visual inspection of near targets.
However, if the teaching method relies heavily on the use of experience charts
and chalkboard work, the nearsighted child may have difficulty.
Problems in focusing the two eyes precisely and simultaneously on a target—-
binocular difficulties—are more common among children with reading disabilities
than among successful readers. Lack of binocular coordination because of mus-
cular imbalance in one or both eyes—strabismus——causes images to be blurred or,
in more severe cases, causes two images of a single object to be seen. The result is
confusion, fatigue, or suppression of one eye when the child attempts to read. It
has been demonstrated that one-eyed students progress better in reading than
those with muscle imbalance.
Another binocular characteristic connected with success in reading is preci-
sion of focus so that images may be fused into a single, clear picture. Fusion
difficulties are associated with reading difficulties (Eames, 1935; Spache and
Tillman, 1962). Not only accuracy of fusion, but also speed of fusion, seem to be
related to reading success. Ocular images of a fixed target that are unequal either
in size or shape in the two eyes—aniseikonia——have also been found to be related
to reading difficulties.
Many children with visual defects are successful in reading. Although visual
defects may contribute to reading problems, even children with very poor vision
can learn to read (Martin, 1971). Children with visual defects are more likely to
get into difficulty in reading and are more difficult to teach. Correction of visual
defects is essential for all children with visual deficiencies, whether they are
52 Chapter Four
experiencing reading difficulties or not. Correction of visual defectsenables chil-

dren to learn to read more easily, but rarely, if ever, is such correction sufficient to
relieve a reading disability. Once correction has been made, however, most stu-
dents are able to progress more easily when given appropriate remedial instruc-
tion.
Identification of Visual Defects

Accurate identification of all visual defects depends on the cooperation and
coordinated efforts of parents, teachers, and eye-care professionals. Beverstock
(1991) has published a simple pamphlet for parents, and Jobe (1976) has practical
suggestions for organizing visual screen programs in the schools.
Extensive research by Knox (1953) and Kozlowski (1968) strongly suggests
that observatiOn by the teacher, combined with visual screening tests by school
personnel, provides more accurate identification of children in need of visual care
than either factor alone. However, as Jobe (1976) cautions, visual screening tests
must be given only for the purpose of identification. Children who already have,
or who may develop, problems requiring treatment by an eye-care specialistmust
be referred to one. Screening tests are not diagnostic, and neither teachers nor
school nurses should ever attempt to diagnose or treat visual problems.
Observations by Teachers
Based on extensive research on the identification of children with visual problems
through observation, with subsequent validation by an eye-care specialist, Knox
(1953) believes that the following behavioral symptoms are most indicative of
visual problems:
1. Facial contortions
2. Book held close to face
3. Tenseness during visual work
4. Head tilting
5. Head thrust forward
6. Body tense while looking at distant objects
7. Poor sitting position
8. Head moving excessively while reading
9. Eyes rubbed frequently
10. Tendency to avoid close visual work
11. Tendency to lose place in reading
When two to four of these symptoms are noticeable and persistent, it is the
teacher's responsibility to work with the parents, school personnel, and an eye-
care professional to ensure that the child receives a proper vision examination. If
a visual defect is diagnosed by an eye-care specialist, cooperative efforts must be
made to provide proper vision care for the child and to make appropriate educa-
Physical Factors 53
tional adaptations within the school. Suggestions in this regard are found in
Chapter 13.
'Visual-Processing Defects
Research on the relationship between visual perception, visual memory, visual
sequencing, and reading disability has been contradictory and confusing (Wein-
traub and Cowan, 1982). Vernon (1969) concluded, from a review of research
relating deficient visual perception to severe reading difficulties, that deficient
visual perception is one of the characteristics of children with severe reading
disabilities, but that deficient visual perception is so often associated with a
general maturational lag, that it may be but one symptom of a general immaturity
that also includes language development and personality development.
Robinson (1972) found that students with deficiencies in visual perceptual
abilities also had lower I.Q.s than children who did not have such deficiencies.
Bryan and Bryan (1978, pp. 169—172) found, from a review of research on visual
memory and visual sequencing, that the relationship between these abilities and
reading disability was not clear. Two major reasons for the ambiguity were cited.
The first was a validity problem, specifically, that researchers could not measure
visual-processing abilities convincingly. The second was that among the children
studied, visual-processing abilities were so intermingled with other factors usu-
ally considered detrimental to reading success, that determining the cause of
reading difficulty was not possible. Both Vernon and Robinson also expressed
concern about the contamination of results of research on children with visual-
processing problems.
Kavale (1982), on the basis of a meta-analysis of 161 studies, concluded that
visual perception is an important component of reading achievement, but thai
its importance varies, depending on the combination of visual and reading
variables considered in individual studies. The association between visual per-
ception and reading was also investigated by Spreen and Haaf (1986). These
researchers found that children with both reading disabilities and visual prob-
lems maintained both of these conditions into their adult years. Further research
studying visual perceptual problems and reading problems, conducted by Fea-
gans and Merriwether (1990), revealed that children with reading disabilities
who had visual discrimination problems at 6 or 7 years of age performed more
poorly in reading throughout their elementary school years than did other
children with reading disabilities who did not have visual discrimination prob-
lems.
On the other hand, research by Hare (1977) points out that not all children
with visual-processing defects are poor readers. According to her research,
among beginning readers, individuals can be identified with both visual and
auditory disabilities who nonetheless are achieving at grade level in reading.
Training children to use their visual abilities more effectively does not im-
prove their reading achievement, according to research by Seaton (1977), al-
54 Chapter Four
though Feagans and Merriwether (1990) suggest that specific training in visually
discriminating letters may be helpful. In the clinic, children who have visual-
processing problems, as well as extreme reading disabilities,often benefit from a
kinesthetic-auditory emphasis in reading instruction (see Chapter 12).
Auditory Impairment
Sustained hearing loss, even when it is mild, results in poor reading achievement,
which becomes increasingly pronounced as children become older (Blair, Peter-
son, & Viehweg, 1985; Bockmiller, 1981; Quinn, 1981; Serwatka, Hesson & Gra-
ham, 1984). In addition, even for children with very slight hearing loss or no
hearing loss, but with a history of recurring middle ear disease, readingis affected
adversely (McDermott, 1983; Silva, Chalmers, & Stewart, 1986; Zinkus, Gottlieb,
& Schapiro, 1978).
The importance of auditory abilities in reading achievement can be appreci-
ated when one considers that children learn to read utilizing the language they
understand and use, which is influenced by the language they have heard. Both
the inability to pronounce words correctly and the ability to understand what
these words mean, as used in various sentences, are based on that part of a child's
language ability which has been acquired through listening. The effect of audi-
tory deficiencies on reading depends on the severity and type of auditory impair-
ment; the quickness with which it was detected; the quality of the educational
program; the coordination of the efforts of parents, specialists, and others; the
desire of the child to read; and other causal factors that all work together to
determine the eventual outcome.
Types of Auditory Deficiency

Weintraub (1972) identifies three major areas of concern: auditory acuity (hear-
ing), audition (listening), and auditory processing (working with sounds). Much
of the confusion in research, clinical work, and teaching results from the difficulty
in separating the effects of hearing loss, listening skills, and auditory processing.
Often, a student may have difficulty with all three aspects of hearing, but some-
times the difficulty may be specific. For example, some children with no measur-
able hearing loss have difficulty hearing sounds in words but no difficulty
understanding the meaning of spoken sentences. Other children with hearing
loss have difficulty with all the auditory aspects of language, speech, and reading.
Still other children have specific difficulty blending sounds into whole words and
recognizing the meaning of the words. There are many kinds and types of audi-
tory deficiency, and what is best for one child with an auditory impairment may
not be best for another child with a different auditory impairment.
Although research studies disagree, apparently because of dissimilar tech-
niques of measurements and lack of uniform standards for differentiating hear-
ing-impaired from non-hearing-impaired children, it is safe to say that a large
Physical Factors
number of schoolchildren—about 5 percent—have serious hearing losses. Appar-

ently, many more children have slight hearing losses, which may become more
serious unless proper medical treatment is given.
The relationship between hearing loss—especially high-frequency hearing
loss—and reading difficulty is well documented (Dechant & Smith, 1977, p. 140;
Gillet & Temple 1990, p. 469; Savage & Mooney, 1979, pp. 118—120; Spache 1976a,
pp. 49—50). Although children with severe and extreme hearing losses always
have great difficulty learning how to read (Erickson, 1987), those with lesser
impairments often do reasonably well if the hearing loss is identified early and
appropriate medical and educational measures are taken. From the teacher's or
the reading specialist's point of view, proper management of instruction in phon-
ics is crucial.
Research shows a direct, though low, correlation between auditory process-
ing and reading success. Kavale (1981) presents a meta-analysis of 106 studies
relating auditory perceptual skills and reading ability.
Identification of Auditory Defects

As with vision, successful identification of auditory defects depends upon the
cooperation and coordinated efforts of parents, teachers, other school personnel,
and auditory specialists. Early screening of very young children has been benefi-
cial in many cases. Auditory screening programs in the schools are important.
Observations by Teachers
An alert teacher notes signs of hearing difficulty through careful observations o,f
children's behavior. Hearing impairment may be suspected if a child shows
behavior such as:
1. Inattention during listening activities

2. Frequent misunderstanding of oral directions or numerous requests for repe-
tition of statements
3. Turning one ear toward the speaker or thrusting the head forward when
listening
4. Intent gazing at the speaker's face or strained posture while listening
5. Monotone speech, poor pronunciation, or indistinct articulation
6. Complaints of earache or hearing difficulty
7. Insistence on closeness to sources of sound
8. Frequent colds, discharging ears, or difficult breathing
For informal screening, a whisper or low-voice test can be used. Four or five
children are lined up in a row in a quiet room about 5 feet from the examiner and
with their backs to him. The examiner stays in one place and gives directions to
the children, speaking in a distinct, low tone. Directions include items such as
"Take five steps forward," "Raise your right arm," "Take two steps forward," and
56 Chapter Four
"Hold up three fingers." By watching the children, the examiner can see those
who hesitate, turn to see what other children do, look back at the examiner, or fail
to follow directions. The children who get to a position approximately 20 feet
from the examiner without signs of seeking help have normal hearing.. Hearing-
impaired children can be detected readily. Whisper tests may be given by saying
single words softly, with the child standing about .20 feet away with one ear
turned toward the examiner, or at the distance at which most children can hear
in the particular room used. The child tries to repeat each word as she hears it. If
necessary the examiner moves closer until the responses are correct. Each ear is
tested separately.
Although whisper or low-voice screening tests are valuable when they can
identify a child with a hearing loss, these methods sometimes miss children with
less severe hearing losses. For this reason, routine audiometric screening of all
children before entering school, and from time to time during the school years, is
preferable to total reliance on any informal method.
As with vision, the purpose of identifying hearing loss is to refer the child to
a hearing specialist for proper treatment. In addition, educational services and
instructional adaptations (see Chapter 13) must be provided.
Speech Impairment
Defective speech is associated with reading difficulty, according to research by
Bond (1935), Catts (1986), Lyle (1970), Monroe (1932), and Silva, McGee, and
Williams (1985). Research findings demonstrate that inaccurate formation of
speech sounds, or articulation disorders, are more closely associated with reading
disability than is faulty rate of production or repetition of speech sounds, or
fluency difficulties. It is agreed that in many cases, both inaccurate articulation and
intellectual
reading difficulties are associated with other factors, such as slow
development, neurological involvement, or the inability to discriminate sounds
in words. Nevertheless, clinical experience suggests that for some children, defec-
tive speech itself is a causal factor.
Monroe (1932) notes that faulty articulation may, affect reading directly by
causing confusion between the sounds the child hears others make and the
sounds the child hears himself make when he is asked to associate printed
symbols with sounds in reading. Clinical experience and research byBond (1935)
show that reading methods which require individual letter-by-letter sounding
and blending can cause difficulty for a student with faulty articulation. If the
student has auditory limitations as well, the difficulty is augmented. Methods
stressing visual-mental word analysis enable such a student to progress in read-
ing more successfully.
Confusion may also arise when a student hears words spoken one way when
he reads orally, but another way when he sees the words in his book while others
read them aloud. This confusion not only affects sound-symbol associations, but
also may interfere with the student's understanding of what is read. The child
Physical Factors 57
may thus become increasingly confused both about how words are pronounced
and about what they mean.
Some children with speech defects become obviously upset when they are
asked to read aloud. This is usually because they are sensitive about articulation
errors and dislike displaying them in an oral reading situation. Clinical experi-
ence reveals that many children with speech defects—even very minor, barely
noticeable problems—insist that they do not want to read aloud, but are willing
to read silently. In fact, insistence upon oral reading has been known to turn some
children with speech defects against all reading.
Research by Bond (1935) and Monroe (1932) suggests that speech defects are
not associated with achievement in silent reading, but are associated with oral
reading disability. Some evidence suggests that the strongest association of all
may be between speech defects and poor oral reading when it occurs together
with adequate silent reading.
The child with speech defects usually needs the assistance of a speech special-
ist to remedy his speech problem, plus an appropriate reading program. Empha-
sis on visual-mental word analysis and silent reading usually is best. Planning a
suitable reading program for a child with speech defects becomes more compli-
cated when other factors, such as slow intellectual development, neurological
impairment, or auditory discrimination difficulties, are also present.
Neurological Impairment
Among children who have not yet acquired the ability to read, there are a very
few who have sustained known brain damage before, during, or afterbirth. Some
of these children have severe disabilities, such as aphasia, cerebral palsy, marked
mental retardation, or debilitating motor problems. Obviously, they require
highly specialized medical assistance and educational programming. Other chil-
dren with known brain damage are much less disabled. They, too, require medical
assistance and educational programming. However, in their reading instruction,
appropriate educational programming may or may not be much different from
good reading instruction for the typical learner, depending on the needs of the
individual child. Case studies from the Geneva Medico-Educational Service
(1968) suggest that known brain lesions, unless very severe, often do not retard
learning and that many children with verifiable brain damage make good pro-
gress in reading. Similar results were obtained by Voeller and Armus (1986) from
their study of 43 children with learning and behavior problems. Compared to
children with learning problems who showed no evidence of neurological in-
volvement, children with learning problems and neurological impairment scored
lower on intelligence testing and higher on reading achievement. Of the 26
children with neurological impairment, the majority were classified as normal
readers. Educational adjustments for neurologically impaired students are dis-
cussed in Chapter 13.
In addition to the research on children with known brain damage, there has
been a great deal of concern, research, speculation, opinion, and clinical data
58 Chapter Four
reported regarding suspected brain damage and reading difficulties. Such terms
as developmental dyslexia, primary reading retardation, minimal brain damage, and
maturational lag have been used to refer to suspected brain damage in the absence
of medically verifiable brain pathology Bender (1957), Critchley (1970), Denckla
(1987), Hynd (1987), and Rabinovitch (1962), among many others,have argued
persuasively in favor of some type of neurological impairment, otherthan known
brain pathology as a probable cause of reading disabilities. A careful and percep-
tive review of relevant research by Balow, Rubin, and Rosen (1975) suggests that
subtle, often undetected neurological impairment associated with complications
of pregnancy and birth is a cause of later reading disability among some children.
Harris and Sipay (1990) believe that the number of such children has probably
increased over the years due to advances in medicine. Rourke (1975) also presents
compelling evidence for the view that neurological dysfunction, in the absence of
known brain damage, is commonly associated with reading disability.
On the other hand, Spache (1976b) provides a highly critical review of the
overwhelming abundance of literature relating suspected neurological impair-
ments to reading disability. He warns that some specialists appear to be attribut-
ing almost all reading disabilities to suspected neurological impairment,not only
in the absence of known brain damage, but even in the absence of any signs of
abnormal neurological functioning. Isom (1968) cautions that the assessment of a
child's neurological development and its relationship to reading is extraordinar-
ily complex. His thoughtful review of neurological research relevant to reading
indicates that among children who show signs suggestive of neurological impair-
ment, some have no reading difficulties, some have moderate reading difficulties,
and some have serious reading disabilities. He emphasizes the critical need for
competent research comparing the frequency of occurrence of presumably abnor-
mal neurological signs found in children with reading disabilities with the fre-
quency of occurrence of the same signs among their peers who have no reading
disabilities. In a somewhat related study, Larsen et al. (1973) found that among a
group of 100 children referred to a center for learning disabilities, signs of neuro-
logical impairment were no more common among those who had reading dis-
abilities than among those who were making normal progress in reading. Further,
Dorman (1985) cautions that the neurological basis of developmental reading
disorders remains hypothetical.
In a study comparing children with reading disabilities who had clinical signs
of neurological dysfunction with those who showed no such signs, Black (1973)
found no real differences among the groups in severity of reading problems,
overall cognitive functioning, or behavior. He concluded from his research that
suspected neurological dysfunction was not an important factor in planning
proper remediation of reading disability. Black (1976) also compared children
who were suspected of neurological dysfunction with children with known brain
damage. Once again, patterns of behavior, cognitive abilities, and academic diffi-
culties noted for these groups were similar enough to suggest that specialized
remedial programs differentiating between children with documented brain
damage and those with only suspected brain dysfunction are probably unwar-
Physical Factors 59
ranted. Black concluded that remedial programs should be based, not on probable
neurological causation, but rather on the instructional needs of each child.
In our opinion, a medical referral for neurological assessment should be
made when:
1. There is an extreme discrepancy between a child's reading expectancy and

reading achievement, in spite of appropriate educational experiences.
2. Despite a wide discrepancy between expectancy and achievement, a child's
progress in a carefully planned and well-taught reading program is persist-
ently and unexplainably slow.
Practically speaking, what should the reading teacher or reading clinician do

about suspected neurological involvement among poor readers? The best initial
ref erral 'for neurological assessment is usually to a cooperative pediatrician who
has had extensive experience with both normal and neurologically impaired
children. Often no real evidence of neurological impairment will be found, some-
times an unexpected physical deficiency of a different sort will be uncovered, and
sometimes evidence of neurological impairment will be revealed. If any type of
physical condition that requires medical assistance is found, appropriate meas-
ures should, of course, be taken. Any suggestions a physician offers that might
serve to enhance a child's learning should be followed. However, as with any
child with a reading disability, instruction for the child with a reading disability
who shows signs of neurological impairment should proceed according to a
careful plan based on a diagnosis of the child's particular deficiencies and instruc-
tional needs. Methods of proper diagnosis and treatment of reading disabilities
are given in Chapters 7 through 17.
Based on an ambitious review of clinical and research evidence concerning
neurological correlates of reading disabilities, Duane (1983) suggests that there is
a biological preference for verbal tasks to be performed with maximum fluency
and accuracy within the left hemisphere of the brain. Yet observation of their
learning strategies shows that some children with reading disabilities appear to
be using right-hemisphere processing when reading. As Helfeldt (1983) points
out, right-hemisphere processing, more typical of boys, tends to be visually
oriented and is facilitated through active manipulation of the learning environ-
ment. Additional research, conducted by Bakker, Bouma, and Gardien (1990),
suggests that tactile instructional methods benefit the reading fluency of these
students. Academic learning tasks that demand a great deal of attentive listening
and long periods of quiet sitting are not suited to right-hemisphere processing.
Neither is a major emphasis on language- or phonics-based methods of reading
instruction. Procedures that emphasize the perceptual aspects of words in read-
ing instruction are more beneficial.
According to research by Bakker, Teunissen, and Bosch (1976), early reading
proficiency is associated with dominant processing of information in either hemi-
sphere. For children using right-hemisphere processing, reading tends to be slow
and accurate, while for those using left-hemisphere processing, reading tends to
60 Chapter Four
be more rapid, but less accurate. Eventually, however, advanced reading, which
is both rapid and accurate, is favored by left-hemisphere dominance.
General Health Impairment

Learning to read is a difficult, even arduous, task. To succeed, the learner must be
an attentive, active participant in the learning process. General healthfactors such
as endocrine disorders, cardiac conditions, allergies, and other physical problems
make it difficult for children to be effective learners (Carner, 1981). Any physical
condition that lowers a child's vitality makes it difficult for the child to sustain
active attention to learning. Nutritional deficiencies, as well, affect learning, ac-
cording to a research review by Grohens (1988). Caloric deficiency, protein defi-
ciency, iron deficiency, and vitamin deficiency all contribute to impaired learning,
as does lead poisoning.
Chronic Illness and Malnutrition

Chronically ill or malnourished children are often unable to sustain attention to
demanding learning tasks. These children are likely to miss much instruction
due to frequent absences, which makes learning even more difficult. When
learning to read becomes a matter of having to catch up on a week'smissed work
while feeling insecure about how to proceed and feeling tired, unwell, and per-
haps hungry, it is little wonder that some children begin to dislike and avoid
reading.
What is the teacher's responsibility in regard to poor general health, malnu-
trition, and frequent absence?
1. When a general health problem is suspected, the teacher, school nurse,
parents, and others should discuss the matter and decide what to do. Often, the
appropriate action is to refer the child for a medical diagnosis. In this case, it is
important to alert the doctor or diagnostic team to the nature of the behavior in
the home and in the school that prompted the referral.
2. Although malnutrition is still an important problem for many children,
the schools have taken an increasingly important role in combating it through
various lunch, milk, and breakfast programs. Teachers should support these
programs and encourage good breakfasts at home. Children who eat adequate
breakfasts learn more during late morning hours, whereas children who come to
school hungry have increasing difficulty concentrating (Grohens, 1988). Some
teachers—especially those who use behavior modification techniques—may also
provide some students with tiny amounts of nutritious food as part of their
teaching procedures.
3. In the case of absenteeism, it is the teacher's responsibility to provide
special assistance to ensure that children have not missed essential skill develop-
ment and that they do not feel confused or insecure about proceeding with their
Physical Factors 61
work. Depending upon the circumstances, the teacher can provide this assistance
directly, use other resource personnel within the school, or enlist the parents' aid.
General Fatigue
In a reading clinic, it is often discouraging to hear a chronically fatigued child
with a reading disability give a detailed rendition of last evening's late, late
television movie. It is especially so when follow-up questioning reveals that the
student watches a great deal of television, usually far into the night. In this case,
the child's television-viewing habits must be discussed with his parents and the
child himself. Often, viewing habits will be changed; sometimes they will not. It
is tempting to believe that extensive television viewing or other factors that seem
to be interfering with proper rest are causing a student's reading difficulty, and
in some cases this is true. In other cases, however, overuse of television or
overdoing other activities may be a child's way of escaping from the frustrations
the child feels, including the frustration of reading failure.
Summary
The survey presented in this chapter suggests that any one of a number of
physical conditions may be a contributing factor to a child's reading disability
Much of the evidence is equivocal. It is obvious that a single factor seldom, if ever,
causes reading disability. As emphasized throughout the chapter, reading disabil-
ity tends to be caused by many factors. Several hindering factors combine into a
pattern to produce the disability.
Although the evidence concerning the relationship between specific eye de-
fects and reading disability is ambiguous, there are certain relevant trends.
(1) Eye defects appear frequently among both good and poor readers and can be
a handicap to either group. Comfortable and efficient vision should be provided
for all children whenever possible. (2) There is evidence that farsightedness,
binocular incoordination, fusion difficulties, and aniseikonia may contribute to
reading disability. However, when there is a visual defect, there are usually other
contributing causes. (3) Visual examinations are essential in the diagnosis of
certain reading disabilities.
Hearing impairment can be a handicap in learning to read. This is particu-
larly true when hearing loss is severe enough to interfere with normal auditory
discrimination. There is evidence that hearing impairment is associated with
reading disability when (1) the hearing loss is severe, (2) the child has high-tone
deafness, or (3) pupils with hearing loss are taught reading by predominantly
auditory methods.
Defects in articulation, which complicate word discrimination and recogni-
tion, may contribute to reading disability. Any emotional involvement created by
speech defects tends to inhibit progress in learning to read. Brain damage is
seldom a cause of reading disability, but when it is present, a very difficult
62 Chapter Four
instructional problem may exist. Various conditions associated with poor health
and malnutrition can be detrimental to normal progress in reading.
Study Questions
1. What is the association between visual defects and reading disability?
2. How can a teacher identify a child with hearing difficulty?
3. How might articulation disorders interfere with reading progress?
4. What generalizations can be made about teaching reading to neurologically
impaired children?
5. What do you feel is the proper role of a teacher regarding the health needs of
children?
Selected Readings
York: Longman.
Kirk, U. (1989). Neurological aspects of learning difficulty In R. Roswell & G. Natchez,
Reading disability (4th ed.) (pp. 17—40). New York: Basic Books.
Merrill.
Vernon, M. D. (1960). Backwardness in reading. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Westman, J. C. (1990). Handbook of learning disabilities: A multisystem approach (pp. 95—190).
Wilson, R. M., & Cleland, C. J. (1985). Diagnostic and remedial reading for classroom and clinic
Chapter
Causes of Reading
Disability: Cognitive and
Language Factors
In the preceding chapter, a number of physical conditions possibly affecting

reading disability were surveyed. In this chapter, various cognitive and language
factors and their relationship to reading disability will be considered.
Intellectual Limitations
Although reading achievement is related to intelligence, according to Bond and
Wagner (1966), Kirk and Elkins (1975), Siegel (1989a, 1989b), and Stanovich (1989),
intellectual development alone does not determine how well a given child will or
should read. The precise assessment of reading achievement and intelligence is
complex and difficult. Both are influenced by other factors, and both are difficult
to measure fairly and accurately. Nevertheless, for proper diagnosis of reading
disability, the relationship between intelligence and reading achievement is im-
portant. This is especially true for children with below-average intelligence.
As Durrell (1955) cautions, the relationship between intelligence and reading
achievement must never be used to set any limit on how much or what a child
can learn. Rather, it should be used to identify the child who is failing to progress
in reading commensurately with what is most reasonable to expect of him. Dis-
crepancies between reading expectancy and achievement that indicate the pres-
ence of a disability are discussed in Chapter 3.
63
64 Chapter Five
The implication for the intellectually limited child is that if educational adap-
tations are made which are suited to his needs, he can and will make continuous,
appropriate progress in reading. Clinical experience shows that children and
youth of quite limited intelligence can and do learn to read if the proper educa-
tional adaptations are made. Although their achievement remains very low in
comparison with others of their age, they are able to master reading skills useful
to them throughout their lives.
But as Buttery and Mason (1979), Cegelka and Cegelka (1970), and Kirk,
Kliebhan, and Lerner (1978) point out, low intelligence can be a cause of reading
disability when appropriate educational adaptations are not made. For example,
if children with low intelligence are expected to read before they have been
taught appropriate prereading skills, or if they are expected to progress through
sequential reading instruction without an adequate opportunity to make sure
that they learn essential reading skills, then they are likely to fail to make reason-
able progress in reading. Research by Cummins and Das (1980) suggests that
among educable mentally retarded adolescents, poor reading skills may not be
entirely attributable to their low intelligence, but may also be due to their failure
to apply their intellectual abilities effectively to reading. Such students have
reading disabilities not because their reading achievement is low, but because it
• is unreasonably low. (Methods of adapting reading instruction for the intellectu-
ally limited child are described in Chapter 13.)
When a child progresses in reading much more slowly than his peers, it is
natural for his teachers to think that he may have low intelligence, especially
when there are no other reasons for his slow progress. However, it is not correct
to assume that the child's intelligence is low; rather, it is imperative to refer the
child to a specialist, such as a school psychologist, for further assessment. Either
the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised) (WISC-R) or the Revised
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test should be used for most children for this assess-
ment. Results from group intelligence tests requiring the child to read as a part of
the intelligence-testing procedure must not be used, because the child who cannot
read well cannot do well on such tests, no matter how well he might have
performed if proper testing procedures had been used.
Cognitive Factors
Cognition—the process of gaining knowledge—and reading are related in two
important ways. First, specific cognitive abilities are essential for the acquisition
of reading skills. Second, for the competent reader, reading becomes a powerful
means of acquiring, structuring, and applying knowledge.
Researchers who have attended to cognitive factors in learning emphasize the
central importance of the learner in all teaching-learning situations (Reid and
Hresko, 1981). From this point of view, effective reading instruction is instruction
that facilitates the learner's ability to construct meaning from reading. As Smith
Cognitive and Language Factors 65
(1978) suggests, "Reading is asking questions of printed text. And reading with
comprehension becomes a matter of getting your questions answered" (p. 105).
Rystrom (1977) emphasizes the mental activity required in reading when he
speaks of readers as "both information receivers and information generators."
Specific Cognitive Abilities

The relationship of specific cognitive abilities to reading disabilities has been
investigated through analyzing the performance of children with reading dis-
abilities on individual intelligence tests and tests of cognitive abilities.
According to independent reviews of research on cognitive abilities by
Huelsman (1970), Kendler (1972), and Sattler (1982, pp. 394—397), as a group,
children with reading disabilities show higher abilities on performance tasks than
on verbal tasks. They also tend to have difficulty recalling specific information
and working with symbols. A longitudinal investigation conducted by McGee,
Williams, and Silva (1984) yielded similar results, but, in addition, found that
cognitive factors could not predict which children with a "slow start" in reading
would develop long-term reading disabilities and which would ultimately be-
come successful readers.
Cohen (1969), Kaufman (1975), and Bow (1988) present evidence that,
whereas successful readers can avoid being distracted during cognitive tasks,
unsuccessful readers are less able to maintain concentration. In addition,
Horn and Packard (1985) found that freedom from distraction was important
in predicting the future reading achievement of kindergarten and first-grade
children.
Bannatyne (1974) and Rugel (1974) conducted research which suggests that,
as a group, children with reading disabilities are weak in sequencing ability, but
strong in spatial abilities, such as understanding quickly how to put together a
complex puzzle. More recent research reported by Shapiro, Ogden, and Lind-
Blad (1990) suggests that these children have difficulty sequencing two-syllable
words, in comparison with age-matched and reading-matched peers. Further,
Kirby and Robinson (1987) found that 105 children ages 7 to 15 who had a reading
disability had deficits in sequencing on a variety of reading tasks.
From an analysis of the results of research on cognitive factors, Spache (1963)
speculated that children with reading disabilities may have unusual difficulty in
recognizing that words have meaning and in recalling specific meanings of
words. They may also have difficulty recognizing the types of relationships
within the structure of a paragraph and summarizing the content of a paragraph
in their own words with due attention to order. Research by McConaughy (1985),
however, suggests that these children are capable of comprehending a story well
when they read structurally simple narrative stories.
Finally, Moore and Wilson (1987) caution against classifying children as hav-
ing reading disabilities or prescribing instruction on the basis of a pattern of
cognitive ability scores.
66 Chapter Five
In teaching, it may be well to keep in mind that for certain poor readers,
attention to having them work with activities, games, and other hands-on projects
would be beneficial. Emphasis on relating reading to discussion and other verbal
outcomes puts many poor readers at a considerable disadvantage.
Most teachers would agree that poor readers understand text better through
listening than through reading. When Sannomiya (1984) presented the same text
to children with good and poor comprehension at a fixed pace using a tape
recording or an overhead projector, he found that the tape presentation resulted
in better comprehension for the poor readers, for whom the text was difficult, but
not for the good readers, for whom it was easy. He suggests that auditory versus
visual modality effects arise when text is difficult and when children are not
allowed sufficient time to process the text.
Poor readers may be at a special disadvantage when asked to work with the
specific symbols used in reading and arithmetic. These symbols must be mas-
tered, but the children may need extra understanding and encouragement as they
attempt to learn what is particularly difficult for them. Also, poor readers may
find recall of specific information from a story difficult, whereas it may be much
easier for them to find information, tell about the story, or draw a picture about
it. Certain children need to be protected from too many distractions in the busy
classroom, or they will find themselves unable to concentrate on demanding
tasks. They may also need instruction that emphasizes order and structure in
reading.
Cognitive Style
Cognitive style, or one's preferred manner of intellectual functioning, has been
investigated widely in nonreading contexts (Kogan, 1980). As a result of this
research, it has been determined that consistent individual differences in cogni-
tive style can be demonstrated. Aspects of cognitive style include field depend-
ence versus field independence, amount of reliance on the learning environment,
tendency toward complexity versus simplicity in classification tasks, leveling
versus sharpening in memory, focusing versus scanning as an attention strategy,
and analytical versus global view of causation.
Recently, research concerning the relationship of several of these aspects of
cognitive style and reading has been conducted. Field dependence-independence
has been related to reading ability and achievement. Strongly field-dependent
children process information in a generally global fashion and appear to be easily
influenced by their environment, whereas strongly field-independent children
typically process information in an analytical manner and tend to be individual-
istic.
Field independence was found to be related to higher reading achievement
by Blaha (1982), based on his study of 324 inner-city fifth-grade children.On the
other hand, Roberge and Flexer (1984) studied 450 suburban children and found
that field-independent, analytic, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders did not score
higher in reading achievement than their field-dependent, globally oriented

peers. Their results did show, however, that students' cognitive levels were re-
lated to reading achievement. Further research conducted by Blake (1985) involv-
ing 121 sixth-grade students similarly failed to find a relationship between field
independence-dependence and reading comprehension. She did find a strong
relationship between intelligence and reading comprehension, however. Re-
search by Paradise and Block (1984), who studied 200 urban fourth-grade chil-
dren, suggested that students who closely match their teachers on field
dependence-independence make greater gains in reading achievement than stu-
dents who are dissimilar in that regard.
These conflicting results suggest that the effect of factors such as type of
school, grade level, cognitive level, and teacher's cognitive style need to be
understood before the relationship of field dependence-independence to reading
achievement can be established.
Dunn, Price, Dunn, and Saunders (1979) and Price, Dunn, and Saunders
(1981) studied how students prefer to learn when provided with an opportunity
to choose from among environmental, sociological, and physical conditions. They
argued that the kinds of decisions a student makes concerning instructional
choices should be related directly to her learning style, because specific learning
style characteristics appear to interact with instructional methods and environ-
mental resources.
In reviews of research on learning style and reading, Carbo (1983, 1985) has
characterized poor readers, in contrast to good readers, as learning best (1) under
conditions of quiet, (2) when allowed intake of food or drink, (3) if given oppor-
tunities to move about, (4) under carefully structured instruction, (5) in infor-
mally designed classrooms, (6) when provided chances to work with peers, (7) if
provided tactile-kinesthetic learning experiences, and (8) when given major in-
struction at times during the day other than early morning. Dunn (1988) holds
that young children's modalities of learning tend to develop according to age.
Kindergarten children are usually tactual-kinesthetic (learning through touching
and experiencing). Next, visual learning comes to be preferred, and then, as the
learner matures, auditory learning takes precedence.
Another aspect of cognitive style that has been related to reading achieve-
ment is conceptual tempo (Kogan, 1980). In most studies, reflexive children—
those who respond more slowly than average, but with fewer than average
errors—achieve at a higher level in reading than do impulsive children, who
respond more quickly than average, but with more errors. In a study of 170
second-grade children, Readence and Baldwin (1978) found that while reflexive
children achieved higher levels of reading than did impulsive children overall,
the method of reading instruction affected the specific aspects of reading on
which the reflexive children performed better. On the other hand, a study of
conceptual tempo as a predictor of first-grade reading achievement for a group
of kindergarten children (Margolis, Peterson, & Leonard, 1978) did not support
the reading superiority of reflexive children. An additional study, conducted by
68 Chapter Five
Halpern (1984), involving 168 second-grade children supported a relationship

between conceptual tempo and performance only on some types of word-recog-
nition and comprehension tasks.
Language Factors
The importance accorded listening-speaking language as a basis for reading can
be judged from statements made by Wilkerson (1971), who wrote that the ability
to read is largely dependent on the skill in spoken language the learner already
possesses, by Lundsteen (1976), who believed that reading may depend so com-
pletely upon listening that it appears to be a special extension of it, and by Catts
and Kanthi (1986), who proposed linguistic deficits as the basis of many types of
reading disorders. Research by Blachman (1984), Edmiaston (1984), Fletcher, Satz,
and Scholes (1981), Rosenbium and Stephens (1981), and Rosenthal, Baker, and
Ginsburg (1983) demonstrates a positive relationship between children's lan-
guage ability and their reading achievement.
Evidence from longitudinal research (Ruddell, 1979) suggests that primary-
grade listening ability may be a better predictor of total reading performance in
Grades 8, 9, and 10 than primary-grade measures of reading comprehension and
word analysis skills. Additional longitudinal research conducted by Aram, Kel-
man, and Nation (1984) points to an association between preschool language
disorders and later adolescent reading deficits.
Semantic Abilities
Logically, reading is highly related to oral language, since printed words are a
graphical representation of spoken language. Myklebust, among others, has con-
tended that proficiency in reading depends on success in listening and speaking
(Johnson & Myklebust, 1967). Hammill and McNutt (1980) completed a selective
review of studies relating language abilities and reading. In 31 studies relating
receptive semantics (contextual listening) to reading proficiency, they found 170
correlation coefficients, with a median value of .44. This suggests a moderate
relationship among understanding, listening, and reading performance. On the
other hand, of 82 coefficients from 23 studies relating expressive semantics (con-
textual speech) to reading, the median coefficient was not significant. This sug-
gests only a slight relationship between expressive language and reading
proficiency. Taken in its totality, the research suggests that a stronger relationship
exists between receptive oral language and reading than between expressive oral
language and reading. Additional research conducted by Edmiaston (1984) with
thid-giad chi1drn confirmed this stronger relationship. her research a1s sup-
ported a stronger relationship between oral language and reading than was
obtained by Hammill and McNutt. Edmiaston speculated that the relationship
between oral language and reading may increase with age. Gray, Saski, McEntire,
and Larsen (1980) found that when intelligence was controlled for, there was no
significant relationship between semantic ability in oral language and measures

of reading readiness among seventy 4- 5- and 6-year-old children.
An experiment conducted by Howell and Manis (1986) compared the speed
with which children with and without reading disabilities in two age groups
(second-third and fifth-sixth grades) retrieved semantic information from mem-
ory. In each age group, the children with reading disabilities were slower to name
both pictures and words than were those without reading disabilities. Felton and
Wood (1989) found that children ages 8 to 12 with reading disabilities were slower
than average readers in naming depictions of colors, numbers, objects, and letters.
Syntactic Abilities
Language problems are commonly implicated in reading difficulties (Kamhi &
Catts, 1986). The complexity of syntax, or sentence structure, has been shown to
be highly related to reading difficulty (Dalgleish & Enkelmann, 1979; Evans,
1979). Studies on children's language and reading comprehension have yielded
findings about the role of sentence structure in reading. Inability to understand
written text is often the result of differences between a child's facility with oral
language and the structure of written language (Barnitz, 1980). A review by Evans
(1979) of 10 years of research supports a probable relationship between difficulty
in reading comprehension and complexity of written syntax.
Although most children are skilled in listening-speaking language before
they are taught to read, their ability to comprehend certain syntactic structures of
oral language has not yet developed (Barnitz, 1980). Chomsky's classic research
(1969) on the acquisition of grammatical structures among children ages 5 to 10
demonstrated that syntax continues to develop among children who are begin,-
ning readers. Chomsky also found that the development of syntax is variable
from child to child and that errors in syntax persisted even among the oldest
children in her group.
Research concerned with the structural difficulty of written materials and the
language competencies of children who read them has been done by Glazer and
Morrow (1978). In a study of 90 children, the use of syntax by 6-, 7-, and 8-year-
olds was compared with the use of syntax in reading material for children of the
same ages. It was found that the reading materials were syntactically more com-
plex than was the language of the children.
Studies dealing with good and poor readers' use of syntax, specifically pro-
nouns, indicate that the poor readers are less successful in using syntax in context
reading and have less knowledge of English syntax than the good readers. When
Chapman (1979) investigated good and poor readers' abilities to deal with pro-
nouns in reading text, he found that good readers were more successful with
pronouns than were poor readers, even in materials that did not cause either
group difficulty in recognizing words. Dalgleish and Enkelmann (1979) found
that poor readers (ages 8 through 12) have less knowledge of syntax than do good
readers. Similar results were reported by Morice and Slaghuis (1985) for 8-year-
olds and by Fletcher, Satz, and Scholes (1981) for 11-year-olds.
70 Chapter Five
Phonological Abilities
The use of phonological information—information about the sound structure of
language—is essential in oral and written communication. According to an exten-
sive research review by Wagner (1986), phonological abilities are important, if not
essential, in the acquisition of beginning reading skills. Also, deficiencies in
phonological abilities are a probable cause of the difficulty some children with
reading disabilities experience in acquiring reading skills.
Phonological awareness—hearing sounds in words—is related to success in
reading, according to a number of studies. In a study of first-grade readers,
Foorman and Liberman (1989) found that those who were achieving above grade
level were more skilled at hearing sounds in words than were those who were
achieving below grade level. Similar results were obtained by researchers who
studied groups of children from third through sixth grade with and without
reading disabilities (Ackerman, Anhalt, & Dykman, 1986; Felton & Wood, 1989;
Lenchner, Gerber, & Routh, 1990; Pratt & Brady, 1988). After measuring the
phonological awareness of a group of good and poor adult readers, Pratt and
Brady (1988) concluded further that phonological awareness appears to be related
to reading skill in adults as well as children.
Phonological processing—performing mental operations involving sounds—
was found to be less accurate for children with reading problems than for good
readers, according to a review of research by Brady (1986). Snowling, Goulandris,
Bowlby, and Howell (1986) found that children with reading disabilities were
comparable to younger children without reading disabilities at the same reading
achievement level and made more errors than the younger children in listening
to and repeating nonwords, but not in listening to and repeating real words. This
result suggests that the children with reading disabilities had difficulty perform-
ing mental operations involving sounds.
Stanovich (1985) concluded, from a review of research, that word-decoding
ability accounts for much of the difference in reading ability among children and
that decoding ability reflects differences in phonological ability. Success in oral
reading of nonwords is a measure of phonological processing in reading. Szeszul-
ski and Manis (1987) studied word recognition in second- through eighth-grade
children with reading disabilities, compared with children in the same grades
without reading disabilities. Their results suggested that both groups of children
used the same processes to identify words, but that the children with disabilities
had considerably more difficulty with nonwords. Olson, Wise, Conners, Rack,
and Fulker (1989) found that difficulty with reading nonwords as opposed to real
words, was a characteristic of persons ages 10 through 30 with reading disabili-
ties, compared with persons of the same ages without reading disabilities. Vellu-
tino and Scanlon (1987) studied second- and sixth-grade good and poor readers
and also found that difficulty with reading nonwords was characteristic of the
poor readers. Techniques to help students develop phonological awareness and
phonological processing are presented in Chapter 11.
Summary
This chapter has considered various cognitive and language factors and their
association with success and difficulty in reading. Although a specific deficit may
be essential in educational planning for an individual child, no single factor has
been isolated as the unique cause of reading disability in general. Some of the
most recent and most carefully performed research studies available for review
have yielded the most ambiguous results.
Lower than normal intelligence need not be a cause of reading disability, in
the sense that reading achievement can be as advanced as is reasonable to expect
for the slow-learning child. But when instructional procedures are not adjusted
to a child's slow learning ability, an accumulation of partial learnings makes it
impossible for him to profit from regular class instruction.
In a review of studies involving specific cognitive variables, a number of
factors have been identified as influential in groups of children with reading
disabilities. The results of cognitive assessment hold the promise of providing
additional information about the individual with a reading disability that will
prove useful in planning an appropriate remedial program. Cognitive stylealso
appears to be of promise in planning programs for youngsters with reading
disabilities.
Research dealing with language factors and reading suggests that problems
with receptive language and with syntax are associated with reading difficulties.
A good deal of recent research contends that phonological abilities are related to
success in reading and that deficiencies in phonological abilities are characteristic
of children with reading disabilities.
Study Questions
1. Under what conditions can a child with low intelligence be considered to
have a reading disability?
2. How do cognitive abilities differ from cognitive styles?
3. Why has the search for a single pattern of cognitive abilities as a predictor of
reading difficulty proven largely unproductive?
4. Which language factors discussed in the chapter have been shown to be
better developed among successful readers and more poorly developed
among children experiencing difficulty reading?
Selected Readings
Goswami, U., & Bryant, P. (1990). Phonological skills and learning to read. East Sussex, UK:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
72 Chapter Five
York: Longman.
Kirk, S. A., Kliebhan, J. M., & Lerner, J. W. (1978). Teaching reading to slow and disabled
learners. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Richek, M. A., List, L. K., & Lerner, J. W. (1989). Reading problems: Assessment and teaching
strategies (2nd ed.) (Pp. 55—85). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Singer, M. (1990). Psychology of language. Hilisdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Chapter 6
Causes of Reading Disability:
Emotional, Environmental,
and Educational Factors
In the two preceding chapters, a number of physical, cognitive, and language

attributes possibly affecting disability were surveyed. In this chapter, various
emotional, environmental, and educational factors and how they may contribute
to reading disability will be examined.
Personal and Social Adjustment

When the behavior of children with reading disabilities is compared with that of
students making normal progress in reading, it becomes obvious that there are
differences in personal and social adjustment. Children who are failing to learn
to read well are more likely to show indications of disturbed behavior than are
their more successful peers (Gentile & McMillan, 1987; Jorm, Share, Matthews, &
Maclean, 1986). Although many children with reading disabilities manifest some
indications of disturbed behavior, it is difficult to determine the relationship of
behavioral problems and emotional problems to reading problems.
When working with children with reading disabilities in a one-to-one or
small-group setting, it soon becomes apparent that they are laboring to learn
under stress. In the classroom, children with reading problems also manifest
symptoms of stress. According to a substantial review of research reported by
Gentile and McMillan (1987), the stress associated with reading difficulties can
seriously limit some students' ability to concentrate and can cause a range of
73
74 Chapter Six
behavior, from anger and aggression to avoidance and apprehension. This is why
some children with reading problems appear shy or listless, some appear unable
to concentrate, and many appear to lack self-confidence. These children become
discouraged easily and tend to give up when work becomes difficult. Other
children with reading problems appear easily irritated, may argue with the
teacher, or even may become aggressive in the classroom. These children actively
avoid reading.
It is the teacher's responsibility to aid and assist such children in proper
classroom behavior, for their own benefit and for that of the rest of the class. It is
crucial, as Gates noted many years ago (1947), not to assume that a child's
instability is permanent or unalterable. It is necessary, if the child's emotional or
adjustment problems appear severe enough, to seek the aid of professionals, such
as teachers of emotionally disturbed or behaviorally disordered children,school
psychologists, or social workers. It is important to remember that many children
with serious emotional or adjustment problems learn to read and to read well.
When groups of poor readers are compared with groups of good readers, the
results usually show a somewhat larger percentage of pupils with signs of per-
sonality maladjustment among the poor readers. In most instances, the differ-
ences are not great. According to Sornson (1950), children who first manifest
reading disabilities in the primary grades develop feelings of insecurity and show
less satisfactory forms of personal and social adjustment than do their more
successful peers.
A study in which behaviors were used to predict the achievement scores of
90 second graders was done by McKinney, Mason, Perkerson, and Clifford (1975).
The results suggest that observable classroom behavior is an important determi-
nant of academic progress. Swanson (1984), who studied 96 first-grade children,
found observable classroom behavior to be highly related to reading achieve-
ment. In a systematic study of the behavior of 108 students enrolled in Grades 1,
3, 5, 7, 9, and 11, poor readers were off task more and volunteered to participate
in class less than did good readers (Wasson, Beare, & Wasson, 1990). Classroom
behavior was also observed systematically by Camp and Zimet (1975). Their
study of 45 first-grade children revealed that poor readers exhibited more off-task
behavior and more deviant behavior than did good readers.
When Harris and King (1982) studied 242 fourth- and fifth-grade children,
they found that children who were judged by their teachers to have low achieve-
ment were less preferred by their classmates, were less intelligent, and were less
emotionally stable than children who were viewed by their teachers as having no
academic problems. A major study of over 1,000 New Zealand children who were
followed from age 3 to 15 years (McGee, Silva, & Williams, 1984; Stanton, Feehan,
McGee, & Silva, 1990) revealed that after first grade, lower reading achievement
levels were highly related to teacher-reported behavior problems. In fact, lower
reading achievement levels were more highly related to behavior problems than
to intellectual level or rating on a family adversity index.
Self-concept, which can be thought of as one's perception of self, also appears
to be related to reading difficulty. Eldredge (1981) concluded, on the basis of her
Emotional, Environmental, and Educational Factors 75
review of research, that although a number of studies have shown no significant

relationship between self-concept and reading achievement, most of the evidence
supports a strong relationship. She also notes that one reason for this may involve
the importance of reading in our society. Failure to master reading may interfere
with the development of a child's positive self-concept. In a study of 800 nine-
year-old children, Chapman, Silva, and Williams (1984) found that poor readers'
perceptions of their abilities were significantly lower than normal readers' per-
ceptions. Stevens (1971) found that fourth-grade students identified as remedial
readers were less accepted than others in their classrooms and that they had poor
self-concepts. Using various measures of self-concept, Herbert (1968) and Pren-
dergast and Binder (1975) reported that ninth-grade students with low reading
achievement also tend to have poor self-concepts. Bristow (1985) and Winograd
and Niquette (1988) suggest that poor readers are more passive than good readers
and that they may demonstrate learned helplessness, a perception that one's
actions do not affect outcomes. Learned helplessness may result from the persist-
ent academic failure that accompanies serious reading difficulties.
Some studies have been concerned with the effect of adjustment difficulties
on progress in reading. Feldhusen, Thurston, and Benning (1970) identified a
group of aggressive-disruptive children for comparison with a group of children
who behaved more appropriately. When the school achievements of the two
groups were compared 5 years later, the grades of the maladjusted group were
found to be significantly lower than those of the normally adjusted children.
Harris (1970), in summarizing a study from the Children's Juvenile Court in New
York City, reported that "Among those tested.. . 76% were found to be two or
more years retarded in reading, and more than half of those disabled five or more
years" (p. 37). Wattenberg and Clifford (1966) studied the relationship of the
self-concept of kindergarten children to beginning reading achievement. They
found that the children's attitudes about themselves were more closely related to
success in beginning reading than was intelligence. The researchers suggested
that self-concept is causally related to reading achievement. Swanson (1982),
however, found a positive, but very low, relationship between attitude toward
reading and reading achievement among first-grade students. Black (1974) found
that children with reading difficulties tend to hold a negative view of themselves.
He also noted that older children with reading problems felt more negatively
toward themselves than did younger children.
Although case studies of children often reveal an intimate relation between a
child's emotional problems and reading difficulties, most research studies com-
paring the personality characteristics of poor readers with those of good readers
have failed to show any consistent differences between them. Harris and Sipay
(1990) suggest that this probably reflects "misguided attempts to find a common
personality type or emotional problem in students who have reading problems
or disabilities" (p. 363).
Successful reading requires application and sustained concentration. What-
ever emotional problems prevent a student from paying attention and concentrat-
ing also interfere with the child's learning to read. Harris and Sipay (1990) outline
76 Chapter Six
several types of emotional problems that may contribute to reading disability:

conscious refusal to learn, overt hostility, negative conditioning to reading, dis-
placement of hostility, resistance to pressure, clinging to dependency, quickdis-
couragement, fear of success, extreme distraction or restlessness, and absorption
in a private world (daydreaming). Although in some cases the underlying emo-
tional difficulties may be similar, the symptoms or forms of expression may differ
so widely that attempts to place them in useful categories would be futile. It
should also be kept in mind that reading problems tend to have several causes
rather than just one. The more inhibiting factors present, the greater is the possi-
bility that a reading disability will occur.
Effects of Lack of Success

The inability to learn to read satisfactorily usually means severe frustration for
the child. When unsuccessful attempts to read make her conspicuous in a socially
unfavorable way, the child is hurt and ashamed. Her continued lack of success,
with its attendant frustration and feelings of insecurity, brings on emotional
maladjustment (Sornson, 1950). Some children become easily convinced that they
are stupid, a feeling that is frequently enhanced by the attitudes of their class-
mates, their parents, and even the teacher if he fails to understand the real
problem. The child with a reading disability comes to dislike reading and seeks
opportunities to avoid it. Sometimes failure leads children to become timid and
withdrawn; they frequently daydream. In other cases, children show their inse-
curity through nervous habits such as nail biting or throughavoidance-motivated
illnesses such as headaches. Still others may compensate for their feelings of
inferiority by developing various forms of antisocial behavior.
Most children who enter school with well-integrated personalities are eager
to learn to read. Such children thrive on success and approval. For some of them,
though, learning to read will mean only the failure and frustration of reading
difficulties. When success is denied and approval withheld, as failure and frustra-
tion increase, an emotional reaction is a natural consequence. From this, personal
and social maladjustment often follow. Reading disability has led to personal
maladjustment.
Maladjustment as a Cause
Some children are emotionally unstable even before they begin school. The basis
of their maladjustment may be constitutional or environmental, or it may be due
to a series of unfortunate incidents during the preschool years. Whatever the
basis, some children exhibit impulsive responses, negative attitudes, irritability,
difficulty maintaining attention, or lack of energy. These children are unable to
achieve the cooperation and sustained effort required in learning to read. Until
their maladjustment is dealt with, they make little progress in learning to read.
Several studies suggest that the behavioral problems associated with reading
disabilities may precede, and not just be a reaction to, difficulty with reading.
Jorm et al. (1986) studied 453 children from kindergarten through second grade.
They found that upon entering school, children who later developed reading
difficulties were more likely to exhibit behavior problems than children who
progressed normally in reading. The researchers attributed the behavior prob-
lems of the children they studied principally to attentional deficits. McMichael
(1979) investigated the sequential relationship of antisocial emotional disorders
and reading difficulties among 168 boys in their first 2 years at school. Her results
indicated that antisocial behavior was apparent from the initial months and was
associated with reading difficulties throughout the first 2 years. Horn and
Packard (1985) in analyzing 58 studies that explored the association between a
number of kindergarten or first-grade behaviors and subsequent reading prob-
lems, confirmed that attention problems showed the strongest association. Some-
what unexpected in their analysis was the finding that internalizing behavior
problems in the form of anxiety and depression was also a good predictor of later
reading difficulties.
The personality patterns of backward readers in two special classes were
explored by Frost (1965). He rated 40 percent of the children as maladjusted and
another 40 percent as unsettled or likely to become maladjusted. The outstanding
characteristic of these children was depression. Weinberg and Rehmet (1983) also
found a high rate of depression in children with severe reading difficulties.
In a study of 108 emotionally disturbed boys ages 9 to 14, Graubard (1971)
found that their level of reading disability was about as high as for regular
students of the same ages. The greatest degree of disability was found for those
with behavior problems.
On the basis of research into the relationship between reading achievement
and behavioral disorder among 130 children from Grades 2 through 6, Glavin and
Annesley (1971) warn that learning problems do not disappear after the treatment
of emotional problems, unless the learning problems receive specific attention.
These researchers do not feel that behavior problems must be changed before
academic achievement can be stressed, and they suggest that academic achieve-
ment can be required from children with behavior problems without causing
additional problems.
Maladjustment: Cause and Effect

When reading disability is accompanied by emotional involvement, the question
arises whether the personality maladjustment is primary or secondary. There is
no consensus among writers and investigators on this point. Examination of
reported evidence and the views of writers and clinical workers suggest that
although in some instances a previous emotional or behavioral difficulty prevents
a child from learning to read, in most instances emotional or behavioral difficul-
ties are reactions to reading failure. There are no data available that can assign
exact percentages to the proportion of instances in which emotional or behavioral
difficulties are causes rather than effects. The view that such maladjustments are
most often effects rather than causes is supported by the fact that in most cases,
78 Chapter Six
emotional and behavioral difficulties improve as the reading disability is allevi-

ated by remedial instruction.
When emotional and personality maladjustments are interactively causes and
effect of reading disability, the interaction tends to become viciously circular. Lack
of success during early attempts to learn to read causes tension, stress, and
frustration, usually accompanied by feelings of inadequacy and often by negative
behavior. The resulting personal and social adjustment difficulties then handicap
further progress in learning to read. In effect, the reading disability and the
emotional and behavioral reactions to the reading disability interact, each making
the other more intense. [For a more in-depth review of stress and reading diffi-
culties, with suggestions for reducing stress while instructing children with read-
ing disabilities, see Gentile and McMillan (1987).1
Environmental Factors
Achievement in reading depends on the child's personal strengths and the de-
niands of the reading program. Children with a background of family tension
may approach reading as unhappy and insecure learners. Children from a culture
different from that of the teacher and different from that portrayed in the materi-
als they read may experience unusual difficulty in learning. Children who feel
comfortable listening to and speaking a language or dialect different from the
teacher's and different from that found in their books may find learning to read
unusually demanding.
Some children who are from unstable homes, or who must make cultural or
language adjustments, do learn to read. Many teachers are sensitive to these
students' needs and adapt instruction accordingly. Many of these students can
adjust to the school's demands, even though they must try harder than other
children.
Home Environment
Some children come from a home environment that provides love, under-
standing, an opportunity to develop their individuality, and a feeling of security.
Others do not. Quarreling parents, broken homes, child neglect, child abuse,
overprotection, parental domination, anxiety, hostility, or destructive rivalry
among siblings are likely to produce stress and feelings of insecurity. There is
more evidence of family conflict in the homes of poor readers than in those of
children with no reading difficulties, according to Seigler and Gynther (1960).
Similarly, disturbed parent-child relations, marked sibling jealousy, and unfavor-
able attitudes toward school were characteristic of the poor readers studied by
Crane (1950). Thayer (1970) counseled students with reading disabilities and their
parents and then compared the reading progress of those students with that of
students who had had no counseling. The former had made large gains, while the
latter had made none. These results suggest that improvement in conditions at
home facilitates improvement in reading.
Neglect or lack of sympathetic understanding may cause a child to feel that
he is not loved or wanted. Apparent indifference on the part of a parent or
overconcern about a child's difficulties in learning may cause anxiety, lack of
confidence, and perhaps attention-seeking behavior.
Overprotection or domination of a child by his parents can lead to adjustment
difficulties. Too much parental control can prevent a child from developing initia-
tive and cause him to become so dependent on others that he is unable to learn
independently. If a parent attempts to dominate all of a child's activities, includ-
ing learning to read, the child may rebel against such domination and against
reading as well. Pressure for early reading may cause a child to value reading as
a means of receiving attention, but not to value reading itself (Werner and
Strother, 1987).
When a child's reading achievement is compared unfavorably with that of a
brother or sister, it may have a bad effect. A child who cannot compete success-
fully may attempt to escape from competition and may refuse to continue to learn
to read. Any conflict between parents and teachers over a child's reading is likely
to have negative consequences. A study by Klein, Altman, Dreizen, Friedman,
and Powers (1981) found that parental attitudes, such as being openly critical of
the teacher, principal, or school, affect a child's learning. These researchers also
point out that some parents believe and communicate to their children the view
that it is unnecessary to be concerned about success in school. Learning is viewed
as unimportant. Other parents hold the attitude that "high academic achievement
is crucial to survival." These parents pressure their children to be outstanding in
all school learning.
A child who is under unusual stress from conditions at home may become an
anxious, insecure learner or may give up much too easily when reading becomes
demanding. Some children react to stress at home by disrupting the classroom. In
certain other instances, the result is quite different. Some children find that
reading alleviates personal anxiety and insecurity, and they use it and school
success as an escape from environmental pressures. But usually, tension arid
pressures at home hinder rather than help progress in reading.
A French study of family characteristics of 249 children aged 8 through 15
years with severe reading disabilities revealed that low occupational status and
low educational level of the head of the household were associated with the
children's severe reading disabilities, as was being a younger child from a large
family. On the other hand, parental age and marital status were not associated
with severe reading disability (Melekian, 1990).
Data collected by McGee, Williams, and Silva (1984) for 790 New Zealand
children who were studied from age 7 to 13 years suggested that variables
relating to literacy in the home, in contrast to measures of cognitive development,
behavior, and family background, were the best predictors of eventual reading
success among children who get off to a slow start. Results of a national assess-
80 Chapter Six
ment of educational progress in the United States were reported by Walberg and
Tsai (1985). Among the 1,459 nine-year-old students surveyed, home environ-
mental factors most associated with high reading achievement levels were a
favorable attitude toward reading, the availability of reading materials in the
home, use of English in the home, and kindergarten attendance. Neuman (1986)
reports, on the basis of a questionnaire administered to the parents of 84 fifth-
grade students, that frequency of reading to young children and availability of
magazines in the home were related to the amount of the children's leisure
reading. Austin, Bush, and Huebner (1961) point out that, although certain home
factors have been shown to be partly responsible for a child's success or lack of
success in reading, it is almost never the case that any one of them can be cited as
the single causal factor thereof.
Attitudes
It is important that the child develop a favorable attitude toward school, class-
mates, and reading. While positive attitudes foster progress in learning to read,
negative attitudes can result in reading difficulties. Personal and social adjust-
ment, home conditions, peer relationships, teacher-pupil relations, and the in-
structional program all influence attitudes toward reading.
Although most children begin school eager to learn to read, some do not.
Occasionally, there will be a beginner who, for one reason or another, is antago-
nistic toward learning in general or toward reading in particular. It requires tact,
patience, and sympathetic understanding and guidance from the teacher for these
children to form positive attitudes toward reading.
In most instances, unfavorable attitudes toward reading come after, rather
than before, the child is exposed to reading instruction. That is, achievers form
positive attitudes toward reading and school, while pupils who make slow pro-
gress and children who have reading disabilities have negative attitudes. Sound
reading instruction emphasizing each child's successes does much to ensure that
the child will maintain and acquire positive attitudes toward reading and other
school activities—in short, that the child will like school.
Cultural and Language Differences

There is little doubt that the child who approaches reading from a cultural or
language background different from that of her teacher and different from the
material she is expected to read is at a disadvantage. When cultural and language
differences are also accompanied by poverty, poor food, poor sanitation, poor
housing, and poor medical care, the disadvantage is compounded (Birch & Gus-
sow, 1970). When home conditions prompt the teacher to expect little from the
student, the pathway to failure has been prepared (Rist, 1970). Although, as
Cohen and Cooper (1972) argue, it is not the role of education to eradicate all
social ills, a major contribution can be made by teaching poor children adequate
reading skills. The best way to do this, according to Cohen (1969), is to provide
Emotional, Environmental, and Educational Factors
intensive, quality instruction, based not on race or social condition, but on the
learning needs of each child.
There are many kinds of cultural differences that can affect the teachers'
perceptions of their students, the children's perceptions of their teachers, the
children's behavior in school, and the nature and importance of reading for each
child. For example, there are cultural differences in how a child should behave
when an adult is speaking, the desirability or undesirability of answering when
unsure, the amount of competition or cooperation displayed to peers, the amount
of physical aggression that should be used, and the amount of control asserted
over the child's own destiny. A child may be misunderstood by a teacher with a
different cultural heritage, unless the teacher is aware of the differences and their
implications.
A cultural difference can interfere with a child's comprehension of material
because it may cause the child to make inferences that are not suggested by the
author of the material (Lebauer, 1985). If reading materials deal with events,
activities, ideas, and ideals quite different from those in the child's own experi-
ences, reading itself may seem to be for someone else and may be rejected or
considered unimportant for that reason. If a child's books portray people from
her culture negatively, the child may reject reading, or may learn to read but
develop adverse feelings about herself or her family. Spache (1970) provides a list
of realistic, yet positive books from which appropriate selections could be made
for children from various minority groups. But, as Vick (1973) points out, there are
many excellent materials available with content that is suitable for all children.
Language differences pose an additional problem in instruction. Some chil-
dren may speak a dialectical variation of the standard English used in the class-
room. Other children may speak a foreign language. In many of the nation's
largest urban school systems, 10 or more different languages may be spoken by
students (Cooper and Sherk, 1989). These language differences increase the diffi-
culty of learning and of teaching reading.
Simons (1973) states that the mismatch between a student's dialect and stand-
ard English interferes with the student's reading achievement. He criticizes both
unsystematic attempts to teach standard English along with reading and text-
books in which the stories are written in some dialect. On the one hand, teaching
standard English as a part of the reading lesson hinders the child as she learns to
read. On the other hand, dialectical textbooks are unpopular because not all
children who speak a dialect speak the same one. Simons and others, including
Venezky and Chapman (1973) and Rystrom (1973), believe that the teacher's
knowledge of dialectical differences and her attitude toward children who do not
speak standard nglish are more important than the dialect or the materials
themselves. Cooper and Sherk (1989) add that many students need help in the
expressive use of English, in using complete sentences, and in learning how to
listen carefully. They need a teacher who an translate dialect accurately to stand-
ard English, without degrading the language or humiliating the students.
Although dialectical differences interfere with learning to read standard Eng-
lish, language differences create even more serious problems. There is a great
82 Chapter Six
need for bilingual teachers who understand the positive qualities and are sensi-
tive to the real needs of the non-English-speaking child. In an extensive review of
the literature, Engle (1975) was unable to determine whether minority children in
a bilingual culture should be taught to read in their native language or the
dominant language. She pointed out that any method that undermines a child's
pride in his native language or culture, or that places a child in a situation in
which he cannot understand the teacher's instruction, will be unsuccessful.
Thonis (1976) presents much valuable information for those teaching Spanish-
speaking children.
In sum, most authors agree that teachers of children with cultural or language
differences must understand these differences in order to be effective in teaching
reading. A positive attitude is also necessary; as is the ability to communicate to
each child a sense of his dignity and worth.
The educational problems involved in improving the reading growth of chil-
dren with cultural and language differences belong to the developmental reading
program rather than to the remedial reading program. The educational program
of these children should be adjusted to meet their individual needs.
Children from homes in which a language other than English is spoken may
know little or no English. They may be unable to understand or to speak English
well enough to participate in ordinary classroom activities. These children may
appear to be of low mental ability, because it is difficult to obtain a fair estimate
of a child's intelligence when he can neither understand nor speak English if the
child is tested in English.
Miramontes (1987) assessed the reading levels of a group of fourth-, fifth-,
and sixth-grade Hispanic students who were labeled as having reading disabili-
ties by asking them to read English and Spanish text. Her analysis of the results
provides strong evidence that the reading difficulties of children who progress
from Spanish literacy to English literacy may be based on a lack of overall English
proficiency, rather than on a problem with reading.
Because the reading difficulties of children who are learning English as a
second language tend to be due to their inability to understand or speak English,
procedures used in teaching beginning reading which assume that each child has
already learned to understand and speak English will not be beneficial. These
children first need a program to strengthen their English. Preparatory instruction
ordinarily should have three simultaneous activities: building up a basic vocabu-
lary for understanding and speaking, improving the children's facility in oral
communication, and providing a background of meaningful experiences. Words
and concepts associated with these experiences must be in English. Thus, the
child learns to speak and understand a vocabulary before he encounters it in
reading. Probably, much of the training in the understanding and use of spoken
English should be carried out in sessions not concerned with reading. In general,
lessons in reading should not be complicated by simultaneous training in pro-
nunciation. Of course, all this does not mean that no reading is done while the
child is being taught English; but although the two can be done concurrently, they
should be in separate class periods.
These children do not acquire any reading disabilities if an appropriate teach-

ing program is organized early in their school lives. Nevertheless, the develop-
ment of an adequate background in English will be gradual. Until this is achieved,
the children are at a disadvantage in all school activities. Hence, the program may
need to be continued throughout the elementary school years.
Children from culturally different environments in which a dialect other than
standard English is spoken have a somewhat different problem. Preschool-level
programming is especially beneficial to them. As Lloyd (1965) points out, lan-
guage patterns are established firmly by the time a child is 6 years old. Therefore,
it is desirable to encourage early language development and build essential
concepts in young preschool children. Such development of language and of
necessary concepts is especially important for the child from a different culture.
This is part of the role of programs for preschool children. Preschool programs are
important in helping disadvantaged children prepare for reading and other learn-
ing. Special teaching is also needed to help the disadvantaged child progress
through the elementary grades.
Continued emphasis upon real experiences, field trips, audiovisual presenta-
tions, storytelling, puppetry, and role playing should be maintained throughout
the school years. The language used as a by-product of these experiences is
beneficial to disadvantaged children and is an important part of beginning read-
ing instruction. The language experience approach may be used in a major or
supplemental role in reading instruction. In this approach, children tell a story,
immediately tied to a real experience, which the teacher writes down verbatim.
The children then review the story and work on activities associated with it,
such as reading sentences, matching words, or drawing pictures to illustrate
the story. For a child with experiential differences, language differences, or dialec-
tical differences, this approach is useful in that it deals with experiences he has
had, and it uses words and language structures with which he is familiar and
comfortable.
Some children with dialectical differences, as well as those for whom English
is a second language, have reading difficulties that can be corrected by specific
remedial training. They should receive immediate help and be treated like others
with reading disabilities: Their reading patterns should be diagnosed, their basic
reading problems isolated, and individual remedial plans formulated.
The fact that a given child has a dialectical difference itself should be taken
into account in the remedial plan, and the techniques used should include the
language experience approach. Silent reading exercises should always use inter-
esting, meaningful material. Any oral reading errors related to the child's dialect
should be ignored.
It should be remembered that children with dialectical differences under-
stand radio and television well, although when they discuss what they have
heard or seen, they tend to use their own dialect, rather than the standard English
used in the radio or television programs. This should not be criticized or belittled.
We suggest that these children do much independent reading of material
written in standard English. The material should be very easy for each child to
84 Chapter Six
read, and the child should be allowed to discuss it as he likes. We also suggest
that the child select parts of a story that he liked best, that he found most exciting
or most humorous, or that he thought was well written. The child then might
choose a part of the story to read aloud to others. The child should read this
material as it is written. It might be even more helpful if he pretended to be a
television personality and read as he would on a real television program.
Educational Factors
Among all the factors that are considered possible causes of reading disability,the
group of conditions classed as educational stands out as tremendously important.
Careful consideration of various characteristics that predispose children to expe-
rience difficulty in learning to read does not diminish the importance of the
educational program as the major cause of reading difficulty. Rather, it shows
how necessary it is for each child's instruction in reading to meet her individual
learning needs. In the vast majority of cases of reading disability, careful diagno-
sis reveals that there is faulty learning or a lack of educational adjustment in the
student's instructional program.
As discussed earlier, reading is a complex process involving many interre-
lated skills and abilities. As a child progresses through the reading program, there
is constant danger that she may fail to acquire essential knowledge or that she
may get into difficulty because she may over- or underemphasize such knowl-
edge. Under the broad category of educational causes, several educational prac-
tices must be considered. Although this book discusses them separately, it should
be supposed, not that they operate in isolation, but rather, that they are related
and interacting.
School Administrative Policies

Success in teaching children to read depends on the teacher. Thus, we must
examine the role that certain administrative policies play in determining how
effectively a teacher can organize and carry out her reading program. Some of the
policies that hinder even the best of teachers will be considered briefly.
Reading versus Child Development

Whether reading or child development should be the chief concern of the school
during the early grades is controversial. Some educators believe that the empha-
sis should be almost entirely on developing reading skills. Others object to this
and feel that the school's chief concern should be the happy, balanced develop-
ment of each child's personality. Many teachers not only are aware of the issue,
but also may be under pressure to stress one approach at the expense of the other.
The argument of those opposing effective reading in the primary grades is that
putting pressure on the children to read may produce maladjustment. Theyclaim
that emphasis upon reading destroys interest in learning since, they believe,
reading is an activity foreign to the real interests of children in these grades.
Actually, there need be no serious conflict between well-balanced child develop-
ment and all-around development that includes reading, if reading is taught
properly. With individualized instruction, including accounting for reading readi-
ness, developing reading skills can become an integral part of a well-balanced
total program. In this program, only those who are ready to do so begin to read
early in Grade 1. Other children start later, when they are capable of succeeding.
When frustrations arise, it is likely to be because of the method of instruction.
Reading instruction suffers when administrative pressure overemphasizes or
underemphasizes reading in the primary grades.
Promotion Policy and Curriculum Requirements
In 1938, Cole stated that the reason for the prevalence of remedial reading classes
was the failure of schools to adjust the curriculum to the current promotion
policy. To some degree, this indictment is still valid. Cole was referring to promot-
ing children mainly by age rather than by achievement, with no accompanying
change in curriculum requirements. This produces a wider and wider range of
reading abilities in successively higher grades. At the same time, curriculum
requirements remain fairly rigid. When pupils are promoted by age, not achieve-
ment, and there are noinstructional adjustments made, then much of the material
assigned to pupils in the higher grades is too advanced for the poorer readers'
level of reading competence. The poorer readers also do not receive needed
instruction in certain reading skills, because these skills are not usually empha-
sized in the higher grades. For some students, the result is a reading disability. Yet
it is not the yearly promotions per se that have caused the disability, but rather
the failure to adjust instruction to the individual needs of certain students. If
alternative materials are assigned and if essential skills are taught, then reading
disability need not result from promotion by age.
Readiness for Beginning Reading

Success in beginning reading depends largely on the child's overall level of
maturity. The pattern of growth entails many types of abilities, acquired behav-
iors, and specific pieces of knowledge. Although some aspects of reading readi-
ness come with maturation, many of the most important ingredients are learned
and can therefore be taught. This means that when a child approaches beginning
reading lacking certain essential skills and knowledge, these can and should be
taught before or during beginning reading instruction. Research by Spache (1965)
has demonstrated the effectiveness of appropriate training in visual and auditory
perceptual skills for children who need such skill development to succeed in
beginning reading. The evidence suggests that training is effective in developing
visual and auditory perceptual skills before beginning reading instruction and
that, in addition, such prereading skill development facilitates initial reading
86 Chapter Six
success. Other beginning reading achievements, such as knowledge of the mean-

ings of words, attention to oral directions, the ability to work independently, the
ability to work cooperatively in groups, and even the desire to read, can be
taught.
Many first-grade children are not ready to learn to read in the typical pro-
gram, and therefore, instructional modifications must be made if they are to
experience initial success in learning to read. Reading disability is frequently
caused by starting a child in a standard reading program before the child is ready.
Because of lack of experience, verbal deficits, poor visual or auditory perceptual
development, overall immaturity, or a combination of these features, the child is
unable to achieve what is expected of him daily and therefore does not succeed.
Instead of learning to read, the most the child can do is acquire only bits of
reading skills that he is unable to use. Thus, he falls farther and farther behind.
The outcome will not be reading well, but frustration and failure, perhaps leading
to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, insecurity, and even rebellion. Such a child
may even come to hate reading and all persons and activities connected with it.
The many failures in reading during the primary grades are due in part to the
inability of programs of instruction to adapt to differences in readiness for begin-
ning reading. Any educational program or administrative policy that provides
exactly the same formal reading instruction for all pupils at the beginning of
Grade 1 causes reading failure for many children.
Adjustment to Individual Differences

Beginning in Grade 1 and continuing in every grade thereafter, reading instruc-
tion can be effective for all students only when it is able to adjust to individual
differences. Without such adjustment, reading difficulties arise.
Methods of Teaching
Most reading difficulties are caused by children's failure to acquire necessary
learning, or by faulty learning, as they go through the reading program. The
complexity of the reading process has many points at which children are vulner-
able to experiencing difficulties. Sometimes this is coupled with ineffective teach-
ing. For one reason or another, there may be a lack of educational adjustment to
the needs of certain students, so that they do not acquire essential knowledge.
A number of factors may lead to ineffective teaching. Curriculum require-
ments may take so much of the teacher's time that the teacher is unable to
individualize the program satisfactorily. Concurrently, the methods or materials
used may be too difficult for certain youngsters. Under these conditions, it is
probable that certain students will be pushed through the program too rapidly to
learn what it is designed to teach.
Using materials and methods that seem dull and unimportant to the student
is another part of ineffective teaching. In beginning reading, for instance, it is
important that the child develop the attitude of insisting on understanding what
is read. To do this, the reading material should either tell a story (have a plot) or
give some information. Neither of these can be done by the excessive use of
badly constructed and insipid experience charts, or by reading dull and anemic
materials made of almost meaningless sentences, or by isolated drill on the
parts of words. One youngster, on being exposed to such material, said to his
teacher, "That sounds silly." It is not surprising that some children react to this
kind of material by acquiring negative attitudes that become obstacles to learning
to read.
Similarly, procedures that do not tie class activities to the reading program
can lead to reading disability. When reading is taught separately from activities
the child enjoys, it is no wonder that the child sees no reason for learning to read.
In contrast, if there is a relationship between reading and class activities, so that
reading itself is a tool for those activities, the child becomes motivated to learn to
read. It is desirable that reading activities affect some of the important things the
child is doing in the class and that many of the class activities grow out of the
reading program. Then the child can see a reason for reading, and interest and
motivation are maintained at a high level.
It should be emphasized here that interest is not the same thing as entertain-
ment. Real interest backed by strong motivation is not found by flitting from one
amusing incident or story to another. Much better is a program in which reading
is tied carefully to activities in the classroom. Such a program would imply
coordination among the language arts. Interest in and motivation to improve
one's skill in speaking, listening, writing, spelling, and reading are interrelated
and flow from the desire to communicate with others through language.
Excessive emphasis on isolated drills kills interest. As we shall see later, some
drill is desirable and necessary. Sometimes, however, drills are so far removeçi
from the act of reading that the child cannot bridge the gap. Not only is the child
unable to transfer what is learned in the drill to actual reading, but she also
cannot see the reason for the drill. Methods concentrating on isolated drills,
rather than on sharing stories and experiences, lead to loss of interest and inhibit
the desire to learn to read.
Insufficient emphasis on basic reading skills can prevent effective reading.
For example, children who do not recognize enough words at sight, or who do
not possess adequate skills in word analysis, or who do not comprehend what
they are reading are not effective readers. Basic skills underlie proficiency in
reading, and they must be properly stressed.
Many youngsters have trouble reading because their reading programs are
not well thought out. It should not be forgotten that methods that ignore the
orderly development of essential skills and abilities are not beneficial to the
student. Moreover, indifferent, unorganized, and superficial teaching of various
subjects contributes to the reading difficulties of some students. Teaching content
subjects can contribute to effective reading if training in necessary skills and
abilities is an integral part of the instructional program.
When emphasis upon the mechanics of reading leads to neglect of the mean-
ings of words, children run into serious difficultyUndue stress on word recogni-
88 Chapter Six
tion, perfection of enunciation, and speed may lead to verbalism—the pronuncia-

tion of words without understanding their theanings. A girl in one of our reme-
dial reading groups could read fourth-grade materials aloud without error, but
she could comprehend practically nothing of what she "read." To pronounce
words without understanding their meaning is not reading; it is merely calling
out words. The girl had a reading disability.
Overemphasis on phonic analysis as a word-recognition technique frequently
causes disability. The child is so intent upon sounding out most of the words she
encounters that she cannot attend to meaning. Or she laboriously separates a new
word into its component sounds and then is unable to blend the separate sounds
into a recognizable pronunciation of the word. Such children usually have an
insufficient sight vocabulary and are unable to make adequate use of contextual
clues for word recognition.
To progress satisfactorily in learning to read, there must be a proper balance
among many skills and abilities. A sight vocabulary, various techniques for word
recognition, concepts and meanings of words, reading in thought units, compre-
hension and study skills, and many other abilities must not be taught separately.
They are all part of an integrated sequential program. There is abalanced rela-
tionship between them that must be striven for. The student who gets into diffi-
culty is quite frequently the child for whom a balance among these skills has not
been maintained.
Granted that it is difficult to imagine a teacher who is able to manage a class
of 30 children and at the same time keep account of all the essential balances
while carrying out his reading program in a systematic and orderly fashion. But
the teacher should never forget the importance of a balanced program and should
do what is possible to achieve it. The smaller the class, the greater is the possibil-
ity of maintaining balance.
Role of the Teacher

The role of the teacher is important. She can have a positive or negative influence
upon progress in learning to read. Students are fortunate if their teacher is so able,
well trained, and sympathetic that she maintains good relationships with them
and is able to achieve a proper balance in developing skills and abilities in the
reading program. When teachers deviate from this combination, readinginstruc-
tion is apt to suffer. The teacher who is inept because of poor training, lack of
experience, or a slavish devotion to inflexible routine is unable to adjust reading
instruction to the varied needs of her students.
A teacher's personality—especially when she has a negative attitude toward
a particular student—may cause or intensify the stress associate&with failure in
reading. Apparent indifference, hostility, or obvious anxiety in the teacher when
a student has difficulty reading intensifies the child's emotional reactions and
feelings of insecurity. We have to face it—too often, the teacher is not without
blame when a child develops a reading disability.
Role of the Library or Media Center

The school library or media center also plays an important part in the total
reading program. Although the teacher develops the child's reading skills in the
classroom by means of the formal program of instruction, it is through the school
library or media center that the child's interests in reading are pursued and
expanded. The librarian can provide teachers with materials for developmental
reading programs, as well as for individual and remedial programs. Within the
library or media center, there can be attractive book displays, book talks, and
storytelling hours to make reading exciting to the students. The library's varied
book collections offer students opportunities for reference reading, research, and
additional reading at each grade level.
Secondary schools lead in library services for their pupils; many elementary
schools have been much less fortunate in their library facilities. In fact, some
elementary schools have no books at all, other than textbooks. Other schools have
small classroom collections, while others, fortunately, have a library room or
media center with a trained librarian or media expert.
The value of a library or media center to the elementary pupil's advancement
in reading cannot be overemphasized. Gayer (1961) evaluated six school libraries
and their services, as well as the quantity and quality of reading done by the
students who frequented the libraries. She found that higher educational gains
were made when there was a school library and that students read more and
better books when there was a library.
Summary
The causes of reading disability are numerous; seldom is a single factor the cause.
In all but the mildest cases, the difficulty is due to a composite of related condi-
tions. The contributing factors interact in a pattern.
Reading disability is usually accompanied by emotional factors that ad-
versely affect the child's personal and social adjustment and classroom behavior.
The maladjustment may be due to constitutional factors, to environmental fac-
tors, or to failure in reading. In some cases, a child may be emotionally upset or
behaviorally disordered upon arrival at school. Such a child is apt to have diffi-
culty reading. For many children, frustration will then arise. In these instances,
the reading difficulty causes emotional upset that is often expressed by a wide
variety of reading-avoidance behaviors. Emotional maladjustment may be both
effect and cause. When an emotional reaction arises from a reading disability, it
may then become a handicap to further learning. There is, in such cases, a
reciprocal relationship between the child's emotions, behavior, and reading dis-
ability. When maladjustment is due to reading failure, it tends to disappear when
the child learns to read satisfactorily. When maladjustment is the primary prob-
lem, the child should be served by an appropriate specialist.
90 Chapter Six
For children who are learning English as a second language, ordinary reading
instruction is usually not productive until they have made some progress in
spoken English. Just as soon as the teacher considers it feasible, however, they can
be taught reading concurrently with continued instruction in spoken English.
Disadvantaged children benefit greatly from preschool programming. Good
health, sound nutrition, a positive self-concept, and language development are all
helpful. In the preschool and school years, opportunities to participate in real
experiences and to utilize audiovisual presentations are especially beneficial to
many disadvantaged children. The language experience approach can be an
important part of beginning reading instruction for many children with experien-
tial, language, or dialectical differences.
Frequently, reading disability is due largely to educational factors. Any ad-
ministrative policy that hinders the individualization of instruction, including
emphasis upon reading readiness, prevents effective progress in reading. Failure
to acquire necessary skills or the acquisition of faulty techniques is most fre-
quently due to ineffective teaching. One or more of the following factors maybe
involved in the ineffective teaching that brings about reading disability: too rapid
progress in the instructional schedule, isolation of reading instruction from other
school activities, inappropriate emphasis on some technique or skill, or treating
reading as a by-product of studying subjects. Frequently, the difficulty occurs
because the instructional program has failed to maintain a balance in the growth
of the large number of skills and abilities involved in learning to read.
If one conclusion were to be made, it is that there is no cause of all reading
disabilities. Each case is unique. Only when there is a valid diagnosis will there
be a sound basis for planning an individual remedial program to alleviate a
particular child's reading disability.
Study Questions
1. How do emotional and behavioral problems interfere with learning to read?
2. How do problems with reading affect a child's adjustment and behavior?
3. How do parental attitudes affect a child's progress in learning to read?
4. What should the teacher emphasize in teaching children with cultural or
language differences?
5. What should be done if a first-grade child is not ready to learn to read in the
typical program?
6. Why is it bad practice to emphasize the mechanics of reading to the extent
that it leads to neglect of meaning?
Selected Readings
Gentile, L. M., & McMillan, M. M. (1987). Stress and reading difficulties: Research, assessment,
intervention. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Harris, A. J., & Sipay, E. it (1990). How to increase reading ability (9th ed.) (pp. 354—389). New
York: Longman.
Maggart, Z. R., & Zintz, M. V. (1990). Corrective reading (6th ed.) (pp. 406—442). Dubuque,
IA: Wm. C. Brown.
McCormick, S. (1987). Remedial and clinical reading instruction (pp. 413—425). Columbus,
OH: Merrill.
strategies (2nd ed.) (pp. 26-42). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Taylor, B., Harris, L. A., & Pearson, P. D. (1988). Reading d15kulties: Instruction and assess-
ment (pp. 32-44). New York: Random House.
Chapter 7
Basic Considerations
in Diagnosing
Reading Difficulties
Remedial instruction that is not based on a thorough diagnosis is likely to waste
time and effort for both the student and the teacher. Moreover, remedial work
done without an adequate diagnosis is likely to fail. A student who has had
difficulty with reading may already be apprehensive. Continued failure in a
remedial program is apt to intensify this insecurity. Persons responsible for reme-
dial programs should make every effort to ensure that each child will be success-
ful and will sense the success he or she achieves.
General Principles of Diagnosis

An adequate diagnosis determines in no small measure the success of the reme-
dial program. Since reading is a complex process, there is no one single or simple
cure for reading difficulties. Remedial training that is effective in one case might
be detrimental or wasteful in another. It is only through understanding the
underlying factors of any given child's difficulty that an adequate remedial pro-
gram can be formulated. For example, suppose two students have difficulty
reading and appraisal shows that both are low in reading comprehension. Sup-
pose also that further analysis indicates that one student is low in comprehension
because of inadequate recognition of words, while the other student is low be-
cause she is a word-by-word reader who is so conscious of individual words that
she is unable to group them into thought units. Then the first student needs
93
94 Chapter Seven
remedial work to build up his awareness of words and his ability to inspect them
in detail. This procedure, however, would be detrimental to the secondstudent's
need for overcoming her overemphasis on isolated words.
The problem of helping children with reading difficulties is complicated
further by the many characteristics children possess and by the learning environ-
ments that affect their reading growth. It is necessary to adjust one's plans and
methods to some of the variations among the children's physical, emotional,
educational, intellectual, and environmental factors if reading growth is to pro-
gress smoothly or even at all. Sometimes, these same factors need to be totally
corrected before remedial programs can be effective.
It is little wonder, then, that the classroom teacher attempting to correct
reading difficulties finds that no two children have the same instructional needs.
Any attempt to give a child remedial instruction must be based on a thorough
diagnosis of the child's unique reading needs and personal characteristics. The
diagnosis is the very core of successful remediation programs, whether they are
for the less complex problems addressed in the classroom or for the more com-
plex problems that require a specialist.
The classroom teacher may need special help in diagnosing or correcting the
more complex reading problems of some children or when limitations in reading
require a diagnosis that is more detailed and more discerning than the teacher has
the time or the training to give. Frequently, it is necessary to study a child's
reading pattern by means of an individual appraisal that takes several hours to
administer. It is thus expedient to have the more detailed diagnoses conducted by
someone who can work individually with children over a long period of time. In
many cases, it is essential to obtain evaluations and corrective help from other
specialists, such as speech pathologists, social workers, school psychologists, or
physicians.
Of course, the teacher should diagnose and correct as many reading difficul-
ties as he can. Early detection and correction of these problems will prevent many
of them from becoming more complex. There are many diagnostic procedures
that the classroom teacher can use in studying the child with a moderate reading
disability. In other cases, an outside diagnosis may be needed to help the teacher
formulate the kinds of remedial treatment he can provide in the classroom. In
some instances, both the detailed diagnosis and the corrective treatment should
be given by specialists. But for every reading difficulty, whether simple or com-
plex, a diagnosis is necessary
Characteristics of the Diagnosis

A good diagnosis:
1. Focuses on improving the child's condition.
2. Provides all essential information to remedy the condition.
3. Is efficient.
4. Uses information from cumulative records.
Diagnosing Reading Difficulties 95
5. Includes only relevant information.

6. Uses standardized procedures when they exist.
7. Uses informal procedures when standardized procedures do not exist.
8. Bases its decision on patterns of scores.
9. Is ongoing.
Let us examine each of these in turn.
Focus on Improvement
The diagnosis of a child who has difficulty reading should include information
necessary for planning a corrective program for the child. There are two types of
diagnosis: etiological and therapeutic. An etiological diagnosis finds out what
originally caused a child to get into difficulty. Often, this kind of diagnosis is
impossible to obtain, and frequently, it is useless for formulating a remedial
program. It is of little use, for example, to search a child's records and find that
the child is having difficulty in reading in the fourth grade because of an extended
absence due to illness in the first grade. Nothing can be done now to give the help
the child needed then. This information, collected and summarized for research
purposes, might be useful in preventing subsequent reading difficulties, but it is
not useful for the immediate task of correcting a reading problem that began
several years earlier.
By contrast, therapeutic diagnosis is concerned with conditions that are now
present, in order to plan a program of reeducation. The therapeutic diagnostician
searches for the child's reading strengths and limitations and for any charac-
teristics within the child's present environment that need to be corrected before
remedial instruction can be successful or for conditions that need to be adjusteçl
to before the child can be expected to make progress. As an example, the reading
specialist is more concerned about a current hearing loss than about finding out
that the child is in difficulty because she had a temporary hearing loss several
years ago.
Provision of All Essential Infonnation
The complex nature of a reading disability and the many factors related to
achievement in reading make it necessary to explore the child's many traits and
reading skills and abilities for an adequate diagnosis. Besides discovering the
deficiencies in reading that are at the root of the disability, it is often necessary for
the reading specialist to appraise the physical, sensory, emotional, and environ-
mental factors that may be impeding the child's progress. Frequently, the diagno-
sis requires other expert help. The specialist should be alert to the possible effect
of conditions within the child or his environment that require specialized help.
All appraisals made in more complex cases should be extensive enough to pin-
point the existence of such limitations. The measurements used in a reading
diagnosis will be discussed in the following chapters. It is enough to say here that
the diagnosis should supply all the information that is pertinent to correcting the
disability.
96 Chapter Seven
Efficiency
Although the diagnosis of some reading disabilities may be lengthy and intricate,
in other cases a child's instructional needs can be isolated relatively easily and
quickly. A diagnosis should proceed as far, and only as far, as is necessary to
formulate a remedial program in each specific instance. The diagnosis should
proceed from group measurements to the more detailed individual measure-
ments needed for the case under study. The diagnosis should be reached by
measuring first the relatively common types of problems and then the more
unusual ones.
It would be expected, for example, that for all children suspected of having a
reading disability, one would routinely measure their general reading achieve-
ment and their general mental ability. It would only be in an unusual circum-
stance that a complete neurological examination would be required. The
procedures in diagnosis are much like successive screenings in which only the
more complex and elusive cases are retained for further measurement and study.
The three levels of diagnosis are (1) appraisals that are made routinely for all
children in the schools or for all children referred for special study, (2) more
detailed appraisals made only in those instances when more analytical study is
warranted, and (3) appraisals that are individual in nature, made only in the most
complex cases. In reading diagnosis, these are called, respectively, general diag-
nosis, specific diagnosis, and child-study diagnosis.
General diagnosis has three purposes. First, it gives information that is neces-
sary to adjust instruction to meet the needs of groups of children in general. For
example, a fifth-grade class as a whole may be found to be relatively weak in
reading achievement. If so, the teacher may conclude that moreattention should
be given to reading instruction than had been given in the past. Second, general
diagnosis gives information that is necessary for adjusting instruction to the
individual differences in reading found within the class. It can, for example,
indicate the range of general reading competence for which the teacher must plan
and also indicate specific children that would benefit from instructional modifi-
cations. Third, general diagnosis can help find those children who are inneed of
a more detailed analysis of their reading difficulties.
Specific diagnosis makes two important contributions to the correction of read-
ing difficulties. First, it locates those areas of limitationthat need to be examined
more fully. Second, it can often indicate instructional adjustments that are re-
quired to overcome those limitations.
Child-study diagnosis involves a more detailed, thorough, and time-consuming
study than is warranted for children with relatively uncomplicated reading prob-
lems. Many children may require only a general study of their educational
achievement and intellectual capability to deal with their reading difficulties.
Other children may require differential or specific study to locate the exact areas
in which they are limited. Some of this latter group of children may have prob-
lems that are so elusive or complex, that detailed study is required before a
remedial program can be designed for them.
Diagnosing Reading Dfficulties 97
Use of Information from Cumulative Records

The yearly records of the school will give the specialist information about the
progress the student has made throughout her school life. They will also indicate
the subjects that have been difficult for the student. They will tell, too, about any
periods of prolonged absence or changes of school. These records help to estab-
lish the grade level at which the student's trouble with reading may have started.
The examiner should make a careful study of the school history of the student
and should record those circumstances that are related to reading. Such a study
often eliminates duplicate testing and gives information that is not available from
other sources.
Inclusion of Only Relevant Information

There is a tendency for reading specialists to add tests to their routine diagnostic
procedures on an experimental basis. This is as it should be, but when such tests
are found to have little diagnostic value, they should be discontinued. The time,
energy, and expense involved in obtaining valid diagnostic information is so
great, that persons making diagnoses should appraise the measuring instruments
being used to make sure that they are efficient and that they add to the under-
standing of the children's instructional needs. Unnecessary duplication should be
avoided.
The child should be given every consideration when diagnostic tests are
administered. Indiscriminate testing may set a child against the whole procedure
or even may cause him to doubt his ability to learn. The specialist should inves-
tigate thoroughly the specific reading pattern of each child who has a reading
disability, should obtain a valid estimate of the child's learning ability, and should
be satisfied that the child's vision and hearing are normal or have been suitably
corrected. The child's classroom behavior should be considered. In addition, any
unusual psychological or neurological characteristics should be noted if such
information helps provide an understanding of the instructional needs of the
child. It is advisable to intersperse reading measures with other activities, since
many children who have a serious reading disability become resistant when they
have to read. They easily become discouraged or even uncooperative if they are
subjected to a long, uninterrupted series of reading tests.
Use of Standardized Procedures

In diagnosing the learning difficulties of a child with reading problems, reading,
physical, sensory, behavioral, and environmental factors all must be analyzed.
Clearly reading achievement is not the only concern of importance in the life of a
child. However, when a child has been identified as having a reading disability
and the disability is the child's major problem, it becomes necessary to investigate
her reading pattern thoroughly to establish the exact nature of her difficulty. This
is always one of the major concerns of the specialist, because without locating the
child's specific reading deficiencies, little, if anything, can be done to correct the
reading disability.
98 Chapter Seven
It may be, for example, that a child with a reading disability is found to be
farsighted, and correction is made with glasses. The child is now comfortable
visually. She thus stands a more reasonable chance of learning to read,but she
still has a reading disability. Accordingly, her reading should be analyzed to locate
any faulty learning patterns that may have been caused in part by her visual
difficulty, in order to plan instruction to correct the reading disability. No matter
what physical, environmental, or behavioral problems caused the child to have
difficulty reading, it is necessary to study and correct the reading disability. The
other factors associated with the reading disability also need to be studied, so that
the correction in reading can be made most efficiently and so that the other
conditions can be improved as well.
There are two general types of assessment used in diagnosing reading dis-
abilities. The first involves the application of precise units and numerically ex-
pressed norms, such as age or grade norms, percentile norms, or standard score
norms requiring measurement by standard procedures. The second is qualitative
assessment, for which norms expressed in numerical terms either are notavail-
able or are not appropriate. This second kind of assessment is limited in that the
procedures used are not systematic and the diagnostician's personal bias may
enter into the appraisal. Nonetheless, the procedures gain merit from thefact that
they allow the diagnostician to obtain information about things for which no
standardized measures are available.
Standardized tests are valuable instruments for analyzing a child's reading
strengths and weaknesses. They are also needed to collect facts that are useful
in the formulation of a remedial program. Methods of appraisal involving accu-
rate measurement should be used whenever possible. When using stand-
ardized tests, it is necessary for the diagnostician to follow precisely the
procedures for giving and scoring the instruments, as specified in the accompa-
nying manuals. Any variation from standard procedures may affect the use of the
norms supplied.
The results of normative data obtained from standardized tests, of both the
survey and diagnostic varieties, must be interpreted carefully. The norms sup-
plied for such tests indicate the performance of typical pupils with respect to
typical questions in the field being measured. Therein thestandardized tests have
their strength and also their weakness. Children with reading disabilities are far
from being typical learners. Indeed, they are designated as having a reading
disability because they are atypical. Standardized tests allow the diagnosticianto
compare these children with average learners.This is how strengths and weak-
nesses can be located with a minimum of bias.
The measurements should be interpreted carefully. A child of sixth-grade age,
for example, with a reading expectancy of 6.0 may measure 3.0 in reading. An
uninitiated examiner might assume that this child needs the reading materials
and methods suitable for the typical third-grade child. This is usually not the case.
The sixth-grade child is not a typical third-grade child; she is a sixth-grade child
with sixth-grade interests, drives, motives, and friends. She probably is not even
Diagnosing Reading Dfficulties 99
a third-grade reader, for further study would very likely indicate that her basic
reading skills and abilities, and therefore her instructional needs are closer to
those of a second-grade child. Her degree of mental maturity enables her to use
her limited basic reading skills better than does the typical child who is a second-
grade reader. She has a sixth-grade potential with which to apply her second-
grade reading skills. She is able to measure somewhat higher in reading—namely,
at the third grade level— because of her greater mental maturity, than the second-
grade child with a second-grade reading ability, potential, and chronological age
and experience measures. This is but one illustration of the care the reading
diagnostician must take. The standardized test is usually, however, the most
reliable instrument of measurement. It provides normative data that can be used
in reading diagnosis, the accuracy of which is increased through the use of
numerical data.
Use of Informal Procedures

The need often arises to study areas for which standardized tests have not been
developed. In that case, the diagnostician should explore further, by informal
means, any insights into the nature of the particular reading disability that has
been discovered during standardized testing. Often, informal assessment proce-
dures supply more insights for planning a remedial program than does stand-
ardized testing. Most reading specialists combine formal testing with informal
inventories of a child's reading skills, abilities, interests, and attitudes for an
optimal understanding of the child's difficulty.
Decisions on the Basis of Patterns of Scores
When information about a child who has reading difficulties has been collected,
it must be arranged so that numerical scores can be compared with one anothr.
An adequate diagnosis is made from these comparisons. High as well as low
scores must be considered in estimating the instructional needs of the child with
reading difficulties. A disability in reading may be the result of overemphasis.
One child's sight recognition may be low because she has always been so good at
using word analysis techniques that she has found little need to remember words
at sight. Another child may have such a compelling need to be accurate in reading
that he cannot become a fluent reader. He is always 100-percent accurate, and
even if more detail about a passage were required, he would know that, too.
These lacks of balance can be detected by making comparisons with standardized
norms.
If the diagnostician fails to compare the child's performance in the separate
skills with his general reading ability, there will be many mistakes in planning
remedial work. For example, when a fifth-grade child has only a third-grade
ability in syllabication, the diagnostician may think that his lack of ability to break
words into syllables is at the root of the difficulty. But when it is noted that the
child's general reading ability is only that of the typical second-grade child, his
ability to syllabify becomes a strength rather than a weakness.
100 Chapter Seven
After numerical data are compared and judgments are made, decisions
should be modified in accordance with the qualitative data gathered from infor-
mal approaches. The diagnostician should be careful not to let isolated observa-
tions or bits of information alter drastically the judgments she has made from
reliable and valid measurements.
Ongoing Diagnosis
Occasionally, a child fails to respond to remedial instruction based upon the
original diagnosis. In that case, after 2 or 3 weeks of instruction, the diagnosis
should be reevaluated. Additional measurements and other evaluations may be
needed. Or perhaps something has been overlooked.
Similarly, it should not be forgotten that when the remedial program is
successful, the child's needs change. The original diagnosis indicated the child's
needs at the time remedial instruction was undertaken. The remedial program
based on it was designed to alter the child's reading profile in ways that would
encourage better overall growth in reading. As the child progresses, her needs
will have changed, and the remedial program may require modification. Diagno-
sis must therefore be continuous.
At the start of remedial instruction, a child may have been insecure in reading
situations. The diagnostician may have recommended that a chart be kept to
show her her progress. After a time, as the child gains security, the chart can be
discontinued. Another child may have been relatively poor at using contextual
clues to aid word recognition and was depending solely upon word analysis. The
remedial instruction may have been directed toward encouraging the use of
context. Later, it may be noted that the child is neglecting careful inspection of
words and is guessing at their meaning instead. The guesses make sense, but are
not correct. Through ongoing diagnosis, the diagnostician can detect when the
problem changes and thus maintain a better balance between the two word-
recognition techniques.
Analyzing Reading Difficulties

Sometimes, in diagnosing a reading disability, the diagnostician will find other
areas that will interfere with the correction of the reading problem. For example,
a child's reading disability may be difficult to correct because of a serious
behavior problem. It is not the province of this book to describe how to deal with
behavior problems. Nevertheless, the reading specialist has to be alert to such
problems and should identify related problems needing further study by other
specialists. In formulating a remedial program, the specialist must always
take into account the presence of conditions that need treatment by other
professionals.
The reading specialist needs to find the answers to some specific questions
about the child with a reading disability before an effective remedial program can
Diagnosing Reading Dfflculties 101
be formulated. Our discussion of the analysis of reading difficulties will be in

terms of the following questions:
1. Does the child have a reading disability?

2. What instruction is needed?
3. Who can provide that instruction most effectively?
4. How can improvement be made most effectively?
5. Does the child have any limiting conditions?
6. Are conditions in the child's environment conducive to reading progress?
Does the Child Have a Reading Disability?

Poor reading ability is so interrelated with other characteristics of a child's devel-
opment that it is often extremely difficult to determine whether a readingdisabil-
ity or some other condition is the basic problem. Not all children who are poor
readers have reading disabilities. And some children who do have reading dis-
abilities have a more important problem that should be remedied before correct-
ing their reading. For them, the true nature of the problem must be identified first.
Then a decision must be made as to whether the child will profit from remedial
instruction in reading or whether some other adjustment is required.
The child who is considered to have a reading disability because he is not as
good in reading as other children the same age may be reading as well as could
be expected. An example of this is the child with low verbal intelligence. This
child cannot be expected to grow as rapidly in reading as can other children. His
problem will not be solved by a remedial reading program, but it can be eased by
curricular changes, training in language development, and methods better suitel
to his learning ability No child should be considered to have a reading disability
unless there is a discrepancy between his learning capacity and his reading
performance. A classification system for reading disability is given in Figure 7—1.
Physical anomalies may cause a child to be classified as having a reading
disability when the real need is to see a doctor, not a reading specialist. For
example, children with neurological problems cannot be expected to develop
reading capabilities as rapidly as can their equally intelligent, but neurologically
sound, contemporaries. Some neurological problems are more difficult for the
educational diagnostician to detect and are suspected only after considerable
remedial instruction has been given with unsatisfactory results. The diagnostician
should be alert to the possibility of neurological limitations, especially in those
children high in intelligence and low in other organized skills, such as arithmeti-
cal computation. The reading diagnostician and remedial worker must be aware
that not all human deficiencies can be corrected by education.
When children have neurological impairments, the reading teacher must
often be satisfied with a less than usual rate of progress. The remedial reading
program for neurologically impaired children is designed to give the child the
individualized help needed. His problem is usually not a misbalanced reading
102 Chapter Seven
Child Reads Poorly in Classroom
Intelligence is Assessed
General Reading Achievement is Determined
All Other Factors Which Might Be

Interfering with Progress are Considered
Discrepancy is Found Between Lack of Discrepancy is Found

Learning Ability and Between Learning Ability
Reading Achievement. and Reading Achievement.
Other Factors Are Cared for Other Factors are Cared for
if Necessary. if Necessary.
Ir 'ir
Modifications are Made in
Diagnostic Testing and Teaching Child's Instructional
is Done. Child is Program Based on All Informa-
verified as a Disabled Reader. tion Gathered. Child is Not
Remedial Work Begins Based on All Classified as a
Information Gathered. Disabled Reader.
FIGURE 7—1 Classification System for Reading Disability
growth pattern, but rather a restricted overall reading development, produced by

the neurological limitation. A more detailed treatment of the visual and percep-
tual problems encountered in the neurologically impaired child will be given in
Chapter 13.
The relationship between reading disabilities and behavior problems often
makes it difficult to classify a child's major problem as a reading disability.
Sometimes the poor reader is a behaviorally disordered child, and reading
achievement suffers along with other school learnings. Or the behavioral distur-
bance is brought about by the failure to make normaiprogress in reading. Here,
immediate attention to the reading problem will correct the reading problem and
improve the behavior problem. Even in those cases in which deep-seated emo-
tional problems are suspected of making the child an inefficient learner, emo-
tional therapy and remedial instruction in reading can be given concurrently, to
their mutual benefit.
What Instruction Is Needed?

The instruction a child with a reading disability requires is indicated by the
child's reading strengths and weaknesses. Establishing reading competencies and
deficiencies is the most important phase of diagnosis for formulating a program
of correction. The specialist's main problem is finding just what in the reading
pattern of the child is hindering her reading growth. The diagnostic study of what
is really wrong with the child's reading—what faulty techniques she is using,
what abilities she is overemphasizing, and what abilities she lacks—is essential to
formulating a remedial program.
Other limitations in the child's reading patterns also have far-reaching effects.
The failure to establish certain skills and abilities and the overemphasis of others, the
failure to acquire essential knowledge, or the adoption of faulty approaches may
interfere with the child's entire reading development. A lack of flexibility and
adaptability may seriously limit the child's ability to adjust her reading skills to
the requirements of particular reading material or to certain purposes for reading.
Who Can Provide Instruction Most Effectively?

The regular classroom teacher can and should give remedial instruction to most
children with no more than a moderate disability in reading. The size of the class,
other responsibilities, and her training limit the teacher to the solution of only the
less complicated reading problems. The teacher must always decide just how
much attention can be given to one child at the expense of many. In the well-
managed classroom, many reading difficulties can be detected early and cor-
rected by the classroom teacher. Even under these circumstances, the teacher
frequently needs the help of a reading specialist to aid her in the formulation of
a classroom remedial program.
The second place in which remedial work in reading is given is at a reading
center or resource room within the school. This center is usually a room that is
well stocked with materials for reading and for special practice exercises. Here,
remedial reading teacher works with individual children or groups of children
needing more specialized and individual attention than can be given by the
classroom teacher.
In general, the smaller the group, the greater are the returns for each child.
Remedial teachers working in school reading centers need special training to
handle the problems they meet. They should be able to diagnose complex reading
problems and offer suggestions for those children who are to be treated by
classroom teachers. The teachers in charge of remedial rooms or centers within a
school should be successful classroom teachers who have had additional training
in reading and in diagnosing and treating reading disabilities. A reading disabil-
ity is no simple thing to be solved by a novice or by a set of exercises purporting
to be suitable for all cases.
To decide where the child with a reading difficulty can be treated most
effectively, the diagnostician first needs to decide into which of the general cate-
gories described in Chapter 3 the child fits.
Recommendations for General Reading Immaturity

Children who are significantly delayed in reading, but who show no unusual or
limiting characteristics in their reading patterns and no personal rejection of
104 Chapter Seven
reading, can be treated effectively in the regular classroom. They are generally
immature in reading, but need no marked reeducation. They do need instruction
for their level of achievement, a reading program that promotes motivation, and
an opportunity to read a lot.
Some children in this category are better treated in the school reading center.
If the child is so low in reading ability that he cannot profit from most of the
instruction given in group work in class, he would be taught more productively
by the remedial teacher in the school reading center. Most poor readers of secon-
dary school age should be assigned to a remedial reading teacher. It is difficult for
the secondary teacher, who works with more than 150 pupils a day, to know any
one child well enough to assist the extremely immature reader.
The generally immature reader can usually be discovered by general diagno-
sis, using achievement tests and nonverbal group mental tests. He may notbe
isolated until the specific level of diagnosis is reached. The child with simple,
general immaturity in reading is one who has a low, but relatively uniform,
reading profile and no adverse reactions to his poor reading. He is classed as
having a reading disability only because he is not reading as well as he could be
expected to read. A study of his reading scores shows that he has normal reading
patterns for the typical child of equal reading attainment. There is no interfering
habit or faulty attitude present to impede his future growth.
Recommendations for Specific Reading Immaturity

Children with specific reading immaturity are limited severely in one or more
areas of reading but have developed the general basic skills and abilities well
enough to be able readers in other areas. Practically all of these children can be
given the remedial work they need by the classroom teacher. After the skills or
abilities in which the child needs further training and experience have been
found, the teacher increases emphasis in specific areas in which the child is weak
as she participates in the regular developmental reading program. If there are two
or three children needing the same amount of emphasis, from time to timethe
teacher can give them remedial training as a small group. In some instances,
children with specific limitations from several classes of about the same grade
level can be sent to the school remedial center for group instruction, but for the
most part, they should be given training by the classroom teacher. The prognosis
for overcoming specific reading immaturity is exceedingly good, even though the
degree of disability is sometimes great.
A child with specific immaturity in reading is discovered through reading
tests that are more analytical than are those customarily used in general diagno-
sis. Tests that give scores in various important areas of reading, as well as infor-
mal measures, can be used to diagnose the child with specific reading problems.
Indications of attainment in the more common types of comprehension and study
skills are needed to pinpoint the specific areas of limitation. If a child scores high
on some comprehension tests but low on other tests, she is correctlydescribed as
a case of specific reading immaturity, and no further diagnosis is needed. The
child's high scores indicate that there is no basic limitation in her reading. Her
low scores isolate the areas needing attention.
Recommendations for Limiting Reading Disability

The child who has serious deficiencies in basic reading skills and abilities that
impede his entire reading growth is best described as having a limiting disability.
Such a child is low in all types of reading, because he has acquired interfering
habits or has failed to learn one or more essential skills. His reading profile
indicates, not the healthy reading growth of the child with simple reading imma-
turity, but rather, a nonproductive reading pattern.
Most children with a limiting disability should be given remedial work in a
school reading center or resource room. A few may be able to be corrected by the
classroom teacher, but usually, reeducation takes more time and careful planning
than he is able to devote to it.
Recommendations for Complex Reading Disability

Children who are best described as having a complex reading disability include
those whose reading problems are subtle and complicated. These children are
always severely delayed in reading. They may be bright, capable youngsters who
demonstrate antagonism toward reading and who feel embarrassed about their
inability to read. They sometimes make a negative adjustment to their lack of
success in reading, which spreads to general ineffectiveness in other schoolwork.
In many cases, they lack persistence and tend to avoid school in general and
reading situations in particular. They are absent from school frequently, and
sometimes they become delinquent.
Children with complex reading disabilities include not only those children
who have made a faulty adjustment to their reading problems, but also those who
have other handicaps. Remedial programs are further complicated when they
must be modified to adjust to physiological, emotional, intellectual, environ-
mental, or other atypical conditions.
Many children with complex reading disabilities become blocked and so
tense that they are ineffective learners. A child with a complex disability in
reading is often found to be anxious and to worry about reading and to have a
fear of reading. He tends to be insecure and defeated. Children who are classified
in this category need careful, individual attention. A child with a complex reading
disability needs a comprehensive diagnosis of his problem, and often the reading
diagnostician must enlist the services of other specialists to appraise the child's
needs accurately and thoroughly.
The remedial work for such children should be done in the school reading
center or resource room, where there is time to give the child the necessary
individual help that he requires.
How Can Improvement Be Made Most Effectively?

The answer to the question of how improvement in reading can be achieved most
effectively is extremely important, because the corrective program must be effi-
dent in order to develop reading at an accelerated rate. Extensive diagnosis of the
nature of the reading problem will have pointed out the type of instruction that
is necessary The specialist must now make several decisions that will increase the
106 Chapter Seven
efficiency of actual remedial instruction. First, instructional material must be

chosen at the optimal level of difficulty. Second, material must be chosen which
deals with topics that are interesting to the child, or at least that are as compatible
as possible with interests of children of the same age. Third, the specialist sug-
gests the methods by which progress will be demonstrated to the child. Fourth,
the specialist must estimate the length of the instructional period. And fifth, the
specialist must give the necessary information for planning the independent
work that the child needs.
Determining the Proper Level of Difficulty of Material

The specialist must make a careful estimate of the level of difficulty of the
material that is to be used at the start of remedial instruction. Usually, the child
who has difficulty reading has been having the trouble for some time. It thus
becomes vital to select material at the appropriate level, of difficulty. This material
should be that in which the child can feel competent. The problem of selecting
material at the right level of difficulty is complicated by the fact that the child
with a reading disability cannot read as well as would be expected of a child of
the same age. Some specialists think that the correct approach for estimating the
difficulty of material required is to study the results of standardized tests and
thus ascertain the child's general reading level. They think that if a child meas-
ures, for example, 2.5, he should start remedial instruction in material suitable for
the typical child halfway through the second grade. But research and experience
have shown that for most children with reading disabilities, this would be an
overestimation of the level at which their instruction should start.
Let us suppose that a certain child who obtains a grade-level score of 2.5 on
a standardized reading test has a reading expectancy of 5.0. Then the child is
really not a typical 2.5 reader. In fact, he may often be a reader with considerably
less skill development than a typical 2.5 reader. He is able to bring to the reading
scene a much broader background of experience, a keener evaluation of concepts,
and a higher level of reasoning ability than can the typical child who is halfway
through the second grade. He may measure as much as a year higher in general
comprehension than he would in basic reading abilities, such as the ability to
recognize words or to phrase them effectively for comprehension.
In judging the level of difficulty for initial remedial instruction, the specialist
must consider, in addition to standardized tests, other evidence of the child's
level of skill development. An example of such evidence is the ability to read
material aloud. In oral reading situations, does the child make more than one
error in every 20 running words? What is the child's skill in phrasing? What
word-recognition techniques does the child use? What about his facility in retell-
ing a story he has just read or in answering various types of comprehension
questions about the material? The level at which the child can read comfortably
and effectively can be estimated by trying him out on a series of graded materials
and finding the level most suitable for him. The child may be started, for example,
in a book at the second-grade level of difficulty. If this book proves difficult, a
first-grade book can be tried. If the child reads the second-grade book with great
fluency, then the specialist would try a third-grade book. The specialist would
sample books until the level was found at which the child could read with
reasonable ease. This informal approach gives a rough estimate of the level of
difficulty suitable for a given child.
A second consideration in selecting material is the nature of the disability. The
specialist must consider the outcomes to be gained from use of the material. For
example, if the child's major problem is developing greater speed, the material
selected should be easier than that which would normally be used with a child
who is at the same general level of reading. If the child can comfortably read
material of fourth-grade level, then material that is from a half-year to a year
easier should be selected for increasing speed of reading. The material should
contain no more than one word that would require analysis in every 100 running
words. If the child's problem is developing a knowledge of visual, structural, and
phonics elements, she should be given material that is rather difficult—material
in which she is likely to meet one word that she needs to analyze in every 20
running words. She may occasionally be given exercises or activities that require
phonics analysis for a high percentage of the words. Such exercises would be too
difficult for general reading purposes, but, with teacher support, would be suit-
able to the child's specific problem. It should be noted that in these exercises and
activities, the child must have a reasonable chance for success. The selection of
materials at the appropriate level of difficulty for a particular child is probably
one of the most important decisions the specialist makes.
Selecting Material That Is Suitable in Interest and Format

An important consideration in selecting material to be used in remediation is that
it should be suitable to the child in both interest and format. Obtaining thjs
material, however, is often a major problem. Material must be found that will be
interesting to the child and that is presented in an appropriate format. The
material must be relatively mature in content and format, but must also be at the
child's reading level. Published material designed for poor readers may be appro-
priate, or the teacher may prepare materials. Alternatively, material of special
interest that is important to the student may be used, even though the format is
somewhat immature. For example, a boy of high school age may be willing to
read, in a fourth-grade science book, directions for connecting a battery to a bell
in order to make it ring if he is actually allowed to do it.
The task of the specialist is to estimate three things: the level of difficulty at
which the child should be expected to read, the areas of interest that seem to be
most acceptable to him, and the degree to which he will tolerate an immature
format. Estimates of all of these are made on the basis of reading tests, interest
inventories, informal appraisals, and work samples with various types of materials.
Selecting a Means of Demonstrating Progress

The teacher should select an appropriate method of demonstrating progress in
reading to the child. The teacher should also estimate the amount of emphasis
that should be given to demonstrating progress to the child. The method of
108 Chapter Seven
demonstrating progress is determined by the remedial trainingto be given. If, for

example, the child's problem is oral reading, a tape recording of the child's oral
reading could be made at intervals throughout the remedial instruction. Then,
from time to time, the child would listen to the tapes and note the growth that is
taking place. The amount of time that should be devoted to demonstrating suc-
cess to the child depends upon the child and her reactions.
Estimating the Length and Frequency of Remedial Lessons

The teacher must estimate the length of time for each training period and also the
frequency with which training should be given. These estimates are made from
three types of appraisals. First, the results expected from remedial instruction
must be considered. If the child needs to increase his speed of reading, the actual
lesson should be relatively short and highly motivating. Between lessons, the
child may continue independently to emphasize speed of reading.
The second consideration used in judging the length of the remedial sessions
is the age and physical stamina of the child. If he tires easily or cannotconcentrate
for long periods of time, the length of each training period should be short. If he
is an older child, physically strong, and able to attend well to the lessons, the
training periods can be longer.
Third, any condition, such as poor vision, that limits the child's abilityto pay
close attention to reading instruction over a period of time will shorten the length
of remedial sessions. It is often better to have two short sessions a day than to
have one longer one.
A careful inspection of all the information available about thechild is neces-
sary to make a reasonable estimate of the length of time for each training period
and the frequency of the remedial lessons.
Planning for Independent Work

The child's reading disability will not be corrected in the remedial periodsalone.
She must extend her remedial reading experiences into her independent work.
The level of difficulty of material used for independent work should be consider-
ably easier than that studied during the remedial lessons, and the independent
work should be somewhat different from work done in remedial lessons. In
planning independent work, the diagnostician must judge how best to motivate
the child and what type of exercises would be most beneficial for the child to
work on independently. For example, if the child is trying to build a larger sight
vocabulary would it be best for her to have a pack of word cards with which she
drills herself, stories containing words in contextual settings, or workbook-type
exercises? These decisions are made by the teacher on the basis of the nature of
the instruction needed, the characteristics of the child, and the characteristics of
her general environment.
Does the Child Have Limiting Conditions?

In formulating a remedial program, the specialist must appraise the causes of
reading disability considered in Chapters 4, 5, and 6. Also, the help of other
experts must be employed if it is needed. For the reeducation program to be

effective, any limitations within the child that might influence his reading growth
detrimentally must be located. If the child has poor vision, an examination by an
expert is required. Whenever possible, the visual defect should be corrected. For
modifications in the remedial program for students with visual limitations, see
Chapter 13, which deals with children with disabilities.
If poor hearing is suspected, a hearing specialist should be consulted. Again,
the mere correction of the auditory limitation will not improve the child's read-
ing. It will, however, make it more likely that the child will profit from remedial
instruction. The child with an auditory disability will need modifications in his
instructional program. (See Chapter 13.)
Any factor that causes a reading disability may become a condition that needs
to be corrected or a condition to which the program must adjust. Whenever
possible, such conditions should be corrected before the start of remedial training.
When no correction is possible, the program must be altered to allow for the
known limitation. It should be recognized that the correction of a limiting condi-
tion does not alter the reading needs of the child. If the child, for example, has
third-grade reading skills before the visual correction, he will still have third-
grade skills after the visual correction. The correction of a limiting condition does
not alter the need for remedial reading instruction. However, it does improve the
child's chances of learning to read efficiently and effectively.
Are Conditions in the Child's Environment

Conducive to Reading Progress?
The diagnostician must study the child's entire environment, for it may have
limitations that could influence the success of the remedial program. Sometimes,
in their zeal to help their children, parents create emotional tensions that not only
do not help the children read better, but also disturb them greatly. Or parents may
try to help their children in ways that are detrimental to the children's reading
growth. Parents can contribute much to the success of a remedial program by
remembering that they should:
1. Take an interest in independent reading work the child brings home.
2. Give the child a good place in which to work without interruption.
3. Secure materials that will be the child's own, in consultation with the
teacher.
4. Hide their anxieties about the child's reading problem.
5. Tell the child a word if she has difficulty with it when reading at home.
6. Read the child's independent material and discuss it with her.
7. Avoid ridiculing the child or making comparisons among siblings.
8. Let the child know that they appreciate her many accomplishments and that
they have confidence in her.
9. Recognize that the child's "don't care" attitude toward reading is often a "do
care very much" one and that it is wise to let her adopt this apparent attitude
as a safety valve.
110 Chapter Seven
Not only the home conditions and child-parent relationships, but also the
school situation, should be studied. Frequently, improvement in reading is left to
the remedial program alone. But the school environment may not be conducive,
all by itself, to effective reading development for a child with a reading disability.
The child's entire reading environment should be coordinated if she is to pro-
gress. Sometimes, a teacher does not fully recognize the seriousness of having a
child try to read material that is so difficult that it can be nothing but frustrating
to her. At other times, the teacher is not aware that a child's lack of attention may
be the result of a hearing loss. The specialist must try to find any problem in the
child's environment that might impede her progress in learning to read.
Illustration of an Analysis of Reading Difficulties

The following illustration shows how to diagnose the reading skills of children
from a fifth-grade class. The progression is from general diagnosis to specific
diagnosis to child-study diagnosis.
General Diagnosis in Reading

The first level of diagnosis may be called general diagnosis. It is concerned with
appraising all the children's levels of achievement on major indicators of reading
growth. To adjust instruction to individual differences, teachers may note each
child's facility in oral reading, understanding from silent reading, daily perform-
ance on class activities and work sheet exercises, and visible enjoyment, dislike,
or avoidance of reading. In addition, progress on unit tests and standardized
group achievement tests should be used to assess reading progress.
The teacher can compare each child's progress in reading with his level of
progress in nonreading academic areas. The child's general alertness, level of
background knowledge brought to the classroom, and level of participation in
instruction based on nonreading sources such as film or television should also be
compared with his performance on reading tasks.
If the teacher is concerned that the child may have a reading disability, further
assessment should be done that includes intelligence, testing, based on an indi-
vidually administered intelligence test, and reading level, based on a stand-
ardized individual reading test. At this point, if the child's reading achievement
is about the same as his reading expectancy and his success in other fields of
learning, he is probably progressing as well in reading as can be expected. This is
true even if he reads somewhat more poorly than the other children in his class.
This child will need no further diagnosis in reading, even though he may need
certain adjustments for the slow learner, to be described in Chapter 13. The
classroom teacher should be aware of each child he teaches in the developmental
reading program. In regular classwork, the teacher studies every child's reading
systematically and in a diagnostic mariner.
If a child's achievement in reading is considerably lower than her reading

expectancy, or if her achievement is significantly better in nonreading classroom
activities than in reading, further diagnosis is needed. General diagnosis helps
identify those who are educationally handicapped by ineffective reading, as well
as those who need curricular adjustments. Standardized survey tests, achieve-
ment tests, intelligence tests, reading series tests, informal teacher-devised tests,
and teacher observations are all used in making these judgments.
At the general level of diagnosis, the teacher can study the results of stand-
ardized tests, reading tests, and informal observations that indicate the average
reading achievement of the entire class. Questions to be asked are "Is the class as
a whole progressing at a below-average, average, or above-average rate?" and "Is
there any particular aspect of the class's reading, such as knowledge of word
meanings or following written directions, that appears to need extra attention?"
From this study of the entire class, the teacher should consider the problem
of adjusting materials and methods to individual differences. For example, in a
fifth-grade class of 35 children, 13 were found to be instructionally suited to a
fifth-grade reader, 10 required simpler material, and 12 were reading at a sixth-
grade level or beyond and needed an expanded reading program. Three members
of the class who were reading at a middle fourth-grade level or below were
assessed further.
Alice was one such child needing further consideration. She was older than
most of the children in the class, having repeated a year of school. Alice's reading
expectancy was at the middle fourth-grade level, as was her average reading
achievement. She did not display negative attitudes toward reading and was
making acceptable daily progress. Her achievement in arithmetic computations
was at a middle third-grade level. Considering what is reasonable to expect of her,
Alice was doing a creditable job of learning to read. She has continued to make
progress in developing reading skills, but at a somewhat slower pace than her
classmates. Alice needs the type of instruction described in Chapter 13, suitable
to a slow-learning child.
Michael, another child needing further assessment, was identified as having
a reading disability. He was more than 2 years behind in his reading develop-
ment, compared with his reading expectancy. He was of average intelligence, so
he should have been reading at a beginning fifth-grade level. Michael needs to be
studied further in order to plan a remedial program to improve his reading. He
is relatively successful in arithmetic, which shows that he is able to achieve in
areas other than reading. He shows dislike and avoidance of reading tasks in the
classroom.
The third child requiring further assessment, Matt, also has a reading disabil-
ity, even though he is reading only 2 months below his grade placement. He is
one of the youngest members of the class, but he is the most capable intellectually.
His reading expectancy, based on a suspected high level of intellectual ability, is
probably closer to the seventh-grade level than his current reading grade level of
4.8. His achievement in arithmetic (7.5 grade level) is high and more in keeping
112 Chapter Seven
with his inferred level of mental ability From this information, it may beinferred
that Matt has a reading disability. A further di4gnosis, including an assessmentof
his level of mental ability, is needed in order to plan appropriate programming
for him.
Specific Diagnosis in Reading

Specific diagnosis analyzes reading performance further than general diagnosis
does. It enables the diagnostician to detect the specific areas in which achild has
difficulty. It shows whether the child's difficulty is in a specific type of compre-
hension, in word analysis, in reading efficiency, in oral reading, orin basic study
skills. A specific diagnosis also might indicate how well the child is able to adapt
his reading to the demands of the various fields of study. There are many tests
that give the type of information needed for specific diagnosis. Some of the more
useful ones are mentioned in Chapter 8.
The general diagnosis revealed that Michael and Matt had reading disabilities
and needed further diagnosis. Another child, Barbara, did not show such an
overall deficiency, but did show a specific immaturity. Barbara is, in general, a
competent reader, but she has great difficulty in one type of reading—reading to
follow directions. She is one of the lowest members of the class in this skill,much
lower than would be expected of her on the basis of her grade placement,mental
ability, and general reading achievement. Her problem is not serious, but it is
probable that a short period of emphasis on this type of reading would make
Barbara as proficient in reading to follow directions as she is in other comprehen-
sion abilities. She thus needs no further diagnosis.
Mart has an uneven profile. His specific diagnosis shows that he is deficient
in the more general types of reading comprehension. It also shows that he is
considerably better at recognizing words in isolation than he is at recognizing
them in context. He is a very slow reader. It is reasonable to suspect that Matt is
an overanalytical reader and that he fails to use rapidmethods of word recogm-
tion. The precise nature of instruction for Matt will have to be determinedfurther
through child-study diagnosis.
Michael is slow in all types of reading and must be studied further. The
specific diagnosis shows only his reading speed approaching what can be ex-
pected of him. Even this, however, cannot be considered good performance,
because his reading is so inaccurate. It is apparent, on the basis of the specific
diagnosis, that Michael has something basically wrong with his reading. The
difficulty appears to be in the word-recognition area, but even this suspicion
awaits child-study diagnosis before it can be verified.
Child-Study Diagnosis in Reading

Standardized tests for general and specific diagnosis, individual standardized
tests, detailed reading diagnostic tests, and informal studyof a child's approaches
to the various aspects of reading are used in a thorough child-study diagnosis.
This diagnosis also includes an analysis of the child's strengths and limitations as
as an individual—his sensory capacities, emotional reactions, and attitudes to-
ward reading. A child-study diagnosis should also study the child's general
school environment, the methods of instruction used in the school, and the home
conditions that might be specifically related to reading and that might influence
his reading development. In addition, parental attitudes concerning the child's
reading problem are important to assess, and parental cooperation is important
to enlist. A child-study diagnosis must give answers to the six questions listed on
pages 116—117.
The first question, whether the child is correctly classified as having a reading
disability, is answered frequently by the general diagnosis. In some cases, the
child-study approach indicates that a child's major problem is not in fact a
disability in reading. The detailed studies of Matt and Michael did not reveal any
condition that would lead to a classification other than their having a reading
disability. On the other hand, the general diagnosis showed that Alice's problem
was one of low intelligence and that she could not be classified as having a
reading disability because her reading achievement seemed reasonable for her
ability.
The second question, dealing with the nature of the instruction needed, was
answered for Alice in the general diagnosis. She needed training in reading that
was suitable to a slow-learning child. The training needed for Barbara was de-
cided by the specific diagnosis, which showed that she needed training in follow-
ing exact directions. The child-study diagnosis showed that Matt was indeed an
overanalytical reader. He had a high score in knowledge of phonic elements, and
he attempted to use this means of word recognition, even with words that he
could recognize at sight when they were flashed before him with a speed tha.t
allowed him only a single glance at the word. He also demonstrated a tendency
to pay great attention to word endings and to neglect somewhat the beginning
elements of words. In addition, he was poor at making adequate use of contextual
clues. Matt was shown to have a marked limiting disability in word recognition.
The remedial work that he needs will be described in Chapter 10.
The training needed by Michael was also indicated by the child-study diag-
nosis. Michael's problem was complex. He had failed to develop a systematic
method of word analysis, had difficulty with reversals, and had rejected reading.
In addition, there was evidence that Michael had some visual impairment that
had to be corrected before remedial instruction could be undertaken. The neces-
sary remedial work for Michael is discussed in Chapter 12, dealing with left-to-
right orientation in reading and word perception, and in Chapter 13, on children
with disabilities. He also needed more work on word recognition, as described in
Chapters 10 and 11.
The third question, dealing with the problem of who can give the remedial
instruction most effectively, can sometimes be answered in the general diagnosis
and at other times in the specific diagnosis, but frequently must await the com-
pleted child study. The general diagnosis showed that Alice's problem could be
remedied best by an adjusted program and realistic expectations. Certainly, her
114 Chapter Seven
basic problem was not a reading disability, nor could it be expected that she
would be helped by remedial instruction in reading.
The specific diagnosis showed that Barbara was weak in just one type of
reading: She had a specific immaturity in reading that could be handled appro-
priately by the classroom teacher.
As a result of a thorough child study, it was concluded that Mattwould profit
from group instruction in remedial reading, while Michael's problem was so
complex and charged with rejection of reading, that it was felt that he needed
one-to-one remediation in the resource room.
The fourth question that must be answered by the diagnosis deals with how
improvement can be brought about most effectively. This question could have been
answered for Alice in the general diagnosis and for Barbara in the specific diag-
nosis. Alice should be given material at approximately the middle of the third-
grade level. She needs encouragement, success, and many opportunities to use
the results of her reading in constructive activities. She needs concrete illustra-
tions of what she is reading. Alice should read for only one well-defined purpose
at a time, because she finds it difficult to attend to several purposes at the same
time.
For general purposes, Barbara should read material at the middle fifth-grade
level of difficulty. Instruction designed to increase her ability to follow exact
directions should be started with material somewhat less difficult. The purposes
for which Barbara reads should be to organize information, to sense the sequence
of ideas, and to follow exact directions. It would be desirable to keep a chart
indicating her speed and accuracy in completing these tasks. As her reading
increases in accuracy, she can be encouraged to read somewhat more rapidly, and
the difficulty of the material can be increased. Barbara can be expected to develop
readily the ability to organize and follow exact directions.
Complete child-study diagnoses were necessary to find out how improve-
ment could be brought about most efficiently in the cases of Matt and Michael.
Matt should have a time chart indicating the speed at which he reads during
exercises designed to increase his speed. He should be given remedialinstruction
with material about halfway through the fourth grade in difficulty. He should be
encouraged to do a lot of independent recreational reading, and the use of
contextual clues should be stressed in his reading.
Michael's problem is much more difficult than Matt's. He needs to read
material at approximately the second-grade level of difficulty. However, itwould
be desirable to use material that is as mature in format as possible. The remedial
reading teacher must be optimistic and demonstrate to Michael that he is growing
in his reading. He should make a card file so that he can see that the number of
words he recognizes is increasing. He could dictate some stories of his own, and
if his tendency to reverse words persists, it may be necessary to use sound-tracing
methods, described in Chapter 12.
The fifth question is concerned with limiting conditions within a child that must
be considered in formulating the remedial reading program. From a thorough
child-study diagnosis, it became clear that Matt had no limitingcharacteristics the
program needed to accommodate or for which there had to be a correction made

before remedial instruction could begin. Michael was found to have two limiting
conditions. The first was his rejection of reading. This had to be taken into
consideration in formulating his remedial reading program. Because his arithme-
tic score was nearly equal to his reading expectancy, however, it was concluded
that in situations not involving reading, Michael was able to apply himself rea-
sonably well. Michael's second limitation was his eyesight. There was some
indication that he was farsighted and that he found it difficult to focus on the
printed page at a distance that was comfortable for reading. A thorough visual
examination was recommended before Michael began remedial instruction.
The sixth question deals with environmental conditions that might affect the
progress of remedial work. It was found that for three of the children—Matt, Mi-
chael, and Alice—instruction would have to make some accommodations to their
needs. For Alice, the accommodations would be those expected in adjusting
generally to individual differences in any class. It was found, for example, that in
science and social studies, the same textbooks were used by all the children in the
class. But Alice could not be expected to use this material. A thorough study of
Alice's placement will need to be made, but from the information available, a
further diagnosis of her reading is not indicated. Matt's overall reading program
was found to be appropriate to his needs, but he could not read some subject
matter effectively. Somewhat less mature reference material should be made
available to him.
The adjustments necessary in instruction for Michael are more complicated
than for Matt. Michael should not attempt to read materials in the content fields;
rather, he should use his reading time to read materials at his level of achieve-
ment. He should be included in classroom discussions and should participate i
creative activities.
There were no indications of problems in any of the homes of these children,
with the possible exception of Michael. Michael's mother was very concerned
about his poor reading. She had attempted to teach him to read using a commer-
cial reading program. After about a month of instruction, she believed not only
that Michael was getting worse in reading, but that he was becoming highly upset
by her instruction and by his performance. Michael's mother was eager to coop-
erate with his resource room teacher's suggestions that she provide Michael a
special place in his home to read and that she discuss with him the stories he read
and pronounce any word he found difficult.
In this example, each child we have discussed from the fifth-grade class was
different. Some of the children needed no further study beyond general and
specific diagnoses. Two needed detailed child-study diagnoses. It was necessary
for the reading specialist to have consultations with both the classroom teacher
and the parents of two of the children.
In making the child-study diagnosis of the children, both standardized and
informal procedures were used, and in one case the services of an outside expert
were needed. Selected reading diagnosis tests that are useful in child-study diag-
nosis will be described in the next chapter.
116 Chapter Seven
Summary
The correction of a reading disability is complicated by the intricate nature of the
reading process and by the many differences in children and their environments
that influence reading growth. It is little wonder that no two cases of reading
disability confront the teacher or specialist with exactly the same problem. It is
apparent that any remedial instruction must be based on an adequate diagnosis.
More complex instances of reading disability often require more detailed and
more analytical study than the classroom teacher has the time or training to give.
The services of the reading specialist may be required and perhaps the services of
other specialists as well, such as caseworkers, psychologists, or physicians.
The diagnosis of a child with a reading disability must be directed toward
improving instruction for that child. Therefore, the therapeutic type of diagnosis
is better than the etiological—that is, the one that seeks causes only. The diagnosis
is more than an appraisal of reading skills and abilities. It must also assess the
mental, physical, sensory, emotional, and environmental factors that could im-
pede the child's progress.
The diagnosis must be efficient and should proceed only as far as is necessary
to formulate a remedial reading program. Some children's instructional needs can
be found through general diagnosis, others will need a more thorough study by
specific means, and still others may need a complete study of their reading
disability. Since diagnosing reading disabilities is detailed and time consuming,
only pertinent information should be collected, and this by the most efficient
means available.
Standardized measurements are essential to diagnosing reading disabilities
reliably. Even the results of standardized tests must be interpreted with care,
however, because the child with a reading disability has an atypical problem. It
is often necessary to use informal procedures to obtain information that cannot
be obtained from standardized measurements.
The remedial reading program is planned by first taking into account the
numerical information and then modifying it in accordance with whatever other
information is obtained. The specialist should treat the data objectively, so that
the program can be planned properly. After a reasonable amount of time, if the
remedial work proves unsuccessful, a reevaluation' should be made to make
appropriate changes. Even for successful programs, however, diagnosis should
be continuous because reading disability is but one aspect of a dynamic process
that changes during remedial instruction and the remedial program must be
changed to meet the current needs of the reader.
Decisions must be made in six essential areas:
1. C1assfication. Is the child classified as having a reading disability, or is some

other problem of child growth and development the basic difficulty?
2. Training needed. What is the nature of the training needed? Identification of
the particular character of the reading limitation is the most important part
of the diagnosis. The reading pattern of the child must be studied to isolate
the specific faulty learning that is impeding progress in reading. This requires
a thorough appraisal of the child's skills and abilities involved in reading.
3. Setting. Where can the remedial work be given most effectively? Should the
child be reeducated in the classroom, school reading center, or resource
room? The answer to this question lies in the nature of the reading problem.
Most children with general immaturity and specific immaturity should be
given remedial training in the classroom or school reading center. Children
with limiting disabilities should be corrected at the school reading center,
while complex disabilities, for the most part, should be corrected in the
resource room.
4. Methods. What are the most efficient methods for improving the child's read-
ing? These include the levels and types of materials to be used, ways of
demonstrating progress in reading to the child, and plans for extending the
reading instruction that can be accomplished by the child independently.
5. Limitations. Are there any conditions within the child that might be detrimen-
tal to reading growth? The help of additional experts should be utilized
whenever it is needed for diagnosis and correction of these limitations.
Modifications in the remedial program must be made to adjust to any limita-
tions.
6. Learning environment. Are there any conditions within the child's entire learn-
ing environment that might interfere with progress in reading? Cooperation
from the home and the school will contribute to the solution of the child's
reading problem.
Study Questions
1. Why is therapeutic diagnosis considered more essential than etiological diag-
nosis in assessing reading difficulties?
2. What are the major purposes of general, specific, and child-study diagnosis?
Why are all three needed for some children, while only general diagnosis is
needed for others, and only general and specific for still others?
3. Why should standardized test procedures always be used in diagnosing
reading difficulties? In which instances are informal procedures most appro-
priate?
4. Why should one be concerned about whether or not a child is correctly
classified as having a reading disability?
5. How do the reading needs of children classified as having the following
reading problems differ: simple reading immaturity, specific reading imma-
turity, limiting reading disability, and complex reading disability? In what
ways are they the same?
6. Which would you choose as most important to a child with a reading disabil-
ity: material of the proper level, of appropriate format, or of suitable interest?
Why? How might one compensate for material that is too difficult, too imma-
ture in appearance, or of limited interest?
118 Chapter Seven
Selected Readings
Harris, A. J., & Sipay, E. R How to increase reading ability (9th ed.) (pp. 181—256). New York:
Longman.
Merrill.
strategies (2nd ed.) (pp. 13—24). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Roswell, F. G., & Natchez, G. (1989). Reading disability (4th ed.) (pp. 57—85). New York: Basic
Books.
Wilson, R. M., & Cleland, C. J. (1985). Diagnostic and remedial reading for classroom and clinic
Chapter
Use of Specific
Assessment Procedures
The preceding chapter discussed six questions that should be answered in any
diagnosis of reading disability. In addition, an illustrative analysis was given to
show how the sequence of general, specific, and child-study levels of diagnosis
helped to answer each question. The question that is the major responsibility of
the reading specialist is the one concerned with the instruction needed to correct
reading disabilities. The following classification of the more prevalent reading
difficulties includes the types of difficulties that must be found if a diagnosis is tq
indicate clearly the precise kinds of instruction needed:
A. Faulty word identification and recognition

1. Insufficient sight vocabulary
2. Failure to use meaning clues
a. Weakness in use of prior knowledge
b. Failure to use contextual clues
3. Ineffective visual-perceptual habits
a. Faulty visual analysis of words
b. Excessive word-perception errors
c. Overanalytical habits
4. Limited knowledge of word elements
5. Lack of fluent oral and visual synthesis
6. Orientational difficulties
119
120 Chapter Eight
B. Deficiencies in basic comprehension

1. Limited meaning vocabulary
2. Ineffective use of sentence sense
3. Insufficient comprehension of longer units
C. Limitations in specific comprehension
1. Weakness in locating and recalling information read
2. Difficulty in sensing organization of material
3. Problems in evaluating what is read
4. Deficiency in interpretation of content
5. Inadequate appreciative abilities
D. Insufficient development of basic study skills
1. Difficulty in locating sources of information
2. Weakness in use of basic references
3. Limitations in interpretation of pictorial and tabular materials
E. Deficiencies in reading content
1. Difficulty adjusting reading procedures to purposes of content
2. We4ness in specialized vocabulary
3. Insufficient understanding of complex concepts
4. Problems with selection, evaluation, and organization of information
5. Difficulty in using pictures and diagrams
6. Weakness in following directions
7. Insufficient knowledge of the meaning of symbols
8. Difficulty adjusting rate of reading to purposes of content
F. Inefficientates of comprehension
1. Overanalysis
2. Word-by-word reading
3. Undesirable habits
4. Faulty eye movements
5. Excessive vocalization
6. Inflexibility
G. Ineffective oral reading
1. Inappropriate eye-voice span
2. Inadequate phrasing ability
3. Inappropriate rate and timing
4. Frustration
These defects in reading patterns that must be appraised in a thorough
diagnosis show that a reading disability is not a simple condition that can be
corrected by a single approach. Information on a child's strengths and weak-
Use of Specific Assessment Procedures 121
nesses in all of the preceding areas is obtained from a variety of evaluative

techniques. A competent diagnostician uses both standardized and informal pro-
cedures in studying the nature of reading deficiencies, so that appropriate reme-
dial programs can be designed. Detailed procedures for overcoming each of these
specific deficiencies will be discussed further, beginning with Chapter 9.
Many testing and evaluation procedures are used in assessing the needs of
the child with a reading disability. Usually, the diagnosis starts with the admini-
stration of achievement tests, a reading survey test, and an individual intelligence
test. It may continue until specific confusions in letter recognition or insecurities
with individual important digraphs have been inventoried. A study of strengths
and weaknesses should be evaluated in the detail necessary to formulate an
appropriate plan of instruction.
In this chapter, a variety of specific approaches to reading diagnosis will be
considered. In order to plan appropriately for the child with a reading disability,
all relevant information obtainable must be collected and studied.
Tests Used in General Diagnosis in Reading

In general diagnosis, standardized tests of general achievement, achievement in
various skill areas, and survey readmg are usedj General achievement tests are
used to measure the relative strengths and weaknesses of students in different
areas of the curriculum. They are commonly administered to all of the children in
a school. Individual tests of development in several academic skill areas are
selectively administered to those children who are experiencing learning difficul-
ties. Reading survey tests are used to obtain an estimate of the students' overall
reading achievement and to determine their relative strengths and weaknesses ir
such attributes as vocabulary, comprehension, word analysis, and reading rate.
The teacher can use these results to aid in adjusting instruction to individual
differences within the classroom and to help find the areas of reading that need
corrective treatment.
General Achievement Tests

A profile of the reader's relative performance in major areas of the curriculum, as
measured by general achievement tests, enables the reading specialist to isolate
the academic areas in which a student may be experiencing difficulty reading.
The specialist can also see whether or not the child with a reading disability scores
significantly higher on the nonreading subtests in comparison to the reading
section of the test. If so, reading might be a basic problem. A marked variation in
the profile might suggest that the student is deficient in a certain specific compre-
hension ability or in some basic study skill. All of these irregularities would
indicate that further diagnosis is needed Following is a listing of some general
achievement tests that are useful in general diagnosis for additional &ampies
and evaluations, see Conoley and Kramer (1989). -
122 Chapter Eight
California Achievement Tests. Forms E and F. Grades K.0—K.9, K.6—2.2, 1.6—3.2,

2.6—4.2, 3.6—5.2, 4.6—6.2, 5.6—7.2, 6.6—8.2, 7.6—9.2, 8.6—11.2, 10.6—12.9: reading
(vocabulary, comprehension, sound recognition, visual recognition, and word
analysis); language (mechanics and expression); spelling; mathematics (com-
putation, concepts, and applications); study skills; science; social studies
(CTB/McGraw-Hill, 1986a).
Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Primary Battery, Multilevel, and Separate Level Edi-
tions. Grades K.1—1.5, K.8—1.9, 1.7—2.6,2.7—3.5,3,4, 5, 6,7, 8—9: listening; word
analysis; vocabulary; reading/reading comprehension; language (spelling,
capitalization, punctuation, usage, and expression); work study (visual mate-
rials and reference materials); mathematics (concepts, problem solving, and
computation); social studies; science; listening; writing (Hieronymus et a!.,
1986).
Metropolitan Achievement Tests (6th edition). Survey Battery. Grades K.0—K.9,
K.5—1.9, 1.5—2.9,2.5—3.9,3.5—4.9,5.0—6.9,7.0—9.9, 10.0—12.9: vocabulary; word-
recognition skills; reading comprehension; mathematics (concepts, problem
solving, and computation); spelling; language; science; social studies
(Prescott, Balow, Hogan, & Farr, 1987).
SRA Achievement Series. Grades K.5—1.5, 1.5—2.5, 2.5—3.5, 3.5—4.5, 4.5—6.5,
6.0—8.5, 8.0—10.5, 9.0—12.9: reading (visual discrimination, auditory discrimi-
nation, letters and sounds, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and compre-
hension); mathematics (concepts, computation, and problem solving);
language arts (mechanics and usage); spelling; reference materials; social
studies; science (Naslund, Thorpe, & Lefever, 1983, 1984).
Stanford Achievement Test. Grades 1.5—2.9, 2.5—3.9, 3.5—4.9, 4.5—5.9, 5.5—7.9,
7.0—9.9: word study skills; word reading; reading comprehension; vocabu-
lary; listening comprehension; spelling; language/English; concepts of num-
ber; mathematics computation; mathematics applications; environment;
science; social science (Gardner, Rudmen, Karlsen, & Merwin, 1983a).
Skill Area Achievement Tests

A comparison of the reader's relative performance in overall reading, spell-
ing, and mathematics assists the specialist in determining whether the child's
academic difficulties are limited to a reading disability or are more generaL
Because these tests are administered individually, they also serve to identify the
child with satisfactory development in the skill areas, but who performs poorly
in group tests. For additional examples and evaluations, see Conoley and Kramer
(1989).
Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Brief Form. Grades 1—12: reading;

mathematics; spelling; battery composite (Kaufman & Kaufman, 1985).
Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery, Revised. Tests of Achievement.

Grades K.0—15.9: reading; mathematics; written language; knowledge (Wood-
cock & Johnson, 1989).
Reading Survey Tests

)Reading survey tests provide a general measure of some of the most important
components of reading, such as power of comprehension, word recognition, and
speed of reading The performance of a child on a reading survey test suggests
how the child might perform in a real-life reading situationiThe information
gained can be used to confirm or disconfirm the existence of a reading difficulty. I
The complex nature of a child's reading development requires that no single
type of test be used as the sole criterion of the child's reading achievement. Each
subtest of a survey test is in itself a measure of an important reading outcome.
The score of each subtest can be compared with the average reading score of the
survey test to see whether the child is weak in power of comprehension, word
recognition, speed, or accuracy. If a given score were significantly lower than the
child's average reading score, an area of reading needing further study would be
identified.
The following tests are examples of suitable reading survey tests for general
diagnosis. They also have some analytical value. (For more examples and an
evaluation of these tests, see Conoley & Kramer, 1989.)
California Achievement Tests, Reading. Forms E and F. Grades K.0—K.9, K.6—2.2,

1.6—3.2,2.6—4.2,3.6—7.2,6.6—12.9: vocabulary; comprehension; sound recogni-
tion; visual recognition; word analysis (CTB/McGraw-Hill, 1986b).
Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. Grades 1.0—1.9, 1.5—1.9, 2, 3, 4—6, 7—9, 10—12:
vocabulary; comprehension (MacGinitie, Kamons, Kowaiski, MacGinitie,
Mackay, T., 1978).
Nelson-Denny Reading Test. Forms E and F. Grades 9—12 and adults: vocabu-
lary; comprehension; total; rate (Brown, Bennett, & Hanna, 1981).
Stanford Achievement Test, Reading Tests. Grades 1.5—2.9, 2.5—3.9: reading
(word, comprehension, word plus comprehension); word study skills; total;
vocabulary; Grades 3.5—4.9, 4.5—5.9, 5.5—7.9: comprehension; word study
skills; total; vocabulary; Grades 7.0—9.9: vocabulary; comprehension; total
(Gardner, Rudmen, Karlsen, & Merwin, 1983b).
Tests Used in Specific Diagnosis in Reading

Specific diagnosis explores systematically particular areas of reading weaknessl
It can indicate that a child's problem is, for example, a deficiency in the area
124 Chapter Eight
basic comprehension abilities, but it will not isolate the exact limitationsinvolved.
Or it might indicate the instruction needed for general or specific reading imma-
turity. The tests used in specific diagnosis do not go into enoughdetail to plan
remedial instruction for those children classified as having a limiting or complex
reading disability.
Many standardized tests are available that can systematically analyze the
various areas of reading growth. Some reading problems can be identified clearly
enough to enable the diagnostician or the classroom teacher to develop an indi-
vidual remedial plan to overcome the specific difficulty. Other problems indi-
cated by the specific diagnosis will need further study, using child-study
techniques, before a suitable remedial plan can be formulated.
If the diagnosis requires a child-study approach, the diagnostician will need
to include all of the information acquired in the general and specific levels of
diagnosis, as well as any other data required to complete the case study. The
reading specialist will need to make comparisons among thevarious measures of
reading proficiency. The chronological age and I.Q. of the studentwill also need
to be taken into consideration.
Following is a listing of a few tests for specific diagnosis.? For more examples
and critical evaluations, see Conoley and Kramer (1989).
Decoding Skills Test. Grades 1.0—5.8+: basal vocabulary (instructional level,

frustration level); phonic patterns (monosyllabic, polysyllabic [long vowel,
short vowel, vowel diagraph, single consonant, consonant blend on real and
nonsensical words]) (Richardson & DiBenedetto, 1985).
Metropolitan Achievement Test (6th edition). Reading Diagnostic Tests. Grades
K.5—1.9: visual discrimination, letter recognition, auditory discrimination,
sight vocabulary phoneme/grapheme consonants, vocabulary in context,
reading comprehension, total; Grades 1.5—2.9: auditory discrimination, sight
vocabulary, phoneme/grapheme (consonants and vowels), vocabulary in
context, word part clues, reading comprehension, total; Grades 2.5—3.9: sight
vocabulary, phoneme/grapheme (consonants and vowels), vocabulary in
context, word part clues, reading comprehension, total; Grades 3.5—4.9: pho-
neme/grapheme (consonants and vowels), vocabulary in context,word part
clues, rate of comprehension, reading comprehension, total; Grades 5.0—6.9:
phoneme/grapheme (consonants and vowels), vocabulary in context, word
part clues, rate of comprehension, skimming and scanning, reading compre-
hension, total; Grades 7.0—9.9: vocabulary in context, rate of comprehension,
skimming and scanning, reading comprehension, total (Prescott et al., 1987).
Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test. Grades 1.5—12 (four levels: red, green, brown,
blue): word reading; reading comprehension; auditory discrimination; pho-
netic analysis; structural analysis; auditory vocabulary; vocabulary; word
parts; reading rate; scanning and skimming (Karlsen, Madden, & Gardner,
1984).
Use of Specfic Assessment Procedures 125
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, Revised. Forms G and H. Grades K—14 and
adLit: visual auditory learning; letter identification; word identification;
word attack; word comprehension (antonyms, synonyms, and analogies);
passage comprehension (Woodcock, 1986).
Tests Used in Child-Study Diagnosis in Reading

The tests used in the general and specific levels of diagnosis form the basis of the
child-study diagnosis. For some children with reading disabilities, these tests give
the diagnostician sufficient information to develop an appropriate individual
plan of remediation, and further diagnosis is not neededJor those students who
have not yet been diagnosed adequately, a study of their test results usually
indicates the areas of reading limitation that should be explored further The
techniques used are confined mostly to individual testing procedures that require
special training and some supervised clinical experience to yield valid results.
The specific standardized tests used at three levels of diagnosis in reading are
summarized in Figure 8—1.
The techniques of individual diagnosis in Figure 8—1 are representative, but
by no means inclusive, of all the tests discussed in the literature. The reader
should bear in mind that each of these techniques (and others not described) has
had successful use in the field.
The descriptions in this chapter are designed to give a general impression of
the main characteristics of the diagnostic tests. Actual use of any particular test is
based upon the detailed directions accompanying it. (For further information, see
Conoley & Kramer, 1989.)
Diagnostic Reading Scales. Grades 1—7: word recognition lists (word list 1, word
list 2, word list 3); reading selections (two sets of graded paragraphs); word
analysis and phonics tests (initial consonants, final consonants, consonant
digraphs, consonant blends, initial consonant substitution, initial consonant
sounds recognized auditorily, auditory discrimination, short and long vowel
sounds, vowels with the letter r, vowel diphthongs and digraphs, common
syllables or phonograms, blending) (Spache, 1981).
Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty (3rd edition). Grades K—6: oral reading;
silent reading; listening comprehension; listening vocabulary; word recogni-
tion/word analysis; spelling auditory analysis of words and word elements;
pronunciation of word elements; visual memory of words; prereading phon-
ics abilities (Durrell & Catterson, 1980).
Gates-McKillop-Horowitz Reading Diagnostic Test (2nd edition). Grades 1—6:
oral reading (omissions, additions, repetitions, directional errors, wrong be-
ginning, wrong middle, wrong ending, wrong in several parts, and accent er-
rors); reading sentences; words (flash and untimed); word attack
126 Chapter Eight
General Diagnosis in Reading

Genera/Achievement Tests. Measure relative strengths and weaknesses in various areas
of the curriculum (group testing).
California Achievement Tests
Iowa Tests of Basic Skills
Metropolitan Achievement Tests (6th edition)
SRA Achievement Series
Stanford Achievement Test
Skill Area Achievement Tests. Measure relative strengths and weaknesses in various
academic skill areas (individual testing).
Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Brief Form
Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery, Revised
Reading Survey Tests. Measure overall reading achievement, relative strengths and
weaknesses in major aspects of reading (group testing).
California Achievement Tests, Reading
Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests
Nelson-Denny Reading Test
Stanford Achievement Test, Reading Tests
Specific Diagnosis in Reading

Decoding Skills Test
Metropolitan Achievement Test, Reading Diagnostic Tests
Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test
Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, Revised
Child-Study Diagnosis in Reading

Diagnostic Reading Scales
Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty
Gates-McKillop-HorowitZ Reading Diagnostic Tests
FIGURE 8—1 Sample Standardized Tests Used in Reading Diagnosis
(syllabication, recognizing and blending common parts of words, reading

words, giving letter sounds, naming capital letters, and naming lowercase
letters); recognizing the visual form of vowels; auditory tests (auditory blend-
ing and auditory discrimination); written expression (spelling and informal
writing sample) (Gates, McKillop, & Horowitz, 1981).
Informal Diagnosis
The diagnosis of reading abilities and deficiencies is best achieved through quan-
titative information from standardized tests and procedures such as those just
Use of SpecfIc Assessment Procedures 127
described, In planning a program for the child with reading difficulties, however,
It is also wise to gather qualitative information by less formal procedures such as
analyzing the child s classroom reading and using informal reading inventories
Analysis of Classroom Reading

Classroom teachers have the opportunity to make extensive informal analyses of
the reading achievement of their students buring each school day, the teacher
may unobtrusively observe every child's overall performance on a variety of
daily reading and writing tasks. The child's response to reading instruction and
proficiency in oral and silent reading may be noted. Qualitative consideration
may be given to a child's oral reading performance, to questions he generates
about the content of his reading, and to his contributions to class discussions and
to small-group projects. The child's performance on worksheets and on reading
and writing activities may be evaluated informally,: as well as by the classroom
teacher Such analyses are valuable because they are based on many observations,
are'taken over an extended period of time, and cover many aspects of reading
under natural, nonthreatening conditions. /
The astute teacher, through day-by-day observation, is able to judge when a
child requires an adjustment in reading instmction. Through focused discussion,
a teacher may assess the child's background knowledge prior to his reading a
selection She may noteA using a simple record-keeping procedure, the nature of
the child's word-recognition or comprehension difficulties. By having the child
retell a selection after reading it (testing unaided recall), she may monitor his
understanding of what he reads, sense of structure, and use of oral language. By
analyzing the child's writing, the teacher may evaluate the child's use of languag
and functional knowledge of letter-sound associations. In addition,[the classroom
teacher has the opportunity to observe, throughout the school year and on a daily
basis, each child's attitude toward reading, ability to apply knowledge gained
through reading, efficiency in extended reading, and skill in reading a wide
variety of materia1s,
It is usually the classroo5n teacher who first recognizes that a child is experi-
encing reading difficulties. t is often the classroom teacher who, solely on the
basis of classroom diagnosis, makes special adaptations to assist a child in over-
coming minor reading problems. it is generally the classroom teacher who brings
a child's emergent reading difficulties to the attention of the reading specialist
and others who can provide remedial services. It is the classroom teacher who
works with specialists in coordinating special reading programs with the ongoing
classroom routine. The classroom teacher helps support the progress of children
receiving special help by fostering their improving competence in applying read-
ing skills in the classroom and by encouraging their more favorable attitudes
toward reading.
Although reading specialists provide the more time-consuming and system-
atic analyses of reading problems necessary to plan special instruction for the
child with serious reading difficulties, it is the ongoing observation and analysis
128 Chapter Eight
of the child and the constant modifications to the program made by all persons
who teach the child that make instruction successful. In the classroom, teachers
use observational analysis and instructional adaptation on a continuing basis to
promote optimal reading growth for all children
Informal Reading Inventories

The use of informal reading inventories allows the teacher to make a qualitative
evaluation of the child's word-recognition and comprehension strengths and weak-
nesses. In addition,tlformal reading inventories allow for instructional adjust-
ments based on an estimate of three reading levels the child attains (Betts, 1957)
1. The child's independent reading level is ascertained from the book in which he
can read with no more than one error in word recognition (pronunciation) in
each 100 words and has a comprehension score of at least 90 percentj At this
level, the child must read aloud in a natural conversational tone. The reading
should be rhythmical and well phrased. At the same time, the child is free
from tension and has good reading posture. His silent reading will be faster
than his oral reading and free from vocalizations. This is the level at which
the child should do extensive supplementary reading for enjoyment or for
information in line with his interests. At this level, the child has complete
control of experience (concepts), vocabulary, construction, and organization.
He has, therefore, the maximum opportunity for doing the thinking that is
required for a full understanding of what he is reading.
2. Lhé child's instructional reading level is determined from the level of the book
in which he can read with no more than one word-recognition error in each
20 words and with a comprehension score of at least 75 percent. This is th
level at which a pupil is able to make successful progress in reading under a
teacher's guidance. In the classroom, oral reading after silent study is per-
formed without tension, in a conversational tone, and with rhythm and
proper phrasing. Silent reading is faster than oral, except at the beginning
levels. The child is able properly to use word-recognition clues and tech-
niques with the use of challenging materials at this level, and with purposeful
reading directed by the teacher, the result should be maximum progress in
acquiring reading abilities.
3. jThe child's frustration reading level is marked by the book in which he bogs
down when he tries to read At this level, the child reads orally without
rhythm and in an unnatural voice. Errors and refusals are numerous and
tensions are obvious. The child comprehends less than half of what he is
trying to read. The test should be stopped as soon as it is clear that the child
is at his frustration level.
Estimating Reading Levels

The child's reading levels can be estimated by using carefully graded materials
similar to those available for instruction. These materials should not have been
used previously with the child. Selections of from 100 to 150 words should be
chosen from each successive difficulty level. A few questions involving both fact,
inference, and vocabulary may be constructed for each selection. After the child,
starting at a relatively easy level, has read each selection aloud to the teacher or
specialist, he then answers the comprehension questions based upon its content.
If the child has great difficulty with the first reading selection, he is moved back
to an easier level. When the child reads with ease, he is asked to read successively
more difficult selections until his three reading levels are determined.
No child should be asked to go on reading at the frustration level when being
taught or in any other situation. The teacher, however, should recognize that such
a level exists. Too frequently, children are found to be working at their frustration
levels in classes in which instruction is not satisfactorily adjusted to individual
differences.
Commercial Informal Reading Inventories

A variety of well-constructed and convenient informal reading inventories have
been produced for general reading evaluation. Among these are the followingJ
Analytical Reading Inventory (3rd edition] Grades primer—9: Forms A, B, and

C; graded word lists (primer—Grade 6) and graded passages (primer—Grade
9). Used to determine general level of word recognition, strengths and weak-
nesses in word-recognition skills, performance in oral or silent reading, com-
prehension strategies, independent reading level, instructional reading level,
frustration reading level, and reading capacity or listening level (Woods &
Moe, 1985).
Bader Reading and Language Inventory.7 Children, adolescents, and adult
graded reading passages, word-recognition lists, phonics, word analysis,
spelling, doze tests, visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, unfin-
ished sentences, evaluation of language abilities (Bader, 1983).
'Qualitative Reading InventoryjGrades primer, 1—2 passages, 3—junior high pas-
sages: independent reading level, instructional reading level, frustration
reading level, level variety, oral reading, silent reading, word identification
ability (in isolation and in context), miscue. analysis, comprehension ability,
prior knowledge (Leslie & Caldwell, 1990).
Informal Diagnosis of Word-Recognition Difficulties

iord-recognition difficulties are diagnosed effectively by evaluating oral reading
behavioijMany of the standardized individual diagnostic tests described in this
chapter use quantitative measures of oral reading performance to find strengths
and weaknesses in the student's reading. Often, additional insights into reading
problems can be obtained by informal qualitative appraisals of the child's oral
reading habits and errors.
After the child's reading levels have been determined, the specialist selects
material more advanced than the child's instructional level, so as to get a good
130 Chapter Eight
sample of her reading errors, but still below the level of frustration, so that
meaningful reading is possible. The child should read the selection aloud without
any help. She should also be told to guess any of the words she does not know,
and she should be told that she will be asked about the story when she finishes
it. Every error should be recorded so that it can be classified according to type. A
tape recording of the oral reading sample might be helpful in making a careful
study of the errors., —
We have found that three types of classifications are necessary to obtain a
complete understanding of word-recognition problems that children with read-
ing disabilities havè First, we classify the errors to indicate the child's phonic
and structural decOding strengths and weaknesses. The error classification we
use are:
Vowel errors' Mispronunciations that alter one or more vowel sounds, as dig
read dug.
Consonant errors. Alteration of one or more consonant sounds, as send read
sent.
Addition of sounds. Insertion of one or more sounds in a word, as tack read
track.
Omission of sounds. Mispronunciations that involve omission of one or more
sounds in a word, 'as blind read bind.
Substitution of words. Substitution of a word unrelated in form or sound to the
word to be read, as lived read was.
Repetition of words. Words repeated, whether read correctly or incorrectly, are
counted as repetition, as "a boy a boy had a dog" (one repetition).
Addition of words. Insertion of words into the text as when once there was is read
once upon a time there was (three word additions).
Omission of words. Omissions of words from the text, as a little pig read a pig.
Refusals and words aided. Refusal of a child to attempt a word or when a word
is supplied by the specialist after a delay of 15 seconds.
Suggestions for helping children overcome such word-recognition problems are

discussed in Chapters 11 and 12.
Next, we study possible faulty perceptual habits, such as a tendency to
reverse letters or words. We 'also look for error patterns involving primarily
specific parts of words, such as wrong beginnings, wrong middles, or wrong
endings, and words that are wrong in several parts. Suggestions for helping
children overcome such perceptual errors are discussed in Chapters 11 and 12.
The third type of diagnosis of oral reading behavior deals with limitations in
the use of meaning clues to word recognition.\ We have found helpful a somewhat
modified use of the linguistic classification of oral reading miscues suggested by
Goodman, Watson, and Burke (1987). We are interested especially in word mis-
cues that indicate (1) the ineffective use of clues gained from the reader's prior
knowledge (for example, a child might fail to recognize a word, such as rhinoceros,
even though she was reading about a trip to the zoo, where she has been many
times); (2) miscues that indicate little use of syntactic aids derived from a knowl-
edge of language structure (for example, "They all were happy" read as "They all
where happy"); (3) miscues that indicate a lack of use of semantic aids gained
from an ongoing understanding of the content presented (for example, "The girl
was riding a horse" read as "The girl was riding a house").
We assess the reader's limitations in the use of meaning clues in anticipating
the next word or words to be read. Skill in using meaning clues facilitates any
perceptual skills. We also diagnose the reader's difficulties in using meaning
clues to check the accuracy of decoded, unknown words. These last two limita-
tions are identified by the number of repetitions made, the compatibility of the
errors made with the ongoing content, and the omissions or additions of words
that alter the meaning of the passage being read.
A more complete analysis of miscues, developed by Goodman et al. (1987)
involves classifying each miscue according to:
1. Syntactic acceptability—that is, how structurally acceptable is the miscue?

2. Semantic acceptability—that is, how acceptable is the meaning of the miscue?
3. Meaning change—that is, how much does the miscue result in a change of
meaning?
4. Correction—that is, how successful is any attempt to correct the miscue?
5. Graphic similarity—that is, how much does the miscue look like the text?
6. Sound similarity—that is, how much does the miscue sound like the expected
response?
Having the child pronounce words from word lists provides additional infor-
mation about her word-recognition skills. The words should be selected to be at
the child's instructional level. Errors are recorded and analyzed. Then we have
the child try again to pronounce the missed or refused words to discover her
identification patterns. After this, the missed words are presented orally to the
child for her to use in oral sentences. In this way, we can ascertain whether they
are part of her meaning vocabulary.
The remedial methods suggested throughout this book emphasize the use of
meaning clues, because all skills are taught in meaningful reading situations
rather than in isolated drills. The remedial methods suggested in Chapter 10 are
specifically designed to correct deficiencies in meaning clues to word recognition.
Informal Diagnosis of Comprehension Difficulties

Most of the standardized diagnostic tests mentioned )n this chapter provide
quantitative measures of silent reading comprehension{Further diagnostic infor-
mation may be gained by appraising a child's comprehension informally. Both
oral and silent reading comprehension may be evaluated. Listening to a child
132 Chapter Eight
answer questions about, or tell about, a passage he has just read can reveal a good
deal about the quality of his comprehension.
Following each passage read, a child may be asked several questions! Sum-
mary, factual, inferential, and vocabulary questions are commonly used, An
analysis can be made of the child's total responses to all passages, to determine
his patterns of strength and weakness. Oral reading comprehension can be com-
pared with silent reading comprehension, recall of major ideas can be compared
with recall of facts, strength of inferential comprehension can be compared with
strength of factual comprehension, and development of vocabulary knowledge
can be assessed and compared with development of overall comprehension. An
alternative procedure some teachers might prefer for assessing a child's compre-
hension of narrative text involves asking questions based on the setting, theme,
plot, and resolution of the story and analyzing the results.
Retelling (free recall of a story) can also be used in analyzing reading compre-
heiisiori Teachers who use this procedure ask a child the content of a passage he
has read to retell as if he were telling it to a friend. The child's performance in
recalling the major ideas and facts presented in the passage, in comprehending
inferences and facts, in sequencing, in gaining a sense of the structure of the story
and in using language can be evaluated.
Construction of an Informal Reading Inventory

Preferable to published informal inventories are inventories constructed by read-
ing specialists or teachers using materials that are available for instruction. These
inventories are superior because they givinformation that is useful for making
instructional decisions for a specific child. The inventory can be made in the form
of a booklet with representative passage selected from various grade levels of
reading material. Oral reading passages may be affixed to the left-hand page of
the booklet, with a comparable selection for silent reading affixed to the right-
hand pagç.j
After the reading selections, five comprehension questions for each passage
should be listed in the following order: a summary question, followed by two
factual questions, then an inferential question, and then a vocabulary question if
possible. As an alternative, for assessing comprehension of narrative text, ques-
tions based on setting, theme, plot, and resolution may be used. On the fourth
page, a list of words selected from the same book from which the oral and silent
reading passages were taken should be typed on the page for use as a vocabulary
test. The words should be selected from the entire book and should be repre-
sentative of the book in its entirety.
The same four-page arrangement is repeated at half-yearly intervals for ma-
terial at first- through third-grade level and at yearly intervals for material at
more advanced grade levels. Tabs indicating the grade levels should be used for
quick selection of passages. (For more detailed suggestions, the specialist should
refer to Johnson, Kress, and Pikulski, 1987.)
Specialists who prefer to assess comprehension through retelling a passage
should make a vertical sequential list of the phrases in the passage on a sheet of
paper. To the right of each phrase, they then draw two lines. During retelling, they
use the left-hand column of lines and number each phrase in the order in which
its meaning was recalled. They then encourage the student to tell them anything
else she can remember. In the right-hand column of lines, they should similarly
number any additional phrases whose meanings were recalled. In this manner,
the specialist can analyze the child's responses for recall of main ideas and details,
ability to sequence, use of inference, sense of structure, and use of language, as
well as evaluate the overall quality of the child's response.
The use of commercially produced informal reading inventories saves the
time needed to make the booklet described. However, self-created informal in-
ventories can be constructed so that they are more suited than commercially
produced inventories to a given diagnostic situation.
Suggestions for the Reading Specialist

specialist collecting information from informal sources should follow certain
procedures that will enable the data obtained to be as accurate as possible The
following suggestions may be helpful for collecting evaluative data
1. isolate specific outcomes or characteristics to be evaluated) If, for example, infor-
mation is needed on the method of attack a child uses on words in isolation
when working orally, the observer should be alert to all of the approaches
that might be used by the child.
2. z'Define the observable results or characteristics in exact termsJ The specialist should
have, for example, a checklist of possible methods that the child might use
when orally solving a word-recognition problem.
3. Plan the informal situation so that reading results or characteristics will be easily
observable. The child whose methods of word study are to be observed should
be given a list of words of increasing difficulty and should be requested to
work out the unknown words aloud so that the specialist can note which
word-recognition approaches the child is using.
4. Classify information in uniform and useful ways. The specialist studying word
recognition may wish to classify the errors made by a child as to both their
location within the word (beginning, middle, ending, or reversal errors) and
their phonetic type (vowel, consonant blend, digraph, addition of sounds,
omission of sounds, or transposition of sounds). The specialist should classify
the analytical attack under categories such as spelling, letter-by-letter sound-
ing, phonic, structural, syllabic, or a combination of these forms of attacks on
words. The specialist should also notice whether the child tries to recognize
each word as a sight word, without any otherwise discernible form of attack.
5. Make a record of the findings, with illustrative samples of the performance on the
basis of which judgments were made. Using the methods of word study just
described, the specialist may find that the child is attempting a phonic ap-
proach to the problem, but his knowledge of word elements is weak. Sample
words should be listed to show (1) visual separation of the words, (2) ele-
134 Chapter Eight
ments miscalled, (3) any difficulty in synthesis that results, and (4) the final
pronunciation of the word. In addition, a summary of the specialist's opinion
at the time should be recorded.
6. Evaluate the signficance of the observed behavior or characteristüL The specialist
should indicate the importance of the information to the understanding of the
instructional needs of the child.
The usefulness of information obtained through informal procedures de-
pends on the experience of the observer, the number of observations, the degree
to which the observations are unbiased, and the relevance of the information to
the understanding of the child's reading difficulties. Many elements in reading
diagnosis must be determined by informal procedures.
The information acquired by informal approaches should be gathered as
systematically as possible, and it must be interpreted and used with caution.
Misjudgments will occur even on normative data if the personal biases of the
specialist are allowed to influence diagnostic judgments. Misjudgments are more
prevalent when the data are collected informally. For example, suppose a special-
ist has a particular interest in reversals. Then, when a child makes a few, as many
children do, they may be overemphasized by the specialist. As a result, remedia-
tion may dwell unnecessarily on reversals, rather than on the child's true diffi-
culty.
Informal procedures have merit when they allow the specialist to explore
further some characteristic suspected from more standardized measurements.
Many times, when administering a standardized diagnostic reading test, the
specialist notices a possible reading difficulty that should be studied further. The
specialist will complete the test as designed so as not to invalidate it, but then may
informally explore items to follow a hunch. For example, the specialist may be
giving a standardized list of isolated words to find out how well a child can work
out the pronunciations in an untimed situation. The test is administered and
scored properly. The specialist may have noted, however, that the child seemed
to have trouble separating the words visually into usable elements. The examiner
then may wish to go back to some of the words missed and, by covering up parts
of the words, show the child the correct way to analyze them. The specialist might
then see whether the child could have recognized the words had her visual
analysis been correct. This information would be recorded, but would not affect
the application of the normative data. The informal diagnostic inventory in Fig-
ure 8—2 has been organized to facilitate recording data obtained during informal
diagnosis.
Informal observation of the child's oral reading when she is confronted with
selections of increasing difficulty often provides insights into her reading prob-
lems. The specialist should especially note the child's word-by-word reading,
failure to use contextual clues, inability to group words into thought units or
language patterns, and limited sense of sentences, as well as any other indication
of a basic comprehension problem. Many of these basic abilities are most easily
detected by the way in which the child reads a passage aloud that is somewhat
Name Sex School ________________________ Age —
Intelligence Test Results Reading Exectancy Grade ___________ Date _______
Standardized Group Reading Tests:
1. _______________ R.G. ______ Date ______
2. ________________ R.G. ______ Date ______
3. ________________ R.G. ______ Date ______
Reading Levels
1. Independent ______ 2. Instructional ______ 3. Frustration ______
Oral Reading
1. Slow Rate ____ 6. Word by Word _____
2. Overfast Rate _____ 7. Comprehension
3. Faulty Enunciation _____ 8. Signs of Tension _____
4. Inappropriate Phrasing 9. Unusual Posture _____
5. Faulty Expression 10. Pointing
Word Recognition Difficulties
1. Omissions ______ 8. Wrong in Several Parts _____
2. Additions _____ 9. Limited Self-correction _____
3. Repetitions 10. Refusals ______
4. Reversals ______ 11. Semantic Miscues ______
5. Wrong Beginnings 12. Syntactic Miscues ______
6. Wrong Middles _____ 13. Limited Prior Knowledge
7. Wrong Endings 14. Other _____
Silent Reading
1. Rate: Words per Minute _____ 6. Finger Pointing
2. Literal Comprehension 7. Head Movements ______
3. Inferential Comprehension 8. Signs of Tension _____
4. Lip Movements _____ 9. Distractibility
5. Audible Speech 10. Other _____
Word Pronunciation
1. Strategy
a. Whole Word _____ d. Phonics _____
b. Structural ______ e. Letter by Letter _____
c. Syllabic f. Spelling
2. Errors
a. Faulty Consonants ______ f. Substitution of Words ______
b. Faulty Vowels _____ g. Faulty Visual Analysis
c. Omission of Sounds _____ h. Faulty Blending
d. Addition of Sounds _____ i. Words Refused _____
e. Reversals ______ j. Other ______
Other Information
1. Vision ______ 5. Physical Difficulties ______
2. Hearing _____ 6. Concentration _____
3. Handedness _____ 7. Persistence _____
4. Use of Language 8. Other _____
9. Emotional Reactions (confident, shy, overaggressive, negative, cheerful, etc.)
10. Attitudes toward (school, teacher, reading)
11. Home Environment ______

12. Other Observations ______
Preliminary Diagnosis
Trial Appropriate Remedial Plan
(Permission for duplication and use of the Infonnal Diagnostic Inventoiy is hereby granted.)
FIGURE 8—2 Informal Diagnostic Inventory
135
136 Chapter Eight
difficult for her. Specific suggestions for correcting difficulties in these abilities
will be given in Chapter 14.
Use of Standardized Reading Diagnostic Tests in

Combination with Informal Procedures
'fn clinical diagnosis at the child-study level, a combination of standardized diag-
ñostic tests and brief informal procedures can be used. In this way, the specialist
has the advantages of the impartial standardized procedures and the freedom to
design her own reading and learning tasks, using whatever materials seem most
appropriatej
For exmple, after considering referral information, intelligence testing re-
sults, and results of standardized group reading tests, a clinician might choose to
administer the word list and paragraph sections of the Spache Diagnostic Read-
ing Scales. From such limited use of a standardized reading diagnostic test, the
clinician would have adequate information to judge the student's relative
strengths in reading comprehension, rate of comprehension, and general word
recognition.
If the student's word recognition and reading comprehension appeared to be
strengths, but the rate of comprehension was noticeably slow, the clinician could
proceed directly to refinement and verification of the diagnosis. Using materials
at the reading level indicated by the diagnostic test just administered, the clini-
cian could set specific purposes for rapid reading, to appraise whether the slow
rate indicated inefficient word recognition, overconcern with detailed compre-
hension, or simply a habitual response to all reading tasks.
Similarly, in the area of comprehension, a child-study diagnostic finding
could be sharpened. For example, a student who was not accurate in recall of
factual detail could be given a suitable selection and asked several questions
requiring such recall. The specialist could then ask the student to explain how he
arrived at his answers. In this way, misunderstandings of word meanings in
contextual reading or insufficient attention to syntactic clues to precise under-
standing often are uncovered. The diagnostician should review all answers and
should not indicate whether any answer is consideredgood or bad. It is diagnos-
tically important to know how the child arrived at his answers and the exact
nature of his understandings and misunderstandings. The child should also be
directed to find where the relevant information is in the passage. It is important
to determine how efficiently this is accomplished and whether, in the review
process, the student is able to clear up spontaneously any of his ownconfusions.
Similar diagnostic procedures can be used in most areas of comprehension
difficulty. It is important to assess how the child approaches comprehension
tasks, the nature of his misunderstandings, and his ability to correct his own
errors when his attention is specifically focused on a single aspect of reading
comprehension.
When the diagnostic concern is centered on word-recognition difficulties, the

diagnostician must make, refine, and verify judgments about its various aspects.
Using referral information and a child's performance on the word list and para-
graph sections of the standardized diagnostic test, a clinician might decide that
the child's weakness included a lack of instant recognition of common words he
should know by sight at his level of reading development. This judgment could
be verified and refined by additional testing, using word lists from the child's
own reading series or from other instructional materials. A trial lesson might be
taught by the clinician to determine whether any special methodologies, such as
a word-tracing method, would enhance learning in the child.
When word-recognition difficulties appear to result from inadequate analytic
techniques, diagnostic information obtained from word lists and paragraph sec-
tions of standardized diagnostic tests is often found to be insufficient to enable
the specialist to turn directly to informal diagnostic methods. For a standardized
picture of word-recognition techniques as used in silent reading, a diagnostic
instrument such as the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test should be used. From a
comparison of results obtained from this instrument, along with diagnostic in-
sights from referral information and oral word lists and paragraph reading,the
specialist will be able to evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses within the
broader general area of word recognition. Informal procedures then can be used
to refine and verify the diagnosis.
For example, if a student appeared to be ineffective in using meaning clues
as an aid to word recognition, the specialist could have the student complete
some simple, informal doze passages to analyze the nature of the difficulty
further. Some short paragraphs could be prepared or selected, and the student
could be asked to fill in the blanks. For diagnosis, a paragraph of the followirg
form could be used:
Filling in blanks demands background knowledge, language competence,

and reading__, to supply a meaningful when all graphic clues are
From the nature of the errors and from a discussion of the errors with the student,
the specialist will be able to refine and verify the diagnosis. Two cautions are
important. First, the specialist should select or prepare doze passages at a dis-
tinctly easy reading level for the student, because all graphic clues to the recog-
nition of certain words have been eliminated. Second, the student should have
developed sufficiently good reading and writing skills to be able to complete the
task independently. For information on the use of the doze procedure to judge
readability, see Bormuth (1976).
Similarly, if the student demonstrated difficulty with word beginnings and
with beginning sounds, the specialist might want to check more thoroughly the
exact natqre of the student's confusion by having him read aloud a list of common
words beginning with the essential beginning blends and digraphs. A few sample
exercises and activities might also be tried in order to help the clinician decide
138 Chapter Eight
how the child might be helped most effectively to gain a functional knowledge of
common word beginnings.
When the major diagnostic concern involves word-recognition techniques
used in oral reading, the specialist should first obtain a complete, unified, and
standardized picture of the child's oral word recognition by means of an oral-
reading diagnostic instrument such as the Gates-McKillop-Horowitz Reading
Diagnostic Tests. When using this instrument, the diagnostician should adminis-
ter the following subtests: (1) oral reading; (2) words: flash; (3) words: untimed;
and (4) knowledge of word parts: word attack (starting with syllabication, recog-
nizing and blending common parts, or reading words—whichever seems most
appropriate). Other information pertinent to the child study can be obtained
through judicious use of additional subtests useful to a more complete under-
standing of a child's word-recognition difficulties. Appropriate comparisons of
results obtained from these subtests, together with referral information and other
standardized and informal diagnostic assessment, will suggest weaknesses that
can and should be understood even more completely through informal testing
procedures.
For the child with a reading disability, standardized tests serve best to put
into perspective major areas of reading competence or areas of concern. Informal
methods are best, once an area of concern has been established, to clarify what
exactly should be taught and how learning can be enhanced.
Summary
A classification of reading difficulties shows that both standardized and informal
procedures are needed to diagnose the needs of children with reading disabilities.
The diagnosis is a series of screenings going as far as is needed, from general
diagnosis to specific diagnosis to child-study diagnosis, until all the information
necessary to develop an appropriate individual plan of remediation is gathered.
Representative standardized procedures appropriate for each level of diagnosis
are presented.
Suggested informal procedures are described, including classroom analysis and
specialist-constructed informal reading inventories. Systematic informal data collec-
tion methods are presented. A sample informal diagnostic inventory is offered.
Whenever a detailed diagnosis of a child's reading difficulty is called for, the
most appropriate evaluative techniques must be chosen from both standardized
and informal procedures. Skill in choosing the proper techniques in testing and
in interpreting the results of tests comes from both effort and experience.
Study Questions
1. Differentiate between general, specific, and child-study diagnosis.
2. Why is an analysis of a child's classroom reading an essential part of a
complete reading assessment?
3. Describe the reading behavior of a child at the independent, instructional, and

frustration levels of reading.
4. What three types of classifications are said to be necessary to obtain a com-
plete understanding of the word-recognition problems of a child with a
reading disability?
5. What is the diagnostic importance of understanding how a student has ar-
rived at her answers?
6. What is meant by "using informal procedures to verify and refine the results
of standardized testing"?
Selected Readings
Cooter, R. B. (1990). The teacher's guide to reading tests. Scottsdale, AZ: Gorsuch Scarisbrick.
Gilet, J. W., & Temple, C. (1990). Understanding reading problems: Assessment and instruction
(3rd ed.) (pp. 128—213). Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Glazer, S. M., Searfoss, L. W., & Gentile, L. M. (Eds.). (1988). Reexamining reading diagnosis.
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
York: Longman.
IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Roswell, F G., & Natchez, G. (1989). Reading disability (4th ed.) (pp. 57—76). New York: Basic
Books.
Taylor, B., Harris, L. A., & Pearson, P. D. (1988). Reading difficulties: Instruction and assess-
ment (pp. 173—199, 235—253, 277—291). New York: Random House.
Chapter
Planning Appropriate
Remedia tion
The specialist or reading teacher studies the diagnostic findings pertaining to a

child with reading difficulties and then arranges learning conditions to facilitate
the child's maximum growth in reading. In making an appropriate educational
plan of remediation, it is necessary to identify the specific limitations in the child's
reading profile that are impeding her reading growth. Methods, motivation, and
materials are considered in designing the educational plan most suited to the
child's remedial program.
The remedial program must be based on more than an understanding of the
child's reading needs, however. It must also be based on the child's charac-
teristics. The child who is hearing impaired needs an approach to reading differ-
ent from that for her counterpart with normal hearing. The child with poor vision
needs adjustment in methods and, if her limitation is severe enough, in materials
also. The child who is a slow learner needs modified methods, and so does the
child who has a behavioral disorder. The modifications required of instructional
techniques for such children will be discussed in a later chapter.
As each child is different, there can be no "bag of tricks." Nor can there be a
universal approach that will solve all problems. Many times, remedial training
suited to one child would be detrimental to another. If, for example, a remedial
program has been planned to develop more adequate phrasing, a child might be
required to do considerable prepared oral reading in order to help her read in
thought units. This same approach might be harmful to a child who is already
overvocalizing in his silent reading. It could exaggerate the faulty habit he has
acquired and increase his reading difficulty. To sum up, every remedial program
must be planned on the basis of a thorough appraisal of the child's instructional
141
142 Chapter Nine
needs, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as of the environment in which correc-

tion is to take place.
The remedial plan should be in written form, indicating in some detail what
is recommended for each child. This must be done because it is too difficult to
remember each child's needs, levels of attainment, and limitations with the exact-
ness that is necessary for an effective correctional program. The written remedial
plan should indicate the nature of the reading difficulty and the approach recom-
mended to correct it. It should also identify the level of material to be used. The
plan should state any of the child's physical or sensory characteristics that need
to be corrected or for which the program needs to be modified. The child's
interests, hobbies, and attitudes should become part of the written record. Most
important, the plan should include a description of the remedial program recom-
mended and the types of material to be used.
The original individual remedial plan is not to be considered permanent. It
needs to be modified from time to time as the child progresses in reading. Often,
a child with reading difficulties changes rapidly in her instructional needs. The
better the diagnosis and the more successful the remedial plan, the more rapidly
her needs will change. One child with reading difficulties, for example, may have
failed to acquire sufficient word analysis techniques and depends on sight recog-
nition and contextual analysis to recognize new words. She would be given
remedial work designed to teach her word analysis. After some time, she may
develop considerable skill in this area, but may not make a corresponding gain in
rate of reading. Her problem would then no longer be one of developing word
analysis. In fact, continued emphasis on this phase of the program might become
detrimental to her future reading growth. Instead, the use of more rapid word-
recognition techniques would be advisable. As the problem changes, so must the
plan of remediation, in order to meet new reading needs.
Because the child's instructional needs change rapidly, it is unwise to put her
into a remedial program that resembles a factory production line. Such a program
assumes that once a given child's level of reading performance is identified, all
that is needed is to put her through a set of materials that are uniform for all
children. The child with reading difficulties whose needs change rapidly as her
limitations are corrected is in dire need of a program that adjusts readily to every
change in her reading pattern. To achieve success, a remedial program must be
based on a continuous diagnosis, and the original plan must be modified some-
what as instructional needs change.
In some instances, the original plan of remediation does not result in im-
provement. When this occurs, a reevaluation of the diagnosis is needed, and
perhaps additional appraisals should be made. A somewhat altered approach to
instruction may then be necessary for success.
To achieve success in remedial programs, the teacher must (1) individualize
the remedial plan, (2) encourage the reader, (3) choose appropriate materials,
(4) use effective teaching procedures, and (5) enlist the cooperation of others,
including the child.
Planning Appropriate Remediation 143
Individualizing the Remedial Plan

The child with reading difficulties is one who has failed to respond to reading
programs designed to meet the instructional needs and characteristics of the
majority of children. The onset of reading difficulties is usually gradual. The child
who develops serious reading difficulties gets into a moderate amount of trouble
reading, misses some instruction, and falls behind or gets confused. As the class
progresses, he is left further and further behind. Soon the child is bewildered, may
develop an aversion to reading, and is quite likely to develop poor reading habits.
All of these things accumulate, until it is apparent to the teacher that the child is
having difficulty reading. He has not learned to be an effective reader at his level
of advancement. Faulty habits of reading have become established, and he is
developing or has already developed a dislike of and antagonism toward reading.
As time goes on, his sense of defeat mounts increasingly higher.
A plan designed to treat reading difficulties is based on the assumption that
children learn differently and need programs that meet their individual require-
ments. Such programs must be based on recognizing a particular child's physical
and mental characteristics and must be individually designed to be efficient in
overcoming his difficulties.
Study the Child's Characteristics

The expected results of instruction and the methods used must reflect the child's
characteristics. If the child is below average in general intelligence, she cannot be
expected to reach the goals in reading expected of children of greater mental
ability Nor can she be expected to progress as rapidly as these children do. The remç-
dial reading teacher should modify the goals of the program accordingly. In addi-
tion to being flexible in the results he expects, the remedial reading teacher should
modify his methods of instruction to meet the child's needs. Children who are below
average in intelligence need more concrete experiences, more carefully given
directions, and more repetition and drill than do children of higher intelligence.
If the child has poor vision or poor hearing, modifications in methods need
to be made. Such limitations make learning to read more difficult, but do not
preclude the child from achieving at a satisfactory level. Even children with
serious visual and auditory impairments have been taught to read. The child with
reading difficulties who experiences lesser sensory handicaps can be taught more
efficiently if her limitations are known and modifications in methods of instruc-
tion are made. Adjustments in methods that have proved helpful will be dis-
cussed in Chapter 13.
Be Specific
The remedial reading teacher should focus instruction upon the child's specific
reading needs. Usually, the diagnosis has indicated that there is something spe-
144 Chapter Nine
cifically wrong with the child's pattern of reading. One child, for example, may
have learned to read with speed, but falls short of the accuracy required in certain
situations. This child should read material with factual content and should read
for purposes that demand exact recall of those facts. Another child may be so
overconcemed with detail that he reads excessively slowly, looking for more facts
than the author wrote. He becomes so concerned with detail that he cannot
understand the author's overall intent. The teacher should endeavor to make him
less compulsive, so that his rate of reading and the results he achieves can be
compatible with his purposes for reading.
The principle that remedial reading instruction should be specific and not
general means that the remedial reading teacher should emphasize those aspects
of reading development that will correct the child's limitations. It does not mean
either that just one type of reading activity should be used, or that a specific skill
should be isolated and the child receive drill in that skill. For a child with a
reading disability whose knowledge of the larger visual and structural elements
used in word recognition is insufficient, the teacher would be in error if she used
a method that consisted exclusively of isolated drill on word elements.
A better procedure would be to emphasize reading interesting material that
challenged the child to use his knowledge of larger word elements. The child
would read for several purposes, but when he encountered a word that required
analysis, the teacher would help him by emphasizing the larger elements in the
word. When exercises for developing basic skills were studied, the remedial
reading teacher would have him do those that gave him experience in using the
larger visual and structural parts of words. The teacher could find or construct
additional exercises and activities that would provide experiences with larger
elements in words he had encountered in his reading, so that he could learn to
use these larger word elements in recognizing new words.
Use Varied Techniques

There is an unfortunate tendency, once remedial instruction has been prescribed,
to stick to one specific method to overcome a known deficiency. However, basing
a remedial reading program on a diagnosis does not imply that only one method
must be used until the child's reading difficulty is overcome. There are many
ways to develop competence in reading. An effective remedial reading plan
includes a variety of teaching techniques and instructional procedures.
Many sources describing teaching techniques are available to the remedial
reading teacher. Professional books and journals give suggestions for correcting
specific types of reading difficulties. Manuals and workbooks accompanying
basal reading programs are also sources of teaching techniques. The exercises
suggested for teaching skills and abilities when they are first introduced in such
manuals and workbooks may prove beneficial in remedial reading programs. As
he examines the teaching techniques suggested in various materials, the remedial
reading teacher can accumulate a variety of activities for each of the important
types of disabilities listed in Chapter 8. He can keep the program appealingto the
child by using a variety of techniques and at the same time be assured that the
instruction emphasizes the reading deficiencies indicated in the individual edu-
cational plan of remediation.
In using a variety of teaching methods and techniques, care must be taken
that the teaching approaches do not confuse the child. Directions should be
simple, and teaching techniques should not be changed too often. Instruction
should emphasize genuine reading as much as possible. The child should not
have to spend time learning complicated procedures or directions. Enough van-
ely should be introduced, however, to keep the program stimulating.
Engage Active Learning

Growth in reading presupposes an energetic learner. Of course, the child must
learn to read by reading. She must interact with the printed page intensely and
frequently if she is to succeed. A fatigued child cannot be expected to make gains
during the remedial session. Therefore, the length of the session for remedial
instruction should be such that concentrated work is possible. The child with
reading difficulties frequently finds it difficult to read for a considerable length of
time. Her lack of attention may be due to a variety of causes: lack of physical
stamina, not enough sleep at night, or emotional reactions to reading that dimin-
ish her vitality. Her inattention or lack of vigor may be a reaction to an unsuccess-
ful situation. Whatever the cause, most children, if properly motivated, can apply
themselves to reading at least for a short amount of time. Obviously, if lack of
attention and vigor result from a condition that can be corrected, the correction
should be made. In any case, the length of the remedial reading session should be
adjusted so that energetic participation can be maintained.
Frequently, it is necessary to divide remedial sessions into short periods. The
child may work with the remedial reading teacher for 45 minutes. At the start of
remediation, it may be necessary to read to her, or to have her read for only 10
minutes for specific purposes and then have her use the results of her reading in
some creative activity, such as drawing. Then she might work on some activity or
exercise that emphasizes the training she needs. These activities or exercises
might require rereading the material she read during the first part of the session,
or they might require the further study of words from the material read. Finally,
the child might dictate to the teacher a story of her own suggested by the reading
she did. As she gains in reading growth, the length of concentrated reading time
should be increased. Soon, the child who has no physical limitations will be
reading longer without interruption.
Encouraging the Reader

Most children with reading difficulties are discouraged about their failure to learn
to read. They frequently think that they cannot learn. This lack of confidence in
their ability to learn is detrimental to their reading improvement. The effective
146 Chapter Nine
learner is a confident and purposeful learner, one who has a desire to learn and
finds pleasure in doing so. In order for a child with reading difficulties to progress
rapidly in reading, it is necessary for him to know that he can learn and to see that
he is advancing satisfactorily.
Frequently, the child with reading difficulties is anxious or insecure. He has
had no real opportunity to gain confidence in himself because most of his school
day is spent reading and for some time he has been ineffective in many areas of
schoolwork. Such a child may become submissive or demanding, aggressive or
withdrawn, or may show his basic insecurity in a variety of ways. He may
develop attitudes of indifference toward or dislike or rejection of reading. He may
resist help, display few interests, or be antagonistic toward reading instruction.
Remedial reading programs must overcome these attitudes and related behavior
problems.
One of the first responsibilities of the remedial reading teacher is to develop
a need for learning to read in the child. Another is to gain his confidence to such
a degree that he will know that she has taken a personal interest in him and that
she will solve his reading problem. A direct attack on the reading problem by a
businesslike, considerate adult will do much to overcome stress and reading-
avoidance attitudes. When a child recognizes that an interest is taken in him and
his reading problem, it increases his sense of personal worth and confidence in
himself.
Emphasize Success
In order for the remedial reading program to be encouraging to the child, her
success rather than her mistakes should be emphasized. Teachers have a tendency
to point out errors to children with reading difficulties, rather than to make them
feel that, for the most part, they are doing well. A child with reading difficulties
who is reminded continually of her errors may be@ome overwhelmed by a sense
of defeat. A wise teacher will start this child in a remedial reading program that
is somewhat easy for her, so that her successful performance will be immediately
apparent. As she gains confidence, the program will gradually be made more
challenging. The teacher should always be quick to recognize when the child has
put forth real effort and done something well. Many times—particularly at the
start of the program—recognition will have to be given to activities related to the
reading, rather than to the reading itself. Gradually, the teacher will find more
opportunities to give praise for actual reading accomplishments. It should always
be remembered that the effectiveness of remedial instruction depends to a large
extent upon the child's gain in confidence. This is brought about through success-
ful experiences with reading, which in the past had caused so much difficulty.
Emphasis upon success does not mean that errors are to be overlooked. A
child's faulty reading, of course, must be brought to her attention. Errors in word
recognition must be pointed out. Faulty habits in reading that limit the child's
speed must be recognized by her before they can be corrected. Sometimes, it is
necessary to demand greater exactness in reading. While it is true that the teacher
must point out mistakes, he should first praise what the child has done well. He
should also indicate that the child is improving and that, for the most part, her
reading is good. If, for example, a child calls the word house, horse in the sentence
"The dog ran up to the house," the teacher should point out to her that the
sentence was almost perfect, but to be perfect, she should look at the last word
more carefully. As a matter of fact, the child did recognize most of the words in
the sentence correctly. And the error she made indicated good use of context. The
sentence made sense: the words house and horse do look very much alike.
When answering a comprehension question, the child may give the wrong
answer. Instead of saying that the answer is wrong, it would be far better for the
teacher to say, "Let's see what the book says about this" and then find out why
the child made the error. It will be frequently found that she did not understand
the meaning of a word, or that she failed to notice a key word such as not, or that
she had not grouped the words into proper thought units. Whatever the cause, it
should be found, and the child should be shown the correct way to read the
passage. The attitude of the teacher should be one not of pointing out errors, but
of helping the child learn to read.
An effective remedial program must satisfy the child, make her feel that she
is getting along well, and keep at a minimum any anxiety that she feels about her
reading level. The teacher's responsibility in encouraging the child to read ener-
getically is great. He should neither hurry her unduly nor allow her to dawdle;
he should be sure she is working hard and yet avoid putting pressure on her.
Practically all children can be expected to work intently on improving their
reading. This is especially true if the reading materials are at an appropriate level
of difficulty, if they are interesting to the child, and if she is reading for purposes.
that are real to her. There should always be a friendly atmosphere, but one that
has as its first priority that the child is there to learn to read.
Demonstrate Reading Growth

The child with reading difficulties needs to have his reading growth demon-
strated to him. There are many ways to do this. The choice will depend on the
nature of the child's reading problem. If, for example, the child is trying to
develop a sight vocabulary, he could make a picture dictionary of the words he
has learned. As the dictionary becomes larger, he recognizes that he has increased
his sight vocabulary The child who is working on accuracy of comprehension
could develop a chart (Figure 9—1) in which he indicates his percent of accuracy
from week to week. If he fails to improve over the period of a week, the teacher
simplifies the material or asks more general questions, so that accuracy increases.
Then, as the child gains confidence, the difficulty of the material is again in-
creased gradually. It is good for the child to go back, from time to time, and reread
something that he has read previously. If he does so, he will usually discover that
material that was difficult for him a short while ago is now relatively easy for
148 Chapter Nine
Jerrys Accuracy Chart

100 -
D 60 -
Weeks of Instruction
FIGURE 9—i A Bar Chart Showing Accuracy in Reading
him to read. This will be especially true if the teacher takes time to prepare him
to read it. Tape recordings of former and improved oral readings of the same
passages are especially effective, as the child clearly hears the improvement for
himself.
Whatever the nature of the difficulty, it is important for the remedial reading
program to be organized in such a a manner as to demonstrate to the child that
he is progressing toward his goal of reading better. The child who has had reading
difficulties for a long time needs whatever encouragement can be given. He needs
not only to be in a comfortable learning situation, but also to see that he is making
effective advancement in reading.
Avoid Interfering with Enjoyable Activities

The remedial reading teacher must organize instructional sessions so that chil-
dren are not required to take part in them at times at which other, competing
activities of great importance to them take place. For example, sometimes chil-
dren are given extra help after school. This is a bad time for a child who enjoys
outdoor sports with friends and who finds it the only time that outdoor games
are played in her neighborhood. Similarly, in scheduling summer reading pro-
grams, it is wise to delay their start until a week or so after school is out and the
children have found that they have time they do not know what to do with. Even
then, the better scheduling time for classes is probably in the morning, because
the majority of things that the child likes to do, such as going swimming or
playing baseball, are done in the afternoon.
The busy classroom teacher often finds it difficult to give a child the attention
she needs when the class is in session. He may select recess time or the time other
children have art or music activities for helping a child with her reading. Such a
practice is understandable, but it is not good for the correction of a reading
problem. A better time would be to work with the children needing reeducation
in reading while the rest of the class is busily engaged in studying or reading
independently. Whatever time is used for giving remedial help, it is important
that it not conflict with activities that are important to the child.
Choosing Appropriate Materials

The selection of appropriate material for remedial work in reading is one of the
main problems the remedial reading teacher has to solve. Some teachers believe
that the most important element is that the material be interesting. Others regard
the level of difficulty to be of even more importance. Still others consider having
material that is compatible with the nature of the remedial instruction to be of
paramount importance. In fact, all three of these elements enter into the selection.
Without trying to decide among them, we may conclude that the more important
considerations in selecting materials are that the materials must be (1) suitable in
level of difficulty, (2) of the proper type, (3) appropriate in interest and format,
and (4) abundant.
Choose Materials That Are Suitable in Level

of Difficulty
A child grows in reading by reading; therefore, the material that is used for
remedial instruction should be of a level of difficulty that enables the child to read
comfortably and with enjoyment. The diagnosis will have disclosed the level at
which the child with reading difficulties could be expected to read. The remedial
reading teacher should pick out materials at a suitable level to accommodate the
findings. The difficulty of material can be judged in many ways. Readability
formulas, such as the Dale-Chall (Dale & Chall, 1948) and the Spache (1953)
formulas, are useful in estimating the child's reading level. Comprehensive book
lists that include information on level of difficulty such as those provided by
Spache (1975, 1978) and Maggart and Zintz (1990, appendix B), are helpful. The
extensive listing of easy-to-read, high-interest, content-area books offered by
McCormick (1987, appendix D), which includes information on level of difficulty,
should also be of value.
The difficulty level of ungraded materials can be estimated by a formula or
by using a reading series as a standard for comparison. The difficulty of an
ungraded library book, for example, may be judged by comparing it with books
in a reading series that are on various grade levels. The book can be compared
150 Chapter Nine
with a third-grade reader, and if it is judged to be harder, it then can be compared

with a fourth-grade reader, and so forth, until the approximate level of difficulty
can be estimated. In making a judgment, the teacher shouldconsider the number
of unusual words, the length of the sentences, the number of prepositional
phrases, the number of unusual word orders, and the complexity of the ideas that
are in the book. In selecting books, it is important that the remedial reading
teacher remember that the results of standardized tests tend to overestimatethe
reading development of a child with reading difficulties. Therefore, it is usually
wise to start remedial instruction with material that is somewhat lower than the
child's general reading score indicated by standardized tests.
The difficulty of the material appropriate for remedial instruction will vary
somewhat with the nature of the child's reading difficulty. The teacher should
modify the level of difficulty according to the goals of instruction. For example,
if the child's major problem is one of developing sight recognition, the material
should be relatively easy, with few new words. Whatever new words are present
should be used often in the material. For this child, a relatively easy level would
be desirable. By contrast, for the child who needs help in analyzing words effec-
tively, a higher concentration of new words would be desirable. This child could
meet a new word approximately every 20 running words. This ratiowould give
him an opportunity to use the techniques of word analysis that he needs to
develop, and at the same time, it would enable him to maintain the thought of the
passage, so that meaning clues could enable him to monitor his accuracy in word
recognition.
A child who is trying to increase his speed of comprehension should use
material that is easy for him—material that contains few, if any, word-recognition
problems. The child who is trying to increase his power of comprehension, on the
other hand, should use material that challenges him; but he must have a reason-
able chance of comprehending the material successfully.
Choose Materials That Are of the Proper Type

It is truly said that any kind of material suitable for a child to read is suitablefor
remedial instruction. It is important, however, to recognize also that progress in
reading will be maximized when the material that is selected meets the reader's
instructional needs. The type of material that is best for one kind of reading
difficulty is not necessarily appropriate for another. If the major instructional
problem is to increase a child's speed of reading, the best material would be short
stories with fast-moving plots. Not only should the material be easy to read, but
the content should also encourage the child to read the material to gain a general
impression of it or to understand its general significance. If the reading problem
is in the word-recognition area, a basal reader, along with exercises selected to
address the specific word-recognition problem, would be an excellent choice. If
the problem is in comprehension, and increased accuracy in reading is sought, an
expository text might be used. In every instance, the material should be at an
appropriate level of difficulty and suitable for meeting the specific reading needs
of the child.
Choose Materials That Are Appropriate in Interest

and Format
A relatively mature, intelligent 12-year-old will usually not find first- and second-
grade material interesting. Nor will she find the format of such material very
attractive. But when she has a second-grade reading ability, she must nevertheless
use material that she can read. The problem facing the remedial reading teacher
in this respect is great. Second-grade books are designed for children 7 or 8 years
of age. The pictures are of small children, and the print looks large and juvenile.
The topics are for a 7- or 8-year-old and not for a 12-year-old. Many books that
might be used for remedial reading instruction lose some of their value to a
particular child because they are uninteresting and have an immature format for
that child. The problem is how to find material that is both at a suitable level for
and as appealing as possible to a child who is older, but reads at a second-grade
level.
An increasing number of books are being developed for remedial readers.
Books designed primarily for the less capable reader include the Action and
Double Action Libraries (Scholastic Book Services). Material designed for use
with readers who require selective skill development include the Reading Com-
prehension Series (Bowmar/Noble Publishers), Dolch First Reading Books (DLM
Teaching Resources), and Specific Skills Series (Barnell Loft, Ltd.). Phonetically
consistent materials that are useful for readers who are weak in the phonic aspects
of word recognition include series such as Corrective Reading: Decoding (Science
Research Associates, mc). These materials prove helpful when used according to
individual student needs.
The skill books that accompany basal readers can also be used selectively to
provide practice in specific skills. It is fortunate that these books often appear to
be on a more mature level than the readers they accompany. In many instances,
the drills they contain give no indications of the maturity level they expect of the
child who is to use them.
Choose an Abundance of Materials

In selecting materials for remedial reading, one should make sure that there is a
wide variety of material that meets many interests and that is at various levels of
difficulty. For any one child, there should be ample material for him to read. There
should be material for his remedial instruction and also for his independent
reading. Independent reading materials should be considerably easier than those
used in remedial instruction and should be on many topics, because the children
have a wide variety of interests.
152 Chapter Nine
The Use of Computers

Recently, there has been increasing interest in the use of computers in remedial
reading instruction. To assess the instructional value of computers, one must
judge both the value of the computer as a means of presenting readingmaterials
and the worth of the computer-based materials themselves. As instructional ma-
terials, computer programs should be evaluated by the same criteria that are
applied to other materials used for reading improvement.
An advantage of using computers in remedial reading instruction is the
enthusiasm children with reading problems show toward working with comput-
ers, even when these same children resist other forms of reading. Another advan-
tage is the opportunity computers afford children to take risks, and even make
mistakes, in private with no other person looking on. Computers respond consis-
tently, appropriately, and predictably when children use them. They provide
immediate feedback, so that the children know whether they are right or wrong,
and they provide sufficient repetition so that children learn completely. Comput-
ers invite children to learn actively and to respond frequently. They free the
teacher to work with others. Among the disadvantages of using computers in
remedial reading instruction are their cost and the inadequacy of some of their
programs. Inadequate programs are those that are instructionally deficient or
difficult for the child to operate; they should not be used at all.
Many attractive computer programs are available as instructional materials
at all levels of difficulty. In fact, some programs with voice synthesizersmake it
possible for the child to receive all instructions through listening. Many types of
programs are currently available, including drill programs for various phases of
word attack and comprehension, programs to teach students the mechanics of
writing, and programs for the development of vocabulary. In addition, programs
are available that provide students with simulations, interactive fiction, and prob-
lem-solving opportunities. (For more information, see Blanchard, Mason, &
Daniel, 1987, or Strickland, Feeley, & Wepner, 1987.)
Computer programs are interesting to many children and are available in a
variety of formats. They can present visual hints that help children attend to
passages, words, or parts of words by illuminating these as appropriate or by
providing selective color cues. By using voice synthesis, computers can present
words visually and auditorily at one and the same time. The format of computer
programs is usually inviting to children and does not appear immature to them.
Educational programs are now numerous and are becoming increasingly more
abundant.
The use of computers for remedial reading instruction appeals to most stu-
dents, serves to free teachers, and offers an abundance of specialized learning
materials. At present, however, most computer materials are designed to provide
drill and therefore do not relieve the teacher from the responsibility of introduc-
ing and teaching new skills. In addition, computer materials will not lead to
improvement in reading, unless they are specifically selected to match each stu-
dent's learning needs. Computer materials add to the material resources of the
teacher, but they need to be managed with careful judgment.
Using Effective Teaching Procedures

Earlier, it was mentioned that remedial reading instruction requires sound teach-
ing procedures directed toward the specific needs of the child. The most essential
differences between remedial and developmental reading instruction are in the
amount of individualization and in the extent of study of the child, rather than in
the uniqueness of the methods or materials used in instruction. We consider the
reading of text to be at the core of any remedial reading plan. The plan for a child
with reading difficulties should include the reading of text, taught in much the
same way as it is in a developmental reading program. In teaching this kind of
reading, the following series of steps will foster growth:
1. Build readiness
2. Introduce difficult words
3. Set purposes for reading
4. Guide silent reading
5. Discuss the content read
6. Reread when desirable
7. Develop specific skills and abilities
8. Extend reading to related material
9. Use the results of reading
Unfortunately, some of these steps are not always followed in remedial work.
Readiness should be built carefully for every topic and every selection to be read
by the child with reading difficulties. Building readiness includes creating interest
in, developing the background for, and introducing new words for each selection
the child reads. The child who has difficulty reading, just as the child who does
not, should understand the purposes for reading, before it is done.
Developing specific skills and abilities is of great importance for remedial
instruction. Having children with reading problems merely read and discuss a
selection does not itself develop the skills and abilities necessary for orderly
growth in reading proficiency. The most essential phases of instruction take place
in the preparatory activities, during which background knowledge is provided,
new vocabulary is introduced, and purposes are set, and in follow-up skill devel-
opment. A teacher demonstrates her teaching skill when she shows the child with
reading difficulties how to read and when she provides him with the experiences
necessary for establishing the specific skills and abilities that make for mature
reading.
Children with many types of reading difficulty need repetition beyond that
amount required for students with normal reading development. In Chapters 10,
11, 14, 15, and 16, on remedial instruction for specific reading problems, sample
types of supplementary reinforcing activities are presented.
Like other children, the child with reading difficulties should use the results
of reading in a creative way. If, for example, she has read a selection about flood
control to find out what techniques are used, it would be as important for her to
154 Chapter Nine
make a diagram of a riverbed illustrating what she had learned as it would be for
children in the developmental reading program. Using the results of their reading
is a good procedure for all children. It is essential—though often neglected—for
those who are receiving remedial instruction. The results of reading may be used
in a discussion, a picture (or series of pictures) drawn, a chart developed, or a map
made. There need be only a small amount of time given over to these things, but
above all, the creative work should be the child's own.
The remedial reading teacher will find it helpful to keep a cumulative account
of the child's progress. The record should include books read, types of exercises
and activities used and the success of each, charts used to demonstrate progress
to the child, and the results of periodic tests. Indications of interests and anecdotal
accounts of the child's reactions to the remedial program should be included. By
reviewing this record, the teacher can gain insight into the strengths and weak-
nesses of variOus approaches used with a given child. A study of pastrecords will
recall those approaches that were successful with other children with similar
reading problems. The teacher can assemble a file of folders, arranged according
to specific reading problems.
Make Reading Meaningful

One reason children have difficulty reading is that they do not understand the
processes involved in being a good reader. Theremedial reading teacher has the
responsibility not only for teaching the child what to do, but also for showing him
how to proceed. Certainly, the teacher should teach the child to use context clues
in word recognition, but she should also demonstrate to him how useful this is
when he is reading. The teacher should not just tell the child to try to remember
what he has read, but should also show him how to organize the material he reads
for effective retention. She should show him why a suggested procedure is effec-
tive. The child should understand why certain material is read carefully and with
attention to detail, while other material is read rapidly to understand its general
ideas. If the remedial reading teacher expects the child to retain knowledge of
word elements, it is important for her to show him how much they will help him
to recognize new words.
Some remedial reading teachers feel that if a child is simply encouraged to
read, he will automatically develop needed skills of which he is unaware. A more
reasonable supposition is that children should be shown how to read. In addition,
they should be shown how to use each added skill they achieve. Suppose, for
example, that a child has learned to pronounce a list of isolated prefixes by rote.
How much better it would have been to point out to him the prefixes in words
and show him how they change the meanings of the root words! The remedial
reading teacher will find that demonstrating the processes of reading to the
learner helps to solve his reading confusions. Drilling the child on isolated
parts of words is not an effective approach to reading, because it lacks meaning
for him.
Use Remedial Procedures That Resemble

Real Reading
Although many devices and mechanical aids are available for remedial instruc-
tion, most reading growth comes from training allied with reading itself and from
much opportunity to read. Most expensive equipment is unnecessary and often
wastes time that could be used for authentic reading activities. In establishing a
reading center, priority should be given to obtaining varied reading materials.
These include books, pamphlets, and skill-development materials of a wide range
of reading difficulty The resources of the school library should be used as well. A
computer and printer are also useful to the remedial reading teacher in construct-
ing materials to meet student needs.
When exercises are used to develop specific skills, ways should be found to
use these skills in meaningful reading for content. For example, even in a simple
exercise for developing rapid sight recognition of words, it is better to have the
child read the word flashed before her, and at the same time tell whether it names
an animal or is an action verb than just to have her identify the words without
giving any thought to their meaning. In reading, the child not only must pro-
nounce a word, but also must associate meaning with it. Exercises and activities
that place skill development in context rather than in isolation are superior to
those that do not. The suggestions made in the chapters that follow illustrate this
principle of remedial reading instruction.
The more that exercises and activities used for building skills and abilities
approximate real reading, the more likely it is that those skills and abilities will
be transferred to reading. For example, if a child is shown phonic patterns upon
recognizing words, she will be more likely to use phonics in identifying new
words when she is reading a book than she would be if the same elements had
been taught by the use of isolated drills. Not only will she be more likely to
transfer what she has learned to new situations, but she will also establish the
habit of noting the phonic patterns within troublesome words and thereby be-
come more independent in word recognition.
Be Optimistic
A teacher helping a child overcome reading difficulties should be a buoyant,
energetic person. She must make the child sense her confidence in him. The
problems in correcting a complex reading problem may seem to be almost insur-
mountable. Nevertheless, the teacher must show each child with reading difficul-
ties that she knows he will learn to read. This attitude comes from a sound
diagnosis leading to a thorough understanding of the child's instructional needs
and to a clear set of remedial objectives. The teacher gains immediate confidence
through knowing exactly what is going to be done during each remedial lesson.
A well-prepared teacher who knows precisely where each session is going will
instill confidence in the child. With preparation, there usually will be progress in
reading.
156 Chapter Nine
The teacher can be optimistic because most children with reading difficulties
do make immediate gains with remedial instruction. If a child's reading problem
and personal characteristics have been evaluated carefully, and if the program is
based upon an appropriate individual remedial plan, success is practically as-
sured. Of course, the teacher's confidence may sometimes be shaken: There are
periods during the corrective treatment of practically every poor reader when
there is little evidence of new growth. But all the same, confidence in the child's
ultimate success must remain, even when things do not appear to be going well.
Under some circumstances, the remedial reading plan should be restudied and
the diagnosis reviewed, but this need not diminish confidence in the child's
ultimate success.
Provide for Group and Individual Work

The child with reading difficulties needs to share her experiences with other
children just as much as, or even more than, the child whose growth in reading is
normal. Not only should her classroom work be organized so that she can partici-
pate in some of the important activities of the class, but she shouldalso see that
other children have problems reading. It is recommended that children with
reading difficulties be given remedial instruction in groups, not individually,
whenever possible. Much can be gained by seeing other children with similar
difficulties who are making progress in overcoming them. It is often assumed that
remedial reading instruction is a formal procedure in which the child is separated
from other children and drilled until her disability is corrected. Such instruction
is unwise. It is a boost to the child to know that there are other children learning
to read who are able to use their newly gained proficiencies in reading.
Enlisting the Cooperation of Others

Although implementation of the remedial plan may be the direct responsibility of
the remedial reading teacher, many other people should be involved in formulat-
ing and helping to implement the plan. Among these are other professionals,
classroom teachers, and parents, as well as the remedial reader himself.
Involve Other Professionals

It would be rather unusual for such professionals as the school principal, the
school psychologist, the school social worker, a physician, a media expert, a
speech and language pathologist, and the school nurse to be in any way involved
in direct remediation. Nevertheless, the insights of one or more of these profes-
sionals may prove invaluable to the formulation of an appropriate individual
remedial plan. Knowledge of a student's reading difficulties and remedial plan
helps other professionals coordinate their efforts. Some children receive not only
remedial reading services, but also the services of a social worker or a speech
pathologist. It is important for the remedial reading teacher and such other
professionals to share information, insights, and concerns on a regular basis.
Involve Classroom Teachers

In most people's minds, including those of most children with reading difficulties
and their parents, success or failure in reading is measured not in the school
reading center or resource room, but in the regular classroom. That is where the
child spends the greater part of her day, and that is where she must establish
social relationships with her peers. If a child is really to find success in school, she
must find it in the classroom. For this reason, it is imperative that classroom
teachers cooperate and become closely involved in initial planning and that they
maintain their involvement, in order to coordinate their efforts with those of the
reading specialist. Collaboration between the remedial reading teacher and the
classroom teacher enables them both to plan activities that benefit the child
directly in the classroom. For example, if students in the classroom have been told
that they may make an optional, brief oral report on a book that they think others
in the class might enjoy, the remedial reading teacher can aid the child in the
selection of a book that she can read successfully, but that will also appeal to her
classmates. He can give her an opportunity to practice her presentation privately,
in order to gain the confidence she needs to speak effectively to the class. In
collaboration with the remedial reading teacher, the classroom teacher can adapt
and adjust classroom expectations to ensure that when the child with reading
difficulties exerts an honest effort, she will be successful. Although a student may
be making real and rapid progress in reading in the reading center or resource
room, she will be denied a true sense of accomplishment if the rest of her day is
filled with reading demands that are far beyond her. She will lose the opportunity
to practice her newly acquired reading skills in the regular classroom, she will
lose the opportunity to view herself and have her classmates view her as a reader,
she will lose the positive attitudes she may have acquired about reading, and she
will lose that sense of confidence that is so necessary to learning.
Involve Parents
Parental cooperation is beneficial to successful remediation for two reasons. First,
parents can make a unique contribution to a teacher's understanding of their
child. Parents are concerned with their children's behavior in nonschool settings
and therefore are often aware of certain attributes that teachers are less likely to
see. For example, it is often parents who alert teachers to signs of tension or
frustration that a child hides when in school. And it is parents who are the first to
sense that positive change of attitude that characterizes a child's response to
successful remediation. The second reason parental cooperation is so beneficial is
because parents are very important people in a child's life. When his parents
understand the remedial plan and support it, a child receives a form of encour-
agement that helps him overcome his reading difficulty.
158 Chapter Nine
Furthermore, parents are concerned about their children's difficulties—some-

times, extremely concerned. A complete understanding of the remedial planand
the remedial program's outcomes helps to relieve the extreme anxiety some
parents feel when their children have reading problems. Some parents of children
with reading difficulties become interested in aiding their children directly in
reading. Parents can do much to help their children with reading, but their efforts
are most valuable when they receive guidance from the remedial readingteacher
and when they enhance and support the remedial program.
Involve the Child

The true focus of every successful remedial plan is the child herself. It is the child,
after all, who has to learn. If the child is not enthusiastic about the plan or does
not believe in it, the efforts of teachers, parents, and others will have littleeffect.
The child should assist as much as possible in formulating the plan; indeed, older
students often have valuable insights into the nature of their reading problems.
At the secondary level, many wise remedial reading teachers have found that
enlisting students' cooperation in planning activities, choosing materials, and
setting goals is a necessary first step in provoking their interest in reading im-
provement. Discussing a child's feelings and attitudes about reading and about
plans for reading improvement is an essential beginning to helping him develop
more positive feelings and attitudes about reading, about learning, and even
about himself. It is important for every one concerned—not least of all the child—
to understand the remedial program, to support it, and to cooperate with it.
Summary
In making an appropriate educational plan of remediation, it is necessary to
identify the specific limitations hindering a child's reading growth. Although
remedial work for each child with reading difficulties must be different in certain
respects, there are some common elements among all corrective programs. All
remedial programs must be designed to meet the child's instructional needs as
shown by the diagnosis, and therefore, there can be no universal approach to all
cases. The remedial program for each child with reading difficulties must be
planned carefully and written down. It is necessary to modify the programfrom
time to time to keep abreast of the child's changing instructional needs. Even
though the program is planned to emphasize overcoming a specific difficulty, a
variety of remedial techniques should be used. The remedial reading teacher will
find manuals and instruction booklets for commercial materials a good source of
teaching techniques.
Remedial reading programs must be individualized and must be designed in
keeping with the child's instructional needs and characteristics. It is necessary to
modify the approaches to reading in order to adjust to limitations such as poor
hearing or poor vision. Remedial instruction should not emphasize one specific
Planning Appropriate Reined iation 159
skill or ability in isolation, but should provide new experiences in whatever skills
are needed in connection with purposeful reading. The length of remedial reading
sessions should be planned so that the child will not become fatigued or inatten-
tive.
Reading instruction for the child with reading difficulties must be well organ-
ized, so that reading improvement can progress smoothly, with no undue burden
on the child, with little chance for overemphasis, and without omission of essen-
tial skills. The teacher should help the child understand the processes that are
involved in being a good reader.
The remedial reading program must encourage the child, since much of his
trouble was probably caused by loss of confidence in his ability to learn. The
teacher should be optimistic, the child's successes should be emphasized, and his
progress should be demonstrated to him. Materials must be geared to the child's
reading abilities and instructional needs. They should be at the appropriate level
of difficulty consist of the proper content, be as near as possible to the child's
interests, and look "mature" to him. Computer materials provide attractive sup-
plements to the remedial program and have great appeal to many children with
reading disabilities. The materials used for remedial instruction must be at a level
of difficulty that the child can deal with and must be so interesting that he will be
motivated to read them. There can be no compromise with the level of difficulty
of the material, because the child will not be interested in reading material he
cannot read, no matber how attractive the subject matter. In all remedial work,
sound teaching procedures should be used, and artificial devices and isolated
drills should be avoided.
Involved professionals, the classroom teacher, the child's parents, and, most
of all, the child himself should have an active part in formulating the individual
plan of remediation.
Study Questions
1. Why must the remedial reading plan be based on more than just an under-
standing of the child's reading needs?
2. Why is it necessary to give a child with reading difficulties successful reading
experiences? How can the teacher help such a child see success?
3. What features would you include in an individual reading program for a
fifth-grade student who tested at a beginning third-grade level on a stand-
ardized test? The student loves sports and outdoor activities. She hates to read.
Her word analysis is extremely poor. She has frequently been embarrassed in
oral reading situations in the classroom. Be sure to consider motivation and
demonstration of progress, as well as levels and kinds of appropriate reading
materials you would initially consider using with this student.
4. Why must a child be prepared for reading in remedial instruction by building
readiness, developing a background, introducing new words, and setting
immediate purposes?
160 Chapter Nine
5. Is one-to-one remedial instruction always best? Why or why not?

6. What are the advantages of involving a child in remedial planning? To what
extent should the child receiving remedial help be involved in such planning?
Selected Readings
York: Longman.
OH: Merrill.
Richek, M. A., List, L K., & Lerner, J. W. (1989). Reading problems: Assessment and teaching
Wilson, It M., & Cleland, C. J. (1985). Diagnostic and remedial reading for classroom and clinic
Chapter 10
Correcting Insufficient
Attention to Meaning in
Word Recognition
Skill in word recognition is fundamental to successful reading at any level. As

children mature in reading, the materials and methods used to teach them gradu-
ally require increasing independence in word recognition. The child who has
failed to establish effective means of identifying and recognizing words for hs
level of advancement is disadvantaged in all other aspects of reading as well.
Current approaches to teaching word recognition are based upon integration
of the nature of reading growth, as analyzed by reading reseanhers, with oral
communication, as described by linguistic researchers. The first-grade reading
studies sponsored by the United States Office of Education gave some insight into
the development of word-recognition skills. The major conclusions reached by
Bond and Dykstra (1967) from their analyses of the combined data compiled from
27 individual studies offer some definitive evidence of the importance of word-
study skills to reading success. They found that, regardless of the approach to
reading instruction used in the first grade, word-recognition skills must be em-
phasized. A 2nd-year follow-up study indicated that this was true for the second
grade as well.
The combined analyses also showed that much of the variation in success in
reading during the first 2 years of reading instruction could be accounted for by
attributes the children brought to the learning situation. Capabilities such as
auditory and visual discrimination and an awareness of books and print prior to
entering first grade were substantially related to success in learning to read,
whatever approach to initial instruction was used.
161
162 Chapter Ten
The joint data from these extensive studies show further that combinations of
methods, including the use of such components as basal readers, phonics and
linguistic training, and child-centered reading activities, are superior to any of
these approaches used alone. The programs that were especially effective in
developing word-recognition skills were not as successful in the comprehension
areas. Conversely, the programs that emphasized meaning needed to be aug-
mented by the addition of training in word recognition.
The studies indicated that initial reading programs should strive for an effec-
tive balance between phonetically regular words, as emphasized by some lin-
guists, and high-utility words, as emphasized in many basal readers. The use of
vocabularies selected largely on the basis of frequency of use or utility alone can
generate word-recognition problems. Conversely, the exclusive use of words
spelled in a phonetically regular way can make meaningful reading difficult.The
analysis also showed that encouraging children to write words as they learned to
read them and to associate words with sounds and meanings was helpful in
developing their word-recognition skills.
How to correct difficulties in the word-perceptual skills, necessary in recogniz-
ing the printed symbols that make up words, will be the concern of the next two
chapters. These skills must be taught so as to encourage a child to attempt rapid
recognition of known or partially familiar words, so that he will be able to
group them into thought units. At the same time, training in word identification
must be given, so that the learner can develop the skill of decoding the printed
forms of words that printed symbols represent when he first sees them in
their written forms. All of these skills are not easily developed, and it is not
surprising that some children run into difficulties before they acquire them. In
fact, most children with severe reading disabilities have weaknesses in the word-
recognition area.
Word study involves two types of goals. The first is expanding the child's
meaning vocabulary and word-recognition techniques so that meanings accom-
pany the identification of the symbols. The child must learn to associate meaning
with printed symbols. The meaning he invests those symbols with must be clear
and precise if he is to comprehend the material he is reading. I-fe must also be able
to select, among all the meanings of a word, the one that is correct for the
particular context in which the word is used. For example, the word run, which
is one of the first words many children learn to read, has 56 different definitions,
even in a dictionary used in the elementary grades. The child must learn to use
context as he recognizes the printed symbols, to help him select the correct
meaning. For instance, the meaning of run can be derived from the context in the
statements, "He was tired after the long run" and "All will turn out well in the
long run." Often, however, the sentence alone will not give the meaning of a
word; only the sense of the passage it is embedded in will. Thus, the precise
meaning of run cannot be obtained from the sentence, "She was out of breathafter
she made the run." In order to understand the word run here, the reader must
know not only that the girl was playing baseball, but also that she scored rather
Correcting Insufficient Attention to Meaning 163
than chased a fly ball. The development of the skill of recognizing meanings of
words will be discussed in detail in Chapter 14; but it is important to teach
word-recognition techniques in such a way that words are recognized rapidly and
the proper meanings are associated with them.
The second goal of instruction in word study is the development of compe-
tencies that enable the child to recognize words he already knows and to identify
new words with speed and understanding. Word identification and word recognition
are closely related features of word perception. The child's first contact with a
new word calls for identification of the printed symbol in terms of its sound and
meaning. Subsequent contacts develop recognition of the word. In this text, the
development of word recognition implies identification as the first step in the
process. Until a printed symbol is grasped at a glance—until it has become what
we term a sight word—recognition requires some degree of identification. Instruc-
tion in word recognition is designed to enable the child to perform three interre-
lated tasks. First, the child must be able to recognize known words rapidly, with
a minimum of analysis. For example, if he knows the word think as a sight word,
he should not analyze it into th-ink, pronouncing each part and then blending it
into the word think. Indeed, to do so repeatedly would be detrimental to his
reading. There are children who have difficulty reading for just this reason.
Second, the child should be skilled in recognizing partially known words with
little analysis. Thus, if the child knows the word think, he should be adept at
identifying it in all of its variant forms. Applying syntactic skills, he should need
but a glance at the word to enable him to recognize and know the meanings of
think, thinks, thinking, and, as he gains maturity, unthinkable. In such words, the
child should learn to identify the root word, recognize the modified form rapidly,
and understand the changed meaning. Third, the child must develop adaptable
approaches that enable him to identify new words by himself. As he matures th
reading, he must be able not only to pronounce new words, but also be so skilled
that he can recognize them silently, without interrupting the thought of the
passage he is reading.
Instruction in word identification is complex. It is understandable why read-
ing instruction has progressed through a series of methods, from a spelling
approach to a whole-word approach, to systems that emphasize phonics, to an
emphasis on sentence or context, to the cuirent combined approach using
contextual, whole-word, phonics, and structural analysis as aids to word identi-
fication. The major problem in the combined approach is teaching the various
procedures needed in such a manner that none will be omitted or over- or
underemphasized and that the more analytical and time-consuming aids to rec-
ognition will be used only when needed. To teach the child the word-recognition
techniques necessary for her to recognize known words and to identify the new
ones visually or by the use of phonics, at least five sorts of balance must be
maintained.
First, a balance between the establishment of word-recognition techniques and
the development of meaning vocabulary is desirable for reading growth. If there is
164 Chapter Ten
too much isolated drill on word parts, the child may become a capable word
caller, but she may not understand what she is reading. The child may be able to
make a fairly accurate attempt at pronouncing new words, but unless what she
pronounces is associated with meaning, the results of reading will be unsatisfac-
tory. Even when a child's early reading deals with very common words, the
teacher who neglects to introduce the words in context may encourage an over-
emphasis on analytical techniques at the expense of word meaning. Conversely,
the teacher who neglects to teach identification skills may cause the child to make
disorganized attempts at pronouncing words, saying any word that comes to
mind, or may make the child too dependent on him for answers. In sum, word-
recognition skills must be taught and learned as part of a coordinated reading
program.
Second, a balance between the acquisition of a sight vocabulary—words the
child knows at a glance—and the establishment of word recognition is essential.
The child must learn to recognize, at sight, an ever-increasing number of words,
because it is on these that her fluency as a reader depends. These words also
provide much of her ability to derive meaning from printed matter. If the child is
led to place too much emphasis on either one of these skills at the expense of the
other, the results will be unsatisfactory. The teacher may place so much emphasis
upon building a sight vocabulary, that the child fails to establish the needed
word-recognition techniques. Such a child may seem to progress well at the start,
but she will soon experience reading difficulties. She will lack independence,
since she will be unable to identify new words by herself. On the other hand, a
reading program that stresses word-recognition skills and neglects to build a sight
vocabulary encourages the child to become a slow, laborious, and overanalytical
reader. The child needs to build both an ever-increasing sight vocabulary and an
increasingly diversified array of word-recognition techniques. If she underuses
one in favor of the other, she will encounter reading problems (Vellutino &
Scanlon, 1986). This is one of the most difficult balances to achieve. As a result,
there are many children who proceed to use analysis on words that they really
know at sight, and there are other children who are at a loss to work out the
pronunciation of new words independently because they are weak at word iden-
tification.
Third, there must be a balance between the meaning clues and the analytical
aids to word recognition. The child who depends too much on meaning clues to
recognize words will make many errors that have little relationship to the appear-
ance of the word she miscalls. These errors involve substituting words that make
sense although they are not the words of the author, nor do they evoke his
meaning. For example, a child might read the sentence "The ship sailed overthe
equator" as "The ship sailed over the seas." Such a reader is often inaccurateand
becomes confused in comprehension. On the other hand, the child who depends
too much upon analytical aids to the exclusion of meaning makes errors that often
reflect reasonable letter-sound associations, but do not make any real sense in
what is read. For example, the sentence "The Scottish girl's dress was plaid"
might be read "The Scottish girl's dress was played." In either case, little or no
understanding results. The child must develop both abilities, and when she has
done so, she can use them to reinforce one another. If she lacks the analytical
techniques, she is handicapped because exact recognition is often impossible from
context alone. If she depends too much upon word analysis, she will be unable to
use context to speed her recognition of words and to check the accuracy of her
recognition through the sense it makes.
Fourth, a balance between phonic and structural techniques must be main-
tained. If the teacher places too much emphasis on phonics training, the child may
fail to develop the ability to use larger structural elements in recognizing words.
The result may be an element-by-element, sound-blending approach, which is
ineffective as a major means of word recognition. Too much of an emphasis on
phonics may teach the child to separate words to such an extent that synthesizing
or blending sounds into one word becomes impossible. But if, by contrast, the
emphasis on larger structural and visual elements is too great, the child's skill in
using smaller elements or letter sounds may not be sufficiently developed for her
to recognize certain words, such as unusual names, that require sounding. Many
children with reading difficulties have failed to establish this balance and hence
have become either overanalytical or have not attained sufficient knowledge of
phonics.
Fifth, there must be a balance between the emphasis placed on knowledge of
word parts and that placed on the orderly inspection of words along the line of print,
from left to right and from the beginning of the word to the end. If too much stress
is placed, for example, on word families, such as the at family in cat, sat, fat, and
hat, the child may neglect the beginning elements of words and thus make an
unreasonable number of errors in them. Another child overusing this techniq4e
may develop reversal problems because she has the habit of looking at the end of
words to pick up her clues to recognizing them. When a child makes an excessive
number of errors in any specific location within words, it usually indicates that,
in her case, knowledge of word parts has been emphasized at the expense of
orderly inspection from the beginning to the end of a word. And as regards the
latter, another balance is required: The child must develop flexibility in her visual
analysis of the word she is trying to recognize. For example, suppose the word is
frighten, and the child selects fri as the first element she recognizes. Then, unless
she rejects this result of her analysis rather quickly, she will be unable to work out
the rest of the word, because ght will not be helpful to her. She may try to sound
each letter, g—h—t, and then get into marked confusion. A child who was more
flexible in the visual analysis of words would reject the first separation of the
word and break it into more suitable parts, such as fr—ight——en. Then, applying
her knowledge of the elements, she would be able to pronounce the word with
little difficulty.
Word recognition is much more complex than is assumed in programs em-
phasizing a single set of skills or in instruction placing the child in a stimulating
reading environment and expecting her to discover all the needed skills and to
166 Chapter Ten
maintain the balances among them. Word recognition entails the use of too many
interrelated learned skills to allow the program to be narrow or incidental.
The major source of a child's difficulty in recognizing words is usually the
child's failure to establish one or more of these basic skills or in her overdepen-
dence on any of them. Word-recognition problems are often found to be at the
root of the difficulty those readers have who fall into the categories of having a
limiting and complex reading disability. The more prevalent meaning-clue disabili-
ties are failure to associate meaning with printed symbols, having an insufficient
sight vocabulary and failure to use meaning clues. Each will be discussed next,
along with methods of correction that have been found helpful.
Failure to Associate Meaning with Printed Symbols

The goal of word recognition is to enable the child to identify words and associate
the correct meanings with them. Often, however, word-recognition programs
emphasize oral word study and pronunciation so strongly that the child fails to
establish the habit, or to sense the importance, of understanding the meaning of
printed symbols. When reading, the child may give fairly close approximations
to the pronunciation of the words he studies, but he may not have identified the
word as one he knows in his listening or speaking vocabulary. Sometimes, the
teacher can detect a mispronunciation or an insecurity that indicates that the
word was almost, but not quite, recognized. At other times, it is necessary to ask
the child what the word means in order to detect whether he is having this basic
difficulty Of course, a relatively low level of performance by a child on oral
vocabulary or meaning vocabulary tests, in the presence of a higher score on tests
of word-recognition techniques, such as knowledge of word elements and visual
analysis of words, indicates this type of difficulty.
To correct the deficiency, remedial work should emphasize the basic compre-
hension abilities and reading for meaning that will be described in Chapter 14. In
all word-recognition exercises, the meanings of the words should be emphasized.
Drills on isolated word elements should be rejected for children with this diffi-
culty. Whenever possible, word-identification exercises should be in contextual
settings, so that there is the need to recognize not only the word, but also its
meaning, to complete the tasks successfully.
In reading for content or entertainment, there are methods that help the child
develop the habit and ability of associating meanings with word symbols. For
example, the child may be requested to draw illustrations for a story he is read-
ing—even stick-figure drawings will do. To comply with the request, it is neces-
sary for him to attend to the meaning of descriptive words. If the child is expected
to retell a story in his own words, rather than just to repeat the words in the book,
he will learn to interpret the meaning of the word symbols. Any comprehension
exercise that requires the child to paraphrase and not merely repeat words en-
courages the association of meaning with the words read.
Besides emphasizing word meanings whenever he is reading, the child must

be encouraged to develop his word-recognition techniques if he is to associate
precise ideas with the printed symbols. The child who needs to strengthen this
ability may profit from exercises of the following types:
1. Exercises to develop clear sensory impressions.
a. What did you hear:
when a stone hit the water?
splash crack
b. An animal with stripes on it is a (an):
elephant horse zebra
c. Match the words with the phrase that tells the same thing. Put the number
of the word before the phrase.
1. lagged flowed with force
2. gushed moved slowly
3. gurgled made a noise as it flowed
4. rushed ______ moved rapidly along
d. Put J before each word that would tell about a jolly person.
merry laughing joyful
beaming bitter dreary
2. Exercises to develop precise meanings.
a. In each line, find two words that have an opposite meaning.
good tired sad bad
right bad wrong trouble
wet dry damp moist
b. Find the words that have a similar meaning.
glow bright shine spark
rushed walked ran hurried
replied said answered wrote
c. Complete the sentence with the best word from those listed after the sen-
tence.
When the boy saw the people far away, he _____ to them.
said shouted whispered muttered.
3. Exercises to develop extensiveness of meaning.
a. Tell the difference in the meaning of roll in the following sentences.
(1) We ate a roll for lunch.
(2) We watched the big waves roll along the beach.
168 Chapter Ten
(3) Get a roll of paper.

(4) Please rollthe ball to Jim.
(5) The dog could roll over.
(6) The teacher called the rolL
(7) We could see the roll of the hills.
(8) We could hear the roll of the drums.
b. Put the number of the right definition in front of each sentence.
trunk (1) The main stem of a tree ______ He picked up the
peanut with his trunk.
(2) A box used to carry clothes ______ The trunk of the
oak was rough.
(3) Part of an elephant He put the trunk
on the train.
Semantic mapping allows children to learn the meanings of words through

observing relationships between the words. In an application suggested by Helm-
lich and Pittelman (1986) for sixth-grade poor readers, semantic mapping is used
in pre- and postreading activities surrounding a story about rattlesnakes. Fig-
ure 10—1 shows a semantic map developed by the group of poor readers concern-
ing rattlesnakes.
Computer programs such as Tiger's Tales (Hermann, 1987) feature the presen-
tation of new words in association with pictures. When the child matches a word
to a picture correctly, he is rewarded with a short animated sequence. If the child
matches the two incorrectly, the wrong words are crossed out and disappear,
leaving only the correct word and picture. Provisions are included in the program
to ensure ample review. Interactive, child-determined stories emphasize the
meanings of the words in a contextual setting.
Further suggestions, which will be made in Chapter 14, aid in building the
habit of attending to word meanings and also develop skill in associating
meaning with word symbols. Many times, a child makes a close approximation
to a word by the use of phonics and other word-recognition techniques, but
unless he keeps the context in mind, the word remains unidentified. In addition
to other means, the promotion of extensive reading wherein the child attends to
the expressive use of words will help him associate meaning with printed sym-
bols.
When children listen carefully to their teacher's expressive reading of a well-
written story they learn to associate meaning with print. When they engage in
creative writing, they associate their own words with printed symbols. Expressive
writing, illustrating stories, dramatizing stories, creating puppet shows, and
other such activities emphasize the meaning carried by words. Since, in order to
read, children must derive meaning from printed symbols, all word-recognition
activities should demand not only the identification of words, but also an under-
standing of their meanings.
FIGURE 10—1 Group Map for Rattlesnakes

Source: From Semantic Mapping: Classmain Applications by Joan E. Heinilich and Susan D. Fittelman,
eds., 1986, p. 28. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Reprinted with permission of Joan.
E. Heimlich and the International Reading Association.
Insufficient Sight Vocabulary _______________________________

The importance of forming the habit of recognizing known words rapidly, rather
than studying each word encountered as though it never had been seen before,
cannot be emphasized too strongly. The child who fails to build a large sight
vocabulary and who does not have the habit of recognizing these words at a
glance cannot hope to become an able reader. Not only will she be limited in her
ability to group words into thought units, necessary for comprehension and
fluency, but also, she will be seriously handicapped in identifying new words.
This latter limitation comes about in two ways. First, the child will be unable to
use contextual clues effectively, because her vocabulary load of unknown words
will be too great. Second, she will be inefficient in the more mature methods of
word study. Words affixed with prefixes, for example, will be difficult for her to
recognize because she does not know the root word, since it is not in her sight
vocabulary. Compound words will also present her with a tough problem, since
she has not developed the habit of sight recognition of the two smaller words
170 Chapter Ten
from which the compound word is made. The child who does not have a substan-
tial sight vocabulary and who does not recognize words automatically and rap-
idly will find learning to read a bewildering undertaking. For these reasons, it is
beneficial to build the sight vocabulary from the start.
Children who rely too completely on working out words analytically may fail
to acquire a sufficient sight vocabulary. In the early grades, the teacher may find
it difficult to detect that these children are not acquiring a sufficient sight vocabu-
lary. Eventually, however, persistence in analysis of too many words will prove
detrimental to their reading growth. Detailed study of so many irords will have
to be rejected and a sight vocabulary built, or severe disability will occur.
With other children, a limited sight vocabulary is easily detected. They may
be word-by-word readers, making phonetic errors with words they should know
at sight, or they may fail to phrase well in what they read orally. Another indica-
tion is the tendency for the child to make about an equal number of errors,
regardless of the difficulty of the material she is reading. If a child, for example,
makes about the same percentage of errors in reading material at a second-grade
level as she makes in material at a fourth-grade level, she is likely to be limited in
her development of a sight vocabulary. If she tends to make more mistakes on
small, common words than she does on polysyllabic words, she is probably
limited in her sight vocabulary.
The teacher can easily measure sight vocabulary by rapid-exposure tech-
niques. For example, she can quickly flash words printed on cards. The child who
cannot automatically and rapidly identify common words at a glance has failed
to develop a sufficient sight vocabulary. When reading from flash cards, if the
child makes a considerably greater number of errors than she does when looking
at the same words for an unlimited time, she can be assumed to have an insuff i-
cient sight vocabulary These indications of a limited ability in recognizing words
at a glance mandate remedial work in building a larger sight vocabulary
Remedial training for increasing the sight vocabulary of a child with a read-
ing disability is done best by using material that is somewhat easy for the child to
read. Tasks that require rapid reading to locate a specific statement or to under-
stand the general significance of a passage should be emphasized for a child who
is trying to increase her sight vocabulary. She should be given tasks that require
new words to be read as whole words, and tasks that require words to be
analyzed should be avoided. Extended practice reading easy material is desirable,
so that automatic and rapid recognition of words is encouraged (Samuels, 1988).
In addition, the following types of exercises have proven effective as addi-
tional reinforcement of the habit of reading words at a glance. These exercises use
the basic vocabulary that is being developed and emphasize meaning, categori-
zation, and classification:
1. Exercises in which the word is so much expected that recognition is rapid.

In winter, there is ______
snow house well
2. Exercises in which a child finds the correct word in a list on the chalkboard as
the teacher gives the clue.
Find the word in this list that tells us where we:
Clue Words
buy food farm
go swimming table
find cows store
eat dinner beach
3. Exercises that require meaningful scanning of a list. See how fast you can
draw a line under all the things that can run.
horse house girl pig
tree dog road man
cat boy store window
4. Various word games that call for immediate responses and require sight
recognition of words and their meanings.
a. Cards with names of animals printed on them can be used. Two children
can play together. One child can flash the cards, and the other can re-
spond. Words such as the following can be used:
chicken elephant bird goose
dog duck pony donkey
horse goat wren fish
One child may tell the name of an animal with four feet as the cards ar
flashed. Then the other may tell which can fly.
b. Another set of cards could be made of verbs, and the child could tell which
words on the cards indicate movement. The types of words that might be
used are:
afraid listen march walk
jump roll sleep feel
think skip ride guess
flew know slide was
c. A fish-pond game is played in which words are attached to paper clips and
the child uses a pole with a magnet on the end of the line. If the child can
read at a glance the word that she fishes out of the pond, it is caught. If she
has to study the word, that "fish" gets away, but she may be able to catch
it another time. Any words that caused the child trouble in her reader could
be used in this game, as well as other words that she knows well.
d. A game similar to Authors can be played with words. The words are
grouped in sets of four similar things, such as clothes, animals, trees, time,
food, toys, people, and colors. Four children may play together. Each child
172 Chapter Ten
gets eight cards, and the remaining cards are place in a pile in the center.
The children take turns drawing one card from the center pile and then
discarding one. The child who gets two complete sets of four similar words
first wins the game. The set of word cards for this game might be these:
Clothes Animals TreesTime

coat lion oak afternoon
hat elephant maple spring
shoe donkey fir tomorrow
dress horse willow morning
Food Toys People Colors

bread doll aunt yellow
pudding wagon father green
peanuts football uncle blue
carrots balloon mother brown
Furniture Flowers Places Meals

chair rose farm breakfast
table tulip beach dinner
bed daisy city lunch
desk poppy zoo supper
e. Many other games, such as Wordo (like Bingo), Old Maid, Spin the Wheel,
Climb the Ladder, Dominoes with words, and Grab Bag, can be played. All
of the preceding exercises and activities can be developed using phrases,
too.
5. One of the best exercises involves the rapid recognition of groups of high-utility
words. These words are typed on flash cards and are presented rapidly.
a. Directions. The child demonstrates understanding through action.
jump up point to me
sit down open the book
come here look at the door
raise your hand go to the window
b. Classification. The child demonstrates recognition by indicating whether the
words tell about something one would find in a home or at a zoo.
table and chairs barking seal
lion and tiger iron cage
set of dishes baby elephant
pretty picture pots and pans
big red rug little brown monkey
Computer programs, such as Trickster Coyote (Prentice Associates, 1986), pro-

vide practice in reading words quickly and matching them with definitions.
Presented in an exciting game format, this program can be played by up to four
players. Students are given an opportunity to study any words they miss. Teach-
ers may reprogram the game to include any words they choose. As is true for
many computer games, some students will require assistance from the teacher in
learning how to play the game at the onset.
Any exercises or activities used in building a child's sight vocabulary should
encourage the child to inspect the words rapidly, rather than resort to a detailed
study of them. The words should be presented in contexts that require under-
standing of their meanings.
The child should be reading material that introduces new words gradually
and repeats them at well-spaced intervals. If the child is motivated to read a
selection, if the new words are introduced before the selection is read, and if the
purposes require rapid reading, the child should be able to increase her sight
vocabulary. When this instruction is reinforced with exercises like those pre-
viously described using the words being emphasized, the gains should be even
greater. In all reading and drill, recognizing the meaning of the words should be
required. What the child with an insufficient sight vocabulary needs is experience
in recognizing the word and its meaning at a glance.
Failure to Use Meaning Clues

Meaning clues are among the most powerful aids to recognizing words. The
effective adult reader uses these clues in all of his word identification and recog-
nition. Meaning clues enable the reader to anticipate new or unfamiliar words
before he actually sees them. No matter what other aids to recognition are used,
the proficient reader invariably uses some form of meaning clue to assist him.
Either he may predict words he might expect from prior knowledge of a given
topic, or he may use context to gain the meaning of a passage (semantic clues) or
sense the structure of a sentence (syntactic clues).
We agree with Goodman (1973) that word recognition is, in a sense, "a
psycholinguistic guessing game." In recognizing words, the child anticipates
them through prior knowledge and contextual clues. He then applies word-rec-
ognition skills, such as perceptual skills, for instant recognition or decoding skills
for more intensive identification if necessary Simultaneously, he checks the con-
tent. He sometimes resorts to rereading if he doubts his accuracy or if his guess
does not gibe with the content immediately following.
Many children with reading disabilities do not use meaning clues effectively, and
as a consequence, they are inept in recognizing words. The failure to use meaning
clues precludes the acquisition of such mature reading skills as grouping words into
thought units. It also limits the development of accuracy in using the other word-
recognition techniques. The ineffective use of meaning clues forces the child to analyze
carefully many words that should be identified with a minimum of inspection.
174 Chapter Ten
Meaning clues can be divided into two types. The first is prior knowledge,
which enables the student to anticipate the sorts of words and concepts that he is
likely to encounter when reading about a given topic. If, for example, a mature
reader is reading about soil conservation, he might expect to meet such words as
erosion, soil depletion, levee, irrigation, crop rotation, and drainage. This anticipation
would make recognition or identification of these words more rapid than if they
appeared unexpectedly in prose on some other subject. The second type of mean-
ing clue is the contextual clue. The use of contextual clues is a rapid recognition
technique in which a word or phrase is so completely anticipated from the
meaning of the sentence or paragraph, that the merest flick of a glance is all that
is needed to confirm that it is that expected word or phrase. Even if the word is
unfamiliar, the context plus a minimum of inspection are all that is needed for its
identification.
Weakness in Use of Prior Knowledge

The child who does not anticipate words that she is likely to meet when reading
about a specific topic or within a specific field is to some degree handicapped in
recognizing words. There are many children, and even some adult readers, who
fail to use their knowledge of a subject to aid them in identifying and recognizing
words. Many adult readers, for example, skip a graphic presentation of facts
discussed in the accompanying text when a brief study of the table, chart, or
graph would enable them to anticipate the content of and the words within the
passage. The reader who uses pictorial aids effectively becomes a more fluent
reader and understands a passage better, partly because she is prepared for the
words in the passage. She can identify them with ease and devote herself to the
meaning of what is read, rather than to the mere recognition of words. For the
younger reader, picture clues operate in much the same way. A well-illustrated
book builds prior knowledge, which helps a child succeed with the text. The
child, however, must be taught to use such pictures effectively. Many reading
materials use pictures as a means of building the habit of anticipating words and
concepts. There is, however, a possible danger in overusing pictures. If the pic-
tures tell too much of the story or if all of the concepts in the text are illustrated,
there is little for the child to discover by reading. The preparatory activities
preceding reading about a topic, which include planning, developing a back-
ground, and introducing new words, are a form of building prior knowledge for
the youngsters. These activities are necessary in both the general classroom and
the resource room. Teaching that neglects such essentials of reading instruction
predisposes the child to be weak in using the prior knowledge she has and in
gaining the prior knowledge she needs.
Lack of or ineffective use of prior knowledge in word recognition can be
detected by noting whether a child has unusual difficulty recognizing words
related specifically to a topic. If, for example, the child is asked to tell what
words might be used, in a story about a rabbit, and if she did not mention some
such words as jump, carrot, run, hop, long ears, cottontail, and burrow, she probably
lacks prior knowledge. If she has such knowledge, but does not use it to recognize
these words, then she is ineffective in applying her knowledge to word recogni-
tion.
The approach to remediation for this child would be, for the most part, to
place a greater emphasis on preparing the child for reading about a topic.
Preteaching essential vocabulary and concepts should be stressed. A discussion of
pictures that are germane to the topic and the development of semantic maps
would be advantageous. During reading, the child could be reminded to use her
knowledge; the pictures should be reviewed and the semantic maps expanded.
Failure to Use Contextual Clues

The child who has failed to develop the ability to use contextual clues as an aid
to word recognition is missing an essential means of recognizing words. The use
of context is a rapid technique that enables the reader to identify a word immedi-
ately. For example, in the sentence, "The man put his hat on his ," it is not
difficult for the child to know the missing word from the context. In effect, the
context narrows the number of choices dramatically from the 800,000 words that
would be possible if context were irrelevant. In addition, the use of contextual
clues makes the selection of the correct meaning of the word possible. Thus, in the
sentence cited, the meaning of the word head could not have been that of head in
the head of a stream or in a head of steam.
The reader who uses context is more likely to recognize a new word correctly
than if he did not use context. Often, he can make an approximation of the
pronunciation of a word from his analytical techniques. Contextual clues then
enable him to identify the word completely. Such clues usually work in combina-
tion with other word-recognition techniques. The use of context clues makes
analysis much more rapid and accurate.
An equally, if not more, important use of contextual clues is to check on the
application of all the other recognition techniques. Just as in subtraction it pays
to add afterward to check the answer, so in reading it pays to check the meaning
of the sentence to see whether a problem in word recognition has been solved
correctly. When the child has figured out a word, he must be aware of whether it
makes sense in the context in which it is found. If it does, he has probably found
the correct solution. If it does not, he should reinspect the word, because, un-
doubtedly, he has made a mistake. Without at least a fair degree of skill in the use
of contextual clues, the child will be slow and inaccurate in recognizing words.
With this skill, he can be a good reader if he also has other well-developed
word-recognition techniques. Similarly, a child who depends on contextual clues
alone also will be inaccurate in recognizing words. It is important to know that
many children who are thought to have difficulty reading because of limited
analytical skills or because they have insufficient knowledge of phonic, structural,
or visual elements are really having difficulty because they are not using contex-
tual clues well.
The child who is limited in the use of contextual clues is spotted easily. If he
makes as many errors reading words in context as he does reading a list of words,
then he is not making sufficient use of the meaning of sentences or paragraphs as
176 Chapter Ten
an aid to recognition. If the child's errors do not fit the meaning of the text and
are senseless, he is not using contextual clues. For example, if the child reads the
word cat as sat in the sentence "The dog ran after the cat," he is not using context,
because sat makes no sense at all. If, however, he reads cat as car, he is probably
using context, because car does make sense.
Remedial training in the use of contextual clues involves having the child
read materials at a level of difficulty in which he encounters about 1 new word
in every 40 running words. He should be reading for purposes that demand
a thorough understanding of the content. If his problem is severe, a separate
and immediate purpose for each paragraph, or even each sentence, should
be stated. This emphasizes reading for meaning and enables the child to recognize
known words at a glance and use contextual clues in combination with other
techniques in the identification of unfamiliar words. The teacher may need toask
the child from time to time what he thinks the word might be. Or, more generally,
she might ask, "Does that make sense?" On occasion, the child may use the
context plus the initial sound to help him identify or recognize a difficult word.
In addition to the preceding suggestions, the following more formal exercises
encourage the child to use contextual clues:
1. Exercises in which the meaning of the sentence indicates the word to be

recognized.
a. The boys rode over the snow on it. What was it?
boat store sled
b. Mother put a candle on the cake for Bob's ______
football birthday bedroom
2. Exercises in which the child reads a paragraph and fills in the missing words,
using the initial elements given. He does not need to write them, but reads the
sentences to himself. Comprehension questions can be asked.
Billy caught the ball.
Then he th______ the ball to his father.
Father c______ the ball, too.
Billy and his father were p1 catch.
A dog came to play.
Hej up and got the ball.
Then he ran a with it.
3. Exercises in which the context plus initial elements are used as aids to word
recognition.
a. We will get some apples at the St_____
store steep farm
b. The car went down the str______
strong road street
4. Riddles in which the context gives the answer.

It lives in a zoo.
It hops about.
It carries a baby in its pouch.
It is a(n)
elephant crocodile kangaroo
5. Closure-type exercises using syntax clues and initial-element clues.
a. They went sw_____ at the beach.
b. Tom I candy.
c. Mary likes h_____ new doll.
d. The boys w_____ to play, but they d______ not have a ball.
6. Pure doze exercises in which the student must fill in the blank from the
meaning of a sentence or paragraph.
Mary and John went to the ______ to buy some candy.
On their way home, they meet their ______ Tom.
Tom was riding his bicycle.
In this type of exercise, it is imperative that the reading be at an easy level for
the student. For this use of the doze technique, any word that fits the meaning
and the structure of the sentence will do.
7. Deletions of nonsensical additions. Exercises in which the child reads a para-
graph and deletes the words that do not belong because they do not make sense.
Mary and John went dog to the store to barn buy some candy. On their zoo
way home, they met their friend Tom. Tom was kangaroo riding his new
bicycle.
Case Study of a Primary Grade Student Who Had

Difficulty Relating Meaning to Printed Symbols
Steven, a third-grade student, was referred to the school reading center by his
classroom teacher toward the middle of the school year. The teacher was con-
cerned because he did not seem to understand what he read, he did not partici-
pate in class discussions relating to materials read, and, although his oral reading
was accurate in terms of word pronunciation, his phrasing was poor and he
ignored punctuation.
School History. Steven had attended the same school all of his primary school
years. He had no record of previous academic problems in school, and he had not
previously received special help in reading.
School Behavior. During his third-grade year, Steven became increasingly reti-
cent about participating in classroom discussion and activities. He had difficulty
178 Chapter Ten
completing independent work. However, when his classroom teacher worked

individually with Steven, he paid attention to what was expected and tried hard.
Abilities. According to the Wecbsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised,
Steven's inability to learn was low average, with a full-scale LQ. of 90. His
performance I.Q. was 96 and his verbal I.Q. was 85. This would place his reading
expectancy at the 3.3 level, based on his full-scale I.Q.
Reading Achievement Testing. In the fall of Steven's third-grade year, he was
given the Metropolitan Achievement Test along with the rest of the third grade.
His grade scores and percentile ranks in reading and spelling were as follows:
Name of Subtest Grade Equivalent Percentile Rank
Word Knowledge 2.7 36
Word Analysis 3.2 56
Reading Comprehension 2.7 34
(Total Reading) (2.7) (36)
3.0 44
Spelling
In order to determine the exact nature and severity of Steven's reading prob-
lem, the reading center diagnostician administered the Woodcock Reading Mas-
tery Tests, Revised. Steven's scores on these tests were asfollows:
Grade Percentile Standard
Name of Subtest Equivalent Rank Score
Word Identification 3.7 52 101
Word Attack 4.2 56 102
Basic Skills 3.8 57 103
Word Comprehension 1.9 3 72
Passage Comprehension 2.6 14 84
Comprehension Skill 2.2 6 77
Total Reading 2.9 20 90
Steven was also given the Diagnostic Reading Scales. On the Word Recogni-
tion subtest, he achieved at a satisfactory level for his grade. His pronunciations
were phonetically very close to the correct word (e.g., "triumpant" for "trium-
phant" and "standidize" for "standardize"). During oral reading, he pronounced
most words correctly, but often accented the wrong syllable of multisyllabic
words, and he failed to note punctuation. Errors in comprehension indicated poor
understanding of what he read. His comprehension of silent reading was poor,
and his reading rate was slow. His reading potential, as measured by listening to
selections read aloud to him and answering questions about them, was satisfac-
tory for his grade level.
Observation of Behavior. Steven was cooperative during individual testing. His
responses were slow and careful; he spoke with a soft voice and put his head on the
desk at times. He often complained that the tests were too long and that he was tired.
Interpretation of Test Results. Steven is a third-grade child of low average

ability to learn. General, specific, and child-study diagnostic testing revealed that
he was making adequate general progress in reading at his grade level. However,
all measures suggested that his word-identification skills surpassed his word-
knowledge and comprehension skills. His performance indicated that he had
difficulty working flexibly with word meanings. Case study testing revealed that
he had great difficulty understanding the meaning of selections he read aloud and
greater difficulty with selections he read silently. However, when listening, Steven
was able to understand material at a reasonable level of difficulty for a third-
grade child.
Informal testing was conducted during which Steven pronounced diffi-
cult words and told what they meant and then listened to the diagnostician
pronounce them and then told what they meant. Although Steven's ability to
pronounce the words was good (18/20), his ability to define words or use
them in a sentence was much poorer (12/20). After hearing the diagnostician
pronounce the words, Steven was able to define or use 16 of the 20 words
correctly.
In the child-study meeting, it was decided that although Steven's progress in
reading was generally satisfactory for his grade level and mental ability, he was
having a specific problem associating meaning with printed words. Word pro-
nunciation was a strength for Steven, and his ability to associate meaning with
spoken words was satisfactory. It was decided that he should have small-group
work with the reading specialist for a limited amount of time for direct assistance
with his problem. Difficulties with nonparticipation, incomplete assignments,
and fatigue were judged to be a result of his specific reading problems, not a
cause.
It is also useful, in considering remediation for Steven, to answer the diagnos-
tic questions posed in Chapter 7.
1. Is Steven correctly classified as a child with a reading disability? Steven is an

example of a child with a limiting reading disability. Although his word-pro-
nunciation skills are satisfactorily advanced for his grade placement, he has
unusual difficulty associating printed words with their meanings.
2. What is the nature of the training needed? The remedial plan for Steven included
(1) a variety of highly interesting children's books on a wide range of topics;
(2) specific vocabulary development drills; (3) oral reading of plays, poems,
and exercises designed for expressive reading; (4) tape recordings of oral
reading so that he could monitor his expression and note his progress;
(5) games used to stress multiple word meanings and precise word meanings;
and (6) developing a word bank of words he wanted to save from his favorite
stories. Since Steven's remedial work took place in a small-group setting,
many of his oral reading activities and word-meaning games were partici-
pated in by the entire group.
3. Who can give the remedial work most effectively? Steven received 3 months of
small-group instruction on a daily basis. Although he could have received
corrective instruction in his classroom, it was felt that it was best to give him
180 Chapter Ten
remedial instruction for a limited time in the reading center because of his
reticence to speak. In the reading center, he would be able to use techniques
involving a great deal of oral reading and taping. At the beginning of the
fourth-grade year, Steven returned to the regular classroom on a full-time
basis.
4. How can improvement be made most efficiently? Since oral reading and listening
were relative strengths for Steven, they were emphasized in developing asso-
ciations between printed words and meanings. Enjoyable activities were cho-
sen for Steven; the reading selections were often humorous. Not only formal
methods, but also less structured group activities, were used, which seemed
to help Steven express himself more freely.
5. Does the child have any limiting conditions that must be considered? In the regular
classroom, Steven had given little evidence of interest or desire to participate
in class activities. Although he worked hard on assignments given by his
teacher, he had difficulty completing them and rarely joined spontaneously
with the other children in less structured activities. In a small-group situation,
with much adult encouragement and materials handpicked to delight him,
Steven developed the need to know what the words meant and responded
with increasing enthusiasm.
6. Are there any environmental conditions that might interfere with the child's progress
in reading? Both Steven's parents and the classroom teacher supported his
reading program entirely.
Results. In the beginning of the fourth-grade year, Steven returned full time to
the regular classroom. He seemed enthusiastic and confident in the classroom and
appeared to understand what he read. When group standardized tests were
administered during his fourth-grade year, gains in comprehension of both words
and passages were evident.
Summary
It is important for all readers to develop skills in word recognition. Word study
involves two major goals: (1) to develop a word-meaning vocabulary and word-
recognition techniques in such a way that the identification of symbols is accom-
panied by meaning and (2) to develop flexibility in applying word-recognition
techniques. It is necessary to maintain five balances among such techniques:
(1) balance between the formation of word-recognition skills and the acquisition
of meaning vocabulary; (2) balance between the development of word-recogni-
tion skills and that of sight vocabulary; (3) balance between the development of
meaning clues in word recognition and the use of word analysis; (4) balance
between the use of phonic techniques and the use of structural techniques; and
(5) balance in emphasis between knowledge of word parts and the orderly, left-
to-right inspection of words.
Meaning clues are helpful to word recognition in three ways. First, they
enable the reader to anticipate the words he is to read. This makes recognition of
known words rapid and accurate and allows the reader to work out the identifi-
cation of unfamiliar words with a minimum of study. Second, meaning clues are
essential in checking the accuracy of recognition of words. If the word recognized
does not make sense, the reader should study further the word missed. Third, the
application of other word-recognition techniques frequently gives the child an
approximation of the word; and then the meaning clues enable him to recognize
the word correctly.
Certain reading behaviors suggest a child's failure to associate meaning with
printed symbols, an insufficient sight vocabulary or an ineffective use of meaning
clues. Various techniques and exercises aid the child in overcoming each type of
problem.
Study Questions
1. Why is the development of reading skills alone not enough for a child who is
being taught to read? Why must a reasonable balance of skills be maintained?
2. What clues should alert a teacher that a child is not associating meaning (or
correct meaning) with the words read?
3. List three characteristics of good exercises, games, or activities designed to
increase sight recognition of common words.
4. What should be done to assist a youngster who has little or no prior knowl-
edge of a general topic to be covered in a reading selection?
5. Why is the successful use of contextual clues considered more essential than
some of the other word-recognition skills?
Selected Readings
Ekwall, E. E. (1986). Teacher's handbook on diagnosis and remediation in reading (2nd ed.)
(pp. 23—46). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Maggart, Z. R., & Zintz, M. V. (1990). Corrective reading (pp. 256—275). Dubuque, IA: Wm.
C. Brown.
McCormick, S. (1987). Remedial and clinical reading instruction (PP. 230—250, 280—301). Co-
lumbus, OH: Merrill.
Rupley, W. H. & Blair, T. R. (1989). Reading diagnosis and remediation (3rd ed.) (pp. 147—168).
Chapter 11
Correcting Ineffective
Perceptual and Decoding
Skills in Word Recognition
Proficiency in both the use of meaning clues and the application of analytical
word-recognition techniques is required if the reader is to associate concepts with
printed symbols. Meaning clues alone are not enough for good reading at any
level; they must be accompanied by the use of flexible word-recognition skills. It
is through the interaction of all the word-study skills that a competent reader
improves her reading capability.
Three types of interrelated skills are needed to support meaning clues in word
recognition: (1) flexible visual-perceptual habits, (2) knowledge of phonics and
structural word elements, and (3) fluent oral and visual synthesis of word parts.
Weakness in any one, or any combination, of these precludes adequate growth in
reading. Readers who are deficient in word-recognition skills are classified as
having a limiting or complex disability. This chapter treats basic problems associated
with the faulty study of words. Included are suggestions for corrective instruction
in word recognition, as well as an examination of ineffective visual-perceptual
skills, a consideration of children with limited knowledge of word elements, and
a discussion of children who lack fluent oral and visual synthesis.
Suggestions for Corrective Instruction in Word Recognition

To correct limitations in how a child studies words, instructional procedures must
be planned carefully, according to the findings of a thorough diagnosis. There are
183
184 Chapter Eleven
certain suggestions, however, that strengthen the remedial teaching of children

with all types of word-recognition difficulties:
1. Any material a child reads can be used in teaching word recognition. To

be most useful, however, it must be at the reader's instructional level. Thus, select
material that does not have too many new words. If the child with a reading
difficulty is to use the meanings of printed words and contextual clues to aid in
word recognition, a sufficient number of sight words must be known. It is espe-
cially important that new words not be too numerous in the initial lessons.
2. Teach word recognition when it is important to the child to recognize a
word. If the purpose of reading is genuine to the child, and if he is pursuing that
purpose, he will energetically attempt to recognize difficult words that prevent
him from reaching his goal. He will persist in recognizing words, even when
doing so entails careful analysis.
3. Always teach word recognition with meaningful material. Because the
objective of all word-recognition techniques is to recognize words, it is better to
develop those techniques with material whose content is meaningful to the child.
This allows the child to use not only the analytical techniques taught him, but also
various meaning clues that exist in the material. It teaches him to interpret a word
in the context in which he finds it. Word recognition is not word calling, but
recognition of the correct meaning of a word in a given situation. Teaching word
recognition in context encourages a balance between the developmentof meaning
vocabulary and that of the word-recognition techniques.
4. Undertake the more analytical types of word-recognition techniques only
after the child is aware of the meaningful nature of reading, has established the
habit of recognizing whole words, and has built a supportive sight vocabulary.
This enables the reader to use meaning clues, and it also encourages him to use
more rapid recognition techniques.
5. Be sure that the child knows the meanings of the words he is trying to
identify or has the background necessary to derive their meaning. Using identifi-
cation clues is difficult for him even when meaning is present; if meaning is
absent, he may never find out whether or not he has recognized the word cor-
rectly.
6. Teach the child to segment unknown words visually before attempting to
sound them. Visual analysis must always precede sounding, because it is through
visual analysis that the reader isolates usable word elements to be sounded. A
major aspect of effective decoding of words is the ability to locateusable elements
in those words. The flexible study of words is essential, because a faulty start will
have to be rejected quickly if words are to be recognized by analytical means.
7. Teach the child to notice similarities and differences among words.
Through many comparisons, careful and rapid inspection of words will become
habitual. The child who attends to similarities and differences among words can
build his own families of words and notice similarities in the meaning and
configurations of words with the same roots. This habit encourages building a
large sight-recognition vocabulary and discourages overanalysis.
Correcting Ineffective Perceptual and Decoding Skills 185
8. Teach the child to locate a new word-recognition element in known

words before applying knowledge of that element to identify new words. By this
means, the child is led to discover, for example, the initial-letter sound in the
known words run, ride, and rat before he uses this knowledge in identifying the
new word rabbit.
9. Help the child establish the routine of inspecting words rapidly, thor-
oughly, and systematically from left to right. Many of the difficulties in word
recognition result from a failure to study the whole word from left to right. The
child who fails to inspect words from left to right may recognize a word like stop
as pots at one time and tops at another. Although the parts are recognized ade-
quately, their order is confused, causing difficulty. Reversal problems may be
caused by the failure to establish a systematic, left-to-right inspection of words.
Neglect of any part of the word during inspection can cause difficulty.
10. Adjust instruction in word-recognition techniques to the individual. In
developing these techniques, it should be kept in mind that there are some
children with reading difficulties who do not profit from certain types of instruc-
tion. For example, for a child with an auditory impairment, it would be unwise
to emphasize phonic approaches; indeed, sometimes these approaches may have
to be omitted entirely with such a child. Similarly, in developing independence in
word recognition for a child with visual impairment, more dependence should be
placed on large word elements, such as syllables, than would be necessary for the
child with unimpaired vision.
11. Avoid drilling the child on isolated word elements, and avoid using
contrived teaching devices. Whenever possible, the child should recognize words
as sight words. Drilling him on isolated elements could cause him to analyze
words that he otherwise might have recognized easily on sight. Excessive analy-
sis, if transferred to actual reading, may interfere with the child's reading fluency'
and understanding of meaning.
12. Discuss with the child exactly what remedial instruction is designed to
accomplish, and let him aid in formulating his individual remedial plan. The
child will be more motivated to participate actively in remediation if he is work-
ing toward known goals. Awareness of the plan allows him to be a more effective
learner and enables him to assist his teacher in making some instructional deci-
sions. The child will feel a greater sense of accomplishment when he achieves
reading goals that have become his own, not just his teacher's.
Ineffective Visual-Perceptual Habits

The ability to read depends upon a group of visual-perceptual skills that are
essential to decoding the printed symbols. These skills must be highly coordi-
nated and flexible if a reader is to read in thought units at speeds that far exceed
the rate at which she can Iisten. The thought units are made u of words that are
perceived so quickly that they can be grouped together and recognized at a single
&t'I wikh . rac1r a\iiik'j is cter. intraor i\tj because her
186 Chapter Eleven
perceptual habits when reading preclude such rapid recognition of words. Her
problem may be in any one, or in any combination, of the following interrelated
perceptual defects:
1. Faulty visual analysis of words

2. Excessive word-perception errors
3. Overanalytical habits
Faulty Visual Analysis of Words

Visual analysis of an unfamiliar word (also known as visual segmentation) must
always precede the application of symbol-sound association (also known as
knowledge of word parts). Both of these, however, come before the final synthesis
of the parts into recognition of the word. For example, a child who is unfamiliar
with the word something might separate the word visually into so—met—hing. She
might then associate sounds orally with the perceived symbol groups. Then she
would try to blend the outcome, whereupon she would find that she had failed
in her attempt because her original visual separation of the word was unproduc-
tive. She would then have to reject her first visual analysis and try another one.
This time, she might see the first of the two words from which the word something
is made and separate the word into some—th-—ing. Then, by applying symbol-
sound association orally and synthesizing the results, she would recognize the
word. Of course, this approach to recognizing the word something is rather imma-
ture. A more advanced reader would analyze the word visually into the largest
known elements, some and thing. She would recognize these parts visually and
then synthesize them. Aided by contextual clues, she would not have to speak
and blend the separate parts, but would recognize the whole word something at a
glance. Nonetheless, even with this sophisticated approach, she would have
analyzed the word visually, applied symbol-sound associations, and synthesized
the parts mentally, all with great rapidity.
To become an able reader, the child must develop great skill and flexibility in
the visual analysis of words. She must be able to segment words into useful
elements at a glance. An element that is useful in one word may not be so in
another. For example, the element on in the word upon is useful, but separating on
out of the word portion would be detrimental to recognizing the whole word. The
child must be adaptable, so that when one approach does not work, she can
quickly reirispect the word and reanalyze it visually. She must analyze a word
only when she does not know it as a sight word, and even then, she should select
the largest usable elements in the word, rather than resort to unsystematic analy-
sis.
The child who has difficulty with analyzing words visually can be identified
by the classroom teacher in two ways: First, when pronouncing words aloud, she
selects inappropriate elements to sound out and then often tries again and again
to use the same analysis even when it does not work; second, when the teacher
shows her how to analyze the word by covering up parts of it, she is able to
recognize it. Accordingly, remedial training for a child with this kind of reading
difficulty must focus on two results: First, it should give the child assistance in
finding the most useful structural, visual, and phonic elements in words; second,
it must develop a flexible strategy for segmentating words visually, teaching the
child to use the larger elements first and to change quickly from an analysis that
does not work to one that does.
The most effective remedial measures are similar to those used by the class-
room teacher when first developing visual analytic ability in children without
reading disabilities. When introducing unfamiliar words in preparation for read-
ing, the teacher should work carefully to demonstrate how to analyze new words
visually. During subsequent instruction, visual analysis should be emphasized.
Such training as finding similarities in known words like fight and sight or three
and throw gives the child experience in visual analysis. The material for this kind
of instruction should be at a level of difficulty wherein the child needs to
segment words visually. Help in finding parts of compound words or in isolating
roots in words with affixes gives excellent experience in visual analysis. Syllabi-
fying words is also useful. Maintenance exercises like the following, first using
known words and then having the child find similar elements in unknown words,
should be used abundantly with a child who has serious difficulty analyzing
wordy visually!
1. Exercises in finding the root word in words with variant ending forms.
a. Find the root words from which these words are made:
(1) looks looking looked
(2) worker worked working
b. Find the root words in words having variant endings, such as
want in wanting, waft in waited, and swim in swimming.
2. Exercises having the child use syntactical clues in choosing between variant
forms, such as
wanting
a. The bear the honey
wanted
talk
b. The man was talking to them.
talked
3. Exercises that require finding similar blends.
You see the picture of the clown; say clown. Look at the words here, and circle
the ones that begin like clown and that tell something we can do:
clap clean clocks
come clothes play
climb cook clam
188 Chapter Eleven
4. Exercises that emphasize seeing similar parts of words.

Draw a line under the right word.
a. The sun cannot be seen at _____
fight night right sight
b. The train runs on a ______
sack black track tack
5. Exercises in syllabication.
Mark the syllables in these words, for example, dif/fer/ent.
ahead forgotten furniture
yellow interested tomorrow
after moment electricity
6. Exercises that emphasize seeing both parts of compound words.
a. Find the two small words in each compound word, and tell how they help
us know what it means.
fireplace baseball sailboat
fireside football rowboat
firefly basketball ferryboat
b. Take one of the two words from each compound word below the sentence,
and make a new compound word to fill in the blank.
(1) We were seated by the _____ to get warm.
firehouse inside
(2) The wind makes the go fast.
sailfish steamboat
7. Exercises that develop skills in analyzing words with affixes.
a. Draw a line around the part of the word that means again.
relive remake retell
rework replay relearn
b. Draw a line around the root word, that is, the word from which the larger
word is made. Tell how the prefix and suffix change the meaning of the root
word.
unfriendly unthankful distrustful
unkindly unlikely dishonesty
disagreeable repayable unkindness
Information a child gains from exercises to improve her visual analysis of

words must be applied to actual reading. This sort of drill should be used, not in
isolation, but as a part of a broader program of word recognition. The words used
in exercises should be familiar to the child or should be words that will soon be
met in reading.
Flexibility and the habit of dividing words into the largest usable elements
should be stressed. The program should teach the child to avoid faulty ap-
proaches to word recognition, such as letter-by-letter spelling or sounding.
Sounding of individual letters, for example, may help a child to recognize a small
word, such as cat, but would be unnecessarily confusing in recognizing a longer
or more complicated word, such as caterpillar. Yet some children try letter-by-
letter sounding for all unfamiliar words.
Many children have difficulty recognizing words because they are too de-
pendent on one technique or because they do not use the most efficient tech-
niques. For example, they may have the habit of searching for known little words
in larger words. This technique is helpful in identifying compound words or
words with affixes, but it is detrimental to recognizing many other words. For
example, finding ear in bear is of doubtful help, as is finding to—get——her in the
word together. Instruction must encourage a diversified and flexible attack on
words. It must also emphasize orderly progression through the word, from its
beginning element to its end.
Excessive Word-Perception Errors

Some children's word-perception difficulties are different from those just dis-
cussed. Their mispronunciations tend to form a consistent pattern that can be
readily diagnosed. The errors exemplified in this pattern are classified in many
ways by various professionals in the reading field, but are best thought of as
word-perception errors. In general, the classifications are based on where the
errors are located in the words in which they occur. For example, a child may
make an excessive number of errors in the initial part of words, such as calling
house mouse. Another child might cluster his errors around the middle of words,
calling house horse, for example. A third child may make an unusually high
percentage of errors at the end of words. Such a child might call house hour.
For a given child, these errors tend to be most frequent in a specific part of
the word because his word perception consistently neglects that part of the word.
Roughly, these perceptual errors can be classified as "initial errors," "middle
errors," and "ending errors." In addition, the child can confuse the order of word
parts and make "orientation errors."
Locational errors can be diagnosed by classifying a sample of errors made in
word pronunciation. This method is used in the Gates-McKillop-Horowitz Read-
ing Diagnostic Tests. The diagnostician may also collect a sample of errors to
classify informally. The disadvantage of this technique is that she cannot know
the number of possibilities present in the sample she takes and she cannot judge
how frequently a certain type of error typically occurs.
Initial errors indicate that as he inspects words, the child neglects to notice the
beginnings of words closely enough. He makes errors such as calling his this or
the he. Another type of initial error is calling the word tailfall or when then.
The remedial procedures used for correcting initial errors are similar to those
used for fostering better visual analysis of words and knowledge of initial ele-
190 Chapter Eleven
ments. The difference is emphasis. For the child who, even though he knows
initial elements, makes an undue number of errors in the initial part of words,
attention must be focused more directly and systematically on the beginnings of
words. During word study, the teacher should help by asking, "How does the
word begin?" Building a picture dictionary causes the child to look systematically
at words. Alphabetizing words helps him pay greater attention to word begin-
nings. Sorting labeled pictures for filing also helps. The child should be shown the
nature of his errors and the difference between the word he pronounced and the
way it appeared in print. For example, if he calls cat eat, he should be told, "close,"
but that he must pay even closer attention to the beginning of the word. This sort
of encouragement should be maintained throughout instruction. Teaching initial
consonant blends and digraphs helps to overcome a child's tendency to neglect
the beginnings of words. The following exercises are also good:
1. Multiple-choice questions in which the child is asked to differentiate among

initial elements.
boat.
The man put on his goat.
coat.
2. Classification exercises that emphasize initial sounds and word meanings.
Find every word that starts like crack and is something we can eat.
crab candy cranberries
apple crown cradle
cracker bread crumbs
3. Multiple-choice exercises in which the initial blend is given.
The car went down the str........_. strange road street
Middle errors result from two major causes: First, the child may hurry his
inspection of unfamiliar words to such an extent that he neglects the middles of
words; second, he may have limited knowledge of vowel sounds. Instruction in
letter-sound associations for vowels and in useful rules for vowels is helpful.
Encouraging the child to inspect words in an orderly, left-to-right manner helps
correct any tendency to neglect the middles of words. During word study, the
teacher should encourage the child to "look at the word all the way through,
especially the middle." Copying words that cause special difficulty may help, as
does tracing these words. Using context as a check on accuracy encourages the
child to reinspect words that don't make sense. A child using contextual clues, for
example, could not very well call cat cot in the sentence, "The cat climbed the
tree," without rereading to find out what was wrong. He should be told why he
needs to make a closer inspection of the middles of words and shown the differ-
ence between the error made and the printed word. Multiple-choice exercises
such as the following are helpful in correcting this difficulty because the child
must visually differentiate the middle parts of words:
pen.
1. The pig was in the pan.
pin.
children.
2. The egg was laid by the citizen.
chicken.
Ending errors are made frequently. Even good readers, when they do make
errors, tend to make ending errors more frequently than other locational errors.
An overemphasis on word endings can cause neglect of the very important initial
elements and may also promote reversals and other orientation confusions. The
mature reader starts at the beginning of an unfamiliar word and works system-
atically through it from left to right, until it is completely inspected. All instruc-
tion designed to increase the child's knowledge of variant endings, word families,
and suffixes helps him avoid making errors in the final elements of words. During
word study, the teacher should help by guiding the child to "look at the word all
the way through to the end." The teacher should avoid overreacting to ending
errors made in oral reading by children who have perfect understanding, but
whose mispronunciations simply reflect dialectal differences. All exeicises given
to encourage careful inspection of word endings should be in context, so that
attention is called to the final element in the word while maintaining a systematic
inspection of the entire word. Some exercises that may be used safely are the
following:
1. Finish the word. It should rhyme with calL
The boy was playing with a b__.
tall back ball
2. Find the word that ends like coat which you would like to play with.
goat doll float
gloat boat clock
Orientation confusions are among the most troublesome perceptual errors
made by children with reading difficulties. Orientation problems will be dis-
cussed in the next chapter, which deals with 'the child with extreme reading
difficulties.
Overanalytical Habits
The overanalytical reader is the child who either fails to build an adequate sight
vocabulary and therefore must analyze many words she meets or who acquires
the habit of analyzing all words, even those known at sight. Habitual overanalysis
takes two forms. In the first variety, the child may analyze words she knows at
sight. Not only is this technique slow, but it obstructs thoughtful reading and can
lead the child to make excessive errors in word recognition. Some children have
192 Chapter Eleven
established the habit of analyzing known words so thoroughly that they make
more errors when allowed unlimited time to pronounce a list of words than they
do when the same list of words is flashed before them on cards, requiring them
to read the words at sight. Recall that word-recognition techniques should be so
ingrained that the child will identify known words without detailed study and
that she will rapidly recognize the words she knows in any of their variant forms.
Indeed, she will resort to time-consuming, analytical procedures only when she
is working out words she has not met previously. A good reader inspects a word
in only as much detail as is required for its recognition. The overanalytical reader
reverses this process. She approaches most words as unfamiliar, she studies them
in detail, isolates elements within them, applies her knowledge of word elements,
and then synthesizes the elements back into a word, only to find that it is familiar.
This pattern is harmful both to reading fluency and to comprehension. The child
is so concerned with analyzing known words that she has no time to understand
the content of what she is reading. It takes her so long to recognize each word that
she cannot group them into thought units. Both her comprehension and her speed
of reading of connected text suffer.
The second type of overanalytical reader is the one who breaks words into
too many parts. Instead of using large elements that are already known to her,
she resorts too early and too often to a study of individual letter sounds. This
habit of recognizing words is exceedingly inefficient and often confusing. For
many words, letter-by-letter sounding precludes recognition of them. Take
the words in the previous sentence, for example, and try to sound each letter
in the words and then blend them into words. Not all of the words could be
recognized in this way, and even for those that could, it would be a time-con-
suming and inefficient method. It is foolish, for example, for a child who knows
the word talk to resort to a letter-by-letter sounding of the word talking. Yet many
overanalytical readers do this. It would be equally foolish and completely inef-
fective for the child who knew the suffix tion in action to try a letter-by-letter
sounding of that element. Care must be taken to maintain proper balance in
word recognition.
Some children who are overanalytical go to the extreme of a "spelling analy-
sis" of words. They try to remember each new word by spelling it out. For
example, they encounter the unknown word donkey and try to learn it by naming
each letter. It is impossible for a child to remember all of the words she is expected
to learn by trying to recall the sequence of letters through spelling. There are
children who, when asked to work out an unknown word aloud, name each letter
in turn and sometimes, after calling the letters, can say the word. For example, a
child will see the word horse, which she doesn't identify. When asked to try to
pronounce it, she will say, "h—o——r---s-—-e, horse." This type ofword recognition
is detrimental to reading growth.
The overanalytic reader can be detected by studying her relative effectiveness
on timed and untimed word-recognition tests. She can also be identified by
asking her to work aloud on words when she gets into difficulty. A third way of
detecting this type of reader is to note children who rank relatively high on tests
of word elements, but who are low on tests of word recognition. These children
also tend to be slow readers with poor comprehension.
The remedial treatment for children who tend to analyze words that are
already known by sight is to give more instruction in sight vocabulary, associating
words with meanings, and using contextual clues effectively. Flash cards are
useful, too. The instruction should be consistent with the child's other reading
experiences. Reading material with few, if any, word difficulties should be used.
The purposes for reading should include reading to comprehend the general
significance of a passage, scanning to find a specific bit of information, and
reading to predict outcomes.
The overanalytical reader who breaks words up into too many parts is cor-
rected by emphasizing structural analysis and knowledge of the larger elements
of words. Stress on syllabication, rather than on sounding each letter, is desirable.
Noting root words, prefixes, suffixes, and variant endings gives the child the habit
of analyzing words into their larger elements. Instruction in word recognition
should encourage her to select as large elements as she can when she is analyzing
words not known by sight. In remedial work, weight should be put on exercises
for developing effective visual analysis that teach the child to isolate the larger
structural and visual elements within words. In addition, it should be stressed
that wide reading of relatively easy material helps the child who tends to resort
to haphazard observation of words.
Limited Knowledge of Word Elements

The child who is to become a capable, fluent, and independent reader must
develop an extensive knowledge of word elements. There is no point to the child's
being skillful in analyzing words visually, unless he can associate the parts of the
words with sounds. It does not help, for example, for the child to separate visually
the word spring into spr—ing, unless he recalls how the initial blend spr and the
ending ing sound. The child needs to learn a vast number of word parts. The
larger the elements he can use in recognizing words, the more fluent and effort-
less his readin will be. The more he uses contextual and tneanin clues, the less
he needs to analyze words. It is often necessary for a child to break a word into
small parts in order to recognize it. But this does not aid him if he does not
associate the small elements with their sounds. The child must master the knowl-
edge of many phonic, structural, and visual elements in words.
The diagnostician has several ways of detecting when a child has limited
knowledge of word parts. Most diagnostic reading tests sample the more useful
phonic, structural, and visual elements. Any weakness on these tests, in compari-
son with the child's general reading capability, indicates that he may be limited
in the number of elements with which he is familiar. Another indication of this
kind of weakness is difficulty associating sounds with word elements when the
child is working out the pronunciation of words orally. If the child analyzes a
word visually but does not know letter sounds, common phonograms, or visual
194 Chapter Eleven
elements, he is limited in his knowledge of word parts. If he seems to be able to

segment a word into syllables, but cannot pronounce many of them, he is limited
in his knowledge of important word parts and should be given remedial training.
When the teacher points out to a child the similarity between a new word and
other words he knows, the child is receiving instruction in knowledge of word
elements. In presenting new words, the teacher should not only make their
meanings clear, but also show the child the most efficient visual analysis of each
word and compare the words, when necessary with known words which contain
the element that might cause the child difficulty. If, for example, the new word is
trouble, the teacher might say that it begins like train and ends like double as she
writes the three words on the chalkboard. The teacher might also say that it is
something we would rather not have. In this example, the teacher has provided
the symbol-sound association of the word part tr and the word part ouble.
Manuals Of most reading series give suggestions for instructing children in
knowledge of word parts. Used at an appropriate level of difficulty reading series
can provide good material for children who need extra instruction and practice
in knowledge of word parts because of the systematic introduction of word parts
and the vocabulary control maintained by the authors. An emphasis on the
introduction of new vocabulary and on word study is essential. Word-recognition
exercises in skill books accompanying readers are also suitable.
If the teacher chooses to use materials other than reading series, she should
select words to be met in reading that might cause difficulty or that illustrate an
important word element. These words should be studied employing the princi-
ples described in the section titled "Using Effective Teaching Procedures" in
Chapter 9.
Some remedial reading teachers report success in using a linguistically regu-
lar approach, as described by Fries (1963) and Bloomfield and Barnhart (1961).
Programmed materials with a linguistically regular vocabulary, such as The Pro-
grammed Reading Series (Sullivan Associates, 1973), have proven effective in train-
ing children who are seriously confused in distinguishing the letter-sound
relationships described by linguists.
All the exercises suggested in the preceding section for improving the child's
visual analysis of words aid in teaching knowledge of visual, structural, and
phonic elements. Additional exercises such as the following are beneficial to the
child who is limited in knowledge of word parts. The words used should be
familiar or should be words soon to be learned.
1. Exercises to teach initial consonant sounds.

a. Say the words can and come. Put C before all the words that start like can
and come and that also name an animal.
______ cat ______ cookies ______ chicken
______ duck elephant cake
______ eel ______ calf ______ cub
b. Write the first part of the word in the space. It starts like one of the words
below the sentence.
(1) The dog ran _ome.
son hope cone
(2) The cat wanted some _ilk.
pig like mill
2. Exercises to teach initial blend sounds.
a. Write in the blank the word that begins with the same blend as the word
underlined.
(1) The branch soon ______
bring fell broke
(2) The block was painted
brown blue green
b. Draw a line under the right word. It must start with the same blend as the
key word.
(1) clown (2) smile
feet. brown.
The cat has claws. The puppy was small.
close, smoke.
A child who is limited in this area of knowledge of word parts may be taught
other important blends such as cr, dr, fi, gi, p1, scr, sk, si, sn, sp, and st, in exercises
such as those just presented.
3. Exercises to reinforce knowledge of digraph sounds.

a. Finish the words. They begin like one of the words below the sentences.
The first one is done for you.
(1)That cat can run.
Boy This Sing
(2) _ere will we go?
What Hear Play
(3) The _est was full of gold.
toy boy chair
(4) We get wool from _eep.
ducks ships sleds
(5) His brother was only _ee.
where thread see
196 Chapter Eleven
b. Draw a line around the right word. It must start with the same digraph as
the key word.
(1) church
chimney.
We make butter in a pail.
churn.
(2) ship
coat.
She put on her new shoes.
sharp.
4. Exercise to teach vowel sounds.
a. The vowels a, e, I, o, and u say their names in many words. This is their
long sound. Write the vowel that is long following each word. Then use the
word in a sentence.
age_. dine__. vase_
like_ cave_ use_
alone — home — rope —
Call attention to the fact that each word has one consonant between the vowel
and the final e that usually signals that the first vowel has a long sound. Some
exceptions may be given, as in
give love come where

some live whose were
b. Write the vowel that is long following each word. Then use the word in a
sentence.
peach snail — heel —
reach_ road keep_
tease — bead leaf —
plains — boat — mean
Call attention to the fact that many times, when two vowels come together,
the first vowel takes the long sound and the second vowel is silent. Some excep-
tions may be given, as
bread heavy meant
break great house
chief head piece
c. Put in the right word. It must have a short vowel.
The boy ran after the
boat game cat
Other exercises, using contextual clues can be used, because these clues can
help the child decide whether a vowel is long or short.
5. Exercises to teach hard and soft consonant sounds.

a. When C has the sound of S, it has a soft sound. When it sounds like K, it
has a hard sound. Put S following the sentences in which C is soft and H
when it is hard. The first one is done for you.
(1) We went to camp.
(2) I saw his face.
(3) We rode on a camel. —
(4) It sold for ten cents. —
(5) The calf was brown. —
b. Similar exercises can be used to teach the other hard and soft consonant
sounds.
6. Exercises using syntactical clues to teach variant endings.
a. Draw a line under the right word.
drink
(1) The cat her milk.
drinks
wanted
(2) Now she to run away.
wanting
7. Exercises using contextual clues to teach common word elements.
a. Put in the right word. It must end like the key word.
(1) talk
We had a brisk
chalk walk run
(2) light
It was a dark
right room night
b. See how many words you can make that rhyme with the following words.
Use each of them in a sentence.
bat street bright
ball rake sand
Any exercises or activities employed to increase the child's knowledge

visual, structural, or phonic elements as often as possible should be used in
contextual settings. This is desirable because, many times, the true sound of an
element can be known only from its use in context. For example, the vowelsound
198 Chapter Eleven
in read cannot be known out of context. Context also stimulates more rapid
recognition of the parts being taught, and it offers an immediate and independent
check on the accuracy of the association of the printed symbols with the pronun-
ciation of the word read. There are certain drilling techniques that are used to
increase the child's knowledge of word parts. They should be used sparingly, and
the words drilled should be read in context, so that the elements learned have a
reasonable chance of being transferred into actual reading. Among these devices
are word wheels, word slips, word tachistoscopes, and certain computer pro-
grams.
Word wheels are constructed by cutting two disks. One should be about 5
inches in diameter and the other slightly smaller. On the larger disk, words are
printed with the initial element missing. These words should all start at the same
distance from the center (about 1 inch) and progress toward the outer edge like
the spokes of a' wheel. Only words that begin with the same word element should
be used on one disk. The initial element should be omitted. For example, if the
initial blend str is to be taught, words such as strap, strong, straw, string, strip,
stream, and strange should be used. Only the word endings are printed on the
larger disk (see Figure 11—1). On the smaller disk, a radial slit of the proper size
and position is cut to expose one word ending at a time. The initial blend str is
printed just to the left of the slit (see Figure 11—1). The two disks are fastened
together at the center with a paper fastener (A), with the smaller disk on top. As
the lower disk is rotated, the str on the smaller disk makes a word as it combines
with each ending on the larger disk.
Other word parts can be taught this way. With word endings, such as ing, ake,
and alk, the word wheel needs to be changed so that the ending is printed at the
right of the slit cut in the smaller disk and the word beginnings are printed on the
larger disk (see Figure 11—2).
Word slips can be constructed to practice the various word parts. They have
an advantage over word wheels because they are easier to make. A manila folder
Word Wheel Larger Disk
FIGURE 11—1 "str" word wheel

FIGURE 11—2 "ing" word wheel
can be used to make the removable faces and slips. Figure 11—3 illustrates the use
of a word slip. The removable faces and slips can be varied to drill the child on
any particular word part. The word slips and faces are made by typing the word
part to be drilled at the appropriate place on the face (see Figure 11—3, faces, 1, 2,
and 3). The remaining parts of the words can be typed or printed at intervals on
the slip. A permanent posterboard back can be used for all exercises, since the face
is removable.
Word beginnings that could be typed on word slips to use with the ing ending
on removable face 2 are th, s, br, r, str, wr, and k. The followingwords could also
be used with this face: walk, talk, sing, jump, build, play, say, feed, hear, etc.
Slips and faces, such as face 1, could be made for all the important initil
consonants, blends, and digraphs. Number 2 faces and slips could be madefor
all the important variant endings and phonograms. Number 3 faces and slips
could be made to teach long and short vowels and vowel combinations. The
words used in these exercises should be those taught in the basal readers or taken
from lists of common words as compiled by Doich (1960) and Harris and Jacobson
(1972).
The word-slip devices can be used as a tachistoscope by moving a small card
up and down to expose quickly each new word to be studied. This is sometimes
advisable for the child who has a tendency to dawdle or to break words into too
many parts. The device can also be used for drilling on sightwords if another
face, with just an exposure slit without any letters, is made. In this case, thewords
on the typed slip should be spaced farther apart, with a heavyblack line between
them. The teacher shows the black line, says "ready," exposes the word for an
instant, and then moves the word slip to the next black line while the child
responds.
Computer programs such as Word Munchers (Minnesota Educational Com-
puting Corporation, 1985) also review phonic elements in words, using amotiva-
tional, gamelike format. These programs are useful for review only; they serve to
supplement, rather than to replace, systematic, teacher-directed instruction.
200 Chapter Eleven
o (Face No. 1) (Face No. 2)
stri_ange _________ing
0 0
aw
eet
0 (Face No. 3)
0
I ng
ip
I II 1
earn
0
FIGURE 11—3 Word-slip device
More detailed ways of teaching children to relate word elements to sounds

will be discussed in the next chapter. These methods are individualized and time
consuming, but they do help the child who is severely limited in knowledge of
word parts. Sound-tracing methods will also be discussed in the next chapter.
Difficulty in Oral and Visual Synthesis

The child must be able to reassemble a word after she has separated it visually
into parts that she recognizes. Effective and rapid synthesis of the parts into the
whole word (also called blending) is essential to word recognition. Many children
have difficulty with their reading because they lack ability in synthesizing. Al-
though immature readers commonly sound parts aloud and synthesize them
using auditory blending, mature readers rarely resort to such a technique. Rather,
they usually perceive the larger elements within a word visually and then synthe-
size them without resorting to oral pronunciation at all. In the word anytime, for
example, the more experienced reader sees the words any and time in the larger
word. She neither pronounces these parts nor pronounces the word as a whole,
but immediately sees that it is a compound word made up of two well-known
words. That is, the more experienced reader identifies the word anytime by visu-
ally synthesizing the known parts into the known compound word. This form of
visual analysis, perception, and synthesis takes place so rapidly that the mature
reader is rarely aware of such perceptual acts. To her, she senses the meaning of
the printed symbol immediately, without reflecting on the symbol itself.
While reading silently, the mature reader does not even sound the parts of a
broken word at the end of a line of print. She just looks at the part of the word on
the line and then glances quickly down to the remainder of the word on the next
line. She identifies the word and its meaning immediately. No oral pronunciation
or auditory blending takes place at all.
The child who is beginning to learn to read, or the child who has a disability
synthesizing words cannot so readily synthesize words visually. Indeed, he often
finds it difficult to blend a word auditorily once he has pronounced it part by part.
In early reading instruction, a child may be required to sound out words part by
part and then blend the sound elements together. Some children make too great
a separation of the parts when sounding the word out, and cannot reassemble it
auditorily.
Some children have difficulty synthesizing words because they lack the ca-
pacity to blend sounds orally. They are, for example, unable to tell what word the
teacher is saying if she pronounces the word part by part. If she says the word
drink as dr—ink, with about a second of time between the parts, the child cannot
tell what the word is. In some cases, the child cannot even tell that the teacher is
saying drink if she pronounces it normally a second time after dissociating it.
Bond (1935) has shown that a child who is limited in this ability is much mote
likely to incur a disability if he is taught by methods requiring him to use auditory
blending than he would be if visual recognition and synthesis were emphasized.
Many children have difficulty in blending when word parts are learned in
isolation rather than in words or when they are taught too often with drill
exercises rather than in contextual settings. In such circumstances, the child may
learn to depend too much on oral pronunciation and auditory blending of word
parts. The pronunciation of words, part by part, can lead the child to pause
between each part, making blending much more difficult. Frequently, the child
who resorts to letter-by-letter sounding has forgotten the beginning of the word
before she has completed sounding the letters. This does not necessarily indicate
that the child has a synthesis difficulty; rather, it suggests an ineffective technique
of word recognition that should be corrected.
The diagnosis of inability to synthesize words is somewhat complex. Three
judgments must be made: (1) Is the child's problem really one of poor synthesis,
or is it the result of ineffective visual analysis? (2) Is the child's problem one of
poor auditory blending, or is it poor visual synthesis? (3) Is the child's difficulty
the result of faulty learning, or does he have an auditory handicap? These ques-
tions can be answered by studying the results of reading diagnostic tests. In the
Gates-McKillop-Horowitz Reading Diagnostic Tests (described in Chapter 8), the
202 Chapter Eleven
results of the tests of syllabication, recognizing and blending common word parts,
and auditory blending will indicate whether the child has a real deficiency in
visual or auditory synthesis (Gates, McKillop, & Horowitz, 1981).
The diagnostician or teacher can also observe the child's ability to reassemble
words that have been analyzed and pronounced correctly, part by part. If the child
is unable to blend words she has analyzed, she lacks ability in auditory blending.
If the diagnostician or teacher pronounces some words, part by part, it can be
determined whether the child can blend the sounds she hears. If the child is able
to blend words and recognize them comparably to other children of her age and
grade, the child's difficulty is not due to an auditory problem.
For the child who lacks ability in auditory blending, any sounding out of
words should be done in a smooth, rather than an interrupted, fashion. This child
should have much experience in blending two-syllable words, and she should
have training in oral blending. The teacher could pronounce words with the
syllables only slightly separated, and the child could say the parts and blend
them. It would be best to start with two-syllable words and build up gradually to
longer words. Then, single-syllable words could be separated and blended. For
children who have difficulty blending, because they have learned to separate the
words so distinctly that they are unable to synthesize them, there should be more
instruction to develop their sight vocabulary, to associate meanings with words,
and to use contextual clues. Children with this type of difficulty should read
relatively easy material abundantly.
The remedial work that should be given to a child who is poor in the visual
synthesis of words is to have her recognize words presented to her by rapid-ex-
posure techniques. A spaced slip of words correctly analyzed into syllables could
be exposed in the word-slip tachistoscope, and the child could classify each word.
For example, the following list could be used, and the child could tell if the word
named an animal or a food:
ba boon chip munk

but ter don key
buf fa lo choc o late
ce re al cook ies
bumb ble bee lem on ade
car rot let tuce
mon key rob in
Any of the word-slip exercises developed for teaching the child with limited
knowledge of word elements could also be used for rapid-exposure exercises to
improve the child's visual synthesis. The tachistoscopic type of rapid exposure is
also helpful in overcoming the overanalytical reader's problems. In addition, it is
useful as a quick-exposure technique for developing rapid recognition of sight
words.
Whenever a child who is weak in blending words analyzes an unknown word
visually, the teacher can encourage her to work silently. Exercises with many
words broken at the ends of the lines read under timed conditions also help in
developing rapid visual synthesis of words.
Case Study of an Upper Elementary Grade Student with

Difficulty in Word Recognition
When Andy was referred to the Psycho-Educational Clinic for study, he was an
attractive boy from a fourth-grade classroom. He was large for a boy 10 years and
6 months of age. His teacher was concerned about Andy's reading progress. She
described his discussions in class and his expression of his ideas as very good. In
certain class activities he was an eager participant, while in others he tended to
withdraw. His teacher was well aware that there was a relationship between
Andy's tendency to lose interest in an activity and the amount of reading in-
volved with it. She also noticed that he had to gather most of his information from
class discussion, but once he had sufficient information, his reasoning and judg-
ment about what he had just learned were mature. She had watched the difficul-
ties he experienced whenever he was asked to read aloud. She knew that Andy
had a reading disability.
From an examination of Andy's cumulative records and recent test scores, his
teacher had made the general diagnosis that his reading disability called for more
detailed study. These records showed that Andy had a reading score of 2.5. His
arithmetic grade score was 3.5 for problem solving and 5.2 for computation. His
score on a group intelligence test indicated that he had an I.Q. of 98. His previous
school records showed that Andy had repeated the third grade and that during
the second year in that grade, less reading growth took place than in the previous
year.
Andy's teacher did not think that the 98 I.Q. represented his true intelligence,
even though it was in keeping with the level of his general school achievement.
She based this judgment on the quality of his discussions of a topic he knew
something about and on his score in the computation section of the arithmetic
test. She had also noticed that when problems were read to him, his arithmetical
reasoning seemed competent. From all of this information, she felt that a thor-
ough study of Andy's educational problem was required.
At the clinic, a more specific diagnosis was made, as the first step in studying
Andy's problem. This phase of the diagnosis consisted of giving Andy the Wechs-
ler Intelligence Scale for Children, Revised, and the Stanford Diagnostic Reading
Test, Green Level. The intelligence test indicated that he had a full-scale I.Q. of
124, a verbal I.Q. of 126, and a performance I.Q. of 123 and that he should be
expected to read at (4.2 x 1.24) + 1.0, or about the sixth-grade level. (The grade
expectancy was computed by the formula explained in Chapter 3.) A comparison
between the scores obtained thus far showed that Andy was a bright boy who
should be reading at about the sixth-grade level of difficulty. His arithmetic scores
of 3.5 for problem solving (written problems) and 5.2 for computations (no read-
ing involved) showed that he was doing reasonably well in an area not directly
204 Chapter Eleven
related to reading. Scores from the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, Green Level
(Fall Norms), showed the following:
Auditory Vocabulary 5.8

Auditory Discrimination 3.6
Phonetic Analysis 3.2
Structural Analysis 1.3
Reading Comprehension
Literal 2.7
Inferential 2.5
Total Reading Comprehension 2.5
TOTAL READING 2.7
Andy's average reading achievement of only 2.7 showed that he was seri-
ously disabled in reading. His auditory abilities and skill in phonetic analysis
appeared to be strengths, in comparison to his ability to recognize words and to
answer literal and inferential questions about passages he read. His skill in struc-
tural analysis seemed to be a major weakness. The pattern of scores in the areas
of reading measured indicated that his problem was a basic one. A study of the
comprehension subtest revealed accurate performance on the items he attempted,
but such slow speed that he completed only about two-thirds of the test, even
though the time limits are ample for the ordinary child.
Andy was also tested using an informal reading inventory constructed by the
reading specialist. It was found that he could comfortably read material no higher
than beginning second-grade level and that he was frustrated by material beyond
halfway through the second-grade level. An analysis of his errors revealed that
when he was asked to read material that was difficult for him, he started to leave
out words, and his frequency of errors increased as he continued to read. Al-
though his use of context appeared to be adequate when he read easy material,
when reading became difficult for him, he started to leave out words, his fre-
quency of errors increased as he continued to read, and he was not able to use
context effectively to predict words, to correct errors, or to anticipate sentence
structure. Andy tended to make errors involving word beginnings. Although his
knowledge of letter-sound associations appeared to be good, he had difficulty
identifying larger word parts such as phonograms, syllables, prefixes, and suf-
fixes. When large word parts were isolated for him, he had difficulty pronouncing
them. He read slowly both silently and orally.
It was felt, from the information thus far obtained, that Andy should be
classified as a child with a limiting disability in reading and that his area of diffi-
culty was in word recognition. A thorough case study was made.
We must now answer the questions raised in Chapter 7:
1. Is Andy correctly classified as a child with a reading disability? The case

study showed that he indeed had a reading disability and that there was no
indication of any physical, mental, or neurological condition to alter his classifi-
cation to anything other than that. Even when Andy was tense and nonfluent
when reading aloud, there was no evidence of any basic emotional problem.
There seemed, however, to be an emotional involvement with respect to his
reading and some accompanying avoidance of reading activities.
2. What is the training needed? This is the essential question in reeducating
a child who has been classified correctly as having a reading disability. Andy's
performance on the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test and on the informal read-
ing inventory showed his pattern of reading limitations. He could not be expected
to become a good reader until his basic word-recognition problems were cor-
rected. Andy's pattern of responses suggested that the remedial emphasis should
be placed on:
a. Word recognition skills: (1) attention to word beginnings, (2) visual
analysis of large word parts, and (3) recognition of large word parts.
b. Use of context: (1) to predict words, (2) to correct errors, and (3) to
anticipate sentence structure.
c. Reading fluency.
Parts of the Gates-McKillop-Horowitz Reading Diagnostic Tests were also
given to Andy. A study of the tabulated results of his responses indicated that this
test verified some of the conclusions obtained from previous testing. Specifically,
Andy made a disproportionate number of errors in the beginnings of words, his
knowledge of large word parts was inadequate for his general reading level, and
he was ineffective in the use of context as an aid to word recognition. The test
added the information that Andy had a relatively good sight vocabulary com-
pared with his overall functioning in reading and also that when he was given
more time to study words, his performance deteriorated.
3. Who can give the most effective remedial work? From recommendations
made after the diagnosis was completed, it was decided that Andy would be
given help best by the reading specialist in the school reading center, since his
limiting disability needed only focused instruction and minor emotional support.
4. How can improvement be made most efficiently? Andy was given reme-
dial work in the school reading center for an hour each day with material at the
beginning second-grade level of difficulty. Exercises and activities designed to
improve his visual awareness of beginning elements, analysis, and recognition of
large word parts, and use of context were emphasized. Games, word wheels, and
computer programs suitable for practicing these skills were also used, for review
and because Andy enjoyed them. Short selections were used for practice in rapid
reading.
5. Does the child have any limiting conditions that must be considered?
Andy had no visual or hearing difficulties, and no other limiting condition was
identified.
6. Are there any environmental conditions that might interfere with the
child's progress in reading? Andy's parents were very concerned about his read-
206 Chapter Eleven
ing, as well they might be. His mother had tried to help him at home, butdidn't
feel that he was making any progress, and so she discontinued working with him.
His mother thought that there was something wrong with Andy's memory. be-
cause the words they worked on one day were forgotten the next. She was eager
to cooperate and accepted the suggestion of helping him by showing approval of
his reading, discussing it with him in a relaxed manner, and telling him words he
didn't know. The technical teaching was left to the reading specialist.
Andy's classroom teacher was also informed of the results of his reading
assessment. She already knew that he was a slow reader and an ineffective one.
She was interested in the findings of the complete diagnosis and was pleased to
make adjustments to his level of reading in the regular classroom.
At the end of 6 months of instruction in the reading center, Andy was meas-
ured again. His reading achievement, as tested by the Stanford Diagnostic Read-
ing Test, Green Level (Spring Norms), showed gratifying results:
Auditory Vocabulary 5.9

Auditory Discrimination 3.9
Phonetic Analysis 4.5
Structural Analysis 3.6
Reading Comprehension
Literal 3.8
Inferential 3.5
Total Reading Comprehension 3.3
TOTAL READING 4.6
Andy continued to work in the reading center for the remainder of his fourth-
grade year. At the beginning of his fifth-grade year, he discontinued work inthe
reading center. He still had a reading disability, but he had overcome much of his
basic difficulty. His cooperative fifth-grade teacher was able to give him the
additional instruction and experience he needed.
Summary
Word recognition is difficult and complex to learn. It requires a highly integrated
and flexible set of skills and abilities. To avoid some of the more serious types of
word-recognition difficulties, well-organized instruction must be given. The child
must be started by teaching her the habit of trying to recognize words as words.
Early training includes the use of contextual clues, picture clues, and teachers'
questions. The child is taught to note similarities in initial elements and gradually
to acquire the whole hierarchy of word-recognition skills, abilities, and tech-
niques. These are classified into five general types: (1) the ability to recognize
many words at sight and to associate meanings with printed symbols; (2) skill in
using context and other meaning clues to anticipate the words to be recognized
and to check on the accuracy of recognition; (3) skill in using flexible and efficient
perceptual techniques in analyzing words visually into usable elements for rec-
ognizing words; (4) knowledge of a wide variety of visual, structural, and phonic
elements; (5) skill in the auditory and visual synthesis of word parts into com-
plete words.
The major sources of difficulty in word recognition involve the failure to
establish these basic skills and techniques and the failure to maintain a balance
among them. The best method of correction is to have the child develop them in
the course of meaningful reading. The remedial reading teacher should take great
care in the methods he uses to introduce new words, so that the child's strengths
can be utilized and any limitations in recognition can be corrected while the
proper balances are maintained. Instruction stressing the skills needed by the
child should be emphasized.
Worksheet and supplementary exercises are helpful in correcting limitations
in word recognition. They should be used with caution, however, and should be
recognized as drill devices, rather than as a complete solution to word-recogni-
tion problems. The child who has difficulty recognizing words needs more than
the usual amount of practice in those areas in which he has failed to learn
sufficiently to maintain a balance among the word-recognition skills.
Study Questions
1. What is visual analysis? Why does it precede the application of knowledge of
word parts? How can a teacher identify faulty visual analysis using informal
techniques?
2. What is the danger of informal analysis, compared with standardized test
analysis of locational errors? Why is it more difficult to construct useful
exercises for ending errors than for beginning errors?
3. How can overanalytical readers who tend to analyze words they already
know and those who tend to analyze unknown words into too many parts be
helped?
4. When should drill be used to enhance knowledge of word elements? Why
must exercises designed to increase knowledge of visual, structural, and
phonic elements be put in contextual settings?
5. What diagnostic judgments should be made when a child appears to have
unusual difficulty synthesizing words?
Selected Readings _____________________________

Ekwall, E. E. (1986). Teacher's handbook on diagnosis and remediation in reading (2nd ed.)
(pp. 48—66). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Maggart, Z. R., & Zintz, M. V. (1990). Corrective reading (6th ed.) (pp. 75—87). Dubuque, IA:
Wm. C. Brown.
208 Chapter Eleven
OH: Merrill.
Rupley, W. H., & Blair, T. R. (1989). Reading diagnosis and remediation (3rd ed.) (pp. 147—168).
Taylor, B., Harris, L. A., & Pearson, P. D. (1988). Reading dfficulties: Instructionand assess-
meat (pp. 138—152, 157—164). New York: Random House.
Chapter 12
Treating Students with
Extreme Reading Disability
Reading disabilities vary in degree. Some children have learned practically noth-
ing, while others read poorly, but at a level barely below what is reasonable to
predict for them based on their reading expectancy. Children with extreme dis-
abilities in reading, sometimes called nonreaders or dyslexics, are at the low end
of the range. They have the most obstinate cases of disability and have failed to
learn even after reasonably extended instruction. They are not all alike. Students
with extreme reading disabilities differ in backgrounds, attitudes, perceptul
competencies, special difficulties, and other respects. It is necessary to recognize
individual differences among these students when organizing effective remedial
instruction. No single method or formula of remediation can possibly work for all
such students.
Methods of Treatment
Skill in teaching is very important for helping those with extreme reading dis-
abilities. Besides understanding the reading process, the teacher should be famil-
iar with a variety of diagnostic and remedial procedures. She must be versatile in
adapting these, both for accurate diagnosis of difficulties and for planning appro-
priate instruction, to each student. Patience, sympathetic understanding of the
child's difficulties, and skillful guidance and encouragement throughout the in-
structional program are important for managing these extreme cases.
Certain methods of remedial instruction have been notably successful in
teaching students with extreme reading disabilities to read. Three of these general
approaches are outlined briefly in the following sections.
209
210 Chapter Twelve
Methods with a Kinesthetic-

Auditory-Visual Emphasis
The Fernald method, described in detail by Fernald (1971), was originally de-
signed for and used successfully with students with extreme reading disabilities.
The features of the technique are to teach the child to write words correctly, to
motivate him to do this, to have him read the printed copy of what he has written,
and to move on eventually to extensive reading of materials other than his own.
The program consists of four stages.
Stage 1
The essence of this first stage is to have the child learn words through finger
tracing of written copy while pronouncing each partof the word. This is repeated
until the child can write the word without looking at the copy. Clinical experience
shows that it is best if the words are written in large letters. They may be written
for the child with crayon on paper or with chalk on the chalkboard. Some teachers
even have the child trace in the air with his eyes closed after having traced on
paper or chalkboard. Cursive writing is preferred, but many teachers feel that it
is best to use manuscript writing with young children. Words learned through
tracing may be used in stories a child wishes to write and may be filed in
alphabetical order. Points stressed in this first stage are that finger contact is
important in tracing, pronunciation of words must coincide with tracing them,
words must be written without looking at the copy, words should alwaysbe
written as units, and words should always be used in context. This means that the
child must use the words in meaningful groups in sentences.
Duration of tracing period. The length of the tracing period varies greatly from
child to child, depending on the individual need for tracing to retain the word.
Usually, the tracing period continues for about 1 to 2 months.
Material used. In the Fernald method, materials are not simplified in either
vocabulary or subject matter. Any word or sentence the child is capableof using
properly in oral language can be learned so that it can be written and read.
Clinical experience shows that when children learn using tracing methods, longer
words are often retained better than are shorter ones.
Stage 2 he
This is similar to stage 1, except that the child no longer needs to trace. Rather,
is able to learn a new word by looking at it, saying it to himself as he looks at it,
and then writing it without looking at the copy. With multisyllabic words, he says
each part of the word as he writes it, stressing the syllables. Using new wordsfor
writing activities and filing them are continued. In all activities, pronouncing
words as whole, unbroken units is emphasized.
Stage 3
This stage dispenses with the use of specially prepared copy. The child now
learns directly from standard printed words. He must still look at a printed
Treating Students with Extreme Reading Disability 211
word, say it to himself, and then write it. He may read from ordinary books, with
the teacher telling him words he does not know. Upon conclusion of reading, the
words the teacher has helped him with are learned by the child, following the
look-say-write method described previously. Many teachers select the books chil-
dren read in this stage, so as to minimize the number of unknown words a child
will encounter.
Stage 4
The child is able to recognize some new words from their resemblance to words
or word parts he remembers and on the basis of contextual clues. As in the
previous stage, the teacher tells the child all the words he cannot recognize.
Difficult words are looked at, said, and then written from memory Retention of
words learned in this way is reported to be 80% to 95%.
During remedial instruction, the child is not required to sound out any word
when he is reading, nor is any word sounded out for him by the teacher. Never-
theless, children taught by this method do acquire phonic skills through the
tracing-sounding and writing-sounding training. Although Fernald's children
were weak in phonics at the beginning of instruction and were given no formal
training in phonics, they were able, at the end of the instruction, to pass phonics
tests at their age level. For a much more complete description of the Fernald
method, see Fernald (1971, Chapter 5).
Many teachers have reported great success in having children trace trouble-
some words in the air with their eyes closed while pronouncing the words. This
modification emphasizes kinesthetic and auditory clues to word recognition
while reducing the role of vision. For some children with severe visual-perceptual
problems, tracing in the air with closed eyes seems to enable them to acquire ar
organized percept of the word, which eludes them when vision is involved.
When teaching a group of children, a kinesthetic-auditory-visual emphasis
can be achieved to some extent by inviting the children to listen carefully to the
word pronounced, to look carefully at the word in print, to say the word softly,
and to write the word.
Evaluation
When used by experienced clinicians, the Fernald method is undoubtedly suc-
cessful. In the early stages, it tends to be time consuming. In an extreme case,
tracing may continue for 8 months, although the average is only 2 months. But
other methods also require long periods of instruction when dealing with extreme
disabilities. So the time factors can hardly be termed a drawback. When instruc-
tion is given properly, the pupils can be as well motivated as by any other method.
It is worthwhile inquiring into why this method is successful. Fernald consid-
ers the kinesthesis, coupled with enthusiastic and efficient teaching, the key to
its success. It should be noted that in addition to kinesthesis, other important
features are included in proper teaching of this method: (1) The child learns
effectively the left-to-right sequences of perception by his simultaneous tracing-
sounding and writing-sounding of words. (2) The visual structure of the word is
212 Chapter Twelve
associated with sounding the pronounceable units of the word. (3) Skill in phon-
ics is learned without being taught formally. As part of his sounding, the child
learns what is equivalent to substitution of consonants in recognizing newwords.
After recognizing a familiar element in a word, the child attaches the proper
beginning or ending sound. Meanings supplied by theverbal context are used to
choose the proper ending or to begin to recognize the new word. In the sentence,
"Mary took the kitten home," the element ook may be associated with or recog-
nized as part of the familiar word book or look. The context then helps to give the
proper word took. Also, through tracing-writing-sounding, many initial and final
elements become familiar to the child, so that he makes substitutions readily.
(4) The very nature of the program leads to skill in syllabication. The Fernald
method teaches left-to-right direction of word perception, the visual form of
words, skill in phonics (including syllabication and the equivalent of substitution
of consonants), and the use of contextual clues for identifying and recognizing
words. (5) Added to all this is the fact that the child is strongly motivated by
working with materials that are interesting to him. Although the kinesthetic
aspects of this method may be very important for certain visually handicapped
and neurologically impaired children and for certain children with visual-percep-
tual or visual-processing difficulties, it should be noted that the emphasis on
left-to-right perception, the visual structure of words, skill in phonics, skill in
syllabication, and the use of context are inherent to the method when it is prop-
erly taught. It is doubtful that kinesthesis alone is responsiblefor the success of
the method, but rather, kinesthesis in combination with a sound, well-balanced
program for teaching word perception in remedial instruction seems to be the key.
Besides word recognition, the Fernald method stresses the development of vo-
cabular concepts, and comprehension.
Methods with an Auditory

(Sound-Blending) Emphasis
A strong phonic analysis approach has been incorporated into a number of
remedial procedures. Among the comprehensive programs that have been suc-
cessful in teaching students with extreme reading disabilities are those developed
by Monroe (1932) and by Gillingham and Stillman (1960). To use any phonics-
based remedial approach, it is imperative that the teacher be familiar with the
details of the program. Teachers using such an approach should be familiar with
the two sources just mentioned.
Successful phonics-based techniques emphasize patient, repetitive drill work,
but include sufficient variety to retain the learner's interest without sacrificing the
fundamental purposes of the drill. Such remedial programs must be prescribed
by the teacher for each child. Known phonic elements shouldbe passed over very
lightly, and unknown elements should receive heavy emphasis, to ensure maxi-
mum benefit to each child.
Monroe's Method
In extreme cases, faulty pronunciation of vowels and consonants is a major
source of difficulty. Although exact remedial needs differ from child to child,
many who have a severe disability need instruction in discriminating specific
speech sounds, in associating visual symbols with letter sounds, and in coordi-
nating the temporal sequence of sounds with the left-to-right sequence of letters
in a word.
One of the first steps is to strengthen the ability to discriminate speech
sounds. Pictures of several objects beginning with the same consonant or contain-
ing the same vowel are mounted on cards. The pictures may be obtained from
magazines or old books. Examples of typical initial consonants used are
b as in boy, book m as in man, moon

c as in coat, cat t as in tiger, table
As far as possible, words that contain a vowel immediately after the initial
consonant are chosen for this early drill. Single consonant sounds are learned
more readily than consonant blends. Thus, the s sound is learned more easily in
seed than in store.
Cards with pictures are arranged similarly for the vowels, such as
a as in man, cat a as in box, top

e as in pen, hen i as in fire, kite
To develop discrimination, the instruction is started with unlike sounds, for

example, m compared with s. The cards form and s are arranged in a row in mixed
order, thus:
men soap moon seed

The child is instructed to sound the m and then name the object in the picture.
After she succeeds with unlike sounds, the more difficult discriminations are
taught, such as s and sh in seed and shell, respectively. These drills are varied by
asking the child to give words beginning with a certain sound. A similar proce-
dure is followed in the drills on vowels.
The next step is associating the letters with their most frequent sounds.
Tracing is introduced as a reinforcement when necessary The child traces a letter
written by the teacher. She then sounds it as she traces. This is repeated until she
can look at the letter and sound it correctly without tracing. Ordinarily, five or six
consonant sounds can be learned at one sitting. After learning several consonant
and vowel sounds, the child is taught blending letter sounds into words. The
sounding-tracing method is an important aid in this. The sounding becomes a
slow, distinct articulation of the word as a unit while it is being traced. Recall is
tested by presenting the words printed on cards. With this, the child is encour-
214 Chapter Twelve
aged to articulate the separate letter sounds and blend them. The phonics skills
the child acquires give her a feeling of mastery in word recognition.
Next, the child progresses to reading specially prepared phonetic stories.
Soon, she is able to handle stories in ordinary primers and first readers. Non-
phonetic words are learned by tracing-sounding. As the child gains vocabulary
and reading ability, the nonphonetic words are identified from context.
Monroe (1932) found it necessary to give the child a definite motor cue to the
correct direction for left-to-right sequencing in perceiving words. This is accom-
plished by tracing-sounding similar to that practiced by Fernald (1971).
Failure to discriminate consonant blends and failure to discriminate word
forms accurately frequently lead to adding sounds. The sounds more frequently
added are r and 1. When this tendency persists, drills are given on lists of words
that are alike, except for the presence of r or 1. Examples include fog-frog and
pan-plan.
Errors of omission, addition, subtraction, or repetition are usually the result
of a failure to recognize words accurately or an overemphasis on speed. Reading
aloud by the teacher and child together helps, as does more emphasis on devel-
oping better word-analysis skills and going back to easier reading materials. If
any of these errors remain, the teacher should call them to the attention of the
child so that she may try to avoid them. A tape recorder can be useful as a check
on accuracy. Emphasis on contextual clues is also helpful.
The Gillingham-Stillman Method

Another phonics approach, advanced by Gillingham and Stillman (1960), has
been used widely with children experiencing serious reading difficulties. In con-
trast to methods we generally advocate, which deal with letters and sounds
found in words, the Gillingham-Stillman method teaches the sounds of the letters
and then builds these letters into words. Letter-sound correspondence is estab-
lished by forming close associations between visual, auditory, and kinesthetic
elements.
First, the child is taught the name of each letter. This is done by showing a
letter card and teaching the child to say the name. Second, sounds are taught. If
the child's production of sounds is faulty the teacher produces the sound and the
child imitates it. Such drill is given only when needed and for no longer than
necessary.
Third, a practice drill is given. The teacher says the names of various letters,
and the child responds with the related sound she has learned. Fourth, practice is
given as necessary in tracing, copying, and writing from memory todictation. In
all instances, the child says the name of the letter as she writes it.
The procedure progresses through the teaching of letters, elements, and syl-
lables, to work with words. Lessons are highly structured, and reading, spelling,
and handwriting are all taught in a unified program. Special materials with a high
degree of phonic consistency are employed. The student learning by this method
is required to do no reading or spelling, except with the remedial reading teacher.
DISTAR
The program, Reading Mastery: DISTAR Reading I (Englemann & Bruner, 1983),
has also been used to provide remedial work for students with extreme reading
disabilities. DISTAR incorporates a heavy emphasis on blending sounds, but is a
more complete program that uses scripted teaching instructions, instructional
reading, and a behavioral management system, in addition to isolated drills.
Evaluation
Both the Monroe and the Gillingham-Stillman methods are definite, rigid drill
programs requiring much time. They progress from letter sounds to words in
sentences. Both methods use kinesthesis as an aid to associating letters with their
sounds. They delay reading of words longer than the Fernald method. However,
teaching reading to students with severe reading disabilities takes time, whatever
the method used. When successful, the Monroe technique enables the child to use
reading skills in a variety of ordinary reading materials more quickly than does
the Gillingham-Stillman method, which stresses keeping the child on a restricted
set of reading materials during her training. The view taken in this book is that,
although these techniques are necessary for some students with severe reading
disabilities, generally, other methods achieve quicker results. The Gillingham-
Stillman method in particular is exceptionally rigid and restrictive and is recom-
mended only for students with the most severe reading disabilities who have
failed to establish a fundamental knowledge of phonics. Englemann and Bruner's
DISTAR reading program shares the auditory-emphasis approach just described,
but is a more complete, faster-paced reading method that lacks the depth and the
individual focus of the Monroe and the Gillingham-Stillman procedures.
Methods with a Visual-Structural Emphasis

Visual-structural approaches are similar to approaches used in good classroom
teaching, but are more intensified. The child is encouraged to recognize words as
entities and, in studying them, to inspect each word carefully, part by part, from
left to right. At the same time, the child notes similarities and differences, includ-
ing minimal differences, among words, with an early emphasis on word begin-
nings and a later emphasis on the overall structure of the words. In this way, the
child establishes a knowledge of word elements in the actual process of contex-
tual reading. Knowledge of phonic and structural elements is not neglected, but
is taught so closely with actual reading that the transfer of the skills into total
word-recognition capabilities is accomplished. When successful, this method
helps to produce fluent, thoughtful readers. Of course, some children will need
more diversified programs, with added intensive drill on the word elements
themselves.
Remedial instruction for children with extreme reading disabilities is like that
for students without reading disabilities, except that the program of instruction is
managed more precisely. Its adjustment to individual needs and use of individual
216 Chapter_Twelve
instruction are emphasized. The teacher has to spend more time and exercise
more care explaining and demonstrating each technique explicitly. Additional
explanations, demonstrations, and suggestions are given as needed. The teacher
ensures that the student moves ahead at a suitable pace. When amethod does not
appear to help, the teacher shifts to some other form of assistance.
If individualized teaching of commonly used procedures is not successful, the
teacher may resort to some of the more specialized techniques. First, the custom-
ary methods of observing words, using contextual clues, analyzing words visu-
ally and through sounds, and developing an appropriate left-to-right orientation
in word perception are given adequate time to function. If the child's responses
then reveal inadequate progress in learning to read, the teacher may resort, for
example, to a tracing technique. Even in this case, however, the specialized
technique is not continued for weeks and months. Rather, it isused merely as a
means of getting the child started, so that he will consistently maintain the
left-to-right progression in reading words. Once the child has begun to make
headway in the tracing technique, he should be shifted back to a program that
covers the full range of reading activities for a child without reading disabilities.
Evaluation
Methods with a visual-structural emphasis have certain advantages over other
methods: (1) They tend to be flexible, with provisions for shifting temporarily to
more specialized techniques when needed. (2) Many, but not all, children with
severe reading disabilities achieve overall reading improvement sooner with
visual-structural methods than with the more specialized techniques. (3) Often, it
is desirable to start a student with a severe reading disability with a visual-struc-
tural program. Then, if, after a fair trial, the student's progress is not satisfactory,
the teacher can turn to one of the other techniques. Programs that emphasizethe
tracing and writing of words seem to benefit most the child who has difficulty
forming an organized percept of whole words, and auditory (sound-blending)
methods seem to help most the child who is notably stronger in auditory than in
other learning abilities. After some progress is made with specialized fixed pro-
cedures, a gradual transition can be made toward the broader and less mechanical
instruction used with children without reading disabilities.
Almost any competent remedial reading teacher can teach many of her stu-
dents with extreme reading disabilities to read through the use of any of the
methods discussed here. To be really expert, the teacher should be able to use each
of the methods effectively and, after a thorough analysis of a child's reading
needs, apply the method most suitable for that particular child. There is no single
surefire method for teaching every student who has extreme reading disabilities,
and the same is true for less extreme cases.
Probably, the reason for the success of the highly specialized methods used
with students with extreme reading disabilities is that a high percentage of these
students have basic problems with word recognition, which is the aspect of
reading these methods stress. It should be also noted that, althougheach method
is successful in general, any of them could prove detrimental to a specificindivid-
ual. Accordingly, the best approach to extreme reading disability appears to lie in
making an exact diagnosis and then applying the indicated remedial work, which
in some instances might well be a tracing-writing or a phonic drill program. In
most cases, however, a more balanced approach, as described in Chapters 10 and
11, should be used.
Treating Orientational Difficulties

Word-orientation confusions are among the most troublesome errors made by
children with extreme reading disabilities. Full reversals, part reversals, axial
rotations of letters, and other orientational confusions in word recognition inter-
fere with the child's reading development. Any child who makes an excessive
number' of such errors has a limiting condition that must be corrected before
continued advancement in reading can be expected.
The term reversals is used to describe several different kinds of errors in
orientation: perceiving letters in reverse orientation, for example, d for b when
reading dig for big, and perceiving letters in reverse order or partial reverse order.
An example of a complete reversal is reading saw for was or no for on. A partial
reversal is illustrated in a student's reading own for now or ate for tea. Also, there
may be a reversal of the order of words in a sentence, as in "The rat caught a cat"
for "The cat caught a rat."
During the preschool years, children learn to recognize people, places, ani-
mals, and objects, both from firsthand visual experience and from viewing televi-
sion or pictures. In either case, the direction of the perceptual sequences, as
revealed by the child's eye movements, is neither orderly nor oriented to a
specific direction. Rather, they are a series of brief glances, while the eyes move
in an irregular pattern of fixations over the object or picture. The direction of the
movements is just as likely to be from right to left as left to right, or upward as
downward, or obliquely in any direction. As children look over an object, noting
features of interest or searching for familiar details, the direction of the eye
movements is not only irregular, but also unpredictable to a large degree. These
habits of perception are established before children enter school. Unless system-
atic instruction is given by the time a child begins to read words and sentences,
she is likely to continue the habit of examining words by means of irregular
directional sequences. To be efficient, the child must read words in a sentence, one
after another, from left to right. Unless a word is recognized at a glance, the child
must proceed along the word from left to right to identify it correctly.
The development of proper directional habits in reading requires two related
learned skills. The first is the left-to-right sequence of eye movements along a line
of print. This is a somewhat gross orientation that, nonetheless, must be learned.
The second habit is the left-to-right direction of analysis required to identify and
recognize words proficiently. This is a more precise and difficult facility. Contrary
to one's first impression, these two aspects of sequential orientation in reading are
related only roughly. True enough, both involve beginning at the left and pro-
218 Chapter Twelve
gressing toward the right. But a child may have learned to begin at the left endof
a line of print and, in general, move her eyes toward the right, without having
mastered proper directional orientation within particular words. Extensive, con-
tinual training is needed for the latter.
Word Perception
Because reversals result from an incorrect orientation in perceiving words, both
diagnosis and remedial instruction are necessarily more complicated for reversals
than for directional habits in reading lines of print. The most exact diagnosis of
reversal tendencies is obtained through the use of standardized tests such as the
Gates-McKillop-Horowitz test, described in Chapter 8.
It has already been noted that it is normal for beginning readers to make some
reversals and that these are gradually eliminated by most children as they pro-
gress in reading. For each student with a reading problem, therefore, it must be
determined whether the reversals are excessive enough to cause trouble, rather
than being merely occasional incidents in otherwise adequate reading. In other
words, it is necessary to decide whether the frequency of reversals is merely a sign
of immature reading or is a genuine reading handicap.
As soon as children begin to read words and lines of print, proper directional
orientation must be stressed. Effective reading is achieved only when perceptual
sequences, guided largely by eye movements, move from left to right. Exceptfor
sight words—those which are recognized at a glance—children must be in-
structed to examine a word from left to right in attempting to recognize it. It is
necessary for the teacher to demonstrate repeatedly the proper directional orien-
tation in perceiving words. She should be sure, before using the terms left and
right, that all the children know their meaning.
The left-to-right habit is by no means confined to beginning instruction in
reading. This orientational training is continued, more or less, throughout instruc-
tion designed to develop the word-recognition techniques. Such training is con-
structive only when done correctly and systematically. Working out word
identification through attention to initial consonants, substitution of consonants,
phonetic analysis, structural analysis, syllabication, and use of the dictionary
requires constant attention to left-to-right orientation. Some students with proper
directional habits in the early stages of reading abandon these habits at later
stages, unless additional instruction is given.
Remedial Procedures
In general, substantial problems in reversing the order of letters in words occur
more frequently among those readers who have the most disabilities (DeHirsh,
Jansky, & Langford, 1966). This is not surprising when one refers back to the
causes of reversals in word perception discussed previously. The child who has
severe eye defects, who has received inadequate training in left-to-right orienta-
tion, who has been taught to emphasize word endings rather than beginnings, or
who has been exposed to an improper program of phonics training, not only
develops reversals but also seldom progresses far in learning to read. Any analy-
sis of the methods used successfully to instruct nonreaders or readers with severe
reading disabilities reveals that much emphasis is given to orderly, left-to-right
inspection of words, with stress on developing a suitable perception of words as
entities and with instruction in the proper blending of letter sounds into complete
words.
Nevertheless, the remedial reading teacher must not assume that correction
of reversal tendencies is the entire instructional program for any child with
reversal difficulties. Ordinarily, other difficulties are also present and must be
remedied. But when reversals exist in significant numbers, as is found in about 10
percent of cases of children with severe reading disabilities, they arecrucial and
require carefully organized and sometimes prolonged treatment.
At' first, the teacher should explain the necessity of viewing words from left
to right. She should accompany this explanation with a demonstration. After
writing a word on the chalkboard or on paper, she should move a pointer or her
finger along the word as she pronounces it slowly. To emphasize this process
when restudy is needed, she should move her finger quickly back to the very
beginning of the word and progress to the right again as she reads it a second
time. This time, the teacher should stress the desirability of grasping the word as
a unit after the difficult part is worked out. Next, the method of recognizing an
unfamiliar word found in the context of a sentence is explained and demonstrated
by the teacher in a similar manner. Her finger underlines the words as they are
read. After a slight pause on reaching the unfamiliar word, the teacher moves her
finger slowly along the word, pronouncing it as she did with the isolated word.
The explanations and demonstrations are repeated as often as necessary while the
student is practicing the left-to-right orientation in perceiving words. It is desfr-
able for the student to practice with words in sentences as soon as possible, so that
he may use contextual clues as much as possible in word recognition. In practic-
ing sentences, he will become accustomed to using left-to-right progression along
lines of print and to identifying unknown words in actual reading situations.
Guided practice is transferred to sentences and paragraphs in book materials as
soon as possible. It is important for the teacher to make sure that the child's skill
in proper perceptual orientation in reading isolated words and words in isolated
sentences does transfer to book reading. For some children, this transfer is diffi-
cult and they need much directed practice.
Although a child may be encouraged at first to use his finger or a manila
marker to guide his perception along the lines of print and along the successive
letters in an unknown word, certain precautions are necessary. This technique is
definitely a crutch and should be eliminated gradually when it is no longer
needed. Some teachers feel that the use of a marker is better because it is easier to
eliminate than is finger pointing. Whether the child uses his finger or a marker,
the teacher should instruct him so that the perceptual aid is used properly; that
is, the child should not point at one word after another with stops, but should use
a consistent and continuous sliding movement from left to right to guide se-
220 Chapter Twelve
quences of perception. Otherwise, the finger or marker may be used only to keep
place, rather than to promote left-to-right progression. It accomplishes nothing if
the finger or marker is moved forward and backward along a line or a word or if
it is held in one place while the reader examines a word in random order. Using
the finger or marker as a pointer produces proper directional movements in
reading and corrects reversal tendencies only when it is carefully supervised by
the teacher.
Other Systematic Approaches

The approach with a kinesthetic-auditory-visual emphasis, described earlier, is
one of the most effective methods to use with children who experience persistent
reversal difficulties. A modification of an approach with a phonics emphasis
using sounding and tracing is also effective. The procedure is illustrated by the
following example. The word man is written in large, cursive writing on a piece
of paper. The teacher directs the child's attention to the word and its pronuncia-
tion. The child is asked to say man as slowly as possible, as demonstrated by the
teacher. She then traces over the word while saying man slowly. She is encouraged
to trace quickly and speak slowly, so as to come out even. The aim of this is to
pronounce the word distinctly and slowly enough that its sequence of sounds
becomes evident. Further training teaches the knack of sliding the voice from one
sound to the next so that the word is pronounced as a unit.
A sound-dictation method has been substituted as a variation of the tracing
method. Here, the child writes words as the teacher dictates their sounds slowly.
First, the child is told that she will hear the separate sounds and is asked to say
them slowly as she writes the letters for each sound. Thus, the teacher pronounces
man, first having asked the child both to say and to write whateverword she says.
For man, the child determines that the a is short by hearing the teacher sound it
that way. In this method, the child must have learned the letters that correspond
to the letter sounds and know how to write them. Children achieving at the
second- and third-grade levels usually do well on such drills. According to Mon-
roe (1932), writing from dictation with these directions is as helpful as tracing,
and some children prefer to write. Both the tracing-sounding and the writing-
sounding techniques encourage the discrimination of sound sequences in words
and the coordination of these with visual sequences.
Writing Words
Many children with reversal problems have already had some experience writing.
The remedial reading teacher can make good use of writing to promote a correct
orientation in dealing with words. When writing, it is necessary to begin at the
left and move to the right. When writing is used to develop a left-to-right orien-
tation, it should be performed free rather than by copying material from a chalk-
board, a chart, or a book. The latter tends to become a piecemeal operation instead
of a continuous sequence. The training can be started with simple words and
sentences. Some polysyllabic words should be used as soon as the child can
handle them. She should be encouraged to observe and pronounce each word
aloud to herself as she writes it. This calls attention to the sequence of the word
elements needed for correct perception. If writing is to be effective in correcting
reversals, the child must observe the correct order of letters and letter sounds in
the words she is writing. Whether the writing used is cursive or manuscript, the
same approach should be used.
If the child has any tendency to use mirror writing (writing from right to left),
it will immediately be obvious. Ordinarily, this reverse writing can be corrected
by explaining to the child the need to move from left to right and by having her
start writing words at the extreme left of the paper or chalkboard. She will then
move readily in the only direction possible, which is to the right. In extreme cases,
the child may be told, when writing sentences, to write the separate words
underneath each other, each word starting at the left margin of the paper. Or the
teacher may make a short vertical line at which the first letter of each succeeding
word in a sentence is to begin. This special procedure should be eliminated as
soon as possible.
Keyboarding
Keyboarding has been suggested as a technique for developing correct orienta-
tion in word perception. Presumably, the child will observe the correct sequence
of letters in words as she enters them. It is true that she will get some practice in
noting the beginnings of words on the copy as she enters the first letter, then the
second, then the third, and so on through the word. But if she is just learning to
keyboard, she is merely entering a series of letters that happen to be in groups.
She will be so engrossed in selecting and pressing each key that she will be unable
to use the correct techniques of word perception, either on the copy or in what.
she enters. Studies of keyboarding reveal that words are entered as units only
after a good deal of skill has been attained. This certainly would not be the case
with most young children. Furthermore, if the child is at the beginning stage of
keyboarding, she likely has little understanding of what is being entered. The
beginner's attention is devoted to the mechanics of keyboarding letters, not to
word units and meanings. Moreover, it is possible to enter words and not recog-
nize them. Left-to-right progression along a word must be combined with identi-
fication of the word in order to be effective in developing correct orientation in
word perception. The teacher will find it very difficult to teach proper orientation
for word perception through keyboarding; other methods are better and less
cumbersome.
Other Techniques
There are several other techniques for encouraging the correct directional orien-
tation in perceiving words. Of primary concern is developing the habit of initial
attention to beginnings of words. Familiarity with and proper use of initial conso-
nants and consonant blends, as explained in the previous chapter, are extremely
important. Many children with reversal problems do not have this familiarity.
222 Chapter Twelve
While remedial work is being done on deficiencies in knowledge of initial conso-

nants, the teacher may employ a variety of exercises for teaching the child to
notice word beginnings first of all. The following are examples:
1. To direct attention to the initial sound of words and, at the same time, to
ensure that the whole word is read, sentences are arranged with one word miss-
ing. The child is instructed to read each sentence, to notice the beginning sound
that is underlined in one word in each sentence, and then to draw a circle around
the word below the sentence that begins with the same sound and makes sense
in the sentence. To choose correctly, the child must note both the beginning sound
and the meaning of the right word:
John et his feet in the —.
wall lake water
Mary's kitten likes to drink
milk make cream
2. Training in substitution of consonants may be used to emphasize word
beginnings:
a. Using words in context, show the child a sentence such as "He came to
see the new game." Ask the child to read the sentence and find two
words that look alike, except for the first letter. Pronounce came, and
have the child point to the letter that stands for the first sound. Do the
same for game. Next, write the letters t, s, n, g, c, and have the child give
the sounds of the letters. Then write the word came. After the beginning
letter is located correctly, erase c and substitute t. Pronounce the new
word. Continue with the word game. Interchange the initial consonants
s, n, and c again, emphasizing the function of the initial letter and its
sound in pronouncing the words.
b. Present a word such as may or last or pig to the child. Then ask the child
to tell you a word that looks and sounds like may, except at the begin-
ning. When he mentions a word like day, erase the m in may while he
watches, and substitute the initial consonant of the word mentioned.
Ask the child to pronounce the new word, and note how changing just
the first letter makes a new word.
When using substitution of consonants to emphasize attention to word begin-
nings, remember to stress initial letters and sounds.
3. Various games may be played for informal training in using initial conso-
nants to direct attention to word beginnings. Consonant Lotto and the first part
of the Group Sounding Game in the Dolch materials (The Garrard Press, Cham-
paign, Illinois) are designed for this purpose.
Word wheels and the other devices described in the previous chapter may be
made for drilling the child on initial consonants in emphasizing word beginnings.
In using a word wheel, words having the same ending are used, such as throat,
coat, goat, boat, float, and gloat. On the bottom disk, only the word beginnings are
typed or printed, and they are placed so that they show through an opening in
the top disk, on which the ending -oat is printed to the right of the opening. The
two disks may be rotated so that the child can see that, by changing the initial
elements, new words are made. This causes the child to pay attention to the word
beginnings in order to recognize the words shown.
In a similar manner, a column of initial elements of words having the same
ending can be typed or printed, using triple spacing, on a slip cut from a manila
folder. Then an exposure card can be made by cutting a slit in a piece of manilla
folder. The word ending should be typed or printed just to the right of the slit.
(See the word-slip device in Chapter 11.) When the slip is moved into position,
the various initial elements are exposed, one after another, for the child to use in
making the words. He will notice the changing elements, since they determine
what the words will be.
In all this work, the teacher should present the exercise so that the child
always sees the initial consonant as the word is exposed. This is done by going
at a leisurely pace, by pointing to the initial consonant, and by having the
child sound the consonant and blend it with the word ending. If this technique
is not used, the child may remember the initial sound and look first at the
ending. The purpose is to teach the child always to notice first the beginning
of the word. Noticing the beginning of a word first must become an ingrained
habit.
4. It has been suggested that a demonstration of reversal errors is valuable in
discussing directional orientation in word perception. The purpose of this is to
show a child what happens when he starts reading at the end or the middle of a
word, rather than at the beginning. For instance, the teacher writes war and razb
one above the other. She then points out that the same letters are in both words,
but they are different words, so that he should always start at the left end of a
word in reading it. Similarly, she calls attention to left and felt or other partial or
complete reversals.
5. Alphabetizing and dictionary exercises promote left-to-right orientation in
perceiving words. For early practice in alphabetizing, the child should have a file
box or folder with the alphabet marked on the dividing cards. A single word that
has been learned is written on a slip of paper. The word is then filed by its initial
letter. When the order of the alphabet has been learned, several words beginning
with the same letter can be filed, according to the sequence of letters within the
word. All this develops the habit of looking first at the beginnings of words and
then progressing from left to right. Information on developing skills in alphabet-
izing and using the dictionary are given in teachers' manuals accompanying basic
reading series.
A picture dictionary can be made for more immature readers. Picture diction-
aries show a child how the alphabet is used for classification. Also, when the child
writes a word for the dictionary, it gives him practice in progressing through a
word from left to right.
224 Chapter Twelve
Other temporary ways to support a student who is having difficulty with

reversals include teaching the child to cover confusing words with a card and to
move it from left to right to uncover the letters in sequence, drilling the child with
flash cards of words he persistently reverses, or underlining with a green marker
the first letters of words to be read.
Preventing Reversals
It is desirable to teach beginning reading so that reversal tendencies are averted.
From the start, proper orientation in word study should be stressed, as discussed
in the initial parts of this chapter and in the previous chapter. This becomes
particularly important in teaching aspects of word analysis such as observing
initial consonants and phonograms and blending letter sounds into correct se-
quences. The first letter or letter group in a word should be sounded first, fol-
lowed by an orderly progression to the right. A well-organized program of
teaching word analysis (see the preceding chapter), with attention to individual
needs, should help to establish the customary left-to-right progression needed to
prevent reversals.
Summary
The child with an extreme reading disability is the child who has learned little or no
reading during several or more years in school. Three types of remedial methods
have proved to be especially successful in teaching these children to read. A
tracing-sounding-writing method, such as was suggested originally by Fernald,
has been effective in developing a left-to-right orientation in word perception, in
directing attention to the visual characteristics of words, in developing skill in
phonics and syllabication, and in the use of context in recognizing words. This
method also emphasizes developing vocabulary, concepts, and comprehension,
but it is detailed and time consuming and must be done on an individual basis.
The approach is often successful with students with extreme reading disabilities,
but it requires an unusually great amount of time on the part of the teacher.
Phonic (sound-blending) methods, such as those developed by Monroe
(1932) and Gillingham and Stiliman (1960), have been successful for some chil-
dren with extreme reading disabilities. These methods emphasize patient repeti-
tion of necessary drill. Tracing-sounding is employed when necessary The
Reading Mastery: DISTAR Program (Englemann & Bruner, 1983) also stresses
sound blending heavily, in a more complete reading program. Although phonic
methods are useful for many children, they should not be used with those who
are already overanalytical.
Another method embodies all the procedures and techniques used to teach
children without reading disabilities in good classroom programs. This method
works with children who have reading disabilities when they receive intensive
instruction based on an accurate understanding of their individual needs.
The expert remedial teacher should be familiar with all these methods so that
she will use the most appropriate procedure for each child. A careful diagnosis
can usually specify the area of difficulty and suggest the type of instruction
needed. Such a diagnosis shows which approach or combination of approaches
would be best in a particular case.
A special problem that most beginning readers experience and soon over-
come, but that remains a genuine reading handicap for a few, is difficulty with
left-to-right word perception. Many methods to eliminate reversal tendencies
in word perception have been described. The more important ones include
(1) explanation and demonstration of the left-to-right progression in studying
unknown words, (2) the Fernald tracing-sounding-writing method, (3) the com-
bined phonic and sounding-tracing method, (4) writing words, (5) instruction in
substitution of consonants, and (6) practice in alphabetizing and the use of the
dictionary.
Remedial instruction for reversals includes methods that direct the pupil's
attention to the beginning of a word and that lead to a consistent left-to-right
progression in studying a word. These twin techniques encourage the habit of
noticing the beginnings of words, followed by visually surveying the word ele-
ments from left to right, followed by sounding and blending these elements into
whole words. The particular methods used will depend upon the nature and
severity of a child's reading difficulties, as revealed by diagnosis.
Study Questions
1. Describe the stages used in teaching a student to read new words with ttle
Fernald approach. What cautions are indicated when using this method?
2. What essential similarities and differences were there between the phonic
approaches discussed in this chapter?
3. What can teachers do to help students with orientational difficulties?
Selected Readings
Crawley, S. J., & Merritt, K. (1991). Remediating reading difficulties (pp. 44—46). Dubuque IA:
Wm. C. Brown.
Fernald, G. M. (1971). Remedial techniques in basic school subjects. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gillingham, A., & Stiliman, B. W. (1960). Remedial training for children with specific disability
in reading, spelling, and penmanship. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service.
Kirk, S. A., Kliebhan, J. M., & Lerner, J. W. (1978). Teaching reading to slow and disabled
learners (pp. 136—153). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Monroe, M. (1932). Children who cannot read. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chapter 13
Adapting Instruction for
Children with Disabilities
Teachers must be aware that some children with reading difficulties also have
special learning disabilities. Children with complex reading disabilities not only
need expert remedial reading instruction, but must also have instruction modi-
fied according the characteristics of their specific disabilities.
Many children with disabilities find complex learning, such as reading, con-
fusing and frustrating. Others learn to read exceedingly well despite their dis-
abilities. For example, many children with a mild hearing impairment derhe
great satisfaction from reading. If their reading skills become well developed,
these children may become such avid readers that they eventually demonstrate
better-than-average reading achievement. But if a child with another disability
also becomes disabled in reading, her problem becomes more complex. Disabling
conditions that may contribute to and complicate the correction of reading diffi-
culties include poor vision, imperfect hearing, speech defects, emotional prob-
lems, and neurological limitations. The diagnostic and remedial methods
described in previous chapters are, by themselves, insufficient to solve the learn-
ing problems of children with these disabilities.
In some instances, the educational program for any specific group of children
with disabilities may be conducted in special classes using methods and equip-
ment designed to meet the children's particular instructional needs. More com-
monly, these children are taught in the mainstream classroom and perhaps in the
resource room, with procedures adapted as needed to enable them to progress
effectively. Appropriate educational adjustments are treated in books dealing
with the psychology and education of exceptional children and youth. In this
chapter, we discuss the special modifications of remedial procedures that are
227
228 Chapter Thirteen
needed for dealing with the added complications a separate disability causes in
conjunction with reading difficulties.
Throughout this book, the emphasis has been on adapting instruction to the
requirements of the individual, as ascertained by a careful diagnosis. When deal-
ing with reading difficulties complicated by other disabilities, there is need for
even more exacting individual adaptation. Much depends upon skillful guidance.
The fullest measure of success is achieved when an alert teacher senses every
aspect of a student's difficulty and has at her command the exact procedures,
demonstrations, materials, and instructional techniques to overcome or at least
alleviate the difficulty. She must know just what materials and procedures to
select for that difficulty and when to shift from one procedure to another in order
to help the student continue to improve in reading. In other words, the teacher
must be flexible in organizing his remedial programs, in beginning at the right
point, and in introducing new materials and techniques to promote continuous
progress toward learning to read better.
Especially relevant is the personality of the teacher, who must be willing to
work patiently to gain and maintain good rapport with the child. For even the
prospect of success, the child must like his teacher and expect that he is going to
help her. Only when there is a secure, positive relationship between the child and
the teacher is it possible for the teacher to provide the incentives that will main-
tain the motivation necessary to achieve lasting improvement in reading. Besides
being well trained, the teacher must like children and be enthusiastic about his
work. It is not too much to say that success in teaching children with disabilities
depends mostly on the teacher.
It is inconceivable that any single, narrow, or limited approach to reading will
be found adequate for helping children with complex reading disabilities become
effective readers. The very nature of the learning adjustments these children must
make to read successfully varies from one type of disability to another. Programs
for such children have to be devised to foster the adjustments they must make in
order to be effective learners.
Children with both reading and other disabilities especially need to feel
successful in the remedial reading venture. Teachers must remember that the
basic task in teaching these children is to modify the teaching procedures that are
used to correct the reading problem in light of the unique adjustments that must
be made to overcome the additional learning problems the children have because
of their other disabilities. Among these disabilities are visual impairment, audi-
tory impairment, neurological impairment, emotional maladjustment, mental
deficits, and speech impairment.
The Child with Visual Impairment

Many visual defects, such as ordinary myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism,and mus-
cular imbalance, can be remedied by properly fitted glasses, contact lenses, or
Adapting Instruction for Children with Disabilities 229
other medical means. Children with fully corrected vision suffer no visual diffi-
culties when they learn to read.
Every child should have visual screening and adequate follow-up when
needed, before he receives instruction in reading. Any necessary treatment or
correction must be provided. There should be periodic visual examinations
throughout the school years to identify and correct any significant defects that
may develop. Methods for diagnosing visual impairments were discussed in
Chapter 4.
A small number of children have visual impairments that cannot be corrected
completely. Accompanied by consultation with a competent eye specialist, educa-
tional adaptations are necessary for children with low visual acuity. In teaching
these children, the length of the lesson, typography, and illumination must be
considered. Reading periods should be brief, and the instructional conditions
should make the visual task as effortless as possible. There is ample evidence that
both children without visual impairment and children with visual impairment
find that words in large type sizes are easier to perceive correctly. Children of
elementary school age express a preference for large type, as do children with low
visual acuity (Wiess, 1982). It is also advisable to use material printed on a line of
about 24 to 27 picas (4 to 41/2 inches), with ample leading or space between lines,
for children with visual acuity problems. Supplementary material can be pre-
pared for these children, using typewriters with primer-size type. Children with
visual impairment should have an ample amount and variety of reading material.
Also necessary is abundant illumination. This means at least 50 foot-candles
of light in any area where visually demanding activities, such as reading, art and
craft work, chalkboard work, or writing, are performed. Felt-tipped pens and
pencils that produce thick black lines should be used.
Reading should be coordinated with other means of learning. Learning
through listening and discussing should be emphasized, and creative activities,
such as dramatics, are beneficial. The teacher must assume responsibility for
encouraging learning through listening and doing. This entails much discussion,
reading aloud, storytelling, guidance of group discussion, and supervision of
creative activities on the part of the teacher. Audiovisual instruction, employing
audiotapes, sound motion pictures, tape and slide presentations, videotapes, and
television, is also valuable.
Children with visual impairment are usually not at a disadvantage in
phonological awareness. As a consequence, an emphasis on phonics in beginning
reading instruction can be helpful for many of them. Care must be taken, how-
ever, not to overemphasize letter-sound associations and, as soon as possible, to
direct the children's attention to whole-word recognition and to perceiving the
larger pronounceable units of words, such as syllables, word roots, prefixes, and
suffixes. Doing this enhances effective visual perception and minimizes the need
for a minute examination of the details of letters in working out words. Contex-
tual clues should be stressed as an aid to word recognition and to recognizing
words in thought units. Any procedure that leads to perceiving groups of words,
whole words, and larger parts of words in word analysis helps reduce the de-
tailed visual work in reading.
Children with only a mild degree of visual impairment can participate in the
standard reading program. The teacher should select recreational reading materi-
als with clear print, see that there is adequate illumination in the classroom, and
encourage these students to rest their eyes occasionally. Some children with mild
visual impairment benefit from being taught to use paper or tagboard markers to
isolate the line of print they are reading, in order to minimize visual distraction.
Reading speed should be deemphasized, and accurate word recognition and close
attention to meaning should be stressed.
The Child with Auditory Impairment

Adaptations for children with hearing impairments differ, since they are impaired
to varying degrees. The deaf are those whose hearing loss is so severe and is
acquired so young that it precludes the normal development of spoken language.
Other children are classified as partially hearing. They are able to use spoken
language, but their auditory handicap limits their learning and use of language.
Auditory limitations range from slight to profound.
The sooner the hearing loss is detected, the better off the child is, because
appropriate help in the early years enables children to use their hearing as effec-
tively as possible and acquire language as fully as possible. All children should
be given an adequate hearing screening before entering school. The measurement
of hearing has been discussed in Chapter 4.
Slight Hearing Impairment

Moderate educational adaptations help the child with a slight hearing impair-
ment to succeed in the mainstream classroom. Such a student should be given a
favorable seat close to where the teacher usually talks to the class. Words should
always be enunciated clearly whenever a child with hearing impairment is the
listener. The child will be able to follow oral discussion more accurately if she
watches the lips of the person speaking. Some training in speech reading is also
helpful. To avoid embarrassing the child, discussion groups should be arranged
so that she can watch the lips of each speaker without obviously turning her head.
Seating the children in a circle, in a semicircle, or around a table does this nicely.
The child with a hearing impairment is likely to have some degree of diffi-
culty in auditory discrimination. Because of this, the teaching of word perception
should emphasize a visual approach to word identification and recognition,
rather than an auditory approach. This does not imply that letter sounds should
not be taught; the child with a hearing impairment needs a great deal of emphasis
on letter sounds as an aid to both speech and reading. However, depending upon
the specific nature of the auditory deficit, the child will not be able to use phonics
as an aid to word recognition as successfully as a child with normal hearing. For
this reason, more attention than usual should be paid to the visual characteristics
of words and to the use of visual analysis, along with contextual clues, for
recognizing words previously met and for identifying unfamiliar words. The
extent of the emphasis on visual and de-emphasis of auditory identification and
recognition techniques depends upon how much difficulty the child has with
auditory discrimination. If the teacher is sensitive to her auditory limitations, the
child with a relatively slight hearing defect should be able to make normal
progress in learning to read.
Slight to Moderate Hearing Impairment

Children with slight to moderate hearing impairment are under a severe handi-
cap if they learn to read in classes in which oral reading and phonics are stressed.
They need more emphasis upon silent reading and a visual approach to word
recognition. It is important that they be given many opportunities to show what
they know through performance. Work sheet activities are helpful. Language
difficulties may preclude a clear understanding of words read, unless the teacher
provides many opportunities for the child to demonstrate her understanding.
These children should receive special speech-reading and language instruction.
The child with a hearing impairment may experience adjustment difficulties
unless special care is taken. Such a child can easily feel alienated from herpeers.
Every effort should be made in her classwork and play activities to make the child
feel that she belongs to the group.
Severe to Extreme Hearing Impainnent

It is very difficult to teach reading to children with severe to extreme hearing
impairments, especially those children who have not developed language con-
cepts. Visual materials are used for such children. Words are introduced in a
variety of ways, usually through presenting actual objects with accompanying
demonstrations. Extensive use is made of pictures in association with words and
of picture dictionary material. Mastery of each step is required before going on to
the next. Progress from words to phrases to sentences to paragraphs is achieved
by successful learners.
Teaching children with serious auditory impairments to read is a highly
specialized task that the ordinary remedial reading teacher will not encounter.
Those who teach these children should consult such references as Hart (1976).
The Child with Neurological Impairment

There are a limited number of children with reading disabilities who, after care-
fully planned and thoroughly implemented programs of reeducation, fail to show
the desired progress. Some of these children may have neurological impairments.
Of course, this conclusion should never be assumed unless it is supported by
expert medical evidence. Whatever can be done medically to improve the learn-
ing ability of such children should precede or accompany any attempt at reading-
improvement programs.
Remedial reading programs for children who have a neurological problem
should take into account the behavioral characteristics of each child. Response
patterns that suggest neurological impairment include visual perception and
synthesis problems, auditory discrimination and blending difficulties, symbol-
sound or symbol-meaning association problems, and motor-coordination limita-
tions. These difficulties necessitate two types of modifications in remedial reading
instruction: training to improve the child's visual, auditory, associative, or motor
skills and adaptations in the methods of remedial instruction so as to use the
child's strengths and avoid his weaknesses in reading tasks.
Visual Perception and Synthesis Problems

The ability to perceive differences in word configurations and to note the fine
distinctions within the printed symbols is necessary for effective word recogni-
tion and for success in learning to read. The child who cannot visually distinguish
rapidly between word patterns such as fall and fell, learn and lean, or stopand tops
will have trouble acquiring even beginning reading skill. Many children start
learning to read with just such limitations. For the neurologically impaired, these
problems of visual perception may be even more troublesome.
Direct training in noting likenesses and differences may be given to children
with visual perception and synthesis problems in much the same way it is given
to prereading children. The teacher who instructs a child with this type of neuro-
logical impairment will find that materials developed for prereading children
who are immature in visual perception and synthesis, but who have no other
disabilities, are effective. For all but those with the most severe disabilities, exer-
cises that deal with similarities and differences in real printed symbols are more
useful than exercises using geometric shapes or designs. Matching activities in-
volving individual stimulus cards prompt close visual attention and reduce dis-
tractions. Tracing activities benefit greatly some children with neurological
impairment, especially if they are encouraged to trace large figures or symbols.
During the school day, these children should be encouraged to participate fully in
appropriate art, craft, and physical education activities. Although children with
poor visual perception often have difficulty with activities of this nature, with
sensible adaptations, such pursuits help strengthen their visual perceptual abili-
ties. In dealing with the child who has both a reading disability and a visual-neu-
rological impairment, the paramount remedial reading task is to teach her to
attend to word patterns as effectively as her limited perceptual capacity will
allow. Caution should be exercised in the length of practice periods used for such
training; these periods should not be extended to the point of fatigue. Also, this
kind of training can continue along with standard remedial teaching that is
designed to improve word recognition. Much of the child's ability to discriminate
words visually is developed in the actual process of learning word-recognition

techniques.
In teaching the child with limited visual perception to read, the remedial
reading program should rely strongly upon methods that emphasize auditory
sound-blending approaches. For children who still do not make progress, kines-
thetic-auditory-visual training may be needed. Periods of demanding visual ef-
fort should be of short duration and well spaced. Sometimes it is necessary to
break the reading material into single sentences or short paragraphs. These are
read and discussed one at a time, thus giving the child frequent intervals of visual
relaxation. As she matures in reading and perceptual skills, the segments of
reading can be lengthened. Even then, the child should be encouraged to look up
from the print, to relax and to think about what she has read. The use of contex-
tual clues should be developed as an aid to word recognition.
Auditory Discrimination and Blending Difficulties

Children who cannot detect the differences in spoken words that sound some-
what alike, who are not able to select which of two words completes a rhyme, or
who cannot discriminate well enough to select which of a group of words starts
with the same sound as a given spoken word do not have theauditory capabili-
ties necessary to learn to read by certain methods of instruction. Such word-
discrimination skills must exist in order to profit from oral word study and
training in phonics. The ability to blend letter sounds or phonemes into whole
words when presented orally is required for oral-phonic training methods to
succeed.
Auditory skills can be developed by having the child learn to listen more
carefully to the sound patterns of words. Materials for instruction are as extensive
as the rhymes and words found in children's literature and in the spoken lan-
guage of the children being taught. As with visual skills, the remedial reading
teacher can find many good ideas in prereading materials and in oralgames used
in kindergarten. These sources will provide the teacher with models of activities
that she can develop. The child with neurological limitations who has auditory
discrimination and blending deficiencies needs a more extensive program of
training than does the child without these limitations and deficiencies. Auditory
training might well start with distinguishing between gross sounds such as crum-
pling paper, running water, shutting doors, and pounding with a hammer. Then
it might progress to noting which two out of four orally presented words sound
the same; first using words that have markedly contrastingpatterns, such as make,
want, make, have, and then progressing to finer discriminations, such as in roam,
room, ram, roam. The child should be able to make these auditory discriminations
with his eyes closed or when his teacher's face is not in view, to ensure that he
has heard the differences, rather than read his teacher's lips. Auditorytraining
periods should be short, both to ensure attention and because such training tends
to be tiring. Children with auditory discrimination and blending limitations like
visual clues. They may enjoy using picture cards to perform such tasks as naming
the pictures and then sorting the cards according to the beginning sounds of the
names. Occasionally, they may need practice recalling the names of common
objects pictured. For training in auditory discrimination to help a child read, the
ability to distinguish sounds in words based on the child's, as well as other
people's, pronunciations must be present or must be developed. To enhance
sound-blending skill specifically, the teacher can ask the child to hand her the
picture of the c—ar or of the b—oa—t. Many exercises designed to develop audi-
tory skills are included in reading-readiness materials.
Symbol Association Problems

The abilities needed to make instant and accurate associations between printed
symbols and spoken sounds, and between printed symbols and meaningful
words, are necessary for effective reading. The child who cannot make these
associations instantly will be a faltering reader, and the child who cannot make
them accurately will be unable to make much progress at all. For most children,
these difficulties signal that the pace of reading instruction has been too fast and
that they have not been given enough opportunity for review. For children with
neurological impairments, symbol association problems may be much more se-
vere.
Direct training in symbol-sound and symbol-meaning associations may have
to be given in a manner similar to that used in beginning reading instruction.
Some children with neurological impairments require so much practice that the
remedial reading teacher may have to find or design supplementary materials to
maintain their interest. Gamelike activities can make repetitive practice seem
more enjoyable. Sorting word cards into categories by meaning gives good prac-
tice in symbol-meaning associations.
The teacher of children with neurological impairments must be able to judge
when to practice further and when to move on. Enough practice is essential, but
too much only causes the child to fall farther behind. The issue is complicated
further by the great variability in associative abilities that some children with
neurological impairments demonstrate from one day to the next. The willingness
to make appropriate instructional adjustments and emphasize at all times what
the child has done well maximizes instructional effectiveness for these children.
Motor Coordination Limitations

The major area of limited motor coordination related to reading is oculomotor
coordination. The child with an oculomotor control problem has difficulty focus-
ing on the printed page and coordinating her eyes when reading. She also has
trouble following the line of print rhythmically as she progresses along it. Kephart
(1971) gives suggestions for improving oculomotor coordination.
It is enough to state here that methods using markers as aids to maintaining
one's location on the line, sweeping below the line of print with a marker, and
emphasizing left-to-right progression are helpful. The discussion of orientational

problems in word recognition presented in Chapter 12 suggests methods that
should help the child overcome oculomotor problems in reading. Kinesthetic
methods are often suggested to augment inadequate oculomotor control in read-
ing. Clinical workers giving remedial training to children with severe oculomotor
disabilities may find the methods suggested by Fernald (1971) helpful.
Correcting the reading disabilities of children with neurological impairments
is difficult and usually time consuming. But if training is given and adjustments
are made, these children can develop a reading capability. Additional suggestions
for teaching children with learning disorders associated with neurological im-
pairment are described by Cruickshank (1971), Kephart (1971), Myers and Ham-
mill (1976), and Westman (1990).
Teachers and clinicians working with children who have reading disabilities
should be aware that these children may show many symptoms of neurological
impairment and that a child should not be assumed to have a neurological
problem unless it is confirmed by a medical examination. Children who have no
neurological impairments, but who do have perceptual and motor problems,
should have training similar to that described in this section. However, the train-
ing need not be as intense, and progress should be expected to be more rapid than
would be the case for the child with a neurological impairment.
The Child with Behavioral Problems

In Chapter 6, it was noted that most children with reading problems also display
some behavior problems. Some children exhibit behavior problems when they
first arrive at school. Others develop such problems when they are frustrated in
their attempts to learn to read. Whatever the origin of the trouble, it is certain that,
to some extent, behavior problems are a concern of many remedial reading
teachers.
Children who experience reading difficulties are often characterized by a
variety of behaviors, ranging from inattentiveness, anxiety, or submissiveness to
overdemanding behavior, anger, or hostility. These behaviors also range from just
noticeable to very obvious.
Gentile and McMillan (1987) believe that some behavioral problems can be
understood as flight-or-fight reactions to the stress associated with reading diffi-
culties. If a student's behavior is understood as a flight reaction, the teacher
should focus on interaction with the student and drawing the student out. The
student should be moved toward participation in the reading task and toward a
meaningful relationship with the teacher. The teacher should attempt to build
motivation and should provide helpful prompting as necessary If a student's
behavior is understood as a fight reaction, the teacher must severely limit inter-
action with the student—especially confrontational interaction—and move the
student back to the reading task. The teacher must be concise and consistent and
should keep verbal interaction to a minimum.
Hewett and Taylor (1980) have stressed the importance of helping children
with behavior and learning problems to behave as learners. This is necessary
because certain specific behaviors interfere with reading progress. These behav-
iors include inattention to reading tasks, lack of active response to reading, and
inability to complete work.
To help children attend to reading, the teacher should consider the physical
environment first of all. It should be free from distraction. Many children can
attend better to their reading when allowed to work in a carrel or study booth.
For others, it is helpful to remove all unnecessary materials from work surfaces,
as these materials are often distracting. Short, definite units of work are an aid to
the child who has difficulty attending to his reading. Tokens for paying attention,
such as plastic chips, colorful stickers, or simple check marks can be awarded to
a child for attentive behavior. Charts or other records of progress often help
children learn to increase their attention to reading.
In the clinic, teachers have noticed that jewelry, such as dangling beads or
brightly colored pins, distracts certain students. Teachers have also observed that a
soft voice arid short, simple, direct instructions help children who have difficulty
attending to a reading task. Gamelike supplementary reading activities often help
children attend to such tasks because of the added incentive of wanting to win.
Very few children will attend to reading when they have no purpose for reading,
when the reading is uninteresting to them, or when it is too difficult for them.
Children with complex disabilities may refuse to read at all or may respond
only minimally to reading tasks. These children read orally so slowly and hesi-
tantly and in such a muffled tone that they cannot be heard, or they stop at every
difficult word and refuse to try to read it, or they rush rapidly through all their
reading with little thought of the meaning, thinking only of finishing. Other
children spend their reading time trying to converse with the teacher about any
conceivable subject, rather than proceeding with their reading, and others are
perpetually late and frequently absent. To help such children respond to reading,
teachers can reduce the level and amount of reading the child must do, until he
can see that he can accomplish the task easily. Reading instructions for these
children should be specific, not vague and open ended, because vague and open-
ended reading tasks appear to them to be without end. The teacher should
guarantee the child success by having him compete against himself, not against
others. As an example, she might have him see whether he can do better today
than he did yesterday. Charts of the child's work are helpful for comparison.
Well-written reading selections closely tied to the child's interests help to kindle
enthusiasm for reading.
Children having difficulty completing reading tasks can be helped if the
teacher prepares and organizes their work carefully. Often, teachers find that they
must plan in stages what must be done to finish a work sheet or reading selection
and then help the student through these same stages to finish the work Some
children who have difficulty completing their work are not aware of time. There-
fore, they must be given reminders of the time. It is also important to reward and
praise them for completing their reading.
Adapting Inst ruction for Children with Disabilities 237
When remediation is successful, the usual result is that as the child gains
power in reading, his stress is reduced, his confusions diminish, his interest
expands, his behavior problems decrease, and he appears to be a happier, better
adjusted person. His confidence has been reestablished. Other evidences of per-
sonal and social well-being also become apparent.
The Child with a Mental Disability

Children with below-average intelligence are commonly classified into the fol-
lowing groups, according to Kirk, Kliebhan, and Lerner (1978): (1) slow learners
(LQ. 68—85), (2) mildly mentally retarded (I.Q. 52—67), (3) moderately mentally
retarded (I.Q. 36—51), (4) severely mentally retarded (I.Q. 20—35), and (5) pro-
foundly mentally retarded (I.Q. 19 and below). People with I.Q.s in the moder-
ately mentally retarded range can learn to read on a word-by-word basis when
given intensive instruction and massive review. For those with I.Q.s of about 50
to about 70, progress in reading is extremely slow. With superior extended read-
ing instruction, the expected reading grade of a child with an I.Q. of 70 is 5.2 at
age 16. Ordinarily, children with I.Q.s of about 50 to 70 receive reading instruction
in a special education class or resource room. Children with I.Q.s above 70 are
usually able to achieve more and, if given excellent instruction, may be expected
to achieve reading grades at the 6.0 to 7.5 grade level by the age of 16.
Slow Learners
Slow learners are children with I.Q.s between 68 and 85 who are taught to read i
mainstream classes. In general, with proper instruction, slow learners can make
progress up to the grade level corresponding to their mental age. As noted by
Kirk, Kliebhan, and Lerner (1978), slow learners differ from other children in
learning to read because they cannot be expected to begin learning to read at the
chronological age of 6, and even thereafter they naturally learn at a slower rate.
They become discouraged in the mainstream classroom because of continued
failure.
On entering school, slow learners lag behind the typical child in the abilities
and skills that form the basis for success in beginning reading. According to
Savage and Mooney (1979), the readiness program for slow learners should be
more intense and prolonged than usual, so as to reduce the difficulty of the
learning the new skills required when the child actually begins to read. Some
general aspects of reading readiness have been discussed in earlier chapters;
details of such programs may be found in Durkin (1987), Jewell and Zintz (1986),
and Heilman, Blair, and Rupley (1986).
During prereading instruction, when the child's mental age is between 5 and
6, she is able to learn to recognize her name and a few words used as labels and
signs. Before the chill reaches at least 6 years of mental age, systematic reading
instruction, as is ordinarily given, results only in a tremendous waste of time and
energy on the part of the teacher, because so little is learned from it. Nevertheless,
if special instructional methods (described later) are employed, these children can
be given worthwhile reading instruction before 6 years of mental age. Without
these methods, some of them would not begin to read until 8 or 9 years old.
The child with a mental disability differs from the child without a mental
disability in her reading progress—mainly by being slower to learn. She is ready
to begin formal lessons at a somewhat later chronological age, and she progresses
at a slower rate. This means that at each succeeding level in the developmental
program, she should have more materials and more individualized guidance
than the child who does not have a mental disability. The slow learner needs
many repetitions of a word in the context of reading before she can learn the
word. The best reading materials to use are those which have proved satisfactory
with other students. But there needs to be more of the materials, and the instruc-
tion needs to be more individual and more intensive. Repetition, explanations,
demonstrations, experiences, and the amount of recreational reading should be
extensive.
Reading Difficulties
When classroom reading instruction and materials are not adjusted to the slow
learner, he may experience reading difficulties. That is, his reading achievement
may come to be less than what is reasonable to expect for him. According to
evidence cited by Kirk (1940), between 5 and 10 percent of mentally retarded
children experience reading difficulties, but can benefit from remedial instruction.
Coincidentally, this is about the frequency of reading difficulty found among
children with average and above average intelligence. A precise diagnosis of the
extent and nature of reading difficulties among children with mental disabilities
rests on the use of techniques described in earlier chapters.
Remedial Instruction
Results cited by Kirk (1940) and by Featherstone (1951) demonstrate that slow
learners who incur reading disabilities benefit significantly from remedial in-
struction. For instance, in a group of 10 children with a mean age of 12 years and
9 months and a mean I.Q. of 75, an average grade-equivalent gain of 1.2 grades
was achieved by 68 standard lessons, each 30 minutes long, over a period of about
5 months. This rate of progress was five times that of 100 children of slarage
and mental ability who did not receive such remedial instruction. Furthermore, 5
months after the remedial training ended, the children continued to progress in
the mainstream classroom at a rate twice that of the 100 children who had not
been given the remedial instruction. It was concluded that significant and satis-
fying results can be obtained from remedial instruction with slow-learning chil-
dren who experience reading difficulties.
The Hegge-Kirk remedial method (Hegge, Kirk, & Kirk, 1945) was devised
primarily for children with mental disabilities. In its initial stage, the method is
primarily phonic. However, it is more complete than most phonic systems. There
is much drill and an emphasis on such principles of learning as the use of concrete
associative aids to help the child learn a new sound. Retention is aided by having
the child say the sound, write the letter, and then blend the sound with other
sounds into words. Reading sentences and stories and the teaching of words are
introduced at appropriate places as the child progresses. Any teacher who plans
to use this method should consult Kirk (1940).
The following are suggestions for adapting teaching to slow-learning children:
1. Instruction in reading should begin later than is customary. Initial instruction

should be delayed until the child is prepared to be successful in reading.
2. Slow-learning children develop reading ability in much the same way as their
classmates, but at a somewhat slower pace. This is true for both word recog-
nition and vocabulary. Any necessary modifications in instruction are more a
matter of changed emphasis and pacing than a drastically different program.
3. A large amount of material must be used with slow learners. To make new
words a permanent part of the child's sight vocabularç they must be intro-
duced more carefully and practiced more often. That is, the development of
a reading vocabulary is more gradual.
4. Slow learners require more review. This is achieved by the use and reuse of
materials and by rereading a selection several times for different purposes.
5. The slow-learning child has to be given more step-by-step and more simpli-
fied instruction. Frequently, she finds the directions in standard reading ma-
terials difficult to grasp. The teacher must be• sure that the child always
understands what is expected of her.
6. The slow-learning child needs more concrete examples of the things about
which she is reading. She should be given every opportunity to come into
direct contact with these things.
7. Reading goals should be relatively short range, that is, reached quickly. The
slow learner cannot work effectively on projects of long duration.
8. The slow learner requires more rereading before she can thoroughly compre-
hend what she reads, but she does not mind rereading, because it helps her
get a more complete understanding of the material.
9. There should be more experience and more guidance in the slow learner's
study of the visual and auditory characteristics of words. Slow learners bene-
fit from additional drill in analyzing words and in learning the sounds of
various word elements. Since rapid reading is not essential to slow learners,
a moderate degree of overanalysis is of little consequence, provided that it
does not interfere with comprehension.
10. It is advisable to use more oral reading and oral prestudy in instructing
slow-learning children. Many of them need to vocalize what they are reading
before they can comprehend it well. Although vocalization slows their read-
ing rate, comprehension is more important.
11. Slow-learning children should be given more tasks such as building models
or cutting out pictures in connection with their reading than is common.
12. Finally, slow-learning children benefit from remaining in the mainstream
classroom, provided that some instructional accommodations are made. Al-
though the slow learner may not be able to read much above her level of
expectancy, in most other respects her learning experiences should be similar
to those of other children.
The Child with Speech Impairment

Occasionally, children with rea4ing difficulties also have speech impairments.
Inability to enunciate words clearly is often associated with inadequate auditory
discrimination. In this case, some difficulty with word recognition is probable.
Children who have difficulty because of inadequate auditory discrimination
benefit less from the use of phonics as a primary aid to word recognition than do
children who discriminate sounds well. They progress better when emphasis is
placed on the visual characteristics of words, especially during beginning
ing. Also, silent rather than oral reading should be stressed.
Some children with speech defects are embarrassed when asked to read
or take part in 4iscussion. In consideration of the child's sensitivities, the teacher
should be supportive and tactful. But it is not wise to excuse the child altogether
from oral work. The problem of balancing oral and silent work is difficult.
A first step is to give the child proper training with a speech therapist. As
the child progresses toward smoother and more fluent speech, he gains
confidence. One way of correcting speech difficulties is reading aloud. At first,
child should read some well-prepared selection aloud to his teacher in private. As
the speech difficulty is overcome, the child will be ready and perhaps eager to do
some oral reading in class. The teacher should encourage, but not force, the
to do this. In addition, as the child becomes more sure of himself, remedial
measures for correcting specific reading difficulties may be undertaken.
Case Study of an Upper Elementary Grade Student

with a Basic Word-Recognition Problem and an
Auditory Limitation
Paul, a fifth-grade student, was referred to the achievement center for help in
reading during an 8-week summer period. He came from the achievement center
service area, where he had attended school during the previous school year.
Before that he had attended a school in a district approximately 100 miles away.
School history When Paul was admitted to the center, he was 11 years and 5
months old. His school referral form showed that he had had a slight hearing
impairment, which was first di4gnosed in the first grade. He had received no type
of special services before his fifth-grade year. He was referred fur resource room
services by his fifth-grade teacher, who also requested achievement center serv-
ices because of her concern for his reading difficulties.
School behavior. According to the referral information, Paul was described as

having an excellent attitude toward school, peers, and teachers. His classroom
behavior was characterized by his fifth-grade classroom teacher as normal in all
ways, except that he "always seemed unusually attentive." The classroom
teacher's interpretation was that the child was straining to listen due to his
auditory impairment.
Abilities. According to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Revised),
Paul's ability to learn was above average, with a full-scale I.Q. of 114. The differ-
ence between his verbal I.Q. and performance I.Q., however, was large: 98 versus
130. This would place his reading expectancy at Grade 6.6. However, in view of
the 32-point discrepancy between his verbal and performance I.Q.s, the clinician
noted that had his reading expectancy been based on his verbal I.Q. alone, it
would have been 4.8, and had it been based on his performance IQ. alone, it
would have been 7.4. The clinician felt that under the circumstances, it was
difficult to conclude definitely what was reasonable to expect of this child in
reading, but chose 6.6 as the best of the three alternatives.
Paul was given the Peabody Individual Achievement Test. His grade scores
were as follows:
Name of Subtest Grade Equivalent Standard Score

Màthématics 6.4 103
Reading Recognition 3.9 85
Reading Comprehension 5.3 97
Spelling 4.2 89
General Information 5.8 100
Total Test 5.0 97
Observation of behavior during testing. Paul was cooperaiive during testing.

He showed some signs of nervousness on the reading subtests, running his
fingcrs through his hair and glancing around the room frequently.
Interpretation of test results. Paul scored below his estimated potential in all
areas tested except mathematics. His mathematics vocabulary and reasoning
appeared to be adequate.
The clinician decided to test him further in reading and spelling to determine
his strengths and weaknesses in those academic subjects, but noted that his
mathematical computational ability was not adequately screened by the diagnos-
tic instrument. The clinician noted that Paul's spelling was at a grade level of 4.2
on a test that required him to pick the correctly spelled word from four visual
presentations. To prevent a superficial diagnosis, the clinician administered the
spelling subtest of the Wide Range Achievement Test. Paul achieved a grade
equivalent of 2.9, with a standard score of 77 and a percentile rank of 6. The
discrepancy was sufficient to cause suspicion that it was due to the different tasks
that the child was expected to perform. Although the Peabody Individual
Achievement Test required a highly visual form of spelling, the Wide Range
Achievement Test required Paul to spell words from dictation.
Diagnostic Achievement Tests

Paul was given the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty Test (selected sections)
and achieved the following results:
Name of Subtest Grade Equivalent Comprehension

Oral Reading 4 Low Good
Silent Reading 4 Low Fair
Listening Comprehension 3
Flash Words 3 High
Word Analysis 4 High
Observation of behavior. Paul appeared to be nervous during testing. He

moved a great deal in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. He appeared
to be trying very hard to do well.
Interpretation of test results. On this test, Paul's oral and silent reading scores
were at the same grade level and well below his estimated reading potential. The
low scores appeared to be due to slow reading time. His comprehension was
better in oral reading, compared with silent reading. Both his flash words and
word analysis scores were below his estimated level, with the flash words score
being significantly lower. From the results of these four subtests, it appeared that
Paul had difficulty in immediate recognition of words, which seemed to result in
accurate but slow and inefficient reading at a fourth-grade level. Paul's score on
the listening comprehension subtest showed that skill to be one of significant
weakness for him. A very important skill necessary for school success, it would
require remediation.
Paul's scores on the Silent Reading Diagnostic Test were as follows:
Name of Subtest Grade Equivalent

Word Recognition Skills
Total 3.6
Words in Isolation 3.8
Words in Context 3.1
Recognition Techniques
Total 6.2
Visual Structureal Analysis 6.8
Syllabication 6.0
Word Synthesis 4.5
Phonic Knowledge
Total 3.9
Beginning Sounds 4.0
Ending Sounds 4.0
Vowel and Consonant Sounds 3.0
Observation of behavior. Paul appeared to try very hard. He showed some

signs of nervousness: tapping his pencil on the table, running his fingers through
his hair, and asking when the test would be over.
Interpretations of test results. Paul's weaknesses on the Silent Reading Diag-

nostic Test were in the areas of word recognition skills and phonic knowledge. He
showed strength in the recognition techniques, mostly in visual analysis, and
weakness in his knowledge of phonics, especially in isolated single-letter sounds.
His error pattern showed strength in proper left-to-right visual inspection of
words, with freedom from reversals and orientation difficulties.
Further informal testing in phonics knowledge revealed that Paul had a
secure knowledge of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and common
vowel teams in reading, was insecure in applying his phonics knowledge to
spelling, and had great difficulty giving the sounds of isolated letters, especially
short vowel sounds and r-controlled vowel sounds.
The answers to the diagnostic questions presented in Chapter 7 are:
1. Is Paul correctly classified as a child with a reading disability? Yes; al-

though he possessed some well-developed skills in the visual analysis of words,
his overall level of functioning in reading was well below what was reasonable to.
expect of him. He had a limiting condition complicated by a slight hearing
impairment.
2. What is the nature of the training needed? The remedial plan for Paul
included five items. (1) Paul was given phonic work-sheet activities stressing
visual associations among word elements, larger word parts, and their sounds.
He completed them silently. (2) He was taught games using word and phrase
canis designed to exemplify various generalizations in phonics to which he was
required to respond orally. (3) He was also taught to make visual-mental pictures
to aid himself with certain difficult sounds. For example, he chose to think of a
view of a city to help himself with the soft sound of c. (4) During reading instruc-
tion time, and especially at home, Paul was encouraged to read from several
high-interest, easy-reading books that were chosen to be at a recreational reading
level. He also did some prepared oral reading. (5) Paul was given exercises in
which he listened to short, simple stories about subjects that were interesting to
him and then paraphrased the stories, answered questions about them, or drew
illustrations of them. He also followed increasingly complex oral directions.
3. Who can give the remedial work most effectively? Paul received 40 hours
of direct one-to-one instruction during the summer and returned to his school in
the fall, where he received daily, small-group instruction. Diagnostic findings

were shared with the classroom teacher.
4. How can improvement be made most efficiently? Aside from encouraging
Paul to do a lot of recreational reading, the rest of the educational program
emphasized overcoming auditory difficulties by using visual means and empha-
sizing work-sheet activities and games. Although much of his work was done
silently, Paul did respond orally in gamelike situations, in prepared reading
situations, and in response to short stories read to him.
5. Does the child have any limiting conditions that must be considered? Paul
was a friendly, likable, well-mannered boy. But because he was hearing impaired,
he was uneasy and insecure in situations in which he had to listen carefully. In
teaching him, it seemed to be important to use visual examples and to help him
see what was wanted. Once he knew what was expected, he worked well. He
enjoyed activities in which he could express himself through drawing,and he was
able to draw fairly well.
6. Are there any environmental conditions that might interfere with progress
in reading? Paul's parents were completely supportive of him and of the reading
program. They were interested in the books he brought home for reading and
showed obvious delight in his progress.
Results. After the summer instruction period, Paul demonstrated mastery of all
letter sounds in reading. His silent and oral reading speed became more typical
of a fifth- than of a fourth-grade student. His listening improved to the point
where he could obey a series of five complex commands with 100-percent accu-
racy. As Paul progressed in the program, it was noted that he became less tense
when he read. His mother also remarked that at home she noticed he was begin-
ning to enjoy reading. Paul continued to make gains in subsequent small-group
instruction during his sixth-grade year. Then the instructional emphasis was
changed, and letter-sound associations were no longer stressed. Rather, instruc-
tion was directed toward helping Paul develop his knowledge of word meanings,
increase his fund of sight words, utilize contextual clues, and rely heavily onhis
visual abilities in reading. Although during his sixth-grade year Paul had not as
yet reached his expectancy level in reading, his classroom work reflected im-
provement in reading and was comparable to that of his classmates.
Summary
In this chapter, we have considered the modifications of remedial instruction that
are necessary for correcting reading disabilities that are made more complex
because of limiting conditions within the child. Children who have reading prob-
lems as well as other disabilities are encountered by every remedial teacher.
Frequently, the overall education of these children is directed by specialists who
have been trained to teach children with the various disabilities discussed in this
chapter. The remedial reading teacher can obtain many helpful suggestions and
insights into the particular adjustments needed for a specific child by discussing
the child's problems with the special-education teacher. The responsibility of the
remedial teacher is to diagnose the reading problem, locate the nature of the
confusions in reading, and suggest modifications in reading methods needed for
correcting the disability. The classroom teacher, working cooperatively with the
remedial reading teacher, should be aware of the child's reading program, so that
other phases of her education may be coordinated with the reading-improvement
program. What these children need most is an adequate diagnosis of the nature
of their reading disabilities and a well-planned program of remedial instruction,
modified to take into account their learning disabilities.
Among the children with complex reading disabilities are those who are
visually impaired, auditorily impaired, neurologically impaired, emotionally
maladjusted, mentally handicapped, or speech impaired. Individualized treat-
ment is necessary for any child with a complex reading disability. The teacher is
especially important for these children. He must be patient, understanding,
skilled, and versatile in remedial reading because one approach will not fit all
children.
Children with moderate visual impairments should be taught by methods
that emphasize auditory approaches. Those with more severe visual impairments
require, in addition, bright light, large print, and short reading periods. Learning
activities that do not require close visual work should be stressed.
Children with mild hearing impairments get along well in normal classroom
activities that emphasize visual approaches to reading. Overreliance on phonics
should be avoided in teaching hearing-impaired children. For them, visual tech-
niques of word recognition should be stressed. Children with severe and extreme
hearing impairments should be taught to read by specialists in deaf education.
Emphasis should be upon sight words, the visual characteristics of words, and
silent reading.
The few children with reading disabilities who also have neurological impair-
ments constitute some of the most complex cases of remediation. These children
require carefully arranged training programs, designed to develop their impaired
perceptual and motor skills to the fullest extent possible. They also require reme-
dial reading instruction that is modified to use their areas of strength and to avoid
their weak perceptual and motor skills.
Most children with reading disabilities show some symptoms of emotional
maladjustment or behavioral disorder. A variety of behaviors are common. Cer-
tain students need to be drawn out, while others need to be instructed with a
minimum of teacher interaction. Children with behavioral disorders benefit from
close management coupled with reasonable goals.
Children with mental disability can also have reading disabilities. In fact, the
proportion of reading disabilities in this group is about the same as among
children with average and above-average intelligence. With proper instruction,
many of those with mental disabilities can learn to read and to maintain their
reading competence at a reasonable level. A modified phonics approach stressing
drill had been used successfully in remedial work with slow-learning children.
The Hegge-Kirk method, which provides a gradual introduction of skills, much

repetition, and a great deal of phonics drill, is a method that has worked well with
many educable children with mental disabilities. A broader method, similar to
good developmental reading instruction, but highly individualized, seems appro-
priate for regular reading instruction for children with mental disabilities.
Children with speech difficulties should have corrective work done by a
speech specialist. As their speech becomes better and more fluent, they may be
reintroduced to regular methods of remedial instruction.
Study Questions
1. What educational adaptations should be considered for children with poor
Vision?
2. How do educational adaptations for the child with a slight hearing impair-
ment, with a slight to moderate hearing impairment, and with a severe to
extreme hearing impairment differ?
3. Why do teachers of children with neurological impairments have to adjust
instruction on a daily basis for some of their students?
4. How can children be helped to attend to their reading, to work actively, and
to complete their work?
5. What simple educational adaptations benefit slow learners most?
Selected Readings
Gentile, L. M., & McMillan, M. M. (1987). Stress and reading dfflculties: Research, assessment,
interuention. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Hallahan, D. P., & Kauffman, J. M. (1991). Exceptional children (5th ed.) (pp. 77—341). Engle-
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hardman, M. L., Drew, C. J., Egan, W, & Wolf, B. (1990). Human exceptionality: Society,
school, and family (3rd ed.) (pp. 87—341). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Hart, B. 0. (1976). Teaching reading to deaf children. New York: Alexander Graham Bell
Assodation for the Deaf.
Hewett, F. M., & Taylor, F. D. (1980). The emotionally disturbed child in the classroom: The
orchestration of success (2nd ed.) (pp. 176—240, 274—287). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Kirk, S. A., & Gallagher, J. J. (1989). Educating exceptional children (6th ed.) (pp.130—447).
Boston: Houghton Mififin.
Moores, D. F. (1982). Educating the deaf Psychology, principles, and practices (2nd ed.)
(pp. 286—299). Boston: Houghton Muffin.
Snowling, M. (1987). Dyslexia: A cognitive developmental perspective.
New York: Basil Black-
well.
Chapter 14
Correcting Basic
Corn prehens ion Deficiencies
At all grade levels, reading instruction must serve to develop comprehension. The
fundamental aim of reading instruction is to enable readers to comprehend those
printed materials that will serve their goals, be they simple or complex. The
acquisition of a sight vocabulary, skill in recognizing words, and linguistic skill in
general are all directed at achieving an adequate understanding and interpreta-
tion of the meanings embodied in printed symbols. The extent to which these
meanings are clearly and accurately understood and interpreted by the reader
characterizes the degree to which he has become a good reader.
Comprehension depends on the background knowledge the reader brings to
the reading, his vocabulary development, and his ability to translate the author's
words into concepts. Through constant attention to words and their use, the child
builds a listening vocabulary. He attends to words, phrases, and sentence struc-
ture because he finds them valuable in relating to his environment. There is
diversity in the vocabularc use of sentence structure clues (syntax clues), and use
of essential meaning clues (semantic clues) that children bring to reading. The
language of children is diversified because of differences in their preschool learn-
ing environments, and their language patterns may be quite different one from
another.
It has been emphasized that true reading is reading with understanding—
that is, comprehension. A person's level of comprehension depends on his facility
in using concepts or meanings evolved through experience. To be of use in
reading, the concepts acquired through experience must be associated with
words or groups of words that are symbols representing the meanings of the
concepts. These words become a part of the reader's listening and speaking
vocabulaiy Then, when the reader recognizes a word or group of words, his
247
248 Chapter Fourteen
perception of the printed symbol stimulates him to recollect or construct mean-

ings for which the symbol stands. The meanings recalled are those possessed by
the reader and must have evolved through experience. The meaning of a word
may be derived directly from those experiences, or it may consist of a newly
constructed meaning that results from combining and reorganizing meanings the
reader already possesses. The author brings known ideas together in such a way
that the reader senses a new relationship and therefore gains a new idea, concept,
or sensory impression. Take, for instance, the meanings aroused when a fourth-
grade urban child reads the sentence, "The tired rider drooped in his saddle as his
spotted horse walked along the mountain trail." Since the reader has not seen
such a rider, he may organize the meaning of the sentence from a variety of
remembered visual experiences, such as (1) his father napping with his head bent
forward as he rests in an easy chair, (2) a hiking path, (3) a mounted police officer
sitting erect on a black horse, (4) a spotted black and white dog, and (5) the
scenery during a trip through hilly country By combining these concepts, the
child may achieve an approximation of the meaning intended by the writer of the
sentence. So one reads primarily with one's own experiences, which are based
upon sensory impressions such as hearing, seeing, tasting,smelling, and touch-
ing. Also involved is one's manner of adjusting to all kinds of situations, includ-
ing the accompanying emotional reactions, and imagination.
The development of concepts that carry meanings begins early in a child's
life. Performing activities at home, hearing the talk of parents and other children
and adults, listening to radio and viewing television, and taking journeys around
the neighborhood and, occasionally, more extended trips are all involved in
developing a listening vocabulary. Concepts are acquired as the child begins to
use words and, later, sentences suitably. The use of precise oral language is
acquired gradually. For application to reading, a meaning must be associated
with a word, for in reading, it is only by the use of words that meanings can be
recalled. If the meanings that are recalled are to be precise, the words that stand
for those meanings have to be in the usage vocabulary of the reader. The degree
to which he is able to use a word in his language and thinking determines, to a
large extent, how effectively he will be able to use that word in reading.
In normal development, a child's experiences lead him to use sentences for
verbal communication. Sentences are groups of words organized into meaningful
relationships. Nearly all reading matter is in the form of sentences. How well a
reader understands sentences and how skillful he is in using sentence forms
determine how well he will be able to read print organized into sentences. The
precise meanings of certain words in a sentence are comprehended from the
context of the sentence.
The comprehension of sentences is facilitated when reading is done by
thought units. A thought unit is a group of words that make up a meaningful
sequence in a sentence. For instance, in the sentence, "One of the girls / saw the
bricks / start to fall," there are three thought units, indicated by the spacings.
Verbal facility in oral communication leads to phrasing into thought units. Im-
provement in reading sentences by thought units, however, is relatively slow,
Correcting Basic Comprehension Deficiencies 249
because it is dependent on increased efficiency in recognizing single words. Only

when the child has developed an adequate sight vocabulary can she group words
into thought units. Typically, some grouping (into two-word units) occurs during
the latter part of Grade 1. Improvement continues slowly through Grade 3, after
which progress becomes more rapid. The average reader is fairly proficient in
reading by thought units by the time she reaches the sixth grade.
The child with good verbal facility is able to organize her ideas into thought
units, reflected in her spoken sentences. A similar trend is found in reading. The
child who is a word-by-word reader has difficulty grasping the meaning of a
sentence as a whole. But when a child reads by thought units, the resulting
organization. of the material aids comprehension. That is, proficiency in perceiv-
ing printed material in terms of thought units is usually accompanied by under-
standing of the material being read.
Attention must also be directed to the comprehension of paragraphs and
longer units of discourse. To comprehend the material in a paragraph requires an
understanding of the relationships among the sentences in that paragraph. This
in turn involves identifying the topic sentence containing the key idea of the
paragraph and understanding its relationship to the explanatory or amplifying
sentences.
We must also note the relationships among paragraphs in longer selections.
In a well-written piece of fiction or nonfiction, the paragraphs are arranged in an
orderly manner. Usually, the introductory paragraphs briefly present the plan,
central theme, or intended purpose of the piece. Succeeding paragraphs, arranged
in logical sequence, carry the narrative through its principal points and on to the
ending. In expository material, the paragraphs follow one another in an orderly
sequence, providing the details to explain the event, process, or activity outlined
in the introduction. To comprehend longer units of discourse, the student needs to
understand this relationship between the prefatory and succeeding paragraphs.
Essentially the same processes are involved in comprehending printed mate-
rial as are involved in understanding spoken words. In both, the perception of
words provokes recall of meanings, which leads to comprehension. The meanings
provoked by the perceived words depend mainly on two factors: the learner's or
reader's entire background of experience and her facility in using language for
purposes of communication. Children show marked differences in the length and
complexity of selections that they can comprehend.
During the primary grades, when children are in the process of mastering the
mechanics of reading, listening comprehension tends to be superior to reading
comprehension. It must be kept in mind that when a child begins Grade 1, there
is a 6-year lag between her listening comprehension and her reading comprehen-
sion. From birth on, the child has been developing listening comprehension.
Furthermore, at the first-grade level, a child normally hears more running words
in 2 days than she reads in the entire first grade. With increasing maturity and
improved reading proficiency through the upper grades, her reading comprehen-
sion becomes superior to her listening comprehension. This is because she can
stop and reflect on, evaluate or debate, or reread parts of printed material.
The implication of these trends for instruction to improve reading compre-

hension seems clear: Although word-recognition techniques and other mechanics
should be emphasized in the early grades, so that they may become as automatic
as possible, comprehension should not be neglected. With mastery of the mechan-
ics, the major portion of the student's attention during reading can be devoted to
comprehension. With the teacher's guidance, reading comprehension will be-
come more and more skilled. Thus, a well-balanced program of instruction
through all the grades is essential to developing a student's reading comprehen-
sion to a level that is as good as or better than his listening comprehension. Of
course, such a program will also give appropriate emphasis to oral language and
usage and to written expression, both of which play an important role in improv-
ing reading.
Essential to mature reading comprehension is the development of the child's
metacognition, or awareness and control of his own thought processes. Examples
of metacognitive abilities are setting one's own reading goals, determining one's
own methods for reaching them, deciding for oneself what strategies to pursue if
difficulties are encountered, and confirming for oneself when the reading goals
are attained. There is also a distinct need for improving the child's ability to
comprehend a wide variety of materials for many purposes. Different abilities are
used when one is reading to decide which of two items is a better buy, compared
with reading to enjoy a book of poetry
Overcoming specific comprehension defects will be discussed in the next
chapter. The reader who does poorly in all types of comprehension is limited
either in suitable word-recognition skills, discussed in Chapters 10 and 11, or in
one or more of the basic comprehension abilities. This chapter is devoted to a
discussion of remedial teaching of the basic comprehension abilities to those with
any combination of limited meaning vocabulary, ineffective use of sentence sense,
and insufficient comprehension of longer units.
Limited Meaning Vocabulary

Acquisition of the meanings of words is fundamental to all comprehension in
reading. When word meanings are ample, precise, and rich, and when semantic
variations are understood, children possess the linguistic basis needed for effec-
tive reading. Without understanding word meanings satisfactorily, comprehen-
sion of either spoken or printed language is impossible.
There are four classifications of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. When a child enters school, her listening vocabulary far exceeds the other
three. While estimates of the size of the listening vocabularies of first-grade
children vary considerably, the consensus is that the average is nearly 20,000
words. Whatever the actual number, authorities agree that the listening vocabu-
laries of first-grade children are extensive.
Entering first-grade, children's average speaking vocabularies are about 6,000
words. Their reading and writing vocabularies are usually little more than their
own names. Within a few years, the typical child's reading vocabulary exceed
her speaking vocabulary and for some, their reading vocabulary surpasses even
their listening vocabulary Other children, however, will not have developed
meaning vocabularies large enough to read and understand materials above the
level of the primary grades. These children should be classified as limited in their
meaning vocabulary
There are two tasks in the remediation of a limited meaning vocabulary First,
the meaning vocabulary must be increased, and second, the habit of paying
attention to words and their meanings must be established. It must also be
recognized that meanings have several aspects, which are not discrete, but over-
lap in both their importance and their development. The teaching of vocabulary
entails more than merely teaching the child to recognize words; it involves, in
addition, enriching and extending the meanings of those words.
The' meaning of a word has several properties:
1. Extensiveness, depending upon the number and kinds of situations in which

the word has been met.
2. Accuracy, depending upon the skill with which the reader relates her under-
standing of the meaning to her previous background.
3. Vividness, depending upon the emotions, interest, and motivation of the
reader.
4. Retainability, depending upon the usefulness of the word to the reader.
General Remedial Approaches to

Vocabulary Development
Certain general approaches to vocabulary development, used by the classroont
teacher from kindergarten on, should be emphasized further for the child who
has shown limited growth in learning word meanings and who has failed to
establish the habit of attending to them. These approaches include building
background knowledge and concepts through the use of both direct and vicarious
experiences.
Direct experiences offer many opportunities for building understanding of
words and for acquiring the habit of learning their meanings. Children with
reading difficulties are frequently lacking in those experiences which furnish a
supply of word meanings sufficient to ensure reading with understanding. The
remedial reading teacher should therefore provide the needed experiences as
much as possible. The procedures are essentially the same as in any good instruc-
tional program; the only difference is that the instruction is more individualized.
Part of the time, the teacher will be concerned with a single child. At other times,
she may deal with a small group of children with similar deficiencies. Furnishing
the desired experiences should be integrated with the rest of a well-coordinated
program of remedial instruction.
Although teachers often plan field trips to provide direct experiences, many
valuable firsthand experiences do not involve elaborate field trips. McCormick
school building
(1987) suggests taking students outside to examine details of the
or walking to nearby sites. Highlights of the trip can be videotaped for later use
in language development. An alternative is to make use of real experiencesthat
students have had outside of school. For example, an athletic event a student has
attended can be the basis of vocabulary-building activities. Firsthand experiences
within the classroom, as, for example, when a child brings in a model airplane to
show the class, when a science experiment is performed, when a presentationis
made by a parent or community member, or when children engage in activities
such as collecting insects, cooking, or constructing a mural, can formthe basis for
vocabulary development for a small group of remedialreaders. Reutzel (1985) has
proposed that, on occasion, enrichment activities suggested as the concluding
part of a basal reader lesson can be introduced first, to build experiential back-
ground and introduce essential vocabulary
To gain the most from an experience, careful planning is necessary. As noted
by Dolch (1951), experience alone does not educate. Since the meanings a child
learns from reading are determined by the nature and clearness of his concepts,
direct experiences should yield as varied and accurate concepts as possible.
Children should be prepared beforehand, so that they may look forand under-
stand as many aspects of an experience as possible. They should know what to
look for and what questions they would like to have answered.
If experiences are to be beneficial, the child must think about them, seek out
their meanings, and make use of them in subsequent speaking, listening, reading,
and writing. To achieve this end, the child should have the opportunity, both
before and after an experience, to discuss it, guided, of course, by the teacher.
During this exchange of ideas and answering of questions, there will be the
opportunity to define purposes, extend information, clear up misconceptions,
and clarify and enrich meanings. The preparation for an experience and the
discussion following it tend to be highly worthwhile, whatever the nature of the
experience. The development of word meanings and concepts is also promoted
by the exchange of experiences in informal discussion. Children should be en-
couraged to seek meaning in everything they encounterand to ask for additional
explanations and further clarification of whatever they do not understand.
Vicarious experiences, such as extensive reading, provide another way in which
word meanings and the habit of attending to them is built. Many remedial
reading teachers select a book that is highly interesting to a child with reading
difficulties and read it aloud to her as a motivating device. In this way, they
demonstrate to the child some of the rewards that come from being able to read.
These teachers also use the content of the book to teach word meanings and the
habit of studying them. The teacher discusses the story with the child, pointing
out the well-chosen words and picturesque connotations the author has used. He
also shows the child ways in which the content defines the meaning of words and
how the author defines words for the reader. Not only the teacher,but also the
child, should be aware that she needs to build her vocabulary The child should
be shown how a mature reader uses reading itself to build a vocabulary This
suggestion is applicable as well to the intermediate-grade child and, even more
so, to the high school student or adult with a reading disability. Indeed, it is at the
last two levels that a vocabulary that has not grown becomes most evident.
The child with reading difficulties should be encouraged to note, by himself,
words that are interesting to him, that have unusual meanings, or that are espe-
cially descriptive. In this way, he will develop the habit of attending to word
meanings and achieve vocabulary-building skills. The child with reading difficul-
ties who is limited in vocabulary should also do extensive independent reading,
both in school and at home.
Remedial reading teachers can have interesting, easy-to-read materials avail-
able for students and can ask the students to check them out for home reading.
Parents can provide a short block of time in the home, free of distractions, when
children are expected to read. Classroom teachers can encourage all children,
including those who experience reading difficulties, to read more widely by
providing short blocks of class time for the children to read books of their own
choosing.
Extending and enriching word meanings is aided by abundant reading of
interesting and relatively easy materials. For such reading, not more than one
unfamiliar word should appear in 100 to 200 running words. Ordinarily, each new
book, story or article a child reads includes both words that are new to him and
words that he has previously encountered. The use of old words in a variety of
contexts broadens and clarifies their meanings. The more essential new words are
seen enough to acquire more and more meaning. It is unrealistic to expect that a
clear meaning for every new word will be learned right away, but this does not
mean that unfamiliar words should be ignored. It is particularly important that
the reader pay attention to any unfamiliar words he meets in context. Eventually,
many of these words will become familiar. Motivation is maintained by guiding
children to material that catches their interest and is of appropriate difficulty so
that the context will yield the most intelligible clues to the meanings of any new
words.
If extensive reading is to help a child develop new concepts and learn new
words, the proper use of context is essential. The remedial reading teacher, there-
fore, needs to evaluate the child's proficiency in the use of context and word
structure and to give whatever instruction is necessary For the best results,
monitoring of and training in the use of context must be a continuing process
with each child, since this skill is ordinarily slow to develop.
The child with reading difficulties should be encouraged to discuss his inde-
pendent reading with his remedial reading teacher. The discussion should in-
clude new words he has found useful, and further instruction should include
using them in his own speech and writing. He should also indicate how he
discovered the new word meanings. This should be done because the child must
become aware of how he is improving his vocabulary, so that he can continue to
do so independently.
Other types of vicarious experiences can be used to build clear, precise, and
extensive meanings of words. It is not feasible, and frequently not possible, to
develop word meanings by direct experience alone. Much worthwhile experience
can be provided students through supplemental media. Among these are models,
pictures, exhibits of materials related to a new topic, motion pictures, filmstrips,
chalkboard sketches, charts, maps, slides, videotapes, and computer programs.
In using supplemental media to help build word meanings, the remedial
reading teacher should recognize that vocabularies are built to the extent that the
media are used appropriately. It is inefficient merely to present experiences af-
forded by these media without first preparing the students for them and without
following the presentation with discussion. The preparation should set the pur-
poses for viewing or listening, one of which should be the idea that vocabulary
growth is one outcome of the experience. The preparation should indicate the
way in which the media may best be studied. During thediscussion following the
presentation, the students should be encouraged to use the new vocabulary and
even to explain the meanings of the terms used. The fundamental steps in teach-
ing a reading selection, discussed in Chapter 9, could well be used with supple-
mental media. Of course, it is essential that the teacher preview the material
before using it in the classroom.
Formal Methods of Enriching Word Meanings

The teaching of word meanings is valuable only when it is done properly. We
have emphasized that direct, systematic, well-planned practice reading and oth-
erwise using words in context increases one's vocabulary, but that teaching of
words in isolation is usually wasteful and ineffective. This is because the exact
meaning of a word frequently depends on its context. Often, familiar words are
used in an unfamiliar sense. Teaching these new meanings of old words and the
association of a particular meaning with a particular context is a considerable part
of vocabulary training.
It is the authors' view that word study is useful in developing meanings only
when it consists of using each word in various contexts, associating it with
concrete experiences, and giving it a sufficient number of oral and written repeti-
tions in a varied program of extensive reading. The process goes as follows: First
of all, new words are studied as they are met in context. That way, learning a
word's meaning fulfills the child's immediate concern, namely, her desire to
understand the passage she is reading. Then, the child uses the word she has
learned in discussion and in writing. Finally, she reads materials in which the
word occurs frequently.
Since many words have several meanings or shades of meaning, the initial
contact with a new word in context can provide it with only a limited meaning.
To extend and enrich the meaning of a new word, the word should also be
presented in various contexts that bring out and emphasize some of its different
shades of meaning or different meanings. It is also helpful if the remedial reading
teacher introduces activities that apply meanings of the word to such concrete
situations as demonstrations, giving titles to pictures or drawings, or writing
letters. These concrete activities are useful techniques for extending and enriching
the meaning of a word through tasks that are not strictly limited to talking and
reading. Also, more formal reading practices, such as building a sight vocabularç
using contextual clues and authors' definitions, analyzing word structure, and avail-
ing oneself of the dictionary, are helpful in overcoming vocabulary limitations.
Building a Sight Vocabulary

As stated many times throughout this work, a child can make little progress in
reading without a basic sight vocabulary. This becomes especially important for
the child with reading difficulties. The Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary (1945) of 220
service words contains about 60 percent of all the words that appear on the pages
children read in the elementary grades. With normal progress, a child will have
mastered these 220 words during his third year in school.
Many students with reading difficulties are particularly deficient in recogniz-
ing and understanding the proper use of the service words. When recognition of
these words is being taught, emphasis should be placed on developing an under-
standing of their meanings in context. One way to do this is to present exercises
such as the following:
Directions: Read the sentence on the left, and then underline the word at the right
that gives the idea or meaning of the word underlined in the sentence.
1. He sat underthe tree. (a) when (b) where (c) how (d) why
2. He left on July 6. (a) when (b) where (C) how (d) why
3. He ran because he was late. (a) when (b) where (C) how (d) why
4. Jack has a brown coat. (a) color (b) wood (c) cloth (d) straw
5. Ann has the gjt box. (a) odd (b) wooden (C) correct (d) small
The meanings of some of the service words can be taught best in terms of their
use in context, rather than by defining them. For instance, in the sentence
When John and Bill came home, mother gave them some cookies.
children are taught that them means the persons, animals, or things talked or
written about.
A variety of sentences to illustrate this meaning should be presented to the
child. The meaning of the word should also be discussed with the child and noted
in the child's writings. A similar treatment should be given to the meanings of
such words as they, could, and what.
Many of these basic sight words are particularly difficult for children with
reading difficulties to learn and retain. It is a cardinal principle that those words
which carry the most meaning are remembered best. Without the teacher's guid-
ance, such words as where, their, by, myself, and which do not have much meaning
to many children with reading disabilities.
Using Contextual Clues and Authors' Definitions

The meaning of a new word can frequently be derived from its context. To do this,
a child needs to comprehend the rest of the words in the sentence or passage.
Many children with reading problems make ineffective use of context in trying to
discover the meanings of unfamiliar words. They should be taught to read the rest
of the sentence or passage and then look back and try to decide what the un-
known word probably means. For instance, consider the sentence:
The Indians at the powwow were from a reservation, the land set aside for Indians
who still lived in the northern part of the state.
Here, the word reservation acquires meaning from the context that follows it in the
rest of the sentence. This type of contextual clue can be called a "forward clue,"
because the child must read forward to discover the meaning of the word. An-
other example of the context providing a forward clue is the sentence
Although Mary was surprised when Jack glared at her, she was not disturbed by
his angry look.
Sometimes, if a sentence is part of a story other sentences may amplify and clarify
the meaning of some of the words in it. Although some meanings derived this
way may be incorrect, such training usually builds considerable skill in deriving
meaning from context.
Frequently, contextual clues to word meanings come from the author's defi-
nitions. Such a definition may be an explanation given in the rest of the sentence,
or it may come from another word or phrase in the sentence. Sometimes, it is even
in a separate sentence. An example of each of these follows:
1. When Mother did not like the retort DiAnn made, she asked her to answer more
politely.
2. The boys were delighted with the summer cruise—a voyage by steamship on
the Great Lakes.
3. Just after we got on the train, the conductor gave the engineer the signal to
start. In addition to directing the engineer, the conductor collects the passen-
gers' tickets.
Another difficulty children with reading difficulties have is choosing the

correct meaning of a word that has multiple meanings. For instance, the correct
meaning of paid in the sentence, "Jack paid dearly for his mistake" depends on
the context given by the entire sentence. In fact, the correct meaning of such
words is sensed only in terms of the context.
Analyzing Word Structure

Direct, systematic, well-organized practice on words is valuable for the child who
has difficulty with word meanings when this practice is on words in context or is
related to words used in context. When the remedial reading teacher instills
sufficient motivation in the child to lead to a general interest in words, she will
find it useful to devote some study to the meanings suggested by common
prefixes, suffixes, and word roots and to synonyms and antonyms. This approach
to word study should be used when a word that lends itself to analysis is met in
the child's ongoing reading. The following examples are illustrative:
1. The sailors sailed aboard the ship (prefix and word root).
2. He has a kingly appearance (word root and suffix).
3. The army was undefeated (prefix, root, suffix).
In addition to associating root words and affixes with their meanings, the
teacher can explore the possibility of creating additional words by adding other
prefixes or suffixes to appropriate words. The meanings of the more common
word roots, prefixes, and suffixes may be worked out in this manner. The child
will be helped by the following types of exercises in identifying and under-
standing word roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
1. Draw a line under the root word in each of the following, and tell what the root
word means:
worker untie kindly
2. Draw a line under the prefix in each of the following, and tell how the prefix
changes the meaning of the root word:
unlike return displace
3. Draw a line under the suffix in each of the following, and tell how the suffix
changes the meaning of the root word:
slowly kindness doubtful
After roots, prefixes, and suffixes have been identified, their uses in develop;
ing meanings should be established through discussion and supplementary ac-
tivities. One way of doing this is to rewrite sentences. The child is given a sentence
containing a word with a prefix. He is asked to identify the word with the prefix
and then to rewrite the sentence with a new word or phrase that replaces the
prefix, but does not change the meaning of the sentence. An example of a result
of this technique is the following:
Your bicycle is unlike mine.

Your bicycle is different from mine.
Training in structural aids to meaning should be given in context, as illus-

trated in the following exercises:
The prefix un can mean (a) not, (b) opposite action, or (c) something was
removed. Show which meaning is implied by putting the appropriate letter before
each sentence.
______ 1. The boy untied the horse.

______ 2. The man was unkind to the horse.
______ 3. The rider was unhorsed.
Complete the following sentences:
1. A snowball is a ball made of ______

2. A steamboat is a boat run by
3. Aflowerpotisapotfora
4. A fireplace is a place to have a ______
Using the Dictionary

Proper use of a suitable dictionary can be an important aid to the child who is
having difficulty developing word meanings. Few children acquire the habit of
consulting a dictionary or know the wealth of fascinating information that can be
found in a dictionary Development of the habit depends upon a systematic
program of instruction carried out by a skilled and enthusiasticremedial reading
teacher. No child will enjoy using a dictionary to get word meanings until she has
become skillful in finding a desired word quickly. After finding the word, the
child must know how to select, from the several meanings listed, the one that fits
the context from which the word came. This means that she must grasp the
meaning of the rest of the sentence or paragraph in which the unknown word
occurs. Considerable training is required to develop skill in choosing correct
dictionary meanings. Activities of the following type are easily found or con-
structed:
Directions: Several numbered definitions are given for the word in heavy black
type. Read the word and its definitions. Next, read the sentences below the
definitions. Write the number of the definition in front of the sentence in which the
meaning of the word is used.
grate: (1) grind off in small pieces, (2) rub with a harsh sound, (3) have any
annoying or unpleasant effect.
______ Please irate the cheese to put onthe salad.
Mary's manners always on me.
In addition to developing skill in using the dictionary to find word meanings,

this type of exercise provides further training in deriving meanings from contex-
tual clues and in noting different meanings for the same word. Similarly, experi-
ences with synonyms and antonyms enrich word meanings when the words are
studied in context.
Informal Methods of Enriching Word Meanings

There are many informal approaches to enriching and expanding the meanings
of the words found in the reading vocabularies of children. These approaches also
develop the word-study habits necessary for continuing growth in the reading
vocabularies of intermediate-level, high school, and adult readers. The following
activity is merely one of many possible suggestions:
As the horse approached his stable, he ______ ahead, but his rider ______ ______
in the saddle.
The student is to think of as many groups of words as he can to complete the

sentence in order to change the picture the sentence paints. The student might
think of groups such as
galloped, slumped over

trudged, sat erect
walked, felt insecure
stumbled, sat confidently
The doze procedure, often used in testing comprehension, can also be used
in an imaginative application to the study of word meanings.
The child with reading difficulties might help his remedial reading teacher by
writing similar sentences for younger readers. Multiple-choice exercises using
antonyms, synonyms, or semantic variations could be constructed. A dictionary
could be used to find the choices. This would be both an appealing and a useful
dictionary activity. Another dictionary activity that would be both interesting and
instructive would be for the child with a limited meaning vocabulary to make his
own dictionary of new words he has found interesting. He would see his list of
words grow, and he would discover new meanings for many of the words.
Encouraging the child to write is invariably helpful. He should be prompted
to use the new words he has learned. Experience charts are an especially effective
activity for building vocabulary when groups of children work together. The
group should discuss the choice of words while making the experience chart and
decide why one word expresses an idea better than another.
Ineffective Use of Sentence Sense

Besides knowing the meanings of words, other basic comprehension skills are
needed to understand sentences. Among them are reading in thought units, using
punctuation as an aid to meaning, interpreting connectives, identifying pronoun-
antecedent relationships, and adjusting to varied sentence structures.
Grouping Words into Thought Units

Many children with reading difficulties either are word-by-word readers or are
inclined to group words inappropriately, so that it is impossible for them to gain
a clear comprehension of an entire sentence. At the start of instruction in reading,
a child must recognize each word separately. In the beginning, she is required by
her inexperience to study each word closely in order to identify it at all, so there
is only a slight chance that she will be able to group several words together for
recognition as a thought unit. As the child becomes more adept at word identifi-
cation, and as she builds a stock of words that she can recognize at sight, she is
able to group some of them together.
The first grouping by thought units rather than by individual words is two-
word combinations, such as "the cat," "Daddy said," or "to ride." This simple
grouping of words takes place only after the child is very familiar with each of
the words and only when they are set off together by the typography. For exam-
ple, in the sentence, "Daddy said, 'We can stop,'" the punctuation makes the
grouping of "Daddy said" easy to detect. Later, when the child is expected to read
two-line sentences, additional help is given to help the child learn to read in
thought units. For example, in the two-line sentence
Meg said, 'Put the duck

in the water."
the child is almost forced by the format to read by thought units. Still later, she is
expected to be able to analyze a sentence into thought units rapidly, as she
progresses along the line of print. This is a mature type of reading that is predi-
cated on recognizing the words and phrases at sight.
Inability to read in thought units can be diagnosed in several ways. The
simplest method is to listen to the child read easy material orally. If she reads in
a word-by-word manner, or if she clusters words in meaningless groups, she is
probably ineffective in recognizing thought units in her silent reading, and she is
certainly not reading orally by thought units. Another method of diagnosing this
inability is to flash phrases before the child for recognition. If she reads the
phrases noticeably less well than does a child with generally equal reading ability,
it is safe to assume that she has limited ability in recognizing thought units in
isolation. It is then probable that she cannot recognize thought units in a sentence
either.
Remedial methods must be based on the premise that ultimately the child will
have to learn to recognize meaningful groups of words as she silently reads
consecutive sentences. She will then be reading sentences, not isolated thought
units. But skill in reading by groups of words is dependent in part on the ability
to segment sentences into reasonable units. Also, it is necessary for the child to
convert the groups of words she separates into single ideas. Remedial instruction
must teach the child to recognize thought units of several words rapidly and also
to locate such groups of words in the sentences she reads. Many readers who are
limited in recognizing thought units are able to recognize isolated thought units
flashed before them, but are incapable of reading whole sentences silently or
aloud by thought units. Since they cannot readily divide a sentence into proper
clusters of words, they must read each word separately.
Remedial instruction designed to enable a child to read in thought units
either should be done in context, or the phrases learned in isolation should be
read immediately in complete sentences. Following are some suggestions for
instruction and practice in reading by thought units:
1. Whenever the remedial reading teacher introduces new words from a selec-
tion, the words should be read in the phrases in which they will appear in the
selection.
2. After a selection has been read, the child can reread it to locate certain
expressive phrases suggested by the teacher.
3. Having the child prepare material to read orally provides excellent experience
in reading by thought units. The teacher should stress that the selection should
be read like talking."
4. Multiple-choice exercises in which phrases appear as answers and distractors
may be used.
a. Draw a line under the correct phrase to complete the sentence.
over the fence.
(1) The ball sailed down under the hole.
under the water.
flew away
(2) The dog talked softly.
ran fast.
b. On the pages given, quickly find the phrases at the right and answer these
questions.
Question Phrase
Where was the rooster? (near the barn)
Who was happy? (the white bear)
When did the boys swim? (one summer day)
c. Mark off the thought units in the following sentences, and tell the who;
what, did what, where, or why questions they answer.
1. The large truck went slowly down the street.
2. Billy and Frank quickly made a snow fort to hide behind.
d. Draw a line from the phrase to the word that has a similar meaning.
a big meal stroke
to rub softly feast
to cut down chop
e. Find these phrases in your book on the page I give, and tell what they
mean.
answer the knock with a splash
bright as stars cry for help
break the horse fine fishing country
f. On the pages I tell you, find a phrase that makes you:
hear something (the screaming gulls)
feel something (the cool breeze)
see something (colored autumn leaves)

smell something (sweet-scented flowers)
taste something (a sour apple)
5. The use of rapid-exposure techniques, described in Chapter 11, will aid in
teaching children with reading disabilities to recognize a phrase or thought unit
with one eye fixation. For group work, an opaque projector can be used. A
piece of cardboard is placed before the lens and moved up and down to
expose thought units for about a half second. The phrases for this work should
be in the form of sentences, such as the following:
A brown beaver
was at work
near the island.
He was making
a tunnel
at the bottom
of the pond.
6. Sentences may be separated into thought units to be read by the children:
The old man with the angry face was happy now.
He had found the one thing he liked.
Using Punctuation
Ineffective interpretation of punctuation or ignoring it altogether may also hinder
sentence comprehension. Possibly the most common problem with punctuation
among children with reading difficulties is the failure to learn the more common
uses of the comma—that is, to separate words and groups of words written as a
series in a sentence, to set off an appositive, or to set off a parenthetical expression
in a sentence.
Informal procedures must be used to find out whether a child is using punc-
tuation properly. For instance, commas that are used properly should aid in
grouping words into thought units. Much is learned about a child's use of com-
mas by having him read sentences aloud. If the child does not use commas to
guide inflection and emphasis in phrasing, it is likely that he does not understand
the function of the punctuation marks in what he reads. If this is so, he will have
difficulty comprehending the full meaning of sentences. To illustrate the use of
commas, sentences such as the following may be taken from books the child is
reading:
1. Deer, too, were there.
2. They stood still, heads up, listening.
3. Mary said, "Now we can go home."
4. After dark, when all was quiet, he walked slowly down the street.
A few children will need supervision to recognize that a capital letter is a clue
to the beginning of a sentence and that a period or question mark signals the end
of a sentence.
Remedial training in the use of punctuation to facilitate comprehension in-
volves at least two aspects: (1) Through discussion, the student is made aware
that the punctuation within a sentence indicates the relationship between what
has just been read and what follows; and (2) the student is given ample practice
with sentences from his own reading. Training should start with relatively simple
sentences and progress gradually to more complex ones. In all cases, the sen-
tences should be made of words the child knows and can pronounce. In general,
direct explanation and supervised practice lead to improvement.
In a similar manner, as the child progresses in his reading, he may need help
interpreting semicolons, colons, and dashes. Training in this aspect of reading is
necessary for full sentence comprehension and for reading aloud. In fact, inter-
pretive oral reading helps to develop this skill.
Interpreting Connectives
The child who is weak in sentence comprehension must be taught how a sentence
is constructed. Remedial teaching should begin with direct sentences whose parts
are easily found. Then, more complex sentences should be introduced. Finally, the
child should be taught the importance of learning connectives. She should be
shown that they can change the anticipated flow of the thought or qualify it in
some way. This problem is often encountered in social studies material. Teaching
the function of connectives should start with relatively simple illustrations. Then
some examples, perhaps taken from the student's social studies textbook, should
be provided. A sentence similar to the following might be used:
We were going swimming, but a thunderstorm began, so we decided to watch

television instead.
After the sentence is read, the child can be asked whether the people went swim-
ming, what words show that they did not go, and why they changed their minds.
Identifying Pronoun-Antecedent Relationships

Sometimes, difficulties arise when the person or object referred to by a pronoun
is not readily grasped. Children who have difficulty with basic comprehension
often have this problem. To deal with it, examples can be discussed from books a
child is reading, or the following type of exercises can be used for remedial
instruction:
Directions: In the following sentences, the underlined word is used in place of the
name of a person or thing mentioned earlier or later in the sentence. Draw a circle
around the word or words that tell who or what is meant by the underlined word.
1. After he arrived home from school, Jack shoveled the snow off the walk.
2. As the horses were freed, galloped across the field.
3. Bill looked on with interest as his sister, Jane, rode toward him on her new
bicycle.
Using Syntax
Understanding word order within a sentence is vital to understanding the sen-
tence. For example, the sentence, Only Tom went to the store, has a meaning
different from Tom went to the only store. The child who cannot use syntax to grasp
meaning while reading often will not comprehend what he has read. The child
should be encouraged to note relationships among the various words in a sen-
tence, such as the actor, the action, and the object of the action. Exercises designed
to bring together knowledge of spoken language and reading comprehension are
also helpful in this regard.
1. Read this sentence:

The big gray elephants at the zoo wanted more roasted peanuts.
a. Put "C" before the three most important words in the sentence, in order.
______ zoo peanuts
peanuts wanted elephants
elephants wanted peanuts
b. Put "C" before the words that show that the elephants had already had
some peanuts.
______ wanted zoo peanuts
______ wanted roasted peanuts
______ wanted more peanuts
elephants roasted peanuts
2. Read this sentence:
The boys ran to the circus to see the clowns do funny tricks.
a. Who did tricks?
______ the boys the clowns ______ the circus
b. Why did the boys run to the circus?
______ to see the clowns ______ to do some tricks
c. Where did the boys run?
______ to see the clowns ______ to the circus
d. What was funny?
______the tricks ______ the boys the circus
Adjusting to Varied Sentence Structures

The inability of readers to sort out and properly relate the meanings of different
parts of a sentence is sometimes complicated by sentence structure. For instance,
difficulties may arise when the subject is last or when it is between two parts of
the predicate, rather than at the beginning. Informal methods for diagnosing such
difficulties and for remedial instruction are similar to those described previously
for developing sentence comprehension. For example, the child could be asked
what word answers the question "Who?" in each of the following sentences:
"Hearing the low, rumbling sound again, Anita suddenly remembered some-
thing" and "Then, into the cool water dove Margo."
Writers themselves can hinder sentence comprehension. When sentences are
excessively long and too complex, they prevent the reader from understanding
them clearly. Sometimes, sentences are just written poorly. Nevertheless, the
reader must learn to adjust if he wishes to read them.
The teacher can help the reader develop flexibility through analyzing of
sentences. For example, the student can be asked to tell whether a phrase signifies
when, why, how, what, or where, as in the following example:
The large farm belongs to father.
"The large farm" tells us when, why, how, what, or where?
Because Annemarie was ill, she did not go to school.
"Because Annemarie was ill" tells us when, why, how, what, or where?
"to school" tells us when, why, how, what, or where?
A variation of the preceding example is to find and copy the word or words
that answer the question "who?" or "where?" After the pupil is informed that the
sentences answer the questions "who?" and "where?" she is directed to write,
below the sentences, the word or words that answer the questions.
1. The boy went to the chalkboard to write the word.

2. "From school to the park is only one-half mile," explained the teacher.
Words that tell
Sentence Number Who? Where?
1
The responses may be made by having the child draw a line under the words that
answer the question "where?" and the like.
Activities and exercises similar to the foregoing may be constructed directly

from any books the children are currently reading. Sample items may be found in
Mueser (1981).
Insufficient Comprehension of Longer Units

Frequently, children with basic comprehension problems are unable to under-
stand the meaning of a paragraph. These children are apt to consider each sen-
the predicate, rather than at the beginning. Informal methods for diagnosing such
difficulties and for remedial instruction are similar to those described previously
for developing sentence comprehension. For example, the child could be asked
what word answers the question "Who?" in each of the following sentences:
"Hearing the low, rumbling sound again, Anita suddenly remembered some-
thing" and "Then, into the cool water dove Margo."
Writers themselves can hinder sentence comprehension. When sentences are
excessively long and too complex, they prevent the reader from understanding
them clearly. Sometimes, sentences are just written poorly. Nevertheless, the
reader must learn to adjust if he wishes to read them.
The teacher can help the reader develop flexibility through analyzing of
sentences. For example, the student can be asked to tell whether a phrase signifies
when, why, how, what, or where, as in the following example:
The large farm belongs to father.
"The large farm" tells us when, why, how, what, or where?
Because Annemarie was ill, she did not go to school.
"Because Annemarie was ill" tells us when, why, how, what, or where?
"to school" tells us when, why, how, what, or where?
A variation of the preceding example is to find and copy the word or words
that answer the question "who?" or "where?" After the pupil is informed that the
sentences answer the questions "who?" and "where?" she is directed to write,
below the sentences, the word or words that answer the questions.
1. The boy went to the chalkboard to write the word.

2. "From school to the park is only one-half mile," explained the teacher.
Words that tell
Sentence Number Who? Where?
1
The responses may be made by having the chil1 draw a line under the words that
answer the question "where?" and the like.
Activities and exercises similar to the foregoing may be constructed directly

from any books the children are currently reading. Sample items may be found in
Mueser (1981).
Insufficient Comprehension of Longer Units

Frequently, children with basic comprehension problems are unable to under-
stand the meaning of a paragraph. These children are apt to consider each sen-
tence as a separate unit, unrelated to the other sentences in the paragraph. It is

possible for them to read and understand words, thought units, and sentences
and yet not comprehend fully the connected material in a paragraph. Similarly,
some children are unable to sense the relationships among paragraphs in various
narrative and expository materials. Each of these is a separate difficulty and must
be dealt with in its own way.
Knowledge of Organization within a Paragraph

Comprehension of a paragraph requires an understanding of the relationships
among the sentences of the paragraph. Many readers who have difficulty with
comprehension need guidance in identifying the topic sentence of the paragraph
and in relating it to other, explanatory or amplifying sentences within the para-
graph.
Remedial teaching in regard to the organization of the sentences in the para-
graph centers on helping the child understand the interrelationships among those
sentences. Activities requiring the child to find which one of several statements
best represents the general meaning of a given paragraph are effective. Calling
attention to various types of organization in paragraphs is even more important
in increasing comprehension. This instruction should start with the commonest
type of paragraph, that in which the topic sentence is presented first and the
sentences that follow it expand the main idea. A second type of paragraph
presents a series of related facts and concepts, and the topic sentence comes last
in the form of a generalization. This type of paragraph is used frequently in
scientific writing. Finally, the child should be taught to recognize a third type of
paragraph organization, one in which introductory concepts are presented in-
itially, a summary topic sentence follows, and the paragraph is concluded with
sentences that modify or limit the general idea. This type of paragraph is often
found in social studies materials.
To develop skill in finding the topic sentence, the child is given demonstra-
tions and explanations, using a variety of paragraphs. Then he is asked to indicate
the topic sentence in other paragraphs. Besides this, the child should learn how
the other sentences in the paragraph develop the idea presented in the topic
sentence—by details, by emphasis, by explanations, by contrast, and by repetition
of the same idea in other words. One technique for teaching this skill is to number
the sentences in a paragraph, and then, through questions and analysis, the role
of each sentence in relation to the others is determined.
A well-written paragraph is concerned with one central idea. The child can
be trained to grasp this idea in various ways. (1) A paragraph is given, followed
by three phrases, one of which best expresses the topic of the paragraph. The
child indicates which one is best. (2) The child is asked to write a "title" for a
paragraph or to express what the paragraph is about in his own words. (3) The
child is given a topic sentence and asked to write a short paragraph with support-
ing and amplifying sentences. (4) The child is given a paragraph that is correct,
except for one sentence which has been added. He is asked to underline the topic
sentence and then to cross out the sentence that does not belong.
Although comprehending paragraphs is important in all reading, it is essen-
tial for a clear understanding of the content fields. Some training in under-
standing the unity of a paragraph is usually introduced when a third-grade
reading ability is reached. More formal training to develop the child's compre-
hension of paragraphs becomes a regular part of reading instruction at the inter-
mediate grade levels.
Relating the Parts of a Long Selection

For full comprehension of longer units, the child should be taught to sense the
relationships among the paragraphs that make up the selection (Hoskins, 1986).
Usually, in good expository writing, the introductory paragraphs state what is to
be described or explained or set forth the reasons for writing about it. The
paragraphs that follow then give the details or the explanation in logical se-
quence. Finally, the last paragraph or two state the outcome or conclusion, or they
summarize what has been said.
In well-written narratives, the text is organized by the important elements in
the story and the relationships among them (Templeton & Mowery 1985). For
example, stories commonly comprise three parts: (1) the beginning, which gives
the setting (the time or the place of the story or both) and sometimes also the
characters; (2) the body of the story which includes the plot and the actions and
reactions of the protagonist and others, and (3) the final paragraphs, which relate
the resolution of the problem or the conclusion of the events. Kent (1984) cautions
that teachers need to be aware of the differences between the expository and the
narrative text structure in order to teach useful strategies for comprehending
each.
The remedial reading teacher assists the child who is having difficulty com-
prehending longer units by teaching her text structure so that she understands the
relationships among paragraphs better and is able to identify the main parts of
stories and expository materials. Idol (1987) emphasizes the importance of the
teacher demonstrating and modeling correct responses explicitly. Some computer
programs guide students in writing well-organized narrative or expository text.
In teaching textual structure, a teacher might try one of the following tech-
niques: (1) Explain the main parts and elements of a story, and then demonstrate
how to find these parts with examples. Ask questions about each part that are
designed to show its content. (2) Discuss the transitional expressions that often
start a paragraph. Demonstrate that these expressions precede the main idea or
topic of many of the paragraphs from a selection, using examples such as (a) But
something else has happened.. . , (b) Then he turned to Jesse. . . , (c) When this was done,
she began.... (3) Have the child write one sentence to express the main idea in
each paragraph of a story. Then have her join the sentences together in a coordi-
nated pattern of thought, using transitional words or phrases as needed. (4) Help
the child discover the pattern or grammar of a story and help her compose an
original story following the same pattern. With expository materials, it is useful
to have the student make an outline of the main and subordinate ideas.
According to research by Smith and Friend (1986), direct instruction in textual
structure improves comprehension, even for older students who are experiencing
severe difficulty in reading comprehension.
Summary
To read means to read with understanding. To accomplish this, the student must
comprehend words, thought units, sentences, paragraphs, and longer units. In-
struction for developing comprehension coordinates all of these.
Listening comprehension develops ahead of reading comprehension in the
early grades. As the mechanics of reading are mastered, reading comprehension
catches up with and soon equals listening comprehension. With still further
progress in reading, reading comprehension becomes superior.
Comprehension depends upon concepts or meanings evolved through expe-
nence. Any deficiencies that are discovered should be remedied as much as
possible. Direct experience is best, supplemented by vicarious experience. The
aim of either is to form concepts associated with words, which can be used by the
student in thinking, speaking, listening, writing, and reading.
Instructional techniques for teaching word meanings include demonstrating
the use of contextual clues, ensuring that the student reads extensively, encourag-
ing the attitude of insisting that words read be understood, encouraging the
attitude of noting authors' definitions, and developing the student's word study
and dictionary skills. For these techniques to be effective, all words studied must
be used in context.
To comprehend sentences, the child must understand the words in them and
the relationships among those words. He must also be able to read by thought
units, interpret punctuation, and understand figures of speech, symbolic expres-
sions, and semantic variations. Remedial instruction for sentence comprehension
is based on informal activities involving books the child is currently reading.
The comprehension of paragraphs depends on the comprehension of the
sentences in them and of the relationships among those sentences. Similarly, the
comprehension of longer units is based upon the comprehension of paragraphs
and of the relationships among them.
Study Questions
1. For the successful reader, what is the relationship between listening compre-
hension and reading comprehension through the grades? What part does the
mechanics of reading play in this relationship?
2. If experiences alone do not educate a student, what can a teacher do to ensure

that they do?
3. Why do some students who have adequate word recognition in reading
experience difficulty comprehending sentences?
4. What are some specific techniques to help a child who can read and under-
stand words and sentences, but who is unable to understand the meaning of
a paragraph?
5. How do the writing activities suggested for correcting basic comprehension
deficiencies help a child read better?
Selected Readings
Durkin, D. (1987). Teaching young children to read (4th ed.) (pp. 376—411). Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.
York: Longman.
Heilman, A. W, Blair, T. R, & Rupley, W. H. (1986). Principles and practices of teaching reading
Jewell, M. G., & Zintz, M. V. (1986). Learning to read naturally (pp. 130—159). Dubuque, IA:
Kendall/Hunt.
IA: Wm. C. Brown.
Robinson, H. A., Faraone, V., Hittleman, D. K, & Unruh, E.(1990). Reading comprehension
instruction 1783—1987: A review of trends and research. Newark, DE: International Read-
ing Association.
Rupley, W. H., & Blair, T. K (1989). Reading diagnosis and remediation (3rd ed.) (pp. 201—268).
Spache, G. D., & Spache, E. B. (1986). Reading in the elementary school (5th ed.) (pp. 544—563).
Boston: AlIyn and Bacon.
Taylor, B., Harris, L. A., & Pearson, P. D. (1988). Reading d(fflculties: Instruction and assess-
ment (pp. 200—234). New York: Random House.
Vacca, J. A., Vacca, R. T., & Gove, M. K. (1987). Reading and learning to read (pp. 142—203).
Boston: Little, Brown.
Chapter 15
Overcoming Specific
Comprehension
Limitations
The preceding chapters of this book have considered those limitations in reading
abilities that affect the child's entire reading achievement. Deficiencies in basic
comprehension and in word recognition prevent the effective reading of all types
of materials and, unless corrected, preclude future reading progress. The children
so far discussed are those classified as having limiting or complex reading prob-
lems. Often, they have difficulties in reading that are so severe or so complicated
by various handicaps that they require extensive remedial adjustments.
This chapter and the next will consider students who are experiencing read-
ing difficulties because of a specific immaturity. These students need corrections in
reading patterns that must be made if maturity in reading and satisfactory com-
munication between author and reader are to be achieved. Basically, they are
competent readers, but they have specific problems that must be corrected if their
full reading potential is to be realized. The reader with a specific immaturity can
and should receive corrective training.
The kind of remedial teaching discussed in this chapter is of special impor-
tance in the intermediate grades, high school, and adult education programs.
Students with difficulties in the areas at which such teaching is directed are often
unable to progress as well as they should in their general education, besides their
reading advancement. Three types of difficulties are seen most frequently: limita-
tions in specific comprehension abilities, insufficient development of basic study
skills, and deficiencies in reading the content of various fields of study.
271
272 Chapter Ffteen
Limitations in Specific Comprehension Abilities

Although the basic comprehension abilities discussed in the preceding chapter
underlie the communicative act of reading, they alone are not sufficient to make
a child a good reader. Rather, the child needs a group of diversified comprehen-
sion abilities and needs to use them flexibly. Unfortunately, there are many adults
whose reading programs did not give them flexibility in the use of specific
comprehension abilities. Some people read all material as though each illustrative
detail were to be retained forever. They have not developed such higher order
comprehension abilities as the ability tp organize facts so that generalizations can
be made, the ability to evaluate what they are reading, or the ability to reflect upon
what they are reading. Other people read primarily for enjoyment and retain little
of the content in material that should be read for more specific purposes.
Location and Recall of Information Read

To locate and recall information one has read requires exact, careful reading. It
involves identifying and recalling specific items of information, noting details
within a passage, retaining fundamental concepts, using facts to answer specific
questions, and finding statements to confirm an assertion or answer a general
question. These specific comprehension abilities begin developing as a part of the
child's early reading experiences and increase as long as systematic training is
given. Many children, however, fail to become effective at locating and retaining
factual information. On the other hand, numerous other children are found to be
overly exact at these tasks. These latter should be encouraged to read relatively
uncomplicated material for the purpose of enjoyment. They should read to predict
what ls going to happen next or to get a general impression of a story or passage.
Children who are not demanding enough in their reading or who cannot
remember details within a passage when it is necessary to do so should be given
reading that requires the accumulation of factual information with close attention
to detail and that requires that this factual information be used. For these pur-
poses, expository material is better than narrative. Material that is not overly
challenging, bu that contains an abundance of facts, is most useful in developing
the ability to read for informational purposes.
The following are a few samples of exercises that give the child experience in
reading to locate and retain factual information:
1. Read a selection about animals to find all the things a beaver uses in making
its home.
2. Reread the selection to find additional facts to add to your list about the
animals discussed.
3. Find and read sentences to prove or disprove these statements:
a. A big sea lion weighs about 600 pounds.
b. Abig elephant may be 8 feet high.
Overcoming Specific Comprehension Limitations 273
c. A baby kangaroo sleeps in its mother's pouch.

d. A full-grown kangaroo weighs more that a sea lion.
e. Baboons like to swim.
In addition to providing appropriate materials and purposes for reading to

locate and recall information, teachers should instruct students directly and
model for them how to answer questions through reading. Armbruster (1992)
suggests that there are three steps in answering questions through reading: inter-
preting the question, locating the required information, and formulating the
answer. Teachers can model these steps by (1) thinking aloud about what a ques-
tion means, rephrasing the question, and inviting students to put the question in
their own words or to try to say the question in a different way, (2) demonstrating
how to find the answer to a question, and (3) modeling how to formulate a
well-constructed answer. In thinking aloud about their answers, teachers can
review the entire process, including how they decided what information to retain
and what to omit. Cooperative discussion of the processes by which the student
obtained the answers and of the appropriateness of the answers will provide a
nonintimidating form of practice.
In mature reading, however, it is the reader who must set the purposes for
and ask the questions about what is read. Students can be directly taught how to
do these through demonstration and modeling—for example, by means of the
active comprehension strategy described by Nolte and Singer (1985). To teach this
strategy, the teacher models questions at pertinent points in a story and then
gradually invites the students to ask questions as well. Eventually, the teacher's
questions are phased out and the students' questions are phased in. In this way,
self-questioning is not something done before reading, after reading, or as an aid
to reading; but rather, it becomes a part of reading. Our own research suggests
that self-questioning enhances children's recall of material they have read.
Among the ways students can use information obtained through reading are
incorporating the information into their writing, exchanging it with others in
group discussion, contributing it to group projects, and creating a graphic repre-
sentation of the information, such as by the use of semantic webs.
Sense of Organization of Material

Effectiveness in sensing the order or relationship among facts read includes
abilities such as classifying and listing facts in a sensible manner, establishing a
sequence of events, following a series of related directions, sensihg relationships,
and distinguishing between major ideas and related facts. These are exacting
requirements, but they are important. Reading to organize information begins in
children's prereading activities, when, for example, they classify pictures of ani-
mals into those they would see on a farm and those they would see in a forest or
when they arrange a series of pictures in an orderly sequence of events. Some
children fail to become effective in sensing the organization and relationship
274 Chapter Fifteen
among the ideas they are reading. These children need remedial work to become
proficient in this area of comprehension.
Material for developing skill in organizing and sensing relationships among
facts must contain an abundance of facts. Science and social studies materials at
an appropriate level of difficulty can be used for the purpose. The remedial
reading teacher must provide reasons for requiring the child to organize reading
material, and she should monitor the child's effectiveness in organizing the
material. The following are some specific purposes for sensing the organization
of ideas and information in what one is reading:
1. Read about animals to make a summary chart showing where they live,what
they eat, how to recognize them, how they protect themselves, who their
enemies are, and how they get ready for winter.
2. Read to make a list of (a) the kinds of damage done by floods and (b) means
that are used to prevent such damage.
3. Read to map the information given about petroleum under the following
headings: how petroleum was formed, how oil wells are located, how oil is
obtained from below the ground, the uses of petroleum, and how we can
conserve our petroleum resources.
4. Read to find and list, in order, the steps taken by Charles Hall in his experi-
ments to find a quick and inexpensive way of changing alumina into alumi-
num.
5. Read to find out in what ways the life of a child who lives by the sea in
Brittany is the same as and how it is different from that of a child who lives
in Bora Bora.
Other ways students learn to sense an author's organization include making

an outline of the main ideas and important details from their reading, making a
visual representation of the organization of their reading through the use of
semantic maps or webs, and writing notes from their reading in their ownwords.
Students can also complete study guides that emphasize the organization of a
passage and write passages patterned after these guides (Miller & George, 1992).
Evaluation of What Is Read

Evaluating what is read involves not only reading and understanding what the
author said, but reflecting on the material so that critical judgments can bemade.
It includes such specific types of comprehension as differentiating between fancy,
fact, and opinion; judging the reasonableness and relevancy of ideas presented;
sensing implied meanings; establishing cause-and-effect relationships; making
comparisons; judging the authenticity of material read; and critically appraising
the validity of the author's presentation. Like all other comprehension abilities,
these have their start in early reading instruction and develop as long as growth
in reading continues. For example, it is appropriate, even at the prereading level,
to ask a child whether a fanciful tale really could have happened. Reading for
Overcoming Specf1c Comprehension Limitations 275
evaluation is one of the most important types of reading. The person who is
taught to read, but not to reflect on what she has read, is in danger of coming to
faulty conclusions when she reads. The child who is unable to read critically and
to judge the reasonableness of material at her level of advancement should be
given remedial instruction to overcome this deficiency. Reading for evaluation
develops gradually and should not be left to chance.
The best material for learning how to evaluate what one reads is material
(1) that is written to influence people, (2) in which ideas are implied rather than
directly stated, (3) in which there are cause-and-effect relationships, or (4) in
which statements of fact and opinion can be compared. Any material that is at the
child's general reading level may be used to increase her ability to evaluate what
she reads, including newspaper and magazine articles, stories, and advertise-
ments. comprehension activities that improve one's ability in this regard often
require the child to reread material in order to evaluate it in a variety of ways. The
following exercises illustrate material that teaches the child to judge, reflect on,
and evaluate what she has read:
1. Have the child read a somewhat fanciful story about animals and then reread
it to distinguish between the realistic and fanciful statements.
2. Have the child decide from the titles of stories whether they are likely to be
real or fanciful.
3. Have the child discuss whether a story read could have happened and give
reasons for her opinion.
4. Have the child find and read aloud just the part that proves a point and no
more.
5. Have the child find facts that are relevant to a topic.
6. Have the child read to find statements which characters make that the child
knows to be true and those that are opinions.
Interpretation of Content
The ability to interpret content involves extending the understanding of the
selection beyond the statements of the author. It differs from organizing what is
read in that it requires a child to derive new ideas from what he reads. Reading
to interpret includes understanding the significance of a selection read, drawing
an inference or conclusion that is not expressly stated, predicting the outcome of
given events, forming one's own opinions, and inferring time and measurement
relationships. These comprehension abilities require the reorganization of infor-
mation and ideas expressed so that new relationships can be understood. Some
children with good general reading ability find it difficult to interpret what they
read.
The ability to interpret is best developed in material that requires careful,
considered judgments. It is also encouraged by setting purposes for reading that
necessitate reflecting upon what is read. The child must learn to take the facts and
ideas presented, reorganize them, and recognize relationships among them that
276 Chapter Fifteen
he did not at first find apparent. Social studies and science lend themselves to
these sorts of reasoning, but well-written narratives and essays are also useful in
developing the ability to interpret.
The main requirement of remedial instruction for the reader who has diffi-
culty interpreting, but who is otherwise a capable reader, is to have him read for
purposes that cause him to reflect upon what he reads. The following exercises
illustrate the nature of assignments that encourage interpretive reading:
1. Have the children predict the ending of a story.

2. Have the children read to find out why the signing of the Magna Carta is
important to them.
3. Have the children form conclusions about how climatic conditions have
affected the ways in which people live.
In addition, the teacher should directly instruct the child in how to interpret
content. For example, she might explain why it is important to understand the
significance of a passage and describe how to do it. She should also demonstrate
the process of interpretation, thinking aloud, for instance, to model how she
reasons beyond specific facts to come to a conclusion about a passage. Finally,
providing materials and setting purposes that suit a student's prior knowledge
and interests facilitates successful interpretation, as does the pleasant discussion
of a passage with the teacher or with a congenial small group.
Appreciative Abilities
Appreciative abilities are somewhat different from the other abilities discussed in
this chapter. The ability to appreciate centers on the aesthetic qualities of reading.
Abilities such as discerning the mood expressed by the author; understanding the
plot, humor, and action of a story; forming various sensory impressions from the
story; and recognizing the distinctive qualities of the characters one reads about
are essential for appreciating what is read. The reading program and the guided
literature program are designed to build these abilities.
The child who cannot visualize the scene described in her reading, or sense
the feeling of aloneness experienced by an early explorer, or appreciate the humor
of an absurd situation has a reading difficulty, even though she may be able to
understand, organize, evaluate, and interpret factual content satisfactorily. The
best materials for developing the appreciative abilities in regard to reading are
works of literature, short stories, and anthologies. The child must read for reasons
that encourage appreciation. It would be unfortunate to force the factual type of
reading, required for other comprehension abilities, on a child who is reading
material that should be read for personal development, appreciation, or its own
beauty.
To cultivate reading appreciation, the teacher first must find material that is
worthy of being read, that is appropriate for the child's age, and that will be
interesting to her. The student should be given enough time to read the entire
piece and should be encouraged to discuss it (Samway et al., 1991). Although
guiding children to read and discuss quality materials is essential to improving
their reading appreciation, there are certain other things that can be done to
encourage it as well. The following instructions indicate the kinds of purposes
that improve one's reading appreciation skills:
1. Read a story so that you can act the part of one of the characters.
2. Read several stories, and select one that you think would make a good play.
3. Discuss how you think the character felt.
4. Locate some descriptive words within a poem.
5. Read a story to enjoy it.
Among the focuses of discussion that improve reading appreciation are the fol-
lowing:
1. Which of the characters do you think is most like you? Why?
2. If this story were going to be on television, but only some parts could be used,
which parts would you choose?
3. How did you feel when you finished reading this poem?
Insufficient Development of Basic Study Skills

A child can be an excellent reader in general and yet be unable to locate sources
of information, use basic references, or interpret pictorial and tabular materials. A
child who is limited in any of these skills has a specific difficulty in reading that
should be corrected if he is to use the printed page effectively.
Each of the categories of basic study skills listed in this section is composed
of many parts. The teacher must know just where a child's difficulty lies if
remedial treatment is to be effective and not waste time on elements already
mastered. It would be wasteful to spend time teaching a child who is weak in
locating sources of information to alphabetize a list of names he has read if he
already knows how to do so. It would be equally undesirable to spend time and
effort teaching him guide words when his real difficulty is that he does not know
in which type of book he can find the information he wants.
It is essential to sample the reader's performance in applying the basic study
skills. For example, if he is weak in the use of basic references, it may be found,
upon observation, that he does not know whether the type of information he
desires can be found in an encyclopedia, a dictionarç an atlas, an almanac, a
telephone book, a standard text, or some other book By noting the references he
selects when looking for information such as the time of the monsoons in India,
the definition of a word, the address of another school, the population of a town,
or the location of a country, the teacher can zero in on the problem.
278 Chapter Fifteen
A study of the reader's efficiency in using the particular basic study skill in
question is also needed. He may know which reference to use, under which
heading to look for the information he wishes to find, and how toestimate pages
within the reference, but still, he may be slow and inefficient in using what he
knows. Sampling his performance will also give this necessary information.
Which remedial methods to use will usually become apparent when the
nature of the difficulty is assessed. The teacher needs to teach the child how to
perform the procedures that cause him difficulty. If he does not know how to
alphabetize words, it is relatively easy to teach him the order of the letters and
that words are arranged in lists in this order by their first letters, then by the
second letters, and so on. This is a different arid much simpler type of learning
than is, for example, word recognition, in which few such rules apply.
Location of Sources of Information

Skill in finding sources of information is helpful in most study activities. The child
who knows how and when to use a table of contents, an index, and a computer
data base is better equipped for independent study than is the one who does not
think of doing these things or is not as skillful at them. Among the most frequent
limitations found in locational skills are (1) the inability to decide which refer-
ences contain the information wanted; (2) not knowing how to use such tools as
an index, a table of contents, a reader's guide, and the like; (3) difficulties estimat-
ing the probable key words under which information is classified or inflexibility
in selecting other references when the first one does not contain the information
wanted; (4) inefficiency in finding words in alphabetical listings, especially in
those lists with major and subordinate subdivisions; (5) the inability to find
specific pages in a book; and (6) not knowing how to skim material, making it
hard to find exact information.
The teacher must establish which of the preceding skills the child needs to
improve in and then give her instruction and practice in the use of those skills.
For example, if the child shows poor judgment as to which book might contain
information she desires, the teacher can teach her how to choose a good source
by working through the process with her. If her weakness is in not knowing
whether to use the table of contents or the index of a book, the teacher can explain
and demonstrate the use of each and give her experience in using them. If
determining key words causes her difficulty, the teacher can choose several topics
to demonstrate how they are listed, from general to specific, from commonto
unusual, or from major to related headings.
If the child has difficulty finding words in an alphabetical list, she must
practice working with the alphabet, with estimating how far through the alphabet
a given letter is, and with placing words in alphabetical order.The child who has
insufficient skimming ability should be given many activities that require her to
locate specific facts within a page or on several pages. It might be well to start
with the location of a date, since numbers on a page of print can readily be found.
Overcoming Specflc Comprehension Limitations 279
Use of Basic References

The child who is capable of finding information in general may find using basic
reference material confusing. Usually, his difficulty is not knowing what kind of
information each reference contains. To assist him, the teacher should find out
which references are causing him difficulty, explain what kind of information
they contain, and give him experience in using them. The child may be uncertain
about the difference between an encyclopedia and a dictionary and what type of
information is found in each. He may be equally confused about what can be
obtained from other reference books. After the teacher pinpoints the nature of the
problem, an explanation of the contents of the different basic references and some
experience in using each will usually correct the difficulty. At times, it is necessary
to have the child tell in which of the common reference books he would look to
find such things as, for example, facts about Columbus, the meaning of the word
Troy, and the amount of wheat grown in Kansas last year. Each time the child
should check the accuracy of his answer by looking up the topic.
Interpretation of Pictorial and Tabular Materials

Skill in reading maps, graphs, charts, and tables is important in understanding
printed material. The child who fails to develop such skills will fall behind in
reading in the various fields of study during her school years and also as an adult.
If a student is weak in interpreting pictorial and tabular materials, the teacher
should identify which kinds materials are causing her difficulty and determine
the exact nature of the trouble.
Again, as with most of the study skills, once the nature of the difficulty is
known, the remedial work to be undertaken is defined. The child who has diffi-
culty, for example, reading maps may stumble for a variety of reasons. She may
be unaware that different maps use different scales, because she has seen a map
of her city that is larger than a map of her state. She becomes troubled about
distances and comparative sizes. Or she may get erroneous notions because she
does not know that a flat map of a vast area must distort some features in order
to show others. For instance, many maps of the United States show the state of
Maine closer to the top than the state of Minnesota. As a consequence, some
people think that Maine extends farther north than Minnesota, but in reality it
does not. Similarly, because wall maps always have north at the top, many
children think rivers flow downhill to the south and are surprised to learn that
some rivers flow north and empty into Hudson Bay. Many such faulty concepts
can be established in trying to read maps.
In reading other types of pictorial and tabular materials, there are also many
kinds of confusion. The teacher should first find the source of the difficulty and
then give the child systematic instruction and purposeful experiences in order to
overcome the weakness. Corrective work is best accomplished in science and
social studies materials, and students can obtain practice working with maps,
graphs, charts, and tables by completing assignments in the corresponding
280 Chapter Fifteen
classes. Since these skills begin to form early in the child's reading experience,
map reading may be started by having the child interpret a map the teacher has
made to show her safe ways to go home from school. In a similar fashion,
examining a chart showing daily temperatures at noon is often one of the child's
early school experiences, and the teacher can work with it to improve interpretive
skills.
Remedial instruction for children who are weak in interpreting pictorial and
tabular materials must progress from simple illustrative maps, graphs, charts,
and tables to more complex ones and from representations of things that the child
has experienced to more unfamiliar examples.
Deficiencies in Reading Content

In the intermediate grades and at more advanced educational levels, some stu-
dents lack the flexibility that is necessary to adjust their reading procedures tothe
distinct purposes and materials of each content field. By a cont ent field, we mean
any field that employs a specific type of reading that requires unique language
structures, vocabularies, or purposes—for example, shop manuals, scientific or
mathematical materials, poetry, or even cookbooks. The adjustments required of
a student in reading content are numerous and often subtle. Nonetheless, when a
specific problem is pinpointed, direct instruction focused on the problem corrects
the shortcoming in a given field. Diagnoses of reading difficulties within a con-
tent field are accomplished best by informal procedures and firsthand observa-
tion. Ottce the problem is located, the remedial work is done best by the teacher
of the specific content field, in collaboration with a reading specialist when
necessary.
The curricular materials of every field the child meets impose their own
specific and unique demands upon his reading capabilities. Suppose, for exam-
ple, that a fourth-grade child who has been reading stories for most of his 3 years
of reading experience is confronted suddenly with a geography book. He has
always read a story uninterrupted, from the top of the first page on throughto
the end. In the geography book, he starts at the top of the page in the customary
manner. He reads about 10 lines and then is told to look at Figure 1 on page 12.
He looks at Figure 1 on page 12 and, returning to the page he had just left, starts
at the top of the page again. He has always done this. So he again reads 10 lines,
which now seem familiar, and is asked to look once more at Figure 1 on page 12.
He tells himself that he has already looked at Figure 1 on page 12, so he goes on
reading down the page. Somewhat later, he reads, "You noticed in Figure 1
that. .. ." But he has noticed no such thing. No one had told him to look for such a
thing, and he was unfamiliar with the ways of the geographer. These kinds of epi-
sodes are, of course, minor misunderstandings, but many reading difficulties are
caused by an accumulation of just such misunderstandings, each small in itself.
The earliest indication that a student is having trouble reading the materials
in a specific subject ordinarily comes from the teacher's observation of his class-
Overcoming Spectfic Comprehension Limitations 281
room performance. When this happens, the teacher should first check to see that
the trouble is not due to a more general problem, but is in fact limited to difficulty
reading materials in the specific content field. Then, the teacher should appraise
the student's performance and determine what is impeding him. Some of the
major difficulties encountered by students reading in the content fields are de-
scribed in the sections that follow. The specific fields to be discussed are social
studies, science, mathematics, and literature. They provide a sampling of the
diversified types of reading to which a student must be able to adjust.
Social Studies
The field of social studies can present severe reading problems to certain stu-
dents. A student's understanding of historic, civic, economic, and geographic
facts and their ramifications is often limited to what the student gains through
reading, because direct experience, and thus prior knowledge, in these areas
tends to be restricted. The variety and amount of reading required in social
studies are great. Some reading in the field may be done rapidly, to grasp the main
idea. Other times, reading must be slow and careful, with attention to condensed,
and sometimes complicated, details. The degree of precision required for a satis-
factory understanding of most social studies material, however, falls between
these two extremes.
Special Vocabulary
A commonly encountered obstacle in reading social studies material is the spe-
cialized terms that are used. These include unique words such as cuneiform,
plateau, and integration, as well as proper names of people, places, and events.
There are also words with specialized meanings when they occur in certain
contexts. Among these are mouth, cape, run, court, and balance. Especially difficult
are abstract terms such as democracy, culture, and civilization. Although a student
may be able to pronounce some of these words without help, many of their
meanings are learned only gradually and with the teacher's aid.
Complex Concepts
It is the concept associated with it that gives meaning to an item of vocabulary
Consequently, the development of vocabulary meanings and the development of
concepts progress concurrently. In the social studies, many concepts, and conse-
quently their word meanings, are very complex and difficult to learn. Extensive
reading of appropriate materials is useful, but to accomplish this, the number of
topics to be covered should be restricted.
Selection, Evaluation, and Organization

The extensive reading that is necessary to achieve satisfactory progress in the
social studies requires the application of various comprehension and study skills.
The student must be acquainted with source materials and their use in selecting
pertinent information, must be able to read critically and evaluate materials that
282 Chapter Ffteen
are selected, and must be skillful in organizing the information she finds to use in
reports or discussions.
Readability
The style of writing used in social studies textbooks frequently makes them
difficult to read. Often, many facts and ideas are expressed in a relatively few
paragraphs without sufficient organizational clues in the form of headings, sub-
headings, and boldface or italic type to bring out clearly the relative importance
of the different facts and ideas. Hence, there is little or no indication as to what is
most important to learn. Yet to memorize all the details is neither possible nor
desirable. Under such conditions, the student is inclined to blunder along, learn-
ing some facts and ideas indiscriminately, or even learning nothing atall.
Content versus Skills

Is it the teacher's responsibility to teach only content in social studies? Or must
the teacher also teach skills in the field? Usually, it is assumed that the teacher will
provide practice in the skills needed, along with instruction in social studies
content. Too frequently, however, this does not happen. Although research has
shown that reading is the most important skill necessary for mastering social
studies content, most social studies teachers place content first and teach reading
skills only if there is time (Berryhill, 1984). Herber (1965) points out that this
tension between content and skills is not necessary "if the skills are taught func-
tionally as students read the required text, using the text as the vehicle for skills
development" (p. 95). When this is done, content and skills are taught simultane-
ously; skills should not be pulled out of context and taught separately.
History
Certain reading problems in the social studies are particularly apparent in the
field of history. Three are of prime importance. First, history texts usually do not
make allowance for the fact that the temporal order of events is not sensed readily
by many students. Second, writers in general, and historians in particular, do not
seem to appreciate students' tendencies to interpret everything in terms of pre-
sent-day conditions. It is often difficult for students to place historical events in
the period when or the place where they occurred. This happens most frequently
with the treatment of past methods of communication, transportation, science, or
living conditions in general. Good instruction requires that students be taught to
interpret the time and the conditions in which events have occurred. Third,
reading and interpreting pictures, charts, maps, and related historical materials
are specialized kinds of reading that are important because they develop relevant
word meanings and concepts, as well as provide information. (Developing skills
in this area was discussed earlier.)
Geography
Reading problems common to the social studies in general also occur in geogra-
phy, as do other problems more specifically related to reading geographical
Overcoming Specfic Comprehension Limitations 283
materials. Among the specific problems are the following. First, to understand
geographical material requires an appreciation of variation in human circum-
stances such as in housing, clothing, food, occupations, and traditions, or in
natural conditions such as the physical features of regions, climate, and vegeta-
tion, or in the relationships between human circumstances and natural condi-
tions. Second, it is necessary for a student to maintain a geographic point of view
in absorbing the subject matter, in both verbal and numerical form, that is rele-
vant to a geographical unit. This point of view is established through the intro-
duction of the unit and the definition of its purposes. Third, there is often a
problem in teaching the child to think concretely in terms of geographical loca-
tions as he reads about different places and events that take place within them.
Fourth, a geography text is organized so that it frequently interrupts the child,
referring him to material on other pages. Fifth, the child may not be able to
comprehend material in the form of a map and integrate it with explanatory text
material.
Science
For the child to understand the world in which she lives, she must learn some
science. The variety of purposes for which science is read ranges from reading to
gain general impressions and grasp relationships, to reading to learn in detail
the consecutive steps in an experiment, to reading to evaluate the conclusions
arrived at in a class discussion. Many of the difficulties encountered in reading
science are due to the inherent complexity of the subject, although, as Holliday
(1991) points out, texts "cluttered with recall questions, inadequate explanations,
and scientific jargon" (p. 47) contribute to misunderstandings. Numerous pro1-
lems encountered in reading science are similar to those met in the other content
fields, while others are unique due to the specific purposes and emphases of
science.
Vocabulary
The language of science is precise and specific. Each branch of science—chem-
istry, biology, physics, and so on—uses its own technical terms, as well as the
basic vocabulary used in more general reading. Since the terms embody scien-
tific concepts, it is necessary for the student to learn the vocabulary of a
particular field if he is to comprehend the material in that field. Examples of
rather highly specialized scientific terms are electromagnet, molecule, gravity, and
lever. The student must also learn specialized meanings of general words used in
a scientific context. Examples from physics are scale, charge, and the verb to
conduct.
Concepts
Even the elementary concepts in science are sometimes complex and difficult to
understand. Two examples are the concepts represented by the terms magnetism
and photosynthesis. The degree to which concepts in science are grasped depends
284 Chapter Fifteen
upon the student's prior knowledge, the clarity of the context in which the
unfamiliar items of vocabulary occur, and the skill of the teacher in demonstrat-
ing and explaining the concepts. Many reasonably concrete scientific concepts,
such as electromagnetism and surface tension, are readily demonstrated, explained,
and understood. Many others are not subject to direct demonstration and there-
fore must be handled by means of verbal description and abstract explanation.
These are difficult for the student to understand. Models, diagrams, and analo-
gies are sometimes helpful in clarifying such concepts.
Pictures and Diagrams

Reading and interpreting pictures and diagrams in science can be inadequate
without assistance from the teacher. Ordinarily, an accompanying legend explains
the pictures and diagrams, as does the text itself, in a discussion of facts and
principles. Some students, however, fail to relate the verbal discussion properly
to the diagrams or pictures. Abstract schematic diagrams are still more difficult
to read and interpret.
Following Directions
The directions to be followed in carrying out experiments in science are specific.
Both children and adults seem to have great difficulty in following these printed
directions. Yet the successful performance of the experiment requires that they be
followed very carefully. Reading directions for experiments should therefore be
done slowly, meticulously, and thoughtfully, so that the sequential order of the
steps described can be followed. Ordinarily, difficulties arise, not because the
student cannot read and understand the words and sentences, but rather because
she does not follow them correctly, omits steps, or does them in the wrong order.
It may be helpful for the teacher to demonstrate an experiment and have the
students write down the steps as they are performed.
Comprehension Abilities and Study Skills

Remembering facts encountered is, on the whole, a minor aspect of thesuccessful
reading of science materials. More important is the recognition of relationships
and the formulation of generalizations. The interpretive comprehension neces-
sary for reading science materials successfully can be achieved only when the
student has learned to perceive the proper relationships among the pertinent
facts. To foster interpretive comprehension, an approach to science that focuses
on discussion, demonstration, and experimentation, as well as text assignments,
is helpful, especially when the teacher actively monitors and guides the students'
comprehension (Hynd, Qian, Ridgeway, & Pickle, 1991). When the student ac-
quires an interpretive comprehension of science materials, she can proceed to
formulate her own statements of relationships—in other words, make generaliza-
tions. Ultimately, it is also important that the student learn to reason inde-
pendently while reading scientific materials. Mallow (1991) suggests that, when
reading science texts,, students "read slowly and more than once with pencil and
Overcoming Specfic Comprehension Limitations 285
paper in hand, chewing over each new idea" (p. 332). Skill in doing this is
developed relatively slowly.
Reading comprehension and study skills are more or less constantly used in
reading science materials. The particular skills employed depend upon the nature
of the material and the purpose for reading it. The student must be prepared to
vary her procedures for the most effective reading. For instance, when working
on a topical unit in science, she must read to select, evaluate, and organize
material, and she cannot do this unless she can grasp relationships and make
generalizations.
Mathematics
Reading mathematical material presents a variety of problems, some of them
highly specific. Frequently, there are more reading problems per page in mathe-
matics than in any other subject. Like science, mathematics has its own technical
vocabulary (e.g., numerator, quotient, etc.). Mathematics also uses common words
with a special meaning (e.g., product, divided, and power), employs complex con-
cepts, and involves the study of relationships and the making of generalizations.
Pictures and diagrams must be read and interpreted. Much of this reading is
concerned with learning about the processes and procedures involved in solving
problems, working through examples, and obtaining directions for assignments.
Meaning of Symbols
In arithmetic and other forms of mathematics, students must learn to attach
meanings to highly abbreviated symbols, such as +, —, ÷,=, x, and I. When he first
learned to read, the child dealt with words as symbols; now they are condenseçl
to shorthand signs. Thus, "is equal to" is represented by the symbol =. Also,
students need to learn to recognize promptly many specialized abbreviations,
such as lb, ft. yd, cm, and mm, to mention only a few. Meanings must be assigned
both to numbers encountered in context and to those same numbers isolated in
columns (e.g., problems in addition, subtraction, and multiplication). The student
must comprehend the place value of numbers such as 429, the significance of 0 in
numbers such as 30 and 0.4, and the meaning of common and decimal fractions.
One prerequisite for a student to solve a mathematical problem is that he have as
accurate a command of all the technical symbols that appear in the problem as he
would if the concepts the symbols stand for were expressed uneconomically in
words. Without systematic instruction, many students make slow progress in
acquiring sufficient skill to understand and properly manipulate these symbols,
abbreviations, and numerals.
Word Problems
The statement of a mathematical problem in words ordinarily is succinct, is
precise, and involves complex relationships. A satisfactory understanding of
word problems is achieved by slow, careful, precise reading, together with reread-
286 Chapter Fifteen
ing and reasoning. Besides having a clear understanding of words and phrases,
the student must be able to select relevant facts and relationships among the
pertinent words and phrases. Reading mathematical word problems is one of the
most difficult reading tasks encountered in the content fields. There is little
success without intensive concentration. The teacher should realize fully the
difficulty of the task the student faces. To succeed with word problems, students
should adopt the following strategy or procedure for solving them: (1) The prob-
lem should be read to determine its nature. (2) It should be reread to select the
relevant information and the processes to be used to solve it. (3) The problem then
should be solved and the answer checked for accuracy. To use this strategy or
procedure successfully, the student must understand the number system and
know the basic arithmetic facts. She must also possess a vocabulary of fundamen-
tal terms for quantitative reasoning and understand the use of mathematical
processes.
Literature
No field requires as great a diversity of reading techniques as does literature.
Unlike such areas as science, mathematics, and social studies, literature in-
cludes many types of writing. A variety of reading skills is necessary to com-
prehend a group of genres, as well as expository text. Yet, unlike other areas
in which rewriting text is often required, literature demands that each author's
style and linguistic choices be preserved (Fishel, 1984). In addition, a primary
responsibility of teaching literature is the development of reading interests and
tastes.
The major purpose for teaching literature is to develop the reading skill
necessary for the thoughtful interpretation of an author's meaning, for sharing
the moods the author wishes her readers to feel, and for entering imaginatively
into whatever experience she creates. Although these skills have usually been
emphasized in the reading program already, they are refined, expanded, and
perhaps supplemented, with teacher guidance, as children read literature. The
better a student's proficiency in general reading comprehension, and the larger
his vocabulary the more success he will have in reading literature. Such success
also reflects the student's prior experience in reading narrative material, because
literature is primarily narrative.
Reading Ability
The ability to read and appreciate literature depends upon competence in read-
ing. To read literature well at any level, the child relies on his fundamental
reading ability. In other words, the child will be able to read literature satisfacto-
rily at the reading level he has reached in general reading, but not much higher.
In addition to general reading ability, the two specific types of comprehension
closely related to continued growth in reading literature are reading to interpret
and reading to appreciate, both discussed earlier in the chapter. The teacher must
observe each of these when diagnosing the student who has difficulty reading
and enjoying literature.
Enrichment of Meanings
The benefits gained from reading literature result in great part from the enrich-
ment of meanings the practice brings. Enriched meanings are to be found almost
everywhere in literature. One benefit is the development of the reader's apprecia-
tion of descriptive words, especially words associated with the sensory impres-
sions of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Meanings are further enhanced as
the reader develops skill in interpreting figures of speech and symbolic expres-
sions and learns, with guidance, to draw upon her prior knowledge to interpret
an illusion or to gain a keener insight into the substance of a piece. Frequently, the
impact of a piece of literature depends on the reader's imagination, as when she
realizes the meaning of an author's mere hint or suggestion.
General Comment
Proficiency in oral reading and flexibility in silent reading are both important in
the appreciation of literature. Literature—especially drama and poetry—should
not be read at a constant rate. For example, to appreciate the phrase, "the mur-
muring pines and the hemlocks," the student should not read the passage at a
constant rate, but should pause and let his imagination take over. He should sense
the movement of the trees, smell their aroma, feel the rug of needles underfoot,
hear the gentle wind, see the sunlight breaking through the branches, and see the
pattern of shadows on the ground as he reads.
The next two chapters will deal with specific difficulties directly related tQ
reading literature. One of these is weakness in rate of comprehension. Another,
especially related to drama and poetry, is deficiency in oral reading, and a third
deals with the student who does not have a lasting interest in reading or who is
a reluctant reader. These three reading difficulties must be corrected if reading
literature is to become a permanent accomplishment for personal development
and enjoyment.
Summary
Three major groups of individuals with specific remedial problems are readers
who are limited in one or more types of comprehension, readers who have failed
to develop some of the basic study skills, and readers who are ineffective at
reading content materials, but who are competent readers in all other respects.
The usual method of correcting a specific type of comprehension difficulty is
to have the student read material at an appropriate level of difficulty. The pur-
poses for reading should emphasize the specific comprehension skill that the
student needs to strengthen. The reasons for reading should be understood by the
288 Chapter Fifteen
student before reading is begun, and the accuracy of the student's reading should
be monitored. Specifically, the comprehension skill in question should be
checked. The specific comprehension skills students need to develop are retaining
factual information, sensing the organization of information, judging the authen-
ticity and relevance of information, interpreting information read, and appreciat-
ing what has been read.
The chief method for correcting limitations in basic study skills is to isolate
the specific skill a student needs to improve and teach her that skill, while
providing sufficient practice to make it permanent. Among the basic study skills
are locating sources of information, using basic references, and interpreting pic-
torial and tabular materials.
Reading skills and abilities need to be adjusted to each content field. The
comprehension abilities employed and the rate of reading applied depend on the
nature and organization of the material, its difficulty, and the purpose for which
the reading is to be done. The content fields of social studies, science, mathemat-
ics, and literature involve a wide range of materials to be read, and somewhat
different reading abilities are required in each field. The problems that arise in
each are related to the particular abilities that come into play.
Study Questions
1. Why is it that some readers have difficulty locating and retaining information
read?
2. What are the similarities and differences between the evaluative and interpre-
tive comprehension abilities?
3. Do you agree or disagree that it is important for a student with serious
reading difficulties to appreciate the aesthetic qualities of reading? Support
your point of view.
4. How can a teacher help students who are unable to locate sources of informa-
tion or who are inefficient in using basic references?
5. How do the essential reading skills required for success in social studies,
science, mathematics, and literature vary from one of these fields to another?
Selected Readings
Cullinan, B. E. (Ed.). (1992). Invitation to read: More children's literature in the reading program.
Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Dupuis, M. M. (Ed.) (1984). Reading in the content areas: Research for teachers. Newark, DE:
International Reading Association.
Herber, H. L. (1978). Teaching reading in content areas (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
IA: William. C. Brown.
Richek, M. A., Ust, L. K., & Lemer, J. W. (1989). Reading problems: Assessment and teaching
Boston Allyn and Bacon.
Rupley, W. H., & Blair, 1. R. (1989). Reading diagnosis and remediation (3rd ed.) (pp. 201—268).
Santa, C. M., & Alvermann, D. E. (1991). Science learning: Processes and applications. Newark,
DE: International Reading Association.
Chapter 16
Correcting Reading Rates
and Oral Reading Difficulties
Two reading difficulties that concern many people are how fast they can or
should read and an uncomfortable feeling they get upon reading aloud. Both of
these may persist in a given individual, even though that person is accomplished
in all other aspects of reading. Of course, no one can be a rapid reader or an
effective oral reader if he does not possess the basic word-recognition skills and
the basic comprehension abilities. But inefficient rates of comprehension and
ineffective oral reading may burden individuals wFTb are proficient in all other
aspects of reading.
Correcting Inefficient Rates of Comprehension

In recent years, much attention has been devoted to rapid reading in the mass
media. Speed reading has become a profitable business, and concern about rates
of reading is also reflected in the writings of professional educators. Public inter-
est is heightened by enticing promises to teach people to read 1,000 or even up to
20,000 words per minute with good comprehension. Because of all this, the
unsophisticated individual may gain the impression that all she has to do to
improve her reading is to read faster.
Since there is so much to read today, and so much pressure to keep informed,
the ability to read rapidly is a valuable asset. Increasing one's reading speed by
25 to 50 percent will save much time. Some readers can even improve their rates
by 50 to 100 percent.
Most people read unnecessarily slowly. It is best to read any material,
whether a novel, business report, medical journal, textbook, or other work, as
291
292 Chapter Sixteen
rapidly as possible with understanding. As we shall see shortly, it is possible to

increase one's rate of reading by a considerable degree without loss of compre-
hension—but not from 12,000 to 20,000 words per minute. The question, "How
fast should I read?" can have no single answer. But it is safe to say that most
of us should read much faster than we presently do.
Certain writers seem to believe that speed of reading is a valid measure of
reading performance in itself, even when it is divorced from comprehension.
However, a measure of the rate at which words are recognized as words, with no
reference to grasping their meanings and relationships, yields a score of little or
no consequence in real life. Put plainly, "reading" without comprehension is not
reading. The only practical and adequate definition of rate of reading is rate of
comprehension of printed and written text. This is the definition followed in this
book. To measure speed of reading, therefore, one must measure the rate at which
text is comprehended. In addition, comprehension itself must always be consid-
ered in relation to the purpose for which reading is done. What this means, then,
is that in practice, it becomes important to know the rate at which a particular
student grasps the general ideas in a story, or the rate at which he comprehends
an exposition of history or science material, or some such similar thing. With
regard to tests, rate of reading is rate of comprehending, as measured in the
particular test. Consequently, standardized tests of speed of reading have certain
limitations. One limitation is that the speed of reading attained is based on
unnaturally short passages, compared with the length of passages the student is
usually expected to read. A second, even more serious, limitation is that the
materials in such tests provide inadequate samples of all the different materials
students must read. Thus, speed of reading is measured for one type of material
only.
In some discussions, it is assumed that speed of reading is a general ability
that somehow transfers readily to the reading of a wide variety of materials. In
truth, there is no such general speed of reading ability: Even the most proficient
reader's rate of reading is fairly specific to a particular situation.
Every teacher must realize that rapid reading in itself does not produce better
understanding. A fast rate of comprehension is possible only if the student al-
ready possesses the abilities that are necessary for reading and understanding
text clearly and rapidly.
An uninformed person is likely to believe that a fast reader is inaccurate and
poor in comprehension, while a slow reader is accurate and comprehendswhat
he reads better. However, research into this question fails emphatically to substan-
tiate this belief. By contrast, some hold the opinion that fast reading is good
reading and that slowness makes for poor reading. But, although some fast
readers do comprehend better than slow readers, there are many exceptions. Fast
readers are not always good readers.
In evaluating the data on the relation between reading rate and comprehen-
sion, one should keep in mind that there is no general speed of reading skill nor
any one comprehension skill. These skills are specific, varying with the kind of
material read and the purpose of reading (Spache, 1976b). Accordingly, improve-
Correcting Reading Rates 293
ment in rate in one type of reading is not likely to transfer to any significant extent
to all reading. For example, improvement in one's rate of reading literature does
not necessarily transfer appreciably and automatically to reading science.
The teacher should realize that neither slow nor fast reading produces proper
understanding all by itself. Thus, increasing one's reading speed does not neces-
sarily improve comprehension, and for some students, it may even decrease
comprehension. The rate at which a particular child should read a specific set of
materials is pretty much an individual matter, to be determined by individual
diagnosis. Although among mature readers, the faster readers usually compre-
hend better, there are exceptions. The best indications are that a program to
improve speed of reading would be advantageous to most students who are
advanced in the basic reading abilities, provided that speed is not pushed to
where adequate comprehension is impossible. Also, any general program for
accelerating the reading speed of all students in a class is inadvisable. Finally, the
true situation may be that the child who has the skills and abilities that are
necessary to comprehend well also has those that are necessary to read faster. So
drill on speed of reading per se cannot be expected to be worthwhile. There are
students, however, who have habits in silent reading that prevent them from
adjusting their rate to the purpose and difficulty of any text they read. These
students always read at an undesirably slow rate.
Diagnosing Inefficient Rates of Comprehension

Taking in account what has just been said, it appears hazardous to specify average
rates of comprehension for the different grade levels. In a given grade, the aver-
age rate may be 290 words per minute for reading in one situation and only 140
words in another. Recall that when average rates are published, they are for
reading a specific kind of material for a single, set purpose. Usually, they are taken
from a test in which the material is relatively easy to read. They should not be
interpreted as norms for diverse types of material read for various purposes.
Thus, although standardized tests with norms give some information, most diag-
noses of inefficient rates of comprehension must be ascertained from informal
appraisals.
Standardized Tests
Standardized tests designed for measuring reading ability in the primary grades
are ordinarily not concerned with speed. In fact, it is unwise to stress speed of
reading during the first 3 years in school. Rather, emphasis should be placed on
such considerations as sight vocabulary, word-recognition techniques, reading by
thought units, vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension. Any attempt to meas-
ure speed in the primary grades might lead to a misplaced pressure on how fast
the child reads before he has acquired the basic techniques upon which smooth,
rapid reading depends.
Most standardized tests are designed to measure the child's speed in reading
relatively short, easy materials for a set purpose. The vocabulary and sentence
294 Chapter Sixteen
structure of these materials are simple. The tests merely provide an opportunity
for students to show their maximum speed in reading specific, easy text. The tests
are useful, therefore, only to gain some preliminary information about the stu-
dents' speed of reading. They are not appropriate for finding out the speed at
which particular classroom materials will be read. Informal diagnosis is needed
for this task.
Informal Diagnosis
When the results of tests are desired in order to guide instruction, the teacher will
want to know the rate at which a student can read classroom materials. He will
also want to know how versatile the student is in adapting her speed to changes
in difficulty of the material she reads and to varying purposes for reading. These
objectives can be reached only through informal tests.
Informal rate-of-reading tests are constructed easily. The teacher merely
selects, from appropriate material, a series of consecutive paragraphs of the
difficulty and complexity desired. The length of the test will vary with the
type of material, the student's reading level, and the difficulty of the material.
Ordinarily, the selection will contain from 400 to 800 words. The longer selec-
tions may be used for more accomplished readers and for less exacting reading
tasks.
There should be comprehension questions for the student to answer when the
reading is completed. The nature and number of the questions should be deter-
mined by the purpose for reading. When reading to get the main idea, the student
may be asked to indicate the correct answer out of 5 listed. When reading to
answer specific questions, there may be 6 or 8 questions. If the purpose is to note
important details, there may be 10 or 12 questions. The teacher should be aware
that, unless comprehension is monitored, a child may skip through the material
in order to make a good showing and not understand it adequately.
The purpose for reading should be understood by the student before she
starts to read a passage. If individual diagnosis is done, the student may read
directly from a book. The number of words read per minute is computed for 2 or
3 minutes of reading.
If an entire class is to be tested at the same time, the selection should be
duplicated. A definite time limit, short enough so that the fast readers cannot
quite finish, is set. Each student marks where she is when time is called and then
counts the words read. Or all the students may be allowed to finish the selection.
Each student copies down the last number that the teacher has listed on the
chalkboard, indicating the time that has elapsed. The teacher changes the number
on the board at the end of every 10 seconds. This method of timing is preferred,
since the questions to be answered cover the entire selection.
Interpretation of Diagnosis
Standard scores, grades, or percentile norms are usually given for standardized
tests. By consulting these, the teacher is able to discover whether the student is
reading unduly slowly for the type of text used and for the purpose set by the
test. The scores identify students who are fast and accurate, fast and inaccurate,
slow and accurate, and slow and inaccurate.
In using the informal rate tests, the teacher can take into account both rate of
reading and amount of comprehension. After testing several students—good as
well as poor readers—the teacher will have data to show whether a particular
child reads relatively slowly or fast in a specific reading situation. For the scores
on comprehension, he will also be able to note the child's accuracy of comprehen-
sion. Good comprehension is represented by about 85 percent accuracy, average
comprehension by about 70 percent, and poor comprehension by about 50 per-
cent or less.
Diagnosis should always consider comprehension along with rate. If the rate
is high and comprehension low, or both the rate and comprehension are low,
increasing the rate is not indicated. But when the rate is average or low and
comprehension is high, the student will probably profit from a program to in-
crease her speed of reading.
As already indicated, the proficient reader adjusts her rate to the difficulty
and nature of the material and to the purpose for reading. The student who uses
only one rate for all materials and purposes encounters many difficulties. If the
student's habitual rate is fast, it is not suitable for reading difficult materials
in the content areas; if it is a slow, plodding rate, it is not suitable for reading
narratives and other easy materials. Similarly, when the purpose is to grasp the
main idea of a passage, the rate should be faster than when it is to note the
important details of the passage.
The degree of a child's versatility in adjusting her reading rate to different
materials and purposes may be ascertained as follows: (1) Through the use of
informal tests, as previously described, the rates at which the child reads materi
als at several levels of difficulty and complexity may be determined. (2) Then the
rates at which she reads a single selection for different purposes may be meas-
ured. The teacher should have the student read the selection for the general idea,
then reread it to find the answers to specific questions, and then read it again to
note important details. If the child reads the selection at roughly, the same rate
(either fast or slow) each time, then remedial instruction is indicated to develop
the child's ability to adjust her speed of reading .to fit the situation.
General Remediation for Inefficient

Rates of Comprehension
To be effective, a program for increasing speed of reading must be organized
carefully and must temporarily be the major instructional objective. The program
should be confined to those students who show prospects of improving. Attempts
to increase the reading speed of students with a mental disability or with a
limiting or complex reading disability will most likely lead to confusion, frustra-
tion, and discouragement, rather than more efficient reading.
296 Chapter Sixteen
Materials
Relatively easy material should be used, particularly in the early stages of the
program. It should contain very few, if any, unfamiliar words. The difficulty
level of the material should be one or two grades below the reading level of
the student. In general, the material should be selected from books other than
classroom texts. Only when there is considerable improvement in the speed of
reading the easy materials should the teacher gradually introduce the more diffi-
cult types of reading. It is essential, however, to make this transition, so that the
student will transfer appropriately rapid reading rates to classroom materials.
The transition should be made under the teacher's observation and guidance;
otherwise it may be only partial or nonexistent. It is possible for a child to learn
to read easy material rapidly, but not transfer the skill to other instructional
materials.
In the early stages of the program, there should be little emphasis on moni-
toring comprehension. It is enough in these stages merely to ask the student what
a selection is about. When rapid recognition of words and smooth phrasing
become habitual, comprehension will improve. It will then be important to place
more emphasis on monitoring comprehension. Rapid reading with adequate
comprehension is, of course, the goal sought.
Motivation
In any program for increasing speed of reading, a variety of incentives is neces-
sary if the student is to be motivated. Without motivation, a student does notfeel
any urgency to read faster and is not likely to do so. Various incentives are
suitable:
1. The reading material used should be interesting to the student. An inter-

ested student is a motivated one. Other things being equal, she will be anxious to
read quickly to the end of an interesting story to find out what happened.
2. A daily record of results should be kept. The teacher should greet any
evidence of improvement with enthusiasm; gains that are seen and appreciated
motivate a student to even greater effort.
3. Fatigue and boredom should be avoided at all costs. All materials should
be introduced with zest and in such a manner that the student will hope and
expect to improve. If a student shows signs that she is tired or annoyed, pressure
to read faster should be temporarily discontinued, until she shows a more posi-
tive attitude.
4. The teacher's cheerful and sympathetic guidance will help maintain moti-
vation. At times, this will mean working alone with a student to provide just the
help and encouragement she needs. This is particularly important during the
periods when no discernible gains can be observed and the student becomes
discouraged.
5. Allowing the student to participate with the teacher in organizing her
remedial program will aid her motivation. The benefits she will enjoy when she
can read faster should be discussed with her. Her special difficulties should be
talked over, and plans for improvement should be worked out jointly by the
teacher and the student. As obstacles arise or old habits reappear, procedures for
eliminating them should also be worked out together. The more enthusiastically
the student affirms the benefits of reading faster, and the more she participates in
the remedial planning, the better her motivation will be for overcoming her
difficulties.
6. The purpose for each practice reading should be understood. Reading
without a clearly understood purpose cannot be well-motivated reading. Some-
times, students may be reading with more attention to details than is necessary A
conversation about this with the student will show her how to correct it.
7. When the student's speed has improved through special practice, incen-
tives should be provided to motivate her to transfer the faster reading to leisure
reading and to school subjects. All sorts of encouragement should be used—for
example, praise for the number of stories or books the student has read for
enjoyment, a discussion of the benefits of faster reading, and emphases on doing
class assignments speedily. She should be helped to see the benefits of carrying
over improved speed to all types of reading.
8. After special instruction to increase the student's rate of reading is com-
pleted, the teacher must be alert to relapses to the old, slower rates. Motivation
to maintain faster reading can be provided by special speed tests at periodic
intervals, together with class discussion on the importance of adjusting one's
speed to purposes and materials.
Working Against lime

An effective and much-used technique for increasing a student's speed of reading
is to work against time. Relatively easy material—a grade or so in difficulty below
the student's achievement level, for example—is selected for the beginning reaa-
ing selections. These early readings should be about 350 to 400 words long. Each
may be reproduced on one page. When the teacher is working with a single
student, reading may done directly from a book or magazine. Five or six ques-
tions are recorded on a separate sheet. The questions should be relatively easy,
dealing with the general ideas in the selection. After the selection is finished, the
text is removed and the questions are answered. The student's comprehension
may suffer initially, but will improve as time goes on.
Each reading selection should be introduced under as favorable conditions as
possible. The purpose for reading should be made clear to the student. The
circumstances should be such that the student will be eager to read as fast as
possible with understanding. He should expect to improve over previous at-
tempts. The teacher should time the reading and compute the number of words
read per minute as his score. The student should be shown how to plot his scores
on a simple graph, so that he will see his gains. When little or no gain is achieved
for a time, the teacher should be sympathetic and encouraging.
Two exercises per day provide enough challenge for this kind of work, and
they should be separated by an hour or so. This spaced learning is more effective
than several readings, one after another. After the first few readings, the student's
298 Chapter Sixteen
comprehension should be adequate. As the program gets well under way, no

student should be pushed to read faster than he can comprehend.
Mechanical Devices
A number of mechanical devices have been developed for increasing speed of
reading. Special motion pictures, text pacers, short-exposure devices, and com-
puter programs have been used to give children practice in reading faster. Each
of these methods presents phrases, lines of print, or words at speeds that may be
varied by the teacher. Teacher-constructed flash cards can also be used to present
words or phrases rapidly.
Although the use of machines—especially computers—is highly motivational
for some students, those taught by regular methods make as great gains as those
taught by machines. There is, however, always a possibility that a given child will
improve with machine training, but not by ordinary methods.
Programs for improving speed of reading can be satisfactory without the use
of machines if the selections are carefully chosen, the program of training prop-
erly organized, and the instructions effectively carried out. If the teacher is able
to provide incentives that will motivate the student, machines or other gadgets
are not necessary to achieve satisfactory gains in speed of reading. In other words,
the use of certain machines does increase the child's speed of reading, but is not
necessary to produce the same gains.
Two definite drawbacks to mechanical devices in attempting to increase
speed of reading are their expense and the fact that their use too often becomes a
ritual and overemphasizes the mechanical aspects of reading over the more
important processes of comprehension and reflection on content.
Remediation for Specific Types of Inefficient Rates

At least six distinct difficulties are associated with inefficient rates of reading:
overanalysis, word-by-word reading, undesirable habits, faulty eye movements,
excessive vocalization, and inflexibility Each is treated in its own, unique way.
Overanalysis
Overanalysis takes two forms: the tendency to analyze words that are already
known as sight words and the tendency to segment words into too many parts.
The remedial procedures for both types have been presented in the preceding
subsection and in Chapter 11. In general, rapid-exposure devices are useful.
Word-by-Word Reading
The word-by-word reader has failed to learn to read in thought units. Conse-
quently, he may not be able to recognize a group of three or four words at a
glance. If so, training with rapid-exposure techniques is useful. But, in addition,
he may not be able to group words into thought units as he reads connected text.
In this case, he should also be given the training suggested in the preceding
subsection, as well as that directed at word-by-word reading in Chapter 14, also

including rapid-exposure techniques.
Undesirable Habits
Some children have the habit of moving their finger or a pointer along the line of
print to guide their reading. Although perhaps justified in the early stages of
learning or remedial work, the practice should be discarded as soon as feasible.
The best way to break this habit is to discuss the problem with the student and
then have her hold the book with both hands. Continuing to point while holding
the book with both hands will be awkward for her, and moving her fingers along
the line of print will remind her that she is pointing again.
Another undesirable habit is head movements. Instead of sweeping along the
line of print with appropriate eye movements, the student moves her head from
left to right. This is stopped by explaining the problem to the student and then
asking her to rest her chin on one hand as she attempts to read more rapidly. This
practice will warn her if she moves her head again.
Many children develop a congenial, meandering style of reading that is
considerably below the rate at which they might read with both understanding
and pleasure. When this becomes habitual, as frequently happens, it is a handicap
to proficient reading. Such easygoing dawdling permits the child's attention to
wander and fosters daydreaming. In addition, the child covers an inadequate
amount of text in an allotted time. When unduly slow reading is really dawdling,
a program to promote an appropriate faster rate should be implemented. In any
reading, the correct rate is the fastest for the situation that also produces satisfac-
tory comprehension. The general approaches to increasing rate of comprehension
will usually overcome habitual dawdling.
Faulty Eye Movements

Much attention has been focused on the relationship of eye-movement patterns
to speed of reading. Because rapid reading is accompanied by few fixations and
few regressions per line of print, techniques to train eye movements have been
developed for the purpose of increasing reading speed. A more appropriate
procedure, however, would be to promote reading efficiency: Whereas eye-move-
ment exercises tend to be mechanical and emphasize speed of reading, following
the procedures described in this book to improve one's basic comprehension and
rate of comprehension will automatically result in better eye-movement se-
quences and faster reading.
Excessive Vocalization
In the early stages of silent reading in the primary grades, many children tend to
articulate words. At that level, vocalization does not slow down their speed of
silent reading, for the child can read no faster than he can talk. Later, as reading
skill develops, vocalization becomes an impediment to improving speed of silent
reading. With some children, the habit of pronouncing each word is so strong,
300 Chapter Sixteen
that it persists into adulthood if not corrected. The words may be whispered, or
the lips and vocal organs may form the words without any sound. Whatever form
the articulation takes, it is time consuming: As long as the habit persists, silent
reading can be no faster than the words can be articulated. Until vocalizing is
eliminated, at least in part, there can be little improvement in speed of reading.
A good technique for eliminating vocalization is to give the child reading
material that is very easy and extremely interesting, with practically no unfamil-
iar words. If the material is interesting and exciting, the child will want to read
the story rapidly to find out what happens. He is urged to do this, at first with
short stories or mysteries and later, after a satisfactory rate of reading is achieved
with them, with more diversified materials.
A rapid reader cannot vocalize, because it takes too long to articulate the
words. When a child gets a good start in reading easy stories, he should be
encouraged to race through them as rapidly as possible. For a while, he may get
little meaning, but later, vocalization will be reduced to a minimum and better
comprehension will return.
Inflexibility
It has already been noted that reading at as fast a rate as the text can be compre-
hended is desirable in any content field. Although a properly fast rate of reading
mathematical materials is relatively very slow, some students still read such
materials at an undesirably slow rate. The same is true for areas such as science
and social studies. Whatever the material and purpose, there can be unnecessarily
slow or fast rates of reading. A rapid rate of reading in itself has no particular
value. Rather, the proficient reader has several speeds, each of which can be used
as the occasion demands. An essential part of the instructional program is to
ensure that students acquire these speeds and gain skill in using them appropri-
ately. The emphasis should be on teaching students to be adaptable, versatile
readers who are able to adjust their rates to the nature and difficulty of text and
to their purposes for reading it. The goal is to comprehend the material at as fast a
rate as possible, and the best way to achieve it is to ensure that the student has
the prior knowledge and the reading ability to understand properly what she is
to read. When this is done, she will learn to read the material rapidly and with
understanding. Several aspects of the problem need attention simultaneously.
First, for effective reading, the rate at which the material is read must be
appropriate to the nature and difficulty of the material. The nature of reading
material varies widely. At one time, the student may be reading a fast-moving
story or an item of general interest in a newspaper. Here, the appropriate rate of
reading is relatively rapid. A short time later, the student may be reading geo-
graphic text concerned with the concept of erosion by wind and water. In this, a
relatively slow rate of reading is necessary to grasp the ideas and relationships.
Still later, she may be reading the procedures for solving a mathematical or
scientific problem, which requires very slow, analytical reading and often reread-
ing. The student needs to learn how to evaluate the nature of the material so that
she may adopt a rate that is appropriate for understanding that particular kind of
material.
Adjusting to variations in difficulty is similar. Such variations arise in many
ways. Materials in some content fields contain more facts than materials in oth-
ers—for example, science or mathematics, compared with literature. At times,
there is even marked variation in difficulty within the same unit in a single field.
Difficulty may occur when unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts, complex sen-
tences and paragraphs, or unusual grammatical constructions are encountered.
Increased attention to content necessitates slower reading for adequate under-
standing. The student should read just as slowly as is needed to grasp what is
presented. Any student who attempts to read all materials at the same rate,
despite their content or difficulty, will be in trouble. To read with understanding
and at an effective rate, the student must be able to modify her rate. Easy material
should be read faster than difficult material, and familiar material should be read
faster than unfamiliar material.
Perhaps the most important aspect of all is the adjustment of the student's
rate of reading to the purpose for which she is reading. This has been stressed
throughout. If the student needs to get only a general impression or idea, or if she
merely needs to look up a given item on a page, her speed of reading should be
relatively rapid. But if she needs to grasp the concepts in a given selection
thoroughly, her pace should be relatively slow. Before reading any text, the stu-
dent should have a clear idea of her purpose for reading. The most satisfactory
purpose, of course, is one set by the student herself. When she cannot do this, the
teacher's guidance should help provide a purpose that is acceptable to her. To be a
really good reader, however, she must learn to set her own purposes. Doing so
requires discrimination and flexibility. The student must be able to size up the,
materials and clearly understand the purpose for reading them. Then she must be
able to choose the appropriate rate for her to read with understanding. In other
words, the proficient reader is the adaptable, versatile reader.
To gain flexibility in rate of reading, the child must learn to choose a particu-
lar speed for a particular situation and to read at that rate with understanding.
This requires the teacher's guidance, because every student reads many kinds of
materials for many purposes. The development of flexibility in speed of reading
tends to be difficult to learn.
Opportunities for guidance in adjusting the student's speed of reading to the
different kinds of materials she reads are abundant when teaching units in the
content fields. Preparation for each unit should include a discussion of the right
reading procedures. Another approach is to have students read the same material
several times, each time for a different purpose, such as (1) to grasp the main idea,
(2) to note important details, (3) to answer questions given in advance, and (4) to
evaluate what is read.
There is always opportunity to guide the development of flexibility when
teaching the specific comprehension abilities and study skills described in the
previous chapter. Any instruction designed to develop comprehension in reading
302 Chapter Sixteen
necessarily involves guiding the students to discover the most effective rate at
which to read specific textual material.
Gains to Be Expected
In the primary grades, while the mechanics of reading are being mastered and
where much of the reading is oral, the rates of silent and oral reading are about
the same. But in the fourth grade, children are ready to learn to read silently faster
than they can read orally.
As noted earlier, the first step in organizing a program to increase speed of
reading is to reduce to a minimum any habits that may hinder or obstruct gains
in speed. When this is done, a teacher can expect practically all students to
increase their rates with training, although there will be individual differences in
the rates achieved. There is ample evidence that training produces greater gains
among the faster readers than among the slower ones.
In a properly conceived and executed program for a group at any school
level, a few children achieve relatively small gains, many make moderate gains,
and a few achieve large gains. An occasional child will make truly exceptional
improvement. Ordinarily, students are given special practice periods of 10 to 30
minutes. The program usually extends over several weeks, with a total of 15 to 18
hours of training. Representative average gains for groups vary greatly. Harris
and Sipay (1975) reported gains of 39 percent. If a school training program
extends over 2 months or so, the teacher can expect an average gain of 40 to 50
percent. There is little evidence concerning the transfer of the rate one achieves
with certain reading materials to other materials or the extent to which the gains
are maintained after the training stops.
In most programs to improve reading rates, comprehension is maintained at
an adequate level (75 percent or higher). If speed alone is emphasized, however,
comprehension may decrease. No student should be pushed to this stage.
How fast can a person be expected to read? Since many factors affect one's
rate of reading, no single answer to this question can be given. The available data
usually pertain to reading fairly easy material. With such material, 400 words per
minute is very high for a seventh-grade student, and 600 words per minute is
very high and 850 exceedingly rare for college students. It is not uncommon for
some well-educated adults who are superior readers to attain rates of 500 to 600
words per minute. There is, however, a physiological limit beyond which one
cannot read any faster. Harris and Sipay (1990) point out that this limit is around
800 to 900 words per minute when one reads most of the words on a page.
Reports of rates between 1,200 and 1,500 or more words per minute refer only to
partial reading, or skimming. Any claim that a person can be taught to read 10,000
or even 20,000 words per minute is false. Words simply cannot be seen at that rate.
As mentioned, in the primary grades, there should be no stress placed upon
the children to improve their rates of reading. For a majority of students up
through about the fifth grade, a satisfactory rate can be expected as a result of a
good reading program. But some pupils in the intermediate grades (1-4) can benefit
from a specialized program to improve their rates of reading. Among these

students are the dawdlers and those who persist in their habits of slow reading
after the major causal factors (vocalization, poor recognition of words, a small
sight vocabulary, etc.) have been reduced or eliminated. Flexibility in one's read-
ing rate should also be taught in the intermediate grades and beyond. Although
attention is sometimes given to improving reading rates in the early intermediate
grades, provisions for developing appropriate rates seem desirable from the
beginning of the sixth grade through high school and into the college years.
Overcoming Ineffective Oral Reading

The ultimate aim of instruction in oral reading is to enable the reader to interpret
a passage for others. The effective oral reader learns to interpret text for an
audience in a relaxed and fluent manner. At the start, all oral reading should be
prepared, but as a child matures in both silent and oral reading ability, he will
become increasingly adept at reading orally at sight. The amount of preparation
needed for oral reading depends on the circumstances and the maturity of the
reader. The parent who reads a story to her child is probably reading it at sight.
Sharing a book by reading aloud is also done at sight. In most other instances,
oral reading is prepared, interpretive reading, rather than sight reading. Both
types of oral presentation should be among the outcomes of a reading program.
There are many adults who dislike to read orally. This probably is because of
unpleasant, early reading experiences they have had and a failure to develop oral
reading ability. A good deal of instructional time spent having children read
selections orally at sight, while the rest of the group follows silently, each in his
or her own book, is destructive to poor oral readers. As the better readers read
ahead silently or supply words to their less fortunate classmate, the poor oral
reader stumbles along, with each of his errors apparent to all.
It should be noted that there are some children who are good silent readers
and who have developed all the basic reading proficiencies, but have a serious
disability in oral reading. These children constitute a group having a specific
reading difficulty. If their poor oral reading is the result of some basic difficulty,
the major problem is correcting that difficulty. When there is no such underlying
difficulty, but the child is still an ineffective oral reader, his problem should be
diagnosed. The child who is poor in oral reading, but is otherwise an able reader
for his general reading level, may be experiencing one of the following difficul-
ties: (1) He may have an inappropriate eye-voice span; (2) he may lack proper
phrasing in oral reading; (3) his rate and timing in oral reading may be inappro-
priate; or (4) he may become frustrated while reading aloud.
Eye-Voice Span
Many children with problems in oral reading have difficulty because their eye-
voice span, the distance that the readers' eyes are ahead of their voices, is map-
304 Chapter Sixteen
propriate. They may be focusing their attention exclusively on the word they are
speaking, or they may be trying to maintain an eye-voice span that is too great for
their general reading maturity. In the former case, the child reads aloud in a
halting and stumbling fashion, with little expression and many pauses. She can-
not anticipate the meaning of what she is reading and, therefore, cannot express
it with her voice. Very likely, she will read in a monotone. Each word she fails to
recognize at sight causes her to halt to inspect it, whereas with a longer eye-voice
span, she should have time to identify words before pronouncing them.
If the child is trying to maintain too great an eye-voice span in oral reading,
then she is probably an able silent reader who is transferring her silent reading
habits to oral reading. She races ahead silently, perhaps at the rate of 300 to 400
words a minute, but can pronounce words orally at only 140 words a minute.
Such a child may try to maintain an eye-voice span of 8 to 10 words. As a result,
she will likely omit many words or read so rapidly that she can give but little
expression to what she is reading aloud.
The diagnosis of eye-voice span is easy to make. The child is given a book at
a level of difficulty at which she will encounter few word difficulties reading
orally. She is given time to prepare the material, and then she is asked to read it
aloud to the examiner, who is at the child's right. As the child reads aloud, the
examiner reads along silently with her. At intervals, the examiner covers the
child's page with a 3" x 5" card in order to find out how many words the child is
able to say after she can no longer see the print. This should be done preliminarily
several times before the examiner starts keeping an actual record. The examiner
should cover the rest of the line of print when the child is pronouncing a word
that comes about one-third of the way through the line. The same testing should
also be done with unprepared, or sight, oral reading. In this way, the examiner
obtains information on the eye-voice span of a child in both prepared and sight
oral reading. Children in the early grades, with a first- or second-grade reading
ability, cannot maintain an eye-voice span of more than a word or two in prepared
oral reading. In sight oral reading, they can be expected to be little more than
word callers. Instruction in sight oral reading should be delayed until they have
greater competency in reading.
Remedial instruction for the child with a narrow eye-voice span should
always be done using prepared, and never sight, oral reading. Conversational
passages are best for developing fluent oral reading in such a child. The material
should be easy, with few, if any, unfamiliar words. The child should be encour-
aged to try to look ahead on the line of print. Special attention should be given to
phrasing. The purpose for oral reading should be authentic, such as preparing to
read something aloud that she is going to read to others. She should rehearse until
she is satisfied that she is ready to read orally.
The child who is trying to maintain too long an eye-voice span needs to be
taught to use one that is more appropriate. At the start of remedial training, she
should be given an opportunity to read prepared material before an audience.
Her oral reading should be recorded with a tape recorder so that she can develop
an awareness of any pattern she might have and consider how to improve it. She
should be taught how to pause from time to time while reading aloud, and she
should be encouraged to look at her audience frequently. The problem with
teaching the child who has too long an eye-voice span is getting her to use her
otherwise superior reading ability effectively in oral reading.
Phrasing Ability
A student who is a poor oral reader may lack proper phrasing ability and tend to
read aloud either word by word or by clustering words intogroups, disregarding
the thought units involved. In either circumstance, attention to the meaning of
what is read is neglected. The word-by-word reader can be detected immediately
as he reads orally. Each word is pronounced unrelated to any other. The words
are read in much the same manner as a mature reader might read a grocery list.
When a child reads in this way, he may be directing his attention to the meaning
of each word, but he is paying little attention to the interrelationships among
them. More difficult to detect when one is listening to his oral reading is the child
who clusters words without regard to the real thought units they comprise. This
child's reading may seem rather fluent, but it does not make sense.
The remedial training for children who lack proper phrasing in oral reading
is the same for both types. Word-by-word reading is often brought about in the
first place by having children read text that is too difficult for them or that repeats
words in a mechanical and more or less senseless way.
The material used to correct the tendency toward inappropriate phrasing in
oral reading should be easy for the child, avoid inane repetition, and include a
considerable amount of conversation. Dramatic readings, tape recordings,
dummy or live microphone readings, and other such activities encourage proper'
phrasing. No sight oral reading should be attempted until growth in phrasing is
well established.
Rate and Timing in Oral Reading

Many children who lack ability in oral reading attempt to read too rapidly or have
a poor sense of timing. They may start out reading at a reasonable rate, but then
they read increasingly faster, until little of what is read can be understood. The
good oral reader at any level reads at a rate that is relatively slow. She has a
moderate degree of flexibility in her rate, so that she may express different moods
by altering her rate of reading. She learns to use pauses effectively to hold the
attention of her audience and also to emphasize important points.
One of the best ways to help a child improve her oral reading is to devote
attention to her rate and timing. The child will profit from studying good oral
readers on television and trying to emulate their performances. Tape recordings
of the child's own reading will demonstrate her present pattern to her. Oral
reading conditions best suited to the child's needs are those related to class or
small-group activities. Having her be a "news reporter" during sharing periods
is excellent because the news is made of short paragraphs giving accounts of
306 Chapter Sixteen
different unrelated events. Each "news item" is read, and then the child pauses
before going on to the next. The pauses are short enough so that she does not
accelerate her reading. Similarly, participating in a small group to read a play
aloud is useful. Reading long selections from a story should be avoided until the
child has her speed and timing under control.
Frustration in Oral Reading

Some children who have had frequent disagreeable experiences in oral reading
become insecure or even frightened when they have to read aloud. The child who
is experiencing frustration during oral reading is easily detected. If his voice gets
increasingly higher as he reads, he is becoming more and more frustrated. His
errors increase as he reads. He tries to avoid reading aloud. Few classroom
situations are more highly emotionally charged than is oral reading for the poor
reader. Everything that can be done to relieve his stress in such situations should
be done. To help the easily frustrated oral reader, have him read text that he has
prepared so well that he can feel confident. Make sure to be near at hand and
ready to prompt him if he gets into difficulty Having the child read out of sight
of his audience helps him establish confidence. Reading offstage as a narrator in
a play or reading behind the screen for a puppet show often helps. Reading an
announcement over a microphone placed in another room offers a good oppor-
tunity for the child to read, free from self-consciousness. If, under these condi-
tions, the material is well prepared and relatively easy to read, progress can be
expected. As soon as possible, the child should discard these devices and learn to
read before his audience.
In working with an easily frustrated oral reader, certain precautions should
be taken. The child's early oral reading experiences should grow out of a desire
to share a story with others. He should be encouraged to tell the major part of the
story in his own words and read aloud only a small section—a paragraph or two
is enough. He should select the part that he would like to read and prepare it in
advance, even rehearsing it aloud with the teacher. Then, when he reads aloud to
the group, if he gets into difficulty with a word, the teacher should supply it
immediately. If, while reading, the child uses a high-pitched or strained voice,
reads at an unusually rapid rate, or shows any other sign of stress, he should
finish by telling, rather than reading, the rest of the story. Gradually, he can
increase the length of the selection he prepares for oral reading. Only after he
becomes confident reading aloud to the group should he attempt to read aloud at
sight. In all oral reading, the material should be relatively easy and free from
words the child is likely to find difficult.
General Methods for Developing

Fluency in Oral Reading
Much practice with appropriate text is necessary to develop fluency in oral
reading in nonfluent young readers. Henk, Helfeldt, and Platt (1986) describe
several useful methods for improving fluency. One technique is imitative reading,
in which the teacher reads a portion of text aloud as the child reads it silently,
followed by the child reading the portion aloud. Another method is radio reading,
in which each student reads from a separate script while the teacher monitors the
performance from a master script. Repeated readings can also be used. In this
method, children reread a selection many times as they chart decreases in the time
they require and in the errors they commit. An individual method can be used in
which teacher and student read aloud together, or a choral reading method can
be employed in which the children read aloud together. To promote fluent read-
ing, children should be urged to read material that they have practiced with "just
as you would say it."
Self-Improvement in Oral Reading

As soon as children are old enough to recognize that they have problems in oral
reading, they can be guided to want to improve their own oral reading abilities.
For self-improvement of oral reading, children can use a checklist. Each child
monitors her own progress. In this way, one child may be working on rate of
reading, another on phrasing, and a third on accuracy. Pairs of children may,
under congenial circumstances, judge the oral reading of each other. When this is
done, each child should tell her partner what she liked about the way the partner
read, how well she thinks her partner did on what he was working on, and any
ways in which she thinks her partner might do even better. A list such as the
following will prove helpful in this regard:
1. Did my partner select interesting material?
2. Was he well prepared?
3. Did he read loud enough?
4. Did he read the material "just as he would say it"?
5. Did he read fast enough, but not too fast?
6. Did he read so that I understood the meaning?
7. Did he look relaxed with good posture?
8. Did he use marks of punctuation to help him?
9. Did he make me feel he wanted to read to me?
When a child improves her oral reading, not only is her interpretive reading
enhanced, but her oral language is enhanced as well. As a result, her silent
reading improves, too. The child who is accustomed to and enjoys reading aloud
will use some of the expressions she likes in her spoken language. She will gain
confidence before groups and will sense the importance of adequate preparation.
Her silent reading will improve because, in preparing for oral reading, she will be
concerned with the meanings, the characterizations, and the actions that she is
to interpret to others. Her concern with thought units in oral reading will teach
her to cluster words together suitably in silent reading. Current approaches to
oral reading appear to be vastly superior to the "round-the-room" reading of
308 Chapter Sixteen
earlier days that produced so many insecure oral readers among the adults of
today.
Case Study of a High School Student with a Basic

Comprehension Limitation and Poor Rate of Reading
John, a ninth-grade student, was referred to a university clinic for work in reading
during a 10-week summer period. He came from a distant state and stayed with
his grandparents during his remedial work. He also registered in a summer
reading improvement class. He had attended a school system in one of the
mountain states during his elementary and junior high school years.
School History At the time John was admitted to the clinic, he was 16 years and
5 months old. His school record showed that he had repeated the second grade
because of an illness that kept him out of school for the last 2 months of the school
year. John's work up until that time seemed to be progressing well, except for a
notation that he was having some difficulty in oral reading.
The rest of the elementary-grade years of the record showed that he was
progressing with somewhat below-average success in social studies and reading,
but maintained good achievement in arithmetic and science. John was known to
be a bright, cooperative boy, although his teachers noted that he was somewhat
shy and withdrawn. They had made a special effort to get him to participate in
class activities. During his junior high school years, John continued to do reason-
ably well in mathematics courses, somewhat poorly in science, and very poorly
in social studies and English.
As a result of a conference with John, it was found that he had received
instruction at a reading center during the preceding year to increase his speed of
reading. He said that he had improved a little, but try as he would, he could not
seem to read fast enough to keep up with his assignments. John indicated that he
took his books home and read his regular texts with great care, but could not find
the time to do the extra reading required in the English and social studies courses.
He found the mathematics and science courses easier to cover. He also said that
he did not like to participate in class discussions.
Physical Status. John's physical status was excellent and there was no indication
of any sensory limitation. He liked to go hiking in the mountains and was very
fond of skiing, which he did often. His shyness seemed to be limited to the
classroom, since he participated in skiing, swimming, and tennis with his friends.
Abilities. John was found to be an intellectually able boy. He was measured on

the Wechsler-Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised and was found to have a verbal
LQ. of 114, a performance I.Q. of 126, and a full-scale I.Q. of 120. This would place
his reading expectancy at a beginning college freshman level (1.20 x 10) + 1, or
grade 13.
John was given the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests—Revised, Form G. His
grade scores follow:
Word Identification 9.0
Word Attack 9.7
Word Comprehension 10.0
Passage Comprehension 4.9
Total Reading 8.4
These results show that word recognition was not John's basic problem. His
pronunciation of common words, ability to work out the pronunciation of new
words, and his understanding of the meanings of words were adequate. A com-
parison of his general reading vocabulary, science-mathematics vocabulary social
studies vocabulary and humanities vocabulary showed each to be reasonably
well developed. John's comprehension of passages, on the other hand, was very
poor. Since the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests—Revised are administered in
dividually and allow adequate time for each response, John's poor comprehen-
sion of passage was judged to be the result of a basic comprehension problem, not
simply a reflection of his generally slow reading rate.
John's oral and silent reading ability was then appraised by informal tech-
niques (Chapter 8). He was found to read orally and silently at approximately the
same rate—about 90 words a minute. He could read seventh-grade material
aloud without excessive word-pronunciation errors; but when he answered ques-
tions about the content, even of fourth-grade material, he was inaccurate and
asked to be allowed to reread to find the answers. This he could do reasonably
well. John was a word-by-word reader who gave no indication of reading in
thought units and had little sense of sentence organization. His eye-voice span'
was limited to one or two words.
In silent reading, John could be seen to make many eye fixations per line of
print, and he made many large regressions. This indicated that he was using
much the same single-word techniques in silent reading that he had used in oral
reading. The examiner also noted that while John was reading silently, he was, in
fact, reading aloud to himself. This showed up in lip movements and other
indications of excessive vocalization. John was reading silently, word by word,
vocalizing what he read and then rereading to understand the meaning of what
he had read.
The diagnostic questions raised in Chapter 7 and the answers to them were
as follows:
1. Is John correctly classified as having a reading disability? The results of the
diagnosis showed that he definitely had a reading disability, a limiting condition
that would have to be overcome before he could become an able reader and
achieve at a level that was in keeping with his intellectual capacity. John's ten-
dency to withdraw in the classroom was felt to be a symptom, and not the cause,
of his problem. Rather, it led one to believe that he was aware of his reading
inadequacy.
310 Chapter Sixteen
2. What is the nature of the training needed? The remedial program designed
for John had the following components: (1) practice in rapid recognition of
phrases, including flash drills, as discussed in Chapter 14; (2) prepared oral
reading, with emphasis on proper phrasing and oral expression of sentence
meanings to improve reading in thought units; (3) steps to overcome the vocali-
zation John used in reading activities; (4) the use of contextual clues and other
meaning clues as an aid to comprehension (see Chapter 14).
3. Who can give the remedial work most effectively? On the basis of the
diagnosis, it was decided that work with an individual remedial reading teacher,
plus a reading-improvement class, was the best arrangement that could be made
for John during the summer period.
4. How can improvement be brought about most efficiently? At the start, the
clinician selected materials with high interest and at a low reading level. These
materials required a reading ability at the level of about the end of the fourth
grade, but had the interest level and format of a seventh-grade book In addition,
independent reading of suitable materials, such as those discussed in Chapter 9,
was encouraged. The remedial reading teacher gave John many opportunities to
do prepared oral reading, with emphasis upon proper phrasing and oral expres-
• sion of sentence meanings. This was thought to be justified in spite of John's
vocalization tendencies, since the failure to read by thought units and sentence
meaning is more limiting to total reading growth than is vocalization. The reme-
dial reading teacher developed exercises to help train him in locating thought
units within sentences, as described in Chapter 14. Flash drills, using flash cards,
were developed for rapid phrase-recognition exercises.
The teacher of the reading improvement class was informed of the findings
of the diagnosis, and she adjusted her instruction for John in order to achieve the
same remedial objectives. Her help was especially effective in helping John over-
come his tendency to withdraw when working in groups.
John took home relatively easy books for independent reading. He was told
to read these books as rapidly as he could for 3-minute periods, as measured by
a timer on the electric stove. Then he was to note, for each 15-minute period, the
number of pages read, such as "from the top of page 21 to the middle of page 29."
He was also told to write, in not more than three short sentences, the major ideas
presented. Each day he would bring the results of his independent reading to the
remedial reading teacher. Using his "major ideas" sentences as notes, he would
discuss the independent reading he had done at home the day before. He also
kept a daily rate chart, calculated on the results of his final 15-minute timed
period of reading. John was, of course, free to read the books taken home for
leisurely, untimed reading, and he was encouraged to do so. During his home
reading, as in all other reading activities, John was told to try to limit vocalization.
This home practice was reinforced by the flash drills used to develop phrase
recognition, which also helped in overcoming vocalization.
5. Does the child have any limiting conditions that must be considered? John
was not limited in any sensory or physical way that would contribute to the
complexity of his reading problem. His tendency to withdraw in school situations
and his lack of confidence, while thought to be a direct outgrowth of his reading
frustrations, were taken into account in formulating the remedial plans. John's
confidence was bolstered by the acceptance of himself and his reading problem
by the remedial reading teacher. His withdrawal tendencies were recognized
quickly by the high school corrective-reading teacher. At the very start of instruc-
tion, she provided John with a story to report on about delivering the mail on skis
and encouraged him to tell about his own skiing experiences. This approach
quickly established John favorably among his classmates.
6. Are there any environmental conditions that might interfere with the
child's progress in reading'? The environment in which John was placed during
the summer period was thought to be ideal. His grandparents were cooperative
and knowledgeable. They made certain that he had an enjoyable summer vaca-
tion, including opportunities to swim and play tennis with his classmates. They
also provided John with a suitable place for leisure reading and took a healthy
interest in what he was reading.
Results. John was given remedial instruction as outlined previously, and he also
enrolled in the reading improvement class for the 10-week period. The results
were thought to be outstanding. Of course, John was an able boy with no limiting
physical conditions and was helped under ideal circumstances. His problems
were of a type in which rapid correction often takes place. Nonetheless, the
results were gratifying to all persons concerned.
The Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests—Revised, Form H, were repeated at'
the end of the 10-week period, with the following results:
Word Identification 9.3

Word Attack 9.4
Word Comprehension 10.8
Passage Comprehension 10.7
Total Reading 10.5
The limiting condition of word-by-word reading and his excessive vocalization

had been overcome. John was now able to couple his skill in word recognition
with his able intellect to read slightly better than a typical beginning 10th-grade
student, even though he was still not reading up to his reading expectancy level.
John had also overcome the insecurity in reading situations that had previously
inhibited his performance. This gain in confidence undoubtedly helped to im-
prove his measured reading capabilities. John's interest in reading and his ability
to concentrate on what he was reading developed to the point that, while reading
a book on his way to school on the bus one morning, he missed his stop and rode
312 Chapter Sixteen
all the way to the downtown area before he looked up from his book to check on
his whereabouts.
An informal evaluation showed that John was able to read high school mate-
rial for varied purposes at from 300 to 400 words a minute, with a high degree of
accuracy. It was felt, at the end of the session, that his reading would no longer
interfere with his future progress.
Summary
A good speed of reading is that rate at which text is comprehended according to
the purpose for which it is being read. For the proficient reader especially, speed
of reading is fairly specific to a particular reading situation. In general, the goal is
to comprehend the text at as fast a rate as possible. To achieve this goal, the
student must learn to adjust his rate of reading to fit the material he is reading
and his purpose for reading it. General methods for determining deficiencies in
rate of reading include standardized tests and informal tests. Each type of test
should supplement the other in diagnosis.
A complete diagnosis of difficulties in speed of reading must include an
analysis of possible limiting conditions, such as difficulties with the basic word-
recognition skills and basic comprehension abilities, which preclude rapid read-
ing. These must be corrected before the specific types of inefficient rates can be
overcome. Among the specific rate problems are overanalysis, word-by-word
reading, undesirable habits, faulty eye movements, excessive vocalization,and
inflexibility.
Any program for improving rate of reading must include (1) the useof appro-
priate materials, (2) proper incentives to develop and maintain motivation,
(3) techniques for increasing the rate, and (4) an emphasis on adjusting the rate to
different kinds of text and different purposes.
Two general techniques are used to increase speed of reading: working
against time and using various machines. Just as much gain in speed can be
obtained by well-organized, less complicated, and less expensive procedures as
by machines.
Ineffective oral readers need to be given text that s relatively easy for them
to read, and they must have ample opportunity to prepare to read orally. The
major problems in oral reading are an inappropriate eye-voice span, lack of
proper phrasing, an undesirable rate and timing in reading orally, and frustration
in doing so.
Study Questions
1. How should the child's reading rate be assessed?
2. What incentives should be considered when trying to help a student improve
her reading speed?
3. What is meant by "a flexible reader"? What characteristics of the reading task
determine the appropriate reading rate?
4. What are the causes of poor oral reading? What are some general practices
that promote good oral reading?
Selected Readings
Burmeister, L. E. (1983). Foundations and strategies for teaching children to read (pp. 444—467).
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Durkin, D. (1987). Teaching young children to read (4th ed.) (pp. 124—149). Boston: Allyn and
Bacon.
York Longman.
OH: Merrill.
Spache, C. D., & Spache, E. B. (1986). Reading in the elementary school (5th ed.) (pp.303-323).
Chapter 17
Encouraging Continued
Growth in Reading
After a child has overcome a reading difficulty sufficiently to allow him to discon-
tinue relying on remedial instruction, he should be placed in classroom situations
in which he will gain increasing independence in reading. He must be carefully
aided and assisted by the classroom teacher. This child needs the support and
encouragement necessary to ensure that he will continue to improve in reading,
and he also needs opportunities to develop real self-sufficiency and inde-
pendence in reading.
If the results of remedial training are to become permanent, and if continuous
growth in reading is to occur in the classroom, the child should develop a perma-
nent interest in reading, establish independence in reading, and continue to
progress in reading after remediation.
Developing a Permanent Interest in Reading

Throughout the remedial treatment programs discussed in this book, attention
has been focused on getting the child with reading difficulties to become inde-
pendent in his reading. The development of reading interests and the desire to use
reading as a source of information and enjoyment were considered essential to
reading growth. If remedial instruction is to establish permanent learning, an
appreciation of reading as a worthwhile activity must be cultivated.
Of great importance in establishing a continuing appreciation for and
utilization of reading is to provide the child with selections and materials that
appeal to his interests. Whether in a remedial reading setting or in a classroom,
315
316 Chapter Seventeen
nothing is more important to ensuring continued growth in reading than main-

taining strong motivation. There is ample evidence that children make greater
progress in their reading when they read about things that are highly interesting
to them.
According to research by Greenlaw (1983), children at the primary level select
as most preferred, books that are classified as funny, followed by books about
make-believe situations, books about people, and animal stories; books about real
things, rhymes, and mystery books were third most popular. Fairy tales, sports,
and how-to-do-it books were chosen least often. Intermediate-level children se-
lected, as their most preferred books, adventure stories, books on jokes and
humor, and informational books. Second most popular were fantasies, mysteries,
sports books, and books on the supernatural. How-to-do-it books, biographies,
historical fiction, and poetry were chosen third most frequently, and science
fiction and romance were chosen least often. October issues of the Reading Teacher
and the Journal of Reading provide current bibliographies of books that are most
preferred by children and young adults. Kid's Favorite Books (1992) supplies a list
of over 300 recent titles selected by 10,000 children ages 5—13.
When Wolfson, Manning, and Manning (1984) had fourth-grade children
respond to a reading interest inventory, they found that more boys than girls
expressed interest in reading about adventure, machines and applied science,
and animals. More girls than boys, however, expressed interest in multiethnic
family life and children and fine and applied arts. Boys and girls showed little or
no difference in interest in their preferences for fantasy, sports, social studies,
famous people, and plants. Fantasy was the most popular category studied
among boys and girls combined, whereas plants was not a popular topic for
either.
A review of research on children's leisure reading interests by Greaney (1980)
revealed that children at the end of elementary school read the most, girls read
more books than did boys, children from higher socioeconomic classes read more
than did children from lower socioeconomic classes, good students read more
and better quality materials than did poor students, and many readers at the
secondary level seemed to have abandoned reading altogether. Mellon (1987)
studied the leisure reading of rural secondary students and found that over 25%
of low-achieving students indicated that they did no leisure reading. Further,
twice as many males as females said that they did not read in their spare time.
The two most frequently given reasons for not reading were working after school
and hatred of reading. Among males who did leisure reading, the three most
preferred types of reading were magazines, sports and sports biographies, and
comic books. For females, the three most preferred categories were romance,
mystery, and magazines.
In general, the foregoing research suggests that there are differences in read-
ing preferences, depending upon the age and sex of the reader. A decline in leisure
reading with age, accompanied by the complete rejection of reading by many
older, poor-achieving students, is a cause for concern.
Encouraging Continued Growth in Reading 317
Identifying Specific Interests of a Child with a

Reading Disability
Studies of children's reading interests are valuable for suggesting what types
of books might appeal to children of a certain age and sex, as well as what
books might appeal to a given child. When teaching an individual child, how-
ever—especially one who is resistant to reading—it becomes necessary to identify
and evaluate her own particular interests. This may be done through several
devices.
Questionnaires
Information may be gained from simple questionnaires. Often, the best question-
naire is one devised by the teacher himself, for it can apply specifically to a
particular child or group of children. For children with reading difficulties, the
teacher must often read the items of the questionnaire to the child and write in
her responses.
Interview
As the remedial reading teacher works with a child with reading difficulties,
she should be alert to the child's interests. When the child seems to be com-
fortable in the remedial reading setting, the teacher should have a relaxed, con-
versational interview with the child. Informal conversation, recommended by
Norton (1987, p. 101), is a simple, natural, and effective way to uncover a child's
interests.
The interview may supplement the questionnaire or, for some children, sub-
stitute for it. During the interview, every effort is made to help the child feel
comfortable, so that he will want to talk freely about his activities in and out of
school, the kind of reading he likes, his favorite television programs, and so on.
The teacher may use a mimeographed outline to guide the interview and to
record the information. It should not be used if it breaks the rapport between
teacher and student. Jotting down such items as his favorite sports, movies,
books, or suggestions for future reading does not ordinarily disturb a child. But
sometimes, the relaxed, personal give-and-take of a quiet interview is ruined by
following a schedule. Note that although an interview may be time consuming,
so much information is usually gained that it is worthwhile.
Observation
A relatively simple and effective way to find out what interests a child is to watch
her daily activities. When children are free to express themselves in talk, play,
drawing, and other activities, the alert teacher will find many opportunities to jot
down an anecdotal note for later reference. The child who draws dogs is probably
interested in reading about dogs. The child who loves to play truck driver usually
enjoys reading about trucks. Many possible reading interests are discovered in
this way.
Methods for Developing the Desire to Read

Children with reading difficulties, nearly all of whom, at the start of remedial
treatment, dislike reading, present special complications. The teacher's first task
is to identify the child's interests, as previously described. Then the child should
be introduced to voluntary reading with a book on a topic of major interest to
him. This book should be easy to read, short, and well written and should have
lots of pictures. More books should be supplied as needed. The first several books
may all be on one subject—perhaps animals if they are what the child likes. It is
important to keep within the area of his known interests until the habit of
voluntary reading is established, even if those interests are very narrow. He may
refuse to read anything but animal stories, or space stories, or basketball stories.
But in time, his interests will expand gradually. The main problem with children
with reading disabilities is to teach them to read at an appropriate level. Enrich-
ment and expansion of interests can come later, gradually.
To develop an interest in reading, conditions in school and at home must be
favorable to reading. Reading is encouraged in school settings by (1) teachers
who are enthusiastic about books, (2) classrooms and resource rooms that are full
of well-selected, easily accessible books, (3) enough time provided to look
through, choose, and read books, (4) specific recommendations given by teachers
and peers, and (5) teachers who read aloud every day. (For more information
about school settings that encourage reading, see Hickman (1983); to learn more
about reading aloud to children, The Read-Aloud Handbook (Trelease, 1985) is
highly recommended.) Reading is encouraged at home by (1) parents who are
supportive of the activity, (2) books and magazines made available that are appro-
priate to the child's reading level and interests, (3) parents who converse with
their child about what the child has read, and (4) parents who read aloud to their
children. To be effective, all of these activities must be spontaneous, rather than
staged to snare the child into reading. Many children want to be like their parents
in ways that are genuine and worthwhile. Under such favorable conditions, most
children will lengthen their leisure-time reading and broaden their reading inter-
ests.
Although the real motivation for reading must come from the child himself,
the teacher can help the child pursue established interests and discover new ones.
The child is not born with interests; rather, they are acquired and can be encour-
aged by guidance. One interest can lead to another. For example, a child may be
interested in baseball. This may lead to reading newspaper accounts of baseball
games, which in turn may lead to reading biographiesof baseball heroes, which
may lead to reading about—who knows what? Some suggestions for developing
and extending the child's permanent interests in reading are discussed in the
following subsections.
Build Interest by Reading to Children

The remedial reading teacher who reads stories aloud with real enthusiasm so
that they fascinate children will have little difficulty stimulating interest in read-
ing. Reading aloud also helps the teacher demonstrate an appreciation for good
literature (Marino, 1991). An entertaining story that the teacher has read to a
group will be reread by many children when it is placed in the reading corner and
when attention is called to it. Or, some of the more advanced readers may read a
prepared selection from a story aloud to the group. When reading aloud to others,
the reader is motivated to do her best, and her listeners become interested in the
story and will probably wish to read it all.
Build Interests That Are Free from Instruction in
Skill Development
There should be a clear-cut distinction between reading done in the remedial
program to develop skills and abilities and reading to expand interests, much of
which is achieved during time devoted to personal reading. McKee (1948) empha-
sized this point when he said that "methods used to help children build an
abiding interest in good reading material and a taste for such material must be
inherently informal," enabling children to approach a selection as something to
be enjoyed in its own right. There is no surer way to stifle expanding interests
than to stop the ongoing enjoyment of a story or selection in order to engage in
drill upon a fundamental of reading or to attempt to extract an analysis of
content, plot, or characterization. It is unwise to probe and quiz, implying that
nothing can be learned unless the teacher asks questions and the children answer
them. However, as Indrisano and Paratore (1992) suggest, children can be encour-
aged to respond to text in an unstructured manner, and later, rereading can be
done to meet specific goals or complete defined tasks. When a child needs help
in recognizing a word or comprehending a concept, it should be given freely and
quickly, so that he can continue to communicate with the author actively and with.
interest.
To instill in a child the interest and desire to do extensive reading—to be a
reader—is a leading goal of any reading program. The beauty and the wonder of
reading are lost when it becomes nothing more than a forced and unpleasant
classroom exercise. All of the reading skills combined are of little use to the child
who does not read.
Present Systematic Lessons
Lessons designed to expand the child's reading interests should be planned
carefully and systematically. Based upon knowledge of each child's reading abili-
ties and interests, the remedial reading teacher can design experiences to expand
the children's interests. One way of doing so is to integrate the ideas found in
reading with the children's daily experiences. Careful integration of ideas, of
course, requires considerable thought and attention.
Any subject has the potential for deepening and expanding the child's read-
ing interests. It is often assumed that the development of those interests is limited
to reading juvenile fiction. Such an assumption should not be made; it should be
recognized that, currently, children's interests are being expanded beyond juve-
nile fiction. It is equally important to recognize that children are interested in the
wonders of the world about them. Expository text provides a basis for question-
ing that stimulates a deeper understanding of what it means to exist in the world
(McClure & Zitlow, 1991). The concept of children's literature has broadened to
include materials from many genres, both expository and narrative.
Use Hobbies to Stimulate Reading Interests

Teachers have found that allowing children time to pursue hobbies in school is
worthwhile. One child's enthusiasm may spark others' interest in a particular
hobby. Often, the teacher can suggest some type of related reading that will be
valuable to the young enthusiasts. Especially at the secondary level, many stu-
dents participate in optional after-school activities that stimulate a strong interest
in reading. Books directed toward specialized interests often have great appeal to
students who devote their time and energy to the areas presented.
Other methods of stimulating interest in reading include (1) displays of book
jackets and book advertisements, (2) a book club with its own student officers,
(3) carefully organized and regularly changed book exhibits in a corridor display
case, (4) an attractive wall chart on which each student can list books he has read,
and (5) book talks, in which a small group of students discusses books informally.
Students most enjoy discussing books with a few classmates who share similar
interests. In general, the enthusiastic teacher who promotes "real" reading and
plans systematically for developing interests will find success.
Perhaps the most effective incentive for broadening one's interests comes
from feeling the enthusiasm of the teacher and of other students for stories and
books that do not deal with what one thought was the only interesting area.
Judicious use of all of the methods discussed can be applied to expand reading
interests, as well as to deepen them. The alert teacher will know which method
or methods to use with a particular student.
We have pointed out the strong influence of a teacher's enthusiasm. It is well
known that the teacher who is most successful in developing an interest in
reading in a specific area is herself interested in that area, lives it, appreciates it,
and shares her enjoyment with the children whom she teaches. It should be noted
that interaction among students also generates far-reaching reading interests.
The goal of continued growth in reading by a particular student will have

been achieved when she has acquired broad and permanent interests and socially
desirable tastes. Although growth in reading interests and tastes is gradual,
proper guidance throughout the grades can accomplish much. Besides providing
a strong motivation for learning to read, interests determine what is read and how
much is read voluntarily.
There is no such thing as a criterion of good taste that is applicable to all
children. Children don't make appropriate choices for reading materials natu-
rally, but develop this ability in a supportive environment (Marino, 1991). Im-
provement in taste is relative to the level of a particular child. Although
improvement may be slow, well-organized guidance can lead to a better choice of
reading materials for all children. The gains will be large for some students and
small for others. A remedial reading program to broaden interests and cultivate
tastes is essentially the same as a nonremedial reading program. The main differ-
ence is that the remedial program is more intensive and more highly individual-
ized.
Establishing Independence in Reading

When a child begins remedial reading instruction he is often insecure and lacks
self-confidence and independence. A important part of helping such a child
improve his reading is helping him to become increasingly more independent.
Developing Initial Independence

In initial remedial reading instruction, it is often wise to intersperse short, easily
accomplished reading activities with other types of activities that are more ap-
pealing to children with reading difficulties. Eventually, as a student gains confi-
dence and improves her reading skills, it becomes desirable to devote more of the
instructional period to reading. In addition, the student should be asked to read
increasingly longer selections and should be given less direct assistance. Both of
these tend to increase the student's reading independence. Allowing a student to
take an appropriate book home to read is a similar aid to independence. Although
oral reading is valuable for many children with reading difficulties, silent reading
must receive a good deal of emphasis in order to help establish skills for inde-
pendence in reading. Allowing a student to select her own reading material
fosters independence in reading, as does encouraging her to use reading for her,
own reasons. The independent reader reads books of her own selection for such
reasons as pure enjoyment, because her friends are talking about a certain book,
or because she needs information for a project or activity.
The older student benefits from some direct instruction in functional reading
of such materials as newspapers, telephone books, television guides, catalogs,
and promotional pamphlets. Most students enjoy reading these materials, espe-
cially when they are free to read according to their own interests, and most learn
to use the materials in an independent manner to gather useful information.
Learning to Use Library Resources

Children with reading difficulties often do not make successful use of the school
library and therefore can benefit from direct assistance in this area as a part of
their remedial instruction. The organization of the library and library proce-
dures can be discussed with the child on an individual basis by the school
librarian. The reading teacher can help the child practice such procedures as using
the card catalog or computer system, finding books, and checking them out, until
the student becomes quite skillful and confident in obtaining books from the
library.
Use of the public library should also be encouraged. Often, upon the remedial
reading teacher's suggestion, parents take their children to the public library and
assist them in selecting a book and obtaining a library card. With encouragement
from teachers and parents, these children can become proficient in the use of both
the school and the public library and will begin to use both with independence.
Exploring Other Sources of Reading Material

When other children in the school can purchase inexpensive editions of well-liked
books through the school book club, children with reading difficulties should be
assisted in doing so, too. The remedial reading teacher can compile an appropri-
ate list of choices for the child who reads poorly, and his parents can encourage
him to choose a book or two.
In addition, parents can point out to their children the many displays of books
and magazines in stores. If a child shows an interest in a magazine from a store
display shelf, a parent should feel free to buy it for the child, even though it may
seem too advanced for him. Although the child may not be able to read every
word, or even understand every idea in the magazine, it is a step toward inde-
pendence in reading to have a magazine of one's own.
It is also valuable for a child with reading difficulties to be introduced to a
bookstore and see the many different books offered for sale there, such as attrac-
tive oversized picture books, inexpensive paperback books, and fat hardcover
books. It is good for the child to observe that people come to the store to select
and purchase books. Perhaps when looking through the books in the store, the
child might decide that he wants a book of his own. Such a decision is part of
reading independence.
Continuing Progress in Reading after Remediation

When a child has shown sufficient growth in reading to enable her to discontinue
remedial assistance, it is important that the remedial reading teacher and the
classroom teacher plan together to accomplish a smooth transition for the child.
During remediation, a good deal of communication between the classroom
teacher and the remedial reading teacher has served to coordinate efforts on the
child's behalf. At the termination of remediation, the remedial reading teacher
will want to share some insights and suggestions with the classroom teacher that
can help him assist the child to continue to improve in reading.
The classroom teacher should support the child so that she can maintain
confidence in her reading now that she will be without the reassurance of the
remedial reading teacher. The classroom teacher should also be alert to signs of
difficulty in reading so that the child does not experience immediate frustration
in classroom reading situations. In some instances, children may revisit the reme-
dial reading teacher once a week or twice a month for the purpose of a little
additional support. On occasion, these children benefit from being enrolled in a

summer program designed to enhance reading improvement.
It is also important for parents to continue to encourage their child's reading
efforts and be aware of and support the child's reading program. Communication
with the classroom teacher is worthwhile. Occasionally, parents can continue to
provide home assistance in reading under the classroom teacher's guidance.
Sometimes, they will want to communicate to the teacher about signs of tension
they detect in their child or to mention how much better their child seems to like
school now that her reading is more successful.
When a child with a reading disability has overcome the difficulties that were
impeding her reading and educational growth, when she has developed a real
desire to read, and when she has established independence and self-sufficiency in
the use of reading as a tool of learning at her level of reading expectancy, her
chances for continued growth in reading become excellent. If, in addition, her
teachers continue to give instruction suited to her individual learning charac-
teristics, her successful reading development will be practically ensured. Such
diagnostic teaching will make success possible for many students who otherwise
would be unable to realize their complete educational potential. This kind of
teaching takes the highest level of professional dedication, but therein lies the
educational future of many children.
Study Questions
1. How can one identify specific interests of children with reading difficulties?
2. What can be done to help children with reading difficulties develop ai
interest in reading?
3. How do parents and teachers guide a child to reading independence?
4. Why make an effort to ensure continuing progress in reading after remedia-
tion?
Selected Readings
Children's Book Council, Inc. (1992). Kids'favorite books. Newark, DE: International Read-
ing Association.
Harris, A. J., & Sipay, E. R. (1984). Readings on reading instruction (3rd ed.) (pp. 344—382).
New York: Longman.
Trelease, J. (1985). The read-aloud handbook (2nd ed.). New York: Viking Penguin.
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Authdr Index
Aaron, I. E., 50 Blah T. R., 33, 181,208,237,269, Cassin, B., 58

Ackerman, P. T., 70 289 Catterson, J. H., 125
Altman, S. D., 79 Blake, M. E., 67 Catts, H. W., 56,68,69
Alvermann, D. E., 289 Blanchard, J. S., 152 Cegelka, J. A., 64
Anhalt, J. M., 70 Block, C., 67 Cegelka, W. J., 64
Annesley, F. R., 77 Bloomfield, L, 194 Cl-tall, J., 149
Aram, D. M., 68 Bockmiller, P. R. ,54 Chalmers, D., 54
Armbruster, B. B., 273 Bond, G. L., 20,40,56,57,63, 161, Chapman, J. W., 75
Armus, J., 57 201 Chapman, J., 69
Austin, M. C., 80 Bormuth, J. R., 137 Chapman, R. S., 81
Bosch, J., 59 Cheek, E. H., 48
Bader, L. A., 129 Bowña, A., 59 Children's Book Council, Inc.,
Baker, K, 68 Bow,J. N.,65 323
Bakker, D. J., 59 Bowers, P. C., 38 Chomsky, C., 69
Baldwin, R. S., 67 Bowiby, M., 70 Cleiand, C. J., 48, 62, 118, 160
Balow, B., 58 Brady, S., 70 Clifford, C., 75
Balow, I. H., 122, 124 Bristow, P. S., 75 Clifford, M., 74
Bannatyne, A., 65 Brock, H., 38 Clymer, T. W, 41
Barnhart, C., 194 Bmwn, J. I., 123 Cohen, S. A., 65, 69,80
Barnitz, J. G., 69 Bruner, E. C., 215,224 Cole, L, 85
Beare, P, 74 Bryan,J. H.,53 Collins, M. D., 48
Bender, L., 58 Bryan, 1. H., 53 Conners, F., 70
Bennett, J. M., 123 Bryant, P., 71 Conoley, J. C., 121, 122, 123, 124,
Benning,J.J., 75 Burke, C. L., 131 125
Berryhill, R, 282 Burmeister, L. E., 313 Cooper, E. J., 81
Beth, E. A., 128 Bush, C. L., 80 Cooper, T., 80
Beverstock, C., 52 Buttery, T. J., 64 Cooter, R. B., 139
Binder, D. M., 75 Cowan, R. J., 50,53
Birch, H. G., 80 Cade, C., 277 Crane, J. A., 78
Blachman, B. A., 68 Caldwell, J., 129 Crawley, S. J., 225
Black, F. W, 58, 74 Camp, B. W., 74 Critchley, M., 58
Blaha, J., 66 Carbo, M., 67 Cruickshank, W M., 235
Blair, J. C., 54 Carner, R. L., 60 CTB/McGraw-Hiil., 122,123
337
338 Index
Cullinan, B. E., 288 Frost, B. P., 77 Herber, H. L., 282, 288

Cumniins, J. P, 64 Fulker, D., 70 Herbert, D. J.,75
Hermann, M. A., 168
Dale, E., 149 Gallagher, J. J.,246 Hesson, D., 54
Dalgleish, B. W. J.,69 Gamil, M., 277 Hewett, F. M., 236,246
Daniel, D., 152 Gardien, C. 59 Hickman, J., 318
Gardner, E. F., 122,123,124 Hieronymus, A. N., 122
Das,J. P.,64
Dechant, E. V., 55 Gates, A. I., 74, 126,202 Hittleman, D. R., 269
I3eHirsh, K., 218 Gayer, M. V., 89 Hogan, T. P., 122, 124
Denckla, M. B., 58 Geneva Medico-Educational Holliday, W. G., 283
DiBenedetto, B., 124 Service, 57 Hoover, H. D., 122
Doich, E. W, 199, 252 Gentile, L. M., 73, 78, 90, 139,235, Horn, W. F., 65,77
Dorman, C., 58 246 Horowitz, E. C., 126,202
Dreizen, K., 79 George, J. E., 274 Hoskins, S. B., 267
Drew, C. J., 246 Gerber, M. M., 70 Howell, M. J., 69
Duane, D. D., 59 Gullet, J. W, 33,55, 139 Howell, P., 70
Dunn, K., 67 Gillingham, A., 212, 214,224,225 Hresko, W. P., 64
Dunn, R., 67 Ginsburg, A., 68 Huebner, M. H., 80
Dupuis, M. M., 288 Glavin,J. P,77 Huelsman, C. B., Jr., 65
Durkin, D., 237,269, 313 Glazer, S. M., 69, 139 Hynd, C. R., 58,284
Durrell, D. D., 63,125 Goodman,K. S., 173
Dykman, R. A., 70 Goodman, Y. M., 131 Idol, L., 267
Dykstra, R., 20,40, 161 Goswami, U., 71 Indrisano, R., 319
Gottlieb, M. I., 54 Inglis, J., 38
Eames, T. H., 51 Goulandris, N., 70 Isom, J. B., 58
Edmiaston, R. K., 68 Gove, M. K., 269
Egan, W, 246 Graham, M., 54 Jacobson, M. D., 199
Ekwall, E. E., 181,207 Graubard, P. S., 77 Jansky, J. J., 218
Eldredge, A. R., 74 Gray, R. A., 68 Jewell, M. C., 33, 237, 269
Greaney, V. 316 Jobe, F. W, 52
Elkins, J.,63
Engle, P. L., 82 Greenlaw, M. J., 316 Johnson, D. J.,68
Englemann, S., 215, 224 Grohens, J.,60 Johnson, M. B., 123
Enkelmann, S., 69 Gussow, J. D., 80 Johnson, M. 5., 132
Erickson, M. E., 55 Gynther, M. D., 78 Jorm, A. F., 73,77
Evans, R. V., 69
Haaf, R. G., 53 Kamhi, A. G., 68,69
Faraone, V., 269 Hallahan, D. F, 246 Kamons, J.,123
Farr, R., 122, 124 Halpern, H. G., 68 Karisen, B. A., 122,123
Feagans, L. V., 53,54 Hammill, D. D., 68, 235 Karlsen, B., 124
Featherstone, W. B., 238 Hanna,G.,123 Kauffman, J. M., 246
Feehan, M., 74 Hardnian, M. L., 246 Kaufman, A. S., 65,122
Hare, B. A., 53 Kaufman, N. L., 122
Feeley, J. T., 152
Feldhusen, J. F., 75 Harris, A. J., 33,39, 40, 48,58,62, Kavale, K. A., 53,55
Felton, R. H., 69, 70 72, 75, 91, 118, 139, 160, 199, 269, Kelman, B. L., 68
Fernald, G. M., 210, 211, 214, 225, 302, 313, 323 Kendller,J. P.,65
235 Harris, L. A., 91, 139, 208,269 Kent, C. E., 267
Fishel, C. T., 286 Harris, W. 74 Kephart, N. C., 234,235
Fletcher, J. M., 68, 69 Hart, B. 0., 231,246 King, D. R., 74
Flexer, B. K., 66 Hegge, T. G., 238 Kirby, J. R., 65
Foorman, B. R., 70 Heilman, A. W., 237, 269 Kirk, S. A., 3, 63,72,225,237,238,
Friedman, R., 79 Heimlich, J. E., 168 239, 246
Friend, M., 268 Helfeldt, J. P., 59, 306 Kirk, U., 62
Fries, C. C., 194 Henk, W. A., 306 Kirk,W. D.,238
Index 339
Kirkpatrick, S. W., 51 McCormick, S., 48,62, 91, 118, 149, Peterson, N., 67
Klein, R. S., 79 160, 181, 208,251,252,313 Phommachanh, K., 277
Kliebhan, J. M., 3, 72, 225, 237 McDermott, J. C., 54 Pickle, M., 284
Knox, C. E., 52 McEntire, M. E., 68 Pikuiski, J. J., 132
Kogan, N., 66,67 McGee, R., 56,65,74,79 Pitteiman, S. D., 168
Kowaiski, R. L., 123 McKee, P, 319 Platt, J. M., 306
Kozlowski, L. J., 52 McKillop, A. 5., 126, 202 Poostay, E., 50
Kramer, J. J., 121, 122, 123, 124, McKinney, J. D., 74 Powers, L., 79
125 McMichael, P., 77 Pratt, A. C., 70
Kress, R. A., 132 McMillan, M. M., 73,78, 90, 235, Prendergast, M. A., 75
246 Prentice Assodates, Inc., 173
Langford, W. 5., 218 McNutt, G., 68 Prescott, C. A., 122, 124
Larsen, J., 58 Melekian, B. A., 79 Price, C. E., 67
Larsen, S. C., 68 Mellon, C. A., 316
Lawson, J. S., 38 Merritt, K., 225 Qian, G., 284
Lebauer, R. S., 81 Merriwether, A., 53,54 Quinn, L., 54
Lefever, D. W., 122 Merwin, J. C., 122,123
Lenchner, 0., 70 Miller, K. L., 274 Rabinovitch, R. D., 58
Leonard, H. S., 67 Minnesota Educational Comput- Rack, J., 70
Leong, C. K.; 38 ing Corporation, 199 Readence, J. E., 67
Lerner, J. W., 63, 72, 91, 118, 160, Miramontes, 0., 82 Rehmet, A., 77
181, 225, 237, 289 Moe, A. J., 129 Reid, D. K., 64
Leslie, L., 129 Monroe, M., 39, 56,57, 212, 214, Reutzel, D. R., 252
Liberman, D., 70 220, 224, 225 Richardson, E., 124
Lind-Blad, F., 65 Mooney, J. F., 55,237 Richek, M. A., 72,91, 118, 160, 181,
Lindquist, E. F., 122 Moore, D. W, 38, 65 225, 289
List, L. K., 72, 91, 118, 160, 181, 225, Moores, D. F., 246 Ridgeway, V. C., 284
289 Morice, R., 69 Rist, R. C., 80
Lloyd, H. M., 83 Morrow, L. M., 69 Roberge, J. J., 66
Lubandina, M. A., 277 Mowery, S., 267 Roberts, T., 38
Lundsteen, S. W, 68 Mueser, A. M., 265 Robinson, C. L. W., 65
Lyle, J. G., 56 Myers, P. I., 235 Robinson, H. A., 269
Myklebust, H. R., 68 Robinson, H. M., 53
MacGinitie, R. K., 123 Rosen, M. J.,58
MacGinitie, W. H., 123 Naslund, R. A., 122 Rosenbium, D. R., 68
MacKay, I., 38 Natchez, C., 48, 118, 139 Rosenthal, A. S., 68
MacKay, T., 123 Nation,J.E.,68 Ross, J. J., 58
Madean, R., 73,77 National Institute of Education, 30 Roswell, F. G., 48, 118, 139
Madden, R., 124 Neuman, S. B., 80 Rourke, B. P., 58
Maggart, Z. R., 91, 139, 149, 181, Nichols, E. G., 38 Routh, D. K, 70
207,269, 288 Niquette, C., 75 Rubin, D. R., 20,40
Mallow, J. V., 284 Nolte, R. Y., 273 Rubin, D., 48, 62, 181,208, 269, 289
Manis, F. R., 69, 70 Norton, D. E., 317 Rubin, R., 58
Manning, G., 316 Ruddell, R. B., 68
Manning, M., 316 Ogden, N., 65 Rudmen, H. C., 122, 123
Margolis, H., 67 Olson, R., 70 Rugel, R. P., 65
Marino, M., 319, 320 Rupley, W. H., 33, 181, 208, 237,
Martin, H. P 51 Packard, T., 65,77 269, 289
Mason, G. E., 64,152 Paradise, L. V., 67 Rutherford, W. L., 50
Mason, J., 74 Paratore, J. R., 319 Rystrom, R., 65, 81
Matthews, R., 73,77 Pearson, P. D., 91, 139, 208,269
McClure, A. A., 320 Perkerson, K., 74 Samuels, S. J., 170
McConaughy, S. H., 65 Peterson, M. E., 54 Samway, K. D., 277
340 Index
Sannomiya, M., 66 Stanovich, K. E., 63,70 Wagner, E. B., 63

Santa, C. M., 289 Stanton, W. R., 74 Wagner, R. K., 70
Saski, J., 68 Steffy, R, 38 Walberg, J. J.,80
Sattler, J. M., 65 Stephens, M. I., 68 Wasson, B., 74
Satz, P., 58, 68, 69 Stevens, D. 0., 75 Wasson, J.,74
Saunders, W, 67 Stewart, I.,54 Watson, D. J., 131
Stillinan, B. W, 212,214,224,225 Wattenberg, W. W, 75
Savage, J. F., 55,237
Scanlon, D. M., 70, 164 Strickland, D. S., 152 Weinberg, W., 77
Schapiro, M., 54 Strother, J.,79 Weintraub, S., 50,53,54
Scholes, R. J., 68,69 Sullivan Assodates, 194 Wepner, S. B., 152
Searfoss, L. W, 139 Swanson, B. B., 74 Werner, P. H., 79
Searis, E. F.,48 Swanson, B., 75 Westman,J. C., 62, 72, 91, 235,
Seaton, H. W, 53 Szeszulski, P., 70 246
Seigler, H. G., 78 Whang, G., 277
Serwatka, T. S., 54 Tate, E., 38 Wharry R. E., 51
Shapiro, K. L., 65 Taylor, B., 91, 139, 208, 269 Wieland, 0. R, 38
Share, D. L., 73, 77 Taylor, F. D., 236,246 Wiess, M. J., 229
Sherk, J., 81 Temple, C., 33,55, 139 Wilkerson, A., 68
Siegel, L. S., 63 Templeton, 5., 267 Williams, S. M., 75
Silva, P. A., 54,56,65, 74, 75, Teunissen, J., 59 Williams, S., 56,65,74,79
79 Thayer, J. A., 78 Wilson, B. J.,65
Simons, H. B., 81 Thonis, E. W, 82 Wilson, R. M., 48,62, 118,160
Sinatra, R., 38 Thorpe, L. P., 122 Wmograd, P., 75
Singer, H., 273 Thurston, J. R., 75 Wise, B., 70
Singer, M., 72 Tillnian, C. E., 51,58 Wolf, B., 246
Sipay, E. R., 33, 39,40,48, 58, 62, Torgesen, J. K., 40 Wolfson,B.J.,316
72, 75, 91, 118, 139, 160, 269, 302, Trelease, J., 318, 323 Woikin, W, 58
313, 323 Tsai, S., 80 Wood, F. B., 69, 70
Slaghuis, W, 69 Woodcock, R. W., 123,125
Smith, F., 64,65 Unruh, E., 269 Woods, M. L., 129
Smith, H. P., 55
Smith, P. L., 268 Vacca, J. A., 269 Young, F. A., 51
Snowling, M., 70,246 Vacca, R. T., 269
Sornson, H. H., 74,76 Vellutino, F. R., 70,164 Zimet, S. G., 74
Spache, E. 5., 269, 313 Venezky, R. L., 81 Zinkus, P. W, 54
Spache, G. D., 38, 51,55,58,65, 81, Vernon, M. D., 53,62 Zintz, M. V., 33, 91, 139, 149, 181,
85, 125, 149, 292 Vick, M. L., 81 207, 237,269, 288
Spache, G. E., 269,313 Viehweg, S. H., 54 Zitlow, C. S., 320
Spreen, 0., 53 Voeller, K. K. 5., 57
Subject Index
Analytical Reading Inventory, 129 Comprehension difficulties, remediation, 250-268

Aniseikonia, 51 longer units, 265—268
Audition deficiency, 54-55 paragraph, 266-267
Auditory acuity deficiency, 45-55 total selection, 267—268
Auditory impairment and reading, 54-56, 230-231 meaning vocabulary, 250-259
identification, 55-56 basic sight vocabulary, 255
implications of research, 54—55 contextual dues, 255-256
teaching, 230—231 dictionary use, 258
Auditory processing deficiency, 54—55 word structure, 256-258
Author's point of view, 9-11 sentence sense, 259—265
connectives, 263
Bader Reading and Language Inventory, 129 pronoun-antecedent relationships, 263—264
Basic Study Skill, remediation, 277—280 punctuation, 262-263
basic references, 279 syntax, 264
interpreting pictorial and tabular material, 279-280 thought units, 259-262
locating sources of information, 278 varied sentence structure, 264-265
Computers in instruction, 152
Cal fomia Achievement Tests, 122-123 Content field adjustments, 280-287
Case study, limiting disability relating meaning to literature, 286—287
printed symbols, 177-180 mathematics, 285—286
Case study, reading comprehension and rate disabifi- science, 283—285
ties, 308—312 social studies, 281—283
Case study, word-recognition limitation, 203-206 Contextual dues and meaning, 175-177
Case study, word-recognition problems and auditory Cooperative efforts in remediation, 156-158
limitation, 240-244 dassroom teachers, 157
Child purchase of books and magazines, 322 consultants, 156—157
Child-study diagnosis, 96, 112—115, 125—126 parents, 157-158
diagnosis, 96, 112—115 reader, 158
tests used, 125-126 remedial teacher and specialist, 156
Classroom reading analysis, 127—128
Cognitive factors and reading, 64-68 Decoding Skills Test, 124
cognitive style, 66—68 Diagnosis, principles, 93-100
specific abilities, 65—66 collection of information, 97—99
Comprehension, development, 247—250 comparison of scores, 99—100
341
342 Index
Diagnosis (Contd.) General diagnosis, 96, 110—112, 121—123

continuous diagnosis, 100 diagnosis, 96, 110—112
efficiency, 96 tests used, 121—123
informal procedures, 99 General health impairment and reading, 60-61
standardized procedures, 97-99 chronic illness, 60—61
Diagnostic-based remediation, 100-110 general fatigue, 61
environmental conditions, 109-110 malnutrition, 60-61
instructional adjustments, 101—108 Gilhingham and Stillman approach, 214
demonstration of progress, 107—108
difficulty of material, 106—107 Hyperopia, 51
independent reading, 108
interest and format, 107 Identification of reading disability, 35-45
lesson length and frequency, 108 mental abffit 39-45
limiting physical conditions, 108—109 opportunity to learn, 37—39
nature of instruction, 102—103 success in nonreading fields, 39
Diagnostic Reading Scales, 125 verbal competency, 37
Diagnostic teaching in the dassroom, 28-31 Independent reading level, 128
Disabled readers, categories, 45—46, 103—105 Individual differences in reading, considerations,
complex disabthtl 46,105 18—25, 86
general inmiaturity, 45,103-104 child growth, 18-20
limiting disabffit 46, 105 complexity of the reading task, 20—21
specific immaturity, 45-46,104 curricular changes, 21-23
DISTAR, 215 organization of the school, 23—24
Du,rwll Analysis of Reading Difficulty, 125 teacher energy and time, 24—25
Individual differences in reading, provisions, 25-28
Educational factors and reading, 84—89 Informal diagnosis, 126—136
administrative policies, 84—85 classroom reading analysis, 127—128
library and media centers, 89 comprehension, 131—132
methods of teaching, 86-88 inventories, 128—129
reading readiness, 85-86 reading levels, 128—129
teacher's role, 88 standardized tests in combination with,
Encouraging continued growth in reading, 136—138
315-323 suggestions for reading specialists, 133—136
Encouraging the student, 145—149 word recognition, 129—131
demonstrate improvement, 147—148 Instructional reading level, 128
emphasize success, 146—147 Intellectual limitations and reading, 63-64
scheduling, 148—149 Interest in reading, 315-321
Environmental factors and reading, 78-84 developing interests, 315-316
attitude development, 80 specific interests, 317—321
cultural and language differences, 80-84 Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, 122
home conditions, 78—80
Expected range of reading ability, 15—17 Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Brief Form,
Extremely disabled reader, treatment, 209—217 122—123
auditory (sound blending) emphasis, 212—215
kinesthetic-auditory-visual emphasis, 210—212 Language factors and reading, 68—70
visual-structural approach, 215-217 Library use, 321—322
Fernald method, 210-212 Mental disability and reading, 63-64,237—240

Frustration reading level, 128 reading disability, 64
remedial instruction, 237-240
Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, 123 Metropolitan Achievement Tests, 122—124
Gates-McKillop-Homwitz Reading Diagnostic Tests, Miscue analysis of reading errors, 130—131
125—126 Monroe approach, 213—214
General achievement tests, 121—123 Myopia, 51
Index 343
Nelson-Denny Reading Test, 123 Rate of comprehension (Contd.)

Neurological impairment and reading, 57-60, informal diagnosis, 294-295
231—235 standardized testing, 293—295
implications of research, 57-60 gains to be expected, 302-303
teacher's role, 59 general remediation, 295—298
teaching, 231—235 materials, 2%
auditory discrimination and blending difficulties, mechanical devices, 298
233—234 motivation, 296-297
motor coordination limitations, 234—235 timed practice, 297—298
symbol association problems, 234 inefficient, types, 298-302
visual perception problems, 232-233 excessive vocalization, 299-300
faulty habits, 299
Oral reading difficulties, 303—308 inflexible, 300-302
diagnosis and correction, 303-306 overanalytical, 298
eye-voice span, 303—305 word-by-word, 298—299
frustration, 306 Reading development, description, 3-6
phrasing, 305 definition, 2
rate and timing, 305-306 instructional goals, 6-9
general correction, 306—308 nature, 1—2
Orientational difficulties, treatment, 217-224 normal, 3-6
perceptual confusion, causes, 217—218 basic abilities, 5
remedial procedures, 218-224 intermediate grades, 5
alphabetization, 223 introductory phase, 4
consonant substitution, 221-222 prereading period, 3
demonstration, 223 primary grades, 4—5
keyboarding, 221 reading readiness, 3-4
left-to-right inspection, 217—218 special abilities, 5-6
motor aids, 219-220 Reading discrepancy, 44-45
word beginning emphasis, 221—224 Reading expectancy age, 42-44
writing words, 220-221 Reading expectancy formula, 42-45
Reading independence, 321-322
Peabody Individual Achievement Test, 241—242 Reading index, 39
Perceptual and decoding skill deficiencies, remedia- Reading survey tests, 123
tion, 183—203 Remedial materials, 149—153
faulty visual analysis, 186—189 abundance, 151
general suggestions, 183—185 level of diffIculty, 149—150
overanalysis, 191—193 level of interest, 151
synthesizing inability, 200—203 type, 150—151
word elements, limited knowledge, 193-200 Remedial plans, 143-145
word-perception errors, 189—191 child characteristics, 143
Personal and social adjustment and reading, 73—78, energetic learner, 145
235—237 specific needs, 143—144
cause and effect, 76—78 teaching techniques, 144—145
lack of success, 76 Remedial teaching procedures, 153—156
implications of research, 73-76 group and individual work, 156
teaching, 235-237 meaningful reading, 154
Prior knowledge and meaning, 174-175 optimism, 155-156
Progress in reading after remediation, 322-323 procedures similar to reading, 155
Reversals, preventing, 224
Qualitative Reading Inventory, 129
Semantic abilities and reading, 68-69
Rate of comprehension, 291—303 Semantic dues, 247
comprehension related to speed, 291—293 Silent Reading Diagnostic Test, 242—243
diagnosis of deficiency, 293—295 Skill area achievement tests, 122—123
344 Index
Specific comprehension limitations, remediation, Visual impairment and reading, 50-54,228-230

272—277 identifIcation, 50-51
behavioral symptoms, 52—53
appreciate, 276—277
evaluate, 274—275 school screening, 52
interpret content, 275-276 implications of research, 50-52
locate and recall information, 272-273 teaching, 228—230
sense of organization, 273—274 Visual processing defects, 53-54
Specific diagnosis, 96, 122, 123—124
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, 308
diagnosis, 96,122
tests used, 123—124 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, 38,42,
Speech impairment and reading, 56-57,240 178,203, 241—242
implications of research, 56-57 Wide Range Achievement Test, 241-242
teaching, 240 Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battenj-Revised,
SRA Achievement Series, 122 123
Stanford Achievement Test, 122-123 Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised, 125,178,309,
Stanford -B met Intelligence Scale-Revised, 42 311
Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, 124 Word study, 161-177
Strabismus, 51 association of printed symbols and meaning,
Syntactic abilities and reading, 69 166-177
balance, 163—166
Syntax dues, 247
goals, 162—163
Tiger's Tales, 168 meaning dues, 173—177
Trickster Coyote, 173 sight vocabulary 169—173

Reading Difficulties

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What are some of the categories of reading problems discussed in the text?

What are some of the categories of reading problems discussed in the text?

What factors are discussed as potential causes of reading disabilities?

What factors are discussed as potential causes of reading disabilities?

Seventh Edition

Allyn and Bacon

SeriesEditor: Virginia C. Lanigan

Copyright © 1994, 1989 by Allyn and Bacon

All right reserved. No part of the material protected by this

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bond, Guy Loraine

Printed in the United States of America

Pref ace vii

2 Adjusting Instruction to Individual Differences 13

3 Description of Children with Reading Disabilities 35

4 Causes of Reading Disability: Physical Factors 49

5 Causes of Reading Disability: Cognitive and Language Factors 63

6 Causes of Reading Disability: Emotional, Environmental, and

7 Basic Considerations in Diagnosing Reading Difficulties 93

8 Use of Specific Assessment Procedures 119

9 Planning Appropriate Remediation 141

Encouraging the Reader 145

10 Correcting Insufficient Attention to Meaning in Word Recognition 161

11 Correcting Ineffective Perceptual and Decoding Skills in

12 'Theating Students with Extreme Reading Disability 209

13 Adapting Instruction for Children with Disabilities 227

Case Study of an Upper Elementary Grade Student with a Basic

14 Correcting Basic Comprehension Deficiencies 247

15 Overcoming Specific Comprehension Limitations 271

16 Correcting Reading Rates and Oral Reading Difficulties 291

17 Encouraging Continued Growth in Reading 315

Author Index 337

Subject Index 341

Nature of Reading Development

Description of Normal Reading Growth

Progress in Reading Readiness

mal physical development, acquiring an adequate background of experiences,

skills in word recognition, comprehension, and techniques of study to be devel-

Progress in the Basic Reading Abilities

Progress in the Special Reading Abilities

Goals of Reading Instruction

Basic Understanding of Words, Sentences, Paragraphs, and

Maturity in Reading Habits and Attitudes

Maturity in Choosing Suitable Strategies for Various

Breadth of Interest and Maturity of Taste in Reading

A well-organized instructional program works to prevent reading difficulties.

Plan of This Book

The teacher's goal is to provide instruction and learning opportunities in the

Individual Differences in the Classroom

attainment in reading or possessed identical instructional needs. Each child must

Improved Methods and Materials

Reasons for Increased Attention to Differences

Range in Reading Ability to Be Expected

LEGEND: LG—Lowest group; MG—Middle group, HG—Highest group

FIGURE 2—1 Range of Reading Ability Found in Selected Classrooms of

Basic Considerations in Adjusting to Individual

Children Are Alike in Many Ways

Children Develop in Ways Other than in

Childrens' Development in Reading Is Not

Reading Is Complex Learning