Stuttering is a disorder that affects about 1% of the population and manifests as speech disfluencies. Reading difficulties and disabilities are commonly found in this population. Nonetheless, speech disfluencies have not been explored in adult struggling readers (ASRs). In the current study, we examined the rate of stuttering in ASRs as well as…

Stuttering is a disorder that affects about 1% of the population and manifests as speech disfluencies. Reading difficulties and disabilities are commonly found in this population. Nonetheless, speech disfluencies have not been explored in adult struggling readers (ASRs). In the current study, we examined the rate of stuttering in ASRs as well as…

Childhood education affects how individuals adapt to the challenges of adulthood. Although various generalizations are made relating childhood educational experiences to characteristics of adults, there is scant evidence to support those assertions for adult literacy learners in the United States. This study investigates the relationship of…

This paper describes a new automated disengagement tracking system (DTS) that detects learners' maladaptive behaviors, e.g. mind-wandering and impetuous responding, in an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), called AutoTutor. AutoTutor is a conversation-based intelligent tutoring system designed to help adult literacy learners improve their reading…

Research with school-age readers suggests that the contributions of reading and language skills vary across reading comprehension assessments and proficiency levels. With a sample of 168 struggling adult readers, we estimated the explanatory effects of decoding, oral vocabulary, listening comprehension, fluency, background knowledge, and…

Research with school-age readers suggests that the contributions of reading and language skills vary across reading comprehension assessments and proficiency levels. With a sample of 168 struggling adult readers, we estimated the explanatory effects of decoding, oral vocabulary, listening comprehension, fluency, background knowledge, and…

A major challenge in research with struggling adult readers is their heterogeneity in reading-related competencies and demographic characteristics. The purpose of this investigation was to identify unique profiles of skill sets among struggling adult readers and explore informative demographic differences between profiles. Using latent class…

A major challenge in research with struggling adult readers is their heterogeneity in reading-related competencies and demographic characteristics. The purpose of this investigation was to identify unique profiles of skill sets among struggling adult readers and explore informative demographic differences between profiles. Using latent class…

A common goal of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) is to provide learning environments that adapt to the varying abilities and characteristics of users. This type of adaptivity is possible only if the ITS has information that characterizes the learning behaviors of its users and can adjust its pedagogy accordingly. This study investigated an…

Reading comprehension is often assessed by having students read passages and administering a test that assesses their understanding of the text. Shorter assessments may fail to give a full picture of comprehension ability while more thorough ones can be time consuming and costly. This study used data from a conversational intelligent tutoring…

A common goal of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) is to provide learning environments that adapt to the varying abilities and characteristics of users. To do this, researchers must identify the learning patterns exhibited by those interacting with the system. In the present work, we use clustering analysis to capture learning patterns in over…

A common goal of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) is to provide learning environments that adapt to the varying abilities and characteristics of users. To do this, researchers must identify the learning patterns exhibited by those interacting with the system. In the present work, we use clustering analysis to capture learning patterns in over…

Selecting assessments for adults who struggle with reading can be difficult because few literacy measures used by reading researchers have been normed on this population, leaving uncertainty regarding the validity of these tests for adult learners. This study focused on the performance of 116 adults reading between the 3rd and 8th grade levels on…

Selecting assessments for adults who struggle with reading can be difficult because few literacy measures used by reading researchers have been normed on this population, leaving uncertainty regarding the validity of these tests for adult learners. This study focused on the performance of 116 adults reading between the 3rd and 8th grade levels on…

Fluency is an essential part of skilled reading that has only recently begun to receive its deserved attention. However, programs that meaningfully engage adult learners in fluency training have not been widely explored in research. In this article, the authors describe an evidence-based adult Guided Repeated Reading program developed for…