Research shows little benefit from phonics instruction in Grades 2 through 12. However, more recent studies show that students who fall below a decoding threshold fail to benefit from other kinds of reading instruction. This exploration of the evidence suggests that these students are likely to need support in the reading and spelling of…

Although phonemic awareness is an essential skill in learning to decode written words, practitioners may question which phonemic awareness tasks best operationalize their relationship with orthographic mapping, the process that converts a decoded word into one instantly recognized on sight. Tests from the "Woodcock-Johnson IV" were used…

Purpose: The lexical quality (LQ) hypothesis predicts that a skilled reader's lexicon will be inhabited by a range of low- to high-quality items, and the probability of representing a word with high quality varies as a function of person-level, word-level, and item-specific variables. These predictions were tested with spelling accuracy as a gauge…

Background: Learning Progress Assessments (LPA) have been developed to help teachers individualize their curriculum. The use of LPA is facilitated by an increasing number of computerized LPA tools. However, little is known about student factors that influence the effectiveness of computerized LPA. Objectives: In this study, we explored whether a…

Hebrew allows the representation of the meaning of a few words in one dense form by using bound morphemes that linearly attach to the word. By manipulating words' density in text, that is, decomposing them into isolated words which changes the length of the text, it was possible to check the impact of density on reading comprehension in novice…

Fluent word recognition is an essential component of skilled reading, yet most children with reading difficulty have impaired word recognition. We developed and evaluated a web app, WordDriver, delivered via teletherapy, which targets phonological recoding to support orthographic learning and efficient word recognition. Participants were five…

Purpose: This study aimed to elucidate the nature of the relationship between the development of decoding and encoding skills in the first year at school. Method: The foundational literacy skills of one hundred eighty 5-year-old children were examined on three occasions over their first year of literacy instruction. Participants received the same…

Beyond the established difficulties of individuals with dyslexia in word recognition and spelling, it remains unclear how severe their difficulties in comprehension are. To examine this, we performed a meta-analytic review. A random-effects model analysis of data from 76 studies revealed a large deficit in reading comprehension in individuals with…

The simple views of reading (SVRs) and writing (SVWs) reflect useful frameworks for the psychoeducational evaluation of literacy difficulties. They describe reading comprehension and written expression as the outcome of oral language, decoding, and transcription skills. Prior research has demonstrated that these components explain the vast…

Since 2012, when preparatory grade (PG) became compulsory in Romania for 6-year olds, little understanding has been gained of how children's literacy evolves in PG, although over the same period, Romanian 15-year olds' reading performance has shown no signs of improvement (Noveanu et al., 2023). Children enter school with broadly varying literacy…

The International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was updated 20 years ago and has been referenced frequently in research and practice. In this paper, researchers from the Florida Center for Reading Research consider the components of the definition and make recommendations for revisions. These include recognizing the persistence of…

Preventative and intensive reading intervention can be administered to at-risk students in a systematic way to help facilitate gains on literacy outcomes. Despite this fact, there are clear barriers to implementation. One solution may be to use paraprofessionals to provide supplemental reading instruction. This study employed meta-analytic…

Purpose: Children are assumed to acquire orthographic representations during autonomous reading by decoding new written words. The present study investigates how deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children build new orthographic representations compared to typically hearing (TH) children. Method: Twenty-nine DHH children, from 7.8 to 13.5 years old,…

This study evaluates the effect of an intervention whose aim is to make articulatory consciousness a tool in decoding and spelling. The sample comprises 11 students with severe dyslexia (2 "SD" below the mean pseudoword scores), and the intervention programme consists of 32 individual sessions over 8 weeks. The study applies a multiple…

While there is some evidence of a gap in English writing achievement between children with English as an additional language (EAL) compared to their monolingual English-speaking (EL1) peers, the source of this gap remains unclear. This study examines whether writing presents a specific challenge for children with EAL beyond their oral language and…