Project WORD: Wordwork to Optimize Reading Development

Roxanne Hudson, Ph. D.
Funded by the Florida Department of Education

Dr. Roxanne Hudson is a faculty member in the Department of Childhood Education, Reading and Disability Services in the College of Education at Florida State University and the Florida Center for Reading Research. This study examines the role of fluency in the application of lexical and sublexical skills on text reading fluency. This is a three year study in its first year. Students with reading disabilities (RD) have difficulty learning to accurately and fluently identify printed words; a trait present in the earliest grades. The assumption is often made that children with RD will grow out of their reading problem, but 74% of children who are poor readers in the third grade remain poor readers in the ninth grade (Foorman, Fletcher, & Francis, 1999). Children with RD often have difficulties understanding and applying the alphabetic principle to fluently decode unfamiliar words. If students are dysfluent in decoding, it is likely to have two effects on their reading connected text: (a) dysfluent decoding skills may not be used because of the effort involved in their application, and (b) dysfluent decoding skills will create fluency "bocks" when children attempt to decode unfamiliar words in text, interfering with comprehension. Most methods of teaching decoding skills don't emphasize teaching to automaticity, often leaving students as accurate, yet slow and labored readers. In year 1, data were collected in a diagnostic study to answer the following questions:

Do the following sub-processes (letter sound fluency, phonemic blending fluency, phonogram fluency, multiple cue efficiency, and processing speed) explain individual differences in decoding fluency among second-grade readers?

Do the following processes (sight word fluency, decoding fluency, speed of processing sight words, fluent use of context, vocabulary, and processing speed) explain individual differences in oral reading fluency among second-grade readers?

What is the relationship between decoding fluency, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension among second-grade readers?

Average and struggling readers were assessed on their oral reading and decoding fluency and the accuracy and fluency of the subprocesses identified above as important for decoding and reading fluency. Data are being analyzed to answer each of the questions. In year 2, 2nd graders with RD will be randomly assigned to a control condition or an experimental condition comprised of small-group decoding instruction that includes the processes taught to a criterion (accuracy or fluency) determined to be important in the Year 1 study. Data will be analyzed to determine the effects of the decoding instruction. Year 3, follow-up data will be collected to determine the long-term effects of the intervention and reading development of the students. Continued research studies are planned after the completion of the funded project.