Assessing Letter Sound Knowledge: A Comparison of Letter Sound Fluency and Nonsense Word Fluency

Six instructional assistants taught the Early Reading Intervention (ERI) curriculum to 38 at-risk kindergarten students, and 32 nonrisk students served as comparisons. Student risk was determined based on performance on the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills subtests of Nonsense Word Fluency, Letter Naming Fluency, and Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF). The Word Attack (WA) and Letter-Word Identification (LWID) subtests of the Woodcock–Johnson III Tests of Achievement were used to confirm risk status and also as pre- and posttest measures. Treatment students received between 6.85 and 13.70 hr of instruction, with varying degrees of treatment quality. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the amount of variance in gain scores that could be explained by participation in ERI, treatment quality, and treatment duration. Results showed WA and LWID gains with large effect sizes for treatment students. Findings for treatment quality and duration were mixed, without clear indications of their effects on gain scores.

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The Roles of Orthographic, Phonological, and Word Frequency Variables on Word-Nonword Decisions

American Educational Research Journal ◽

10.3102/00028312013003199 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 199-206 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jana M. Mason

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Letter String ◽

Nonsense Word ◽

Decision Task ◽

Skilled Readers ◽

Error Measures ◽

Letter Frequency ◽

Adults And Children ◽

Word Familiarity ◽

Letter Sound

A lexical decision task was administered to adults and children in order to study the separate effects of letter frequency, letter sound, and word familiarity variables. Subjects were asked to decide if a four-letter string was a real or a nonsense word. Latency and error measures were obtained. An analysis of the real words indicated that adults and children are alike in being affected by (a) word familiarity, and (b) an interaction between initial consonant frequency and word familiarity. Children were also affected by (c) final consonant frequency, and (d) an interaction between vowel regularity and word familiarity. The results indicated that skilled readers can recognize four-letter words without extensive orthographic analysis. Unskilled readers may use the same process but revert to a phonological encoding when a word is both unfamiliar and contains an irregular vowel.

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Advancing Stage 2 Research on Measures for Monitoring Kindergarten Reading Progress

Journal of Learning Disabilities ◽

10.1177/0022219416688171 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 85-104 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nathan H. Clemens ◽

Michelle M. Soohoo ◽

Colby P. Wiley ◽

Yu-Yu Hsiao ◽

Ivonne Estrella ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reading Fluency ◽

Reading Skills ◽

Word Reading ◽

Growth Models ◽

Change Score ◽

Kindergarten Students ◽

Word Fluency ◽

Suggested Approach ◽

Reading Progress ◽

Letter Sound

Although several measures exist for frequently monitoring early reading progress, little research has specifically investigated their technical properties when administered on a frequent basis with kindergarten students. In this study, kindergarten students ( N = 137) of whom the majority was receiving supplemental intervention for reading skills were monitored using Letter Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Word Reading Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, Highly Decodable Passages, and Spelling on a biweekly basis between February and May. Acceptable reliability was observed for all measures. Analyses of slope validity using latent growth models, latent change score models, and slope differences according to level of year-end achievement indicated that the relation of slope to overall reading skills varied across the measures. A suggested approach to kindergarten students’ reading progress is offered that includes Letter Sound Fluency and a measure of word-reading skills to provide a comprehensive picture of student growth toward important year-end reading outcomes.

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An Inclusive Approach to Improving Early Literacy Skills of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Behavioral Disorders ◽

10.1177/019874290503000208 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 155-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Joseph H. Wehby ◽

Kathleen L. Lane ◽

Katherine B. Falk

Keyword(s):

General Education ◽

Early Literacy ◽

Behavioral Disorders ◽

Classroom Practice ◽

Reading Program ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Word Fluency ◽

Baseline Design ◽

Nonsense Word Fluency ◽

The Impact

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a comprehensive reading program using the Scott Foresman Reading program (Foresman, 2000), supplemented with Torgeson and Bryant's (1994) Phonological Awareness Training for Reading (PATR) program in a general education classroom with four kindergarten special education students identified as having emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD). Following the implementation of the Scott Foresman curriculum by classroom teachers, university-trained research assistants implemented the PATR program. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the impact of the supplemental program on the reading performance of the participants. Academic measures included assessment of nonsense-word fluency, letter naming, and initial-sound fluency. Moderate, albeit inconsistent, improvements in reading skills were shown for the participating students. Implications for classroom practice and future directions for this line of research will be discussed.

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