Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties

Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties is a practical, accessible, in-depth guide to reading assessment and intervention. It provides a detailed discussion of the nature and causes of reading difficulties, which will help develop the knowledge and confidence needed to accurately assess why a student is struggling. Readers will learn a framework for organizing testing results from current assessment batteries such as the WJ-IV, KTEA-3, and CTOPP-2. Case studies illustrate each of the concepts covered. A thorough discussion is provided on the assessment of phonics skills, phonological awareness, word recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Formatted for easy reading as well as quick reference, the text includes bullet points, icons, callout boxes, and other design elements to call attention to important information.

Although a substantial amount of research has shown that most reading difficulties can be prevented or corrected, standard reading remediation efforts have proven largely ineffective. School psychologists are routinely called upon to evaluate students with reading difficulties and to make recommendations to address such difficulties. This book provides an overview of the best assessment and intervention techniques, backed by the most current research findings.

• Bridge the gap between research and practice
• Accurately assess the reason(s) why a student struggles in reading
• Improve reading skills using the most highly effective evidence-based techniques

Reading may well be the most important thing students are taught during their school careers. It is a skill they will use every day of their lives; one that will dictate, in part, later life success. Struggling students need help now, and Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties shows how to get these students on track.

DAVID A. KILPATRICK, PHD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York College at Cortland and a New York State Certified School Psychologist with the East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District. An expert and experienced clinician who excels in reading assessment and intervention, Dr. Kilpatrick has conducted over 1000 student evaluations for reading difficulties and disabilities.

Series Preface xv

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

One Introduction 1

The Unfair Race 1

The Importance of Reading 2

The Gap Between Reading Research and Classroom Practice 4

The Unfortunate Reality About Reading Research: Nobody Knows About It! 4

Why IsThere a Gap Between Research and Classroom Practice? 6

The Powerful Research Results We Have Been Missing 11

Acknowledging and Responding to the Gap Between Research and Practice 14

Summary 20

Two How We Teach Reading and Why It Does Not Work With Struggling Readers 23

A Very Brief History of Reading Instruction 24

Why Our Current Approaches to Reading Instruction Are Ineffective With Struggling Readers 26

The Visual Memory Hypothesis of Word Reading 30

The Three Cueing Systems Model of Reading 35

The Phonics Approach to Reading 41

Summary 42

Three A Practical Framework for Understanding and Assessing Reading Skills 46

The Simple View of Reading 46

Types of Reading Difficulties/Disabilities 54

The Components of Reading 58

The Components of Word-Level Reading 60

The Components of Linguistic Comprehension 73

Summary 77

Four Understanding Word Recognition Difficulties 80

The Importance of This Chapter 80

Introducing Orthographic Mapping 81

How Skilled Word Reading Develops 83

The Early Stages of the Reading Process 91

Learning to Read Irregular Words 104

The Research on Orthographic Mapping 109

How the Phonological-Core Deficit Hinders Reading Development 114

Word-Reading Fluency and Orthographic Mapping 121

Students Whose Native Language Is Not English 125

Answers to the Questions Posed About Reading Difficulties 127

Summary 129

Five Understanding Reading Comprehension Difficulties 133

Specific Reading Comprehension Impairment 134

What Is Required for Skilled Reading Comprehension? 135

Reader Abilities 136

Text Factors 143

Task Factors 144

Students Whose First Language Is Not English 144

Summary 145

Six Assessing Phonological Processing Skills 149

An Introduction to Intervention-Oriented Assessment of Reading 149

Issues in Assessing Phonological Skills 154

Phonological Awareness Assessment 165

Phonological Blending Assessment 170

The Rationale for Assessing Rapid Automatized Naming and Working Memory 172

Summary 179

Seven Assessing Phonics Skills 182

Orthographic Knowledge 183

Assessing Phonics Skills 187

Summary 196

Eight Assessing Word Identification and Reading Fluency 199

The Assessment of Word-Reading Skills 199

Untangling the Confound Between Word Recognition and Word Identification 202

Word Identification Subtests 208

The Assessment of Word-Reading Fluency 212

Types of Fluency Tasks 214

Summary 219

Nine Assessing Reading Comprehension and Related Skills 222

Reading Comprehension Assessment 223

Tests of Reading Comprehension 231

Tests of Listening Comprehension 233

Assessment of Skills That Contribute to Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension 235

Summary 244

Ten Effective Approaches for Preventing Reading Difficulties 247

Prevention: Removing the Hurdles Before the Race Begins 247

Experimental Support for Phonological Awareness Instruction 253

Experimental Support for Explicit and Systematic Letter-Sound Instruction 265

Practical Considerations Regarding Teaching Letter-Sound Skills and Phonics 269

The Centrality of Phonology in Word Reading 275

Phonological Awareness Training Programs 276

Preventing Literacy-Related Language Difficulties 280

Summary 283

Eleven Effective Approaches for Overcoming or Minimizing Reading Difficulties 286

Intervention with Word-Level Reading Difficulties 289

Popular Reading Interventions With Modest or Minimal Results 293

Reading Intervention Research With Minimal to Modest Results 301

The Phonological Awareness Intervention Continuum 302

Reading Intervention Studies with Highly Successful Results 304

Specific Programs Used in Highly Successful Outcome Studies 318

Addressing Comprehension Difficulties 322

Making It Work: Practical Intervention Issues 326

Summary 329

Twelve Case Illustrations 332

Mild Dyslexic Pattern 333

Severe Dyslexic Pattern 334

ELL Student 336

Compensator Pattern 337

Mixed Type 340

Hyperlexic Type 342

Summary 343

Thirteen Reading Difficulties and Learning Disability Identification 344

Far Fewer Students with SLD? 345

Characteristics That Suggest an Educational Disability—Part 1: SLD in Word-Level Reading 346

Characteristics That Suggest an Educational Disability—Part 2: Reading Comprehension 348

General Guidelines for Identifying a Reading Disability 349

Summary 357

Afterword 359

Glossary 361

Further Reading 367

References 369

About the Author 399

About the Online Resources 400

Index 401

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