Comparing Students With and Without Reading Difficulties on Reading Comprehension Assessments: A Meta-Analysis

Reading difficulties are a common feature of aphasia, including difficulties with decoding and comprehension and reduced reading efficiency (Knollman-Porter, Wallace, Hux, Brown, & Long, 2015). Reading comprehension is an everyday activity, with reading difficulties impacting participation in a wide range of social, leisure and work activities (Knollman-Porter et al., 2015; Parr, 1995). However, reading preferences and practices differ between individuals (Parr, 1995) and thus the impact of reading difficulties may also differ significantly. When assessing reading comprehension, it is important to consider both the linguistic difficulties and their impact for the individual person with aphasia. This study considers the relationship between performance on linguistic assessment and the person’s perception of their reading. Method The Comprehensive Assessment of Reading in Aphasia was developed, with assessment of written comprehension of single words, sentences and paragraphs. Overall proportion correct was calculated for each linguistic level. Participants also completed an aphasia friendly and therapist supported questionnaire consisting of four sections: current reading ability and difficulties, feelings about reading, reading activity and strategies to support reading. The first three sections consisted of rating scales allowing a total score to be calculated; higher scores were indicative of less difficulty and more positive feelings about reading. Data will be presented summarizing performance of 74 people with aphasia who completed all of the tasks. People were recruited with a diagnosis of aphasia, with no specification about reading difficulty to ensure a diverse sample.

This Campbell systematic review examines the effect of interventions on school attendance to inform policy, practice and research. The review summarise findings from 28 studies conducted in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Overall, truancy intervention programs are effective. There is a significant overall positive and moderate mean effect of intervention on attendance, which increases attendance by 4.7 days per student by the end of the intervention. Studies did not measure longer‐term outcomes, so we do not know if these gains in attendance continue after the intervention ends. There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of different delivery channels (e.g. school, court or community‐based), different modalities (e.g., individual, family, group, or multimodal), or different lengths of time (e.g., one day versus a school year). Contrary to popular belief and recommendations for best practices in truancy reduction found in the existing literature, collaborative programs and multimodal interventions do not produce greater effects on attendance than other types of programs. However, small sample sizes and substantial variation between studies suggest caution is needed in interpreting and applying these findings. There are shortcomings in the literature, notably the lack of inclusion of minority students. Executive summary/Abstract BACKGROUND Truancy is a significant problem in the U.S. and in other countries around the world. Truancy has been linked to serious immediate and far‐reaching consequences for youth, families, and schools and communities, leading researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to try to understand and to address the problem. Although numerous and significant steps have been taken at the local, state, and national levels to reduce truancy, the rates of truancy have at best remained stable or at worst been on the rise, depending on the indicator utilized to assess truancy rates. The costs and impact of chronic truancy are significant, with both short‐ and long‐term implications for the truant youth as well as for the family, school, and community. Although several narrative reviews and one meta‐analysis of attendance and truancy interventions have attempted to summarize the extant research, there are a number of limitations to these reviews. It is imperative that we systematically synthesize and examine the evidence base to provide a comprehensive picture of interventions that are being utilized to intervene with chronic truants, to identify interventions that are effective and ineffective, and to identify gaps and areas in which more research needs to be conducted to better inform practice and policy. OBJECTIVES The main objective of this systematic review was to examine the effects of interventions on school attendance to inform policy, practice, and research. The questions guiding this study were: Do truancy programs with a goal of increasing student attendance for truant youth affect school attendance behaviors of elementary and secondary students with chronic attendance problems? Are there differences in the effects of school‐based, clinic/community‐based, and court‐based programs? Are some modalities (i.e., family, group, multimodal) more effective than others in increasing student attendance? SEARCH STRATEGY A systematic and comprehensive search process was employed to locate all possible studies between 1990 and 2009, with every effort made to include both published and unpublished studies to minimize publication bias. A wide range of electronic bibliographic databases and research registers was searched, websites of relevant research centers and groups were mined for possible reports, over 200 e‐mails and letters were sent to programs listed in large databases of truancy programs compiled by the National Center for School Engagement and the National Dropout Prevention Center, and contact with researchers in the field of truancy and absenteeism was attempted. In addition, we examined reference lists of all previous reviews as well as citations in research reports for potential studies. SELECTION CRITERIA Studies eligible for this review were required to meet several eligibility criteria. Studies must have utilized a randomized, quasi‐experimental, or single‐group pre‐posttest design with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of interventions with a stated primary goal of increasing student attendance (or decreasing absenteeism) among chronic truant students. Studies must have measured an attendance outcome and reported sufficient data to calculate an effect size. Finally, studies must have been published between 1990 and 2009 in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, or Canada. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS A total of 28 studies, reported in 26 reports, met final eligibility criteria and were included in this review and meta‐analysis. Of the studies that were included, 5 utilized a randomized design (RCT), 11 utilized a quasi‐experimental design (QED), and 12 utilized a single group pre‐posttest design (SGPP). All eligible studies were coded using a structured coding instrument, with 20% of studies coded by a second coder. Descriptive analysis was conducted to examine and describe data related to the characteristics of the included studies. Analysis of the mean effect size, the heterogeneity of effect sizes, and the relationship between effect size and methodological and substantive characteristics of the interventions was also conducted separately for the RCT/QED studies and the SGPP studies. The effect sizes were calculated using the standardized mean difference effect size statistic, correcting for small sample size using Hedges' g (Hedges, 1992). Assuming a mixed effects model, the analog to the ANOVA and bivariate meta‐regression frameworks were used to examine potential moderating variables related to study, participant, and intervention characteristics. RESULTS The meta‐analytic findings demonstrated a significant overall positive and moderate mean effect of interventions on attendance outcomes. The mean effect size for interventions examined in the included RCT studies was .57 and the mean effect size for the QED studies was .43. No significant differences were observed between the RCT and QED studies in the magnitude of the treatment effect (Q b = .28, p >.05). The mean effect size of interventions examined using an SGPP design was .95. A moderate effect on attendance outcomes is encouraging; however, the overall mean effect size is masked by a large amount of heterogeneity, indicating significant variance in effect sizes between studies. Moderator analyses found no significant differences in mean effects between studies on any moderating variable tested. No differences were found between school‐, court‐, or community‐based programs or between different modalities of programs. The duration of the intervention also did not demonstrate any association with effect size. Collaborative programs and multimodal interventions produced statistically similar effects on attendance as non‐collaborative and single‐modality programs, which runs counter to the prevailing beliefs and recommendations for best practices in truancy reduction found in the literature. Other significant findings from this study relate to methodological shortcomings, the absence of important variables as well as gaps in the evidence base. These findings include the lack of inclusion of minority students and a lack of reporting and statistical analysis of demographic variables, particularly race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). Given that race and SES have been linked to absenteeism, the absence of this data was surprising. The majority of studies also lacked adequate descriptions of the interventions, making replication of the intervention difficult, and failed to measure and report long‐term outcomes. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS Overall, the findings from this study suggest that chronic truant students benefit from interventions targeting attendance behaviors; thus it is important and worthwhile to intervene with chronic truant youth. Given the minimal differences in effects across program types and modalities, no one program type or modality stands out as being more effective than any other. Although no statistically significant differences in effects were found between types and modalities of interventions included in this review, there was a lack of available evidence to support the general belief (and popular “best‐practice” recommendations) that collaborative and multimodal interventions are more effective than programs that are not collaborative and single modal interventions. Due to the small sample size and large heterogeneity between studies and within groups of studies, caution must be used when interpreting and applying the findings from this meta‐analysis. Overall, the studies included in the review improved attendance by an average of 4.69 days, almost a full school week. However, although the interventions included in this study were, overall, found to be effective, the mean rates of absenteeism at postte

The majority of students identified with learning disabilities (LDs) are primarily impaired in reading (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). Many students who have other high-incidence disabilities (e.g., behavioral disorders) also have serious reading difficulties (Benner, Nelson, Ralston, & Mooney, 2010). Although some students with disabilities are impaired in reading comprehension even though they can read words fairly accurately, the most commonly occurring reading disability is characterized by inaccurate word reading (Torgesen, 2000; 2005). In this paper we will describe evidence-based word identification instruction for students with reading disabilities and for those with serious word reading difficulties who have not been identified as having reading disabilities, as students in these two groups have been found to respond similarly to kind of instruction we will describe (Benner et al, 2010; Fletcher et al., 2007). We will refer to this group of students collectively as students with serious word reading difficulties (RD). The need to teach students with RD to read is urgent, as the consequences of low reading proficiency are serious. Students who do not learn to read adequately are more likely to have pervasive academic difficulties and are at high risk for school dropout (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2002). Poor reading has also been related to a higher incidence of delinquency (Center on Crime, Communities, and Culture, 1997) and suicide (Daniel et al., 2006). Adding to the urgency of this situation is the fact that, with typical instruction, the vast majority of students who do not learn to read adequately in the early elementary grades remain impaired in reading as long as they are in school (Francis, Shaywitz, Stuebing, Shaywitz, & Fletcher, 1996; Juel, 1988; Torgesen & Burgess, 1998). In addition, early difficulties with basic reading skills typically result in limited time engaged in text reading (Juel, 1988; Stanovich, 1986); because of this lack of exposure to text, a decoding problem may eventually become a generalized reading deficit characterized by low fluency, poor vocabulary, and limited world knowledge, all contributing to impaired reading comprehension (Stanovich). Unfortunately, traditional approaches to special education services often fail to close the gap between students with RD and average readers; at best, special education programs tend to stabilize the reading development of students with disabilities so that they do not fall farther behind. For example, in a study of special education reading instruction for students in Grades 3–6, Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin (1998) found that students’ standard scores in reading rose by an average of only 0.04 standard deviations per year. If a student performing at the 5th percentile progressed at this rate, he or she would perform at only the 9th percentile 8 years later (Torgesen, Rashotte, Alexander, Alexander, & MacPhee, 2003). The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of evidence-based instructional practices for teaching word reading to students with RD. We define evidence-based practices in word reading instruction as instructional processes and routines that have been shown to be effective in teaching most students with RD to read words. Although no instructional approach is effective for every individual student, the practices we describe are supported by converging research findings from multiple studies. To provide a foundation for this discussion of word reading instruction, we begin with a description of the reading process. Then we describe the role of assessment in teaching word reading. Next, we describe evidence-based reading instruction and intervention for students with RD, including a set of general principles for effective instruction. The next section addresses additional considerations for the implementation of effective word reading instruction.

The International Reading Speed Texts (IReST) is a valid measure of reading speed in a Canadian sample. However, if clinicians desire to assess reading comprehension using the IReST, this will significantly reduce reading speeds of individuals with normal vision or reduced visual acuity and therefore should use the values presented here. The purposes of this study are (1) to validate the IReST in an English-speaking Canadian sample and (2) to examine how reading comprehension questions and reduced visual acuity affect reading speed on the IReST. For study 1, Canadian English speakers (n = 25) read all 10 IReST following the procedures used in the original IReST validation. For study 2, Canadian English speakers (n = 50) read all 10 IReST, half with normal/corrected-to-normal vision and half with reduced visual acuity, and were asked reading comprehension questions. No significant differences were found between Canadian sample and the published IReST values (in all cases, P > .05; mean difference [Mdiff] = -5.30 to +11.43; Cohen d = -0.15 to +0.27; Bayes factors = 0.41, 0.09). Assessing reading comprehension with multiple-choice questions on the IReST significantly reduced reading speeds in the normal vision condition (Mdiff = 25.3; 95% confidence interval, -16.7 to -34.1) and in the simulated impairment condition (Mdiff = 59.3; 95% confidence interval, -47.7 to -71). The IReST is a valid measure that can be used to assess reading speed in a Canadian English-speaking sample. If researchers/clinicians wish to assess both reading speed and comprehension, using multiple-choice reading comprehension questions, then the values provided by the IReST will likely underestimate an individual's true reading speed in individuals with normal/corrected-to-normal vision or reduced visual acuity.

Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of diabetic retinopathy screening (DRS) in reducing the risk of sight loss, attendance for screening is consistently below recommended levels. The primary objective of the review was to assess the effectiveness of quality improvement (QI) interventions that seek to increase attendance for DRS in people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.Secondary objectives were:To use validated taxonomies of QI intervention strategies and behaviour change techniques (BCTs) to code the description of interventions in the included studies and determine whether interventions that include particular QI strategies or component BCTs are more effective in increasing screening attendance;To explore heterogeneity in effect size within and between studies to identify potential explanatory factors for variability in effect size;To explore differential effects in subgroups to provide information on how equity of screening attendance could be improved;To critically appraise and summarise current evidence on the resource use, costs and cost effectiveness. We searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, ProQuest Family Health, OpenGrey, the ISRCTN, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the WHO ICTRP to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that were designed to improve attendance for DRS or were evaluating general quality improvement (QI) strategies for diabetes care and reported the effect of the intervention on DRS attendance. We searched the resources on 13 February 2017. We did not use any date or language restrictions in the searches. We included RCTs that compared any QI intervention to usual care or a more intensive (stepped) intervention versus a less intensive intervention. We coded the QI strategy using a modification of the taxonomy developed by Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) and BCTs using the BCT Taxonomy version 1 (BCTTv1). We used Place of residence, Race/ethnicity/culture/language, Occupation, Gender/sex, Religion, Education, Socioeconomic status, and Social capital (PROGRESS) elements to describe the characteristics of participants in the included studies that could have an impact on equity of access to health services.Two review authors independently extracted data. One review author entered the data into Review Manager 5 and a second review author checked them. Two review authors independently assessed risks of bias in the included studies and extracted data. We rated certainty of evidence using GRADE. We included 66 RCTs conducted predominantly (62%) in the USA. Overall we judged the trials to be at low or unclear risk of bias. QI strategies were multifaceted and targeted patients, healthcare professionals or healthcare systems. Fifty-six studies (329,164 participants) compared intervention versus usual care (median duration of follow-up 12 months). Overall, DRS attendance increased by 12% (risk difference (RD) 0.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.10 to 0.14; low-certainty evidence) compared with usual care, with substantial heterogeneity in effect size. Both DRS-targeted (RD 0.17, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.22) and general QI interventions (RD 0.12, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.15) were effective, particularly where baseline DRS attendance was low. All BCT combinations were associated with significant improvements, particularly in those with poor attendance. We found higher effect estimates in subgroup analyses for the BCTs 'goal setting (outcome)' (RD 0.26, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.36) and 'feedback on outcomes of behaviour' (RD 0.22, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.29) in interventions targeting patients, and 'restructuring the social environment' (RD 0.19, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.26) and 'credible source' (RD 0.16, 95% CI 0.08 to 0.24) in interventions targeting healthcare professionals.Ten studies (23,715 participants) compared a more intensive (stepped) intervention versus a less intensive intervention. In these studies DRS attendance increased by 5% (RD 0.05, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.09; moderate-certainty evidence).Fourteen studies reporting any QI intervention compared to usual care included economic outcomes. However, only five of these were full economic evaluations. Overall, we found that there is insufficient evidence to draw robust conclusions about the relative cost effectiveness of the interventions compared to each other or against usual care.With the exception of gender and ethnicity, the characteristics of participants were poorly described in terms of PROGRESS elements. Seventeen studies (25.8%) were conducted in disadvantaged populations. No studies were carried out in low- or middle-income countries. The results of this review provide evidence that QI interventions targeting patients, healthcare professionals or the healthcare system are associated with meaningful improvements in DRS attendance compared to usual care. There was no statistically significant difference between interventions specifically aimed at DRS and those which were part of a general QI strategy for improving diabetes care. This is a significant finding, due to the additional benefits of general QI interventions in terms of improving glycaemic control, vascular risk management and screening for other microvascular complications. It is likely that further (but smaller) improvements in DRS attendance can also be achieved by increasing the intensity of a particular QI component or adding further components.

Vegas et al. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 42(2):120:135 (2016) raised concerns about the use of AB/BA crossover designs in empirical software engineering studies. This paper addresses issues related to calculating standardized effect sizes and their variances that were not addressed by the Vegas et al.’s paper. In a repeated measures design such as an AB/BA crossover design each participant uses each method. There are two major implication of this that have not been discussed in the software engineering literature. Firstly, there are potentially two different standardized mean difference effect sizes that can be calculated, depending on whether the mean difference is standardized by the pooled within groups variance or the within-participants variance. Secondly, as for any estimated parameters and also for the purposes of undertaking meta-analysis, it is necessary to calculate the variance of the standardized mean difference effect sizes (which is not the same as the variance of the study). We present the model underlying the AB/BA crossover design and provide two examples to demonstrate how to construct the two standardized mean difference effect sizes and their variances, both from standard descriptive statistics and from the outputs of statistical software. Finally, we discuss the implication of these issues for reporting and planning software engineering experiments. In particular we consider how researchers should choose between a crossover design or a between groups design.

In high-dimensional sparse regression, would increasing the signal-to-noise ratio while fixing the sparsity level always lead to better model selection? For high-dimensional sparse regression problems, surprisingly, in this paper we answer this question in the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">negative</i> in the regime of linear sparsity for the Lasso method, relying on a new concept we term <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">effect size heterogeneity</i> . Roughly speaking, a regression coefficient vector has high effect size heterogeneity if its nonzero entries have significantly different magnitudes. From the viewpoint of this new measure, we prove that the false and true positive rates achieve the optimal trade-off <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">uniformly</i> along the Lasso path when this measure is maximal in a certain sense, and the worst trade-off is achieved when it is minimal in the sense that all nonzero effect sizes are roughly equal. Moreover, we demonstrate that the first false selection occurs much earlier when effect size heterogeneity is minimal than when it is maximal. The underlying cause of these two phenomena is, metaphorically speaking, the “competition” among variables with effect sizes of the same magnitude in entering the model. Taken together, our findings suggest that effect size heterogeneity shall serve as an important complementary measure to the sparsity of regression coefficients in the analysis of high-dimensional regression problems. Our proofs use techniques from approximate message passing theory as well as a novel technique for estimating the rank of the first false variable.

Research examining effective reading interventions for students with reading difficulties in the upper elementary grades is limited relative to the information available for the early elementary grades. In the current study, we examined the effects of a multicomponent reading intervention for students with reading comprehension difficulties. We used a partially nested analysis with latent variables to adequately match the design of the study and provide the necessary precision of intervention effects. We examined the effects of the intervention on students’ latent word reading, latent vocabulary, and latent reading comprehension. In addition, we examined whether these effects differed for students of varying levels of reading or English language proficiency. Findings indicated the treatment significantly outperformed the comparison on reading comprehension (Effect Size = 0.38), but no overall group differences were noted on word reading or vocabulary. Students’ initial word reading scores moderated this effect. Reading comprehension effects were similar for English learner and non-English learner students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)

Visual Analogue Scale has higher assay sensitivity than WOMAC pain in detecting between-group differences in treatment effects: a meta-epidemiological study

Engineering undergraduates face difficulties in comprehending discipline-specific study materials because the reading skill has been neglected at the school-level, and the students themselves have not been motivated adequately to read. This paper hypothesizes that instruction-sessions on reading strategies enable tertiary-level learners to understand their engineering texts better. In this study, the teacher-researchers distributed a questionnaire to find out the students’ difficulties in academic reading, their attitude to the reading strategies taught, and the usefulness of the instruction-sessions. They also interviewed the students, and systematized the data collected. The analysis showed a mixed reaction from the students. Some of them reported that learning the strategies fostered a positive change in advancing their reading skills, while others testified that strategies had only a negligible role in doing so. Therefore, this study suggests a 5 D approach to strategic reading – Decipher, Digest, Deduce, Detail and Discuss – to overcome the difficulties in reading.

School administrators’ leadership characteristics are crucial in creating a learning school. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the relationship between transformational leadership characteristics and the learning school using meta-analysis. For this purpose, individual studies suitable for inclusion criteria were determined. In this context, we examined the studies between the years 2000 and 2020 on the relationship between school administrators’ transformational leadership characteristics and learning schools. Studies including correlation coefficient, t value, and sample size were covered to calculate the effect size required for meta-analysis. A total of 20 effect sizes were included in the 19 studies. In the study, analyses of forest plots, publication bias, heterogeneity, and subgroup tests were performed. The random-effects model conducted in the study determined that the overall effect size was positive and strong. The subgroup analysis showed that the country variable was the source of heterogeneity in effect sizes, while the publication type was not. The study revealed that leadership characteristics are significant predictors of learning school and one of the most critical leadership styles to create a learning school is transformational leadership. Policymakers and practitioners have essential duties in transforming schools into learning schools. Therefore, school administrators who want to turn their schools into learning organizations should always be supported by those who produce education policies.

The “hot hand” reconsidered: A meta-analytic approach

The research focuses on tenth grade students at Unidad Educativa del Milenio Simón Bolívar en Pimocha, Babahoyo, Ecuador, to improve their reading comprehension skills through the use of cooperative learning strategies. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data in focus groups through surveys, standardized tests, interviews, observation checklists, and discussions. The sample consisted of twelve students who were evenly distributed between two classes. The results of the research showed that students who participated in cooperative learning activities significantly improved their reading comprehension skills; students achieved an average increase of 24.1% in their reading comprehension test scores. These results were supported by interviews and discussions in focus groups, which emphasized the importance of peer interaction and continuous feedback. Cooperative learning strategies, such as scaffolding instruction and collaboration activities, have been proven effective in improving reading comprehension skills. These findings highlight the importance of applying innovative teaching techniques in secondary education.

This study examined developmental profiles of reading fluency and reading comprehension in Grades 1 to 9 (ages 7 to 15) in a large Finnish sample (N = 2,518). In addition, early predictors of the profiles were analyzed with respect to kindergarten cognitive skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid automized naming [RAN], number counting, word reading, vocabulary, and listening comprehension), parental factors (level of education, reading difficulties), and gender. Four different profiles of reading fluency and reading comprehension development were identified using latent profile analysis. These comprised one profile with persistent reading difficulties across the grades, one with early poor reading skills but with a resolving tendency, one with average reading skills, and one with good readers who started with very high reading fluency but scored average over time. Of the kindergarten measures, parental reading difficulties, being male, low paternal level of education, slow RAN, difficulty in reading easy words, and low scores in phonological skills, letter knowledge, number counting, and vocabulary predicted reading difficulties. The children belonging to the profile with the resolving tendency showed an increased rate of family risk and multiple cognitive deficits but managed to resolve their reading difficulties. Being female, and good number counting and vocabulary skills predicted a tendency to resolve early reading difficulties. The results confirm the previous findings on the early predictors of reading difficulties and add to the literature by identifying skills that predict resolving patterns. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

This study investigated the effects of using coloured filters on reading speed, accuracy, and comprehension as well as on perception of academic ability. A double-masked, placebo-controlled crossover design was used, with subjects being assessed over a period of 20 mo. There were three treatment groups (Placebo filters, Blue filters, and Optimal filters) involving 113 subjects with "reading difficulties", ranging in age from 9.2 yr. to 13.1 yr. and with an average discrepancy between chronological age and reading age of 1.8 yr. The 35 controls (who did not use coloured filters) ranged in age from 9.4 yr. to 12.9 yr., with an average discrepancy between chronological age and reading age of 2.1 yr. The treatment groups increased at a significantly greater rate than the control group in reading accuracy and reading comprehension but not for speed of reading. For self-reported perception of academic ability, two of the three treatment groups showed significantly greater increases than the control group. The larger improvements for treatment groups in reading comprehension may be related to a reduction in print and background distortions allowing attention to be directed to the processing of continuous text rather than to the identification of individual words. A reduction in print distortion, however, may not be sufficient to generate improved word-identification skills without additional remedial support, and this may be indicated by the nonsignificant increase in rate of reading.