Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties

Provides step–by–step guidelines for organizing an assessment, selecting appropriate instruments, and interpreting results Expert advice on formulating interventions and educational programming Conveniently formatted for rapid reference

Effective, evidence–based reading interventions that change students′ lives

Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties offers school psychologists, reading specialists, and educators a practical and accessible guide to the most relevant research, information, and strategies available for understanding, assessing, and intervening with students who present with reading difficulties.

This essential resource draws on the author′s Intervention Oriented Assessment, which determines why a student struggles with reading. The author′s assessment technique aligns with other well–established assessments and current knowledge about the component skills needed for success in reading. The book also explores how to incorporate the most recent research on word recognition into practice in order to guide curricular decisions, evaluation practices, and intervention approaches. Designed for easy reading as well as quick reference, the text includes case studies that illustrate key concepts, callout boxes, and other design elements to call attention to important information.

Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties offers

Strategies for accurately assessing the reason(s) why a student struggles with reading Techniques for improving reading skills that are highly effective and evidence–based Guidelines for interpreting and using the reading components in assessment batteries Online supplemental tools and resources

Students need help now, and Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties shows how to get these students on track.

Series Preface

Preface

Acknowledgements

One Introduction

The Unfair Race

The Importance of Reading

The Gap Between Reading Research and Classroom Practice

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

Why is There a Gap Between Research and Classroom Practice?

The Powerful Research Results We Have Been Missing

Summary

Two How We Teach Reading and Why it Does Not Work with Struggling Readers

A Very Brief History of Reading Instruction

Why our Current Approaches to Reading Instruction are Ineffective with Struggling Readers

The Visual Memory Hypothesis of Word Reading

The Three Cueing Systems Model of Reading

The Phonics Approach to Reading

Summary

Three A Practical Framework for Understanding and Assessing Reading Skills

The Simple View of Reading

The Most Basic Form of the Simple View of Reading

The First Diagnostic Question

The Components of Reading

The Components of Word–Level Reading

The Two Components of Word–Level Reading in the Simple View

The Basis of Word–Specific Knowledge

Summary

Four Understanding Word Recognition Difficulties

The Importance of the Present Chapter

Introducing Orthographic Mapping

How Skilled Word–Reading Develops

Understanding the Pieces of the Word Reading Puzzle

The Early Stages of the Reading Process

Level 1: Learning Letter Sounds

Level 2: Phonic Decoding

Level 3: Sight Word Learning via Orthographic Mapping

Learning to Read Irregular Words

The Research on Orthographic Mapping

How the Phonological–Core Deficit Hinders Reading Development

Word Reading Fluency and Orthographic Mapping

Students Whose Native Language is Not English

Answers to the Questions Posed about Reading Difficulties

Summary

Five Understanding Reading Comprehension Difficulties

Specific Reading Comprehension Impairment

What is Required for Skilled Reading Comprehension?

Reader Abilities

Text FactorsStudents Whose First Language is Not English

Summary

Six Assessing Phonological Processing Skills

An Introduction to Intervention Oriented Assessment of Reading

(Re)interpreting Norms in Intervention Oriented Assessment

The Assessment of Phonological Skills

Phonological Awareness Tasks and Tests

Assessing Phonological Awareness

Assessing Phonological Blending

The Rationale for Assessing RAN and WM

Assessing Rapid Automatized Naming

Assessing Working Memory

Summary

Seven Assessing Phonics Skills

Orthographic Knowledge

Assessing Phonic Skills

Summary

Eight Assessing Word Identification and Reading Fluency

The Assessment of Word Reading Skills

Untangling the Confound Between Word Recognition and Word Identification

The Assessment of Word Reading Fluency

Types of Fluency Tasks

Summary

Nine Assessing Reading Comprehension and Related Skills

Assessment of Reading Comprehension and Related Skills

Tests of Reading Comprehension

Tests of Listening Comprehension

Assessment of Skills that Contribute to Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension

Summary

Ten Effective Approaches for Preventing Reading Difficulties

Prevention: Removing the Hurdles Before the Race Begins

The Simple View of Reading and the Prevention of Reading Difficulties

Experimental Support for Phonological Awareness Instruction

Experimental Support for Explicit and Systematic Letter–Sound/Phonic Instruction

Practical Considerations Regarding Teaching Letter–Sound Skills and Phonics

The Centrality of Phonology in Word–Reading

Phonological Awareness Training Programs

Preventing Literacy–Related Language Difficulties

Summary

Eleven Effective Approaches for Overcoming or Minimizing Reading Difficulties

Intervention with Word–Level Reading Difficulties

Popular Reading Interventions With Moderate or Minimal Results

Reading Intervention Research with Modest or Minimal Results

Reading Intervention Studies with Highly Successful Results

Specific Programs Used in Highly Successful Outcome Studies

Addressing Comprehension Difficulties

Making It Work: Practical Intervention Issues

Summary

Twelve Case Illustrations

Mild Dyslexic Pattern

Severe Dyslexic Pattern

ELL Student

Compensator Pattern

Mixed Type

Hyperlexic Type

Summary

Thirteen Reading Difficulties and SLD Identification

Far Fewer Students with SLD?

Characteristics that Suggest an Educational Disability Part 1: SLD in Word–Level Reading

Characteristics that Suggest an Educational Disability Part 2: Reading Comprehension

Rough Cut Guidelines for Identifying a Reading Disability

Summary

Afterword

Glossary

Further Reading

About the Author

References

About the Online Resources

Index

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.