Understanding and Addressing Atypical Readers

Mispronunciation Correction

  • Occurs when a student's pronunciation matches a similar word they know, leading to the correct word.
  • Example: A child decoding "young" might say "yuh-ong" but recognize it as "young" if the word is in their oral vocabulary.

Importance of Oral Vocabulary

  • Critical for children to have a strong oral vocabulary.
  • If a word isn't in their spoken vocabulary, they may learn the wrong pronunciation (e.g., pronouncing "young" as "yung").
  • Readers need correction or the ability to look up pronunciations.

Growing Knowledge of GPCs (Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences)

  • Readers need to use word recognition and language comprehension skills to understand complex texts.
  • Word recognition skills build through explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics.
  • Multiple decoding experiences are essential; decodable texts provide these opportunities.

Linguistic Comprehension Skills

  • Built through:
    • Explicit vocabulary instruction
    • Implicit learning via shared book reading, independent reading, and other language experiences.

Simple View of Reading

  • Word recognition skills (poor or good) on the x-axis.
  • Listening comprehension skills (poor or good) on the y-axis.
  • Goal: Students should be skilled readers in the top right quadrant (good word recognition and comprehension).

Reader Categorization

  • Typical Readers: Good word recognition and comprehension.
  • Readers with Poor Word Recognition, Good Comprehension: Located in the top left quadrant.
  • Readers with Poor Word Recognition and Comprehension: Located in the bottom left quadrant.
  • Readers with Good Word Recognition, Poor Comprehension: Located in the bottom right quadrant.

Atypical Readers

Precocious Readers

  • Learn to read before school without formal instruction, often with skilled adult guidance.
  • Represent about 1% of the population.
  • Influenced by factors like school entry age and GPC regularity in the orthography.
    • Example: Turkish (L1) speaker learning English (L2); Turkish has straightforward GPCs.

Hyperlexic Readers

  • Strong word reading skills and interest in reading without formal instruction.
  • Struggle with understanding/comprehension.

Poor Comprehenders

  • Reading comprehension is poor.
  • Word reading abilities are closer to average, not as advanced as hyperlexic readers.
  • Up to 10% of 7-10 year olds struggle with reading comprehension.

Dyslexic Readers

  • Vary in severity of word reading and spelling difficulties.
  • Defined as having average language comprehension but poor word recognition skills.
  • Struggle with decoding and spelling despite adequate reading instruction, impacting reading comprehension.
  • Some may have both poor language comprehension and poor word recognition skills.
  • Affects 2-20% of school-age children.

Case Studies: Typical and Atypical Readers

Helen (Case Study 1)

  • Struggling reader, likely dyslexic.
  • Can comprehend oral language and is social.
  • Weaknesses include:
    • Recalling and blending sounds to form words.
    • Reading fluency.
    • Poor phonological awareness and spelling.
    • Persistent struggle with reading fluency into year one indicates dyslexia.

Jack (Case Study 2)

*Hyperlexic Reader.

  • Can decode and recognize words, average spelling skills.
  • Struggles with reading comprehension and vocabulary.
  • Advanced reading skills before starting school.
  • Family history of ACD
  • Poor comprehension despite high fluency indicates hyperlexia.

Anisha (Case Study 3)

  • Typical Reader (possibly EAL/D Student).
  • Average performance in decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension.
  • Steadily adds more words to sight word vocabulary.
  • May be shy due to speaking two languages.
  • No demonstrated effect of language background on word reading or comprehension skills.
  • To feel comfortable, need space and different activities.

Winston (Case Study 4)

  • Likely a poor comprehender.
  • Struggling in multiple subjects.
  • Poor home literacy environment; limited reading at home.
  • Persistently below average in reading comprehension and vocabulary.

Remy (Case Study 5)

  • Precocious Reader.
  • Good reading comprehension and word recognition.
  • Advanced learner, reading above grade level.
  • Rich home literacy environment; enjoys being read to.
  • Accurate and comprehends beyond age-level expectations.

Next Steps

  • Identifying the type of reader is not enough.
  • Teachers need to take actionable steps to support these readers based on needs.