Validation of the direct and inferential mediation (DIME) model of reading comprehension in grades 7 through 12

A systematic review of factors that impact reading comprehension in children with developmental language disorders

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a high rate of co-occurring reading difficulties. The current study aims to (i) examine which factors within the Active View of Reading (AVR; Duke & Cartwright, 2021) apply to individuals with DLD and (ii) investigate other possible factors that relate to reading comprehension ability in individuals with DLD, outside the components in the AVR. Electronic database search and journal hand-search yielded 5058 studies published before March 2022 related to reading comprehension in children with DLD. 4802 articles were excluded during abstract screening, yielding 256 studies eligible for full-text review. Following full-text review, 44 studies were included and further coded for demographics, language of assessment, description of reported disabilities, behavioral assessment, and reading comprehension assessment. While the results aligned with the AVR model, three additional factors were identified as significantly relating to reading comprehension abilities in children with DLD: expressive language (oral and written), question types of reading assessment, and language disorder history. Specifically, expressive language was positively associated with reading comprehension ability, while resolved DLD showed higher reading comprehension abilities than persistent DLD. Furthermore, children with DLD may face additional difficulties in comprehending inference-based questions. This study provides factors for researchers, educators, and clinical professionals to consider when evaluating the reading comprehension of individuals with DLD. Future research should further explore the relative importance of factors of the AVR to reading comprehension outcomes throughout development.

Reading processes of public and private middle school and high school students

INTRODUCTION

Reading has been widely discussed, mainly due to the published results of international performance tests of schoolchildren. The gaps generated in literacy hinder the development of basic skills necessary for reading, which will have a negative impact on the teaching-learning process from elementary school to high school. This study aimed to compare the reading performance of the students in public and private schools through tests of the Brazilian reading processes-PROLEC-SE-R.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study. The Brazilian adaptation of the PROLEC-SE-R was administered to 436 students: 221 from the state school (G1 6th year, n = 30; G2 7th year, n = 33; G3 8th year, n = 35; G4 9th year, n = 31; G5 1st year, n = 32; G6 2nd year, n = 30; G7 3rd year, n = 30) e 215 private schools (G8 6th year, n = 31; G9 7th year, n = 31; G10 8th year, n = 30; G11 9th year, n = 31; G12 1st year, n = 30; G13 2nd year, n = 31; G14 3rd year, n = 31). Tools of descriptive and bivariate analysis were used.

RESULTS

Superior performance of the private school students on spelling tests helps their reading as evidenced by their scores for syntactic and semantic processes. When the knowledge of the use of the word in text, extraction of meaning and its understanding was needed, the difficulty of access to the mental lexicon of the studied population became evident.

CONCLUSION

The PROLEC-SE-R, in addition to establishing the reading profile of elementary and high school students, shows that the gaps in teaching and learning, which exist between public and private education in the literacy period, accompany students throughout the basic education cycle. Knowing the reading profile and in which process there is a disruption is important so that the teaching of specific strategies can be promoted throughout the entire schooling process, especially in primary and secondary education.

Exploring reading profiles of rural school students

This study investigates the reading profiles of rural Grade 5 and 6 students (N = 262), a sample with a high proportion of English language learners. We administered a battery of reading and cognitive assessments to classify students' reading profiles and evaluate if performance on cognitive measures predicted membership in particular profiles. Data were analyzed using latent profile analysis. Latent profile analysis showed four distinct reading profiles in our sample: students with severe reading disabilities (< 2%), students at high risk of reading disability (14%), students at some-risk of reading disability (46%), and students who are typical readers (38%). Lower performance on cognitive measures was associated with group membership in the severe reading profile group compared to the group of students at some-risk of reading failure. In contrast, higher performance on cognitive measures was associated with group membership in the typical reader group compared to students at some-risk of reading failure. In keeping with the findings from past studies documenting reader profiles, we found heterogeneity in the reading profiles of rural upper-elementary grade students. We discuss the need for multicomponent interventions that target all areas of reading with some flexibility in the dosage of each reading component dependent on the reader profiles established prior to intervention.

Reading-to-Writing Mediation model of higher-order literacy

Introduction

Writing difficulties frequently manifest comorbidly with reading challenges, and reading is implicated in particular acts of writing, such as reviewing and editing. Despite what is known, however, there remain significant barriers to understanding the nature of reading-writing relations, as few studies are comprehensive in the number and types of literacy skills evaluated. This study consists of a secondary data analysis of two studies employing structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate relations among reading and writing components skills independently, using the Direct and Inferential Mediation Model (DIME) of reading comprehension and Not-so-Simple View of Writing (NSVW) as theoretical frameworks.

Methods

We examine relations between reading and writing components from these models with a sample of upper elementary students with/at-risk for learning disabilities (n = 405). Lower-order components included word reading, vocabulary, handwriting and spelling. Higher-order components included background knowledge, reading strategies, inferencing, planning, editing, and revision. The literacy outcomes were oral and silent reading fluency, reading comprehension, and writing quality and productivity. We systematically build a Reading-to-Writing Mediation (RWM) model by first merging the DIME and NSVW components in a direct effects model (Aim 1), expanding the joint model to include reading and writing fluency (Aim 2), evaluating indirect effects between DIME and NSVW component skills (Aim 3), and finally, evaluating indirect effects with reading and writing fluency (Aim 4).

Results

The findings suggest that higher order fluency and comprehension skills are differentially related to writing activities and products.

Discussion

The pattern of results helps elucidate the mechanisms of how various reading and writing skills transfer and relate. The results have implications for targeted and implicit instruction in multicomponent interventions and the use of screeners to identify areas of risk.

Text integration processes in children with Childhood Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes

Although Childhood Epilepsy with Centro-Temporal Spikes (CECTS) is considered a 'benign' form of epilepsy, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension difficulties have been reported. We examined two core skills for text comprehension, coherence monitoring and inference generation, in children with CECTS and compared performance with typically developing controls. Children with CECTS (n = 23; 9 females; mean age 9 y 0 m) and the comparison group (n = 38; 14 females; mean age 9 y 1 m) completed two tasks. For coherence monitoring they heard 24 narrative texts, 16 containing two inconsistent sentences, and responded to a yes/no question to assess identification of the inconsistency after each text; for inference making they heard 16 texts designed to elicit a target inference by integrating information in two sentences and responded to a yes/no question to assess generation of the inference. In both tasks there was a near condition, in which critical sentences were adjacent, and a far condition in which these sentences were separated by filler sentences. Accuracy to the question and the processing time for critical sentences in the text were measured. We used listening comprehension tasks to control for variation in word reading ability. Mixed effects analyses for each task revealed that children with CECTS show comparable levels of accuracy to age-matched peers in these tasks tapping two core text integration skills: detection of inconsistencies and generation of inferences. However, they take longer to process texts indicating a likely source of their listening and reading comprehension difficulties.

Knowledge mapping of the research on lexical inferencing: A bibliometric analysis

Lexical inferencing functions as one of the most important and effective skills used in language comprehension pertaining to psychological, cognitive and neurological aspects. Given its complex nature and crucial role in language comprehension, lexical inferencing has received considerable attention. The present study visualized the knowledge domain of the research on lexical inferencing based on a total of 472 articles collected from Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection of Thomson Reuters from 2001 to 2021. The bibliographic data were analyzed through co-cited articles, co-citation clusters of references, and co-occurring keywords to identify holistic intellectual landscape of lexical inferencing with special focus on its intellectual structure and base, and hot research topics. The main intellectual base includes probability of activating lexical inferencing in working memory and encoding in long-term memory, the role of lexical inferencing in reading comprehension, in connected speech, in children's derivation under pragmatic context, and in psychological and neurocognitive processes underlying language processing mechanism. Hot topics are comprised the impacts of lexical inferencing on language acquisition and comprehension (written and spoken language comprehension), the factors (context variables, vocabulary knowledge, and morphological awareness) affecting the presence and efficacy of lexical inferencing, and the time course of lexical inferencing during reading. Critically, the results of this study demonstrated that the contribution of lexical inferencing to language comprehension was strongly correlated with learner-related and discourse-related variables. The study shed valuable light on the understanding of the intellectual background and the dynamic patterns of lexical inferencing over the past two decades, thereby future work in lexical inferencing is suggested as well.

Reading comprehension and strategy use: Comparing bilingual children to their monolingual peers and to bilingual adults

The current study investigated the predictive ability of language knowledge and reported strategy use on reading comprehension performance in English-speaking monolingual and bilingual students. One hundred fifty-five children in grade 4 through 6 (93 bilinguals and 62 monolinguals) were assessed on receptive vocabulary, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and reading strategy use in English. An additional 38 adult bilinguals (i.e., English Language Learners) were assessed on the same measures. Although, the bilingual adult group and bilingual children had significantly lower English vocabulary knowledge relative to the monolingual children, the bilingual adults exhibited reading comprehension performance that was on par with the monolingual children; both groups outperformed the bilingual children. This discrepancy was accounted for by reported strategy use, wherein bilingual adults reported more inferencing, more connecting between sections of text and more reference to the text structure than the children. Reported strategy use also accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension performance above and beyond the contributions of English vocabulary knowledge and word reading fluency. Findings highlight the strategies that successful readers report and emphasize the value of promoting effective strategy selection in addition to language instruction in the development of reading comprehension skill.

What components of working memory are associated with children's reading skills?

Working memory (WM) is a potentially important factor related to the development of and performance in reading skills. This study examined the differential relations between two components of the WM system (i.e., storage, processing) and reading. Latent variables were created based on data from 1900 children (1146 children in preschool-second grade and 754 children in third-fifth grade) recruited for a larger study concerning the development of reading comprehension. Results indicated that a general-specific model of WM was a good fit to the data and effectively isolated the variance unique to WM-processing from that of WM-storage. Using the general-specific model, relations between the components of WM and reading (e.g., reading comprehension, decoding) and reading-related (e.g., oral language, phonological awareness, nonverbal IQ) outcomes were examined. In contrast with previous studies that have suggested WM is consistently associated with reading comprehension, our findings indicate that both aspects of WM (i.e., storage, processing) operate primarily indirectly through foundational reading-related skills. In sum, the WM system is not specifically associated with reading comprehension as most of the effects of WM-processing are indirect via the effects on foundational reading-related skills.

Scaffolding Inference-making for Adolescents with Disabilities that Impact Reading

Middle and secondary grade students with disabilities that impact reading, including learning disabilities in reading (LD-R), high functioning autism (HFA), emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), and students who are at-risk for reading failure due to the effect of poverty often struggle to make knowledge-based inferences while reading informational texts. As a result, this population of students is not able to read for understanding and learn from grade-level texts. Unfortunately, many special educators have had little preparation in how to develop their knowledge of inference-making or methods for explicitly teaching inference-making. Despite their lack of knowledge, special educators are often solely responsible for teaching skills that support reading comprehension, such as knowledge-based inference-making, to students with LD-R, EBD, HFA, and students reading below grade level. This article provides special educators, via self-directed learning, with information and resources to enhance their understanding of knowledge-based inferencing and methods for teaching knowledge-based inference-making to middle and secondary grade students with and at-risk for disabilities that impact reading achievement.

Structure Altering Effects of a Multicomponent Reading Intervention: An Application of the Direct and Inferential Mediation (DIME) Model of Reading Comprehension in Upper Elementary Grades

We evaluate the direct and inferential mediation (DIME) model for reading comprehension with a sample of struggling readers in Grades 3 to 5 (N = 364) in the context of a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigating two theoretically distinct reading interventions (text processing + foundational skills [n = 117] or text processing only [n = 120]) and a control condition (n = 127). We investigate whether the intervention affects not just reading comprehension levels, but also how variables within the reading system interrelate. This approach allows the focus to shift from intervention as influencing a change in reading comprehension status to a complex set of processes. We fit structural equation models (SEMs) to evaluate the DIME model at baseline and a change model that included reading comprehension and word reading at posttest. There were no significant mean differences between groups in reading comprehension. However, significant differences emerged on the direct and indirect effects of background knowledge, vocabulary, word reading, strategies, and inferencing on comprehension across grade levels and treatment conditions. Related to treatment groups, background knowledge, vocabulary, and inferencing were significantly related to comprehension at posttest for students who received text processing and/or foundational skills interventions. The results have implications for the direct instruction of higher-order reading skills in the context of multicomponent interventions.

Shared Reading and Science Vocabulary for Kindergarten Students

Kindergarten students commonly receive a limited amount of exposure to scientific concepts and informational texts. The present study used a multiple probe design across participants to determine the effects of shared reading instruction on three kindergarten students' science-related vocabulary acquisition in a virtual classroom during the Covid-19 pandemic. The interventionist delivered explicit vocabulary instruction by reading aloud a science picture book and intentionally pausing to define, explain, and discuss vocabulary words that were unfamiliar to young students. Researcher-developed vocabulary probes were administered every fifth instructional session and measured specific words taught during instruction. Results of virtual shared reading instruction indicate positive effects (Tau-U = 0.222-0.933) on kindergarten students' science vocabulary learning. Students, their instructor, and caregivers all perceived the shared reading instruction as beneficial for science vocabulary development. These findings suggest explicit science vocabulary instruction during shared reading is beneficial to students and feasible for teachers to implement in a virtual classroom.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10643-021-01288-w.

The influence of student engagement on the effects of an inferential reading comprehension intervention for struggling middle school readers

Although many students benefit from evidence-based reading comprehension interventions, not all students will exhibit adequate response. Moderation analysis provides a statistical approach to examine for whom and under what conditions interventions are most effective. Conducted within a parent project, which investigated the effects of an inferential reading comprehension intervention, the current study examined factors related to the deployment of students' attention as well as language status that might be associated with differential response to intervention. Sixty-six struggling middle school readers were randomly assigned to a computerized version of the intervention, a teacher-led version, or business-as-usual (BaU) control instruction. The influence of language status (i.e., English Learner status) and pre-intervention levels of mind-wandering, anxiety, and mindset on the effects of the inferential reading comprehension intervention were examined. There were no moderator effects for the teacher-led group compared to the BaU control. Conversely, anxiety, mind-wandering, and language status moderated the effects of the computer-led intervention for some reading and inference-making outcomes. The computer-led intervention was associated with improved inference-making for students with higher levels of self-reported anxiety and mind-wandering. In contrast, the computer-led intervention was less beneficial than BaU instruction for English learners. Findings are discussed with respect to how these factors might be relevant for interpreting the effects of interventions for struggling middle school readers in general, and for English learners in particular. The findings also point to the importance of considering the characteristics of both student and instructional features in the creation and testing of reading comprehension interventions.

A model-based meta-analytic examination of specific reading comprehension deficit: how prevalent is it and does the simple view of reading account for it?

Many individuals with poor reading comprehension have levels of reading comprehension that are consistent with deficits in their ability to decode the words on the page. However, there are individuals who are poor at reading comprehension despite being adequate at decoding. This phenomenon is referred to as specific reading comprehension deficit (SRCD). The two purposes of this study were to use a new approach to estimate the prevalence of SRCD and to examine the extent to which SRCD can be explained by the simple view of reading. We used model-based meta-analysis of correlation matrices from standardized tests to create composite correlation matrices for the constructs of reading comprehension, decoding, and listening comprehension. Using simulated datasets generated from the composite correlation matrices, we used residuals from regressing reading comprehension on decoding to create a continuous index of SRCD. The prevalence of SRCD is best represented not as a single number but as a continuous distribution in which prevalence varies as a function of the magnitude of the severity of the deficit in reading comprehension relative to the level of decoding. Examining the joint distribution of the residuals with reading comprehension makes clear that the phenomenon of reading comprehension that is poor relative to decoding occurs throughout the distribution of reading comprehension skill. Although the simple view of reading predictors of listening comprehension and decoding makes significant contributions to predicting reading comprehension, nearly half of the variance is unaccounted for.

The Role of Knowledge Availability in Forming Inferences with Rural Middle Grade English Learners

We investigated differences in knowledge-based inferencing between rural, middle grade monolingual English-speaking students and English learners. Students were introduced to facts about an imaginary planet Gan followed by a multi-episode story about Gan. Participants were tested on the accuracy of fact recall and inferences using this knowledge at three time points (i.e., immediate, one-week, and one-month follow-up). Results show that monolingual English-speaking students significantly outperformed English learners on the inference task. Both subgroups made elaborative inferences more accurately than coherence. Students' ability to recall knowledge base facts was the strongest predictor of their ability to accurately make inferences using this knowledge at each time point.

The Differential Importance of Component Skills on Reading Comprehension Test Performance Among Struggling Adolescent Readers

Reading comprehension tests vary in format and characteristics, which may influence the extent to which component skills are involved in test performance. With students in Grades 6 to 8 with reading difficulties, dominance analyses examined the differential importance of component reading and language skills (word- and text-reading fluency, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and working memory) on several standardized tests of reading comprehension: The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, 4th edition (GMRT), Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation, Gray Oral Reading Test, 5th edition (GORT-5), and the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC). Students' word- and text-reading fluency skills were generally the most dominant predictors of performance on most reading comprehension tests, especially those with a time limit (GMRT and TOSREC). Listening comprehension was most important on the GORT-5, a test in which students read passages orally and listen to questions read by an examiner. Working memory was the least important component skill across the reading comprehension tests. Overall, results were consistent with previous work indicating that reading comprehension measures vary with regard to the skills or knowledge sources that are most important for test performance and extend these findings to struggling adolescent readers. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Effects of semantic reinforcement, semantic discrimination, and affix frequency on new word learning in skilled and less skilled readers in Grades 6 to 12

Two approaches to word learning were investigated in 1214 6th- to 12th-grade students. Definitions were provided, followed either by two sentences that were semantically correct exemplars, called semantic reinforcement learning, or by one correct sentence and a contrasting incorrect sentence (i.e., example followed by a structurally aligned non-example), called semantic discrimination learning. Type of learning was blocked, and examples and non-examples were explained. Effects of affix frequency were also assessed. Students were taught words, followed by assessments of abilities to recall the meanings of the words immediately after learning them, to choose the correct words among distractors to match given definitions after all words had been instructed, and to judge the semantic veracity of new sentences containing taught words 1-3 days later. Explanatory item response models were used to predict word learning using student and item characteristics along with their interactions. Few grade-related differences emerged. Higher-frequency affixes were generally beneficial for learning and retention across comprehension skill levels and measures. Immediate recall of word meanings was facilitated by semantic reinforcement learning. In contrast, performance after all the words had been instructed was facilitated by semantic discrimination learning, but only for more highly skilled comprehenders. The ability to learn the meanings of new words accounted for unique variance on one measure of reading comprehension, controlling for decoding, previously acquired vocabulary knowledge, and working memory. Results are discussed with reference to models of vocabulary learning and implications for vocabulary instruction for adolescents.

Predictors of Successful Reading Comprehension in Bilingual Adults: The Role of Reading Strategies and Language Proficiency

The current study investigated the type of strategies that English–French bilingual adults utilize when reading in their dominant and non-dominant languages and which of these strategies are associated with reading comprehension success. Thirty-nine participants read short texts while reporting aloud what they were thinking as they read. Following each passage, readers answered three comprehension questions. Questions either required information found directly in the text (literal question) or required a necessary inference or an elaborative inference. Readers reported more necessary and elaborative inferences and referred to more background knowledge in their dominant language than in their non-dominant language. Engaging in both text analysis strategies and meaning extraction strategies predicted reading comprehension success in both languages, with differences observed depending on the type of question posed. Results are discussed with respect to how strategy use supports the development of text representations.

Distinct neural substrates of individual differences in components of reading comprehension in adults with or without dyslexia

Reading comprehension is a complex task that depends on multiple cognitive and linguistic processes. According to the updated Simple View of Reading framework, in adults, individual variation in reading comprehension can be largely explained by combined variance in three component abilities: (1) decoding accuracy, (2) fluency, and (3) language comprehension. Here we asked whether the neural correlates of the three components are different in adults with dyslexia as compared to typically-reading adults and whether the relative contribution of these correlates to reading comprehension is similar in the two groups. We employed a novel naturalistic fMRI reading task to identify the neural correlates of individual differences in the three components using whole-brain and literature-driven regions-of-interest approaches. Across all participants, as predicted by the Simple View framework, we found distinct patterns of associations with linguistic and domain-general regions for the three components, and that the left-hemispheric neural correlates of language comprehension in the angular and posterior temporal gyri made the largest contributions to explaining out-of-scanner reading comprehension performance. These patterns differed between the two groups. In typical adult readers, better fluency was associated with greater activation of left occipitotemporal regions, better comprehension with lesser activation in prefrontal and posterior parietal regions, and there were no significant associations with decoding. In adults with dyslexia, better fluency was associated with greater activation of bilateral inferior parietal regions, better comprehension was associated with greater activation in some prefrontal clusters and lower in others, and better decoding skills were associated with lesser activation of bilateral prefrontal and posterior parietal regions. Extending the behavioral findings of skill-level differences in the relative contribution of the three components to reading comprehension, the relative contributions of the neural correlates to reading comprehension differed based on dyslexia status. These findings reveal some of the neural correlates of individual differences in the three components and the underlying mechanisms of reading comprehension deficits in adults with dyslexia.

Relations Among Executive Function, Decoding, and Reading Comprehension: An Investigation of Sex Differences

In the current investigation, we used structural equation mediation modeling to examine the relations between executive function (indexed by measures of working memory, shifting, and inhibition), decoding ability, and reading comprehension in a sample of 298 6- to 8-year-old children (N =132 and 166 for boys and girls, respectively). Results for the full sample indicated that executive function was mediated by decoding ability. When sex was examined as a moderator of these associations, there was evidence for a trend suggesting that direct relations between executive function and reading comprehension were stronger for girls compared to boys; no significant differences were found for other direct and indirect relations. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of executive function in supporting underlying integrative processes associated with reading comprehension and emphasize the need to further consider the role of executive function in relation to reading.

Theory of mind mediates the relations of language and domain-general cognitions to discourse comprehension

Theory of mind has received intensive attention in research as an important skill to develop. Furthermore, recent evidence indicates its role in discourse comprehension. In the current study, we examined the mediating role of theory of mind in the relations of foundational language and cognitive skills (working memory, attentional control, vocabulary, and grammatical knowledge) to discourse comprehension using the direct and indirect effects model of text comprehension and production (Kim, 2016) as a theoretical framework, and using longitudinal data from kindergarten to Grade 2. Structural equation model results showed that theory of mind partially mediated the relations in both grades, and the effects (standardized regression weights) were similar in kindergarten and Grade 2. Interestingly, the relations of language and cognitive skills to theory of mind differed in kindergarten versus Grade 2. Language and cognitive skills had moderate to strong longitudinal stability, and these skills in kindergarten were indirectly related to discourse comprehension in Grade 2 via the language and cognitive skills in Grade 2. These results support the mediating role of theory of mind as well as the nature of structural and longitudinal relations among language and cognitive skills and to discourse comprehension.

Testing the visual impedance effect in children with and without reading difficulties using a new visual reasoning task

This study examined reasoning skills in children, specifically transitive reasoning and the visual impedance effect, with a new visual/pictorial task. The visual impedance effect is the effect produced by the possible interference in the reasoning process of irrelevant details elicited from the premises of a reasoning task. The new task had no reading requirements, which made it suitable for testing reasoning in primary school children, especially children with reading difficulties (RD), such as dyslexia. The study aimed also to validate the possible use of the task for studying reasoning and detecting the visual impedance effect without the interference of reading skills and to investigate the association between transitive reasoning and reading abilities. A pilot study (N = 10) was used to test the suitability of the new task for primary school children. Afterwards, the task was tested on a larger sample of children of third to sixth Grade, with and without RD (N = 84). Results showed that the new task is able to detect the main reasoning effects as well as the visual impedance effect. The findings are discussed, with the new task considered appropriate for studying reasoning skills in child populations both with and without RD.

Toward Integrative Reading Science: The Direct and Indirect Effects Model of Reading

The authors propose an integrative theoretical model of reading called the direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER) that builds on and extends several prominent theoretical models of reading. According to DIER, the following skills and knowledge are involved in reading comprehension: word reading, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, background knowledge (content knowledge and discourse knowledge), reading affect or socioemotions, higher order cognitions and regulation (e.g., inference, perspective taking, reasoning, and comprehension monitoring), vocabulary, grammatical (morphosyntactic and syntactic) knowledge, phonology, morphology, orthography, and domain-general cognitions (e.g., working memory and attentional control). Importantly, DIER also describes the nature of structural relations-component skills are hypothesized to have (a) hierarchical relations; (b) dynamic (or differential) relations as a function of text, activity (including assessment), and development; and (c) interactive relations. The authors then examined the hierarchical relations hypothesis by comparing a flat or direct relations model with hierarchical relations (or direct and indirect effects) models. Structural equation model results from 201 Korean-speaking first graders supported the hierarchical relations hypothesis and revealed multichanneled direct and indirect effects of component skills. These results are discussed in light of DIER, including instructional and assessment implications for reading development and reading difficulties.

Is the Student-Centered Learning Style More Effective Than the Teacher-Student Double-Centered Learning Style in Improving Reading Performance?

Appropriate learning styles enhance the academic performance of students. This research compares and contrasts the popular effect of teacher-student double centered learning style (TSDCLS) and student-centered learning style (SCLS) on one's reading, including reading comprehension, inference, main idea abstraction, and reading anxiety. One hundred and fifty one students in grade 4 from three groups (two experimental groups and one control group) participated in the experiment with 18 weeks' reading comprehension training. The results showed that, first, both learning styles contributed to students' reading comprehension, inference, main idea abstraction, and reading anxiety. Second, the TSDCLS contributed more to reading anxiety, and the SCLS contributed more to reading comprehension. Both learning styles had similar effects on inference and main idea abstraction. From the correlation test, excluding the correlation between SCLS and reading anxiety which was not significant, all other effects were significant. These findings are discussed along with implications and ideas for future research.

The Effect of Vocabulary Intervention on Text Comprehension: Who Benefits?

Purpose Vocabulary intervention can improve comprehension of texts containing taught words, but it is unclear if all middle school readers get this benefit. This study tests 2 hypotheses about variables that predict response to vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: gains in vocabulary knowledge due to treatment and pretreatment reading comprehension scores. Method Students in Grade 6 (N = 23) completed a 5-session intervention based on robust vocabulary instruction (RVI). Knowledge of the semantics of taught words was measured pre- and posttreatment. Participants then read 2 matched texts, 1 containing taught words (treated) and 1 not (untreated). Treated texts and taught word lists were counterbalanced across participants. The difference between text comprehension scores in treated and untreated conditions was taken as a measure of the effect of RVI on text comprehension. Results RVI resulted in significant gains in knowledge of taught words (d_RM = 2.26) and text comprehension (d_RM = 0.31). The extent of gains in vocabulary knowledge after vocabulary treatment did not predict the effect of RVI on comprehension of texts. However, untreated reading comprehension scores moderated the effect of the vocabulary treatment on text comprehension: Lower reading comprehension was associated with greater gains in text comprehension. Readers with comprehension scores below the mean experienced large gains in comprehension, but those with average/above average reading comprehension scores did not. Conclusion Vocabulary instruction had a larger effect on text comprehension for readers in Grade 6 who had lower untreated reading comprehension scores. In contrast, the amount that children learned about taught vocabulary did not predict the effect of vocabulary instruction on text comprehension. This has implications for the identification of 6th-grade students who would benefit from classroom instruction or clinical intervention targeting vocabulary knowledge.

Accelerating Adolescent Vocabulary Growth: Development of an Individualized, Web-Based, Vocabulary Instruction Program

Purpose Improving vocabulary knowledge is important for many adolescents, but there are few evidence-based vocabulary instruction programs available for high school students. The purpose of this article is to describe the iterative development of the DictionarySquared research platform, a web-based vocabulary program that provides individualized vocabulary instruction, and to report the results of 2 pilot studies examining the feasibility of implementation and potential effectiveness with high school students. Method We describe our theory of change and 5 phases of iterative development. In Phases 1 and 2, we evaluated the initial implementation of DictionarySquared and revised the instructional materials. In Phase 3, we conducted a feasibility study involving 169 high school students who used the program for 4 weeks. Student usage data and feedback from teachers were used to guide program revisions in Phase 4. In Phase 5, we examined potential effectiveness for 264 high school students who were assigned to use the program for 1 semester. Results Results of the Phase 3 study indicated that implementation of the program was feasible, although usage was below assigned levels. Results of the Phase 5 study indicated that the duration of active program usage significantly predicted posttest vocabulary scores on the proximal assessment after controlling for pretest standardized vocabulary scores. Analyses using propensity score matching revealed positive, but nonsignificant, gains on standardized assessments between pre- and posttests. Conclusion Together, the results of early-stage pilot studies are promising and suggest that a more rigorous test of efficacy is warranted. Successful implementation of the DictionarySquared research program, as well as lessons learned from the program development process, will expand the range of evidence-based treatment options that clinicians and educators can use to improve adolescent vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9765161.

Prologue to the Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades

Purpose This prologue introduces the LSHSS Forum: Vocabulary Across the School Grades. The goals of the forum are to provide an overview of the importance of vocabulary to literacy and academic achievement, to review evidence regarding best practices for vocabulary instruction, and to highlight recent research related to word learning with students across different grade levels. Method The prologue provides a foundational overview of vocabulary's role in literacy and introduces the topics of the other ten articles in the forum. These include clinical focus articles, research reviews, and word-learning and vocabulary intervention studies involving students in elementary grades through college. Conclusion Children with language and reading disorders experience specific challenges learning new words, but all students can benefit from high-quality vocabulary instruction. The articles in this issue highlight the characteristics of evidence-based vocabulary interventions for children of different ages, ability levels, and language backgrounds and provide numerous examples of intervention activities that can be modified for use in individual, small-group, or large-group instructional settings.

A Review of Middle School Vocabulary Interventions: Five Research-Based Recommendations for Practice

Purpose

The purpose of this tutorial is to explain key concepts about vocabulary acquisition and instruction and to translate research from middle school vocabulary interventions into practice recommendations for practitioners. In this tutorial, we consider the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension, describe vocabulary acquisition including the development of semantic networks, provide a review of high-quality middle school vocabulary studies, and make recommendations for practice.

Method

We reviewed the experimental and quasi-experimental literature examining the impact of vocabulary instruction on the vocabulary and reading comprehension development of middle school students. We searched multiple electronic databases (e.g., PsycInfo, ERIC, Scopus, Google Scholar) using combinations of specific search terms (i.e., vocabulary, intervention, instruction, middle school, adolescent ), searched reviews of vocabulary research, and conducted bibliographic searches of included studies. We then extracted information from each included study about the intervention, participants, and outcomes.

Results

We identified 17 studies meeting our inclusion criteria. The majority of studies were conducted with students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds. Only 1 study focused exclusively on students with learning disabilities, language impairments, or reading disabilities, highlighting the need for more vocabulary experimental research studies with special populations of students in middle school.

Conclusion

After reviewing the middle school studies, we make 5 recommendations based on the literature: (a) teach vocabulary intentionally, (b) teach independent word-learning strategies (morphological analysis), (c) focus on developing semantic networks, (d) increase opportunities to use new words in discussion and writing, and (e) provide a motivating and language-rich learning environment.

Executive Function: Association with Multiple Reading Skills

Executive function (EF) is related to reading. However, there is a lack of clarity around (a) the relative contribution of different components of EF to different reading components (word reading, fluency, comprehension), and (b) how EF operates in the context of known strong language predictors (e.g., components of the Simple View of Reading or SVR), and other skills theoretically related to reading (e.g., vocabulary, processing speed) and/or to EF (e.g., short-term memory, motor function). In a large sample of 3rd to 5th graders oversampled for struggling readers, this paper evaluates the impact of EF derived from a bifactor model (Cirino, Ahmed, Miciak, Taylor, Gerst, & Barnes, 2018) in the context of well-known covariates and demographics. Beyond common EF, five specific factors (two related to working memory, and factors of fluency, self-regulated learning, and behavioral inattention/metacognition) were addressed. EF consistently showed a unique contribution to already-strong predictive models for all reading outcomes; for reading comprehension, EF interacted with SVR indices (word reading and listening comprehension). The findings extend and refine our understanding of the contribution of EF to reading skill.

Considering the Role of Executive Function in Reading Comprehension: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

In the present study, we used latent variable structural equation modeling to investigate relations between oral language, decoding, and two components of executive function (cognitive flexibility and working memory) and reading comprehension in a sample of 271 native English-speaking 9.00- to 14.83-year-olds. Results of the mediation analyses indicated that both oral language and decoding fully mediated the relations between working memory and cognitive flexibility and reading comprehension. These findings suggest that executive function is likely associated with reading comprehension through its relation with decoding and oral language and provide additional support for the role of executive function in reading comprehension as a potentially crucial precursor to skilled reading.

How Much Knowledge Is Too Little? When a Lack of Knowledge Becomes a Barrier to Comprehension

Have you ever found it difficult to read something because you lack knowledge on the topic? We investigated this phenomenon with a sample of 3,534 high school students who took a background-knowledge test before working on a reading-comprehension test on the topic of ecology. Broken-line regression revealed a knowledge threshold: Below the threshold, the relationship between comprehension and knowledge was weak (β = 0.18), but above the threshold, a strong and positive relation emerged (β = 0.81). Further analyses indicated that certain topically relevant words (e.g., ecosystem, habitat) were more important to know than others when predicting the threshold, and these keywords could be identified using natural-language-processing techniques. Collectively, these results may help identify who is likely to have a problem comprehending information on a specific topic and, to some extent, what knowledge is likely required to comprehend information on that topic.

Extending the Simple View of Reading to Account for Variation Within Readers and Across Texts: The Complete View of Reading (CVRi)

This study leverages advances in multivariate cross-classified random effects models to extend the Simple View of Reading to account for variation within readers and across texts, allowing for both the personalization of the reading function and the integration of the component skills and text and discourse frameworks for reading research. We illustrate the Complete View of Reading (CVRi) using data from an intensive longitudinal design study with a large sample of typical (N = 648) and struggling readers (N = 865) in middle school and using oral reading fluency as a proxy for comprehension. To illustrate the utility of the CVRi, we present a model with cross-classified random intercepts for students and passages and random slopes for growth, Lexile difficulty, and expository text type at the student level. We highlight differences between typical and struggling readers and differences across students in different grades. The model illustrates that readers develop differently and approach the reading task differently, showing differential impact of text features on their fluency. To be complete, a model of reading must be able to reflect this heterogeneity at the person and passage level, and the CVRi is a step in that direction. Implications for reading interventions and 21st century reading research in the era of "Big Data" and interest in phenotypic characterization are discussed.

Class Percentage of Students With Reading Difficulties on Content Knowledge and Comprehension

We examined the efficacy of a content acquisition and reading comprehension intervention implemented in eighth-grade social studies classrooms. Using a within-teacher randomized control design, 18 eighth-grade teachers' social studies classes were randomly assigned to a treatment or comparison condition. Teachers taught all their classes (treatment and comparison) using the same content; however, in the treatment classes, teachers used instructional practices that included comprehension canopy, essential words, knowledge acquisition, and team-based learning. Students with reading comprehension difficulties in the treatment classes (n = 359) outperformed students with reading comprehension difficulties in the comparison classes (n = 331) on measures of content knowledge acquisition and content reading comprehension but not general reading comprehension. In addition, the proportion of students with reading comprehension difficulties in classes moderated outcomes for content knowledge acquisition and content reading comprehension.

Using Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling to Study Developmental Change in Relations Between Language and Literacy

The purpose of this review was to introduce readers of Child Development to the meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) technique. Provided are a background to the MASEM approach, a discussion of its utility in the study of child development, and an application of this technique in the study of reading comprehension (RC) development. MASEM uses a two-stage approach: first, it provides a composite correlation matrix across included variables, and second, it fits hypothesized a priori models. The provided MASEM application used a large sample (N = 1,205,581) of students (ages 3.5-46.225) from 155 studies to investigate the factor structure and relations among components of RC. The practical implications of using this technique to study development are discussed.

The Effects of One versus Two Years of Intensive Reading Intervention Implemented with Late Elementary Struggling Readers

We examined the effectiveness of a researcher-provided reading intervention with 484 fourth graders with significant reading difficulties. Students were randomly assigned to one year of intervention, two years of intervention, or a business-as-usual comparison condition (BAU). Students assigned to two years of intervention demonstrated significantly greater gains in reading fluency compared to students who received one year of intervention and the BAU group. Students in both the one- and two-year groups demonstrated similar and significantly larger gains in word reading in comparison to the BAU group. There were no statistically significant differences between the three groups on standardized measures of reading comprehension. We discuss these results in the context of research with late elementary and secondary students targeting reading comprehension.

Let's Not Do Away with Comprehensive Cognitive Assessments Just Yet

We review rational and empirical reasons that comprehensive cognitive assessments are useful sources of information in the evaluation and treatment of learning disabilities. However, the existing evidence base that demonstrates the value of comprehensive cognitive assessments for this purpose is not nearly as strong as it needs to be. Proponents of comprehensive cognitive assessments for learning disability identification must do more to rigorously evaluate their beliefs or else concede the argument to those with better evidence.

Growth in Reading Comprehension and Verbal Ability From Grades 1 Through 9

We systematically assessed the relationships between growth of four components of verbal ability—Information, Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale–Revised—and longitudinal growth from Grades 1 to 9 of the Woodcock–Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Passage Comprehension subtest while controlling for Word Identification and Word Attack, using multilevel growth models on a sample of 414 children. Growth was assessed over all grades (1-9), and separately for early grades (1-5) and later grades (5-9). Over all grades, growth in Word Identification had a substantial standardized loading to Passage Comprehension, and all four verbal abilities had smaller, but significant standardized loadings to Passage Comprehension ( p < .05), with Information and Vocabulary having slightly higher loadings than Similarities and Comprehension. For early grades, results were similar to the overall results, with the exception of Vocabulary, which had a nonsignificant loading to Passage Comprehension. For later grades, Word Identification again had the largest, but substantially smaller standardized loading on Passage Comprehension and standardized loadings of all four verbal abilities were statistically significant with Vocabulary and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised (WISC-R) Comprehension having appreciably higher loadings than in the previous analyses. Conversation- and interaction-based intervention and instruction in oral language in general, and vocabulary in particular throughout early childhood and continuing throughout the school years, combined with evidence-based instruction that systematically develops the skills of phonologic awareness, decoding, word reading, fluency, and comprehension in school, may provide a pathway to reducing the achievement gap in reading.