The Prevalence of Reading Fluency and Vocabulary Difficulties Among Adolescents Struggling With Reading Comprehension

This study sought to better understand the prevalence of concurrent and specific difficulties in reading fluency and vocabulary among adolescents with low reading comprehension. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify a sample of 180 students in sixth through eighth grades with reading comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of psychoeducational assessment Vol. 35; no. 8; pp. 785 - 798
Main Authors Clemens, Nathan H., Simmons, Deborah, Simmons, Leslie E., Wang, Huan, Kwok, Oi-man
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2017
Subjects
Adolescents
Bayesian Statistics
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Incidence
Intervention
Multivariate Analysis
Oral Reading
Randomized Controlled Trials
Reading Achievement
Reading Comprehension
Reading Difficulties
Reading Fluency
Reading Instruction
Reading Tests
Vocabulary
vocabulary
reading fluency
adolescents
reading comprehension
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Summary:This study sought to better understand the prevalence of concurrent and specific difficulties in reading fluency and vocabulary among adolescents with low reading comprehension. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify a sample of 180 students in sixth through eighth grades with reading comprehension difficulties. A subsequent LCA identified subgroups of students with common patterns of strengths and weaknesses in reading fluency and vocabulary. Results indicated that more than 96% of the students demonstrated deficits in at least one area, with the largest subgroup exhibiting co-occurring difficulties in fluency and vocabulary. Difficulties in fluency were more common than difficulties in vocabulary. Students with low reading comprehension but adequate scores in reading fluency or vocabulary represented only a very small portion of the sample. Coupled with findings from prior studies, results indicate that large numbers of adolescents with reading comprehension difficulties are likely in need of intervention in foundational skill and knowledge areas, which may not be viewed as instructional priorities among secondary educators.
ISSN:0734-2829
1557-5144
DOI:10.1177/0734282916662120