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Training reading fluency among poor readers of German: many ways to the goal

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Abstract

Outcomes of two training programs aimed at improving reading speed for 39 German-speaking poor readers in grades 2 and 4 were evaluated. During a 6-week training period, a specific target for children in a computer group was to improve reading of word-initial consonant clusters by practice in associating an orthographic unit with a corresponding phonological unit. Children in a paired reading group read books with an adult tutor. The results showed that, in reading words in which the computer-trained sublexical items were included, both groups exhibited similar improvement. A post hoc analysis suggested that computer training was associated with better reading skills with respect to the trained sublexical items; however, this improvement did not show large generalization effects to the words with the sublexical items. The paired reading group showed a more rapid gain in global word reading fluency than the computer group. Neither of the groups improved their pseudoword reading.

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Notes

  1. The reading speed of two children was not as slow as the inclusion criterion (one child had percentiles below the 45th and 55th, and the other one had a reading speed of below the 25th in only one subtest), but they made a considerable number of errors and were included in the participant group.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is part of the first author’s doctoral thesis. This study was supported by the Finnish Center of Excellence Program of the Academy of Finland (44858 and 213486), the Finnish Graduate School of Psychology, Niilo Mäki Foundation, and Finland’s Slot Machine Association. The paired reading training was funded by the Austrian Ministry of Education. We tender our thanks to Minna Torppa for valuable comments on the first version of the manuscript and to Michael Freeman for polishing the language. We would also like to thank the schools and children who participated in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Niilo Mäki Institute, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, Jyväskylä, 40014, Finland

    Sini Huemer (née Hintikka) & Mikko Aro

  2. University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria

    Sini Huemer (née Hintikka) & Karin Landerl

  3. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Karin Landerl

  4. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Sini Huemer (née Hintikka) & Heikki Lyytinen

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  1. Sini Huemer (née Hintikka)
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  2. Karin Landerl
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Correspondence to Sini Huemer (née Hintikka).

Appendix

Appendix

Training material of the computer group:

fla

fle

fli

flo

flu

flä

flö

flü

flau

flei

fleu

kra

kre

kri

kro

kru

krä

krö

krü

krau

krei

kreu

schla

schle

schli

schlo

schlu

schlä

schlö

schlü

schlau

schlei

schleu

stra

stre

stri

stro

stru

strä

strö

strü

strau

strei

streu

Words with the consonant clusters:

Flamme

Flöte

Kraft

Kranz

Schlag

schließen

strahlen

Strick

flau

Fluss

Kragen

Krähe

Schlauch

schlimm

Straße

Stroh

Fleck

flüchten

Kran

Kreide

schlecken

Schlitten

Strauch

strömen

Fliegen

flüstern

krank

Krug

Schleife

Schloss

streiten

 

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Huemer (née Hintikka), S., Landerl, K., Aro, M. et al. Training reading fluency among poor readers of German: many ways to the goal. Ann. of Dyslexia 58, 115–137 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-008-0017-2

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