Training reading fluency in Spanish with repeated and accelerated reading approaches

Serrano, F. . , Defior, S. . & Hernandez, C. M.

University of Granada

Fluency in reading is considered a stepping stone in reading development, mainly due to the relationship with reading comprehension. Moreover, reading fluency difficulties are a salient feature in dyslexic and poor readers, especially in transparent orthographies like Spanish. Therefore, the development of reading fluency intervention program in Spanish is enough supported.
This work aims to verify the effectiveness of a reading fluency program that combines both repeated reading and accelerated reading approaches. It provides a structured and sequential training at syllable, word and text reading levels. This way the training pretends to improve reading automatization skills, starting at sublexical level (especially salient in Spanish) and so, to facilite a more fluent and efficient word recognition and thereby, fluent text reading. Additionally, it includes phonological skills training. Participants were organized in three groups: 1st group of 15 dyslexic and reading disabled children who were part of the training (training group), a 2nd group of 15 dyslexic and poor readers who did not receive the training (waiting group) and a 3rd group of typically developing children (a reading level-matched design). A pretest-postest design was carried out. Assessment included a wide battery of measures: reading (accuracy and fluency at word, pseudoword and text levels; comprehension); spelling; phonological awareness, orthographic abilities, prosody, vocabulary, and basic cognitive skills (visual perception, memory and intelligence).
A clear improvement in fluency measures at word, pseudoword and text levels is shown in pretest-posttest analysis. Results also indicate improvements in reading comprehension.
The relevance and practical implications of this intervention program are discussed. The development of intervention measures for improving reading fluency both in typically developing and reading disabled populations is highly relevant. This is especially true in Spanish orthography, in which so far there are not evidence-based programs focused in reading fluency.