Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties

DAVID A. KILPATRICK, PHD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York College at Cortland and a New York State Certified School Psychologist with the East Syracuse-Minoa Central School District. An expert and experienced clinician who excels in reading assessment and intervention, Dr. Kilpatrick has conducted over 1000 student evaluations for reading difficulties and disabilities.

"Th[is is] literally the best book ever written in our field."—Dr. Maria Murray, Associate Professor of Literacy, State University of NY at Oswego "David Kilpatrick's book, one of Wiley's Essentials of Psychological Assessment series, is much more than a synthesis of test reviews, summaries of intervention research, illustrative case studies, and recommendations for reading and literacy interventions. While such content is pro forma in a guide for school psychologists, reading specialists, and educators, this book offers provocative new insights into the nature of reading development, reading difficulties, and effective instruction that deserve wide discussion and application in the field...[This book] represents one of the most potent linkages between science and educational practice available to us now. "—Dr. Louisa Moats, EdD, review from International Dyslexia Association's Perspectives on Language and Literacy, Summer 2016, p. 51-52"[Kilpatrick's] book is highly recommended for all school psychologist practitioners. It provides a comprehensive foundation in the research on the development of reading skills as well as an in-depth analysis of how to approach assessment and intervention. Understanding what the research says about how and what to instruct is crucial for school psychologists who are working in a multitiered system of support in order to be able to support teachers in choosing effective instruction at the classroom level and beyond.—Lynne O. Thies, PhD, NCSP, review from Communiqué Newsletter of the National Association of School Psychologists, Vol, 45, Issue 2, 2016

• Series Preface xvPreface xviiAcknowledgments xxiOne Introduction 1The Unfair Race 1The Importance of Reading 2The Gap Between Reading Research and Classroom Practice 4The Unfortunate Reality About Reading Research: Nobody Knows About It! 4Why IsThere a Gap Between Research and Classroom Practice? 6The Powerful Research Results We Have Been Missing 11Acknowledging and Responding to the Gap Between Research and Practice 14Summary 20Two How We Teach Reading and Why It Does Not Work With Struggling Readers 23A Very Brief History of Reading Instruction 24Why Our Current Approaches to Reading Instruction Are Ineffective With Struggling Readers 26The Visual Memory Hypothesis of Word Reading 30The Three Cueing Systems Model of Reading 35The Phonics Approach to Reading 41Summary 42Three A Practical Framework for Understanding and Assessing Reading Skills 46The Simple View of Reading 46Types of Reading Difficulties/Disabilities 54The Components of Reading 58The Components of Word-Level Reading 60The Components of Linguistic Comprehension 73Summary 77Four Understanding Word Recognition Difficulties 80The Importance of This Chapter 80Introducing Orthographic Mapping 81How Skilled Word Reading Develops 83The Early Stages of the Reading Process 91Learning to Read Irregular Words 104The Research on Orthographic Mapping 109How the Phonological-Core Deficit Hinders Reading Development 114Word-Reading Fluency and Orthographic Mapping 121Students Whose Native Language Is Not English 125Answers to the Questions Posed About Reading Difficulties 127Summary 129Five Understanding Reading Comprehension Difficulties 133Specific Reading Comprehension Impairment 134What Is Required for Skilled Reading Comprehension? 135Reader Abilities 136Text Factors 143Task Factors 144Students Whose First Language Is Not English 144Summary 145Six Assessing Phonological Processing Skills 149An Introduction to Intervention-Oriented Assessment of Reading 149Issues in Assessing Phonological Skills 154Phonological Awareness Assessment 165Phonological Blending Assessment 170The Rationale for Assessing Rapid Automatized Naming and Working Memory 172Summary 179Seven Assessing Phonics Skills 182Orthographic Knowledge 183Assessing Phonics Skills 187Summary 196Eight Assessing Word Identification and Reading Fluency 199The Assessment of Word-Reading Skills 199Untangling the Confound Between Word Recognition and Word Identification 202Word Identification Subtests 208The Assessment of Word-Reading Fluency 212Types of Fluency Tasks 214Summary 219Nine Assessing Reading Comprehension and Related Skills 222Reading Comprehension Assessment 223Tests of Reading Comprehension 231Tests of Listening Comprehension 233Assessment of Skills That Contribute to Reading Comprehension and Listening Comprehension 235Summary 244Ten Effective Approaches for Preventing Reading Difficulties 247Prevention: Removing the Hurdles Before the Race Begins 247Experimental Support for Phonological Awareness Instruction 253Experimental Support for Explicit and Systematic Letter-Sound Instruction 265Practical Considerations Regarding Teaching Letter-Sound Skills and Phonics 269The Centrality of Phonology in Word Reading 275Phonological Awareness Training Programs 276Preventing Literacy-Related Language Difficulties 280Summary 283Eleven Effective Approaches for Overcoming or Minimizing Reading Difficulties 286Intervention with Word-Level Reading Difficulties 289Popular Reading Interventions With Modest or Minimal Results 293Reading Intervention Research With Minimal to Modest Results 301The Phonological Awareness Intervention Continuum 302Reading Intervention Studies with Highly Successful Results 304Specific Programs Used in Highly Successful Outcome Studies 318Addressing Comprehension Difficulties 322Making It Work: Practical Intervention Issues 326Summary 329Twelve Case Illustrations 332Mild Dyslexic Pattern 333Severe Dyslexic Pattern 334ELL Student 336Compensator Pattern 337Mixed Type 340Hyperlexic Type 342Summary 343Thirteen Reading Difficulties and Learning Disability Identification 344Far Fewer Students with SLD? 345Characteristics That Suggest an Educational Disability—Part 1: SLD in Word-Level Reading 346Characteristics That Suggest an Educational Disability—Part 2: Reading Comprehension 348General Guidelines for Identifying a Reading Disability 349Summary 357Afterword 359Glossary 361Further Reading 367References 369About the Author 399About the Online Resources 400Index 401