The predictability of oral reading behaviors on comprehension in learning disabled and normal readers

Abstract. This study examined a method of studying the unique contributions to comprehension from different oral reading behaviors determined in the reading of a group of learning disabled children compared with that of a group of normal readers. Seventy-six (36 LD; 40 non-LD) elementary children participated in the task which re-quired them to read orally a story and then retell all recalled information. Reading level was controlled, and, using a proportion of story propositions retold as the dependent variable, regression analyses were computed. With the non-LD group, no contributions to comprehension of any magnitude were due to the oral reading behaviors. With the LD group, however, two oral reading behaviors were found to provide unique contributions to the variance in comprehension. Higher rates of meaning-change errors predicted lowered comprehension, and higher rates of high phonic cue use predicted higher comprehension in the LD group. Recommendations included suggestions for further study of processing differences between disabled and normal readers. A body of research attests to a number of subskills in which poor readers exhibit deficit