Rate and Accuracy in Reading and Rapid Naming

Fluency is highly correlated with reading comprehension, yet little empirical research has investigated the underlying nature of fluency. This study examined the constructs of fluency in reading and rapid naming. Alternative models of fluency were compared to examine individual differences in skill development for second graders. Fluency skills examined included rate and accuracy as one generalized skill; rate and accuracy as two unrelated skills; and rate and accuracy as distinct, yet related skills. The hypothesis that the development of fluency skills reflected age-related changes in global processing speed skills was examined as well. The sample included 179 second-grade children who were recruited from two Tallahassee, FL elementary schools, as well as a control sample of 44 first-grade children from one of the schools. Confirmatory factor analyses supported that rate and accuracy were two distinct, yet related skills. This was found for both reading of connected text and rapid naming tasks. The hypothesis that fluency skills and global processing speed reflected one skill was not supported by the data. Differences in rate and accuracy were examined at an individual level to determine whether poor readers would score comparatively low on accuracy and rate, or whether some readers might be accuracy- or rate-impaired. For these analyses the bottom third of the second grade readers an control sample of first grade readers was used. The first grade rate scores were regressed on accuracy, and vice versa, with a 90% confidence interval around the regression line to determine the expected range of rate and accuracy. Results determined that poor readers were more likely to be rate impaired for both reading connected text and rapid naming tasks. These findings are consistent with research on reading intervention, where it was found that intensive intervention with poor readers improves their accuracy, but not their rate performance.