Sight word acquisition in first grade students at risk for reading disabilities: an item-level exploration of the number of exposures required for mastery.

This study explored factors predicting the number of exposures required for item reading mastery (N = 145 words). Specifically, we explored how the number of word exposures required to reach mastery varied as a function of linguistic features of the words and cognitive characteristics of the students. Using item-level crossed-random effects models, we found students required an average of 5.65 exposures for mastery, with word features representing word length, vocabulary grade, and imageability being significant predictors of learning efficiency. We also found a significant interaction between pretest word reading skill and imageability of a word, with this semantic feature being especially important for the poorest readers. Results indicate that in the absence of typical word recognition skills, poor readers tend to rely on other sources of information to learn words, which tend to be related to the semantic features of words. PMID: 32556795 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Annals of Dyslexia - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Ann Dyslexia Source Type: research