Examining the Serial Advantage in Fluent and Dysfluent Readers

Abstract

We examined how the relation between serial and discrete reading/naming rate reveals cognitive processes that underlie reading fluency success and failure. Our sample included 87 children scoring above the 35th percentile (fluent readers) and 36 scoring below the 16th percentile (dysfluent readers) on a word-reading fluency test. All children were in Grade 3 and had adequate reading accuracy (standard score above the 25th percentile). The experimental tasks included serial and discrete reading of one-syllable, high-frequency words and serial and discrete digit naming. The results showed that all children performed better in the serial than the discrete naming/reading tasks. The fluent readers outperformed the dysfluent readers in all tasks. Moreover, among the fluent readers, serial reading was best predicted by serial naming. In contrast, serial reading was best predicted by discrete word reading among the dysfluent readers. Overall, the findings indicate that among readers with adequate accuracy, differences in fluency are associated with whether multiword reading aligns more strongly with serial naming or with individual word recognition, suggesting that dysfluent performance may reflect greater reliance on item-by-item processing and reduced efficiency in coordinating processing across successive words.