Comprehending Comprehension: Episode 3

Topic: Does the Science of Reading Neglect Comprehension? In our Comprehending Comprehension Episode 3 on August 26th, 2021, we had a lively conversation with many interactive audience members. It was incredibly fun and thanks to all who joined us! I think my favorite part was that we had such a diverse group of participants. Researchers, speech-language pathologists, behavior analysts, teachers, and even parents joined in the conversation. We are huge advocates of examining problems from multiple perspectives so that solutions are innovative, collaborative, and comprehensive. Please stay in the conversation so we can continue to learn from your insights and experiences. Must Reads Dewitz, P., & Graves, M. F. (2021). The science of reading: Four forces that modified, distorted, or ignored the research finding on reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 56, S131-S144. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.389 Hindman, A. H., Morrison, F. J., Connor, C. M., & Connor, J. A. (2020). Bringing the science of reading to preservice elementary teachers: Tools that bridge research and practice. Reading Research Quarterly, 55, S197-S206. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.345 References Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5-51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618772271 Dickinson, D. K., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2010). Speaking out for language: Why language is central to reading development. Educational Researcher, 39(4), 305-310. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X10370204 Tunmer, W. E., & Chapman, J. W. (2012). The simple view of reading redux: Vocabulary knowledge and the independent components hypothesis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45(5), 453-466. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219411432685 Footnote 1. Tunmer and Chapman (2012) found that oral language (i.e., vocabulary) influences decoding ability to some extent. However, oral language skills are most useful for recognizing irregular words (i.e., words that do not follow phonetic spelling rules) whereas phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge are the most efficient and effective resources for decoding text.