I received an inquiry from a school-based reading interventionist, who expressed that she felt confident in her use of Orton-Gillingham instruction and has seen positive results. But she wrote that she sees some students who continue to struggle with reading fluency. When asked to read longer passages, her students continue to make errors on function words, and they may skip lines or start to paraphrase. These same students often do better with fluency at the level of the phrase or sentence. She was curious as to the current research about effective best practices that result in significant gains in reading fluency.

father and son read a book together on the couch

You can find a considerable body of literature about reading fluency if you search under Dr. Maryanne Wolf. In an informative, succinct booklet, Hasbrouck and Glaser define reading fluency as "reasonable accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable expression, that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read" (p. 9). This definition gets at the key components to becoming a fluent reader—accuracy, rate, expression, and comprehension (i.e., the ultimate goal of reading).

It is important to have realistic goals for our students with dyslexia/reading disorder regarding reading rate. Hasbrouck and Tindal (2017) reported typical readers’ oral reading fluency rates (at the 50th percentile) to equal 100 words correct per minute (WCPM) at the end of 2nd grade and 133 WCPM at the end of 4th grade. O'Connor (2018) found that the ideal range for students with dyslexia/reading disorder relative to comprehension of written material was 35-75 WCPM in 2nd grade and 40-90 WCPM in 4th grade, much slower than typical readers. Reading at faster rates had no advantage regarding understanding what they'd read, which, as I noted above, is the reason we read. These data demonstrate that our students with reading disorder are likely going to be slower than their peers. We do not want to sacrifice comprehension by having students just read faster. These data also provide evidence for the need for an accommodation of additional time to complete literacy-related tasks for our students with dyslexia.

The first step to gaining fluency is being able to decode unfamiliar words, which a structured literacy approach, such as Orton-Gillingham, addresses. We want students to engage in enough practice to develop automatic recognition of words that have been encountered many times, including those that are often referred to as red words or sight words (though we want all words to become sight words, not just those that are high frequency and may be spelled in irregular ways). We need to provide students with repeated opportunities to read those words in connected text -- at the phrase level, sentence level, and paragraph levels. While typical readers will learn a word after 12-20 meaningful exposures (McKeown, Beck, Omanson, & Pople, 1985), students with reading disorder need up to 40 exposures (i.e., nearly twice as much) before the word becomes part of their corpus of sight words (Handler & Fierson, 2011; McCormick & Zutell, 2014). Students need to hear us read as well – we can model appropriate use of prosody, inflection, and phrasing (e.g., pausing at punctuation). We can use these opportunities to teach students techniques such as “scooping” modeled in the Wilson Reading System, which encompasses how to group words into chunks or phrases to make reading less choppy and more fluid.

Repeated readings have long been shown to be helpful with improving reading fluency, as is having students track (chart) their own progress. Echo reading and choral reading are other techniques that can be helpful. Students should engage in daily practice with reading connected texts that are at their instructional level (i.e., at a level where they are able to read 95-97% of the text independently). One authentic way to have our students with dyslexia work on reading fluency is to pair them with a younger student with whom they can read -- the reading buddy format. The older student can practice reading the book during intervention until they are comfortable with the text. We do need to be mindful that we do not pair the student with dyslexia with a young precocious reader!

Every one of my clients is reading a book with me. Rosalie Fink found that successful adults with dyslexia reported that they learned to read by pursuing areas of interest, so whenever possible, I involve my students in choosing the text, which is not always an option when we must read an assigned book. Tackling a longer story, chapter book, or research article with support helps students understand that they should not be intimidated by longer texts and helps build self-confidence. I may be doing the reading exclusively, the student and I may take turns reading aloud, or we could be listening to audio text (or any combination). We discuss using our understanding of the orthographic rules and decoding strategies (e.g., peeling off affixes from the root/base, flexing the vowel, flexing syllable stress) when we come across a word that they have trouble decoding. If they come across a word that they correctly decoded but is not yet in their vocabulary, we use our device (e.g., phone, tablet, laptop) to search for the pronunciation or definition of a word. In addition to modeling fluent reading, reading books aloud with students also gives me the opportunity to model and teach effective reading comprehension strategies.

"Popcorn" reading can be a great way to build fluency and give students a sense of control at the same time. One person begins reading aloud (I give my students a choice as to who will start), and then they “pop” it over to me (or the next person) whenever they want. Admittedly, sometimes I have to set the parameters, or they will opt to pop after reading only a phrase or sentence when they are quite capable of reading much more. So, I set the minimum at the outset (e.g., read an entire paragraph or page). Some students like to read dialogue (which is great for working on expression) while I read the other portions of the text. I have one student who never pops but knows that the option is available.

Having students track their progress provides data that can be shared with them. Track WCPM. There are many instruments to monitor progress. For example, I like the Qualitative Reading Inventory – 6 (QRI-6), and I involve my students (the older ones for sure) in evaluating the data. You can also simply track the re-readings of a familiar text.

Knowing that our readers with dyslexia will likely always be slower than their typical-reading peers calls for the use of assistive technology, including text-to-speech software. We need to teach students how to effectively use audiobooks and text-to-speech software. In addition to being exposed to the content, audiobooks allow the students to listen to fluent reading. If the student is tracking the text along with the audio, then they are also getting those much-needed exposures to the printed word. Bookshare and Learning Ally (referenced here) are good options. More information about reading fluency can be found here.

In short, the way to improve a student’s reading fluency skills is to have them read text where they can decode the majority of the words and to read text over again…and again. We should model fluent reading. We should ensure that students are comprehending the text. Their subsequent success will then, hopefully, foster an interest in and motivation for reading on their own. Students should know that people with dyslexia often read more slowly than their peers without dyslexia, but it doesn't mean that they're not good readers. A good reader can just as much be a person who devours loads of books and learns from them all...and with their eyes closed!

Dr. Pierson is, once again, grateful to her co-founder of 3LI , Dr. Lauren Katz, for her careful read of and contribution to this piece.