Article Published: Individual Differences in Kindergarten Through Grade 2 Fluency Relations

Individual Differences in Kindergarten Through Grade 2 Fluency Relations.
Despite long-standing interest in reading fluency, little has been documented about the specific factors that developmentally contribute to individual differences. Consequently, precursory relations were longitudinally examined for students grouped at the end of Grade 2 as low, average, or high fluency readers to describe early alphabetic and word fluency contributions to later passage reading fluency outcomes.

Using structural equation modeling, we modeled Kindergarten letter sounds, Grade 1 word reading, and Grade 2 passage reading fluency with 2302 students to identify early fluency differences in the emergence and growth of beginning reading skills for each fluency group. We compared initial level and growth slope estimates, and reported cross-year developmental fluency relation patterns by group. In general, our findings point to the importance of building letter sound fluency in kindergarten, and shed light on the disruptive impact of delayed skill progress on reinforcing relations during reading skills development.
Sáez,  L.,  Nese,  J.  F.  T.,  Alonzo,  J.,  &  Tindal,  G.  (2016).  Individual differences in kindergarten through grade 2 fluency
relations.  Learning and Individual Differences, 49, 100-109.     FluencyDiffGrK-2_Saez_Nese_ETAL