Oral Reading Miscues and Their Relation to Silent Reading Comprehension in Children With and Without Learning Disabilities

Abstract

Oral reading fluency (ORF) has been widely used as a measure of students’ overall reading competency. However, accuracy, or words correct per minute (wcpm), derived from ORF testing may not reveal all aspects of a student’s reading abilities. The present study investigated the oral reading miscue patterns of students with and without learning disabilities (LD). In addition, the predictability of oral reading miscues on silent reading comprehension performance was examined. Using the Gray Oral Reading Tests-Fifth Edition miscue coding system to categorize students’ oral reading miscues, study findings suggest that there are differences in the oral reading miscue patterns of students with and without LD. Moreover, two miscue categories, function similarity and meaning similarity, significantly predicted silent reading comprehension performance. The discussion focuses on how incorporating oral reading miscue analysis along with rate and accuracy can add a layer of information to help teachers in their decision-making for instructional alignment.