Becoming a Skilled Reader

A child must be able to do more than decode single words to become a skilled or fluent reader. This book explores the psychology of that process. Although it includes a summary of how children learn to read words, it concentrates on the development of reading comprehension. A distinction is made between the problems of poor word decoding and poor comprehension in children. The authors analyse both the skills of fluent adult readers and the development of children's language from the age of five when most are starting to read. Against this background they survey psychological research into the way children understand text, and discuss the differences between good and poor comprehenders. The book concludes with a chapter on the educational implications of this research, which discusses how comprehension problems can be identified, and how professional aids, training and remediation can help.

Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 2 The skilled adult reader 7 3 Language development beyond the age of five 36 4 Learning to read words 67 5 Learning to understand text 103 6 Educational implications 144 Afterword 172 References 174 Index of authors 198 Index of subjects 204