Christopher Newport University, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Newport News, VA 23606, USA.
Newport News Public Schools, 2465 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, VA 23606, USA.
Res Dev Disabil. 2019 May;88:42-52. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2019.01.011. Epub 2019 Mar 6.
Dominant explanations of reading fluency indicate automatic phonological decoding frees mental resources for processing meaning. However, decoding automaticity does not guarantee attention to meaning. Recent neurocognitive work suggests executive functioning (EF) may contribute to fluency beyond decoding automaticity.
Two studies examined contributions of an understudied EF, cognitive flexibility, to fluent reading and tested a teacher-administered EF intervention to improve fluency in teacher-identified low-achieving (LA) readers.
Study 1 assessed word reading fluency, automatic decoding, reading comprehension, verbal and nonverbal ability, and reading-specific and domain-general cognitive flexibility in 50 1st and 2nd grade typically-developing (TD) readers. Study 2 compared TD and LA readers' cognitive flexibility and examined effectiveness of cognitive flexibility intervention for improving fluency in 33 LA 2nd and 3rd graders.
Reading-specific flexibility contributed to fluency beyond automatic decoding and all other control variables in TD readers who had significantly higher cognitive flexibility than LA readers. Teacher-administered EF intervention improved reading fluency for LA readers.
These findings expand understanding of the neurocognitive basis of reading fluency and add to the growing body of evidence that EF underlies learning differences and serves as a useful target of intervention for LA students.
阅读流畅性的主流解释表明，自动语音解码为处理意义释放了心理资源。然而，解码的自动性并不能保证对意义的关注。最近的神经认知研究表明，执行功能（EF）可能会对流畅性做出超越解码自动性的贡献。
两项研究考察了一个研究较少的 EF（认知灵活性）对流畅阅读的贡献，并测试了一项教师实施的 EF 干预，以提高教师确定的阅读困难（LA）学生的阅读流畅性。
研究 1 在 50 名 1 年级和 2 年级的典型发展（TD）读者中评估了单词阅读流畅性、自动解码、阅读理解、言语和非言语能力以及阅读特定和领域通用的认知灵活性。研究 2 比较了 TD 和 LA 读者的认知灵活性，并考察了认知灵活性干预对提高 33 名 LA 2 年级和 3 年级学生阅读流畅性的有效性。
在认知灵活性明显高于 LA 读者的 TD 读者中，阅读特定的灵活性对流畅性的贡献超过了自动解码和所有其他控制变量。教师实施的 EF 干预提高了 LA 读者的阅读流畅性。
这些发现扩展了对阅读流畅性神经认知基础的理解，并为 EF 是学习差异的基础，并为 LA 学生提供了一个有用的干预目标的不断增加的证据提供了补充。
