EVOLUTION OF READING SPEED OVER THE FIRST CYCLE OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Abstract

Reading speed is an important competence to be evaluated, given its correlation with fluency and reading comprehension. The latter, the main objective of reading, is fundamental to learning and good school development. The objective of this work is to follow the evolution and development of oral reading speed throughout the first cycle of fundamental education, through a longitudinal study, through comparisons between the reading level of a given year with the subsequent year. The sample consisted of 40 children in typical development, evaluated from the 2º to the 6º year of elementary school, and the reading speed was calculated by the number of words read per minute. The results showed high statistical significance, confirming the hypothesis that this speed increases with the advancement of schooling. The greatest increase occurred between the 2º and 3º grades of elementary school, suggesting that students, despite still reading primarily through the phonological route, begin the reading process through the lexical route at this stage, which is improved throughout schooling. However, the increments in reading speed are smaller and smaller as the child advances to the following years, which may be related to vocabulary stabilization and the pattern of development of executive functions related to language processing. The high statistical significance revealed demonstrates that reading speed can be a good indicator of difficulties in this area, serving as a parameter for identifying children at risk for a specific reading disorder (dyslexia).