Reading & Other Learning Disabilities

The RAVE-O Program

Guest Post

by

Melissa Orkin, M.A.

Clinical Fellow

Center for Reading and Language Research, Tufts University

As a Clinical Fellow at the Center for Reading and Language Research (CRLR) at Tufts University, I regularly speak with parents who are frustrated with the development of their child’s reading skills. Many of the families have children who have been diagnosed with reading disabilities yet others have found that although their children can adequately sound out words, they are struggling with fluency and comprehension.

Our approach to reading instruction at the CRLR is based on all we know about how inter-connected processes in the brain contribute to reading development. Over the last two decades, significant advances in brain imaging have provided a clearer picture about the neural network that contribute to an individual’s “reading circuit” (Tan, Spinks, Eden Perfetti, & Siok, 2005; Sandak, Mencl, Frost, & Pugh, 2004). This picture reveals that in order to fluently read and comprehend text it is necessary to activate many aspects of a child’s visual and linguistic knowledge. In other words everything the child knows about oral language contributes to the development of written language (Wolf, Gottwald & Orkin, 2009).

Consider the processes involved in analyzing a single word like “duck.” Within milliseconds of being presented with the word, readers are required to activate visual memory in order to recognize letters; phonological knowledge to connect the letters with their corresponding sounds; vocabulary to determine the most likely meaning of the word; and grammatical understanding to ascertain the function of the word in the sentence.

As our understanding of the reading brain has deepened, we have employed this knowledge to inform our approach to reading instruction and remediation. Over ten years ago, the CRLR created the RAVE-O (Reading, Automaticity, Vocabulary, Engagement & Orthography) program, an innovative reading curriculum whose purpose is to teach the young reading brain how to build up and connect multiple sources of visual, cognitive, and linguistic information and rapidly retrieve them during reading (Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001). By combining some of the best existing teaching practices with newly-designed strategies, the program systematically addresses the following component skills necessary for fluent reading and comprehension:

Phonological awareness. This refers to an individual’s knowledge of the sound structure of spoken words. Proficiency in phonological awareness, or the ability to segment and blend sounds, is necessary to “sound out” most words during reading. Each lesson in RAVE-O begins with a phonological review of the sounds in targeted words to ensure a strong sound/symbol understanding.

Orthographic Knowledge. . This consists of an understanding of how specific sounds map onto letters. In RAVE-O we not only emphasize the sounds of individual letters but also pay special attention to letter patterns, particularly the onsets “d” and rhymes patterns “uck” in words.  By attending to “chunks” of words rather than individual sounds a reader can more quickly recognize and read a word.

Semantic Knowledge. This refers to both the size of an individual’s vocabulary and also the strength and depth of his/her word knowledge. Locker, Simpson & Yates (2003) found that the more knowledgeable children are about a word, its multiple meanings, and various pragmatic and syntactic contexts of use, the more rapidly the word is processed during reading. One prominent feature of the RAVE-O program is its emphasis on the multiple meanings of words in various contexts. Consider the multiple meanings of the word “duck”. When functioning as a noun, it represents a web-footed, swimming bird; as a verb, it means to avoid. In fact, a great many of the most common children’s words are equally polysemous and may pose comprehension challenges if not fully understood.

Syntactic Knowledge. This refers to both the understanding of how words are used within different grammatical or syntactic contexts. It is essential for the child’s fluency and comprehension. RAVE-O instructors regularly lead children in discussions about the role of words in text. These conversations are particularly helpful in discerning between verbs, nouns and adjectives and as a result foster deeper comprehension among struggling readers.

Morphological Awareness. This refers to the conventions that govern word formation, and the ways in which roots and affixes create new word meanings. For example, adding the suffix morpheme “s” to the root “duck” creates a plural noun, while adding “ed” results in the past verb form “ducked”. Morphological awareness is important in reading because it clarifies the role the word plays in sentence structure which helps determine its meaning, and as a result aids in comprehension. In RAVE-O students are explicitly taught the importance of morphemes through the introduction of specific suffixes or “ender benders” which help children quickly recognize common endings and further understand their impact on a word’s meaning.

In short, RAVE-O’s basic premise is that the more the child knows about a word, the faster the word is decoded, retrieved, and comprehended. As parents and educators strive to provide students with instruction that is effective in fostering the development of fluent comprehension, it is important to consider a student’s performance in all the componential skills listed above. This information will not only provide a more complete reading profile but should also inform an educator’s approach to remediation. At the end of all our efforts, we want to help children learn to read fluently enough so that they have time not only to comprehend the text, but also to think their own thoughts.

To learn more about the Center for Reading and Language Research and RAVE-O visit http://ase.tufts.edu/crlr

References

Locker, L., Simpson, G. & Yates, M. (2003). Semantic neighborhood effects on the recognition of ambiguous words. Memory & Cognition, 31(4), 505-515.

Sandak, R., Mencl, W.E., Frost, S.J., & Pugh, K.R. (2004) The neurological basis of skilled and impaired reading: Recent findings and new directions. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8(3), 273-292.

Tan, L.H., Spinks, J.A., Eden, G.F., Perfetti, C.C., and Siok, W.T. (2005). Reading depends on writing in Chinese. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (24) 8781-8785.

Wolf, M., Gottwald, S., & Orkin, M (2009). Serious word play: how multiple linguistic emphases in RAVE-O instruction improve multiple reading skills. Perspectives in Language and Literacy.

Wolf, M. & Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001).  Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 211-239.

Author

Melissa Orkin, M.A. is a doctoral student in the Applied Child Development Department at Tufts University working with Dr. Maryanne Wolf. Currently she is a graduate research assistant and clinical fellow at the Center for Reading and Language Research. Melissa received a B.A. from Arizona State University and an M.A. in Applied Child Development from Tufts University. She has worked as a Reading Specialist in the classroom and as an Educational Clinician in private practices throughout the Boston area. Her research interests focus on how emotions affect motivation and learning. More specifically, she is investigating the ways in which the beliefs and goals of children with reading disabilities relate to their ability to handle academic challenges.

Editor

Howard Margolis, Ed.D.

http://www.reading2008.com/blog