Two hundred second- to fifth-grade students (aged approximately 7 to 11 yea
rs) spent 29 h in a computer-assisted remedial reading program that compare
d benefits from accurate, speech-supported reading in context, with and wit
hout explicit phonological training. Children in the "accurate-reading-in-c
ontext" condition spent 22 individualized computer hours reading stories an
d 7 small-group hours learning comprehension strategies. Children in the "p
honological-analysis" condition learned phonological strategies in 7 small-
group hours, and divided their computer time between phonological exercises
and story reading. Phonologically trained children gained more in phonolog
ical skills and untimed word reading; children with more contextual reading
gained more in time-limited word reading. Lower level readers gained more,
and benefited more from phonological training, than higher level readers.
In follow-up testing, most children maintained or improved their levels, bu
t not their rates, of training gains. Phonologically trained children score
d higher on phonological decoding, but children in both conditions scored e
quivalently on word reading. (C) 2000 Academic Press.