Individual differences in gains from computer-assisted remedial reading

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.