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Reading Rates of Young Braille-Reading Children

D.P Wormsley

In 1978-79, the author conducted research on young braille-reading students in a residential program (Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind) and in a resource room program in a public school (the Overbrook Education Center, housed at Overbrook School for the Blind). The purpose of the research was to determine whether a training program in hand movements that the author had developed would increase the children's reading rates. The training program was based on a task analysis of the most efficient way to move one's hands while reading. The lessons provided training in the use of this most efficient hand-movement pattern without requiring any perception or recognition of characters.

The research was conducted over a school year, starting in September, with baseline data on 22 children collected once a month for five months. The four-week training program was implemented between months five and six, and then data continued to be collected once a month for three more months. The data were collected by videotaping each child's hands while the child read orally for five minutes. From the audiotaped portion, a words-per-minute reading rate was calculated, as well as a "correct words-per-minute" reading rate; the aims of the latter calculations were to ensure that the students had a basic understanding of what they read and to determine any impact the training program might have on the accuracy of the students' reading.

Observers coded the videotapes every six seconds and recorded the hand-movement pattern being used and any hand-movement characteristics (such as single regressions, multiple regressions, scrubbing motions, searching motions, erratic movements, and pauses) they observed. Because no significant changes in the children's hand movements were observed after the children received training, no increase in the reading rates that were observed could be attributed to the effects of the training program. The details of the training program and the data collection for hand movements are presented in Wormsley (1979).

Much later, the author realized that in addition to data on changes in hand movements, she had also collected information over the course of a school year about the oral reading rates of these 22 braille-reading children. Although the data are old, the information fills a gap by identifying the reading rates of children at various ages with various years of instruction in braille reading. Little research on reading rates has been done since the last major study conducted by Lowenfeld, Abel, and Hatlen (1969). The information presented here on a child-by-child basis allows one to see progress during a school year, which previous studies were not always able to do.

Table 1 presents information on the 22 children, aged 6-12, who used braille as their primary reading medium and had no physical disabilities that would affect their hand control. The data are arranged by years of instruction in braille reading, to see the effects of increasing years of reading instruction on reading rates, and within the years of instruction, by the age of the children, on the assumption that as children get older and have more years of braille instruction, their reading rates also increase. The table also includes the reported IQ scores of children (when available); these scores are the highest ones attained (many children had taken multiple tests). It seems that there may be a correlation between IQ and reading rates. Table 2 presents a comparison of the top four highest reading rates and the lowest four reading rates.

As Table 2 indicates, although the highest rates all correspond with IQs over 100 and the lowest rates all correspond with IQs under 100, it is obvious that the reading rates correlate more closely with years of instruction in braille reading. In fact, the highest IQ score of this group-134-was by a 6 year old whose highest reading rate was only 46 words per minute because he had only one year of instruction in braille. The small number of children involved in this study simply did not permit an analysis of the correlation between reading rates and IQ, but these results demonstrate the need to keep the number of years of braille instruction constant when attempting to obtain such a correlation.

In Table 1, the numbers in the column entitled "Hand Movement" reflect the predominant hand-movement category in use during the eight months of record keeping. They reflect the following hand-movement patterns:

> 1. right-handed reading 2 left-handed reading 3. both hands used with the right hand reading and the left hand used as marker 4. both hands parallel in reading, as well as in return movements 5. both hands together until near the end of the line, with the left hand returning to find the next line as the right goes to meet the left at the margin when finished reading the previous line 6. both hands reading, with the left reading from the beginning of the line as the right returns from reading the end of the previous line and both meeting in approximately the middle of the line and then separating.

Table 1 Demographic information on the 22 braille-reading students.
Child Number | Years of Braille | Age (years-months) | IQ | Hand Movement | Reading rate
14 | 1 | 6-10 | 134 | 4/5 | 28-46
13 | 1 | 7-10 | 77 | 2 | 17
17 | 1.5 | 11-4 | 100 | 4/5 | 15-49
16 | 2 | 7-4 | 104 | 4 | 28-48
21 | 2 | 7-8 | -- | 2/4 | 16-23
2 | 5 | 8-1 | 118 | 4 | 31-46
5 | 2 | 8-6 | 120 | 3 | 33-48
15 | 2 | 8-7 | 95 | 4 | 10-21
22 | 2 | 8-7 | 74 | 4/5 | 17-43
8 | 2 | 10-9 | 82 | 5/4 | 12-55
19 | 2 | 11-3 | 93 | 4/5 | 9-30
12 | 3 | 9-2 | 88 | 5/4 | 49-63
11 | 4 | 8-3 | 112 | 3 | 35-54
10 | 4 | 9-1 | 106 | 5/6 | 101-145
20 | 4 | 10-3 | 105 | 4/5 | 18-41
6 | 4 | 10-6 | 125 | 5/6 | 58-91
9 | 4 | 10-8 | 84 | 5 | 17-69
4 | 4 | 12-1 | 94 | 4 | 36-64
18 | 5 | 10-8 | -- | 3 | 27-62
3 | 5 | 11-1 | 97 | 6 | 89-115
1 | 5 | 11-4 | 85 | 4 | 21-33
7 | 5 | 11-8 | 120 | 5/6 | 63-115

When two numbers are listed in the column, the first hand-movement pattern occurred more frequently; however, the second pattern was recorded as the dominant hand-movement pattern at least twice over the eight-month period.

The reading rate is the range of reading rates recorded during the eight-month period. It was obtained from the actual number of words read during a three-month interval (the middle three minutes of a five-minute passage), divided by three. The ranges reported in Table 1 are a good indication of how broad these ranges can actually be. At each recording, the children read (orally) passages with which they were familiar (they had read them at least once with their reading teachers). No attempt was made to assess the difficulty of the passages using any readability formula. However, the passages reflected the types of instructional reading materials that the students were using in their reading classes.

As was previously reported in the literature on hand movements (Birns, 1976; Kusajima, 1974; Lorimer, 1972), Category 6 is associated with the fastest reading rates. Four of the 22 children exhibited this category as a predominant hand-movement pattern. These children all had at least four years of braille instruction and tended to be older, more experienced readers. The author believes, on the basis of the data that were collected, that as children's perceptual ability in each hand increases because of practice reading, the hands become more and more independent, which leads to the use of both hands independently in reading.

Table 2 The four highest and four lowest reading rates, by years of braille instruction and IQ scores.
Four highest reading rates
Child number | Highest reading rate obtained | Number of years of instruction | IQ score
10 | 145 | 4 | 106
7 | 115 | 5 | 120
3 | 115 | 5 | 97
6 | 91 | 4 | 125
Four lowest reading rates
19 | 30 | 2 | 82
21 | 23 | 2 | --
15 | 21 | 2 | 95
13 | 17 | 1 | 77

The children gradually progress from Category 4 to Category 5 and eventually to Category 6. However, some children may never reach Category 6 because they prefer to use one hand over another or lack tactile sensitivity in one hand. Research to determine whether the use of Category 6 develops gradually and what can facilitate the use of this pattern would involve far more subjects than were in this study.

Table 3

Table 3 shows the actual reading rates recorded for each child. Although one might predict a steady increase in reading rates over the school year, it did not always occur. Probing for reading rates in this study was done only once a month.

Teachers can perform the exact same type of analysis and obtain a wealth of information on the oral reading rates of their students on a much more frequent basis than this.

Table 3 Oral reading rates of young braille-reading children (N=22).
Child | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | April | Range
14 | * | 28 | 37 | * | 37 | 35 | 45 | 46 | 28-46
13 | * | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | ** | 17 | 17
17 | 15 | 33 | 31 | 30 | 43 | 43 | 49 | 46 | 15-49
16 | 33 | 28 | * | * | 28 | 35 | 32 | 48 | 28-48
21 | 16 | 23 | 19 | * | 19 | * | 19 | 19 | 16-23
2 | 36 | 33 | * | 31 | 34 | 34 | * | 46 | 31-46
5 | 33 | 39 | 45 | 47 | 40 | 30 | 40 | 48 | 33-48
8 | 17 | 15 | 14 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 21 | -- | 10-21
22 | * | 21 | 34 | 17 | 34 | 22 | 30 | 43 | 17-43
6 | 12 | 27 | 22 | 37 | 39 | 30 | 32 | 55 | 12-55
19 | * | 15 | 25 | 22 | 16 | 16 | 9 | 30 | 9-30
12 | 51 | 49 | 55 | 53 | 51 | 56 | 59 | 63 | 49-63
11 | 35 | 41 | 40 | * | 54 | 47 | 50 | 42 | 35-54
10 | 133 | 134 | 126 | 145 | 137 | 101 | 107 | 138 | 101-145
20 | 18 | * | 38 | 23 | 41 | 36 | 37 | * | 18-41
6 | 59 | 58 | 68 | 87 | 91 | 88 | 77 | 74 | 58-91
9 | 17 | 36 | 62 | 46 | 49 | 32 | * | 69 | 17-69
4 | 49 | 37 | 51 | 36 | 64 | 47 | 63 | 64 | 36-64
18 | 27 | 42 | 29 | 48 | 62 | 43 | * | 39 | 27-62
3 | 115 | 89 | 99 | 101 | * | 91 | 93 | * | 89-115
1 | 25 | 24 | 29 | 26 | 26 | 33 | 21 | 24 | 21-33
7 | 103 | 75 | 86 | 115 | 63 | 97 | 106 | 100 | 63-115

* Absent

** Unable to obtain a reading rate.

This type of classroom research by teachers would yield invaluable information about the progress that might be expected of blind children who are learning braille as their primary reading medium. In the meantime, this Research Note has presented some information against which teachers can compare the reading rates of their own young braille-reading students.

(This Research Note was not peer reviewed.)

REFERENCES

Bims, S. (1976). Review of literature on braille reading. New Outlook for the Blind, 70, 392-397.

Kusajima, T. (1974). Visual reading and braille reading: An experimental investigation of the physiology and psychology of visual and tactual reading. New York: American Foundation for the Blind.

Lorimer, J. (1972). A summary of research in braille reading. Teacher of the Blind, 60, 106-1 1 0.

Lowenfeld, B., Abel, G.L., & Hatlen, P.H. (1969). Blind children learn to read. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.

Wormsley, D.P. (1979). The effects of a hand movement training program on the hand movements and reading rates of young braille readers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh (University Microfilms International N. 8004847).

Diane P Wormsley, Ph.D., education manager, Overbrook School for the Blind, 6333 Malvern Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151-2597,- E-mail: WUPC12A@prodigy.com.