How Simple is the Simple View of Reading?

Abstract

According to the Simple View of Reading, reading ability can be divided into decoding and language comprehension. In the present study, decoding and comprehension's contribution to reading ability was studied both in children with reading difficulties and in children with typical reading ability. Decoding and comprehension was further divided into sub-components, and the contribution from non-verbal ability and general processing speed was also studied. The results demonstrated that decoding made the largest contribution to reading ability for children with reading difficulties, while language comprehension contributed the most for children with typical reading ability. The contribution of non-verbal ability was not significant, and general processing speed only made a significant contribution to decoding for typical children. The two factors in the Simple View of Reading, decoding and comprehension, together explained less of the variance in reading ability for children with reading difficulties than for children with typical reading ability.

Keywords:

• reading ability
• decoding
• language comprehension
• Simple View of Reading

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the participating schools, special education teachers and children. The procedures followed when carrying out this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee of human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1983.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stefan Gustafson

Stefan Gustafson, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University

Christina Samuelsson

Christina Samuelsson, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University

Ellinor Johansson

Ellinor Johansson, Habilitation Centre in eastern Östergötland, County Council of Östergötland, Sweden

Julia Wallmann

Julia Wallmann, Department of Communication Disorders, Daneryd Hospital, Sweden.