The growth trajectories of oral and silent word reading fluency before and after COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose

We examined the growth of word-reading fluency (oral and silent) in two cohorts of English-speaking Canadian children in Grades 1 to 4 and whether the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on it.

Method

The first cohort comprised 997 children (49% females) who were in Grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 in September 2018. The second cohort comprised 797 children (48% females) who were in Grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 in September 2020. Each cohort was assessed five times on a measure of oral word-reading fluency (Test of Sight Word Reading Efficiency) and on a measure of silent word-reading fluency (Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency).

Results

Results of multigroup latent basis growth modeling showed that whereas oral word-reading fluency followed decelerating growth from Grades 1 to 4, silent word-reading fluency showed slower growth in Grade 1 and prolonged growth thereafter. Our results further showed that although children's initial performance levels were slightly lower after the school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, their growth in both oral and silent word-reading fluency was generally faster after the schools reopened, catching up with the pre-pandemic levels of children's reading fluency.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that silent and oral word-reading fluency may differ not only in their predictors (as shown in previous studies), but also in their growth trajectories. COVID-19 impacted not only the initial performance levels, but also the growth trajectories in oral and silent word-reading fluency.