Automaticity as an Intervention for Improving Reading in Children - Research Paper Example

? Automati as an Intervention for improving reading in children . Contents Contents 2 3 Introduction 4 Importance of Fluent Reading 4 Components of Fluent Reading 5 Accuracy of word Decoding 5 Automaticity 6 Prosody of oral text 6 Purpose of the Study 7 Methodology 7 Literature Review& Discussions 9 The Automaticity Theory of Reading Fluency 9 Importance of Automaticity 10 Situational Reading Fluency 11 Stages of Reading Development 11 Ways to Increase Automaticity 13 Increasing Sight word Recognition 13 Repeated Oral Reading 14 Independent Reading 16 Audio-Visual Strategies 17 Paired Reading 18 Student Adult Reading 18 Speed Drills 19 Air Writing 20 Developing anticipation 20 Implications 21 Further Research 22 Conclusion 23 References 24 Abstract Reading fluency is the ability to decode words effectively without any effort and to comprehend what has been said in the text. Reading fluency can be said to be the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Automaticity or the ability to decode words automatically without and concentrated efforts on the part of our brain is extremely important to comprehension. Automaticity frees up our mental capacities for comprehension. Thus the lack of automaticity can be disastrous for the reading abilities in children. This research paper discusses the importance of automaticity in fluent reading among children. Once the importance of automaticity has been established, the paper goes on to search the literature about the various methods available to increase reading automaticity. Research done by various eminent researchers has been used in order to find out the best ways of increasing automaticity among children. These ways have been listed won and then discussion has been provided on the intervention techniques which are most effective and successful for improving automaticity and reading fluency. Introduction Importance of Fluent Reading The Ability to read properly and fluently is one of the basic needs of successful human beings. Reading is one of the basic ways in which information is disseminated from one human being to another. It not only helps in the success of a single individual but also helps in the moving forward of our civilization. On the basis of scientific researches various government programs such as No child left behind, Reading First and the National Reading Panel have all all concluded that fluency is an important component of effective reading (National Reading panel, 2000). Thus it is apparent that the ability to read fluently is one of the basic attributes which is required from a child. However it is surprising that many children are not able to do it properly due to which they lag behind their entire lives. The National Assessment of Educational Progress in its report of 2011 claims 68% of students in the fourth and eighth grade scored basic or below in the benchmark reading assessments. These reports are even more thought provoking for some states like Arkansas where 70% of students of the fourth grade and 72% of the eight grades scored below the benchmark for effective reading (National Assesement of Educational Progress, 2011). This report presents a sorry state of affairs of the reading ability of our children. If children are not able to read properly, it is much more difficult for them to comprehend what has been read and apply it to problems. Reading fluency is the bridge between word decoding and comprehension (National Reading panel, 2000). Various scientific studies conducted by the National Reading Panels have come to the conclusion that reading fluency is essential in order to score well in the various state tests such as SAT which are the gateway to a good college degree and better life. Higher number of college graduates are absolutely necessary for USA in order to maintain the technological edge which it posses. At a time when India and China are threatening to take away our research jobs after already having taken away our back hand jobs ,we cannot afford to have children incapable of reading fluently pass out from our schools. The world has become a competitive place and our children need to learn to compete effectively. The beginning to this fight can be made if they are able to read and comprehend what has been read. All else comes after effective reading techniques have been learned by them. Components of Fluent Reading In order to answer the question how to improve reading among children, the first question which automatically comes to mind is that what is means by fluent reading? NICHD and Samuels define fluent reading as such – “Reading fluency is the ability to decode and comprehend text at the same time.” (Samuels, 2006) This is the definition of reading fluency which is used nowadays. This definition is an improvement upon earlier definition provided by Harris and Hodges in 1995 which claimed that reading fluency was only dependent upon effective word recognition (Harris & Hodges, 1995). The researchers have now proved it beyond doubt that effective word recognition is only one aspect of reading fluency. Another important aspect of reading fluency is the ability to sound natural. Fluent readers do not simple read from the text monotonously but they add emotion to the text as well as if it was being said by them. Thus fluent reading can be said to be composed of the following three components – Accuracy of word Decoding This refers to the ability of the reader to correctly generate phonological representation of each word. Accurate decoding is the basic essential element for fluent reading. It is necessary to build automaticity. According to Torgesen and Hudson in order to decode words effectively the student should be able to recognize alphabetic principles, should be able to blend sounds, be able to identify words in a text and should possess a large vocabulary (Torgesen & Hudson, 2006).Accurate word decoding is a necessary element in building up the next component of reading fluency which is automaticity. Automaticity Automaticity refers to the ability of a person to do a task automatically without putting any cognitive effort towards it. Examples include our ability to drive car , to walk without paying much attention to how we are doing it. Automaticity in reading refers to the ability to recognize words automatically and quickly without any effort or attention. Automaticity frees up or brain for other activities like text comprehension (Harris & Hodges, 1995).Automaticity is achieved once word decoding becomes fast and effortless. Thus automaticity requires 2 components – accurate and quick word recognition. Prosody of oral text This refers to reading the text in a natural manner with proper phrasing, expression, volume, pitch and intonation. A fluent reader does not simply read the text monotonously but reads it with proper expressions. Prosody serves as an indication that the student comprehends the text as they read. Prosody is an indication that the readers is able to comprehend the text as he reads it and is also able to help in providing better comprehension to the reader (Harris & Hodges, 1995) . Purpose of the Study Thus after defining the various aspects related to fluent reading and establishing the importance of fluent reading, we now come to the reason why this research is being conducted. With the help of this research we try to find out the effect of automaticity on reading. How do interventions aimed at improving automaticity help in improving reading in the children. This research will also answer the question as to what intervention techniques can be used for improving automaticity and how effective are they in improving reading among children. We know that automaticity is just one of the components among decoding, automaticity and prosody which is essential for fluent reading among children. So should the intervention strategies focus on automaticity or prosody? 1) Do Automaticity interventions improve reading in children? 2) What intervention strategies can be used to improve automaticity? Methodology Research methodology means the guideline which has been used in order to solve a problem. Research methodology is the way in which research has been conducted and conclusion about the research reached (Panneerselvam, 2004). The secondary research methodology has been adopted for this research. Research can be both primary and secondary. Primary research means conducting first hand research data in the form of questionnaires interviews or focused group interview in order to analyze a question. Primary research is conducted when sufficient research material is not available on the topic of study. Primary research is also more time consuming and expensive as compared to secondary research. Primary research should be only conducted after gaining insight into the question by conducting adequate amount of secondary research on the topic. If after a thorough amount of secondary research , we are not able to find adequate answers to our question or if some new invention needs to be validated then primary research should be conducted (Panneerselvam, 2004). Secondary research is also known as desk research. It does not involve primary data collection but is primarily concerned with analysis of the existing data and coming to a conclusion. It draws heavily on the research which has already been completed. Secondary research is both time and cost effective as it requires very less cost and time. Secondary research involves understanding the question and then using existing research which will be able to answer our research question effectively. However the disadvantage of secondary research is that the data which is used for the research may not be relevant, may be old or may provide an inaccurate picture. A researcher who is doing secondary research can be overwhelmed with the wealth of data on some subjects or may be frustrated by the lack of any data on some topics. Selection of relevant data in order to complete secondary research is very essential (Panneerselvam, 2004). In order to answer the research question which has been presented above we have used secondary research. This decision has been taken as adequate amount of research has already been done and a large amount of data is available in the public domain which can be analyzed to answer the research question presented above. Our aim has been to analyze if automaticity intervention helps in increasing the reading fluency of the children. As we are testing the efficiency of existing techniques and no new intervention technique has been developed in this research, it was felt that adequate amount of data and research is already available for completing this task. Hence no primary research was felt necessary regarding the topic. Literature Review& Discussions The Automaticity Theory of Reading Fluency LaBerge and Samuels are responsible for developing the Automaticity theory of reading. This theory was given by them in 1974.LaBerge and Samuels claim that an average human brain has limited attention capacity. As a result of this it is difficult for the human brain to focus on 2 or more activities and only 1 activity which requires attention can be done effectively. It is due to this limitation of the human brain that curbs are placed on texting or talking on the phone while driving .The human brain focuses on only 1 task effectively ad the second task is relegated into the background. If we are to do 2 things simultaneously then one of the 2 things needs to be automatic or it should not require attention by the brain. In the respect of reading, 2 activities are to be done simultaneously – decoding the words and comprehending the text (Laberge & Samuels, 1974). Samuel says that both decoding and comprehension are difficult tasks. In order to understand that decoding is also a difficult task he asks adults to read medical journal or the subject of any other journal like psychology where they are not aware of the words and would thus require a lot of time in decoding the words. For decoding and comprehension to take place simultaneously, one of them needs to become automatic. As comprehension differs from passage to passage, so only decoding can become automatic. If decoding does not become automatic the task of decoding uses almost all the attention of the brain leaving little for comprehension (Laberge & Samuels, 1974). In order to become automatic decoders, children must first learn the distinguishing features of letters and also words. With repeated practice, letters and words start being seen as one rather than separately. Practice helps the children in becoming automatic decoders with little brain attention being devoted to the task. This stage leads to automaticity with attention now being directed to comprehension of the text rather than understanding and decoding words. Importance of Automaticity As discussed in introduction there are three main components to fluent reading – word decoding, automaticity and Prosody of oral text. Jeanne Chall conducted a research in 1983 which says that children learn to read up to 2nd grade (Chall, 1983). After this they are expected to become fluent in reading and thus reading becomes an activity which is done in order to learn. She also concludes in her research that the text presented to children significantly becomes difficult as grade progresses , leaving little time for the children who are left behind to catch up. Her research shows that most students are able to decode but a significant number of them are not able to develop automaticity (Chall, 1983). The failure to develop automaticity means that text comprehension is low. Low text comprehension means that students need greater amount of time to understand the text and answer questions based on the text. The time available to students significantly decreases as they move ahead in their academic life. Thus with low text comprehension these students are destined to fail or be regarded as laggards throughout their student life. Researchers have found that students who scored the highest scores in competitive examinations were those who were able to recognize words quickly, phrase sentences and exhibit prosody. Situational Reading Fluency Although we have discussed here the importance of automaticity in improving the reading fluency of children but Samuels and Topping in a research in 2006 have claimed that reading fluency and even automaticity is situational (Topping, 2006). The fluency of reading can change by various factors such as the readability of the text, the familiarity the student has had with the topic and the importance given to speed of reading vs. the accuracy of reading by the student. Apart from this other factors like where the student is reading is very important. A student might read fluently in front of his family and friends but may find it difficult to repeat the same fluency on the stage. Automaticity is thus not absolute but comparative. It changes according to the situation and also according to the text which has been presented for reading (Topping, 2006).The implications of situational automaticity are that work should also be done to increase the student’s confidence and increase their practice of reading. The two are complimentary to each other as more practice also means an increase in confidence and thus better automaticity. Stages of Reading Development The stage model of reading development says that a child at one stage of reading has different skills, reading and knowledge than a child who is in some other stage. The stage model says that development is the previous stages helps in moving forward to the next stage of reading. Stage models of reading have been given by various researchers such as Dorehing and Aulls in 1979, Downing in 1979 and McCormick and Mason in 1986.However the most comprehensive model has been given by Chall in 1983 (Stahl & Mckenna, 2006).We will discuss this model as it encompasses the features of all other model. Chall says that effective reading consists of 6 stages. The 6 stages which are described by her are described below – Emergent Literacy is the first stage in reading in which the child learns the basic of reading. In this stage it is important for the child to learn manipulation of sounds, spelling patterns in language , letter knowledge and the knowledge of the vocabulary. Decoding is the next step described by Chall. In this stage the child does not comprehend what is written in the text but simply tries to read word by word. He has to use all his knowledge of the previous stage to be able to decode words and read them. Confirmation and fluency follows decoding. In this stage decoding becomes automatic and the children are expected to be able to decode words easily and quickly; the only limitation being their world knowledge. Learning the New: In this stage , the child not only reads fluently but is able to extract knowledge from the text and interpret it according to his needs. At this stage reading is supposed to give them knowledge and increase their mental capacities. Multiple Viewpoints: In this stage , the student is able to extract information from different text and is also able to differentiate between the knowledge presented by the different texts. World View: This is the last stage of reading. In this stage, the children not only extracts information but also analyses it in his mind and accepts or rejects it. This stage helps in the formulation of the world view of the students and shapes their personality. Thus the 6 stages of reading model described by Chall are all interlinked to each other. Knowledge which is gained in the previous step is used by the student to succeed in the next stage (Stahl & Mckenna, 2006). What this model teaches is that failure at a previous stage can destroy the entire career of the student. Lack of automaticity will stop the student in the third stage and will lead to ineffective development of the other stages of reading. He will struggle not only to read properly but will also end up having a limited world view and knowledge. Thus the importance of automaticity and fluent reading is immense. Ways to Increase Automaticity After having established the automaticity theory of reading and also the importance of automaticity in reading fluently, we will examine some of the methods which can be employed in order to increase the automaticity of reading and thus increase the reading fluency of students. Increasing Sight word Recognition Sight word recognition is more of a tool to improve word decoding than improve automaticity. However it has been included here because in any text, sight words form at least 50% of all the text material. Sight words are the words like the, and, is of, into etc. Hence it is important for the student to recognize these words and not pay much attention to decoding them. Sight words recognition is important for 2 reasons. The first reason is that these words are too numerous in any text and the second reason is that these words cannot be illustrated or sounded out. What this means is that you can show to a child what an apple looks like but you cannot show what “the” looks like. Picture reading skills which are generally used to improve word decoding are useless in the case of sight words. The student should be able to recognize these words on sight without any extra effort. The ability to decode sight words effectively is the first step towards increasing automaticity among children. Once the need to decode sight words is eliminated the student is effectively able to comprehend at least half of the passage. These words also work as an aid to decode words which are new or unfamiliar to the child. For example consider this sentence – “Rivers and Oceans contain water.” Now if the student knows the meaning of river but doesn’t know what ocean means; then the word “and” helps him give an indication of what ocean is. He knows that and is used to describe multiple things, so ocean must be something like river which holds water. Once the child is able to guess the meaning of words he is not aware of, his comprehension improves dramatically even if his vocabulary is not perfect. This technique is much more effective in children of younger age group who are still learning to decode words. Thus it can be used for children up to class 3.There are many games and instructions which are available in the market which can be used to improve the sight word recognition of young children (Harris & Hodges, 1995). Repeated Oral Reading A large number of researches which has been done suggest that the best way to increase automaticity is by repeated readings. Researchers conducted by Hudson et al. In 2012, by Klauda & Guthrie in 2008 and Wanzek at al. In 2010 suggests that repetitive readings are a way to increase automaticity and thus improve reading fluency among students (Roxanne F. & Stephen J., 2012).NICHD in a research conducted in 2000 has shown that repeated oral reading have a positive effect on accuracy, fluency and comprehension. NICHD conducted a Meta analysis which confirmed the positive effect on all three parameters. Researchers claim that repeated reading is way to increase oral reading automaticity among learners of all age and not just children. Repeated oral readings have been found to increase the student’s confidence, the desire to read and the comprehension of the text among children. The student is encouraged to read loudly and clearly. The focus initially should be just to read without any effort to increase the speed or comprehend the text. The focus on increasing reading speed in schools has been identified as one of the main reasons which lead to low level of comprehension. The speed of reading however has nothing to do with fluency or comprehension. Researchers have proved that automaticity and prosody are important in order to develop comprehension and not speed. Speed eventually develops and there is no need to focus attention on it. If there is an explicit need to increase speed the time repeated readings can be used in which the student is made to repeat the same paragraph while timing him with a stopwatch. Study conducted by Samuels in 1979 has shown conclusively that repeated reading needs to be performed below 95 wpm in order to have a positive effect on automaticity and prosody (Samuels, 1979). Sindelar and O’Shea have also shown through their research in 1985 that repeated reading just 4 times can improve the accuracy and automaticity of a student but timed readings fails to do it even after doing it a number of times. The student should however be not made aware of this timing. If he is made aware of it the focus of the brain shifts to completing the reading as quickly as possible and shifts the focus away from developing automaticity .Repeated reading alone by the student without any intervention may not be as successful as with intervention. The student needs to be taught strategies in order to decode words which are unknown to him , use songs in order to make them read repeatedly , take the help of tongue twisters , poetry and fiction. All these strategies are necessary in order to build confidence and develop interest in reading. A person with reading disability is usually reluctant to read and feel inferior to others. These intervention strategies are needed in order to build up his confidence and get him to read. Once the student starts reading, it needs to be continued and the amount of intervention needs to be reduced slowly so that the student becomes confidence of reading independently. Repeated oral readings helps to increase the speed of word decoding and develops automaticity. Once automaticity develops the reader can now pay more attention to the meaning of the passage and gradually develop prosody as well (Samuels, 1979). Independent Reading Independent reading means giving a particular passage to the student to read on his own time without any interference and without any intervention techniques. However the benefits of independent reading are dubious. Researchers have shown that independent reading to improve automaticity is more helpful among students who have confidence issues rather than those who fail to decode words. However students with inability to decode words effectively and quickly also face lack of confidence and hence the technique can be used to improve their reading skills. This technique works on the belief that more reading makes a person a better reader and improves his language and oral skills. Independent readings can be utilized after significant amount of intervention has been done in order to improve the strategies of readings by the students and new strategies have been taught to them. Research has been conducted by National Reading Panel in 2000 which shows that the evidence to show the effect of improvement in fluency by independent reading has been inconclusive. As this research was inconclusive, another research was conducted in 2003 by Samuels and Wu in 2003 to see the effect of independent reading. In this research they used an experimental group of third and fifth grade students who were asked to read independently for 40 minutes daily. Apart from this there was also a controlled group of students who were asked to read for 15 minutes daily. The experiment lasted for a period of 6 months. It was seen that the improvements in reading fluency was directly proportionate to the reading ability of students. Those students who had poor or below average reading abilities did not show any improvement in reading fluency in after repeated individual readings for 6 months. However those who had higher reading ability showed a remarked improvement in fluency after just 3 months of improvement. Thus if this experiment by Samuels and Wu is taken as the benchmark then independent reading can be used to improve the reading fluency of students who have a higher reading ability. However those students who struggle in decoding and automaticity will not be able to benefit much from repeated independent reading even for long periods of time (Samuels & Wu, 2003). Audio-Visual Strategies Various researchers such as Chomsky (1978) have proved that efficiency of repeated oral reading can be increased by as much as two times with the help of audio visual aids such as an audio tape. In this method the student first listens to the passage on the tape by a fluent speaker. After listening to the message, he then repeatedly reads it aloud along with the tape pointing to each word in his textbook. At later stages the student should be encouraged to read the text without listening to the tape. In order to compare himself with a fluent speaker the student can tape his own reading and then compare it with the fluent speaker. When such efforts are repeated the automaticity as well as the fluency of the student increases on the concerned passage as well as new passages. The speaker in the tape should not be speaking too fast, a rate of 80-100 words per minute should be maintained by the speaker in order to ensure that the student is able to keep up with the speech. Audio-visual strategies when combined with repeated oral reading helps to increase automaticity and also build confidence in the student (Chomsky, 1978). Paired Reading This method uses 2 students in a pair. One of them should be a fluent reader and the other should be the student whose reading skills need to be improved. The reading begins with the fluent reader reading out aloud the text followed by the other student. The first reader provides an example of how fluent reading takes place and the second student tries to imitate him/her. The use of paired reading exercises has shown mixed results. Although it can help some of the students but it can also create havoc with the confidence of some others and may make them go into a shell. The student may feel intimidated and threatened by the fluent student which may lead to lowered learning. The compatibility and the characteristics o students who are paired together in such an exercise are as important as the actual task of reading aloud. As far as possible students who consider themselves as friends should be paired together so that they can help each other to improve. Student Adult Reading This exercise pairs a student with an adult rather than another student. The student reads one on one with the adult in order to improve their reading skills. Some researchers consider this method to be much more effective than paired reading. This is because a student is less likely to be intimidated by an adult. An adult is expected to have better reading abilities than a child. As an adult is not a competition to the student in his world, he is not threatened by him/her and may respond better to the pairing with an adult. A Meta analysis of student -adult reading vs. peer reading was conducted by Theirran in 2004.This research has show that the technique is much more powerful if adults read the passage to the children (ES = 1.37) rather than the situation in which a peer reads the passage to the child (ES = 0.36).Theirran also suggests that the instructors should not only read the paragraph to the child and ask him to repeat but also provide him feedback after each reading. This feedback helps in improvement as the child may be not be able to improve certain aspects of reading on his own. The research by Theirran also suggests that the target should be to reach a certain rate and accuracy rather than to complete the reading a set number of times. The former has an ES of 1.78 as compared to latter which has an ES of only 0.38.Theirran says that the number of times it takes to reach accuracy does not matter but care should be taken to ensure that the student does not burn out due to repeated readings of the same thing (Harris & Hodges, 1995). Speed Drills In these exercises the student is expected to read a list of isolated words from a chart in a time bound manner. The number of words which are read correctly after each session is recorded by the teacher. The words which are chosen should have contrasting vowels sounds that are signaled by the syllable type. This speed drill ensures increased automaticity. The same set of words should be repeated in every session until satisfactory level of proficiency has been achieved by the student. Speed drills can be used for students up to grade 6 but the accuracy which is expected from each grade should be changed accordingly (Samuels, 1979). Air Writing Research conducted by Gillingham and Stillman in 1997 and Raines in 1980 has shown that apart from repeated reading certain other ways such as writing words in the air with arm can be helpful in improving the automaticity and hence the reading fluency of the children. In these exercise the student first listens to a word which is pronounced by the teacher, he then ‘writes’ it down in air with his finger. After completing this, the student is quizzed by the teacher on the word. He is asked questions such as what is the first letter of the word. The student is supposed to answer these questions with his memory. The exercise helps the student to visualize words and thus improves his reading. These exercises are shown to strengthen the motor related and visual skills of the student which increases word retention, increases automaticity and thus makes the student a better reader (Raines, 1980). Developing anticipation Wood et al. In their research done in 2001 has shown that in order to be truly fluent in reading, a student should be able to anticipate words. He should not be reading words and then comprehending them. On the basis of reading a particular line, his mind should be able to anticipate the next set of words which are likely to come in the passage. Exercises such as fill in the blanks and completion of a story can be extremely helpful in developing this attitude of the student (Wolf, 2001) Implications In the last session we have discussed the various intervention techniques and their effectiveness in improving the reading fluency among children. On the basis of analysis of the various intervention techniques described above it can be safely said that the best technique is repeated oral readings. This technique on its own is very effective but when combined with audio-visual aids and when help from a fluent reader is available can work wonders. Thus repeated oral readings can be used by our instructors in order to increase automaticity and thus improve the reading fluency of our children. We are not debunking the other intervention strategies which have been discussed above. The other strategies are also important but have been shown to be less effective or help limited percentage of children as compared to repeated oral readings. Repeated oral reading is a strategy which can be said to be effective irrespective of the age of the child. Researchers have shown that it can be effectively used to improve the fluency among children of all age groups. The bottom line is that just like with any other activity like playing basketball or driving a car, it is practice that allows the learner to develop expertise in automaticity as well. Further Research Automaticity is not the only reason which leads to poor reading fluency among children. It is just one of the three reasons. It has been shown that children with dyslexia usually have problem with word recognition once that is solved they achieve automaticity easily. After this there is the question of monotonous readers. We have seen many individuals, even adults who read without expressions and monotonously .These people are unable to develop prosody. In this research we have discussed the intervention techniques to improve automaticity and their effects on reading fluency have been discussed with the help of research done by various eminent people. The obvious future research which can be conducted is the intervention techniques which can be used to improve prosody and their effect on the reading skills of the individual. Enough secondary research already exists on the intervention techniques for increasing prosody. We can thus easily use this research to study the intervention techniques and their effectiveness in improving the reading efficiency. There would be hardy any need to conduct primary research on the topic unless we are looking for validate the studies which have already been conducted or some new method to increase fluency has been discovered. Thus future research can be conducted on the following topic – Intervention techniques which can be used to increase prosody among children and their effects on reading fluency. Conclusion From the research paper it is absolutely clear the reading fluency is very important for students to do well in life. Reading fluency consists of three main components which are word decoding, automaticity and prosody. These three components are complimentary to each other which mean that proficiency in the former one leads to development of the latter. Automaticity is the ability to decode words automatically without paying much cognitive attention to it. Automaticity frees up our mind to effectively pay attention on the comprehension and hence automaticity is very important for fluent reading. After discussing the importance of automaticity as described above , the research paper when into the various intervention techniques which can be used to increase automaticity and hence the reading fluency. The intervention techniques which were discussed in the paper were increasing sight word recognition, repeated oral readings, independent readings, paired reading, student-adult reading, speed drills, air writing and the ability to develop anticipation. All these intervention strategies have been suggested by various researchers. The research paper discussed each of these intervention techniques and then explained how it works and the efficiency of each of these techniques. Automaticity is an important component of reading fluency. Increase in automaticity with the help of various intervention techniques can be a very effective method of increasing the reading abilities of our children and help them succeed in their life. References Chall, J. (1983). Stages of Reading Development. New York: McGraw-Hill. Chomsky, C . (1978). What research has to say about reading instruction. In: Samuels, S. eds. (2013). What research has to say about reading instruction. 1st ed. New York: International Reading Association, pp.13 - 30. Harris, T. & Hodges, R. (1995). The literacy dictionary: The vocabulary of reading and writing. New York: The International Reading Association. Roxanne F., H., Joseph K, T., Holly B, L., & Stephen J., T. (2012). Relations among reading skills and sub-skills and text-level reading proficiency in developing readers.. Reading & Writing, 25 (2),pp.483-507 Laberge, D. & Samuels, S . (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6 (2), pp.290 - 323. 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