Prosodic Reading in Students with Specific Comprehension Difficulties

Abstract

This study explores the expressive reading skills of Spanish-speaking students experiencing challenges in reading comprehension during the first year of secondary school in Argentina (grade 7). Initially, a cohort of 187 students was examined, leading to the formation of two groups: 27 students with specific comprehension difficulties (SCD) and 27 with proficient comprehension. The groups were matched in terms of decoding skills. Students were tested with a task requiring the computation of punctuation marks and an analytical prosodic reading scale that assesses various parameters such as volume, intonation, pauses, phrasing, and quality. Notably, statistically significant differences emerged between the two groups across all measures. Moreover, robust correlations were identified between expressive reading measures and text comprehension in students with SCD. A logistic regression analysis pinpointed phrasing as the sole significant predictor of group classification. These results underscore the pivotal role of prosodic reading in text comprehension.