SIGHT VOCABULARY: In a short period of time, a growing number of words become part of non-dyslexic children's "sight vocabulary" and are effortlessly retrieved as they read, helping them to become fluent readers.

these systems can interfere with spelling, fluent reading, and reading comprehension.

Dysfunction in the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA): Neuroimaging studies have confirmed that dyslexic individuals have dysfunction and under-activation in an area of the reading network called the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA). This problem interferes with their ability to instantly recognize words they have encountered – even if they’ve been exposed to the word multiple times.

One of the most important influences on fluent reading is a child’s level of visual and orthographic processing. As mentioned before, orthographic processing relates to the visual aspect of reading, such as the child’s knowledge of the alphabetic system and memory for specific visual and spelling systems. Orthographic processing supports spelling and fluent reading. Studies suggest that the VWFA plays a major role in the memory for words and word patterns (often referred to as orthographic mapping).

Although the English language is not 100% consistent in lettersound correspondences, non-dyslexic children learn to decode words by first learning the sounds that each letter or group of letters make. They then learn to blend these sounds together when reading. Very early in this process, they find that it is no longer necessary to decode most words, because they instantly recognize those they have been exposed to multiple times. In a short period of time, a growing number of words become part of their "sight

vocabulary" and are effortlessly retrieved as they read, helping them to become fluent readers. The ability to instantly recognize words from orthographic memory is called "automaticity" and it is the foundation for fluent reading.

The opposite is true for dyslexic children. They do not recognize words they’ve been exposed to many times. As a result, they continue to painfully decode most of the words in a sentence or paragraph, usually slowly, and not always accurately. They also make other types of errors when reading, that are not the same errors made by beginning readers without dyslexia. Explicit and systematic phonics instruction is essential in a dyslexia intervention, but it is not sufficient to produce fluent reading.

"DYSLEXIC CHILDREN DO NOT RECOGNIZE WORDS THEY'VE BEEN EXPOSED TO MANY TIMES. AS A RESULT, THEY CONTINUE TO PAINFULLY DECODE MOST OF THE WORDS IN A SENTENCE OR PARAGRAPH, USUALLY SLOWLY, AND NOT ALWAYS ACCURATELY."

MEASURING THE INEFFICIENCIES

These fluency-related reading circuit inefficiencies show up in an assessment called RAN (rapid automatized naming or simply rapid naming). In a RAN assessment, the student is asked to name an array of familiar items (usually objects, colors, letters, and numbers that are arranged in a matrix), as fast as they can. We know that children who perform poorly in this assessment generally will read below grade level fluency norms. Future fluency problems can even be predicted in young preschool children through an abbreviated version of the RAN assessment.

RAN measures the efficiency of the entire reading network,