The relevance of syllable per minute measuring at the assessment of reading rate

Purpose  To verify whether there are differences in the assessment of reading rate of children at 3^rd and 4^th grade from elementary school using the measures of words read per minute and syllables read per minute.

Methods  This research counted on 29 children from 3^rd grade and 28 from the 4^th grade of elementary school without reading and writing disorders. All children were asked to read aloud a text according to their schooling level. The procedure was recorded and the reading rate was calculated both in words and syllables read per minute.

Results  Data indicated that syllable read per minute measure was more effective to calculate reading rate of children from different schooling levels since it provides a more reliable profile of reading rate.

Conclusion  The present study showed evidences that syllable per minute measure is more precise to characterize children’s performance since it considers linguistic and textual features.

Keywords
Learning; Reading; Language; Evaluation; Education