PS63CH17-Norton ARI 18 November 2011 11:41 Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and Reading Fluency: Implications for Understanding and Treatment of Reading Disabilities Elizabeth S. Norton and Maryanne Wolf Center for Reading and Language Research, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155; email: [email protected], [email protected] Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2012. 63:427–52 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on dyslexia, neuroimaging, multicomponential view of reading August 11, 2011 by Tufts University on 03/05/12. For personal use only. The Annual Review of Psychology is online at Abstract psych.annualreviews.org Fluent reading depends on a complex set of cognitive processes that This article’s doi: must work together in perfect concert. Rapid automatized naming 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100431 Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2012.63:427-452. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org (RAN) tasks provide insight into this system, acting as a microcosm Copyright c 2012 by Annual Reviews. of the processes involved in reading. In this review, we examine both All rights reserved RAN and reading fluency and how each has shaped our understanding 0066-4308/12/0110-0427$20.00 of reading disabilities. We explore the research that led to our current understanding of the relationships between RAN and reading and what makes RAN unique as a cognitive measure. We explore how the auto- maticity that supports RAN affects reading across development, read- ing abilities, and languages, and the biological bases of these processes. Finally, we bring these converging areas of knowledge together by ex- amining what the collective studies of RAN and reading fluency con- tribute to our goals of creating optimal assessments and interventions that help every child become a fluent, comprehending reader. 427 PS63CH17-Norton ARI 18 November 2011 11:41 Contents Prediction of Reading from INTRODUCTION AND RAN Through Primary OVERVIEW................. 428 School and Beyond . 439 A BRIEF HISTORY OF CROSS-LINGUISTIC RESEARCH ON READING STUDIES OF RAN DISABILITIES, RAN, AND ANDFLUENCY............. 440 FLUENCY................... 431 Shallow Orthographies . 440 Early Research on Reading Nonalphabetic Orthographies. 441 Difficulties................. 431 CONTRIBUTIONS OF Development of RAN Tasks . 431 NEUROSCIENCE AND Toward a Multicomponential GENETICS TO View of Reading and UNDERSTANDING RAN Reading Disability. 432 ANDFLUENCY............. 442 DEFINING THE RAN TASKS. 433 Functional Brain Networks in Basic Structure of RAN Tasks. 433 Reading and Dyslexia . 442 Published Standardized Timing of Brain Processes in Measures of RAN . 434 Reading and Dyslexia . 443 Subcomponents of the Brain Structure and RANTask................. 435 Connectivity Differences RAN Differentiated from inDyslexia................. 444 SimilarTasks.............. 436 Genetics of RAN and Fluency. 445 Independence of RAN and IMPLICATIONS OF RAN AND Phonological Awareness . 437 FLUENCY FOR CHARACTERISTICS AND IDENTIFYING READING PREDICTIVE VALUE DIFFICULTIES, OF RAN ACROSS INSTRUCTION, AND DEVELOPMENT........... 438 INTERVENTION........... 445 Prediction in Kindergarteners Identification and Assessment . 445 andPrereaders............. 439 Interventions for Fluency . 446 CONCLUSION................. 447 by Tufts University on 03/05/12. For personal use only. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2012.63:427-452. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org INTRODUCTION AND via an e-reader on a busy train. Perhaps the OVERVIEW most remarkable thing about reading is that children develop reading skills seemingly in Reading has been compared to rocket science spite of nature. Reading began so recently in and to conducting a symphony, yet we expect the evolutionary history of our species that we children to have mastered this deeply sophisti- have no innate biological processes devoted cated set of skills by the age of seven. Literacy specifically to reading. has become so deep-rooted in our culture that Rather, children are born with a rich we often take for granted the complex cognitive neural architecture in place to support the abilities that are required to read effortlessly acquisition of oral language, which provides in so many contexts, from sharing a Dr. Seuss the pre-eminent platform for written language. story with a child to enjoying a favorite novel Certain brain areas are activated in response 428 Norton · Wolf PS63CH17-Norton ARI 18 November 2011 11:41 to the sounds and structure of language from term “fluency” has been used to describe the infancy (Minagawa-Kawai et al. 2011, Pena˜ speed and quality of oral reading, often empha- et al. 2003). In sharp contrast, each child sizing prosody, yet this definition does not en- must develop reading skills using brain areas compass all the goals of reading or reflect the that have evolved for other purposes, such as fact that most of our reading is done silently language, vision, and attention (see Dehaene rather than aloud. We conceptualize fluency in 2009). Psychologist Steven Pinker (1997) a more comprehensive way. In this review, we famously noted that children are born “wired” examine reading fluency in the sense of what has for language, “but print is an optional accessory been called “fluent comprehension”: a manner that must be painstakingly bolted on.” Indeed, of reading in which all sublexical units, words, to be a successful reader, one must rapidly inte- and connected text and all the perceptual, lin- grate a vast circuit of brain areas with both great guistic, and cognitive processes involved in each accuracy and remarkable speed. This “reading level are processed accurately and automatically circuit” is composed of neural systems that so that sufficient time and resources can be al- support every level of language—phonology, located to comprehension and deeper thought morphology, syntax, and semantics—as well (Wolf & Katzir-Cohen 2001). as visual and orthographic processes, working This is a figure-ground shift from concep- memory, attention, motor movements, and tualizing fluency based largely on rapid word higher-level comprehension and cognition. identification. How did we arrive at this more As our reading abilities develop, each of encompassing conceptualization of fluency, and these components works smoothly with both why is it important that educators and re- accuracy and speed; the reader develops what searchers view reading in this way? This multi- is called automaticity. As a cognitive process componential view of reading is based largely becomes automatic, it demands less conscious on our understanding of the reading circuit effort. Although at first the child experiences a in the brain. Additional research from many laborious and slow process to decode a simple sources, including longitudinal, intervention, word or sentence, most adult readers can’t help and cross-linguistic studies, supports this mul- but instantaneously, effortlessly read almost ticomponential model of reading. However, any word they perceive. The development of many current approaches to reading instruc- automaticity at all the lower levels of reading tion, as well as methods for identifying children represents the great apex of development that who are having reading difficulties or for pro- provides us with the bridge to true reading with viding intervention struggling readers, do not by Tufts University on 03/05/12. For personal use only. its capacity to direct cognitive resources to the reflect this more comprehensive view. If our deepest levels of thought and comprehension. goal is to have children develop fluent compre- When a child begins learning to read, many hension, then our instruction, assessment, and Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2012.63:427-452. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org assume that to accurately decode each word intervention must reflect these ideas. of a simple story aloud represents reading. In A closely related aspect of our study that reality, simply to translate printed words into has contributed greatly, albeit unexpectedly, to a stream of speech is but the beginning step, our understanding of reading fluency involves however necessary, of reading. Indeed, even the what is called rapid automatized naming, initial comprehension that comes next is but a or RAN (Denckla & Rudel 1976b). The second necessary step. Essentially, one must be seemingly simple task of naming a series of able to comprehend the meaning of a text in familiar items as quickly as possible appears order to go beyond what is on the page: mak- to invoke a microcosm of the later developing, ing connections to existing knowledge, analyz- more elaborated reading circuit. Our ability to ing the writer’s argument, and predicting the understand the multicomponential structure of next twist in the story. It is here that the way RAN, therefore, has helped us to reconceptu- we define successful reading is important. The alize the later development of reading fluency, www.annualreviews.org • Understanding RAN and Reading Fluency 429 PS63CH17-Norton ARI 18 November 2011 11:41 not as the simple consequence of accurate difficulty learning to read despite adequate word recognition processes, but as an equally instruction, intelligence, and effort (Lyon et al. complex circuitry of multiple components, 2003). There is no single test and no absolute all of which contribute to the overall reading criteria for diagnosing dyslexia. This is in fluency and comprehension of text. part due to the fact that there are so many To be sure, the precise relationship be-