Planning Behaviour in Good and Poor Readers

Abstract

A group of 50 good readers and a group of 50 poor readers of Grade 5 matched for age and intelligence and selected on the basis of their proficiency in reading comprehension were tested for their competence in word reading and the process of planning at three different levels, namely, perceptual, memory and conceptual in order to study the contribution of planning at these levels towards the reading achievement of children. Results of group comparison reveals that good readers were superior to poor readers not only in word decoding, but also in planning at memory and conceptual level. Results of correlational analysis, on the other hand, reveals a strong relationship of word decoding with planning at both memory and conceptual levels, while, reading compression showed a strong relationship with conceptual planning. The results have been discussed in terms of the neural basis of the three levels of planning process, the importance of use of task appropriate strategies for gaining mastery over the two skills of reading and suggestions have been made for their remediation.

Keywords: Reading skills, levels of planning cortical zones, reading remediation