The Role of Print Exposure in ReadingSkills of Postsecondary Students With andWithout Reading Disabilities

Abstract

Exposure to print is a significant predictor of vocabulary growth and declarative knowledge in normally achieving readers (Stanovich,West,&Harrison, 1995). Research has also shown that initial differences in print exposure can be used to predict differences in reading comprehension in children studied ten years after initial assessment (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997). The present study seeks to broaden this research by using print exposure to explore similarities and differences in both reading comprehension and vocabulary in a sample of students with well-documented learning disabilities in the area of reading (RD), and a control group without reading disabilities. Print exposure was related to untimed reading comprehension scores and vocabulary scores for the students with RD and to timed comprehension scores and vocabulary scores for the control group.