4. Fluent.—There are no stops except at the marks of punctuation, but the reading is monotonous, as if the child does not understand what he reads. The voice may fall at the end of the sentences.
5. Expressive.—The child shows by his intonation that he understands what he reads.
We found it necessary, as may well be believed, to use not only the expressions syllabic reading, fluent reading, etc., but compound expressions, such as hesitating-fluent, fluent-expressive, and even compound expressions with accentuation of one of the epithets, a2 hesitating-fluent. This is very useful in practice.
We have stated that the scale of reading was founded on experiments made by M. Vaney at the end of the school year. We have modified it slightly in consequence of experiments made by ourselves in February. It may be of interest to give here the table arranged by M. Vaney. It has been arranged not by age, but by class.
Number of Children who have the Following Grades of Reading. | Totals. | |||||
| None. | Syllabic. | Hesitating. | Fluent. | Expressive. | ||
| Infant | 12 | 26 | 2 | — | — | 40 |
| Elementary (first year) | — | 5 | 32 | 4 | — | 41 |
| Elementary (second year) | — | — | 24 | 11 | 2 | 37 |
| Intermediate (first year) | — | — | 15 | 18 | 8 | 41 |
| Intermediate (second year) | — | — | 10 | 19 | 9 | 38 |
| Intermediate (second year) | — | — | 8 | 11 | 15 | 34 |
| Senior | — | — | — | 5 | 35 | 40 |
| Totals | 12 | 31 | 91 | 68 | 69 | 271 |
We shall now give some hints as to the method of procedure.
Reading is a test which requires only a minute. One chooses a text which the children can understand easily, preferably a lively piece with dialogue, so that one may judge more easily whether the pupil can read with expression. One should avoid prolonging the reading for more than forty-five seconds, for a young child tires quickly and reads worse at the end of a minute than at the beginning. Instead of contenting oneself with judging that the child reads well or ill, which does not mean very much, it is a great advantage to adopt these five grades of reading, which are easy to distinguish with a little practice, and are less subjective than might be imagined, for two judges generally give the same mark. On referring to the scale, it will be noticed that children quickly pass from syllabic reading to hesitating reading, but the passage from hesitating to fluent reading is slower and more troublesome. One will notice this difficulty in practice.
By way of example let us quote our judgment of the grades of reading in the case of some backward children, and our consequent estimates of the degree of retardation. We draw them from our own observations made in a class for defectives in Paris.
| Name. | Age. | Grade of Reading. | Retardation. |
| Coch | 14 years | Hesitating-fluent | 6 years |
| Grio | 10½ years | Hesitating-fluent | 2½ years |
| Sev | 13½ years | Hesitating-fluent | 5 years |
| Coff | 11 years | Syllabic-hesitating | 4 years |
| Ro | 12 years | Syllabic-hesitating | 5 years |
| Ostro | 12½ years | Hesitating-fluent | 4 years |
It will be noticed that in spite of their advanced age none of these children have attained the fluent grade of reading.