We can leverage the Simple View of Reading to identify and address areas of growth in reading development through four reader profiles:
| Profile | WR Proficiency | LC Proficiency | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Readers at or above grade level | ✔ | ✔ | Readers who have good or adequate language comprehension and good or adequate decoding. Children with this profile are most likely at or above grade level in reading. |
| Readers with specific word recognition difficulties (SWRD). | ✘ | ✔ | Students who have good language comprehension but poor word recognition/decoding skills. This profile is termed specific word recognition difficulties (SWRD) because the child’s reading problems are specific to word recognition, not language comprehension. The extreme example of this profile is a reader with dyslexia, or severe decoding difficulties that do not respond to research-based decoding intervention. We’ll learn more about dyslexia in the next section. It’s important to note here, however, that not all students with specific word recognition difficulties are dyslexic. |
| Students with specific comprehension difficulties (SCD). | ✔ | ✘ | Students who have poor language comprehension but good word recognition/decoding skills. This profile is called specific comprehension difficulties (SCD) because the child’s reading problems are specific to comprehension and do not involve reading words. The extreme example of this profile is a reader with hyperlexia, or severe language comprehension challenges and excellent decoding skills. |
| Students with mixed reading difficulties (MRD) | ✘ | ✘ | Students who have weaknesses in both language comprehension and word recognition/decoding skills. This profile is often called mixed reading difficulties (MRD), because the reading problems include both word recognition and comprehension. |