How the word length effect develops with age

In the word length effect, more time is needed at the onset of pronunciation to read longer words. The length effect is believed to be perceptual rather than linguistic (1), and is interpreted as the signature of a reading strategy based on letter by letter decoding. Reading development in regular (transparent) languages is characterized by a reduction in the word length effect as a function of age (2). However, little is known about the development of the word length effect in readers of English, an opaque language (with highly irregular rules for pronunciation). Due to its many irregular words, mastering English may require greater lexical activation. We wondered whether children reading English show a word length effect.