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

Exposure to print is a significa nt predictor of vocabulary growth and declarative knowledge in normally achieving readers (Stanovich,West,&Harrison, 1995). Research has also shown that initial diffe rences in print exposure can be used to predict diffe rences in reading comprehension in children studied ten years aft er initial assessment (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997). The pr esent study seeks to broaden this research by using print exposure to explore similarities and diffe rences 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.