ABSTRACT
This chapter contrasts the approach in the author's research into children who were already reading with fluency, understanding and enjoyment when they started school at 5 years of age with an earlier research, a longitudinal community study of children with reading difficulties. It illustrates the importance of choosing a plan for research to fit the aims. So often, students appear to believe that the larger the sample, the better the research. The chapter compares the author's research on young fluent readers with a more recent study. These young fluent readers were interacting with written language. The aim of the research was to investigate the incidence of severe and continuing reading difficulties in a normal school population, in particular among children of average intelligence. The research took place in Dunbartonshire, a highly industrialized part of Scotland with a number of small schools in outlying areas.
