Article

Changes in letter sound knowledge are associated with development of phonological awareness in pre‐school children

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Abstract

Letter sound knowledge, which, together with phonological awareness, is highly predictive of pre-school children's reading acquisition, derives from children's knowledge of their associated letter names and the phonological patterns of those names. In this study of 66 monolingual pre-school children we examined whether phonological patterns between letter names and their associated sounds might be differentially associated with aspects of phonological awareness. Results suggest that rudimentary levels of phonological awareness may facilitate the learning of letter sound associations. However, more explicit phonological awareness appears to be linked bi-directionally with letter sound knowledge with diverse name-sound associations, with letter sound associations that do not follow regular patterns (e.g. ‘juh’ for ‘j’ and ‘huh’ for ‘h’) most closely associated with performance in more complex phoneme awareness tasks.

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... Learning how to read words requires both letter sound knowledge and phonemic awareness, and both accuracy and speed are needed (Hulme, Bowyer-Crane, Carroll, Duff, & Snowling, 2012;Roberts, Christo, & Shefelbine, 2010). Alphabet knowledge and phonemic awareness are highly correlated in early stages of learning to read (Bowey, 1994;Caravolas, Hulme, & Snowling, 2001), with each skill contributing to growth in the other (Burgess & Lonigan, 1998;Ehri & Wilce, 1980;Foy & Mann, 2006;Hohn & Ehri, 1983;Lerner & Lonigan, 2016), and are widely recognized as the two best predictors of beginning reading. ...
... Finally, decontextualized instruction may be more effective because the accuracy and quality of the representations for the more ephemeral and difficult letter sounds may be clearer and more consistent (Elbro, 1998;Foy & Mann, 2006). Allophonic variation and interleaving of phonemes-the coarticulation that occurs when phonemes are encountered in whole words-may also make alphabet learning more difficult when alphabet instruction is contextualized within whole words. ...
... This isolation may have helped children apply this orthographic knowledge in the difficult phonemic awareness test by visualizing the letters for the initial sounds tested and serving as a memory aid for the initial phonemes (see Castles, Wilson, & Coltheart, 2011). This result is consistent with other reports that development of letter sound knowledge and phonological awareness is mutually facilitating (Burgess & Lonigan, 1998;Foy & Mann, 2006). Both skills support learning to decode and spell words and orthographic mapping of words into long-term memory. ...
Article
The authors investigated the influence of teaching letter names and sounds in isolation or in the context of storybook reading on preschool children's early literacy learning and engagement during instruction. Alphabet instruction incorporated paired‐associate learning of correspondences between letter names and sounds. In decontextualized treatment activities, children practiced saying the letter names and sounds that matched single letters presented on cards and in letter books, and speeded recognition of taught letters. In contextualized treatment activities, letter names and sounds were taught and practiced during oral reading of storybooks, recognizing letters in children's printed names, and speeded recognition of taught letters in words. Subjects were 127 preschool children, including 48 dual‐language learners, in five public schools with low‐income eligibility thresholds. Children were randomly assigned within classrooms to small groups randomly assigned to one of the two treatments. Research assistants provided 10 weeks of instruction, 12–15 minutes per day, four days per week. Both groups made statistically significant growth from pretest to posttest on measures of alphabet learning and phoneme awareness. Children in the decontextualized treatment small groups had statistically significantly higher gains than did children in the contextualized treatment small groups on taught letter sounds and phonemic awareness measured by identification of initial sounds in spoken words. There were no treatment differences between dual‐language learners and non‐dual‐language learners. Children's engagement during instruction was statistically significantly higher in the decontextualized treatment. Findings support explicit decontextualized alphabet instruction emphasizing the relation between verbal letter labels and letter forms that enlists paired‐associate learning processes.
... Ahora bien, tradicionalmente, los estudios que analizaron el conocimiento de las letras y su relación con la adquisición de la lectura y la escritura no distinguían entre conocimiento del nombre o del sonido de las letras (Carroll, Snowling, Stevenson, & Hulme, 2003;Gallagher, Frith, & Snowling, 2000;Landerl & Wimmer, 2008;Muter et al., 2004). Sin embargo, algunos estudios sugieren que saber el nombre o el sonido de las letras constituyen dos conocimientos diferentes y relativamente independientes (Foy & Mann, 2006;Ritchey, 2007;Treiman, Tincoff, Rodriguez, Mouzaki & Francis, 1998). ...
... En este sentido, es posible pensar que la adquisición de la segunda etiqueta estará asociada al desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica. De hecho, las investigaciones que exploraron las diferencias individuales en el conocimiento de las letras encontraron una asociación entre este conocimiento y la sensibilidad fonológica -esto es, habilidades para analizar y operar con los sonidos de la lengua-, así como con la denominación rápida de letras y dígitos (Carrol et al. 2003;Evans, Bell, Shaw, Moretti & Page, 2006;Foy & Mann, 2006;Lonigan et al, 2000;Torppa, Poikkeus, Laakso, Eklund & Lyytinen, 2006) En consecuencia, el presente trabajo se propone, en primer lugar, explorar si existen diferencias en el conocimiento de los nombres y de los sonidos de las letras en un grupo de niños y niñas de Argentina en el momento de su ingreso a 1er año de EPB. Asimismo, se analizará si las diferencias individuales en este conocimiento están asociadas al dominio de habilidades de procesamiento fonológico. ...
... Los resultados obtenidos mostraron que los niños y las niñas conocían más nombres que sonidos de letras, sugiriendo que los nombres fueron la etiqueta aprendida en primer lugar. Coincidiendo con estudios realizados en otras lenguas (Caravolas et al., 2001;Foy & Mann, 2006;Ritchey, 2007;Treiman et al., 1998), también en el caso de los niños y las niñas participantes en este estudio el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras parecen desarrollarse con relativa independencia. ...
Article
Full-text available
El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras y la relación entre este conocimiento y la adquisición de la escritura. Estudios recientes han sugerido que el nombre y el sonido de las letras constituyen conocimientos relativamente independientes. Un grupo de 51 niños y niñas fueron evaluados al comenzar el 1er año de Educación Primaria mediante pruebas de conocimiento de letras, conciencia fonológica, denominación rápida de letras y habilidades motoras. A fin de año se administró una prueba de escritura de palabras. El análisis de los resultados mostró diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras y un patrón de correlación diferente entre estos conocimientos y las demás habilidades prelectoras y con la adquisición de la escritura de palabras a fin de año. Se analizan las implicancias educativas de estos resultados.
... For instance, the isolation of the onset from the rime part of each letter name helps children easily learn the sounds associated with these letters because their names all share the same rime part. Thus, the development of letter knowledge can be facilitated by rhyme awareness skills (29). The study of Frias (14) showed that in Portuguese pre-school children there is a close relationship between the acquisition of literacy skills and the systematic development of phonological awareness skills and this seems to be a requirement for reading and writing. ...
... Therefore, a new tool named Prova de Avaliação de Competências de Pré-Literacia (PAPCL) was developed, consisting of four sub-tests that assess the receptive and expressive skills in two domains (letter name and letter sound) used in previous tests (3,29,43,44). Assessment results are paramount to determine the children's letter knowledge. The information collected during the assessment of children's pre-literacy skills is essential to provide optimal learning experiences for children. ...
... The PACPL consists of four subtests (two subtests which assess the receptive/expressive letter name knowledge and two subtests that assess the receptive/expressive sound name knowledge). These assessment tasks are similar to those used in previous studies (3,29,43,44). The PACPL should not be used for reassessment purposes before 6-7 weeks as suggested by Ball & Blachman (43), Terrell (54) and Piasta & Wagner (3). ...
Article
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Purpose: There is a need to develop letter knowledge assessment tools to characterise the letter knowledge in Portuguese pre-schoolers and to compare it with pre-schoolers from other countries, but there are no tools for this purpose in Portugal. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation procedures of the Prova de Avaliação de Competências de Pré-Literacia (PACPL), which assesses letter knowledge. Method: This study includes data that has been gathered in two phases: pilot and main study. In the pilot study, an expert panel of six speech and language pathologists analysed the instrument. Children (n = 216) aged 5;0–7;11 participated in the main study that reports data related to the psychometric characteristics of the PACPL. Content validity, internal consistency, reliability and contributing factors to performance were examined statistically. Results: A modified Bland–Altman method revealed good agreement amongst evaluators. The main study showed that the PACPL has a very good internal consistency and high inter-rater (96.2% of agreement and a Cohen’s k value of 0.92) and intra-rater (95.6% of agreement and a Cohen’s k value of 0.91) agreement. Construct validity of the PCAPL was also assured (Cronbach’s α of 0.982). Significant differences were found between age groups with children increasing their letter knowledge with age. In addition, they were better at identifying than at producing both letter names and letter sounds. Conclusions: The PACPL is a valid and reliable instrument to assess letter knowledge in Portuguese children.
... Ahora bien, tradicionalmente, los estudios que analizaron el conocimiento de las letras y su relación con la adquisición de la lectura y la escritura no distinguían entre conocimiento del nombre o del sonido de las letras (Carroll, Snowling, Stevenson, & Hulme, 2003;Gallagher, Frith, & Snowling, 2000;Landerl & Wimmer, 2008;Muter et al., 2004). Sin embargo, algunos estudios sugieren que saber el nombre o el sonido de las letras constituyen dos conocimientos diferentes y relativamente independientes (Foy & Mann, 2006;Ritchey, 2007;Treiman, Tincoff, Rodriguez, Mouzaki & Francis, 1998). ...
... En este sentido, es posible pensar que la adquisición de la segunda etiqueta estará asociada al desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica. De hecho, las investigaciones que exploraron las diferencias individuales en el conocimiento de las letras encontraron una asociación entre este conocimiento y la sensibilidad fonológica -esto es, habilidades para analizar y operar con los sonidos de la lengua-, así como con la denominación rápida de letras y dígitos (Carrol et al. 2003;Evans, Bell, Shaw, Moretti & Page, 2006;Foy & Mann, 2006;Lonigan et al, 2000;Torppa, Poikkeus, Laakso, Eklund & Lyytinen, 2006) En consecuencia, el presente trabajo se propone, en primer lugar, explorar si existen diferencias en el conocimiento de los nombres y de los sonidos de las letras en un grupo de niños y niñas de Argentina en el momento de su ingreso a 1er año de EPB. Asimismo, se analizará si las diferencias individuales en este conocimiento están asociadas al dominio de habilidades de procesamiento fonológico. ...
... Los resultados obtenidos mostraron que los niños y las niñas conocían más nombres que sonidos de letras, sugiriendo que los nombres fueron la etiqueta aprendida en primer lugar. Coincidiendo con estudios realizados en otras lenguas (Caravolas et al., 2001;Foy & Mann, 2006;Ritchey, 2007;Treiman et al., 1998), también en el caso de los niños y las niñas participantes en este estudio el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras parecen desarrollarse con relativa independencia. ...
Article
Full-text available
El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras y la relación entre este conocimiento y la adquisición de la escritura. Estudios recientes han sugerido que el nombre y el sonido de las letras constituyen conocimientos relativamente independientes. Un grupo de 51 niños y niñas fueron evaluados al comenzar el 1er año de Educación Primaria mediante pruebas de conocimiento de letras, conciencia fonológica, denominación rápida de letras y habilidades motoras. A fin de año se administró una prueba de escritura de palabras. El análisis de los resultados mostró diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras y un patrón de correlación diferente entre estos conocimientos y las demás habilidades prelectoras y con la adquisición de la escritura de palabras a fin de año. Se analizan las implicancias educativas de estos resultados.
... Such demands are comparable to requirements for comprehending short stories presented orally (and answering explicit and implicit questions) as directed in the listening comprehension task-story. The strong association between phonological awareness skills and letter-sound knowledge that led to the merged factor Graphophonemic Awareness is in complete agreement with previous evidence involving both English (Burgess and Lonigan, 1998;Lonigan et al., 2000;Foy and Mann, 2006) and Greek-speaking children of the same age (Manolitsis and Tafa, 2011) supporting their bidirectional relation. Thus, aggregating those terms resulted in two fewer latent variables with more precise assessments (with less measurement error) and a more parsimonious assessment of language skills in the early years. ...
... Finally, letter sound knowledge is one of the best predictors of children's early reading proficiency Clayton et al., 2020) and it appears to have an indirect association with reading acquisition through phonological sensitivity. There is some evidence that letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity may be reciprocally related (Burgess and Lonigan, 1998;Lonigan et al., 2000;Foy and Mann, 2006) as well as there is evidence that invented spelling is a good vehicle for practicing phonological sensitivity and knowledge of letter-sound correspondences both of which are directly related to decoding. The previously mentioned results along with the reliability results, have further strengthened our confidence that digital assessments hold several advantages (e.g., reliability and economy of administration, interest, portability and ease, etc.), which have been frequently highlighted in the relevant literature (Frank et al., 2016;Neumann and Neumann, 2019). ...
Article
Full-text available
In educational and clinical settings, few norm-referenced tests have been utilized until now usually focusing on a single or a few language subcomponents, along with very few language rating scales for parents and educators. The need for a comprehensive language assessment tool for preschool and early school years children which could form the basis for valid and reliable screening and diagnostic decisions, led to the development of a new norm-referenced digital tool called Logometro®. The aim of the present study is to describe Logometro® as well as its psychometric characteristics. Logometro® evaluates an array of oral language skills across the different language domains such as phonological awareness, listening comprehension, vocabulary knowledge (receptive and expressive), narrative speech, morphological awareness, pragmatics, as well emergent literacy skills (letter sound knowledge and invented writing) in Greek-speaking 4–7 years old children. More specifically, Logometro® has been designed in order to: (a) map individual language development paths as well as difficulties, (b) provide a descriptive profile of children’s oral language and emergent literacy skills, and (c) assist in the identification of children who are at risk for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). The sample consisted of 926 children aged from 4 to 7 years, which were recruited from diverse geographical provinces and represented a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds in Greece. Eight hundred participants were typically developing children (Nboys = 384 and Ngirls = 416), 126 children (NSLI = 44 and NSLD = 82) represented children with Special Educational Needs, and 126 children were typically developing peers matched for gender and age with the clinical groups. The administration lasted 90 min, depending on the participant’s age and competence. Validity (construct, criterion, convergent, discriminant, and predictive) as well as internal consistency and test–retest reliability were assessed. Results indicated that Logometro® is characterized by good psychometric properties and can constitute a norm-referenced battery of oral language and emergent literacy skills. It could be used to inform the professionals as well as the researchers about a child’s language strengthsand weaknesses and form the basis on which they can design an appropriate individualized intervention if needed.
... Such demands are comparable to requirements for comprehending short stories presented orally (and answering explicit and implicit questions) as directed in the listening comprehension task-story. The strong association between phonological awareness skills and letter-sound knowledge that led to the merged factor Graphophonemic Awareness is in complete agreement with previous evidence involving both English (Burgess and Lonigan, 1998;Lonigan et al., 2000;Foy and Mann, 2006) and Greek-speaking children of the same age (Manolitsis and Tafa, 2011) supporting their bidirectional relation. Thus, aggregating those terms resulted in two fewer latent variables with more precise assessments (with less measurement error) and a more parsimonious assessment of language skills in the early years. ...
... Finally, letter sound knowledge is one of the best predictors of children's early reading proficiency Clayton et al., 2020) and it appears to have an indirect association with reading acquisition through phonological sensitivity. There is some evidence that letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity may be reciprocally related (Burgess and Lonigan, 1998;Lonigan et al., 2000;Foy and Mann, 2006) as well as there is evidence that invented spelling is a good vehicle for practicing phonological sensitivity and knowledge of letter-sound correspondences both of which are directly related to decoding. The previously mentioned results along with the reliability results, have further strengthened our confidence that digital assessments hold several advantages (e.g., reliability and economy of administration, interest, portability and ease, etc.), which have been frequently highlighted in the relevant literature (Frank et al., 2016;Neumann and Neumann, 2019). ...
Article
Full-text available
In educational and clinical settings, few norm-referenced tests have been utilized until now usually focusing on a single or a few language subcomponents, along with very few language rating scales for parents and educators. The need for a comprehensive language assessment tool for preschool and early school years children which could form the basis for valid and reliable screening and diagnostic decisions, led to the development of a new norm-referenced digital tool called Logometro®. The aim of the present study is to describe Logometro® as well as its psychometric characteristics. Logometro® evaluates an array of oral language skills across the different language domains such as phonological awareness, listening comprehension, vocabulary knowledge (receptive and expressive), narrative speech, morphological awareness, pragmatics, as well emergent literacy skills (letter sound knowledge and invented writing) in Greek-speaking 4–7 years old children. More specifically, Logometro® has been designed in order to: (a) map individual language development paths as well as difficulties, (b) provide a descriptive profile of children’s oral language and emergent literacy skills, and (c) assist in the identification of children who are at risk for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). The sample consisted of 926 children aged from 4 to 7 years, which were recruited from diverse geographical provinces and represented a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds in Greece. Eight hundred participants were typically developing children (Nboys = 384 and Ngirls = 416), 126 children (NSLI = 44 and NSLD = 82) represented children with Special Educational Needs, and 126 children were typically developing peers matched for gender and age with the clinical groups. The administration lasted 90 min, depending on the participant’s age and competence. Validity (construct, criterion, convergent, discriminant, and predictive) as well as internal consistency and test–retest reliability were assessed. Results indicated that Logometro® is characterized by good psychometric properties and can constitute a norm-referenced battery of oral language and emergent literacy skills. It could be used to inform the professionals as well as the researchers about a child’s language strengths and weaknesses and form the basis on which they can design an appropriate individualized intervention if needed.
... In terms of early literacy, decoding has been defined as all of the code-related criteria necessary to learn to read in an alphabetic language. These include concepts about print (i.e., directionality, parts of a book, conventions of writing, etc.), alphabet knowledge (i.e., letter names and letter sounds), phonological awareness (i.e., awareness of the sound structures of spoken language that can be mapped to print), and the alphabetic principle (i.e., the insight that speech can be segmented into smaller units of sound and represented by letters in a systematic way; Catts, Fey, Zhang, & Tomblin, 1999;Evans, Bell, Shaw, Moretti, & Page, 2006;Foulin, 2005;Foy & Mann, 2006;Lonigan, Burgess, & Anthony, 2000;National Early Literacy Panel, 2008;Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). Language comprehension has been variously defined as just those aspects of oral language necessary for the comprehension of concepts and vocabulary or, more broadly, as ideas expressed aurally through words, sentences, and larger discourse-level structures (Dickinson, McCabe, Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg, & Poe, 2003;Kendeou, van den Broek, White, & Lynch, 2009;Lonigan et al., 2000;NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005;Storch & Whitehurst, 2002;van Kleeck, 1998;Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). ...
... Achieving insight into the alphabetic principle is a turning point in early literacy development and is often associated with the transition to conventional reading (Liberman et al., 1989). Phonological awareness may contribute to letter-name and letter-sound knowledge by making the sounds embedded within letter names and in associated letter sounds more noticeable and thus easier to remember (Evans et al., 2006;Foy & Mann, 2006;Piasta & Wagner, 2010). Previous research has suggested a reciprocal relationship between phonological awareness and the learning of letter sounds, in which competence in either skill facilitates competence in the other (Burgess & Lonigan, 1998). ...
Article
We used multidimensional item response theory to test the internal structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening in Spanish for Preschool and test for item parameter drift. The measure is aligned with the simple view of reading, which defines reading as consisting of two equally important dimensions: decoding and language comprehension. It involves 134 items grouped into nine different tasks. We administered a pilot version of the measure to 677 students in 2014 and a final version to 968 students in 2015. We did not find evidence that code-related skills and oral language are distinct but correlated dimensions among preschoolers. Rather, a single general dimension of early literacy with task-related specific dimensions fit best. A benefit of our modeling approach is that we can examine the internal structure while also evaluating the difficulty and discrimination of individual items. Results suggest a stable ordering of items within tasks and that some Spanish letters are learned more easily than others.
... Oral language, phonological processing abilities, print knowledge and children's alphabetic knowledge are different components of emergent literacy skills and they tend to be recognised as strong predictors of future literacy success 8,9 . Letter-sound correspondences are related to the development of phonological awareness skills which facilitate the acquisition of letters, sounds and their relations 10,11 . Current research indicates that children receiving both letter name and sound instruction are likely to acquire the sounds of letters whose names include cues to their sounds. ...
... As far as the pre-intervention findings are concerned, some children revealed higher letter-name knowledge compared to sound knowledge. Some studies indicate that it is typical to encounter pre-schoolers who have higher letter name knowledge compared to sound knowledge 10,12 . AM revealed the best performance in letter name knowledge, when compared to the other participants. ...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this study was to develop and content validate specific speech and language intervention picture cards: The Letter-Sound (L&S) cards. The present study was also focused on assessing the influence of these cards on letter-sound correspondences and speech sound production. An expert panel of six speech and language therapists analysed and discussed the L&S cards based on several criteria previously established. A Speech and Language Therapist carried out a 6-week therapeutic intervention with a group of seven Portuguese phonologically delayed pre-schoolers aged 5;3 to 6;5. The modified Bland-Altman method revealed good agreement among evaluators, that is the majority of the values was between the agreement limits. Additional outcome measures were collected before and after the therapeutic intervention process. Results indicate that the L&S cards facilitate the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences. Regarding speech sound production, some improvements were also observed at word level. The L&S cards are therefore likely to give phonetic cues, which are crucial for the correct production of therapeutic targets. These visual cues seemed to have helped children with phonological delay develop the above-mentioned skills.
... Previous research has approached the operationalization and measurement of HLE in various ways (Niklas & Schneider, 2013). For example, HLE has been measured by asking parents to indicate their knowledge about children's books (Foy & Mann, 2006) or the number of books in the home, frequency of watching TV, library visits, adult literacy-related behaviors, and adult-child shared reading (Griffin & Morrison, 1997). Conceptualizations of HLE exist along a continuum, ranging from a conservative focus exclusively on literacy activities to a broadly defined HLE that includes parent-child interactions (e.g., object labeling, parentchild conversations) (Fish & Pinkerman, 2003;Schmitt et al., 2011;Umek et al., 2005). ...
... Their study found that the earlier students acquire letter-sound knowledge, the better they perform in introductory Russian courses. Similar results have been found in studies of first language literacy, where letter sound-knowledge is considered one of the best predictors of preschool children's reading acquisition (see Foy and Mann 2006 for an overview). ...
... It has also been found that when learners get adequate training in phonological awareness, this will easily lead to learning letter sound associations as indicated by item 14. This result goes in line with studies conducted by Cardoso-Martins et al. (2011), Kim et al. (2010, Foy and Mann (2006), and Evans et al. (2006). For example, Huang et al. (2014, p.190) argued that "Phonological awareness helps children to extract the letter sounds from the letter names that they know". ...
... Researchers of child speech (including speech therapists, pediatricians, and psycholinguists) assume that the process of speech acquisition proceeds in stages, and that the child masters the correct pronunciation around the age of 6;0 [1,2,3]. Deviations from the adult pronunciation may be related to insufficient efficiency of articulators, problems with word-form encoding, or to the developmental state of the phonological grammar [4,5]. Speech sounds that require more precise articulatory movements are initially pronounced as simpler sounds. ...
... Underlying the process of mapping orthographic symbols to sounds (and vice versa) is PA (Share, 1995;Torgesen et al., 1999;Foy and Mann, 2006). This is the ability to analyze, manipulate, and segment smaller sound units in spoken words and can be influenced by literacy training (de Gelder and Vroomen, 1992;Smith et al., 2014). ...
Article
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This study investigated the influence of multiliteracy in opaque orthographies on phonological awareness. Using a visual rhyme judgement task in English, we assessed phonological processing in three multilingual and multiliterate populations who were distinguished by the transparency of the orthographies they can read in (N = 135; ages 18–40). The first group consisted of 45 multilinguals literate in English and a transparent Latin orthography like Malay; the second group consisted of 45 multilinguals literate in English and transparent orthographies like Malay and Arabic; and the third group consisted of 45 multilinguals literate in English, transparent orthographies, and Mandarin Chinese, an opaque orthography. Results showed that all groups had poorer performance in the two opaque conditions: rhyming pairs with different orthographic endings and non-rhyming pairs with similar orthographic endings, with the latter posing the greatest difficulty. Subjects whose languages consisted of half or more opaque orthographies performed significantly better than subjects who knew more transparent orthographies than opaque orthographies. The findings are consistent with past studies that used the visual rhyme judgement paradigm and suggest that literacy experience acquired over time relating to orthographic transparency may influence performance on phonological awareness tasks.
... The link between phonological awareness and letter knowledge could be explained by the fact that letters can be thought of as printed correspondence of phonemes (Foulin, 2005), or phonemes can be thought of as "the letters' linguistic partners" (Byrne, 1998). Higher phonological awareness abilities, such as phoneme segmentation or phoneme deletion (Johnston, Anderson, &Holligan, 1996;Stahl & Murray, 1994), appear to require letter knowledge, but lower phonological awareness skills, such as syllable or trisyllable awareness, do not (Foy & Mann, 2006;Naslund& Schneider, 1996). Levin et al (2006) showed found that although preschoolers knew letter names better than letter sounds, they learned letter sounds easier than letter names. ...
Article
The study focused on the use of Online Instruction on Sound Recognition of Kindergarten LearnersThe researcher will make use of single-subject experimental Analysis, specifically the AB experimental design. In selecting the student respondents, the researcher will identify the kindergarten students with difficulties recognizing the sounds in their progress reports. In the analysis of data, the researcher will compare the progress report of kindergarten students on sound recognition and the assessment after exposure to sound recognition. There were initially forty (40) students and twenty-seven of them were identified as having difficulties with sound recognition. The study yielded that the use of online training is particularly helpful in helping students improve their sound detection skills. Technology must be used by teachers, and they must be trained to use it. Similarly, the use of online instruction has allowed teachers and parents to collaborate. One of the more difficult aspects of using online training is the poor internet connection and the long time it is required to execute it.
... Thus, letter knowledge can be considered as an obvious predictor, which, indeed could be demonstrated in numerus studies (e.g., Bowyer-Crane et al., 2008;Hatcher et al., 2004Hatcher et al., , 2006Torgesen et al., 1999Torgesen et al., , 2001. Furthermore, longitudinal studies of preliterate development showed that higher initial levels of letter knowledge led to higher levels of phoneme awareness and vice versa, whereas the shared variance of both constructs with rhyme awareness was less strong (Burgess & Lonigan, 1998;Carroll et al., 2003;Foy & Mann, 2006;Muter et al., 2004;Schmitterer & Schroeder, 2019a). Together, these findings support the assumption that different subcomponents of phonological awareness may reflect a developmental progress -from initially being capable of dealing with relatively large phonological units (i.e., rhymes) to later being able to deal with small units (i.e., phoneme), which then are predictive of and interact with reading development (i.e., letter knowledge, decoding; Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Clayton et al., 2020;Schmitterer & Schroeder, 2019b). ...
Article
Purpose: The transition to school and the first years of elementary school education are very sensitive phases for reading development. Reading researchers have established key precursors and developmental steps in these phases. However, how these components interact and affect growth is not well understood yet. The current study from Germany replicates established findings and explores how curvilinear effects can add informa- tion to our understanding of reading development. Method: 525 German-speaking children were followed during a 5-year period from kindergarten to fourth Grade. Phonological awareness (PA), letter knowledge (LK), rapid naming (RAN) and language skills (LS) were assessed in kindergarten, decoding and reading comprehension in elemen- tary school. Analysis was based on latent growth models with curvilinear (quadratic) effects. Results: The results indicate that PA and LK are of importance for early reading, RAN was additionally revealed to be of importance for further growth in decoding. Language skills and decoding, together with their interaction, explain variation in reading comprehension skills. A curvilinear effect was found for decoding on reading comprehension growth only. Conclusion: Our study shows which precursors predict growth in reading development in a transparent orthography and expands our understanding of how language and decoding affect the development of reading comprehension.
... This study found significant correlates between shared literacy experience and children's understanding of conventions of print (e.g., the difference between letters and pictures, where the title of the book is, where to start reading, and directionality of print) but did not find significant correlates between shared literacy experience and other literacy skills of letter knowledge or phonological awareness. These findings are consistent with prior work of Levy et al. (2006) and Foy and Mann (2006), who found that, for children 48-83 months of age who are typically developing, the extent of home literacy activities did not predict phonological awareness. Letter knowledge, however, was a significant correlate. ...
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Purpose Literacy instruction at home and in school, in addition to child speech and language ability, plays an essential role in reading development. The relationship between these factors in children with developmental disabilities during preschool is important to identify and describe in order to develop and test interventions that target instructional supports. This study examines the relationship between parent perceptions of literacy experiences at home and in school and speech, language, and literacy skills in children with developmental disabilities in preschool. Method Child factors of speech ability, expressive and receptive language and vocabulary comprehension, phonological awareness, and print knowledge in 38 preschool-age children with developmental disabilities between the ages of 48 and 69 months were assessed. Home and school literacy experiences were reported via parent questionnaires. Relationships between child factors and home and school experiences were evaluated. Results Parents reported frequent shared literacy engagement regardless of speech ability or receptive language skills. In school, parents reported that teachers engaged in activities of decoding and word recognition and used technology and/or augmentative and alternative communication at least weekly for instruction, but rarely for writing. Speech ability was significantly correlated with access to technology for instruction, with children who had greater speech ability provided with greater access to technology. Conclusions Findings suggest that parents of young children with developmental disabilities shared positive perceptions of the role reading together plays in language and literacy development and read together frequently. At school, more limited access to reading instruction was reported. Speech-language pathologists, teachers, and parents each play important roles in providing access to foundational literacy activities during preschool for children with developmental disabilities.
... In alphabetic languages (e.g., Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, Portuguese, etc.) letter names often include letter sounds (e.g., B begins with the phoneme /b/ and M ends with the phoneme /m/, as well as A is in ape, B is in below). According to the socalled Alphabetic Theory, in these cases letter names serve as background knowledge on which children rely to more easily acquire letter-phoneme correspondences (Ehri and Roberts, 2006;Foy and Mann, 2006;Justice, Pence, Bowles and Wiggins, 2006;Share, 2004;Treiman, Sotak and Bowman, 2001). ...
Technical Report
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Visual and linguistic factors in literacy acquisition: Instructional Implications For Beginning Readers in Low-Income Countries. A literature review prepared for the Global Partnership for Education, c/o World Bank.
... In alphabetic languages, phonological awareness is bi-directionally linked with letter knowledge [37,38]. Letter knowledge assists children to establish and recall words from memory, and to decode unfamiliar words [39]. ...
Article
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Word identification models assume that words are identified by at least two sources of information and analysis; one is phonological, and the other is visual. The present study investigated the influence of phonological awareness, Pinyin letter knowledge, and visual perception skills on Chinese character recognition after controlling for vocabulary, rapid naming, and verbal short-term memory in 80 Mandarin-speaking kindergarten children. Children were tested on phonological awareness (syllable awareness, onset-end rhyme awareness, and tone awareness), Pinyin letter naming, and visual perception (visual discrimination and visual-spatial relationships). The results showed that variance in Chinese character recognition could be explained by syllable awareness and tone awareness, but not by visual perception skills or Pinyin letter knowledge. Analyses further indicated that Pinyin letter knowledge moderated the relationship between tone awareness and Chinese character recognition. A focus on tone awareness and syllable awareness in the kindergarten may help Chinese children to accomplish the transition from phonological awareness to early literacy, while Pinyin letter knowledge can help children to make the connection between Chinese speech and writing.
... Decoding-based reading disabilities (RD) are used to classify those who have persistent difficulties with accuracy and/or fluency of word-level reading . Phonological processing has been shown to consistently predict reading performance and is thus considered a foundational skill for reading development ( Foy and Mann, 2006 ;Hulme, 2002 ;Kovelman et al., 2012 ;Tanaka et al., 2011 ). At the neurobiological level, previous neuroimaging studies using diffusion data have explored neuroanatomical and neurobiological correlates of reading ability and have revealed various white matter tissue properties to be associated with reading ability and with the componential skills of mostly in left temporal-parietal regions or tracts identified as reading related along with the posterior corpus callosum and bilateral corona radiata ( Huber et al., 2018 ;Keller and Just, 2009 ;Lebel et al., 2019 ). ...
Article
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Background Studies exploring neuroanatomic correlates of reading have associated white matter tissue properties with reading disability and related componential skills (e.g., phonological and single-word reading skills). Mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) are widely used surrogate measures of tissue microstructure with high sensitivity; however, they lack specificity for individual microstructural features. Here we investigated neurite features with higher specificity in order to explore the underlying microstructural architecture. Methods Diffusion weighted images (DWI) and a battery of behavioral and neuropsychological assessments were obtained from 412 children (6 – 16 years of age). Neurite indices influenced by orientation and density were attained from 23 major white matter tracts. Partial correlations were calculated between neurite indices and indicators of phonological processing and single-word reading skills using age, sex, and image quality metrics as covariates. In addition, mediation analysis was performed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the indirect effect of phonological processing on reading skills. Results We observed that orientation dispersion index (ODI) and neurite density index (NDI) were negatively correlated with single-word reading and phonological processing skills in several tracts previously shown to have structural correlates with reading efficiency. We also observed a significant and substantial effect in which phonological processing mediated the relationship between neurite indices and reading skills in most tracts. Conclusions In sum, we established that better reading and phonological processing skills are associated with greater tract coherence (lower ODI) and lower neurite density (lower NDI). We interpret these findings as evidence that reading is associated with neural architecture and its efficiency.
... Numerous studies have shown that alphabetic knowledge is a short and long-term predictor of reading outcomes (Adlof et al., 2010;Caravolas et al., 2013Caravolas et al., , 2012Georgiou et al., 2012;Hjetland et al., 2019;Leppänen et al., 2008;Muter et al., 2004;Schatschneider et al., 2004;Sunde et al., 2020). Although the alphabetic principle has been treated as a unitary skill, some studies have suggested that letter-name and letter-sound knowledge constitute relatively independent abilities (Caravolas et al., 2001;Foy & Mann, 2006). Ferroni and Diuk (2010) further explored these differences with Spanish-speaking students, finding that lettersound knowledge was more related to phonological processing, while letter naming correlated more strongly with spelling words with arbitrary orthography. ...
Article
Universal screening is the first stage in identifying students at risk for reading difficulties within a Response to Intervention model. However, there is a lack of validated screening tools for assessing reading abilities in first-grade students from Spain. This pilot study examine the technical adequacy, classification accuracy, and best predictors within a set of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) in Spanish. A sample of 178 first graders from urban and peripheral areas of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (the Canary Islands, Spain) was assessed in the fall, winter, and spring. Receiver operating characteristic curves and logistic regression models were conducted to evaluate the predictive validity of each CBM and their composite score. In addition, students’ learning growth on each CBM was analyzed using hierarchical linear models. Although results suggested that most of the CBMs had adequate reliability and validity throughout first grade and were able to detect students’ growth, some measures showed low reliability and validity coefficients. Practice or police: Some of the studied CBMs could potentially be used as universal screening to early detect reading difficulties in this population. A two-stage gated screening procedure is proposed for future research and practical implementation using oral reading fluency in the first step.
... www.nature.com/scientificreports/ a significant contribution to letter-sound knowledge in English-speaking kindergarteners 9 . However, a recent study proposed a contrary suggestion that a letter-sound correspondence facilitates phonological awareness 10 . These studies suggest a bidirectional relationship between letter-sound correspondences and phonological awareness. ...
Article
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Although the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences is a critical step in reading development, how and when children develop such correspondence remains relatively unexplored. In this study, we focused on Japanese hiragana letters to examine the implicit letter-sound correspondence using an eye-tracking technique for 80 Japanese-speaking toddlers. The results showed that 32- to 48-month-olds (but not 24- to 32-month-olds) directed their gaze at the target letter. An additional experiment on a letter-reading task showed that 32- to 40-month-olds could barely read the presented hiragana letters. These findings suggest that toddlers have already begun to grasp implicit letter-sound correspondences well before actually acquiring the ability to read letters.
... Young children's language abilities across the domains of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge are strongly predictive of later reading success (Goswami & Bryant, 1990;Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Children with better phonological awareness (the awareness of and ability to manipulate the phonemes of their native language), who perform better on tasks such as identifying syllables or phonemes in a word, are more likely to become better readers (Foy & Mann, 2006;Goswami & Bryant, 1990;Hulme, 2002;Hulme et al., 2005;Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). The ability to store phonological information in short-term memory (phonological memory), is also predictive of reading (Alloway et al., 2004;Baddeley, 1987;Chein & Schneider, 2005;McCallum et al., 2006). ...
Article
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Understanding how pre-literate children's language abilities and neural function relate to future reading ability is important for identifying children who may be at-risk for reading problems. Pre-literate children are already proficient users of spoken language and their developing brain networks for language become highly overlapping with brain networks that emerge during literacy acquisition. In the present longitudinal study, we examined language abilities, and neural activation and connectivity within the language network in pre-literate children (mean age = 4.2 years). We tested how language abilities, brain activation, and connectivity predict children's reading abilities 1 year later (mean age = 5.2 years). At Time 1, children (n = 37) participated in a functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiment of speech processing (listening to words and pseudowords) and completed a standardized battery of language and cognitive assessments. At Time 2, children (n = 28) completed standardized reading assessments. Using psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses, we observed significant connectivity between the left IFG and right STG in pre-literate children, which was modulated by task (i.e., listening to words). Neural activation in left IFG and STG and increased task-modulated connectivity between the left IFG and right STG was predictive of multiple reading outcomes. Increased connectivity was associated later with increased reading ability.
... These words should be decoded as well. It has been found in literature that the process of learning to read encompasses representing letters to their individual phonemes (Gray & McCutchen, 2006;Foy & Mann, 2006;Alhumsi & Affendi, 2016). ...
Article
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Research has considered phonemic awareness skill as effective pillar in acquiring literacy skills. This skill has been identified as prerequisite for reading success However, little is known about the phonemic awareness instruction of Jordanian EFL emergent readers. This study therefore explored the impact of phonemic awareness instruction on word recognition among Jordanian EFL emergent readers. In this study, the research instrument was semi-structured interviews. Seven EFL students of emergent readers were interviewed. They were all first graders aged 7 years on average. Data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings indicated that there is a lack of knowledge or misunderstanding between the term of phonics and phonemic awareness as well. It has been also found that emergent readers' views show positive support towards the use of phonemic awareness skill. At the end of the study, some pedagogical implications for curriculum designers as well as English teachers were provided accordingly.
... La consapevolezza fonologica (PA), che è la capacità di archiviare e manipolare le informazioni linguistiche e di recuperare e produrre etichette verbali, è stata associata all'acquisizione della lettura (Hulme et al., 2005;Marini et al., 2020). Anche la corrispondenza lettera-suono (LSC) è considerata un fattore altamente predittivo dell'acquisizione della lettura e deriva dalla conoscenza che i bambini hanno dei nomi delle lettere e dei loro pattern fonologici (Muter et al., 2004;Foy & Mann, 2006). La denominazione rapida automatizzata (RAN) sembra formare un meccanismo separato nella lettura e potrebbe essere correlata all'efficienza del circuito di denominazione degli oggetti coinvolto nella formazione di associazioni tra parole e loro pronuncia (Wimmer & Schurz, 2010). ...
Article
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The aim of this study was to use path modelling to establish how rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term memory (VSTM), letter-sound connection (LSC), phoneme blending (PHB), and Raven tasks predict reading in Finnish and German. Students (N = 769) from Finland, Germany, and Italy (German-speaking children from South Tyrol) were followed from first grade until the end of second grade. Firstly, in all countries, LSC was found to be the strongest predictor for reading in first grade. Secondly, Finnish students’ word-reading skills were better than those of German and Italian students throughout the follow-up period, but word-reading level in first grade predicted word-reading level after one year only for Italian and German students. Thirdly, rapid automatized naming (RAN) and verbal short-term memory (VSTM) predicted reading skills in each orthography and country with a different power and at different phases, implying that the educational system also has a role in predicting reading skills.
... As children become aware that spoken words are made up of individual speech sounds, they must understand that letters in written words map onto these speech sounds in order to learn to read in an alphabetic language; that is, they need to grasp the alphabetic principle (Adams, 1990). Because phoneme manipulation skill and the ability to make connections between letters and sounds are strongly associated (Foy & Mann, 2006), detailed knowledge of word forms may also support the development of letter knowledge (Goswami, 2000). ...
Article
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Research Findings: The present study compared effects of explicit instruction on and practice with the phonological form of words (form-focused instruction) versus explicit instruction on and practice with the meaning of words (meaning-focused instruction). Instruction was given via interactive storybook reading in the kindergarten classroom of children learning Dutch. We asked whether the 2 types of instruction had different effects on vocabulary development and 2 precursors of reading ability—phonological awareness and letter knowledge—and we examined effects on these measures of the ability to learn new words with minimal acoustic-phonetic differences. Learners showed similar receptive target-word vocabulary gain after both types of instruction, but learners who received form-focused vocabulary instruction showed more gain in semantic knowledge of target vocabulary, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge than learners who received meaning-focused vocabulary instruction. Level of ability to learn pairs of words with minimal acoustic-phonetic differences predicted gain in semantic knowledge of target vocabulary and in letter knowledge in the form-focused instruction group only. Practice or Policy: A focus on the form of words during instruction appears to have benefits for young children learning vocabulary.
... Recognising rhyming words is considered a foundational PA skill by Bryant, MacLean, and Bradley (1990). Understanding letter-sound relationships is also positively correlated with the improvement of young children's PA (Foy and Mann 2006). Additionally, storybook reading aloud is a key activity that can help children learn that written words carry meanings. ...
Article
The aim of this study is to investigate how early childhood educators and parents support emergent bilingual children's emergent biliteracy skills in Turkish and English, in particular, their phonological awareness (PA) in the two languages. Having socio-cultural lenses, an embedded single case study using ethnographic tools was conducted. A bilingual classroom was selected in a private bilingual nursery located in London, England. In this classroom, the children were 3 or 4 years old and most of them had emergent bilingualism in Turkish/English languages. It was found that the classroom and the families did not provide equal learning opportunities for emergent bilingual children to develop their dual literacy skills simultaneously, since the English early years framework requires all children from linguistically diverse backgrounds to achieve literacy skills in English only. However, thanks to the children's enquiries in their literacy learning process, the educators’ informative responses overlap between phoneme-letter correspondence in English and Turkish and universality of PA activities across languages, the educators and the parents taught Turkish PA skills. These findings yielded important practical implications that educators and families can apply for teaching dual literacy skills to emergent bilingual children.
... It is important to note that information in the removed subtests, Beginning Sound Awareness and Nursery Rhyme Awareness, assessing the child's familiarity with sounds and rhyming words, is still assessed with the Rhyme Awareness subtest. While some research has questioned the strength of rhyme awareness as an independent predictor of reading achievement (see Foy & Mann, 2006;Wood, 2000), our results are consistent with the meta-analysis of the National Early Literacy Panel (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2009) which showed that Alphabet Knowledge (names and sounds of letters-Factor 1 in our study) along with varying subtests of Phonological Awareness (including rhyme), Name Writing, and Print Concepts (Factor 2 in our study) are all consistent predictors of early reading ability. In addition, even with the omission of the Beginning Sounds subtest, in particular, performance on the Rhyme Awareness measure still loaded together with the constructs of print awareness and name writing in the original validation study of Townsend and Konold (2010). ...
Article
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This study reports the dimensionality and measurement invariance of a modified version of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschoolers (PALS PreK). Practical constraints of conducting child assessments created an opportunity to develop a modified PALS PreK. The sample consisted of 1,168 children tested in a Southwestern state in the United States. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the modified PALS PreK supported the two-factor structure of the full PALS PreK. Multigroup CFA revealed measurement invariance for the modified PALS PreK for gender and ethnicity. The implications of a similar two-factor structure in the modified PALS PreK are discussed.
... Finalmente, el estudio tiene importantes implicancias educativas. Se ha señalado que el conocimiento del nombre y del sonido de las letras son relativamente independientes (Ferroni y Diuk, 2010;Foy y Mann, 2006;Ritchey, 2007;Treiman et al., 1998) y que el hecho de que los niños conozcan más una u otra etiqueta está asociado a factores educativos (Eleffson, Treiman y Kessler, 2009). A diferencia de otros países con ortografías transparentes, en los cuales las asociaciones entre letras y sonidos son enseñadas de modo explícito y sistemático en 1er. ...
Article
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This paper explores the reading difficulties of children growing in poverty. At the beginning of the 1st school year, 60 children were given tests of phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, rapid naming, letter knowledge, reading and spelling of familiar words, identification of reading actions, vocabulary and non verbal intelligence. At the end of the year two groups were identified: 25 good readers and 24 poor readers and their initial cognitive profiles were retrospectively compared. No statistically significant differences were found in vocabulary knowledge, intelligence or identification of reading actions. There were significant differences in phonological processing and alphabetic knowledge. Additionally, the performance gap between good and poor readers widened during the year. These results were interpreted as indication that the difficulties of children growing in poverty are the consequence of the interaction between cognitive factors and school instruction.
... The Interdependency Hypothesis argues that prior to the acquisition of the second or foreign language (L2, L3), the first language (L1) skills have to be sufficiently developed. Recent studies have focused predominantly on examining predictors of reading; operating memory, language sensitivity, rapid naming, and phonological awareness, as well as personal characteristics and social competences of language acquisition (Anthony & Francis, 2005;Foy & Mann, 2006;Smith-Spark & Fisk, 2007;Stranovská et al., 2013). ...
Article
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The aim of the current research study was to examine the dynamics of foreign language competence as applied in a programme designed for foreign language competence development in an academic environment. The programme, named The Linguistic Intervention Programme, represented a variety of active social learning techniques, self-regulated learning and a set of specific foreign language teaching strategies. One hundred and three university students participated in the research experiment. The research method utilized a foreign language proficiency test to serve as the appropriate tool to study the effects of the LIP techniques on the sample. The findings reveal that the result of the LIP in foreign language competence does not depend on the selection of foreign languages, meaning that the LIP is efficacious no matter what language is used in application of the techniques.
... Thus, each of the letters has a particular sound that helps learners recognize the words introduced and needed to be decoded. Many different researchers affirmed that learning to read process includes representing letters to their individual phonemes (Gray & McCutchen, 2006;Foy & Mann, 2006;Byrne et al., 1996). ...
Article
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Beginning readers apparently face difficulties when they are to learn English language skills, particularly reading skill. This research paper reviews the literature regarding the relationship between the skill of phonemic segmentation and EFL word recognition. It addresses three main issues: the position of phonemic segmentation skill in literature, the relation between phonological awareness and ability to read, and the skill of word recognition and learning to read. The aim of this paper is to precisely explore the nature of the relation of phonemic segmentation skill and beginning readers’ word recognition. The leading research question for this paper is: What is the relationship between the skill of phonemic segmentation and beginning readers’ EFL word recognition? To answer the research question, the researcher will review literature to explore that relation. The researcher will conclude that the relationship between the skill of phonemic segmentation and word recognition has received substantial concern in literature. It has significant effects on learning to read as well. Calls for implications, recommendations and intervention programs will be presented accordingly.
... Phonology has received much attention in reading research because of its importance in the very early stages of learning to read. Children's awareness of and ability to manipulate the sound units in their native language, termed phonological awareness , is a strong predictor of later reading development (Bowey, Cain, & Ryan, 1992 ;Foy & Mann, 2006 ;Goswami & Bryant, 1990 ;Hatcher & Hulme, 1999 ;Hoien, Lundberg, Stanovich, & Bjaalid, 1995 ;Hulme et al., 2002, Hulme, Caravolas, Málkova, & Brigstocke, 2005Melby-Lervåg, Lyster, & Hulme, 2012 ;Muter, Hulme, Snowling, & Taylor, 1997 ;Nation & Hulme, 1997 ;Nation & Snowling, 2004 ;Preston et al., 2010 ;Pugh et al., 2013 ;Wagner & Torgesen, 1987 ;Weber-Fox & Neville, 1999. A child's phonological awareness at the point in development when literacy is emerging (ages 4-6) predicts later literacy outcomes (Goswami & Bryant, 1990 ;Hulme et al., 2002 ;Wagner & Torgesen, 1987 ;Wagner et al., 1997 ;. ...
Chapter
Breznitz (J Educ Psychol 89:289–297, 1987a; Fluency in reading: synchronization of processes. Erlbaum, Mahwah, 2006) demonstrated that a fading manipulation, which continuously erases text based on the individual reading rate, results in improved reading performance. Several studies using this fading procedure showed that children as well as adults with different reading proficiency levels and in different languages were able to increase their reading rate and reading comprehension in a fading condition, characterizing the Acceleration Phenomenon. Considering the close interconnection of reading fluency and reading comprehension, a fact retrieval account for achievement enhancements induced by the fading manipulation is presented in this chapter. It is hypothesized, that if information can be processed at a high level of automaticity and available lexical entries can be accessed rapidly, reading performance can be improved by means of imposing a time limitation. Hence, the nature of the fading manipulation may induce a shift to faster and more elaborated strategies, such as direct fact retrieval, resulting in improved performance. Different empirical outcomes from the reading and the arithmetic domain are demonstrated and the generalizability of the Acceleration Phenomenon across academic domains is discussed.
... For example, children's ability to identify words in spoken language is predicted by their awareness of words as a unit of text . There is also evidence that exposure to letters and knowledge of letter names and sounds facilitates children's development of phonological awareness (Blaiklock, 2004;Foy & Mann, 2006) -which is one additional component contributing to children's development of metalinguistic awareness, that is, the metasymbolic knowledge of the symbolic nature or language. ...
Book
Reflective thinking can mean three different things. A first form of reflective thinking consists in elaborating personal conceptions about the mental activities and abilities and in becoming aware of what occurs in our and other people’s minds when we are engaged in intellectual tasks. This form of reflective thinking encompasses the research field usually labeled as “metacognition.” A second meaning of “reflective thought” regards Theory of Mind, which concerns more closely the realm of social interactions and relationships. Theory of Mind in fact is conceived as the recognition of one’s and others’ affective and epistemic mental states as the psychological causes and motives underlying behaviors. Metacognition and Theory of Mind are in part explicit and can be recognized by asking people to express verbally their beliefs about the mind; they are, however, also partially implicit, and they can be detected by observing how people behave – both in natural and in experimental settings – and speak. The third kind of reflective thinking takes the form of narration. In this case individuals reflect on their own and others’ mental lives by trying to make sense of what happens within and around them. People’s storytelling, on one hand, reveals their naïve psychological ideas and, on the other hand, hints at exploring and understanding their own and other persons’ mental states and intentions better. The forms of reflective thinking mentioned are seen as important competences that are needed to equip an individual to face the demands of reality. Their functional meaning appears in informal settings – such as spontaneous conversations and dialogues – as well as in formal contexts, such as instructional environments. Furthermore, they are shaped by interpersonal relationships and by literacy because an individual is an active partner in social exchanges, belongs to a given culture, and uses specific artifacts in which values, norms, and rules are embedded.
... A consciência fonológica, permitindo à criança segmentar a estrutura fonológica das palavras orais, para que se possa posteriormente converter essa sequência de sons em sequências de letras, parece ter um papel crucial na produção escrita (Caravolas, Hulme, & Snowling, 2001), sobretudo quando implementada pela via sublexical. Para além desta capacidade de descodificar o input auditivo, a criança que aprende a escrever necessita também dominar o princípio alfabético, nomeadamente saber que letra associar a cada som da língua e aplicar esse conhecimento eficientemente para compor a ortografia da palavra (Blaiklock, 2004;Foy & Mann, 2006). O recurso a estas duas competências seria então suficiente para a escrita de qualquer palavra de ortografia regular recorrendo à via sublexical. ...
... Investigaciones que analizaron en detalle la asociación entre conciencia fonológica y conocimiento de las letras identificaron relaciones bidireccionales entre ellas: niveles rudimentarios de sensibilidad fonológica facilitarían la adquisición de las letras, conocimiento que, a su vez, promovería la adquisición de niveles más avanzados de con ciencia fonológica, particularmente la conciencia fonémica (Foy & Mann, 2006;Lonigan et al., 2000). ...
Article
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Together with phonological sensitivity, letter knowledge has been shown to be one of the best predictors of reading acquisition (Lerväg, Bratën & Hulme, 2009; Muter, Hulme, Snowling & Stevenson, 2004). But letter learning represents a considerable challenge for many children growing in poverty contexts, as evidenced by studies con - duct ed with both selected and unselected samples of different ages (Diuk, Serrano & Ferroni, 2013; Duncan & Seymour, 2000). Even though letter knowledge has been largely attributed to expe - riential factors such as learning opportunities provided by a child's home or school, there is growing evidence that individual differences in several cognitive and linguistic variables are related to the ease with which children learn letter names or sounds. This paper aimed at exploring letter learning in 50 Argentine, 5-year-old children growing in poverty. Children were tested towards the end of their kindergarten year. An experimental training situation was adapted from Levin, Shatil-Carmon and Asif-Rave (2006). In this situation children were presented with unknown letters (letters from the Cyrillic alphabet). Pseudonames for these letters were created attending to the characteristics of letter names in Spanish. Training involved a card game consisting of a mixed pile of letter cards and picture cards. In each round of the game, the child uncovered one card after the other from the pile and, when a letter card turned up, he or she was asked to provide the letter's name. Children were presented with four letters, two per session. A point was awarded when the child could accurately name each letter. In order to identify cognitive and linguistic variables which might establish individual differ - ences among children in the ease of acquiring letter names, before the training situation children were given tests evaluating phonological sensitivity (syl - lable and initial sound recognition), phonological memory (digit span and pseudoword repetition), visual memory and rapid naming (RAN) of objects, colors and digits. Based on the scores in the letter learning situ - ation, two subgroups of children were established. The high- and the low-performing subgroups were then compared on the cognitive and linguistic var - ia bles previously examined. No differences between groups were obtained in either phonological sensitivity test, in phonological memory (digit span or pseudoword repetition) or visual memory. Statis - ti cal ly significant differences were only found in the rapid naming of objects (results from the rapid naming of colors and digits tests were excluded from analyses given that a high percentage of the sample could not name all five colors or numbers included in the task). The precise cognitive subs - trate tapped by rapid naming tasks has given rise to considerable debate in the field of Reading Psychology, but there is a growing consensus that these tasks probably capture the efficiency of basic neural mechanisms participating in the establish - ment of visual-verbal associations (Lervåg & Hulme, 2009). In terms of educational implications, rapid naming has proven to be hard to improve (de Jong & Vrielink, 2004). However, abilities strongly associated with RAN, such as reading fluency, can be enhanced through practice, even if rapid naming itself doesn't improve. RAN performance could consequently be considered an indication of the intensity of the intervention a child will need to achieve learning. Given that many low-income child ren have few opportunities for learning letter names and sounds in their communities, the fact that current kindergarten curricula do not include teaching letters may put many children in the situation of having to acquire alphabet knowledge in a short period of time once they enter 1st grade. Individual differences in rapid naming can thus be expected to play a role in the ease with which children learn in such a demanding context.
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Reading is developed over time and involves the interaction of both simple and complex skills characterised by a hierarchical sequence of foundational reading skills. However, research has shown that children who do not acquire mastery of foundational reading skills have limited chances of acquiring reading success. This study examines the relations between sub-components of reading in Xitsonga and their impact on Grade 1 learners’ reading ability. It also aims to identify which early reading skills predict later reading accomplishment. Data in this study was obtained from 75 Grade 1 learners in the Limpopo Province. The early-grade reading assessment tool adapted to Xitsonga was used to test the learners’ foundational reading skills: phonological and phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, word reading, oral reading fluency and reading comprehension skills. The results present a compelling relationship between the subcomponents of reading and show that deficits in the development of foundational reading skills negatively impact learners’ ability to read. Regression analysis showed that oral reading fluency was the only significant predictor of reading comprehension. Hence, there is a need for reading to be taught and learned consciously in alphabetic languages to help learners develop their early reading skills, which play important roles in the acquisition of reading.
Article
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Significant attention and legislation have been directed to assessment intervention for students with word-level reading disability (WLRD; i.e., dyslexia). Scholars have called for similar attention to prevention-oriented approaches in which intervention is provided to students at risk for WLRD from the earliest grades. Progress monitoring is a key aspect of early intervention, and although numerous measures exist for monitoring kindergarten reading development across foundational skill areas, little evidence indicates which measure(s) provide data that best reflect progress toward successful reading outcomes or significant word reading difficulties. In this study, a sample of 426 ethnically and linguistically diverse kindergarten students, considered at-risk for reading difficulties at the start of kindergarten, were monitored across kindergarten with seven measures that included tests of letter name and sound fluency, phoneme segmentation, word and pseudoword reading, and a computer adaptive test. Students’ word reading skills were assessed at the end of kindergarten and first grade with standardized tests of word reading, pseudoword decoding, and oral reading. Analyses that included latent variable growth modeling (controlling for emergent bilingual status) and latent profile analyses found that growth in letter-sound fluency during the fall of kindergarten, and word reading fluency during the spring, were the most strongly related to subsequent word reading skills and most clearly distinguished a subgroup of students who demonstrated significant word reading difficulties by the end of first grade. These measures may be ideal indices of progress for low-performing kindergarteners and for signaling a need for intervention intensification within a prevention-oriented framework.
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Bu çalışmanın temel amacı, 60-72 aylık çocukların erken okuryazarlık beceri düzeyinin SED, ev okuryazarlık uygulamaları, öğretmen okuryazarlık bilgi düzeyi ve sınıf içi okuryazarlık uygulamaları açısından incelenmesidir. Araştırmaya, devlet okulları bünyesinde bulunan anasınıflarında eğitim öğretimine devam eden ve tanılı herhangi bir yetersizliği olmayan 60-72 ay yaş aralığındaki 235 çocuk dâhil edilmiştir. Araştırmaya dâhil edilen çocukların erken okuryazarlık beceri düzeylerine ilişkin bilgiler ‘Erken Okuryazarlık Testi (EROT)’, ailelerin sosyo ekonomik düzeylerine ilişkin bilgiler ‘Aile Bilgi Formu’, ev okuryazarlık uygulamalarına ilişkin bilgiler araştırmacı tarafından geliştirilen ‘Ev Okuryazarlık Uygulamaları Ölçeği (EVOKU)’, okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin erken okuryazarlık bilgi düzeyi ve sınıf içi okuryazarlık uygulamalarına ilişkin bilgiler ‘Öğretmen Görüşme Formu’ ile elde edilmiştir. Çocukların öncelikle EROT alt testlerinden elde ettikleri puanların SED’e ve yaşa göre dağılımları belirlenmiştir. Dağılımların belirlenmesinin ardından EROT alt testlerinden elde edilen puanların SED’e ve sınıf içi okuryazarlık uygulamalarına göre farklılık gösterip göstermediğimi belirlemek için Kruskall Wallis- H testi, ev okuryazarlık uygulamalarına ve öğretmen bilgi düzeyine göre farklılık gösterip göstermediğini belirlemek için Mann Whitney-U testi kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlara bakıldığında çocukların alıcı dilde sözcük bilgisi, ifade edici dilde sözcük bilgisi ve sesbilgisel farkındalık becerileri alt testlerinden elde ettikleri puanların SED’e göre anlamlı farklılık gösterdiği görülmüştür. Anlamlı farklılığın ise üst SED’den gelen çocuklar ile alt SED’den gelen çocuklar arasında ve üst SED’den gelen çocukların lehine, orta SED’den gelen çocuklar ile alt SED’den gelen çocuklar arasında ve orta SED’den gelen çocukların lehine olduğu gözlemlenmiştir. Ev okuryazarlık uygulamalarının, çocukların alıcı dilde sözcük bilgisi, ifade edici dilde sözcük bilgisi, sesbilgisel farkındalık ve dinlediğini anlama alt testlerinden elde ettikleri puanlar üzerinde anlamlı farklılıklar yarattığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Anlamlı farklığın ise erken okuryazarlık becerileri açısından risk grubunda olmayan çocukların lehine olduğu görülmüştür. Okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin sahip olduğu erken okuryazarlık bilgi düzeyinin, çocukların EROT alt testlerinden elde ettikleri puanlar üzerinde anlamlı farklılık yaratmadığı görülmüştür. Son olarak sınıf içi okuryazarlık uygulamalarının, çocukların alıcı ve ifade edici dilde sözcük bilgisi alt testlerinden elde ettikleri puanlar üzerinde anlamlı farklılık yarattığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Anlamlı farklılığın ise iyi uygulamacı olan öğretmenlerin sınıfında bulunan çocuklar ile zayıf uygulamacı olan öğretmenlerin sınıfında bulunan çocuklar arasında ve iyi uygulamacı olan öğretmenlerin sınıfındaki çocukların lehine, orta düzey uygulamacı olan öğretmenlerin sınıfında bulunan çocuklar ile zayıf uygulamacı olan öğretmenlerin sınıfında bulunan çocuklar arasında ve orta düzey uygulamacı olan öğretmenlerin sınıfındaki çocukların lehine olduğu görülmüştür. Elde edilen bulgular alanyazın temelinde tartışılmış ve hem SED’in hem ev okuryazarlık uygulamalarının hem de sınıf içi okuryazarlık uygulamalarının erken okuryazarlık becerileri için önemli değişkenler olduğu belirlenmiştir. Sonuç olarak, çocuğun erken okuryazarlık bilgi ve becerilerinin gelişimi üzerinde etkili olduğu belirlenen tüm değişkenler bütüncül bir bakış açısıyla ele alınmış ve çocuğun içinde bulunduğu SED’in, ev okuryazarlık ve sınıf içi okuryazarlık uygulamalarının niteliğinin ve niceliğinin çocukların erken okuryazarlık bilgi ve becerilerinin gelişimini destekleyen önemli değişkenler olduğu görülmüştür.
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Değerlendirme, özel eğitim alanının en önemli konularından birisidir. Özel gereksinimli bir öğrencinin sahip olduğu yetenek ve beceri düzeyine uygun eği- timden yararlanması en temel hakkıdır. Bu temel haktan yararlanabilmek için amaca uygun bir değerlendirme sürecinin işletilmesi gerekmektedir. En genel haliyle birey hakkında bilgi toplama süreci olarak tanımlanan değerlendirme kavramı, özel gereksinimli öğrencilerin ilk belirlenmesinden başlayarak, gönderme öncesi süreç, gönderme, ayrıntılı değerlendirme, özel eğitim hizmetlerine uygunluğuna karar verme, bireyselleştirilmiş eğitim programı hazırlama ve programın etkililiğini değerlendirme basamaklarından oluşan oldukça kapsamlı ve dinamik bir süreçtir. Değerlendirme sürecinde kullanılacak olan yöntem, teknik ve araçlar değerlendirmenin amacına göre farklılık gösterir. Özel eğitim alanının gereksinimini karşılamak üzere hazırlanmış olan Özel Eğitimde Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Kitabı dört bölümden oluşmaktadır. Birinci bölümde Değerlendirmenin Temelleri başlığı altında değerlendirme kavramına açıklık getirilmeye çalışılmış; geçmişten günümüze değerlendirmenin tarihsel süreç içerisindeki gelişimi ile değerlendirme basamakları ayrıntılarıyla açıklanmıştır. Değerlendirme Yöntemleri başlığını taşıyan ikinci bölümde ise Formal ve İnformal teknikleri ayrıntılarıyla açıklanmıştır. Kitabın üçüncü bölümü Yeteneklerin Değerlendirilmesi başlığını taşımaktadır. Bu başlık altında Zekanın–Bilişsel Alanın Değerlendirilmesi, Uyumsal Davranışların Değerlendirilmesi, Davranışların ve Duygusal Durumun Değerlendiril- mesi ve Dilin Değerlendirilmesi konuları ele alınmıştır. Akademik Becerilerin Değerlendirilmesi başlığını taşıyan dördüncü bölümde ise Okuma-Yazmanın Değerlendirilmesi, Matematik Becerilerinin Değerlendirilmesi, Değerlendirmede Özel Konular başlıklı beşinci bölümde ise Erken Çocuklukta Değerlendirme, Aile Gereksinimlerinin Değerlendirilmesi ve Mesleki/ Geçiş Becerilerinin Değerlendirilmesi konuları ele alınmıştır.
Article
Fluency with skills that operate below the word level (i.e., sublexical), such as phonemic awareness and alphabetic knowledge, may ease the acquisition of decoding skills (Ritchey & Speece, 2006). Measures of sublexical fluency such as phoneme segmentation fluency (PSF), letter naming fluency (LNF), and letter sound fluency (LSF) are widely available for monitoring kindergarten reading progress, but less is known about the relative importance of growth in each skill across the early months of formal reading instruction and their relation to subsequent decoding acquisition. With a sample of kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties, this study investigated the extent to which initial status and growth in PSF, LNF, and LSF, administered on a progress-monitoring basis during the fall of kindergarten, were differentially predictive of word reading fluency skills at mid-year and growth across the second half the school year. We used two different fluency-based progress monitoring measures of word reading across the spring, one consisting entirely of phonetically regular consonant-vowel-consonant words, and the other that included phonetically regular and irregular words that varied in length. Results indicated that although initial status and fall growth in all sublexical fluency measures were positively associated with subsequent word reading, LSF across the fall of kindergarten was the strongest overall predictor of mid-year level and growth on both word reading measures, and unique in its prediction over the effects of LNF and PSF. Results underscore the importance of letter-sound knowledge for word reading development, and provide additional evidence for LSF as a key index of progress for at-risk learners across the early months of formal reading instruction.
Chapter
The paper is aimed at investigation of some aspects of foreign language reading comprehension, which is perceived as the most important skill required by students in a foreign language context. Intensive reading, also known as creative reading, has recently been ignored by researchers. The skill of reading comprehension is an aspect of practical reading experiences which can be developed by teacher’s intervention. One way to help learners to improve the skill is a strategy instruction. In the paper, the effect of various strategies, namely summarizing and students-generated questions are discussed. The participants of the research were upper-intermediate English University students from the Translatology Department. Firstly, overall achievement in a reading comprehension test was analysed; secondly the achievement in the subtests was investigated. Moreover, the research interest was focused on the item difficulty and achievement in comprehension of particular items. The method of a descriptive analysis was applied; frequency tables for categorized data together with quantiles were used to describe distribution of items. The results showed that text comprehension of the subtest 2 affected the other one in the subtest 3. Students comprehension difficulties need to be followed up with separate theory-based assessment tools which can help teachers determine learners’ problems in a more differentiated approach.
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The paper is aimed at investigation of some aspects of foreign language reading comprehension, which is perceived as the most important skill required by students in a foreign language context. Intensive reading, also known as creative reading, has recently been ignored by researchers. The skill of reading comprehension is an aspect of practical reading experiences which can be developed by teacher’s intervention. One way to help learners to improve the skill is a strategy instruction. In the paper, the effect of various strategies, namely summarizing and students-generated questions are discussed. The participants of the research were upper-intermediate English University students from the Translatology Department. Firstly, overall achievement in a reading comprehension test was analysed; secondly the achievement in the subtests was investigated. Moreover, the research interest was focused on the item difficulty and achievement in comprehension of particular items. The method of a descriptive analysis was applied; frequency tables for categorized data together with quantiles were used to describe distribution of items. The results showed that text comprehension of the subtest 2 affected the other one in the subtest 3. Students comprehension difficulties need to be followed up with separate theory-based assessment tools which can help teachers determine learners’ problems in a more differentiated approach.
Article
This study aimed to determine if using embedded words in a speech and language intervention could help a seven-year-old boy with persistent phonological difficulties to segment words into syllables. Single subject research design was carried out with pre and post intervention assessments. Intervention consisted of twelve, 60 minute, individual speech and language therapy sessions over a six-week period. Assessment prior to the onset of therapy showed that the participant had no awareness of linguistic units at syllable, onset/rime or phoneme level. The intervention consisted of an identification task where short words, like gate, were embedded in longer words, like alligator. The results showed that there were significant improvements in syllable segmentation at the end of therapy and this improvement was maintained after a period of 3 months during which time no speech and language therapy was given. There were additional significant improvements in phonological awareness at the onset/rime level and significant improvements in word finding ability. Conclusions are that more research is needed on the effectiveness of interventions for children who have persistent difficulties with the phonologically-based aspects of speech, language and literacy.
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Conhecimento do nome das letras e habilidades iniciais em escrita The knowledge of letters' names and the beginning skills of spelling El conocimiento del nombre de las letras y las habilidades iniciales en la escritura Resumo: Além da consciência fonológica, o conhecimento do nome das letras tem sido apontado como uma das variáveis que melhor predizem os resultados na aprendizagem da leitura e escrita. Entretanto, uma grande parte dos estudos sobre o tema tem sido realizada na língua inglesa. O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar as relações entre conhecimento do nome das letras, escrita inventada de palavras e habilidades em consciência fonológica em pré-escolares brasileiros, falantes do português. Participam da pesquisa 35 crianças (20 meninas e 15 meninos) com idades variando entre 5 anos e 7 meses e 6 anos e 10 meses de idade, alunos de uma pré-escola pública que atende famílias de baixa renda. Os participantes responderam a provas de conhecimento de letras e consciência fonológica. Também foram solicitados a escrever palavras que diferiam entre si em função do nome da consoante inicial das palavras poder ser detectado integralmente (ex: dedo) ou apenas parcialmente (ex: bicicleta; limão; mandioca) na pronúncia das mesmas. Os resultados indicam forte correlação entre conhecimento do nome das letras e escrita, sendo que o efeito facilitador do conhecimento do alfabeto sobre a escrita é significativamente maior no caso do nome da letra poder ser identificado no início da palavra a ser escrita. Conclui-se que o conhecimento do nome das letras constitui uma das habilidades fundamentais para o domínio dos sistemas alfabéticos de escrita também na língua portuguesa. Palavras-chave: conhecimento de letras; alfabetização; escrita Abstract: In addition to the phonological awareness, the letters name knowledge has been pointed out as one of the best predictors of results in reading and writing learning. However, most studies about the subject have been conducted in English. The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between knowledge of letter names, invented spelling skills and phonological awareness in Brazilian preschool children, speakers of Portuguese. The participants were 35 children (20 girls and 15 boys) aged between 5 years and 7 months and 6 years and 10 months, students of a public preschool that serves low-income families. Participants responded to proofs of letter knowledge 1
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Skilled, fluent reading involves mastery of multiple linguistic (e.g., phonological, semantic, morphological, syntactic) and related cognitive processes (e.g., processing speed, attention, working memory). Development of these processes is highly predictive of fluent reading. Among these, impairments in phonological processes such as phonological awareness and decoding (learning of spelling-to-sound correspondences) in combination with processing speed impairments are often implicated as the primary underlying deficits in developmental dyslexia. Here, we review relevant behavioral research on aspects of fluent reading development (phonology, semantics, processing speed) in skilled and disordered reading. We describe recent research in mapping the development of neural systems underlying these reading-related capacities, and their relevant gene-brain-behavior underpinnings. We consider the impact of cross-linguistic and/or multilingual experience on the development of the brain’s reading circuitry. By incorporating behavioral, neural, and genetic research, across different populations (skilled and disordered reading, monolingual and multilingual reading), and across languages, these multiple sources of converging evidence inform the development of fluent reading and contribute to the goal of developing a comprehensive neurobiological model of reading.
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This volume examines the role that culture plays in the acquisition of cognitive, linguistic, and social skills. Taking reflective thinking as a central analytical concept, the contributors investigate the role of personal reflection in a series of mental activities, including the creation of social relationships, the creation of a mental narrative to make sense of events, and metacognition. These three types of cognition are usually conceived of as separate research fields. Reflective Thinking in Educational Settings draws these discrete subfields into dialogue, exploring the connections and interplay among them. This approach yields insight into a range of topics, including language acquisition, cognitive processes, theory of mind, cross-cultural interaction, and social development. The volume also outlines the implications of these findings in terms of further research and possible social policy initiatives.
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Three bodies of research that have developed in relative isolation center on each of three kinds of phonological processing: phonological awareness, awareness of the sound structure of language; phonological recoding in lexical access, recoding written symbols into a sound-based representational system to get from the written word to its lexical referent; and phonetic recoding in working memory, recoding written symbols into a sound-based representational system to maintain them efficiently in working memory. In this review we integrate these bodies of research and address the interdependent issues of the nature of phonological abilities and their causal roles in the acquisition of reading skills. Phonological ability seems to be general across tasks that purport to measure the three kinds of phonological processing, and this generality apparently is independent of general cognitive ability. However, the generality of phonological ability is not complete, and there is an empirical basis for distinguishing phonological awareness and phonetic recoding in working memory. Our review supports a causal role for phonological awareness in learning to read, and suggests the possibility of similar causal roles for phonological recoding in lexical access and phonetic recoding in working memory. Most researchers have neglected the probable causal role of learning to read in the development of phonological skills. It is no longer enough to ask whether phonological skills play a causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. The question now is which aspects of phonological processing (e.g., awareness, recoding in lexical access, recoding in working memory) are causally related to which aspects of reading (e.g., word recognition, word analysis, sentence comprehension), at which point in their codevelopment, and what are the directions of these causal relations?
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In J. Metsala & L. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy (pp. 289-313). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 1998.
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This study examined whether measures used to identify children at risk for reading failure are appropriate for children from different language backgrounds. Tasks assessing literacy and phonological and language processing at the beginning and end of kindergarten were administered to 540 native English speakers (NS), 59 bilingual children (BL), and 60 children whose initial exposure to English was when they began school (ESL). Although the BL and ESL children performed more poorly than the NS children on most measures of phonological and linguistic processing, the acquisition of basic literacy skills for children with different language backgrounds developed in a similar manner. Furthermore, planned contrasts between the language groups did not explain the variance in the children’s literacy performance in May. Instead, alphabetic knowledge and phonological processing were important contributors to early reading skill. Therefore, children learning English may acquire literacy skills in English in a similar manner to NS children, although their alphabetic knowledge may precede and facilitate the acquisition of phonological awareness in English.
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Phonological awareness (PA) has been operationally defined by many different tasks, and task comparisons have been confounded by differing levels of linguistic complexity among items. A sample of 113 kindergartners and first graders completed PA tasks designed to separate task difficulty from linguistic complexity. These measures were, in turn, compared with measures of early literacy. Results indicated that the measures loaded on a single factor and that PA measured by differences in linguistic complexity, rather than by task differences, seemed to be more closely related to the factor. A logical analysis suggested that alphabet knowledge is necessary for children to separate onsets from rimes and that awareness of onsets and rimes is necessary both for word reading and for more complex levels of phonemic analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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In a cross-sectional study of 184 kindergarten and 2nd grade students, confirmatory factor analysis of a battery of phonological and control tasks were used to compare alternative models of young readers' phonological processing abilities. The authors found evidence for 5 distinct but correlated phonological processing abilities. Latent phonological processing abilities were more highly correlated with general cognitive ability than previous reports would suggest, although they accounted for variance in word recognition independent of general cognitive ability. The results of this study, coupled with those of a previous study of prereaders, suggest that phonological abilities are best conceptualized as relatively stable and coherent individual difference attributes, as opposed to relatively unstable measures of reading-related knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Argues that segmental analysis ability does not develop without specific stimulation and that it usually appears when learning to read and write in an alphabetic system. It is also argued that segmental analysis ability can develop outside learning to read in the alphabetic system, that it contributes to success in reading and writing, and that it is a good predictor of reading ability even when learning to read in a whole-word setting. Several forms of phonological awareness are distinguished, and it is claimed that rhyme appreciation and manipulation do not require segmental analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Cross-lagged panel correlation is a method for testing spuriousness by comparing cross-lagged correlations. True experiments control for spuriousness by random assignment, but random assignment limits true experimental studies to independent variables that can be manipulated. Like any statistical method cross-lagged analysis is based on a set of assumptions: synchronicity and stationarity. Different forms of stationarity have different consequences for both the changes in the synchronous correlations over time and the difference between cross-lags. Homogeneous stability is a necessary assumption in the identification of both the source and direction of a causal effect. Cross-lagged analysis is a low-power test, better adapted than either multiple regression or factor analysis for many questions in panel studies. Multiple regression must assume no errors of measurement in the independent variables and no correlated errors, while factor analysis must specify a particular factor structure. Two extended examples of cross-lagged analysis are discussed with special emphasis placed on the issue of stationarity and the estimation of reliability ratios. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Studied how 2 components of phonemic awareness, recognition of phoneme identity across words and recognition of phonemic segmentation within words, influence acquisition of the alphabetic principle in preliterate children. Evidence favored training in phoneme identity over segmentation as a component of initial reading instruction because it was easier to implement and its relationship to alphabetic insight was stronger. The study also found that identity can be equally easily taught using word-initial and word-final phonemes, a phoneme in a consonant cluster does not present special problems, vowels are as amenable to training as consonants, and stops are more problematic than continuants. Once alphabetic insight is established for some letters, following identity and letter–sound instruction, it generalizes to other letters without the need for further phonemic awareness training. Implications for the initial reading curriculum are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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In psychological research, it is desirable to be able to make statistical comparisons between correlation coefficients measured on the same individuals. For example, an experimenter (E) may wish to assess whether 2 predictors correlate equally with a criterion variable. In another situation, the E may wish to test the hypothesis that an entire matrix of correlations has remained stable over time. The present article reviews the literature on such tests, points out some statistics that should be avoided, and presents a variety of techniques that can be used safely with medium to large samples. Several numerical examples are provided. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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The nature of the developmental association between phonological memory and vocabulary knowledge was explored in a longitudinal study. At each of 4 waves (at ages 4, 5, 6, and 8 yrs), measures of vocabulary, phonological memory, nonverbal intelligence, and reading were taken from 80 children. Comparisons of cross-lagged partial correlations revealed a significant shift in the causal underpinnings of the relationship between phonological memory and vocabulary development before and after 5 yrs of age. Between 4 and 5 yrs, phonological memory skills appeared to exert a direct causal influence on vocabulary acquisition. Subsequently, though, vocabulary knowledge became the major pacemaker in the developmental relationship, with the earlier influence of phonological memory on vocabulary development subsiding to a nonsignificant level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Tested the assumptions that phonemic segmentation skill is learned best in the oral mode and that teaching segmentation with alphabet letters confuses learners. Three treatment groups of 8 prereaders (mean age 67.8 mo) were formed. The letter group was taught to segment nonword blends using letter tokens. The nonletter group was taught to segment blends with tokens lacking letters. A control group received no training. Experimental groups took about the same time and number of trials to reach criterion during training, indicating that neither method was more difficult or time consuming. Errors indicated that letters helped Ss learn to distinguish phoneme-size units and to remember the correct sounds during the task. On a segmentation posttest, letter and nonletter Ss segmented unpracticed blends better than controls, indicating that both groups acquired general segmentation skill. Letter Ss were superior to nonletter Ss in segmenting practiced sounds, with both groups surpassing controls. It is suggested that letters provide learners with a mental symbol system for representing and thinking about specific phonemes. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Phonological recoding is commonly viewed as a back-up mechanism when word identification using the visual pathway fails. A second more important role for phonological recoding is as a self-teaching mechanism by which the child learns to identify words visually. Although phonological recoding may play a minor role in skilled adult reading, it plays a critical role in helping the child become a skilled reader. This article reviews the evidence relevant to these issues. The first section examines evidence on the role of phonological recoding in the development of word identification skills and reading comprehension. The next section reviews evidence showing that children with reading disabilities often have deficits in basic phonological processing skills. The third section deals with the nature of the reading problem in such children which, it is argued, is consistent with the proposed developmental analysis of the importance of phonological recoding in learning to read. The article concludes with a discussion of the teaching implications of these conclusions.
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A FRAMEWORK for conceptualizing the development of individual differences in reading ability is presented that synthesizes a great deal of the research literature. The framework places special emphasis on the effects of reading on cognitive development and on "bootstrapping" relationships involving reading. Of key importance are the concepts of reciprocal relationships-situations where the causal connection between reading ability and the efficiency of a cognitive process is bidirectional-and organism-environment correlation-the fact that differentially advantaged organisms are exposed to nonrandom distributions of environmental quality. Hypotheses are advanced to explain how these mechanisms operate to create rich-getricher and poor-get-poorer patterns of reading achievement. The framework is used to explicate some persisting problems in the literature on reading disability and to conceptualize remediation efforts in reading.
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Memory-processing problems are more than a characteristic of children with learning disabilities (LDs). This chapter provides an overview of the cognitive processes that are involved in reading. It presents an approach to the problem of early reading disability that is being guided by the assumption that reading is first, and foremost, a language skill. Psychologists, educators, and medical doctors have tried to identify the basis of early reading difficulty, and their efforts have always been guided by a rationale of some sort or another that reflects some basic assumptions as to what skilled reading is all about. For this reason, a basic understanding of the assumptions behind the studies and experiments that seek to explain early reading problems is an obvious place to begin. To introduce these assumptions, the chapter describes how the English alphabet functions as written language by mapping onto the structure of spoken English.
Article
In a variety of situations in psychological research, it is desirable to be able to make statistical comparisons between correlation coefficients measured on the same individuals. For example, an experimenter may wish to assess whether two predictors correlate equally with a criterion variable. In another situation, the experimenter may wish to test the hypothesis that an entire matrix of correlations has remained stable over time. The present article reviews the literature on such tests, points out some statistics that should be avoided, and presents a variety of techniques that can be used safely with medium to large samples. Several illustrative numerical examples are provided.
Chapter
I started investigating phonological awareness because of its relationships with literacy acquisition. There is, however, a further passionately interesting issue for cognitive psychologists, namely, how phonological awareness is related to the language system. In some sense, phonological awareness lies, like a bridge, between language and literacy. It belongs to either function. On the one hand, phonological awareness refers to a special category of phonological representations; on the other hand, some of its forms are part of the process of literacy acquisition and remain tied to literacy codes. The aim of this chapter is to embrace both issues in an integrative manner.
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Pictures that allow the mind to behold invisible aspects of reality may be worth much more than the 1,000 words proclaimed in the adage, particularly to children in the midst of constructing cognitive schema to make sense of their experiences, and particularly when the picture entails a system of symbols organizing an entire dimension of experience. For example, when children learn to read printed language, they become able to visualize what they are saying and hearing. When children learn to read clocks and calendars, they acquire a visual means of representing the passage of time. When children learn to read music, they become able to visualize what is sung or played on an instrument. In each case, a visual-spatial representational system is acquired by the mind for perceiving and thinking about experiences which cannot be seen and which have temporal duration rather than physical extent as a basic property. Acquisition of a spatial model offers several potential advantages. It enables the possessor to hold onto and keep track of phenomena which themselves leave no trace or have no permanence. It imposes organization upon the phenomena by specifying units, subunits, and interrelationships which might otherwise be difficult to detect or discriminate. However, some degree of distortion or inaccuracy may also result because properties of space may not be completely isomorphic with properties of the nonspatial modality, and also because the spatial system, being a cultural invention, carries no guarantee that it is perfectly conceived.
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This groundbreaking study on the psycholinguistics of spelling presents the author's original empirical research on spelling and supplies the theoretical framework necessary to understand how children's ability to write is related to their ability to speak a language. The author explores areas in a field dominated by work traditionally concerned with the psychodynamics of reading skills and, in so doing, highlights the importance of learning to spell for both psycholinguists and educators, since as they begin to spell, children attempt to represent the phonological, or sound form, of words. The study of children's spelling can shed light on the nature of phonological systems and can illuminate the way sounds are organized into larger units, such as syllables and words. Research on children's spelling leads directly to an understanding of the way phonological knowledge is acquired and how phonological systems change with the development of reading and writing ability. In addition to this insight concerning cognitive processes, the findings presented here have implications for how spelling should be taught and why some writing systems are easier to master than others. The work will interest a wide range of cognitive and developmental psychologists, psycholinguists, and educational psychologists, as well as linguists and educators interested in psycholinguistics.
Article
A Monte Carlo evaluation of 4 test statistics for comparing dependent zero-order correlations was conducted. In particular, the power and Type I error rates of Hotelling's t; Williams' t; Olkin's z; and Meng, Rosenthal, and Rubin's Z were evaluated for sample sizes of 20, 50, 100, and 300 under 3 different population distributions (normal, uniform, and exponential). For the power analyses, 3 different magnitudes of discrepancy or effect sizes between ρy, x1, and ρy, x2 were examined (values of .1, .3, and .6). Likewise, for the Type I error rate analyses, 3 different magnitudes of the predictor-criterion correlations were evaluated (ρy, x1 = ρy, x2 = .1, .4, and .7). All of the analyses were conducted at 3 different levels of predictor intercorrelation (ρx1, x2 = .1, .3, and .6). The results indicated that the choice as to which test statistic is optimal, in terms of power and Type I error rate, depends not only on sample size and population distribution but also on (a) the predictor intercorrelation and (b) the effect size (for power) or the magnitude of the predictor-criterion correlations (for Type I error rate). The results extend and refine previous studies that have only manipulated sample size and population distribution and as such should have greater utility for applied researchers.
Article
ABSTRACTS The relationship between phonological awareness, short‐term memory, grammatical awareness, and reading accuracy was investigated in a follow‐up study of 34 9‐year‐olds originally studied as preschoolers. The best concurrent predictor set for reading accuracy at age 9 was grammatic knowledge, phoneme awareness, and speech rate, which together explained nearly 90% of the variance in reading skill. Phoneme deletion, nonword repetition, and letter knowledge measures taken at ages 5 and 6 predicted reading skill at age 9, while rhyme awareness proved a poor long‐term predictor. SE INVESTIGÓ la relación entre la conciencia fonológica, la memoria a corto plazo, la conciencia gramatical y la precisión en lectura en un estudio de seguimiento de 34 niños de 9 años estudiados originalmente como preescolares. El mejor conjunto de predictores concurrentes de la precisión en lectura a los 9 años fue el conocimiento gramatical, la conciencia fonológica y la velocidad del habla, los que explicaron casi el 90% de la varianza en habilidad de lectura. Las medidas de supresión de fonemas, repetición de pseudopalabras y conocimiento de las letras, tomadas a los 5 y 6 años predijeron la habilidad de lectura a los 9 años, en tanto que la sensibilidad a las rimas resultó un predictor pobre a largo plazo. DIE BEZIEHUNG zwischen phonologischem Bewußtsein, dem Kurzzeit‐Gedächtnis, grammatikalischer Erkenntnis und der Lesegenauigkeit wurde in einer Nachfolgestudie mit 34 Neunjährigen untersucht, welche ursprünglich als Vorschüler bereits beobachtet wurden. Die besten übereinstimmenden Vorhersagen, welche für die Lesegenauigkeit mit Erreichen des Alters von 9 Jahren festgesetzt wurden, waren grammatikalisches Wissen, phonemes Bewußtsein und die Aussprache‐Bemessung, welche zusammengenommen nahezu 90% der Abweichung bei der Lesefertigkeit erklärte. Phonemische Auslassungen, Silbenwiederholungen und Buchstabierkenntnisse als Bemessungen im Alter von 5 und 6 dienten zu Voraussagen über Leseleistungen im Alter von 9, während Rythmus‐Bewußtsein sich als schwacher Langzeit‐Vorhersagefaktor erwies. ON A examiné la relation entre conscience phonologique, mémoire à court terme, conscience grammaticale, et maîtrise de la lecture dans une étude longitudinale portant sur 34 enfants de 9 ans suivis depuis l'école maternelle. Le meilleur ensemble de prédicteurs simultanés pour la lecture à l'âge de 9 ans a été la connaissance de la grammaire, la conscience phonémique, et la maîtrise du langage qui en semble rendent compte de 90% de la variance du savoir‐lire. Les évaluations de suppression de phonèmes, répétition de non‐mots, et connaissance des lettres effectuées à 5 et 6 ans ont permis de prévoir le niveau de lecture à l'âge de 9 ans, tandis que la conscience de la rime s'est révélée être un mauvais prédicteur à long terme.
Article
Learning to read and spell words is a central part of becoming literate. During text reading, most words are processed, and skilled readers are able to do this effortlessly. How they become skilled at processing graphic cues has been the focus of our research. Findings indicate that prereaders do not acquire graphic skill by learning to read signs and labels in their environment. Rather, mastery of letters is required. Whereas prereaders use visual or context cues to identify words, as soon as children move into reading they shift to letter-sound cues. Initially, words are read by accessing remembered associations between a few letters in spellings and sounds in pronunciations. Later, when decoding skill matures, complete spellings are analyzed as phonemic symbols for pronunciations and are stored in memory. Various studies indicate that having a visual picture of speech in memory is an important part of a person's information-processing equipment. Spellings may influence how words are pronounced, what sounds people think are in words, how quickly people judge spoken word rhymes, how rapidly pronunciations change over time.
Article
When two correlation coefficients are calculated from a single sample, rather than from two samples, they are not statistically independent, and the usual methods for testing equality of the population correlation coefficients no longer apply. This paper considers the situation when the sample is from a multivariate normal distribution. Several possible large sample testing procedures are given, all based on Fisher's z-transformation. Power curves are given for each procedure and for seven values of the asymptotic correlation between the two sample correlation coefficients.
Article
The development of letter-sound (lS) and letter-name (LN) knowledge and associations with other reading skills differed in 91 children followed from the beginning of kindergarten through the middle of first grade: Previous LN predicted both subsequent LN and LS, but previous LS predicted only subsequent LS. Correlations of LN and LS within each testing time were modest, and both were substantially correlated with alphabet ordering across time. Both LS and LN contributed unique variance in predicting subsequent reading-related skills. Children's knowledge of letter sounds was dependent upon corresponding letter names, supporting Treiman et al.'s (1994) letter-name hypothesis. Results suggest that alphabet knowledge consists of both LN and LS, which have different developmental patterns.
Article
Intended for teachers and administrators, this book examines systematic observation of reading behaviors and reading recovery procedures to help children with reading problems. Part one deals with systematic observation, beginning with a discussion of the reading process and reading programs. Following that, it describes the use of the diagnostic survey--including strategies both for using the "running record" and for testing--and concludes with strategies for summarizing the diagnostic survey results. Part two focuses on reading recovery--a program for early intervention--and includes chapters on organizing to prevent reading failure, reducing reading difficulties with a second chance to learn, understanding the various aspects of the reading recovery program, reading recovery teaching procedures, and deciding when to discontinue children from the program. The final chapter contains summaries of six projects that make up the program and a summary of the entire reading recovery program. The appendixes contain summary sheets, test score sheets, reading recovery teaching sheets (for New Zealand children), and a stanine score summary sheet. (EL)
Article
Reexamined the claim that children who cannot yet read lack phonemic sensitivity, using 96 preschoolers. Ss had not been exposed to formal reading instruction. 20 children were novice readers and 76 nonreaders based on the results of phonological oddity, sound identity, and novice reading skill tasks. Both novice readers and nonreaders high in letter knowledge were sensitive to phonemic units. Novice readers were higher in both phonological sensitivity (PS) and verbal ability than nonreaders. Robust differences in PS remained between novice readers and nonreaders equivalent in letter knowledge after verbal ability effects were controlled. Although nonreaders varying in letter knowledge also differed in PS, this result may have reflected underlying differences in verbal ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
identifies 2 independent factors which account for the performance of 4 yr olds on tests of phonological awareness: rhyme and segmentation / [shows] that segmentation ability influences the development of reading and of spelling, but not of arithmetic ability, in the subsequent 2 yrs (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
phonology and the alphabetic principle / phonological processing in reading-writing and in listening-speaking / awareness of phonological structure and reading [in children and adult nonreaders] / problems in short-term memory and sentence comprehension / phonology and the successful deaf reader (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Two studies (involving 295 kindergartners and 75 2nd- and 6th-graders) were conducted to provide correlational and experimental evidence for causal relationships between linguistic coding deficits and reading disability. Convergent evidence of 3 types is presented as documentation that deficiencies in phonological coding and phonemic segmentation (PS) are a direct cause of deficiencies in word identification (e.g., evidence from a longitudinal study demonstrating the predictive validity of PS ability, and evidence from a training study demonstrating that training in PS and alphabetic mapping had a salutary effect on a task simulating word identification and code acquisition). It is concluded that phonologic coding deficits constitute a major source of reading difficulty in beginning readers, although there is suggestive evidence that semantic and syntactic deficits also may cause such difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
purpose was to examine three closely related questions by testing children, at several points through their first year in school, on different phonemic knowledge tasks and tests of reading skill can evidence be brought to bear on the contribution of phonemic knowledge to reading in relation to the contribution of reading to phonemic knowledge can we model some components of phonemic knowledge by reference to performance on different phonemic tasks are children who are taught by a direct code method more dependent on phonemic knowledge than are children taught by indirect code methods and commercial based readers (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This [book gives an] introduction to the study of the child's acquisition of phonology. It contrasts data-based interactionist, cognitive models of phonological development with earlier deductive behaviorist and structuralist accounts. Setting these models in current neurophysiological perspectives, it integrates the flourishing independent research areas of infant speech perception and vocal production. The book traces the nature and timing of prosodic and segmental development with due attention to evidence of individual differences and from cross-linguistic studies. It describes the emergence of 1st words and the 1st phonological system against the background of the child's social and cognitive development in the first 18 months. Reviewing current studies of later development, the book discusses the role of vocabulary growth in the emergence of the segment, the early relationship of phonology and syntax, and the emergence of reading and spelling in relation to phonological sensitivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Tested the hypothesis that the experiences that a child has with rhyme before he/she goes to school might have an effect on later success in learning to read and write. Two experimental situations were used: a longitudinal study and an intensive training program in sound categorization or other forms of categorization. 368 children's skills at sound categorization were measured before they started to read and then related to their progress in reading, spelling, and mathematics over 4 yrs. At the end of initial testing and during the 4 yrs Ss' IQ, reading, spelling, and mathematical abilities were tested. There were high correlations between initial sound categorization scores and Ss' reading and spelling over 3 yrs. At the onset of study, 65 Ss who could not read and had low sound-categorization skills were divided into 4 groups. Two received 2 yrs of training in categorizing sounds. Group 1 was taught that the same word shared common beginning, middle, and end sounds with other words and could be categorized in different ways. Group 2 was also taught how each common sound was represented by a letter of the alphabet. The other groups served as controls. Group 3 was taught only that the same word could be classified in several ways. At the end of training, Group 1 was ahead of Group 3 and Group 2 was ahead of Group 1 in reading and spelling. This suggests that training in sound categorization is more effective when it also involves an explicit connection with the alphabet. Results support the hypothesis. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Reviews research on the development of spoken word recognition, from studies of speech perception in infancy and early word productions through investigations of word recognition proper and explicit phoneme segmentation ability in middle childhood. Most developmental research indicates that lexical representation and processing are not, at the outset, segmentally based, but are more holistic in nature. Segmental restructuring of lexical representations begins largely with a vocabulary growth spurt in late infancy and associated pressures for more detailed and efficient storage of lexical items. Variations in the segmental structure of basic lexical representations and the use of such structure for recognition in the preschool period may contribute to individual differences in explicit phoneme segmentation ability, and thus early reading success. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This study was designed to test the prediction that, whereas sensitivity to subsyllabic phonological units might emerge prior to alphabetic reading instruction, phonemic analysis skills develop as a consequence of reading instruction. A series of phonological oddity tasks was devised, assessing children's sensitivity to subsyllabic onset and rime units, and to phonemes. These tasks were administered to three groups of children. The first group comprised the oldest children of a sample of kindergarten children. The second and third groups comprised the youngest and oldest children from a first-grade sample. The kindergarten group was equivalent to the younger first-grade group in terms of general verbal maturity, but had not been exposed to reading instruction. The younger first-grade sample was verbally less mature than the older first-grade sample, but had equivalent exposure to reading instruction. On all tasks, both first-grade groups performed at equivalent levels, and both groups did better than the kindergarten group. In all groups, onset and rime unity oddity tasks were of equal difficulty, but phoneme oddity tasks were more difficult than rime oddity tasks. Although some of the kindergarten children could reliably focus on onset and rime units, none performed above chance on the phoneme oddity tasks. Further analyses indicated that rime/onset oddity performance explained variation in very early reading achievement more reliably than phoneme oddity performance.
Article
For adults, written spelling is generally superior to oral spelling. To determine whether the same holds true for children in kindergarten through second grade, we compared children's ability to spell real words (Experiment 1) and nonsense words (Experiment 2) orally and in writing. Building on the work of Tangel and Blachman (1992, 1995) and others, we developed a reliable system to assess the overall quality of the children's spellings. We also examined the phonological and orthographic legality of the spellings. By first and second grade, written spellings were superior to oral spellings in both overall quality and representation of phonological form. This held true for both words and nonwords. The results suggest that children, like adults, more accurately analyze the linguistic structure of a spoken item when they can represent the results in a lasting, visible form than when they cannot.
Article
Children in the United States and in other English-speaking countries often learn a good deal about letters before they begin formal reading instruction. We suggest that one important and previously unrecognized type of knowledge about letters is knowledge of the phonological structure of the letters' names. In two experiments, preschoolers with a mean age of 4;8 judged whether various syllables were letters. The children made significantly more false positive responses to syllables such as /fi/, which have a phonological structure shared by a number of letters, than to syllables such as /fa/ and /if/, which sound less like real letters. This was true even for children who could recite the alphabet without error. Learning the alphabet, we conclude, forms the basis for generalizations about the structure of letter names.
Article
Previous research has shown a clear relationship between phonological awareness and early reading ability. This article concerns some aspects of spoken language skill that may contribute to the development of phonological awareness, as manifested in rhyme awareness and phoneme awareness. It addresses the hypothesis that phonological awareness abilities are associated with measures that purportedly tap into the strength of phonological representations. We examined rhyme awareness, phoneme awareness, articulatory skill, speech perception, vocabulary, and letter and word knowledge in 40 children, aged 4 to 6, who were just beginning to be exposed to formal reading experiences in private preschools. The children also received cognitive tests and tests of reading ability. The results did not validate strength of phonological representation as a unitary construct underlying phonological awareness more generally, but instead revealed a selective pattern of associations between spoken language tasks and aspects of phonological awareness. Speech perception was closely associated with rhyme awareness measures when age, vocabulary, and letter knowledge were controlled. Children with a less developed sense of rhyme had a less mature pattern of articulation, independent of age, vocabulary, and letter knowledge. Phoneme awareness was associated with phonological perception and production. Children with low phoneme awareness skills showed a different pattern of speech perception and articulation errors than children with strong abilities. However, these differences appeared to be largely a function of age, letter knowledge, and especially vocabulary knowledge.
Article
This is an investigation of the relationships among selected aspects of normal language development, emerging metalinguistic skills, and concepts about print in 3-year-old children. Forty–three normally developing children were given four tests of language development; twelve metalinguistic tasks measuring phonological awareness, word awareness, and structural awareness; and two measures of literacy knowledge. The results clearly demonstrated that most 3-year-olds can make metalinguistic judgments and productions in structured tasks, with overall metalinguistic performance improving with age in months. Specific metalinguistic tasks varied in difficulty and probably in developmental order. The major domains of metalinguistic awareness (phonological, word, and structural) were significantly intercorrelated and also correlated with overall linguistic skill. Literacy knowledge was positively correlated with overall metalinguistic skill and, specifically, with phonological awareness. It is concluded that, as young as age 3, children are already rapidly developing a mental framework for analyzing language structure separately from language meaning
Article
The literature to date suggests that the best predictor of early reading ability, phonological awareness, appears to be associated with the acquisition of letter-sound and vocabulary knowledge and with the development of well-defined phonological representations. It further suggests that at least some aspects of phonological awareness critically depend upon literacy exposure. In this study of 4- to 6-year-olds, we examine whether aspects of the home literacy environment are differentially associated with phonological awareness. Parental responses to a questionnaire about the home literacy environment are compared to children's awareness of rhyme and phonemes, as well as to their vocabulary, letter knowledge, and performance on measures of phonological strength (nonword repetition, rapid naming skill, phonological distinctness, and auditory discrimination). The results showed that a teaching focus in the home literacy environment and exposure to reading-related media are directly associated with phoneme awareness and indirectly associated via letter knowledge and vocabulary. Exposure to reading-related media and parents' active involvement in children's literature were also directly and indirectly linked with rhyme awareness skills via their association with letter and vocabulary knowledge.