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Is there a causal link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read?
Abstract
In this review, we re-assess the evidence that phonological awareness represents a skill specific to spoken language that precedes and directly influences the process of reading acquisition. Longitudinal and experimental training studies are examined in detail, as these are considered most appropriate for exploring a causal hypothesis of this nature. A particular focus of our analysis is the degree to which studies to date have controlled for existing literacy skills in their participants and the influence that these skills might have on performance on phonological awareness tasks. We conclude that no study has provided unequivocal evidence that there is a causal link from competence in phonological awareness to success in reading and spelling acquisition. However, we believe that such a study is possible and outline some ideas for its design and implementation.
... C'est cette compétence de conscience phonémique qui est visée pour préparer l'apprentissage de la lecture. En effet, la conscience du phonème corrèle fortement et positivement avec le niveau de lecture ultérieur (Bradley et Bryant, 1983;Bryant et al., 1990;Coltheart, 1983;Demont et Gombert, 2004) et est donc considérée comme un facteur prédicteur de l'apprentissage de la lecture (Castles et Coltheart, 2004). De plus, dans la mesure où la conscience du phonème se développe avec l'acquisition des correspondances grapho-phonologiques, elle est considérée comme un marqueur de l'acquisition du code alphabétique (Hulme et al., 2005;Vazeux et al., 2020). ...
... De plus, dans la mesure où la conscience du phonème se développe avec l'acquisition des correspondances grapho-phonologiques, elle est considérée comme un marqueur de l'acquisition du code alphabétique (Hulme et al., 2005;Vazeux et al., 2020). La conscience phonémique et l'acquisition de la lecture se développent en interaction et leurs relations sont par conséquent bidirectionnelles (Castles et Coltheart, 2004). ...
... L'efficacité de l'entrainement de la conscience phonémique y est démontrée. Il est en effet admis que les habiletés de conscience phonémique, plutôt que celles de conscience syllabique, contribuent au développement de la conscience phonémique et du niveau de lecture (Castles et Coltheart, 2004;Wagner et Torgesen, 1987). Dans cette lignée, l'étude de Ukrainetz et al. (2011) montre que les enfants pré-lecteurs sont capables de développer des performances de conscience phonémique avec des instructions explicites sans avoir bénéficié au préalable d'un enseignement sur la conscience syllabique. ...
Le premier objectif de cette étude était d’observer, à partir des attendus de la recherche, les pratiques enseignantes pour développer la conscience phonologique des élèves pré-lecteurs. Le second objectif était de déterminer si celles-ci varient en fonction de l’origine socio-économique des élèves. Ces pratiques ont été observées en situation réelle de classe de grande section de maternelle dans des réseaux d’éducation prioritaire (REP) ou hors REP. L’activité, l’unité phonologique travaillée et la modalité de mise en œuvre de l’activité étaient codées dans une grille d’observation. Les résultats indiquent que les enseignants privilégient les tâches simples, l’unité accessible et des modalités peu efficaces. L’usage des modalités peu efficaces apparait plus accentué dans les écoles en REP que hors REP.
... Our findings further indicate a role for preschool oral language on early word reading. This is in contrast with some models of word reading specifically that have proposed that the relations between different aspects of word-level knowledge -orthography and both phonology and semantics are fostered through the interaction with print that occurs through learning to read (Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Harm & Seidenberg, 2004). However, such findings can be explained in relation to the lexical restructuring hypothesis and extensions of the triangle model that propose that the development of pre-literacy vocabulary results in increasing precision of phonological codes (Chang et al. 2019;Harm & Seidenberg, 1999;Metsala & Walley, 1998). ...
... Given the strong association between vocabulary and grammar and both reading comprehension and word reading, these findings indicate that the assessment of either aspect of oral language could usefully inform a child's readiness for reading instruction and inform individual learning support. These results confirm the importance of supporting early oral language skills before reading instruction begins (Bleses et al., 2016;Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Chang et al., 2019;Dickinson et al., 2010;Duff et al., 2015;Hjetland et al., 2020;Muter et al., 2004;Ricketts et al., 2007). ...
... Phonological awareness has widely been recognised as a robust predictor of reading and spelling ability for languages with consistent orthographies (see Adams 1990;Babayiğit & Stainthorp 2007;Bryant et al. 1990;Caravolas, Hulme & Snowling 2001;Caravolas, Volin & Hulme 2005;Hulme & Snowling 2015;Landerl, Castles & Parrila 2022;Landerl & Wimmer 2008;Leppänen et al. 2006;Öney & Durgunoglu 1997;Zarić, Hasselhorn & Nagler 2021). To a far lesser degree, orthographic knowledge has been found to be influential for reading and spelling in mainly inconsistently written languages such as English (Apel, Wolter & Masterson 2006;Castles & Coltheart 2004;Cunningham, Perry & Stanovich 2001;Ganske 1999;Nag 2007;Roman et al. 2009;Zhao et al. 2017) with some studies attesting to this relationship for consistently written languages (Greek: Georgiou et al. 2008b;Persian: Arab-Moghaddam & Senechal 2001;Dutch: Bekebrede, Van Der Leij & Share 2009; German: Zarić et al. 2021). Very few studies have, however, examined the contribution of orthographic knowledge to both spelling and reading concurrently (Conrad, Harris & Williams 2013;Querido et al. 2020;Zarić et al. 2021). ...
... Phonological awareness (PA) describes the ability to consciously identify, and segment spoken language into different sounds (Anthony et al. 2003;Pretorius & Mokhwesana 2009) and is indicated as influential for the development of code-related literacy skills such as alphabet knowledge, decoding and word recognition (Wagner & Torgesen 1987). There are typically three key components analysed as part of PA, namely, phoneme awareness, onset-rime awareness and syllable awareness which can be measured in different ways (Castles & Coltheart 2004). Onset and rime are not assessed in African language studies because of the few consonant clusters in onsets and the small number of closed syllables. ...
Background: Research acknowledges the importance of phonological processing and orthographic processing for reading and spelling in both consistently and inconsistently written languages. While the focus has tended to be on the role of phonological processing in languages with consistent orthographies, the role of orthographic processing, specifically orthographic knowledge has yet to be as extensively explored.Aim: To address this gap, this article explores the unique contributions of phonological awareness (PA) and orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling in the consistently written language of isiXhosa. In addition, we investigate the multi-dimensional character of orthographic knowledge by establishing whether letter-sound knowledge is a sub-component of orthographic knowledge, alongside word-specific and general orthographic knowledge.Setting: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted with 182 isiXhosa third graders.Methods: Participants completed word-specific and general orthographic knowledge tasks, which were specifically designed for the study, along with tasks of oral reading fluency, spelling accuracy, PA, rapid automatised naming and letter-sound knowledge.Results: Using confirmatory factor analyses along with regression analyses, the findings provide support for the multi-dimensional character of orthographic knowledge inclusive of word-specific orthographic knowledge, general orthographic knowledge and letter-sound knowledge. Further, it was revealed that for this sample of isiXhosa third graders, orthographic knowledge was more influential to reading and spelling performance over and above PA, providing evidence for the importance of orthographic skill for both reading and spelling in isiXhosa.Conclusion: The present study adds to a growing understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of orthographic knowledge and provides evidence for the importance of orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling in isiXhosa.Contribution: The findings support the need for phonics instruction that incorporates activities which build learners’ orthographic knowledge and other writing-related skills. Further, continuous exposure to books and reading will also strengthen learners’ orthographic knowledge.
... The last and third aim of our study was to explore whether potential advantages on top-down visual attention mechanisms induced by video-game experience would transfer to literacy (Franceschini, Trevisan, et al., 2017;Mancarella et al., 2022), including reading but also oral language phonological processing which, in addition to visual attention skills, is a strong predictor of reading acquisition (Bosse et al., 2007). Since an increase in reading proficiency boosts the development of phonological skills (Castles & Coltheart, 2004), our aim was to determine whether potential reading benefits induced by experience of playing video games could also transfer to the phonological domain as previously shown (Mancarella et al., 2022). Given that our participants were skilled readers without any history of reading disabilities, advantages for the AVGPs were expected only in challenging phonological and reading tasks that taxed top-down resources the most (Antzaka et al., 2017;Franceschini et al., 2013;Franceschini, Trevisan, et al., 2017). ...
... Phonological benefits might represent a far transfer from AVG training, whereas visual attention and reading might be influenced by a more direct transfer from visually-taxing AVG experience (Puccio et al., 2023). In fact, the modulation of phonological skills by AVG playing experience might be mediated by reading skills through the well documented reciprocal relations between the two sets of abilities (Castles & Coltheart, 2004). Therefore, since our participants were at a late and expert stage of reading development where the phonological demands imposed by reading are known to be reduced (e.g. ...
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... Castles and Coltheart [117] argued that no causal relationship between phonological awareness and the ability to learn to read has been proven because the studies on conscious awareness do not fulfill their requirements for a causal relationship. Hulme et al. [118] argued that these requirements are too narrow and assume that there is, indeed, a causal link. ...
... When a therapy takes weeks or months, there are also many other influences on reading performance that remain uncontrolled. Thus, we fully agree with the argument of Castles and Coltheart [117] that a causal link between phonological awareness and success in learning to read has never been proven. In our studies, all possible causes were studied individually and the therapy was completed within less than 30 min so that all influences could be controlled. ...
Various different impairments and their interactions can cause reading problems referred to as “dyslexia”. Since reading requires the interaction of many abilities, the impairment of each of these abilities can result in dyslexia. Therefore, the diagnosis must differentiate various kinds of dyslexia. The diagnosis of a certain kind of dyslexia cannot be delimited to the investigation and description of symptoms but must also include the investigation of the causes of each kind of dyslexia. For this purpose, a scientifically unequivocal concept of causation and appropriate methods are needed to distinguish them from co-existing impairments that have no causal influence on reading performance. The results of applying these methods cannot be adequately accounted for by a non-scientific, intuitive understanding of necessary and sufficient conditions and causation. The methods suitable for revealing the causes of dyslexia are described in detail, and the results of applying these methods in experiments, in which 356 children with developmental dyslexia participated, are reviewed. Since the concepts of “necessary” and “sufficient” conditions and “causation” proposed in the philosophy of science are not suitable for describing causes of dyslexia and their interaction, they are replaced by a more detailed, experimentally based conceptual framework that provides an accurate description of the conditions required for correct reading and the causes of dyslexia.
... In contrast, with the "ingredient-interaction" theoretical framework, it is likely that a certain reading component exerts its biggest effects on reading only when it is combined with other reading components during instruction. For example, phonological processing is often considered at the core of decoding in English (e.g., Wagner & Torgesen, 1987; also see the debate in Castles & Coltheart, 2004), yet combining phonological processing with letter-sound instruction often produces better results on decoding than focusing on phonological processing alone (National Reading Panel, 2000), which is likely due to the interaction between phonological processing and letter-sound instruction. That is, letter-sound instruction can help alleviate the working memory load of applying phonological processing, boosting the effects of phonological processing on decoding in English (Ehri, 2003;National Reading Panel, 2000). ...
... Given the typical reliance of phonological awareness on procedural learning, this can also potentially be explained by the competition account of the DPM, in that older children, with more mature declarative memory, may struggle to proceduralize their phonological decoding skills. The reciprocal nature of the relationship between phonological awareness and reading might also explain how individual factors such as the child's age at school start or the number of times a child repeated a grade contribute to a disadvantage for older children in both reading and phonological awareness (Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Hogan et al., 2005;K. K. Jasińska, Akpe, et al., 2022;Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). ...
The majority of reading research takes place in high-income “Minority World” countries where children typically begin learning to read in early childhood. This research, however, does not reflect the experience of many children around the world who learn to read later in childhood or in adolescence. Crucially, children who learn to read later in life may rely on different cognitive systems. Specifically, procedural learning, which supports sequence and pattern learning, reaches maturity around early adolescence, while declarative learning, which supports the arbitrary mapping of form and meaning, continues to develop into adulthood. The declarative/procedural model of learning posits that the role of declarative learning increases as an individual ages, and as it matures, will overlap and compete with typically procedural-supported learning. Therefore, declarative-supported learning may lead to poorer outcomes for older first-time readers. This study examined the potential competition between procedural and declarative learning among emergent readers (n = 88) in rural Cote d’Ivoire, aged 10–16. We examined performance on culturally appropriate declarative and procedural memory tasks, and found that declarative learning competes with procedural learning, such that stronger declarative memory negatively impacts the development of early reading skills. These findings are important for understanding the role of learning systems, and their interaction with age, in supporting literacy development.
... decoding sounds (e.g., 14 ). It has also been argued that learning to read may improve phonological skills rather than vice versa 15,16 . ...
The reading ability of English readers has been shown to correlate with psychophysical measurements of dynamic visual information processing. This study investigated the relationship between reading ability and dynamic visual information processing in healthy adult native Japanese readers (n = 46). Reading ability was assessed using three different tests: the Japanese Adult Reading Test (JART), transposed-letter detection task, and oral reading. Principal component analysis was performed on the scores on the three reading tests to quantify reading ability. Psychophysical thresholds were measured for contrast detection and speed discrimination with a drifting grating stimulus as well as for tracking two targets among concentrically revolving objects, providing an upper speed limit for attentional tracking. Simple correlation analysis revealed that one of the principal components correlated with the tracking speed limit. In addition, another principal component correlated with the speed-discrimination threshold, which is consistent with previous findings in English readers. These results suggest that Japanese reading ability involves at least two different processes, each sharing underlying mechanisms with visual motion and attentional processing.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1038/s41598-024-80172-0.
... rapid automatized naming of objects and digits), and phonological representation (e.g., verbal short-term/working memory) (Ramus & Szenkovits, 2008;Ramus et al., 2003). Early phonological theory postulates that dyslexics have a specific impairment in the representation, storage, and/or retrieval of speech sounds (Ramus, 2003), often resulting in a deficit in phonological awareness (PA) -the conscious segmentation, manipulation of speech sounds and mapping of phonemes to graphemes (Bradley & Bryant, 1985;Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Hulme et al., 2005). This deficit is considered the primary underlying cause of reading difficulties in children with dyslexia (Catts et al., 2017;Snowling, 2000). ...
It has been widely accepted that phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal short-term memory (VSTM) deficits are three core facets of phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia (DD) of alphabetic orthographies. Yet, whether these three phonological facets also represent key phonological deficits of DD in Chinese, a logographic language, has never been investigated. The current study aimed to examine profiles of phonological deficits and comorbidity in Chinese DD. We tested 128 children with DD aged between 8 and 11 years and 135 age-matched controls on 9 tasks, including 2 PA tasks (phoneme deletion and onset/rime deletion), 3 RAN tasks (digit, object and color), 2 VSTM task (spoonerisms and digit span), an orthographic awareness task (orthographic judgment), and a morphological awareness task (morphological production). With the control of morphological and orthographic awareness, results from latent profile analysis revealed three latent profiles, namely the RAN deficit group, the severe PA deficit group, and the mild VSTM deficit group. Individual analysis using a Venn plot showed that 83.59% of DD exhibited phonological deficits, among whom 58.59% with RAN deficit, 49.22% with PA deficit, and 47.66% with VSTM deficit, and all three groups shared overlap. The results have important implications for the identification and remediation of Chinese DD.
... Before the alphabetic system was introduced, for example, it was important to learn that words are made up of smaller units called phonemes and that letters can be correlated with vocal sounds. The basis for early literacy is the knowledge of phonemes and their manipulation (Carroll et al., 2003;Castles & Coltheart, 2004). It will therefore be simpler for kids to learn to read and write if they can manipulate and think about phonemes (Alves et al., 2010). ...
This study reviews methods for improving preschoolers' phonological awareness and English reading abilities from 2013 to 2023 using the PRISMA protocol. Analysing 22 articles, it identifies 11 strategies for reading development and 5 for phonological awareness. An interactive reading model is introduced, providing a unified framework to support early childhood educators in enhancing literacy skills in young learners.
... Thus, phonemic awareness is the last ability to develop, with onset-rime awareness serving as an intermediate stage (Konza, 2011). The causal link from phonological awareness to success in learning to read has been extensively discussed, with strong evidence supporting this relationship (Castles & Coltheart, 2004). ...
This study investigated the role of domain-specific and domain-general factors in predicting early literacy skills in Italian children. A sample of 239 first-grade students was evaluated using a broad neuropsychological battery to assess their cognitive skills. The results showed that phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, speed of processing, and attentional control all played a role in predicting reading and writing abilities. These findings support the importance of considering not just domain-specific language skills, but also domain-general cognitive skills when identifying children at risk of difficulties in reading and writing. The study supports the adoption of a multifactorial-probabilistic model to accurately diagnose specific learning disorders.
... Phonological awareness is considered an essential element in learning to read (National Reading Panel, 2000), yet questions still exist regarding the linkage between phonological awareness and reading development. For instance, Castles and Coltheart (2004) argued that phonological awareness is important, but a causal link between reading and spelling development has not been established. Furthermore, some children demonstrate phonological deficits but do not show word reading deficits (Snowling et al., 2020), and not all children respond to phonological interventions (Alexander & Slinger-Constant, 2004). ...
This phenomenological study explored how five participants used their Texas state-approved definition of dyslexia to identify children with dyslexia as different from those with other global reading difficulties. Drawing on theories from disability studies in education and dis/ability critical race theory, I interviewed participants who identified dyslexia in terms of sociocultural differences, beliefs about intelligence, and reading ability. They frequently left unexamined concerns of race and how explanations of dyslexia privileged white, middle-class children over children of color and children in low-income schools. This study contributes to research that critically examines how these definitions of dyslexia segregate students with reading difficulties based on beliefs about intelligence, sociocultural factors, and the lack of conversations about race. Implications suggest that a growing focus on dyslexia may exacerbate inequalities already present in school systems. Stakeholders should critically examine their identification practices of reading difficulties to ensure that all children receive reading support.
... Several longitudinal studies showed the pivotal role of these skills in establishing and automating letter-sound correspondences (e.g., Caravolas et al., 2019;Clayton et al., 2020;Psyridou et al., 2021;Snowling et al., 2019). Although the strength of the predictive relation varies across languages (Caravolas et al., 2019;Landerl et al., 2019), these skills have been identified as predictors of later reading skills across languages (Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Clayton et al., 2020;Ehm et al., 2023;Gabrieli, 2009;Goswami, 2003;Hulme et al., 2012;Peterson & Pennington, 2012;Torppa et al., 2010;Vellutino et al., 2004). Reading abilities, as well as lexical retrieval skills, are supported by the efficiency of the phonological memory loop (i.e., performance in maintaining and manipulating phonological units) (Cain et al., 2004;Swanson & Jerman, 2007). ...
Limited longitudinal studies have explored the development of reading, along with its predictors, in a language characterized by shallow orthography and a simple syllabic structure. In a 5‐year longitudinal study, we investigated the development of reading skills in 327 Italian‐speaking children (male: n = 180, 55%) from Grade 1 (mean age = 6.16 ± 0.28) to Grade 5 (mean age = 10.82 ± 0.31). We tested their reading performance at the end of each school year (Grade 1–5) and examined the impact of early cognitive factors (phonological awareness‐PA, verbal short‐term memory‐vSTM, and non‐verbal intelligence), environmental factors (socioeconomic status) as well as Grade 1 reading proficiency on subsequent reading development. A linear development of reading skills was found in both children classified as typical readers and those with reading disabilities. Non‐verbal intelligence, PA, vSTM and reading proficiency at the end of Grade 1 predicted reading development throughout primary school (reading speed: R2‐Intercept = 61.8%; R2‐Slope = 12.9%, and reading accuracy: R2‐Intercept = 40.1%; R2‐Slope = 22.2%). The stability of reading performance across school grades highlights the significance of early reading skills as a marker and target for early intervention programs.
Highlights
To investigate reading development throughout primary school in an Italian‐speaking sample, and the impact of early cognitive and environmental predictors.
Reading development was linear and predicted by early cognitive skills, as assessed by repeated measures ANOVAs and growth curve modelling.
These findings highlight the importance of supporting reading development as early as the end of Grade 1.
... Extant research and research syntheses converge on five major findings (August et al., 2014;National Early Literacy Panel [U.S.] & National Center for Family Literacy [U.S.], 2008;NICHD et al., 2000;NICHD ECCRN, 2005;Snow et al., 1998). First, phoneme-level instruction increases phoneme-level skill (e.g., National Early Literacy Panel [U.S.] & National Center for Family Literacy [U.S.], 2008); second, when phoneme-level instruction is provided, current and subsequent decoding and encoding skills are impacted positively (e.g., Ehri et al, 2001;Lundberg et al, 1988); third, PA is reciprocally related to reading acquisition (e.g., Hogan, 2005); fourth, PA is essential but not sufficient for word reading acquisition (e.g., Castles & Coltheart, 2004); and, lastly, children learning English also benefit from direct instruction in PA (e.g., August & Shanahan, 2006;Dickinson et al., 2004). ...
Early literacy assessment has become commonplace in the preschool years, with phonological awareness constituting one component of emergent literacy targeted by such practices. This within-subjects experimental study examines the role of word familiarity on 93 dual language preschoolers’ performance on phoneme-level awareness tasks in three-phoneme words. A researcher-designed digital tool created individualized test items (foils and target responses) for each child. Half of the items presented target responses that contained familiar words, and half contained unfamiliar words. Results suggest unknown/unfamiliar target words yield lower phonological awareness performance scores.
... Als spezifische Voraussetzung eines erfolgreichen Schriftspracherwerbs gelten die phonologischen Informationsverarbeitungsfähigkeiten, wobei speziell 1) die phonologische Bewusstheit (Castles & Coltheart, 2004) als sprachübergreifender, zentraler Prädiktor für die Lese-Rechtschreibentwicklung angesehen wird (Diehl, Hartke & Mahlau, 2020;Gasteiger-Klicpera, 2020). Daneben spielen weitere kognitive Informationsverarbeitungsfähigkeiten, wie 2) das rapid automatized naming (Mayer, 2018), 3) das phonologische Arbeitsgedächtnis (z. ...
Zusammenfassung: Das Münsteraner Screening (MÜSC, Mannhaupt, 2016 ) ist ein zur Identifizierung von Schulanfängern mit unzureichenden Lernvoraussetzungen vielfach in Forschung und Praxis eingesetztes Verfahren. Aussagen zur Testgüte sind jedoch in der Literatur nur wenige zu finden, und wenn, dann lassen sie Zweifel an der Güte des Verfahrens aufkommen ( Marx & Lenhard, 2010 ). Die vorliegende Studie prüft daher die Skalenstruktur des MÜSC und klärt Fragen zu dessen Validität. Dazu werden die Daten zu schriftsprachlichen Kompetenzen von N = 384 Grundschulkindern zu Beginn und zum Ende der 1. Klasse analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die angenommene Faktorenstruktur des MÜSC nicht repliziert werden konnte, was wiederum Zweifel an der strukturellen Validität des Testinstruments nährt und große Bedeutung für die schulische Praxis hat. Dagegen verweisen die weiteren psychometrischen Kennwerte auf eine hohe Qualität des Testverfahrens.
... 2009). Söz konusu unsurların algılanarak ayırt edilmesinin yanı sıra bu birimlerle bilinçli bir şekilde deyim yerindeyse oynayarak birleştirme, çıkarma ya da değiştirme işlemlerinin yapılması da sesbilgisel farkındalık becerileri arasında yer alır (Castles & Coltheart 2004). ...
... This argument is often supported by the importance of oral phoneme manipulation as a predictor of early literacy skills (Melby-Lervåg et al., 2012;Piquard-Kipffer & Sprenger-Charolles, 2013;Torgesen et al., 1997). While a precise representation of phonemes is clearly necessary to reading, the argument that poor phoneme processing is the exclusive core deficit of dyslexia has been contested (Castles, 1996;Castles & Coltheart, 2004;Castles & Friedmann, 2014;Friedmann & Rahamim, 2007;Güven & Friedmann, 2019, 2022Khentov-Kraus & Friedmann, 2018). Causes and consequences are hard to disentangle since phonological awareness appears to be poor in illiterate adults (Schaadt et al., 2013) and gets refined during the acquisition of literacy (Dehaene et al., 2010(Dehaene et al., , 2015aFroyen et al., 2008;Monzalvo & Dehaene-Lambertz, 2013;Morais et al., 1986). ...
Reading is a complex process involving multiple stages. An impairment in any of these stages may cause distinct types of reading deficits- distinct types of dyslexia. We describe the Malabi, a screener to identify deficits in various orthographic, lexical, and sublexical components of the reading process in French. The Malabi utilizes stimuli that are sensitive to different forms of dyslexia, including "attentional dyslexia", as it is traditionally refered to, characterized by letter-to-word binding impairments leading to letter migrations between words (e.g., "bar cat" misread as "bat car"), and "letter-position dyslexia", resulting in letter transpositions within words (e.g., "destiny" misread as "density"). After collecting reading error norms from 138 French middle-school students, we analyzed error types of 16 students with developmental dyslexia. We identified three selective cases of attentional dyslexia and one case of letter-position dyslexia. Further tests confirmed our diagnosis and demonstrate, for the first time, how these dyslexias are manifested in French. These results underscore the significance of recognizing and discussing the existence of multiple dyslexias, both in research contexts when selecting participants for dyslexia studies, and in practical settings where educators and practitioners work with students to develop personalized support. The test and supporting materials are available on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/3pgzb/).
... syllabic and intrasyllabic awareness), others emerge or get strengthened (e.g. phonemic awareness) as the result of explicit engagement with phonology and orthography that is integral in learning to read and spell Powell and Atkinson 2020) for a somewhat different view see Castles and Coltheart 2004 Liberman et al. (1974), finding that young children (not exposed to printed text) experience difficulties while manipulating specific phonemes of a word (e.g. Duncan et al. 2006;Goswami 2000). ...
This dissertation explores early (grade 1) reading acquisition of Ukrainian-Polish bilingual children from the psycholinguistic perspective. It focuses on identifying predictors of individual differences in emerging reading skills. Here, the bilingual learners are compared against their monolingual (Polish-speaking and Ukrainian- speaking) peers, to identify potential differences between the mono- and bilingual patterns of learning.
... (Storch & Whithehurst, 2002). Du côté du code, c'est avec l'apprentissage de la lecture que la conscience phonologique se renforce (Castles & Coltheart, 2004) ; il est aussi souvent observé que la conscience phonémique est fortement corrélée avec la lecture de mots (Melby-Lervåg et al., 2012). Pour la compréhension, la majeure partie des travaux insiste sur le lien de causalité statistique, (de nature prédictrice) entre compréhension orale (CO) et compréhension écrite (CE) (par exemple Kim, 2017). ...
Cette recherche analyse les habiletés en littéracie émergente et en lecture de la cohorte d’enfants scolarisés en CP de l’Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l’enfance (ELFE). L'objectif est double : (1) faire un état des lieux des profils d’apprentis lecteurs (N=14 470) ; (2) examiner les relations entre les dispositifs d’aide et les performances en littéracie (N=1 705). Deux dimensions reliées sont mises en évidence, le langage oral (LO : segmentation phonémique et compréhension orale) et le langage écrit (LE : lecture de mots et compréhension écrite). L’hétérogénéité des performances se manifeste par l’existence de quatre profils d’apprentis-lecteur : avec (LO- ; LE-) ou sans difficultés en LE et en LO (LO+ ; LE+), deux groupes aux profils inverses avec soit des difficultés en LE (LO+ ; LE-), soit des difficultés en LO (LO- ; LE+). Les enfants les plus faibles dans ces deux dimensions bénéficient de dispositifs d’aide, notamment au sein de l’école. Néanmoins, tous les enfants en difficultés de LE n’en bénéficient pas. La discussion souligne l’intérêt de l’évaluation et de la prévention des difficultés en lecture par les psychologues de l’Education nationale.
El objetivo de este estudio consiste en comparar las características de la lectura en español en niños disléxicos y lectores neurotípicos en base a sus movimientos oculares, según las distintas variables que los caracterizan: tiempo de lectura, número y duración de fijaciones, amplitud, duración y velocidad de sacadas, número de regresiones y distancia recorrida. Para esto se estudiaron los movimientos oculares durante la lectura de palabras y textos de 36 niños de 9-10 años, 11 de los cuales fueron diagnosticados con dislexia. El análisis evidenció diferencias significativas en algunas de las variables estudiadas. Los niños disléxicos realizan un mayor número de fijaciones, requieren mayor tiempo para completar la lectura, realizan sacadas más cortas y más regresiones en comparación con lectores neurotípicos. La distancia media recorrida y la duración de las fijaciones es similar en ambos grupos.
We investigated whether phonological awareness mediated the relationship between speechreading and reading comprehension in Chinese adults with hearing impairment (HI) and normal hearing (NH). Speechreading, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension tests were administered to 154 young adults with HI and 97 young adults with NH in China. Results revealed significant correlations between speechreading, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension in adults with HI, but not those with NH. Phonological awareness did not mediate the relationship between speechreading and reading comprehension in either group of participants. These results suggest that visual speech information (speechreading) contributes to the development of phonological representations in adults with HI, which in turn supports reading comprehension. This relationship was not observed in the adults with NH. Teachers and clinicians working with HI students need to have an understanding of this difference, and take into account the developmental nature of the relationship between speechreadaing, phonological awareness and reading comprehension in the HI students for differentiated reading intervention. If attention to the visual speech information via speechreading indeed contributes to better phonological awareness, HI students may benefit from other visual methods to develop component skills that are foundational to reading success.
In the realm of logographic writing systems, such as Chinese characters, orthographic transparency fundamentally differs from alphabetic languages, posing unique challenges for individuals with developmental dyslexia (DD). This study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) and a masked priming paradigm to investigate how Chinese children with DD compared to typically developing (TD) children in their utilization of orthographic-phonological mapping rules during the processing of pseudocharacters. The findings revealed noteworthy distinctions between TD and DD children. TD children exhibited a robust priming effect in radical priming, characterized by an enhanced N170 (100–200 ms) amplitude and a reduced P200 (200–350 ms) amplitude, whereas DD children did not display this differentiation. This observation parallels the difficulties faced by DD children in alphabetic languages. Furthermore, the study found a significant positive correlation between the N170 amplitude in the left posterior brain region of Chinese DD children and their orthographic performance: DD children with poorer orthographic awareness exhibited larger N170 amplitudes in this region. The present study sheds light on the challenges Chinese DD children encounter in processing regular sub-character routes, particularly evident in the early stages of orthographic processing. The orthographic deficits of DD children hinder their processing of Chinese orthography, resulting in increased cognitive demands.
La conscience phonologique est reconnue comme étant liée à l’apprentissage du langage écrit. Cependant, au Québec, les professionnels intervenant auprès d’élèves ayant des difficultés de lecture/écriture disposent de peu d’outils normalisés pour évaluer la conscience phonologique des jeunes franco-québécois. C’est pour cette raison que le PhonoTELEQ, un test évaluant la conscience phonologique des enfants franco-québécois de la 1 re à la 6 e année du primaire, a été élaboré. Ce test administré à l’oral comporte six tâches impliquant différentes manipulations épi- et métaphonologiques ciblant les diverses unités et positions dans le mot. Lors de l’élaboration du test, les items ont été conçus selon différents critères, lesquels seront précisés dans cet article. Une validation préliminaire du contenu avec l’aide de deux expertes et une étude pilote de prévalidation auprès de 14 enfants ont permis de peaufiner les consignes et les items afin que le PhonoTELEQ puisse prochainement être validé à plus grande échelle.
La integración de la pronunciación en el aula de ELE es una obra colectiva de 23 especialistas que abordan la enseñanza de la pronunciación del español como lengua adicional desde distintas perspectivas con el fin de enriquecer su didáctica. El objetivo es mostrar que la pronunciación encuentra su lugar en el aula de lenguas integrada con los contenidos y destrezas presentes en la enseñanza de idiomas, desde la ortografía, el léxico y la gramática hasta la pragmática y las actividades comunicativas de la lengua. Este libro incluye, además, diversas consideraciones sobre metodología de enseñanza, evaluación, tecnología y factores sociales y afectivos que interactúan con el aprendizaje de la pronunciación del español. Todos los capítulos ofrecen una panorámica de su área de especialidad que contiene la investigación más reciente sobre pronunciación junto con recomendaciones de buenas prácticas docentes para llevar al aula de ELE, estableciendo un fructífero puente entre los estudios sobre este tema y la didáctica del español. This is a collective work by 23 specialists that addresses the teaching of Spanish pronunciation as an additional language from various perspectives to enhance its instruction. The aim is to show that pronunciation belongs in the language classroom, integrated with the content and skills present in language teaching, from spelling, vocabulary, and grammar to pragmatics and communicative activities. Furthermore, the book includes considerations on teaching methodology, assessment, technology, and social and affective factors that influence the learning of Spanish pronunciation. Each chapter offers an overview of its area of expertise, containing the latest research on pronunciation along with recommendations for best teaching practices in the ELE classroom, establishing a valuable bridge between studies on this subject and the didactics of Spanish.
Background
Phonological awareness has been recognized as a significant predictor of word-decoding skills in alphabetical languages. These languages differ in phonology, orthography, and how they are mapped for word decoding. However, the literature has debated its role in orthographically consistent languages. The present research aims to explore phonological awareness and its contribution to word decoding for early readers of Kannada.
Methods
The study included 50 typically developing Grade I children learning to read Kannada from schools with Kannada as a medium of instruction. Phonological awareness skills were assessed using developmentally appropriate tasks at different linguistic grain sizes and varied linguistic operations. Word-level reading abilities were evaluated using a pseudoword decoding task.
Results
The results indicated that the children were sensitive to syllables but not to rhymes and phonemes. A one-way repeated measure of analysis of variance demonstrated a significant main effect of task complexity on the performance across phonological awareness tasks. Pearson’s correlation coefficient revealed a significant positive correlation between the performance on phonological awareness and pseudoword reading. The regression analysis indicated that phonological awareness tasks contributed significantly to word decoding. However, initial and medial syllable stripping evolved as independent and significant contributors to pseudoword decoding in Kannada.
Conclusion
The present study concludes that phonological awareness at the syllable level emerges early and significantly contributes to word decoding in early readers of Kannada.
Purpose
This study aimed to evaluate the stability of phonological awareness (PA) and language achievements between kindergarten and first grade among Arabic-speaking children.
Method
A total of 1,158 children were assessed in PA and language skills in both grades and were classified based on distinct and integrated achievements on PA and language following percentiles' cutoff criteria. The classification of distinct achievements constituted high, intermediate, low, and very low achievement-based groups for each domain. The classification of the integrated achievements on both domains constituted four groups: intermediate-high PA and language, very low PA, very low language, and doubly low (very low PA and language). Descriptive statistics and McNemar's tests were used to examine the stability of these groups.
Results
The analyses showed a significant improvement in achievements on most tasks. The distinct classification for PA and language indicated that many more kindergarteners in the extreme distribution with high and very low achievement levels maintained this profile in first grade compared to those with intermediate achievements. For PA, 55.7% of kindergarteners with high, 30% with intermediate, 30.4% with low, and 45.5% with very low achievements maintained their achievements in first grade. For language, 52.5% of kindergarteners with high, 34.5% with intermediate, 38.8% with low, and 59.8% with very low achievements maintained their language achievements. The integrated classification indicated a higher achievement stability rate for kindergarteners with intermediate-high PA and language (91.3%) and for doubly low achievers (84.7%) compared to very low PA (24.1%) or very low language (31.8%) achievers.
Conclusions
The study indicated a higher variability in the distribution of the intermediate achievements compared to the high and very low achievements, which were more stable across grade. The results emphasize the need for dynamic linguistic assessments and early intervention for children with very low achievements in PA and language who show a poor prognosis.
https://aacte.org/resources/research-reports-and-briefs/science-of-reading/
Este estudo investigou as relações entre a consciência fonológica, fonêmica e letras quando associadas à instrução fônica explícita, sobre o desempenho em leitura e escrita de crianças de 1º, 2º e 3º anos. Delineamento quase-experimental em três etapas, pré-teste, intervenção e pós-teste. Os participantes foram 48 alunos (Midade = 6,98a), aleatoriamente distribuídos nos grupos de intervenção e comparação. Foi aplicado um programa de intervenção com 22 sessões de intervenção de instrução fônica, consciência fonológica, fonêmica e conhecimento de letra-som. Os dados foram analisados com base na correlação de Spearman, regressões lineares múltiplas, testes Mann-Whitney e qui-quadrado de Pearson, controlando a variável grupo. Os resultados demonstraram correlação significativa entre a consciência fonológica, fonêmica, letras e as medidas de leitura e escrita. As regressões demonstraram forte e significativa variação explicada entre as variáveis consciência fonológica e fonêmica para as medidas de leitura e escrita, exceto o conhecimento de letras que atingiu efeito de teto e não demonstrou significância. Essas evidências têm implicações educacionais para a compreensão de quais habilidades incorporadas em um programa de instrução fônica contribuem significativamente para a alfabetização inicial das crianças.
El tema de la enseñanza de la lengua escrita se centró durante décadas en una cuestión metodológica, la valoración de los métodos fonético y global. Ambos enfoques se han basado en intuiciones y prácticas de profesores y se centraban básicamente en el aprendizaje del sistema de escritura. Hoy disponemos de un importante cuerpo de conocimientos teóricos basados en la investigación que nos aporta claves esenciales para plantear una didáctica de la lengua escrita más fundamentada. En este trabajo, basándonos en las aportaciones de distintas líneas teóricas, presentamos una propuesta integradora de la enseñanza de la lengua escrita.
Many studies have attempted to identify the root cause of dyslexia. Different theories of dyslexia have proposed either a phonological, attentional, or visual deficit. While research has used eye‐tracking to study dyslexia, only two previous studies have used the moving‐window paradigm to explore the perceptual span in dyslexic reading, and none have done so in visual search. The present study analysed the perceptual span using both reading and visual search tasks to identify language‐independent attentional impairments in dyslexics. We found equivocal evidence that the perceptual span was impaired in dyslexic reading and no evidence of impairment in visual search. However, dyslexic participants did show deficits in the visual search task, with lower search accuracy and shorter saccades compared with controls. These results lend support for a visual, rather than attentional or phonological, account of dyslexia.
Both Phonological awareness and Phonics contribute to developing the reading skill of a learner. But there are subtle differences between the technical forces of the two. The Paper attempts a comprehensive study of comparison between the potential of the foremost devices and reach the final point in order to establish the thesis that Phonics plays a more crucial role in developing the reading skill than Phonological awareness does. A conclusive decision has been drawn after a critical and analytical study of the two that place one over the other in importance, namely Phonics precedes the Phonological Awareness in developing the reading skill.
The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of the observations of the lower primary school teachers in the Republic of Srpska and the Republic of Serbia, which refer to the basic predictors of successful initial literacy of pupils of the same age in two partially different education systems. The goal of the research is to identify the predictors of the successful initial reading and writing skills that need to be encouraged more during the preparatory preschool program in the Republic of Serbia, i.e., the first grade of primary school in the Republic of Srpska. We grouped the predispositions into two conditional modalities, namely: a) phonological awareness and b) graphomotor preparation of students for initial literacy. A total of 257 teachers from the Republic of Serbia and 253 teachers from the Republic of Srpska participated in the research sample. A survey questionnaire was used in the research. The Alpha Cronbach reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was a=0,89. The answers of the respondents from the Republic of Serbia have an arithmetic mean value of M=30,14, which is lower than the answers of the primary school teachers from the Republic of Srpska, where this value is M=34,64. The fact that this is a statistically significant difference in arithmetic means can be seen in the obtained value of t= -10,48 at the p=0,05 level. The analysis of the obtained results calls for a discussion about the place of the initial literacy in the preschool and primary school curricula in both education systems, considering that in each of the variables a higher value of the answers appears in the respondents from the Republic of Srpska.
The most authoritative resource for students and researchers, The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language has been thoroughly updated and extended. Enhancements include new chapters on the acquisition of words, processing deficits in children with specific language impairments, and language in children with Williams syndrome, new authors for the bilingualism and autism chapters, a refocused discourse chapter on written narratives, and a new section on reading and reading disorders, cementing the handbook's position as the best study of the subject available. In a wide-ranging survey, language development is traced from prelinguistic infancy to adolescence in typical and atypical contexts; the material is intuitively grouped into six thematic sections, enabling readers to easily find specific in-depth information. With topics as varied as statistical learning, bilingualism, and the neurobiology of reading disorders, this multidisciplinary Handbook is an essential reference for students and researchers in linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, speech pathology, education and anthropology.
Bu araştırma ev okuma ortamındaki aile içi etkileşimin çocukların okuma davranışları ve becerilerini nasıl değiştirdiğini ortaya çıkarmak amacıyla yürütülmüştür. Bu amaç doğrultusunda etkileşimli kitap okuma etkinlikleri öncesi, sırası, sonrası ve bu sürecin çocuklar ve ailelerin okuma davranışlarına, yaklaşımlarına ve çocukların okuma becerilerine etkisi gözlemlenerek meydana gelen değişim betimlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Araştırma çoklu durum çalışması yöntemiyle, ilkokul birinci sınıftan ikinci sınıfa geçen üç çocuk, bu çocukların aileleri ve sınıf öğretmenleri ile yürütülmüştür. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak okuma metinleri, yapılandırılmamış ve yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler, katılımcı olmayan yapılandırılmamış gözlemler, video kayıtları ve araştırmacı günlüğü kullanılmıştır. Araştırmadan elde edilen veriler tümevarım analiz tekniği kullanılarak üç aşamada analiz edilmiş, analizler sonucunda; ailenin okumaya yaklaşımı, çocuğun okumaya yaklaşımı ve değişim olmak üzere üç tema; aile tipolojisi, aile tipolojisine kaynaklık eden unsurlar, çocuk tipolojisi, çocuğun okuma beceri ve davranışlarındaki değişim ve aile-çocuk tipolojisine kaynaklık eden unsurlarda gözlenen değişim şeklinde beş alt temaya ulaşılmıştır. Araştırma, ev okuma ortamının ve aile-çocuk etkileşiminin çocukların okuma becerileri üzerinde etkili olduğunu kanıtlar nitelikte bulgular sunmuştur. Süreçte çocukların okuma becerilerinde, kelime tanıma ve okuduğunu anlama düzeyinde, okumanın bilişsel ve duyuşsal boyutlarında bir dizi değişim gözlemlenmiştir. Etkileşimli kitap okuma eğitimi ve süreçte yapılan rehberlikle birlikte ailelerin okumaya karşı yaklaşım ve tutumlarının değiştiği, çocuklarının iyi bir okur olmasında kendilerine ait görev ve sorumluluklarına ilişkin söylem ve bakış açılarının değiştiği, bu değişimin çocuklarla birlikte okuma deneyimlerine yansıdığı görülmüştür. Çocukların okuma becerilerine yönelik değişimde ise kelime tanıma becerisinde görülen olumlu değişim okuduğunu anlama becerisinde basit anlama sorularındaki gelişim ile sınırlı kalmıştır. Etkileşimli okuma öncesi, sırası ve sonrasına yönelik betimlemeler ile durum açıklanmaya çalışılmış, bu süreçteki değişimin ailelerin okumanın okul temelli bir beceri olduğuna yönelik algıları ile birlikte yaklaşımlarını dolayısıyla ev okuma ortamını, ev okuma ortamındaki değişimin ise çocuktaki değişimi etkilediği görülerek çocuklardaki ve ailedeki değişimin nedenleri tartışılmıştır.
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.
Results from a longitudinal correlational study of 244 children from kindergarten through 2nd grade indicate that young children’s phonological processing abilities are well-described by 5 correlated latent abilities: phonological analysis, phonological synthesis, phonological coding in working memory, isolated naming, and serial naming. These abilities are characterized by different developmental rates and remarkably stable individual differences. Decoding did not exert a causal influence on subsequent phonological processing abilities, but letter-name knowledge did. Causal relations between phonological processing abilities and reading-related knowledge are bidirectional: Phonological processing abilities exert strong causal influences on word decoding; letter-name knowledge exerts a more modest causal influence on subsequent phonological processing abilities.
First and second grade German and American children were compared on three phonological awareness tasks, lexical access speed, decoding of words and pseudowords, and reading comprehension in order to assess the relationship of linguistic and reading (decoding and comprehension) measures in both language groups. No significant differences were found between Gelman and American children in either grade in pseudoword decoding accuracy, word decoding speed, and the phoneme take-away task. Ward decoding accuracy was similar for first grade children, but second grade American children were significantly more accurate than children in the German second grade. German children in both first and second grade were significantly more accurate in phoneme manipulation tasks and faster at decoding pseudowords. The patterns of errors in the phoneme take-away task were similar between language groups. Pseudoword decoding performance indicated that American children made more errors in decoding vowels than did German children in both grades. Phonemic tasks were significantly related to reading measures for both German and American children. The latter group showed a greater relationship between reading measures and lexical access speed than did German children. Differences in orthography and lessened vowel consistency in English may give rise to differences in phonemic representations of vowels and an increased reliance on lexical access cues in reading for the American children. This might explain why German children do not differ as much as American children in their speed of word decoding as compared with decoding pseudowords.
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?
A small-scale, longitudinal, phonological awareness training study with inner-city kindergarten children was conducted in four classrooms. The central goals of the study were the creation and evaluation of a phonological awareness training program and a preliminary look at the consequence of that training on basic phonological processes.
Assessment of phonological awareness and basic phonological processes was carried out in the fall of the kindergarten year, and again in the spring following an 18 week training program which incorporated both auditory and articulatory techniques for fostering metaphonological development. Follow-up evaluation of promotion to first grade and of reading achievement took place a year later. The children in the two experimental classes receiving training had significantly greater gains in phonological awareness at the end of kindergarten, were significantly more likely to be promoted to first grade rather than to pre-one, and had a trend toward better reading skills in first grade than did the smaller group of children promoted to first grade from the control classes. In addition, there were some indications that development of phonological awareness was accompanied by changes in the underlying phonological system as well. Here we focus on the rationale and implementation of our training program and discuss the implications of the findings for a potential large-scale study.
ABSTRACTS
The methodological rigor of 39 studies of phonological awareness intervention was evaluated based on internal and external validity criteria. The internal validity criteria encompassed general design characteristics, measurement, and statistical treatment, while the external validity criteria included research hypotheses, participant selection and description, and generalization and maintenance measures. The most serious methodological flaws observed in many of the studies were (a) nonrandom assignment of participants to conditions; (b) failure to control for Hawthorne effects by providing alternate interventions to control groups; (c) insufficient or nonexistent assurance of fidelity of treatment; (d) poor measurement sensitivity; and (e) inadequately described samples. Only seven studies met two thirds or more of all the evaluative criteria, although all of these investigations demonstrated at least one fatal flaw. The reported findings are compared with those of two similar methodological reviews. Suggestions for improvement of future intervention research are provided.
El rigor metodológico de 39 estudios de intervención en conciencia fonológica fue evaluado sobre la base de criterios de validez interna y externa. Los criterios de validez interna comprendieron características generales de diseño, mediciones y tratamiento estadístico, en tanto que los criterios de validez externa incluyeron las hipótesis de la investigación, la selección y descripción de los participantes y la generalización y mantenimiento del efecto fuera de la situación experimental. Las fallas metodológicas más serias observadas en muchos de los estudios fueron (a) no asignar al azar a los participantes a las distintas condiciones; (b) ausencia de control de los efectos Hawthorne, al proveer intervenciones alternativas a los grupos de control; (c) insuficiencia o ausencia de certeza en la exactitud del tratamiento; (d) escasa sensibilidad de las mediciones y (e) muestras descriptas inadecuadamente. Sólo siete estudios reunieron dos tercios o más de todos los criterios de evaluación, aunque todas estas investigaciones demostraron al menos una falla fatal. Los hallazgos reportados se comparan con los de dos revisiones metodológicas similares. Se hacen sugerencias para mejorar las futuras investigaciones de intervención.
Die methodologische Rigorosität von 39 Studien phonologischer Eingriffe zur Bewußheitsförderung wurde aufgrund intern und extern gültiger Kriterien bewertet. Die intern angewandten Bewertungskriterien schließen generelle Auslegungscharakteristiken, Bemessung und statistische Behandlung bzw. Auswertung ein, während die extern gültigen Kriterien Forschungshypothesen, Teilnehmerauswahl und Beschreibung, sowie Allgemein‐ und Aufrechterhaltungsmaßnahmen einschließen. Der schwerwiegendste methodologische Tadel an beobachteten Fehlern bei vielen der Studien lag in (a) nicht‐wahllose Bestimmung der den Bedingungen unterworfenen Teilnehmer; (b) Versäumen von Kontrollen gemäß den Hawthorne Effekten durch Einfügen alternativer Eingriffe zur Kontrolle der Gruppen; (c) unzureichende oder nicht existierende Zusicherung der genauen Gleichbehandlung der Mittel; (d) geringe Beimessung an Einfühlungsvermögen; und (e) mangelhafte Beschreibung der Muster. Lediglich sieben Studien erfüllten zwei Drittel oder mehr aller Bewertungskriterien, obwohl alle diese Untersuchungen mindestens einen entscheidenden Fehler aufwiesen. Die berichteten Ergebnisse wurden mit jenen aus zwei methodologisch ähnlichen Rezensionen verglichen. Es wurden Verbesserungsvorschäge für zukünftige vermittelnde Forschung angemerkt.
On a évalué la rigueur méthodologique de 39 études d'interventions relatives à la conscience phonétique en se basant sur des critères de validité interne et externe. Les critères de validité interne comprennent les caractéristiques générales du plan expérimental, la mesure, le traitement statistique, tandis que les critères de validité externe incluent les hypothèses de recherche, la sélection et la description des participants, les mesures concernant la généralisation et le maintien. Les points faibles les plus sérieux observés dans de nombreuses études ont été: a) répartition non aléatoire des partici pants dans les conditions expérimentales; b) manque de contrôle de l'effet Hawthorne en faisant alterner les interventions des groupes contrôle; c) fidélité du traitement insuffisante ou inexistante; d) sensibilité de la mesure faible; e) échantillons décrits de manière inadéquate. Seules sept études satisfont à au moins deux tiers de la totalité des critères d'évaluation, mais toutes présentent néanmoins au moins un défaut fatal. Les résultats obtenus sont comparés avec deux études de méthodologie. Le texte présente des suggestions pour améliorer les futures interventions de recherche.
This article reports results from 1- and 2-year follow-up tests for children with reading problems who had previously received 25 hr of training in 1 of 2 computer-based remediation programs. Both programs included accurate speech and decoding support during story reading, but different supplementary training, either in explicit phonological processes or in comprehension strategies. Children initially trained in phonological skills made greater gains in phonological awareness, phonological decoding, and untimed word recognition at the end of training. The other children, who had spent more time reading stories with speech feedback for difficult words, gained more in time-limited word recognition. One year later with no further training, the explicit phonological group remained stronger in phonological decoding and phoneme awareness, but its level of word recognition was no greater than in the other group. There were no significant group differences after 2 years. Both of the computer-based training progra...
A longitudinal-correlational design was used to test the hypothesis that individual differences in rapid automatic naming make a unique contribution to explaining the growth of orthographic reading skills in 2 overlapping periods of development: second to fourth grade, and third to fifth grade. Separate analyses were done on the entire sample of approximately 200 children as well as on subsamples selected for impairment in word-reading development (bottom 20% and bottom 10% of readers). When second- and third-grade reading skills were not included in the multiple regressions, both rapid automatic naming and phonological awareness skills were strongly predictive of individual differences in reading 2 years later. With prior levels of reading skill included in the predictive equation, rapid automatic naming ability did not uniquely explain variance in any of the reading outcome measures. In contrast, individual differences in phonological awareness in both second and third grades did uniquely explain growth in a variety of reading skills over this developmental period. Results are discussed in the context of methodological issues in the use of longitudinal-correlational designs to study reading growth.
Three experiments using 88 undergraduates examined the role of orthography in rhyme detection. Ss in Exps I–II monitored lists of aurally presented words for a word that rhymed with a cue word. The critical variable was whether the target word was orthographically similar or different from the cue word (e.g., "pie–tie" and "rye–tie," respectively). In Exp I, monitor latencies to detect orthographically different rhymes were longer than latencies to detect orthographically similar rhymes, whether cue words were presented aurally or visually. Exp II replicated this orthography effect using only auditory presentation of the cue word and a larger sample of items. In Exp III, orthographic similarity yielded shorter reaction times to decide that 2 words rhymed and longer reaction times to decide that they did not rhyme. Results are interpreted in terms of some recent models of semantic memory. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the relation of phonological awareness to learning to read in 63 1st-grade children (mean age 6 yrs 2 mo), who were administered tests of verbal intelligence, phonemic segmentation ability, and reading achievement. Verbal intelligence was measured using the PPVT—Form A. Results indicate that the relation of nondigraph word segmentation to reading achievement is greater than that of digraph word segmentation to reading achievement and that this relation is nonlinear. Consistent with the claim of a causal connection between phonological awareness and reading acquisition, a contingency analysis of the data revealed that phonemic segmentation ability is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for learning to read. The data were also subjected to a path analysis, which indicated that phonological awareness affects reading comprehension indirectly through phonological recoding and that the development of phonological awareness is not greatly affected by method of instruction. Implications of these findings for educational practice are briefly indicated. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
If pupils are to learn to read they must understand that words are composed of sounds (phonemes) and that these sounds correspond with letters. Research has shown that phonemic analysis and blending is difficult for many beginning readers so many of the present prereading and beginning reading programs practice these skills. In an experiment done in nine kindergarten classes the effect of different practice methods was compared. One experimental group practiced phonemic analysis and blending purely auditorily, while another group practiced phonemic analysis and blending with words they had first learned as sight words. Both methods appeared effective. Suggestions are made for research into the differential effect of these methods.
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-get-richer 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.
In 2 large longitudinal studies, we selected 3 subgroups of German-speaking children (phonological awareness deficit, naming-speed deficit, double deficit) at the beginning of school and assessed reading and spelling performance about 3 years later. Quite different from findings with English-speaking children, phonological awareness deficits did not affect phonological coding in word recognition but did affect orthographic spelling and foreign-word reading. Naming-speed deficits did affect reading fluency, orthographic spelling, and foreign-word reading. Apparently, in the context of a regular orthography and a synthetic phonics teaching approach, early phases of literacy acquisition (particularly the acquisition of phonological coding) are less affected by early phonological awareness deficits than are later phases that depend on the build up of orthographic memory.
A quarter century of research into one or another aspect of phonological awareness has occurred since the early work of Bruce (1964). The frequency of studies into phonological awareness seems to have increased exponentially during this period (see Ehri, 1979; Golinkoff, 1978; Nesdale, Herriman, & Tunmer, 1984; Williams, 1986, for reviews of research). In 1987, two journals, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly and Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive, devoted entire volumes to the topic. And, of course, we now have the present volume of the Language and Communication series. There certainly is no indication that research interest in phonological awareness and its role in learning to read is subsiding.
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.
Classrooms of 4-year-olds attending Head Start were randomly assigned to an intervention condition, involving an add-on emergent literacy curriculum, or a control condition, involving the regular Head Start curriculum. Children in the intervention condition experienced interactive book reading at home and in the classroom as well as a classroom-based sound and letter awareness program. Children were pretested and posttested on standardized tests of language, writing, linguistic awareness, and print concepts. Effects of the intervention were significant across all children in the domains of writing and print concepts. Effects on language were large but only for those children whose primary caregivers had been actively involved in the at-home component of the program. One linguistic awareness subtest, involving the ability to identify the first letter and first sound of words, showed significant effects.
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Early interactive processes of development in reading, spelling and implicit and explicit phonological awareness were assessed in a group of children at four time‐points as they progressed through their first three years in school. Exploratory causal path analyses were used to investigate the contribution of each ability to the subsequent growth of skill in reading, spelling and phonological awareness. The resultant structural models demonstrate a role of spelling in the early stages of reading acquisition, as well as differential contributions of implicit and explicit phonological awareness to both reading and spelling. They also suggest a developmental cascade from implicit to explicit phonemic awareness in the normal acquisition of phonological knowledge and associated skills. An analysis of the children's spelling errors at these stages demonstrates that spelling changes in nature from being precommunicative, through semi‐phonetic to phonetic in nature, and these changes are associated with the children's increasing explicit phonological awareness.
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THE AUTHOR reports the results of a longitudinal study investigating the relationship between different levels of phonological a awareness and literacy acquisition in Portuguese. One hundred five Brazilian children participated as subjects. At the start of the study, the children were, on average, 6 years of age. Phonological awareness was assessed before the beginning of formal instruction in reading and correlated to measures of reading and spelling ability al the middle and at the end of the school year. The results corroborate the findings of previous investigations that phonemic awareness plays an important role in alphabetic literacy acquisition. Both sensitivity to phonemic similarity and phonemic segmentation skills significantly predicted reading and spelling ability at both assessment times, even after the effect of variations in important extraneous variables was controlled for. On the other hand, the results suggest that sensitivity to global phonological similarity plays a relatively minor role in learning to read and spell in Portuguese. The implications of these results for the relationship between phonological awareness and reading acquisition in English are discussed.
This book sets out to integrate recent exciting research on the precursors of reading and early reading strategies adopted by children in the classroom. It aims to develop a theory about why early phonological skills are crucial in learning to read, and shows how phonological knowledge about rhymes and other units of sound helps children learn about letter sequences when beginning to be taught to read. The authors begin by contrasting theories which suggest that children's phonological awareness is a result of the experience of learning to read and those that suggest that phonological awareness precedes, and is a causal determinant of, reading. The authors argue for a version of the second kind of theory and show that children are aware of speech units, called onset and rime, before they learn to read and spell. An important part of the argument is that children make analogies and inferences about these letter sequences in order to read and write new words.
In this study, the issue of whether phonological awareness is a precursor to learning to read in Afrikaans or a consequence of literacy was explored. It appears that, for children learning to read in Afrikaans, certain aspects of phonological awareness such as onset and rime detection and syllable manipulation are acquired before they are able to read, while other aspects, such as phoneme manipulation are related to the process of learning to read. The development of phonological awareness and its relationship to learning to read was also investigated. It was proposed that children who were learning to read and write in Afrikaans, which has a systematic phonological and orthographic structure, would show a different developmental pattern to children who were learning to read and write in English, which has an opaque orthography with many irregular letter-sound correspondences. The findings indicate that the order of phonological development is similar in both languages, although it is possible that there may be differences in the rate of acquisition of phonological awareness skills. The phonological awareness tests used in this study could be used to detect children who may be at risk for later reading difficulties.
The results of many studies suggest that early reading problems are associated with deficiencies in certain spoken language skills. Children who encounter reading difficulty tend to be deficient in the perception of spoken words, the ability to retain linguistic material in temporary memory, and the ability to comprehend certain spoken sentences, as well as in their awareness about the phonological structure of spoken words. This paper summarizes these findings and provides an explanation in terms of the requirements of skilled reading. It further reviews the results of two longitudinal studies which show that inferior performance in kindergarten tests of language skills may presage future reading problems in the first grade. Based on these studies, procedures are suggested for kindergarten screening and for some ways of aiding children who, by virtue of inferior performance on the screening tests, might be considered at risk for early reading difficulties.
This study evaluated an intervention to enhance early phonological processing skills and reading. Early phonological processing skills are strongly related to progress in early literacy and phonological processing deficits are found related to specific reading disability. Thirty children aged 5.1–6.0 (15 in each of two schools) were assigned to an experimental or control group and compared before and after a 12-week intervention on measures of phonological processing skills and reading. There were no pretreatment differences between groups.
The experimental intervention was based on findings of (a) early developmental phases in phonological recoding, (b) reciprocal development between phoneme awareness and phonological recoding, and (c) reciprocal development between phonological processing skills and early reading. The instruction was designed to facilitate the gradually expanding use of letter-phoneme relationships in early reading and spelling. The results indicated that, at posttest, the experimental group performed significantly better than the control group on the measures of phonological processing skills and in reading. Intervention that includes teaching the sounds of letters and phoneme awareness as part of using letter-phoneme relationships in recognizing printed words, in spelling, and in reading (pronouncing words) appears to be effective for enhancing early reading and may possibly reduce the probability of subsequent reading disability.
One-to-one instruction, while highly desirable for children with the lowest reading skills, is not often available. It could be provided by nonprofessional tutors in the community, however. One aim of this study was to determine whether a one-to-one phonologically based tutoring program that incorporates many features of successful early reading programs and that is delivered by nonprofessional tutors is effective with first-grade students at risk for reading failure. Forty at-risk first graders who did not differ on reading skill prior to the intervention were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The treatment group received 30 minutes of individual instruction from community tutors four days a week for up to 23 weeks. The control group received only the regular reading instruction in their classrooms. The treatment group outperformed the control group on all reading, decoding, spelling and segmenting, and writing measures, with effect sizes averaging .21, .35, .37, and .19, respectively. Differences were significant on only one nonword reading and one spelling measure; however, a second aim was to determine the effects of the tutors' ability to implement the lessons scripted for them. Tutors who implemented the program with a high degree of fidelity achieved significant effect sizes in each early reading skill area assessed. Results support the potential of nonprofessional tutors to supplement early reading instruction, and prevent learning disabilities in at-risk children.
This study investigated the effect of phonemic awareness training on the phonemic awareness and reading ability of low- and middle-achieving first-grade readers (N=19). Random assignment was made to one control group and three experimental: phonemic skill training only (“skill and drill”), phonemic skill training plus decoding (“semi-conceptual”), and phonemic skill training plus decoding and reading (“conceptual”). Outcome measures included tests of segmentation, deletion, deletion and substitution, and both standardized and informal tests of reading. Results indicated no significant differences among the experimental and control groups on measures of phonemic awareness (segmentation excepted) or reading. Findings also revealed that training that provided subjects with a conceptual connection between phonemic skills and reading was generally ineffective for low readers. These results suggest that phonemic awareness training for low- and middle-achieving beginning readers may not be unequivocally beneficial.
ABSTRACTS
This article presents results from a longitudinal study of children of dyslexic and of normally reading parents. The children were followed from the beginning of kindergarten (at the age of 6, 1 year before reading instruction in Denmark) until the beginning of the second grade. Children of dyslexic parents were found to have an increased risk of dyslexia (a 4.3 odds ratio) when dyslexia was defined as poor phonological recoding (poor reading of nonwords and pseudohomophones of real words). All language measures in kindergarten were statistically significant predictors of dyslexia. Logistic regression analyses with backwards stepwise selection indicated that three measures contributed independently to the prediction of dyslexia: letter naming, phoneme identification, and distinctness of phonological representations. The measure of distinctness of phonological representations also contributed significantly to the prediction of poor phoneme awareness in Grade 2—even when differences in early syllable and phoneme awareness, articulation, and productive and receptive vocabulary were accounted for. The results suggest that the quality of phonological representations in the mental lexicon is a determinant of the development of both segmental (e.g., phoneme) awareness and of the acquisition of phonological recoding skills in reading.
ESTE TRABAJO presenta los resultados de un estudio longitudinal de niños hijos de padres disléxicos y normales. El seguimiento de los niños se produjo desde el comienzo del preescolar (a la edad de seis años, un año antes de comenzar la enseñanza de la lectura en Dinamarca), hasta el comienzo de segundo grado. Se halló que entre los hijos de padres disléxicos aumentaba el riesgo de dislexia (a razón del 4.3) cuando se definía la dislexia como problemas de recodificación fonológica (problemas para leer pseudo‐palabras y pseudo‐homófonos de palabras reales). Todas las medidas de lenguaje tomadas en preescolar fueron predictoras de dislexia estadísticamente significativas. Los análisis de regresión logística con selección por pasos indicaron que las tres medidas contribuían independientemente a la predicción de la dislexia: nombrar letras, identificar fonemas y la precisión de las representaciones fonológicas. La medida de precisión de las representaciones fonológicas también contribuyó significativamente a predecir problemas de conciencia fonológica en segundo grado ‐ aún cuando se tomaron en cuenta las diferencias en conciencia silábica y fonológica tempranas. Los resultados sugieren que la calidad de las representaciones fonológicas en el léxico mental es determinante tanto del desarrollo de la conciencia segmental (por ej., fonológica) como de la adquisición de habilidades fonológicas en la lectura.
DIESER ARTIKEL stellt die Ergebnisse einer Langzeitstudie mit Kindern von dyslexischen und normal‐lesenden Eltern vor. Die Kinder wurden mit Beginn des Kindergartens (im Alter von sechs, ein Jahr vor Beginn des Leseunterrichts in Dänemark) bis zum Eintritt in das zweite Schuljahr betreut. Es wurde festgestellt, daß Kinder von dyslexischen Eltern einem erhöhten Risiko der Dyslexie unterliegen (im Wahrscheinlichkeitsverhältnis von 4.3), wobei Dyslexie als unzureichende phonologische Wiedergabe definiert wurde (Leseschwäche mit nicht‐bestimmbaren Worten und scheinbaren Gleichlauten bzw. Pseudo‐Homophonie bei realen Worten). Alle im Kindergarten ermittelten sprachlichen Maßnahmen erwiesen sich als statistisch bedeutende Hinweise auf Dyslexie. Logistische Regressionsanalysen mit schrittweisen, rückwirkenden Betrachtungsabläufen indizierten drei wesentliche Maßnahmen, die unabhängig voneinander zur Bestimmung von Dyslexie beitragen: Buchstabieren, phonemische Unterscheidung und Deutlichkeit der phonologischen Ausdrucksweisen. Die systematische Bemessung der Deutlichkeit der phonologischen Repräsentation trug ebenfalls wesentlich zur Bestimmung eines voraussichtlich auftretenden geschwächten phonemischen Bewußtseins bei Schülern in der zweiten Klasse bei, sogar wenn Unterschiede in der frühen Erkenntnis von Silbenbildung und phonemischer Wahrnehmung, Artikulation bzw. Wortgliederung, sowie in produktiver und rezeptiver Wortbildung ermittelt wurden. Die Ergebnisse weisen daraufhin, daß die Qualität der phonologischen Vorstellungen im mentalen Lexikon ein Bestimmungsfaktor in der Entwicklung beider segmentaler (z.B. phonemischer) Aufnahmefähigkeiten und der Aneignung von phonologischen Wiedergabefähigkeiten beim Lesen ist.
CE PAPIER présente des résultats provenant d'une étude longitudinale d'enfants de parents dyslexiques ou lisant normalement. Les enfants ont été suivis du début du jardin d'enfants (à six ans, un an avant l'enseignement de la lecture au Danemark) jusqu'au commencement de la seconde année. On a trouvé que les enfants de parents dyslexiques présentent un plus grand risque de dyslexie (4.3 fois plus) quand la dyslexie est définie comme un faible recodage phonologique (faible lecture de non‐mots et de pseudo‐homophones de mots réels). Tous les indicateurs langagiers au jardin d'enfants sont des prédicteurs statistiquement significatifs de dyslexie. Des analyses de régression avec sélection rétroactive variable par variable ont montré que trois mesures contribuent indépendam ment à prédire la dyslexie: la dénomination de lettres, l'identification de phonèmes, et la précision dans les représentations phonologiques. La mesure de la précision dans les représentations phonologiques contribue aussi de manière significative à prédire une faible conscience phonémique en deuxième année, même si les différences initiales de conscience de la syllabe et du phonème, de l'articulation, et du vocabulaire émis ou produit sont prises en considération. Les résultats suggèrent que la qualité des représentations phonologiques dans le lexique interne est un déterminant du développement tant de la conscience segmentale (par exemple du phonème) que de l'acquisition des habiletés de recodage phonologique en lecture.
PRESENTS THE report of the Coordinating Center of the Cooperative Research Program in First-Grade Reading Instruction. Data used in the study were compiled from the 27 individual studies comprising the Cooperative Research Program in First-Grade Reading Instruction relevant to three basic questions: (1) To what extent are various pupil, teacher, class, school, and community characteristics related to pupil achievement in first-grade reading and spelling? (2) Which of the many approaches to initial reading instruction produces superior reading and spelling achievement at the end of the first grade? (3) Is any program uniquely effective or ineffective for pupils with high or low readiness for reading? The instructional approaches evaluated included Basal, Basal plus Phonics, i.t.a., Linguistic, Language Experience, and Phonic/Linguistic. Identical information was gathered in each project concerning teacher, school, and community characteristics and common experimental guidelines were followed in all 27 studies. Results of the correlation analysis revealed that the ability to recognize letters of the alphabet prior to the beginning of reading instruction was the single best predictor of first-grade reading achievement. The analysis of methodology indicated that the various nonbasal instructional programs tended to be superior to basal programs as measured by word recognition skills of pupils after 1 year of reading instruction. Differences between basal and nonbasal programs were less consistent when measures of comprehension, spelling, rate of accuracy of reading, and word study skills constituted the criterion of reading achievement. The analysis of treatments according to level of readiness for reading revealed that no method was especially effective or ineffective for pupils of high or low readiness as measured by tests of intelligence, auditory discrimination, and letter knowledge. The research reported here was performed pursuant to a contract with the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education, under the provisions of the Cooperative Research Program.
The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of tests that have been used to operationalize the concept of phonemic awareness. Ninety-six kindergarten children were given 10 tests of phonemic awareness and a test of the rate at which they learned to decode novel words. The reliability, validity, and relative difficulty of each test were determined. A principal factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed that two highly related factors underlie phonemic awareness tests. A multiple regression analysis indicated that a combination of two tests, one related to each factor, has greater predictive validity for the beginning steps in reading acquisition than does any test alone. /// [French] Cette recherche avait pour but de vérifier la fidélité et la validité de tests utilisés pour opérationnaliser le concept de conscience phonémique. L'auteur a fait subir à 96 enfants de maternelle 10 tests de conscience phonémique et un test pour évaluer leur rapidité de décodage de mots nouveaux. La fidélité, la validité et la difficulté relative de chaque test ont ensuite été évaluées. Une analyse factorielle principale avec rotation oblique a révélé que les tests de conscience phonémique s'appuient sur deux facteurs étroitement reliés. L'analyse de régression multiple a par ailleurs, indiqué, qu'une combinaison deux à deux de deux tests, présente une plus grande validité prédictive des premières étapes de l'apprentissage de la lecture que chaque test pris isolément. /// [Spanish] El propósito de este estudio fue determinar la confiabilidad y validez de los tests que han sido usados para definir operacionalmente el concepto de alerta fonémica (phonemic awareness). A 96 niños de jardín se les administraron 10 tests de alerta fonémica y un test de la velocidad a la que aprendían a decodificar palabras nuevas. Se determinó la confiabilidad, validez y dificultad relativa de cada test. Un análisis factorial principal con rotación oblicua reveló que hay dos factores altamente relacionados que subyacen a los tests de alerta fonémica. Un análisis de regresión múltiple indicó que una combinación de dos tests, uno relacionado con cada factor, tiene mayor validez predictiva para los pasos iniciales en la adquisición de la lectura que cualquier test por sí solo. /// [German] Der zweck dieser Studie war, die Verläßlichkeit und Gültigkeit von Tests festzulegen, welche benutzt wurden, das Konzept phonemischer Erkenntnis einzusetzen. Neunundsechzig Fünfjährige wurden 10 phonemische Erkenntnis-Tests gegeben und ein Test auf die Schnelligkeit hin, mit der sie lernten, neue Wörter zu entschlüsseln. Die Verläßlichkeit, Gültigkeit und verhältnismäßige Schwierigkeit von jedem Test wurden festgelegt. Eine Hauptfaktor-Analyse mit versteckter Rotation zeigte, daß zwei stark verbundene Faktoren phonemischen Erkenntnis-Tests zugrundeliegen. Eine Mehrfach-Regressions-Analyse zeigte auf, daß die Kombination von zwei Tests, jeweils auf einen der beiden Faktoren eingehend, eine bessere Voraussage-Gültigkeit für die Anfangsschritte beim Lesen hat als jeder Test für sich allein.
A two-year longitudinal study was conducted to examine the role of metalinguistic abilities in the initial stages of learning to read. At the beginning of first grade, 118 students were administered three tests of metalinguistic ability, three prereading tests developed by Clay (1979), a test of verbal intelligence, and a measure of concrete operational thought, or operativity. At the end of first grade, the students were readministered the metalinguistic and Clay tests, and three tests of reading achievement; the latter were readministered at the end of second grade. Results suggested that children's ability to acquire low-level metalinguistic skills depends in part on their level of operativity, and that in the beginning stages of learning to read, metalinguistic ability helps children to discover cryptanalytic intent (that print maps onto certain structural features of spoken language) and grapheme-phoneme correspondences. It is also suggested that some minimal level of phonological awareness may be necessary for children to profit from letter-name knowledge in the acquisition of phonological recoding skill, and that phonological and syntactic awareness play more important roles in beginning reading than pragmatic awareness. /// [French] Les auteurs rapportent une étude longitudinale menée pendant deux ans pour étudier l'influence de la compétence métalinguistique durant les premiers stades de l'apprentissage de la lecture. Au début de la première année, 118 enfants ont subi trois tests de compétence métalinguistique, trois tests de pré-lecture conçus par Clay (1979), un test d'intelligence non verbale et une épreuve de pensée opératoire concrète. A la fin de la première année, ils ont subi à nouveau les tests de compétence métalinguistique et de prélecture en plus de trois tests de lecture qui ont également été passés à la fin de la deuxième année. Les résultats semblent indiquer l'existence de relations entre l'acquisition des activités méta-linguistiques de base et le niveau de développement de la pensée opératoire concrète; ils indiquent également qu'au début de l'apprentissage de la lecture, les habiletés métalinguistiques favorisent chez les enfants, la prise de conscience de relations entre certaines caractéristiques structurales de l'oral et de l'écrit et les correspondances graphèmes-phonèmes. Il semble également qu'un niveau minimal de conscience phonologique est requis pour l'apprentissage des mécanismes de décodage et que la conscience phonologique et la conscience syntaxique jouent un rôle plus important au début de l'apprentissage de la lecture que la conscience pragmatique. /// [Spanish] Un estudio longitudinal con duración de dos años fue hecho para examinar el rol de las habilidades metalingüísticas en los estadíos iniciales del aprendizaje de la lectura. Al inicio del primer grado, se administraron tres tests de habilidad metalingüística, tres tests de pre-lectura desarrollados por Clay (1979), un test de inteligencia verbal, y una medida de pensamiento concreto operacional. Al final del primer grado, se readministraron los tests metalingüísticos y los de pre-lectura de Clay, y tres tests de aprovechamiento de lectura; éstos últimos fueron administrados nuevamente al final del segundo grado. Los resultados sugieren que la habilidad de los niños para adquirir habilidades metalingüísticas de bajo nivel depende en parte de su nivel de pensamiento concreto operacional, y que en las etapas iniciales de aprender a leer, la habilidad metalingüística ayuda a los niños a descubrir la intención criptoanalítica (el hecho que se puede proyectar el lenguaje escrito en ciertas características estructurales del lenguaje oral) y las correspondencias de grafema morfema. También se sugirió que cierto nivel mínimo de alerta fonológica parece ser necesario para que los niños se beneficien del conocimiento de nombrar las letras en la adquisición de la habilidad fonológica de recodificar, y que la alerta fonológica y sintáctica juega un papel más importante en la lectura incipiente que la conciencia pragmática. /// [German] Es wurde eine Studie gemacht, die sich über zwei Jahre erstreckte, und bei der die Rolle untersucht wurde, die meta-sprachliche Fähigkeiten im Anfangslesestadium spielen. Zu Beginn des ersten Schuljahres wurden 118 Schüler folgenden Tests unterworfen: drei Tests ihrer meta-sprachlichen Fähigkeiten, drei Vor-dem-Lesen-Tests, von Clay (1979) entworfen, einem Test auf verbale Intelligenz und ein Maß konkreten Einsatzdenkens. Am Ende des ersten Schuljahres machten die Schüler erneut meta-sprachliche und Clay-vor-dem Lesen-Tests und drei Tests auf Leseleistung; die letzeren wurden am Ende des zweiten Schuljahres wiederholt. Die Resultate zeigten, daß die Fähigkeit der Schüler, Niedrig-Grad meta-sprachliche Fähigkeiten zu erwerben, zum Teil von dem Stand ihres konkreten Einsatzdenkens abhängt, und daß im Anfangslesenlernen meta-sprachliche Fähigkeit den Kindern hilft, Schlüssel-analytische Absicht (bestimmte Merkmale der gesprochenen Sprache kartographisch dargestellt) und grapheme-phoneme Korrespondenz zu entdecken. Es ist auch möglich, daß ein minimaler Grad von phonologischem Bewußtsein notwendig ist, damit Kinder profitieren von Buchstaben-Erkennen während der Aneignung von phonologischer Verschlüsselungsfähigkeit, und daß beim Anfangslesen phonologisches und syntaktisches Bewußtsein eine wichtigere Rolle spielen als prakmatisches Bewußtsein.
The purpose of this study was to determine if children trained in phoneme awareness in kindergarten would differ in invented spelling from children who did not have this training. A reliable scoring system was created to evaluate the invented spelling of the kindergarten children. The children were selected from 18, all-day kindergartens in four, demographically comparable low-income, inner-city schools. Prior to the intervention, the 77 treatment children and the 72 control children did not differ in age, sex, race, PPVT-R, phoneme segmentation, letter name and letter sound knowledge, or word recognition. During March, April, and May of the kindergarten year, treatment children participated in an 11-week phoneme awareness intervention that included instruction in letter names and sounds. After the intervention, the treatment children significantly outperformed the control children in phoneme segmentation, letter name and sound knowledge, and reading phonetically regular words and nonwords. Of primary interest in this study is the fact that the treatment children produced invented spellings that were rated developmentally superior to those of the control children. The 7-point scale created for scoring the developmental spelling test was found to be highly reliable using either correlation (r = .98) or percent of agreement (93%).
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The development of spelling skills was investigated at four points over the first 3 years of schooling in 153 British children. In order to uncover the developmental relationship between spelling and reading ability and to identify the component skills of spelling, children were assessed with a large battery of tests, including reading, phoneme awareness, letter-sound and letter-name knowledge, memory, and verbal and nonverbal IQ. Spelling productions were assessed both for phonological plausibility and for conventional accuracy. A path analysis revealed that phoneme segmentation and letter-sound knowledge were the precursor skills of early phonological spelling ability; in turn phonological spelling combined with reading to promote conventional spelling skill. Although initial phonological spelling ability predicted later reading, early reading ability did not influence later phonological spelling ability. These results indicate that skilled spelling requires a foundation in phonological transcoding ability which in turn enables the formation of orthographic representations. Our data also suggest that the increasingly complex and specific orthographic patterns demonstrated in children's spelling are learned through experience and instruction in both reading and spelling.
In this longitudinal study, Norwegian children received daily training sessions in word analysis with the aim of stimulating the children to discover and attend to the phonological structure of language. Ten first-grade classes received one of three treatments during the fall semester. In the three classes (60 children) assigned to the phoneme isolation or positional treatment, teachers taught the children to attend to individual phonemes and identify those phonemes in initial, medial, or final position in target words. In the three classes (52 children) assigned to the phoneme segmentation or sequential treatment, teachers taught the children to identify the phonemes in a word in the correct sequence and to blend them. Finally, four classes (100 children) were assigned to a control treatment in which they looked at illustrations and discussed them. Metaphonological skills were measured at various points during the training period, and long-term effects of the training on the pupils' progress in reading and spelling were assessed at the end of Grades 1 and 2. Both forms of phonological training had a facilitating effect on reading and spelling. At the end of Grade 1, students who had received the sequential phoneme segmentation training scored significantly higher in spelling than students who had received the positional (phoneme isolation) training; however, this difference disappeared by the end of Grade 2. A significant interaction between type of treatment and intelligence suggested that students of lower ability profited the most from the phonological training. /// [French] Dans cette étude longitudinale, des enfants norvégiens furent soumis à des séances quotidiennes d'entraînement à l'analyse des mots en vue de les amener à découvrir les règles phonologiques du langage. Dix classes de première année furent soumises à l'un des trois traitements durant le semestre d'automne. Dans trois classes (60 enfants) la méthode portait sur l'isolation des phonèmes; l'enseignante faisait écouter les phonèmes aux enfants puis leur demandait de les identifier dans des mots cibles, en position initiale, médiane et finale. Dans trois autres classes (52 enfants) la méthode consistait à segmenter les mots en phonèmes; l'enseignante montrait aux enfants à identifier les phonèmes dans la séquence où ils apparaissaient dans les mots cibles puis à les combiner. Les quatre autres classes servaient de groupe contrôle; les enfants étaient amenés à regarder des images et à les commenter. Les habiletés métaphonologiques furent évaluées à différents moments de la recherche, ainsi qu'à la fin de la première et de la deuxième année pour mesurer les effets de généralisation à long terme. Les deux méthodes d'entraînement à l'analyse phonologique eurent des effets significatifs sur la lecture et sur l'orthographe. Même si, à la fin de la première année, les élèves qui avaient reçu l'entraînement à la segmentation obtinrent de meilleurs résultats en orthographe que les élèves qui avaient reçu l'entraînement à l'identification des phonèmes cette différence disparut à la fin de la deuxième année. L'interaction significative observée entre les mesures d'intelligence et le type de traitement montrèrent que ce sont les élèves de niveaux d'habiletés inférieur qui bénéficièrent le plus du traitement à l'analyse phonologique. /// [Spanish] En este estudio longitudinal, unos niños noruegos recibieron sesiones diarias de entrenamiento en análisis de palabras con el objeto de estimular a los niños a descubrir y concentrarse en la estructura fonológica del lenguaje. Diez clases de primer grado recibieron uno de tres tratamientos durante el semestre de otoño. En las tres clases (60 niños) asignadas al tratamiento de aislamiento de fonemas, los maestros enseñaron a los niños a buscar los fonemas individuales y a identificarlos en posición inicial, media o final en palabras clave. En las tres clases (52 niños) asignadas al tratamiento de segmentación del fonema, los maestros enseñaron a los niños a identificar los fonemas en una palabra en la secuencia correcta y a mezclarlos. Finalmente, cuatro clases (100 niños) fueron asignadas a un tratamiento control en que miraban ilustraciones y las discutían. Se midieron las habilidades metafonológicas en varios puntos durante el periodo de entrenamiento, y se evaluaron los efectos a largo plazo del entrenamiento en el progreso de los alumnos en lectura y ortografía al final del primer y segundo grados. Ambas formas de entrenamiento fonológico tuvieron un efecto facilitador en la lectura y ortografía. Al final del primer grado, los estudiantes que habían recibido entrenamiento de segmentación del fonema, tuvieron resultados significativamente más altos en ortografía que los estudiantes que habían recibido el entrenamiento de aislamiento del fonema; sin embargo, esta diferencia desapareció para el final del segundo grado. Una interacción significativa entre el tipo de tratamiento y la inteligencia sugiere que los estudiantes con menos habilidad se aprovecharon más que los demás del tratamiento fonológico. /// [German] In dieser langzeitstudie wurden norwegische Kinder täglich in der Worterkennung unterrichtet. Ziel dieser Studie war es, die Kinder dazu anzuregen, die phonologische Struktur der Sprache wahrzunehmen und sich mit ihr zu befassen. Während des Herbstsemesters unterzogen sich zehn Klassen des ersten Schuljahres einer von drei statistischen Bearbeitungen. In den drei Klassen (insgesamt 60 Kinder), die der Variablen "Phoneme isolieren" angehörten, wurden die Schüler von den Lehrern darin unterrichtet, einzelne Phoneme wahrzunehmen und jene Phoneme in der Anfangs-, Mittel- oder Endstellung des betreffenden Wortes zu identifizieren. Die Schüler der drei Klassen (insgesamt 52 Kinder), die der Variablen "Phoneme gliedern" angehörten, wurden darin unterrichtet, die Phoneme eines Wortes der richtigen Reihenfolge nach zu identifizieren und sie anzupassen. Die verbleibenden vier Klassen bzw. 100 Schüler wurden der Kontrollvariablen zugewiesen; hierbei sahen die Schüler sich Illustrationen an und besprachen sie. Die metaphonologischen Fertigkeiten wurden zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten der Unterrichtsphase gemessen und die Langzeitauswirkungen der Ausbildung auf die Fortschritte im Lesen und Buchstabieren wurden gegen Ende des ersten und zweiten Schuljahres gemessen. Beide Formen der phonologischen Ausbildung zeigten eine fördernde Wirkung auf das Lesen und Buchstabieren. Am Ende des ersten Schuljahres erzielten die Schüler, die im Gliedern der Phoneme geschult wurden, statistisch gesehen wesentlich höhere Ergebnisse im Buchstabieren als die Schüler, die im Isolieren der Phoneme unterrichtet worden waren. Dieser Unterschied verschwand jedoch zum Ende des zweiten Schuljahres hin. Eine bedeutende Interaktion zwischen der Variablenart und der Intelligenz deutet darauf hin, daß Schüler mit geringeren Fähigkeiten am meisten von der phonologischen Schulung profitierten.
Twenty-two reading-disabled children were randomly assigned to one of four training conditions to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer speech-based system for training literacy skills. The sample included 17 children with significant neurological impairment of various etiologies (including spina bifida and hydrocephalus, seizure disorder, brain tumors, cerebral palsy, and head injury) and five developmental dyslexics. The training employed a "talking" computer system that provides synthesized speech feedback during the course of learning. The training conditions included three word recognition and spelling-training programs and a math-training control program. Three different literacy-training procedures were compared, with the size of the trained print-to-sound unit varying as letter-sound (LSD: train-->t/r/ai/n); onset-rhyme (OR: train-->tr/ain) and whole word units (WW: train-->train). All literacy-training groups made significant gains in word recognition and spelling, with the LSD- and OR-trained subjects making the greatest word recognition gains on the words that could be trained with segmented speech feedback (i.e., words with regular spelling-to-sound patterns). All literacy-training groups demonstrated significant transfer on uninstructed rhymes of instructed regular words, with the greatest degree of transfer achieved by the LSD-trained subjects. These findings suggest that the neurologically impaired children were able to profit from instructional procedures that segment the printed word into units corresponding to onsets, rhymes, and phonemes and that this segmentation training may facilitate transfer-of-training for them.
Graphophonemic (GP) awareness, the ability to match up graphemes to phonemes within individual words, was examined in 78 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders who were grouped by spelling performance into 3 literacy levels: Young, Middle, Older. Students marked 24 words by circling letters and digraphs that represented the smallest sounds in words and crossing out letters that represented no sound. The Older group exhibited greater GP awareness and greater digraph knowledge than the Young group, but silent letter markings were not related to literacy levels. GP awareness was correlated with spelling scores only in the Young group, suggesting that it contributes mainly to early reading and spelling acquisition. In general, students' markings conformed to the conventional system, although there was a greater than expected tendency to attribute sounds to individual letters. The Middle group was more apt to mark units larger than single phonemes. Results are interpreted to bear on Ehri's phase theory of word reading acquisition and on connectionist models of word reading.