Predictors of Grade 2 Word Reading and Vocabulary Learning from Grade 1 Variables in Spanish‐Speaking Children: Similarities and Differences

We examined the components of first (L1) and second language (L2) phonological processing that are related to L2 word reading and vocabulary. Spanish‐speaking English learners (EL) were classified as average or low readers in grades 1 and 2. A large number of children who started out as poor readers in first grade became average readers in second grade while vocabulary scores were more stable. Binary logistic regressions examined variables related to classifications of consistently average, consistently low, or improving on reading or vocabulary across grades. Good L2 phonological short‐term memory and phonological awareness scores predicted good reading and vocabulary scores. L1 and L2 measures differentiated consistently good performers from consistently low performers, while only L2 measures differentiated children who improved from children who remained low performers. Children who are EL should be screened on measures of pseudoword repetition and phonological awareness with low scorers being good candidates for receiving extra assistance in acquiring L2 vocabulary and reading. This study suggests measures that can be used to select children who have a greater likelihood of experiencing difficulties in reading and vocabulary.     

Phonological Spelling and Reading Deficits in Children With Spelling Disabilities

Spelling errors in the Wide Range Achievement Test were analyzed for 77 pairs of children, each of which included one older child with spelling disability (SD) and one spelling-level-matched younger child with normal spelling ability from the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center database. Spelling error analysis consisted of a percent graphotactic-accuracy (GA) score based on syllable position and existence in English, and a phonological accuracy score (PA). The SD group scored significantly worse in the PA measure and nonsignificantly better than controls on the GA measure. The Group × Measure interaction was significant. Spelling matched pairs had very similar scores for word recognition and orthographic coding, but the SD group exhibited significant deficits in reading measures of phonological decoding and in language measures of phonological awareness.     

What do spelling errors tell us? Classification and analysis of errors made by Greek schoolchildren with and without dyslexia

In this study we propose a classification system for spelling errors and determine the most common spelling difficulties of Greek children with and without dyslexia. Spelling skills of 542 children from the general population and 44 children with dyslexia, Grades 3–4 and 7, were assessed with a dictated common word list and age-appropriate passages. Spelling errors were classified into broad categories, including phonological (graphophonemic mappings), grammatical (inflectional suffixes), orthographic (word stems), stress assignment (diacritic), and punctuation. Errors were further classified into specific subcategories. Relative proportions for a total of 11,364 errors were derived by calculating the opportunities for each error type. Nondyslexic children of both age groups made primarily grammatical and stress errors, followed by orthographic errors. Phonological and punctuation errors were negligible. Most frequent specific errors were in derivational affixes, stress diacritics, inflectional suffixes, and vowel historical spellings. Older children made fewer errors, especially in inflectional suffixes. Dyslexic children differed from nondyslexic ones in making more errors of the same types, in comparable relative proportions. Spelling profiles of dyslexic children did not differ from those of same-age children with poor reading skills or of younger children matched in reading and phonological awareness. In conclusion, spelling errors of both dyslexic and nondyslexic children indicate persistent difficulty with internalizing regularities of the Greek orthographic lexicon, including derivational, inflectional, and word (stem) families. This difficulty is greater for children with dyslexia.     

How socioeconomic status,executive functioning and verbal interactions contribute to early academic achievement in Chinese children

The present study investigated the relative importance of executive functioning, parent–child verbal interactions, phonological awareness and visual skills on reading and mathematics for Chinese children from low-versus middle-socio economic status (SES) backgrounds. A total of 199 kindergarten children were assessed on executive functioning, verbal interactions, phonological awareness, visual skills, mathematics and word reading in Chinese and English. Results revealed that low-SES children exhibited lower levels of cognitive-linguistic skills, verbal interactions, reading and mathematics achievement than their middle-SES counterparts. Path analyses also indicated that executive functioning and verbal interactions made significant and direct contributions to mathematics, and indirect contributions to reading through phonological awareness. These results suggest that executive functioning and verbal interactions provide the foundation for phonological awareness and visual skills, which in turn affect reading and mathematics achievement. Overall, findings underscore the potential importance of SES inequalities, cognitive-linguistic skills and parental verbal input to their children for early reading and mathematics achievement.     

The relationship between speech impairment,phonological awareness and early literacy development

Although children with speech impairment are at increased risk for impaired literacy, many learn to read and spell without difficulty. Around half the children with speech impairment have delayed acquisition, making errors typical of a normally developing younger child (e.g. reducing consonant clusters so that spoon is pronounced as ‘poon’). A smaller group make disordered speech errors that are atypical of normal development (e.g. marking all consonant clusters with /f/ so bread is pronounced as ‘fed’). Profiles of surface speech errors may provide a way of identifying underlying deficits that account for differences in literacy development. This paper investigates the relationship between type of speech impairment, phonological awareness and literacy acquisition. Thirteen children, aged 5;2–7;9, with either delayed or disordered speech and six typically developing controls were compared on tasks measuring onset-rime awareness, letter knowledge, phonological rule knowledge, real and non-word reading. Children with delayed speech development performed like typically developing controls on all phonological awareness and reading measures. Children with speech disorder, who consistently made errors atypical of normal development, had difficulties on all phonological awareness tasks with the exception of syllable awareness. They showed no measurable emergent reading ability. The results suggest the need to differentiate between speech delay and disorder when planning intervention, particularly for literacy skills.     

Do the effects of computer-assisted practice differ for children with reading disabilities with and without IQ-achievement discrepancy?

This study was designed to assess whether the effects of computer-assisted practice on visual word recognition differed for children with reading disabilities (RD) with or without aptitude-achievement discrepancy. A sample of 73 Spanish children with low reading performance was selected using the discrepancy method, based on a standard score comparison (i.e., the difference between IQ and achievement standard scores). The sample was classified into three groups: (1) a group of 14 children with dyslexia (age M = 103.85 months; SD = 8.45) who received computer-based reading practice; (2) a group of 31 "garden-variety" (GV) poor readers (age M = 107.06 months; SD = 6.75) who received the same type of instruction; and (3) a group of 28 children with low reading performance (age M = 103.33 months; SD = 9.04) who did not receive computer-assisted practice. Children were pre- and posttested in word recognition, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and visual and phonological tasks. The results indicated that both computer-assisted intervention groups showed improved word recognition compared to the control group. Nevertheless, children with dyslexia had more difficulties than GV poor readers during computer-based word reading under conditions that required extensive phonological computation, because their performance was more affected by low-frequency words and long words. In conclusion, we did not find empirical evidence in favor of the IQ-achievement discrepancy definition of reading disability, because IQ did not differentially predict treatment outcomes.     

The relationship between phonological codes on memory and spelling tasks for students with and without learning disabilities.

The purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which 31 (23 boys and 8 girls) 13-year-old children with learning disabilities from Grades 7, 8, and 9 were comparable to younger (9-year-old) reading- and spelling-matched controls in (a) phonological similarity effects, (b) phonetically based misspellings, and (c) relationships between memory and spelling performance. Children with reading disabilities and reading-recognition-matched controls, subgrouped by spelling ability, were compared on their memory for phonetically similar and dissimilar word lists and types of spelling errors. The results indicate that children with reading disabilities who are matched to younger children on both reading recognition and spelling ability exhibit normal phonological effects on memory and spelling measures. Within each reading group, low spellers produced more semiphonetic errors than high spellers, and high spellers produced more phonetic errors than low spellers. Significant correlations between memory and spelling error measures were more frequent for children with reading disabilities when compared to controls matched on reading and spelling ability. It was concluded that the phonological performance of reading/spelling-matched children with reading disabilities is characterized by an overreliance on phonological codes, whereas their counterparts' performance reflects independent and less generalizable use of phonological substrates across tasks.     

Literacy skills in children with cochlear implants: the importance of early oral language and joint storybook reading

The goal of this study was to longitudinally examine relationships between early factors (child and mother) that may influence children's phonological awareness and reading skills 3 years later in a group of young children with cochlear implants (N = 16). Mothers and children were videotaped during two storybook interactions, and children's oral language skills were assessed using the "Reynell Developmental Language Scales, third edition." Three years later, phonological awareness, reading skills, and language skills were assessed using the "Phonological Awareness Test," the "Woodcock-Johnson-III Diagnostic Reading Battery," and the "Oral Written Language Scales." Variables included in the data analyses were child (age, age at implant, and language skills) and mother factors (facilitative language techniques) and children's phonological awareness and reading standard scores. Results indicate that children's early expressive oral language skills and mothers' use of a higher level facilitative language technique (open-ended question) during storybook reading, although related, each contributed uniquely to children's literacy skills. Individual analyses revealed that the children with expressive standard scores below 70 at Time 1 also performed below average (<85) on phonological awareness and total reading tasks 3 years later. Guidelines for professionals are provided to support literacy skills in young children with cochlear implants.     

Speech development patterns and phonological awareness in preschool children

To examine the association between speech production and early literacy skills, this study of 102 preschool children looked at phonological awareness in relation to whether children were delayed, typical, or advanced in their articulation of consonants. Using a developmental typology inspired by some of the literature on speech development (Kahn and Lewis, The Kahn-Lewis phonological analysis, 1986; Shriberg, Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 36(1):105-140, 1993a), we found that failure to master the early-8 consonants and a greater prevalence of certain types of production errors were associated with deficient phonological awareness. We also found that children who made no consonant errors had advanced phonological awareness relative to other children in the sample. In all cases, both productive speech patterns and speech errors were more closely linked with rhyme awareness than with phoneme awareness. The association between speech production and rhyme awareness may provide some new directions for the early preschool assessment of risk for reading problems.     

Parent–child pre–school activities can affect the development of literacy skills

This paper considers the nature of joint (parent–child) pre–school activities in the home, and their potential to contribute to the development of early reading skills. Parents gave details of the nature and frequency of any play–based activities that they routinely completed with their children. Their children were assessed on various aspects of phonological awareness, as well as their receptive vocabulary and short–term memory at four years old. One year later they completed a similar battery that also included measures of reading and spelling ability. Children who engaged in a variety of pre–school, parent–child activities showed the best achievement in reading one year later. The frequency of joint activities was also found to impact on reading attainment, vocabulary, memory and aspects of phonological awareness. The importance of shared storybook reading for later independent reading ability was reiterated by this study.     

Speech production deficits in early readers: predictors of risk

Speech problems and reading disorders are linked, suggesting that speech problems may potentially be an early marker of later difficulty in associating graphemes with phonemes. Current norms suggest that complete mastery of the production of the consonant phonemes in English occurs in most children at around 6–7 years. Many children enter formal schooling (kindergarten) around 5 years of age with near-adult levels of speech production. Given that previous research has shown that speech production abilities and phonological awareness skills are linked in preschool children, we set out to examine whether this pattern also holds for children just beginning to learn to read, as suggested by the critical age hypothesis. In the present study, using a diverse sample, we explored whether expressive phonological skills in 92 5-year-old children at the beginning and end of kindergarten were associated with early reading skills. Speech errors were coded according to whether they were developmentally appropriate, position within the syllable, manner of production of the target sounds, and whether the error involved a substitution, omission, or addition of a speech sound. At the beginning of the school year, children with significant early reading deficits on a predictively normed test (DIBELS) made more speech errors than children who were at grade level. Most of these errors were typical of kindergarten children (e.g., substitutions involving fricatives), but reading-delayed children made more of these errors than children who entered kindergarten with grade level skills. The reading-delayed children also made more atypical errors, consistent with our previous findings about preschoolers. Children who made no speech errors at the beginning of kindergarten had superior early reading abilities, and improvements in speech errors over the course of the year were significantly correlated with year-end reading skills. The role of expressive vocabulary and working memory were also explored, and appear to account for some of these findings.     

Beginning readers' use of ‘talking books’ software can affect their reading strategies

This paper reports on a small‐scale study that considered whether a phonic‐based ‘talking book’ could outperform one‐to‐one reading tuition with an adult with respect to improving beginning readers' phonological awareness over a short period. It also examined whether the children's reading strategies were affected by their use of the software. Two groups of children, one aged five years and one aged six years, used three phonic‐based talking books over six 15‐minute sessions and were assessed on their phonological awareness and reading strategies both before and after this intervention. Their performance was compared to that of matched comparison groups who were given one‐to‐one adult tutoring with the paper versions of the same books. There were no significant differences between the two groups in their phonological awareness attainment, with both groups showing equivalent gains from pre‐ to post‐test. Use of specific features of the software was associated with gains in rhyme detection ability and with changes in the children's reading strategies.     

Linguistic Diversity and the Development of Reading Skills: A Longitudinal Study

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the same component processes are involved in reading acquisition for children with varying levels of proficiency in English in kindergarten and the first grade. The performance of 858 children was examined on tasks assessing basic literacy skills, phonological processing, verbal memory, and syntactic awareness. There were 727 children who were native English speakers (NS children) and 131 children who spoke English as a second language (ESL children). Although ESL children performed more poorly than NS children on most measures of phonological and linguistic processing in kindergarten and first grade, the acquisition of basic literacy skills for children from both language groups developed in a similar manner. Furthermore, alphabetic knowledge and phonological processing were important contributors to early reading skill for children from both language groups. Therefore, children learning English may acquire literacy skills in English in a similar manner to NS children, although their alphabetic knowledge may precede and facilitate the acquisition of phonological awareness in English.     

The immediate and longer‐term effectiveness of a speech‐rhythm‐based reading intervention for beginning readers

Despite empirical evidence of a relationship between sensitivity to speech rhythm and reading, there have been few studies that have examined the impact of rhythmic training on reading attainment, and no intervention study has focused on speech rhythm sensitivity specifically to enhance reading skills. Seventy‐three typically developing 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children were randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups and received a speech‐rhythm‐based intervention, a phonological‐awareness‐based intervention, or a control intervention over 10 weeks. All children completed pre‐test, post‐test and delayed post‐test measures of speech rhythm sensitivity, single‐word reading, phonological awareness and vocabulary. The results show that it is possible to train speech rhythm sensitivity in this age group and that children who undertook the speech rhythm intervention showed a significant improvement in their word reading performance compared to children in the control group. Group differences were maintained 3 months later.     

Phonological awareness, reading skills, and vocabulary knowledge in children who use cochlear implants

In hearing children, reading skills have been found to be closely related to phonological awareness. We used several standardized tests to investigate the reading and phonological awareness skills of 27 deaf school-age children who were experienced cochlear implant users. Approximately two-thirds of the children performed at or above the level of their hearing peers on the phonological awareness and reading tasks. Reading scores were found to be strongly correlated with measures of phonological awareness. These correlations remained the same when we statistically controlled for potentially confounding demographic variables such as age at testing and speech perception skills. However, these correlations decreased even after we statistically controlled for vocabulary size. This finding suggests that lexicon size is a mediating factor in the relationship between the children's phonological awareness and reading skills, a finding that has also been reported for typically developing hearing children.     

Remediating the core deficits of developmental reading disability: a double-deficit perspective

The double-deficit hypothesis (Wolf, 1997; Wolf & Bowers, 1999, this issue) contends that deficits in phonological awareness and deficits in visual naming speed represent two independent causal impediments to reading acquisition for children with developmental reading disabilities (RD). One hundred and sixty-six children with severe RD from 7 to 13 years of age were classified into three deficit subgroups according to a double-deficit framework. A total of 140 children with RD, 84% of the sample, were classified; 54% demonstrated a double deficit (DD), 22% a phonological deficit only (PHON), and 24% a visual-naming speed deficit only (VNS). Diagnostic test profiles highlighted the joint contributions of the two core deficits in depressing written language acquisition. The children in the DD group were more globally impaired than those in the other subgroups, and the VNS group children were the highest achieving and most selectively impaired readers. Following 35 hours of word identification training, sizable gains and significant generalization of training effects were achieved by all subgroups. A metacognitive phonics program resulted in greater generalized effects across the domain of real English words, and a phonological training program produced superior outcomes within the phonological processing domain. The greatest non-word reading gains were achieved by children with only phonological deficits.     

The Effect of Urdu Vocabulary Size on the Acquisition of Single Word Reading in English

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Urdu, a phonologically transparent orthography with regular letter-sound correspondences on the development of reading in English. The results showed that children who had high levels of vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness in Urdu, were more likely to perform well on English reading and reading related tasks, but poorly on visual memory tasks. In contrast, children who had some Urdu word recognition skills, but low levels of Urdu vocabulary knowledge and Urdu phonological awareness tended to perform poorly on English reading and reading related tasks, but better on visual memory tasks. The findings provide further support to the direct impact of Urdu on single word reading in English.     

Development of dyslexic subgroups:

There is a consensus that dyslexia is on a continuum with normal reading skill and that dyslexics fall at the low end of the normal range in phonological skills. However, there is still substantial variability in phonological skill among dyslexic children. Recent studies have focused on the high end of the continuum of phonological skills in dyslexics, identifying a “surface” dyslexic, or “delayed” profile in which phonological skills are not out of line with other aspects of word recognition. The present study extended this work to a longitudinal context, and explored differences among subgroups of dyslexics on a battery of component reading skills. Third grade dyslexics (n=72) were classified into two subgroups, phonological dyslexics and delayed dyslexics, based on comparisons to younger normal readers at the same reading level (RL group). The children were tested at two points (in third and fourth grade). The results revealed that the classification of dyslexics produced reliable, stable, and valid groups. About 82 percent of the children remained in the same subgroup category when retested a year later. Phonological dyslexics were lower in phoneme awareness and expressive language. Delayed dyslexics tended to be slower at processing printed letters and words but not at rapid automatic naming of letters, and relied more heavily on phonological recoding in reading for meaning than did phonological dyslexics. A subset of the delayed dyslexics with the traditional “surface dyslexic” pattern (relatively high pseudoword and low exception word reading) was also identified. The surface subgroup resembled the RL group on most measures and was not very stable over one year. The results are discussed in light of current models of dyslexia and recent subgrouping schemes, including the Double-Deficit Hypothesis.     

A reading-level match study of phonemic processes underlying reading disabilities in a transparent orthography

The current study examined the relationship in Spanish (i.e., a transparent orthography) between different levels of phonological awareness and reading disabilities. In addition, the strategies used by the children when they resolved phoneme segmentation and reversal tasks were analyzed. A sample of 133 subjects were selected and organized in three different groups: (1) A group of 45 reading-disabled children, (2) A comparison group of 44 normal readers matched in age with the reading disabled, and (3) A reading level match group of 44 younger normal readers at the same reading level as the reading disabled. Three phonological awareness tasks were used to measure levels of intrasyllabic and phonemic awareness. The reading disabled group was equivalent to the younger reading level-matched control group in the odd-word-out task. However, there were differences in the phonemic tasks (e.g., phoneme segmentation and reversal) because the reading disabled group performed more poorly than the younger children. Overall, the children matched in age with the reading disabled group were superior in all phonological awareness tasks. There were differences between the groups when the strategies used by the children were analyzed.     

What happens to precocious readers' performance by the age of eleven?

This paper reports on the progress made by a small group of fourteen 11‐year‐old children who had been originally identified as being precocious readers before they started primary school at the age of five. The data enable comparisons to be made with the performance of the children when they were younger so that a six‐year longitudinal analysis can be made. The children who began school as precocious readers continued to make progress in reading accuracy, rate and comprehension, thereby maintaining their superior performance relative to a comparison group. However, their progress appeared to follow the same developmental trajectory as that of the comparison group. Measures of phonological awareness showed that there are long‐term, stable individual differences that correlated with all measures of reading. The children who were reading precociously early showed significantly higher levels of phonological awareness than the comparison children. In addition, they showed the same levels of performance on this task as a further group of high achieving young adults. A positive effect of being able to read at precociously early age was identified in the significantly higher levels of receptive vocabulary found amongst these children. The analyses indicated that rises in receptive vocabulary resulted from reading performance rather than the other way round.