Parent Scaffolding in Children's Oral Reading

Parent coaching strategies during shared book reading were analysed according to the principles of scaffolding in a sample of 46 parent-child dyads during the latter half of grade one. The ways that parents responded to each of a child's oral reading errors or miscues were coded into levels of assistance that reflected increasing support at each successive level. In addition children's attempts at rereading miscued words were coded as successful or not. Parents often provided a string of feedback clues and analyses revealed that the level of support parents provided shifted up or increased when their child was unsuccessful in rereading a word after feedback. With increasing level of parental support children's success in rereading misread words increased. Moreover, children with weaker word recognition skill were offered feedback at higher levels of support by their parents. These results demonstrate how parents and children co-construct the feedback that parents provide when listening to their children read and the sensitivity on the part of parents to children's reading performance.     

Reading on the computer with orthographic and speech feedback

In this paper we present an overview of a computer program directed toward the remediation of children's deficits in word recognition and phonological decoding. In the present studies, 138 children read stories on the computer, in their school, for a half hour per day during a semester. Children were trained to request synthetic-speech feedback (DECtalk) for difficult words by targeting the words with a mouse. Different groups received whole-word feedback, wherein targeted words were highlighted and spoken as a unit, or segmented feedback, wherein segments of words (onsets, rimes, or syllables) were sequentially highlighted and spoken by the computer, requiring the child to pay attention to and blend the segments. Both whole-word and segmented feedback resulted in almost twice the gains in standardized word recognition scores compared to control groups that spent an equal time in their normal remedial reading program. Most important, the computer-trained groups improved their phonological decoding of nonwords at about four times the rate of the control group. However, there was a significant interaction between level of deficit severity and optimal feedback condition. The most severely disabled readers showed the largest phonological decoding gains from syllable feedback, while the largest gains for the less severely disabled readers were from onset-rime feedback. The disabled readers' level of phonological awareness at pre-test was the strongest predictor for gains in word recognition and phonological decoding. Implications of the results for future training programs are discussed.     

Parents’ support during different writing tasks: a comparison between parents of precocious readers,preschoolers, and school-age children

The study aimed to deepen the understanding of parental sensitivity to their children’s abilities and the nature of their scaffolding during writing tasks. We compared the parent–child writing interactions of three groups: precocious readers (PRs), same age preschoolers (SA), and older children with the same reading level (SRL) as the PRs. Each of 60 parent child-dyads was videotaped during three writing activities that varied in their structure level: word writing, writing a birthday invitation, and free writing within a wordless children’s book. Interactions were analyzed for parental literacy-specific, social-emotional, and general cognitive support. Results demonstrated parents’ sensitivity to their children’s developmental level and skills. Parents of PRs showed levels of literacy-specific support similar to parents of older children with the SRL, and higher than parents of SA non-reading children. Parents of PRs resembled parents of SA preschoolers and provided their children with more social-emotional support than parents of the older SRL children. The general cognitive support of parents of PRs was higher than that of the two other groups. Moreover, parents of PRs referred to writing conventions and showed more responsiveness than parents in the other two groups. Parents in all three groups emphasized literacy-specific support during the more structured writing tasks (words and invitation), and placed greater emphasis on the social-emotional and general cognitive support during the least structured task (free writing within the wordless book). Beyond these differences, parents demonstrated a consistent support style. We discuss parent–child writing interactions as a context for early literacy development.     

Exploring the eye‐movement patterns as Chinese children read texts: a developmental perspective

This study was to investigate Chinese children's eye patterns while reading different text genres from a developmental perspective. Eye movements were recorded while children in the second through sixth grades read two expository texts and two narrative texts. Across passages, overall word frequency was not significantly different between the two genres. Results showed that all children had longer fixation durations for low‐frequency words. They also had longer fixation durations on content words. These results indicate that children adopted a word‐based processing strategy like skilled readers do. However, only older children's rereading times were affected by genre. Overall, eye‐movement patterns of older children reported in this study are in accordance with those of skilled Chinese readers, but younger children are more likely to be responsive to word characteristics than text level when reading a Chinese text.     

Explicit Instruction in Decoding Benefits Children High in Phonemic Awareness and Alphabet Knowledge

This article reports a study of 32 children who had been trained to a high level in phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge over a 12-week period at preschool. During their first 6 weeks in kindergarten, these phonemically aware children were taught to read 10 real words, using either decoding and encoding techniques or a whole word method. At posttesting the children taught by the decoding and encoding method were superior in reading and writing both novel real words and pseudowords, compared to the whole word group. The results support the contention that explicit instruction in decoding is helpful even when children have high levels of phonemic awareness.     

Effects of independent word practice with segmented and whole-word sound feedback in disabled readers

Reading-disabled children seem to have considerable difficulties in acquiring phonological recoding skills, which are considered to be very important in becoming a proficient reader. It is hypothesized that speech feedback may support the development of phonological recoding skills. The aim of the present study is to investigate the use of speech feedback during independent word reading and its effects on the remediation of reading skill. Three different conditions for independent practice were employed. For 17 subjects high-quality digitized speech was available on call. When speech feedback was requested either whole-word sound was provided (n = 8) or segmented-word sound was presented (n = 9). A control group (n=14) did not receive speech feedback at all. In a posttest both practised and nonpractised words were presented. Both help call behaviour during practice and changes in reading rate and accuracy from pretest to posttest were analyzed. It was found that speech feedback requests were not dependent on word difficulty. More calls for whole-word sound were made than for segmented-word sound, while latency times for whole-word sound requests were shorter than for segmented-word sound requests. Both forms of speech feedback were equally effective in reading practice words which were initially read incorrectly. However, there was a tendency for the learning effect on nonpractised initially hard-to-read words to be largest when segmented-word sound had been available. It is concluded that, whenever the goal of reading instruction is to memorize particular words, whole-word sound as well as segmented-word sound can be used. However, when more productive skills are aimed at, the most promising way of giving support is to present segmented-word sound, although only a nonsignificant tendency for transfer was found in the present study.     

Evidence for different parent–child strategies while reading

This study examined the strategies parents use naturally to help early readers at difficult points of text or pronunciation. Forty‐two children were videotaped reading to a parent. Results suggest parents are not likely to provide specific instructional feedback when listening to their children read. When given, parental feedback tends to be well tuned to the child's reading ability, with parents of less skilled readers providing richer and more varied feedback than parents of more skilled readers. A tree clustering analysis placed parents in one of three groups: 1) ‘Learner centred’ parents use a variety of feedback strategies; 2) ‘Inactive’ parents allow their children to continue uncorrected; 3) ‘Direct’ parents supply the miscued word. The children of ‘learner centred’ parents did not perform as well as children of ‘inactive’ parents on measures of reading ability, possibly because parents of better readers no longer need to be ‘learner centred’.     

Same Same,but Different: Word and Sentence Reading in German and English

The current study compared eye fixation patterns during word and sentence processing in a consistent and an inconsistent alphabetic orthography. German and English children as well as adults matched on word reading ability read matched sentences while their eye fixation behavior was recorded. Results indicated that German children read in a more small-unit plodder-like style with more diligent first-pass reading and less rereading. In contrast, English children read in a more large-unit explorer-like style with a greater tendency to skip words, and more regressions. It is important that these cross-linguistic processing differences largely persisted in the adult readers. Orthographic consistency thus influences both local word recognition and global sentence processing in developing and skilled readers.     

Fostering Parental Support for Children's Mathematical Development: An Intervention with Head Start Families

The first national education goal, school readiness, recognizes a need for young children to be better prepared for entry into elementary school. Many low-income children exhibit a pattern of underachievement in school mathematics. Research has revealed a developmental gap between low-income preschool children and their middle-class peers with respect to the extent of their numerical knowledge. Research has also found that many low-income children do not receive a broad base of support for mathematical development at home or in preschool. In each of two studies, we conducted a bi-generation (parent and child) mathematics intervention with Head Start families. The intervention was designed to enhance parental support for pre-kindergarten children's mathematical development. It was found that low-income parents were willing and able to support this area of their children's development once they were provided with the training to do so. The support that parents provided to their children through the intervention was clearly effective in enhancing the development of children's informal mathematical knowledge. Intervention children developed more extensive mathematical knowledge than a comparison group of low-income children. Thus, an important step toward achieving the school readiness goal can be taken by fostering low- income parents' support for young children's mathematical development.     

Learning vocabulary through e-book reading of young children with various reading abilities

Previous studies revealed that young children learn novel word meanings by simply reading and listening to a printed book. In today’s classroom, many children’s e-books provide audio narration support so young readers can simply listen to the e-books. The focus of the present study is to examine the effect of e-book reading with audio narration support on the novel vocabulary learning of first grade students with advanced, average, and poor reading abilities. The effect of adding teacher’s word explanation on novel word learning was also examined. By employing a within-subject design, students read an e-book that contained ten explained words and another e-book containing ten unexplained words. Their performances were compared to ten unexposed control words. As a whole group, results indicated that teacher’s word explanation resulted in greater word learning compared to when word explanation was not provided. However, e-book reading conditions without teacher’s word explanation did not lead to incidental word learning from the e-book context compared to the unexposed control words. When the students were divided into subgroups based on their reading abilities, readers with higher reading abilities learned more word meanings from e-book with teacher’s word explanation. However, three subgroups of readers showed different patterns of word learning across the e-book with and without word explanation and the control conditions. Educational implications of using e-books for students with different reading abilities and limitations are discussed.     

Does early reading failure decrease children's reading motivation?

The authors used a pretest-posttest control group design with random assignment to evaluate whether early reading failure decreases children's motivation to practice reading. First, they investigated whether 60 first-grade children would report substantially different levels of interest in reading as a function of their relative success or failure in learning to read. Second, they evaluated whether increasing the word reading ability of 15 at-risk children would lead to gains in their motivation to read. Multivariate analyses of variance suggest marked differences in both motivation and reading practice between skilled and unskilled readers. However, bolstering at-risk children's word reading ability did not yield evidence of a causal relationship between early reading failure and decreased motivation to engage in reading activities. Instead, hierarchical regression analyses indicate a covarying relationship among early reading failure, poor motivation, and avoidance of reading.     

The ABC’s of Chinese: maternal mediation of Pinyin for Chinese children’s early literacy skills

In the present study, maternal Pinyin mediation and its relations with young Chinese children??s word reading and word writing development were explored. At time 1, 43 Mainland Chinese children and their mothers were videotaped on a task in which children were asked to write 12 words in Pinyin (a phonological coding system used in Mainland China as an aid to reading Chinese characters) with help from their mothers. The videotapes were later coded on a scale (adapted from Aram & Levin, 2001) of mothers?? writing facilitation techniques. Scores on this scale of maternal mediation of Pinyin uniquely explained children??s reading of Chinese words, but not writing of Chinese words, after statistically controlling for maternal education and age, and children??s non-verbal IQ, age, and phonological awareness. At time 2, 22 of the children from time 1 were further tested on Chinese word reading and word reading task 1?year later. After controlling for children??s age and non-verbal IQ, maternal Pinyin mediation uniquely explained 6% of the variance in children??s word writing and 7% of the variance in children??s word reading performance at time 2. Results underscore the potential importance of the maternal scaffolding role for reading acquisition both theoretically and practically in a domain not previously explored (i.e., use of a common coding system (Pinyin) for learning to read, rather than word reading itself).     

Does Online Comprehension Monitoring Make a Unique Contribution to Reading Comprehension in Beginning Readers? Evidence from eye movements

The goal of this study was to investigate the nature of online comprehension monitoring, its predictors, and its relation to reading comprehension. Questions were concerned with (a) beginning readers’ sensitivity to inconsistencies, (b) predictors of online comprehension monitoring, and (c) the relation of online comprehension monitoring to reading comprehension over and above word reading and listening comprehension. Using eye tracking technology, online comprehension monitoring was measured as the amount of time spent rereading target implausible words and looking back at surrounding contexts. Results from 319 second graders revealed that children spent greater time fixating on inconsistent than consistent words and engaged in more frequent lookbacks. Comprehension monitoring was explained by both word reading and listening comprehension. However, comprehension monitoring did not uniquely predict reading comprehension after accounting for word reading and listening comprehension. These results provide insight into the nature of comprehension monitoring and its role in reading comprehension for beginning readers.     

Parental involvement in the development of children's reading skill: a five-year longitudinal study

This article presents the findings of the final phase of a 5-year longitudinal study with 168 middle- and upper middle-class children in which the complex relations among early home literacy experiences, subsequent receptive language and emergent literacy skills, and reading achievement were examined. Results showed that children's exposure to books was related to the development of vocabulary and listening comprehension skills, and that these language skills were directly related to children's reading in grade 3. In contrast, parent involvement in teaching children about reading and writing words was related to the development of early literacy skills. Early literacy skills directly predicted word reading at the end of grade 1 and indirectly predicted reading in grade 3. Word reading at the end of grade 1 predicted reading comprehension in grade 3. Thus, the various pathways that lead to fluent reading have their roots in different aspects of children's early experiences.     

The role of feedback and differences between good and poor decoders in a repeated word reading paradigm in first grade

The direct, retention, and transfer effects of repeated word and pseudoword reading were studied in a pretest, training, posttest, retention design. First graders (48 good readers, 47 poor readers) read 25 CVC words and 25 CVC pseudowords in ten repeated word reading sessions, preceded and followed by a transfer task with a different set of items. Two weeks after training, trained items were assessed again in a retention test. Participants either received phonics feedback, in which each word was spelled out and repeated; word feedback, in which each word was repeated; or no feedback. During the training, both good and poor readers improved in accuracy and speed. The increase in speed was stronger for poor readers than for good readers. The good readers demonstrated a stronger increase for pseudowords than for words. This increase in speed was most prominent in the first four sessions. Two weeks after training, the levels of accuracy and speed were retained. Furthermore, transfer effects on speed were found for pseudowords in both groups of readers. Good readers performed most accurately during the training when they received no feedback while poor readers performed most accurately during the training with the help of phonics feedback. However, feedback did not differentiate for reading speed or for effects after the training. The effects of repeated word reading were found to be stronger for poor readers than for good readers. Moreover, these effects were found to be stronger for pseudowords than for words. This indicates that repeated word reading can be seen as an important trigger for the improvement of decoding skills.     

The relationship between linguistic characteristics and reading/writing performances of Norwegian children

The relations between different word categories and children's reading and writing performances were examined in twenty 9-year-old children. Results indicated for Norwegian, which is more regular than English but less regular than Finnish, that the length and the frequency of words and their interactions are factors substantially related both to children's reading, writing time (writing velocity), and spelling performances, whereas the regularity factor affected children's spelling only. Significant intercorrelations among reading and writing (accuracy and spelling) measures were found.     

Improving the reading of bisyllabic words that involve context-sensitive spelling rules: focus on successes or on failures?

The effect of two training procedures on the improvement of reading accuracy in poor readers was examined in relation to their initial reading level. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 60 poor readers. Poor readers were assigned to a control group that received no training, or one of two training conditions. One training concentrated on the words the children read correctly (successes), the other on the words they read incorrectly (failures). They repeatedly read bisyllabic Dutch words, half of the training words involving context-sensitive spelling rules (vowel degemination or consonant gemination). Some children repeatedly read their successes, others their failures. The training used a computerized flashcards format. The exposure duration of the words was varied to maintain the accuracy rate at a constant level. In general, children who received training improved their reading accuracy and reading speed of trained words, and reading accuracy of untrained words, more than the control group. Which training focus is superior, depends on the reading level of the child and the type of words used. For children with a low initial reading level, to improve reading accuracy of bisyllabic words that follow context-sensitive spelling rules, a training focus on failures was superior over a training focus on successes. For children with a high initial reading level, improvement of reading speed was largest in a training on successes. Evidently, the improvement of word reading skills depends both on the children’s level of reading competence and on the type of training.     

Prosodic and phonemic awareness in children’s reading of long and short words

Phonemic and prosodic awareness are both phonological processes that operate at different levels: the former at the level of the individual sound segment and the latter at the suprasegmental level across syllables. Both have been shown to be related to word reading in young readers. In this study we examine how these processes are differentially related to reading monosyllabic and multisyllabic words. Participants were 110 children in grades four and five who were asked to read monosyllabic and three- and four-syllable words matched for frequency. Phonemic awareness was assessed via a phoneme elision task; prosodic awareness was assessed by a task asking participants to identify the syllable bearing primary stress in a spoken word. Results showed that phonemic and prosodic awareness were independent predictors of short word reading, and both phonological factors made independent contributions to multisyllabic word reading, showing that phonemic and prosodic awareness are complementary but not redundant processes. Only prosodic awareness survived control for simple decoding ability in the reading of long words, suggesting that suprasegmental phonology gives added value to our understanding of reading multisyllabic words.     

Serial naming speed and the component elements of speech time and pause time: relationships with the development of word‐level reading in children aged four to five years

Serial naming speed and its association with reading ability was examined in a longitudinal investigation. Participants were 68 children aged between 4.0 and 4.5 years when the study began and between 5.0 and 5.5 years when the study ended. Serial naming speed was measured at three equidistant time points over the 12‐month period as children progressed from a pre‐literate to early‐literate stage. Children's responses were digitally recorded to computer to enable analysis of the sound files. During analysis, the articulation time for each word and the length of each pause between the spoken words were measured independently. At the end of the study, children's word‐level reading ability was measured. Results suggest that children aged 4.0 to 5.5 years show wide variability in serial naming speed that is predominately attributable to the length of the pauses between the articulated words. There appears to be a developmental association between the duration of the pauses and word‐level reading ability.     

E-Book and Printed Book Reading in Different Contexts as Emergent Literacy Facilitator

Research Findings: We present 3 studies that focused on preschoolers’ electronic book (e-book) reading in different contexts aimed at supporting children’s early literacy. In Study 1 we researched the impact of children’s age and number of independent readings on phonological awareness and word reading. We found that all age groups benefited from e-book reading, and 5 readings benefited most skills better than 3. In Study 2 we investigated (a) parents’ behavior during joint e-book reading with their children compared to joint printed book reading and (b) parental mediation in joint reading of a considerate e-book compared to joint reading of an inconsiderate e-book. The joint printed book reading yielded more expanding talk than the joint e-book reading, and reading the considerate e-book yielded higher expanding talk than reading the inconsiderate e-book. In Study 3 we compared adult support in joint e-book reading to joint printed book reading and compared both readings to children’s independent e-book reading. Reading the e-book with adult support assisted children in progressing in phonological awareness and word reading compared to other group reading. Practice or Policy: Well-designed e-books may serve as good tools to support children’s early literacy, and when parents or educators read them with children, children’s progress is enhanced. We recommend that these findings be taken into account by e-book designers, policymakers, teachers, and parents.