An fMRI study of English and Spanish word reading in bilingual adults

The ability to extract visual word forms quickly and efficiently is essential for using reading as a tool for learning. We describe the first longitudinal fMRI study to chart individual changes in cortical sensitivity to written words as reading develops. We conducted four annual measurements of brain function and reading skills in a heterogeneous group of children, initially 7–12 years old. The results show age-related increase in children's cortical sensitivity to word visibility in posterior left occipito-temporal sulcus (LOTS), nearby the anatomical location of the visual word form area. Moreover, the rate of increase in LOTS word sensitivity specifically correlates with the rate of improvement in sight word efficiency, a measure of speeded overt word reading. Other cortical regions, including V1, posterior parietal cortex, and the right homologue of LOTS, did not demonstrate such developmental changes. These results provide developmental support for the hypothesis that LOTS is part of the cortical circuitry that extracts visual word forms quickly and efficiently and highlight the importance of developing cortical sensitivity to word visibility in reading acquisition.

Download Full-text

Length effect during word and pseudo-word reading. An event-related fMRI study

Neuroscience Research Communications ◽

10.1002/nrc.10027 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 155-165 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Monica Baciu ◽

Bernard Ans ◽

Serge Carbonnel ◽

Sylviane Valdois ◽

Alexandra Juphard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Word Reading ◽

Length Effect ◽

Fmri Study

Download Full-text

The role of nonspeech rhythm in Spanish word reading

Journal of Research in Reading ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9817.2011.01529.x ◽

2012 ◽

pp. n/a-n/a ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

M. Carmen González-Trujillo ◽

Sylvia Defior ◽

Nicolás Gutiérrez-Palma

Keyword(s):

Word Reading ◽

Spanish Word

Download Full-text

The role of nonspeech rhythm in Spanish word reading

Journal of Research in Reading ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9817.2012.01529.x ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 316-330 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

M. Carmen González-Trujillo ◽

Sylvia Defior ◽

Nicolás Gutiérrez-Palma

Keyword(s):

Word Reading ◽

Spanish Word

Download Full-text

Morphological Awareness Skills of Second- and Third-Grade Students With and Without Speech Sound Disorders

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/2019_lshss-19-00045 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 51 (3) ◽

pp. 603-616

Author(s):

Kenn Apel ◽

Victoria S. Henbest

Keyword(s):

Word Reading ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Morphological Awareness ◽

Literacy Skills ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

Real Word ◽

Speech Sound Disorders ◽

Word Level ◽

Third Grade Students ◽

Pseudoword Reading

Purpose Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study. Method Thirty second- and third-grade students with SSD and 30 with typical speech skills, matched on age and receptive vocabulary, completed four morphological awareness tasks and measures of receptive vocabulary, real-word reading, pseudoword reading, and word-level spelling. Results Results indicated there was no difference between the morphological awareness skills of students with and without SSD. Although morphological awareness was moderately to strongly related to the students' literacy skills, performance on the morphological awareness tasks contributed little to no additional variance to the children's real-word reading and spelling skills beyond what was accounted for by pseudoword reading. Conclusions Findings suggest that early elementary-age students with SSD may not present with concomitant morphological awareness difficulties and that the morphological awareness skills of these students may not play a unique role in their word-level literacy skills. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD are discussed.

Download Full-text

The Relation Between Linguistic Awareness Skills and Spelling in Adults: A Comparison Among Scoring Procedures

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 1240-1253

Author(s):

Victoria S. Henbest ◽

Lisa Fitton ◽

Krystal L. Werfel ◽

Kenn Apel

Keyword(s):

Phonemic Awareness ◽

Concurrent Validity ◽

Word Reading ◽

Continuous Measure ◽

Scoring Methods ◽

Syntactic Awareness ◽

Scoring Method ◽

Spelling Performance ◽

Linguistic Awareness ◽

Average Readers

Purpose Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual's linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults' spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle. Thus, we aimed to examine the concurrent validity of four different scoring methods for measuring adults' spellings (a dichotomous scoring method and three continuous methods) and to determine whether adults' linguistic awareness skills differentially predict spelling outcomes based on the scoring method employed. Method Sixty undergraduate college students who were determined to be average readers as measured by a word reading and contextual word reading task were administered a spelling task as well as morphological, orthographic, phonemic, and syntactic awareness tasks. Results All four scoring methods were highly correlated suggesting high concurrent validity among the measures. Two linguistic awareness skills, morphological awareness and syntactic awareness, predicted spelling performance on both the dichotomous and continuous scoring methods. Contrastively, phonemic awareness and orthographic awareness predicted spelling performance only when spelling was scored using a continuous measure error analysis. Conclusions The results of this study confirm that multiple linguistic awareness skills are important for spelling in adults who are average readers. The results also highlight the need for using continuous measures of spelling when planning intervention or instruction, particularly in the areas of orthographic and phonemic awareness.

Download Full-text

Reading Longer Words: Insights Into Multisyllabic Word Reading

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/persp2.sig1.86 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 86-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Lindsay Heggie ◽

Lesly Wade-Woolley

Keyword(s):

Systematic Approach ◽

Word Reading ◽

Explicit Instruction ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Reading Difficulties ◽

Instructional Programs ◽

Morphological Knowledge ◽

Morphological Complexity ◽

Reading Accuracy ◽

Grade 3

Students with persistent reading difficulties are often especially challenged by multisyllabic words; they tend to have neither a systematic approach for reading these words nor the confidence to persevere (Archer, Gleason, & Vachon, 2003; Carlisle & Katz, 2006; Moats, 1998). This challenge is magnified by the fact that the vast majority of English words are multisyllabic and constitute an increasingly large proportion of the words in elementary school texts beginning as early as grade 3 (Hiebert, Martin, & Menon, 2005; Kerns et al., 2016). Multisyllabic words are more difficult to read simply because they are long, posing challenges for working memory capacity. In addition, syllable boundaries, word stress, vowel pronunciation ambiguities, less predictable grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and morphological complexity all contribute to long words' difficulty. Research suggests that explicit instruction in both syllabification and morphological knowledge improve poor readers' multisyllabic word reading accuracy; several examples of instructional programs involving one or both of these elements are provided.

Download Full-text