scholarly journals Word Reading, Letter Knowledge, and Memory Skills in Danish Children (6-Year-Olds)

Author(s):  
Anne Sofie Bøgh Malling ◽  
Holger Juul ◽  
Anne Kær Gejl ◽  
Linn Damsgaard ◽  
Jacob Wienecke ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 454-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Peng ◽  
Douglas Fuchs ◽  
Lynn S. Fuchs ◽  
Eunsoo Cho ◽  
Amy M. Elleman ◽  
...  

We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a randomized control trial to explore this question: Does “response/no response” best characterize students’ reactions to a generally efficacious first-grade reading program, or is a more nuanced characterization necessary? Data were collected on 265 at-risk readers’ word reading prior to and immediately following program implementation in first grade and in spring of second grade. Pretreatment data were also obtained on domain-specific skills (letter knowledge, decoding, passage comprehension, language) and domain-general skills (working memory, non-verbal reasoning). Latent profile analysis of word reading across the three time points with controls as a local norm revealed a strongly responsive group ( n = 45) with mean word-reading z scores of 0.25, 1.64, and 1.26 at the three time points, respectively; a mildly responsive group ( n = 109), z scores = 0.30, 0.47, and 0.55; a mildly non-responsive group ( n = 90), z scores = −0.11, −0.15, and −0.55; and a strongly non-responsive group ( n = 21), z scores = −1.24, −1.26, and −1.57. The two responsive groups had stronger pretreatment letter knowledge and passage comprehension than the two non-responsive groups. The mildly non-responsive group demonstrated better pretreatment passage comprehension than the strongly non-responsive group. No domain-general skill distinguished the four groups. Findings suggest response to early reading intervention was more complicated than response/no response, and pretreatment reading comprehension was an important predictor of response even with pretreatment word reading controlled.


2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
YONAS MESFUN ASFAHA ◽  
JEANNE KURVERS ◽  
SJAAK KROON

ABSTRACTThe study investigated reading in four African languages that use either syllabic Ge'ez (Tigrinya and Tigre languages) or alphabetic Latin scripts (Kunama and Saho). A sample of 385 Grade 1 children were given letter knowledge, word reading, and spelling tasks to investigate differences at the script and language levels. Results showed that the syllable based Ge'ez script was easier to learn than the phoneme-based Latin despite the bigger number of basic units in Ge'ez. Moreover, the syllable based teaching of alphabetic Saho produced better results than alphabetic teaching of Kunama. These findings are discussed using the psycholinguistic grain size theory. The outcomes confirm the importance of the availability of phonological units in learning to read.


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Peng ◽  
Douglas Fuchs ◽  
Lynn S. Fuchs ◽  
Amy M. Elleman ◽  
Devin M. Kearns ◽  
...  

This study explored the developmental trajectories and predictors of word reading and reading comprehension among young at-risk readers. In fall of first grade, 185 students identified as at-risk for reading difficulties were assessed on measures of domain-specific skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary), domain-general skills (working memory, nonverbal reasoning, and processing speed), and word reading and reading comprehension. Word reading and reading comprehension were assessed again in spring of grades 1–4. Individual growth curve modeling showed that the children demonstrated decelerated growth on word reading and linear growth on reading comprehension, although their performance on both word reading and reading comprehension were consistently below average on national norms. After controlling for word reading and reading comprehension in first grade, letter knowledge predicted growth in word reading; vocabulary and nonverbal reasoning predicted growth in reading comprehension. That is, we found different developmental trajectories and different predictors for word reading and reading comprehension among our at-risk sample. Implications are discussed for theory and early reading instruction for at-risk children.


Author(s):  
Han Yuan ◽  
Eliane Segers ◽  
Ludo Verhoeven

AbstractThe relationships between phonological awareness, rapid naming, short term verbal memory, letter knowledge, visual skills and word reading in kindergarten, and the predictive patterns from kindergarten to first grade were examined in 41 Chinese-Dutch bilingual children living in the Netherlands in both their first language (Chinese) and second language (Dutch). In kindergarten, Chinese word reading was predicted by Chinese phonological awareness, and Dutch word reading was predicted by Dutch phonological awareness and letter knowledge. There was a robust autoregressive effect of word reading from kindergarten to first grade in both Chinese and Dutch. Follow-up mediation analyses further showed that both phonological awareness in Chinese and phonological awareness combined with letter knowledge in Dutch in kindergarten had an indirect effect on Grade 1 word reading via kindergarten word reading. Although cross-language correlation was found in word reading for bilingual children in kindergarten, Dutch word reading did not add to the prediction of Chinese word reading when Chinese precursor measures were taken into account.


2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 1532-1552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Urs Maurer ◽  
Silvia Brem ◽  
Kerstin Bucher ◽  
Daniel Brandeis

In adult readers, printed words and other letter strings activate specialized visual functions within 200 msec, as evident from neurophysiological recordings of brain activity. These fast, specialized responses to letter strings are thought to develop through plastic changes in the visual system. However, it is unknown whether this specialization emerges only with the onset of word reading, or represents a precursor of literacy. We compared 6-year-old kindergarten children who could not yet read words to adult readers. Both age groups detected immediate repetitions of visually presented words, pseudo-words, symbol strings, and pictures during event-related potential (ERP) mapping. Maps from seven corresponding ERP segments in children and adults were analyzed regarding fast (<250 msec) and slow (>300 msec) specialization for letter strings. Adults reliably differentiated words through increased fast (<150 msec) occipito-temporal N1 activity from symbols. Children showed a later, more mid-occipital N1 with marginal word-symbol differences, which were absent in those children with low letter knowledge. Children with high letter knowledge showed some fast sensitivity to letter strings, which was confined to right occipito-temporal sites, unlike the stronger adult N1 specialization. This suggests that a critical degree of early literacy induces some immature, but fast, specialization for letter strings before word reading becomes possible. Children also differentiated words from symbols in later segments through increased right occipito-temporal negativity for words. This slow specialization for letter strings was not modulated by letter knowledge and was absent in adults, possibly reflecting a visual precursor of literacy due to visual familiarity with letter strings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-616
Author(s):  
Kenn Apel ◽  
Victoria S. Henbest

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1240-1253
Author(s):  
Victoria S. Henbest ◽  
Lisa Fitton ◽  
Krystal L. Werfel ◽  
Kenn Apel

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.


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