Reading and spelling, phonological awareness, and working memory in children with severe speech impairments: A longitudinal study

This longitudinal study focused on the effects of two different principles of intervention in children at risk of developing dyslexia from 5 to 8 years old. The children were selected on the basis of a background questionnaire given to parents and preschool teachers, with cognitive and functional magnetic resonance imaging results substantiating group differences in neuropsychological processes associated with phonology, orthography, and phoneme—grapheme correspondence (i.e., alphabetic principle). The two principles of intervention were bottom-up (BU), “from sound to meaning”, and top-down (TD), “from meaning to sound.” Thus, four subgroups were established: risk/BU, risk/TD, control/BU, and control/TD. Computer-based training took place for 2 months every spring, and cognitive assessments were performed each fall of the project period. Measures of preliteracy skills for reading and spelling were phonological awareness, working memory, verbal learning, and letter knowledge. Literacy skills were assessed by word reading and spelling. At project end the control group scored significantly above age norm, whereas the risk group scored within the norm. In the at-risk group, training based on the BU principle had the strongest effects on phonological awareness and working memory scores, whereas training based on the TD principle had the strongest effects on verbal learning, letter knowledge, and literacy scores. It was concluded that appropriate, specific, data-based intervention starting in preschool can mitigate literacy impairment and that interventions should contain BU training for preliteracy skills and TD training for literacy training.

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A longitudinal study of phonological processing skills and reading in bilingual children

Applied Psycholinguistics ◽

10.1017/s0142716405050307 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 559-578 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

ADÈLE LAFRANCE ◽

ALEXANDRA GOTTARDO

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Phonological Awareness ◽

Phonological Processing ◽

Reading Ability ◽

Word Reading ◽

Naming Speed ◽

Bilingual Children ◽

Orthographic Depth ◽

French And English

French/English bilingual children (N=40) in French language schools participated in an 8-month longitudinal study of the relation between phonological processing skills and reading in French and English. Participants were administered measures of phonological awareness, working memory, naming speed, and reading in both languages. The results of the concurrent analyses show that phonological awareness skills in both French and English were uniquely predictive of reading performance in both languages after accounting for the influences of cognitive ability, reading ability, working memory, and naming speed. These findings support the hypothesis that phonological awareness is strongly related to beginning word reading skill in an alphabetic orthography. The results of the longitudinal analyses also suggest that orthographic depth influences phonological factors related to reading.

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Effects of phonological awareness training on reading achievement

Written Language & Literacy ◽

10.1075/wll.11.2.03tre ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 147-166 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Anke Treutlein ◽

Isabelle Zöller ◽

Jeanette Roos ◽

Hermann Schöler

Keyword(s):

Elementary School ◽

Longitudinal Study ◽

Phonological Awareness ◽

Matched Sample ◽

Awareness Training ◽

Reading And Writing ◽

Class Context ◽

School Training ◽

Phonological Awareness Training ◽

Reading And Spelling

Phonological awareness is usually considered to be an important prerequisite for success in literacy acquisition. Children who had phonological awareness training in preschool not only show a better performance in phonological awareness tasks at elementary school but also perform better in reading and writing than untrained children. As part of the EVES longitudinal study, reading and spelling skills of 1520 children who entered school in the fall of 2001 and 2002 were assessed throughout elementary school. The comparison of a matched sample of 107 trained with 107 untrained children shows that untrained children are outperformed by trained children in reading. The best training effects can be found with girls while boys seem to profit from the intervention only towards the end of elementary school. Training phonological awareness in preschool thus facilitates reading acquisition, even if there are other important influencing factors (e.g. class context).

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