University Students With Poor Reading Comprehension: The Hidden Cognitive Processing Deficit.

PubMed

Georgiou, George K; Das, J P

2015-01-01

The present study aimed to examine the nature of the working memory and general cognitive ability deficits experienced by university students with a specific reading comprehension deficit. A total of 32 university students with poor reading comprehension but average word-reading skills and 60 age-matched controls with no comprehension difficulties participated in the study. The participants were assessed on three verbal working memory tasks that varied in terms of their processing demands and on the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System, which was used to operationalize intelligence. The results indicated first that the differences between poor and skilled comprehenders on working memory were amplified as the processing demands of the tasks increased. In addition, although poor comprehenders as a group had average intelligence, they experienced significant difficulties in simultaneous and successive processing. Considering that working memory and general cognitive ability are highly correlated processes, these findings suggest that the observed differences between poor and skilled comprehenders are likely a result of a deficient information processing system. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Reading Ability in Ethiopian Learners of Hebrew: How Important Is Phonemic Awareness?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, Salim

2004-01-01

The study investigated reading errors made by Ethiopian learners of Hebrew (n=34). These newcomers to Israel, unlike other groups such as the Russian Jews, typically have low literacy skills in their first language (Amharic). Their ability to read Hebrew, as judged on a reading comprehension test, was still poor after living in Israel for seven…

Double Dissociations in Reading Comprehension Difficulties among Chinese-English Bilinguals and Their Association with Tone Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, William; Tong, Xiuli; Deacon, S. Hélène

2017-01-01

Poor comprehenders have reading comprehension difficulties but normal word recognition ability. Here, we report the first study, which investigated (i) the dissociation and (ii) the prevalence of L1-L2 reading comprehension difficulties, and (iii) the levels of key metalinguistic skills in poor comprehenders among Chinese-English bilingual…

An Electrophysiological Investigation of Semantic and Phonological Processing in Skilled and Less-Skilled Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landi, Nicole; Perfetti, Charles A.

2007-01-01

The most prominent theories of reading consider reading comprehension ability to be a direct consequence of lower-level reading skills. Recently however, research has shown that some children with poor comprehension ability perform normally on tests of lower-level skills (e.g., decoding). One promising line of behavioral research has found…

Brain structure correlates of component reading processes: implications for reading disability.

PubMed

Phinney, Erin; Pennington, Bruce F; Olson, Richard; Filley, Christopher M; Filipek, Pauline A

2007-08-01

Brain structures implicated in developmental dyslexia (reading disability - RD) vary greatly across structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies due to methodological differences regarding the definition of RD and the exact measurements of a specific brain structure. The current study attempts to resolve some of those methodological concerns by examining brain volume as it relates to components of proposed RD subtypes. We performed individual regression analyses on total cerebral volume, neocortical volume, subcortical volume, 9 neo-cortical structures and 2 sub-cortical structures. These analyses used three dimensions of reading, phonemic ability (PA), orthographic ability, and rapid naming (RN) ability, while accounting for total cerebral volume, age, and performance IQ (PIQ). Primary analyses included membership to a group (poor reader vs. good reader) in the analysis. The result was a significant interaction between PA and reading ability as it predicts total cerebral volume. Analyses revealed that poor readers lacked a relationship between PA and brain size, but that good readers had a significant positive relationship. This pattern of interaction was not present for the other two reading component factors. These findings bring into question the general belief that individuals with RD are at the low end of a reading ability distribution and do not have a unique disorder. Additional analyses revealed only a few significant relationships between brain size and task performance, most notably a positive correlation between orthographic ability and the angular gyrus (AG), as well as a negative correlation between RN ability and the parietal operculum (PO).

Morphosyntax in Poor Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adlof, Suzanne M.; Catts, Hugh W.

2015-01-01

Children described as "poor comprehenders" (PCs) have reading comprehension difficulties in spite of adequate word reading abilities. PCs are known to display weakness with semantics and higher-level aspects of oral language, but less is known about their grammatical skills, especially with regard to morphosyntax. The purpose of this…

Lexical Processing Skill in College-Age Resilient Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welcome, Suzanne E.; Chiarello, Christine; Halderman, Laura K.; Leonard, Christiana M.

2009-01-01

Despite an extensive literature linking individual differences in phonological processing to reading ability, some adults show normal text comprehension abilities despite poor pseudoword reading (Jackson & Doellinger (2002). "Journal of Educational Psychology," 94, 64-78). This study was undertaken to investigate differences between these…

Learning Efficiency versus Low IQ and/or Teachers' Ratings as Predictors of Reading Ability of "Mentally Defective" Children: A Longitudinal Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gupta, R. M.

1985-01-01

Low IQ should not be deemed as an index of poor learning ability. Information about middle school children's learning efficiency as measured by the Learning Efficiency Test Battery was found to be more useful for predicting reading ability than conventional types of assessment. (Author/RM)

Building BRIDGES: A Design Experiment to Improve Reading and United States History Knowledge of Poor Readers in Eighth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Rollanda E.; Beach, Kristen D.; Sanchez, Victoria M.; Bocian, Kathleen M.; Flynn, Lindsay J.

2015-01-01

We tested the effects of teaching reading skills through U.S. history content for 38 eighth-grade poor readers whose reading ability ranged from second-to fourth-grade levels. Half of the students received special education services, and half of the students were English language learners. Students were taught to decode multisyllabic words, learn…

Global Processing Speed in Children With Low Reading Ability and in Children and Adults With Typical Reading Ability: Exploratory Factor Analytic Models

PubMed Central

Peter, Beate; Matsushita, Mark; Raskind, Wendy H.

2013-01-01

Purpose To investigate processing speed as a latent dimension in children with dyslexia and children and adults with typical reading skills. Method Exploratory factor analysis (FA) was based on a sample of multigenerational families, each ascertained through a child with dyslexia. Eleven measures—6 of them timed—represented verbal and nonverbal processes, alphabet writing, and motor sequencing in the hand and oral motor system. FA was conducted in 4 cohorts (all children, a subset of children with low reading scores, a subset of children with typical reading scores, and adults with typical reading scores; total N = 829). Results Processing speed formed the first factor in all cohorts. Both measures of motor sequencing speed loaded on the speed factor with the other timed variables. Children with poor reading scores showed lower speed factor scores than did typical peers. The speed factor was negatively correlated with age in the adults. Conclusions The speed dimension was observed independently of participant cohort, gender, and reading ability. Results are consistent with a unified theory of processing speed as a quadratic function of age in typical development and with slowed processing in poor readers. PMID:21081672

Building BRIDGES: A Design Experiment to Improve Reading and United States History Knowledge of Poor Readers in 8th Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Rollanda E.; Beach, Kristen D.; Sanchez, Victoria; Bocian, Kathleen M.; Flynn, Lindsay

2015-01-01

We tested the effects of teaching reading skills through U.S. History content for 38 eighth-grade poor readers whose reading ability ranged from 2nd to 4th grade levels. Half of the students received special education services and half of the students were English Language Learners. Students were taught to decode multisyllabic words, learn…

Executive Dysfunction Among Children With Reading Comprehension Deficits

PubMed Central

Locascio, Gianna; Mahone, E. Mark; Eason, Sarah H.; Cutting, Laurie E.

2010-01-01

Emerging research supports the contribution of executive function (EF) to reading comprehension; however, a unique pattern has not been established for children who demonstrate comprehension difficulties despite average word recognition ability (specific reading comprehension deficit; S-RCD). To identify particular EF components on which children with S-RCD struggle, a range of EF skills was compared among 86 children, ages 10 to 14, grouped by word reading and comprehension abilities: 24 average readers, 44 with word recognition deficits (WRD), and 18 S-RCD. An exploratory principal components analysis of EF tests identified three latent factors, used in subsequent group comparisons: Planning/Spatial Working Memory, Verbal Working Memory, and Response Inhibition. The WRD group exhibited deficits (relative to controls) on Verbal Working Memory and Inhibition factors; S-RCD children performed more poorly than controls on the Planning factor. Further analyses suggested the WRD group’s poor performance on EF factors was a by-product of core deficits linked to WRD (after controlling for phonological processing, this group no longer showed EF deficits). In contrast, the S-RCD group’s poor performance on the planning component remained significant after controlling for phonological processing. Findings suggest reading comprehension difficulties are linked to executive dysfunction; in particular, poor strategic planning/organizing may lead to reading comprehension problems. PMID:20375294

Executive dysfunction among children with reading comprehension deficits.

PubMed

Locascio, Gianna; Mahone, E Mark; Eason, Sarah H; Cutting, Laurie E

2010-01-01

Emerging research supports the contribution of executive function (EF) to reading comprehension; however, a unique pattern has not been established for children who demonstrate comprehension difficulties despite average word recognition ability (specific reading comprehension deficit; S-RCD). To identify particular EF components on which children with S-RCD struggle, a range of EF skills was compared among 86 children, ages 10 to 14, grouped by word reading and comprehension abilities: 24 average readers, 44 with word recognition deficits (WRD), and 18 S-RCD. An exploratory principal components analysis of EF tests identified three latent factors, used in subsequent group comparisons: Planning/ Spatial Working Memory, Verbal Working Memory, and Response Inhibition. The WRD group exhibited deficits (relative to controls) on Verbal Working Memory and Inhibition factors; S-RCD children performed more poorly than controls on the Planning factor. Further analyses suggested the WRD group's poor performance on EF factors was a by-product of core deficits linked to WRD (after controlling for phonological processing, this group no longer showed EF deficits). In contrast, the S-RCD group's poor performance on the planning component remained significant after controlling for phonological processing. Findings suggest reading comprehension difficulties are linked to executive dysfunction; in particular, poor strategic planning/organizing may lead to reading comprehension problems.

Exploring Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation among Very Good and Very Poor Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGeown, Sarah P.; Norgate, Roger; Warhurst, Amy

2012-01-01

Background: Research examining the relationship between reading skill and reading motivation has typically been carried out among children with a wide range of reading abilities. There is less research focusing on children who excel in reading or who are attaining very low reading scores. Purpose: To examine whether there were differences between…

Graphic Novel Comprehension among Learners with Differential Cognitive Styles and Reading Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Simpson W. L.; Miao, Hoyee; Cheng, Rebecca Wing-yi; Yip, Michael Chi Wing

2017-01-01

Learners with poor reading skills are less able to acquire knowledge through text. Graphic novels may enhance reading comprehension skills owing to fewer words, more pictures, and an engaging storyline. This study considered the reading skills of 188 Chinese-English bilingual undergraduates, comparing their reading comprehension performance after…

Reading Ability Is Negatively Related to Stroop Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Protopapas, Athanassios; Archonti, Anastasia; Skaloumbakas, Christos

2007-01-01

Stroop interference is often taken as evidence for reading automaticity even though young and poor readers, who presumably lack reading automaticity, present strong interference. Here the relationship between reading skills and Stroop interference was studied in a 7th-grade sample. Greater interference was observed in children diagnosed with…

"Txtn Is Ez F U No H2 Rd": The Relation between Reading Ability and Text-Messaging Behaviour

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coe, J. E. L.; Oakhill, J. V.

2011-01-01

A study was carried out to explore whether or not there is a relationship between children's reading ability and text-messaging behaviour. The aims of this study were to compare good and poor readers on their amount of usage of mobile phones, the frequency and type of text devices they used, and the speed at which they could read messages in…

Relationship between Reading/Writing Skills and Cognitive Abilities among Japanese Primary-School Children: Normal Readers versus Poor Readers (Dyslexics)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uno, Akira; Wydell, Taeko N.; Haruhara, Noriko; Kaneko, Masato; Shinya, Naoko

2009-01-01

Four hundred and ninety-five Japanese primary-school children aged from 8 (Grade-2) to 12 (Grade-6) were tested for their abilities to read/write in Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, for their size of vocabulary and for other cognitive abilities including arithmetic, visuo-spatial and phonological processing. Percentages of the children whose…

Follow-up study on reading comprehension in Down's syndrome: the role of reading skills and listening comprehension.

PubMed

Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena; Levorato, Chiara

2011-01-01

According to the 'Simple View of Reading', reading comprehension requires some abilities such as reading skill and listening comprehension. Individuals with Down's syndrome show relative strengths in reading skills, mainly in word recognition, where they attain a reading age of about 7-8 years. Compared with word recognition, their reading comprehension is usually delayed by at least 6 months. Poor reading comprehension is paralleled by weak listening comprehension. It is claimed that poor listening comprehension might constrain the development of reading comprehension and, therefore, be a cause for the asynchrony between reading skills and reading comprehension. A follow-up study was carried out in order to analyse the improvements in reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension, and to support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between listening and reading comprehension. Ten children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, aged between 11 years 3 months and 19 years 10 months, were assessed twice over a one-year period as to their reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (1) reading skills, on the one hand, and comprehension (both listening and reading), on the other hand, are independent; (2) reading comprehension development is determined mainly by listening comprehension, which in the present study proved to be very poor; and (3) an improvement after a one-year period, even though limited, occurred for all examined abilities except for listening comprehension. The results are discussed in the light of the theoretical framework of the 'Simple View of Reading' and of their relevance for practical and educational issues. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

Comprehending Text versus Reading Words in Young Readers with Varying Reading Ability: Distinct Patterns of Functional Connectivity from Common Processing Hubs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aboud, Katherine S.; Bailey, Stephen K.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Cutting, Laurie E.

2016-01-01

Skilled reading depends on recognizing words efficiently in isolation ("word-level processing"; "WL") and extracting meaning from text ("discourse-level processing"; "DL"); deficiencies in either result in poor reading. FMRI has revealed consistent overlapping networks in word and passage reading, as well as…

Anxiety and Academic Reading Performance among Malay ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohd. Zin, Zuhana; Rafik-Galea, Shameem

2010-01-01

Research into the factors that contribute to reading performance decrement in L2 reading among ESL university students is still being extensively researched in the context of ELT. This is because successful academic performance is highly dependent on good reading ability. While it is widely accepted that poor reading performance is due to lack of…

Phonological Working Memory in German Children with Poor Reading and Spelling Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steinbrink, Claudia; Klatte, Maria

2008-01-01

Deficits in verbal short-term memory have been identified as one factor underlying reading and spelling disorders. However, the nature of this deficit is still unclear. It has been proposed that poor readers make less use of phonological coding, especially if the task can be solved through visual strategies. In the framework of Baddeley's…

Surface developmental dyslexia is as prevalent as phonological dyslexia when appropriate control groups are employed.

PubMed

Wybrow, Dean P; Hanley, J Richard

2015-01-01

Previous investigations of the incidence of developmental surface and phonological dyslexia using reading-age-matched control groups have identified many more phonological dyslexics (poor nonword reading relative to irregular-word reading) than surface dyslexics (poor irregular-word reading relative to nonword reading). However, because the measures that have been used to estimate reading age include irregular-word reading ability, they appear inappropriate for assessing the incidence of surface dyslexia. The current study used a novel method for generating control groups whose reading ability was matched to that of the dyslexic sample. The incidence of surface dyslexia was assessed by comparing dyslexic performance with that of a control group who were matched with the dyslexics on a test of nonword reading. The incidence of phonological dyslexia was assessed with reference to a control group who were matched with the dyslexics at irregular-word reading. These control groups led to the identification of an approximately equal number of children with surface and phonological dyslexia. It appeared that selecting control participants who were matched with dyslexics for reading age led to the recruitment of individuals with relatively high nonword reading scores relative to their irregular-word reading scores compared with other types of control group. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Reading Ability and Memory Span: Long-Term Memory Contributions to Span for Good and Poor Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Sine J. P.; Donohoe, Rachael

2002-01-01

Investigates the extent to which differences in memory span for good and poor readers can be explained by differences in a long-term memory component to span as well as by differences in short-term memory processes. Discusses the nature of the interrelationships between memory span, reading and measures of phonological awareness. (SG)

Does early reading failure decrease children's reading motivation?

PubMed

Morgan, Paul L; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L; Cordray, David S; Fuchs, Lynn S

2008-01-01

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.

Speech reading and learning to read: a comparison of 8-year-old profoundly deaf children with good and poor reading ability.

PubMed

Harris, Margaret; Moreno, Constanza

2006-01-01

Nine children with severe-profound prelingual hearing loss and single-word reading scores not more than 10 months behind chronological age (Good Readers) were matched with 9 children whose reading lag was at least 15 months (Poor Readers). Good Readers had significantly higher spelling and reading comprehension scores. They produced significantly more phonetic errors (indicating the use of phonological coding) and more often correctly represented the number of syllables in spelling than Poor Readers. They also scored more highly on orthographic awareness and were better at speech reading. Speech intelligibility was the same in the two groups. Cluster analysis revealed that only three Good Readers showed strong evidence of phonetic coding in spelling although seven had good representation of syllables; only four had high orthographic awareness scores. However, all 9 children were good speech readers, suggesting that a phonological code derived through speech reading may underpin reading success for deaf children.

Multisyllabic Word Reading as a Moderator of Morphological Awareness and Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Goodwin, Amanda P.; Compton, Donald L.; Kearns, Devin M.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relation between morphological awareness on reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability in fifth grade students (N = 169, 53.7% female, 65.2% minority status, 69.2% free/reduced lunch status), oversampled for poor reading skill, when controlling for general knowledge and vocabulary. Based on the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007), it was expected that morphological awareness would have a stronger effect on comprehension for children with poor word reading skills, suggesting possible use of morphological awareness for word identification support. Results indicated that neither morphological awareness nor word reading was uniquely associated with reading comprehension when both were included in the model along with vocabulary and general knowledge. Instead, the interaction between word reading and morphological awareness explained significant additional variance in reading comprehension. By probing this interaction, it was determined that the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension was significant for the 39% of the sample that had more difficulty reading multisyllabic words), but not for students at the higher end of the multisyllabic word reading continuum. We conclude from these results that the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability, providing support for the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007). Although we have only correlational data, we suggest tentative instructional practices for improving the reading skill of upper elementary struggling readers. PMID:24219914

Introduction to the Clinical Forum: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability.

PubMed

Gray, Shelley

2017-04-20

In this introduction to the clinical forum on reading comprehension, the Editor-in-Chief of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools provides data on our national reading comprehension problem, resources for increasing our understanding of reading comprehension, and a call to action for speech-language pathologists to work with educational teams to address poor reading comprehension in school-age children.

The specific role of inhibition in reading comprehension in good and poor comprehenders.

PubMed

Borella, Erika; Carretti, Barbara; Pelegrina, Santiago

2010-01-01

Difficulties in inhibitory processes have been shown to characterize the performance of poor comprehenders. However, the inhibitory inefficiency of poor comprehenders is most often assessed by their resistance to proactive interference, that is, the ability to suppress off-goal task information from working memory (WM). In two studies tasks assessing resistance to proactive interference (intrusion errors), response to distracters (Text With Distracters task) and prepotent response inhibition (Stroop and Hayling tests), along with WM measures, were administered to children aged 10 to 11, both good and poor comprehenders. The aim of the study was to specifically determine whether general or specific inhibitory factors affect poor comprehenders' reading difficulties. Results showed that poor comprehenders, compared to good ones, are impaired in WM tasks and in inhibitory tasks that assess resistance to proactive interference. This suggests that reading comprehension difficulties of poor comprehenders are related to specific inhibitory problems.

Improving Reading Skills in ESL Students through an Intensive Vocabulary Building Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaudio, Vince

This report describes a program for improving the reading skills of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. The targeted population consists of 19 ESL students, ranging in age from 7-10 years, in a western suburb of a large metropolitan city in Illinois. The problem of poor reading ability was documented through low reading scores on the STAR…

The Role of Environment in the Development of Reading Skills: A Longitudinal Study of Preschool and School-Age Measures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Molfese, Victoria J.; Modglin, Arlene; Molfese, Dennis L.

2003-01-01

A longitudinal study of 113 children (ages 3-10), including 35 with poor reading skills, found both socioeconomic status, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores, and reading achievement scores were related to reading abilities, but preschool environment measures were more strongly and consistently related to and predictive of…

Learning disabled and average readers' working memory and comprehension: does metacognition play a role?

PubMed

Swanson, H L; Trahan, M

1996-09-01

The present study investigates (a) whether learning disabled readers' working memory deficits that underlie poor reading comprehension are related to a general system, and (b) whether metacognition contributes to comprehension beyond what is predicted by working memory and word knowledge. To this end, performance between learning and disabled (N = 60) and average readers (N = 60) was compared on the reading comprehension, reading rate, and vocabulary subtests of the Nelson Skills Reading Test, Sentence Span test composed of high and low imagery words, and a Metacognitive Questionnaire. As expected, differences between groups in working memory, vocabulary, and reading measures emerged, whereas ability groups were statistically comparable on the Metacognitive Questionnaire. A within-group analysis indicated that the correlation patterns between working memory, vocabulary, metacognition, and reading comprehension were not the same between ability groups. For predicting reading comprehension, the metacognitive questionnaire best predicted learning disabled readers' performance, whereas the working memory span measure that included low-imagery words best predicted average achieving readers' comprehension. Overall, the results suggest that the relationship between learning disabled readers' generalised working memory deficits and poor reading comprehension may be mediated by metacognition.

Delivering phonological and phonics training within whole-class teaching.

PubMed

Shapiro, Laura R; Solity, Jonathan

2008-12-01

Early, intensive phonological awareness and phonics training is widely held to be beneficial for children with poor phonological awareness. However, most studies have delivered this training separately from children's normal whole-class reading lessons. We examined whether integrating this training into whole class, mixed-ability reading lessons could impact on children with poor phonological awareness, whilst also benefiting normally developing readers. Teachers delivered the training within a broad reading programme to whole classes of children from Reception to the end of Year 1 (N=251). A comparison group of children received standard teaching methods (N=213). Children's literacy was assessed at the beginning of Reception, and then at the end of each year until 1 year post-intervention. The strategy significantly impacted on reading performance for normally developing readers and those with poor phonological awareness, vastly reducing the incidence of reading difficulties from 20% in comparison schools to 5% in intervention schools. Phonological and phonics training is highly effective for children with poor phonological awareness, even when incorporated into whole-class teaching.

Online and offline inferential and textual processing of poor comprehenders: Evidence from a probing method.

PubMed

Yeari, Menahem; Elentok, Shiri; Schiff, Rachel

2017-03-01

Numerous studies have demonstrated that poor inferential processing underlies the specific deficit of poor comprehenders. However, it is still not clear why poor comprehenders have difficulties in generating inferences while reading and whether this impairment is general or specific to one or more types of inferences. The current study employed an online probing method to examine the spontaneous immediate activation of two inference types-forward-predictive inferences and backward-explanatory inferences-during reading. In addition, we examined the ability of poor comprehenders to retain, suppress, and reactivate text information (relevant for inferencing) in working memory. The participants, 10- to 12-year-old good and poor comprehenders, read short narratives and name inference or text word probes following a predictive, intervening, or bridging sentence. Comparing the size of probe-naming facilitations revealed that poor comprehenders generate predictive inferences, albeit more slowly than good comprehenders, and generate explanatory inferences to a lesser extent than good comprehenders. Moreover, we found that this inferior inferential processing is presumably a result of poor retention and reactivation of inference-evoking text information during reading. Finally, poorer reading comprehension was associated with higher activation of information when it was less relevant following the intervening sentences. Taken together, the current findings demonstrate the manner in which poor regulation of relevant and less relevant information during reading underlies the specific comprehension difficulties experienced by poor comprehenders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lexical quality and eye movements: individual differences in the perceptual span of skilled adult readers.

PubMed

Veldre, Aaron; Andrews, Sally

2014-01-01

Two experiments used the gaze-contingent moving-window paradigm to investigate whether reading comprehension and spelling ability modulate the perceptual span of skilled adult readers during sentence reading. Highly proficient reading and spelling were both associated with increased use information to the right of fixation, but did not systematically modulate the extraction of information to the left of fixation. Individuals who were high in both reading and spelling ability showed the greatest benefit from window sizes larger than 11 characters, primarily because of increases in forward saccade length. They were also significantly more disrupted by being denied close parafoveal information than those poor in reading and/or spelling. These results suggest that, in addition to supporting rapid lexical retrieval of fixated words, the high quality lexical representations indexed by the combination of high reading and spelling ability support efficient processing of parafoveal information and effective saccadic targeting.

Phonological working memory in German children with poor reading and spelling abilities.

PubMed

Steinbrink, Claudia; Klatte, Maria

2008-11-01

Deficits in verbal short-term memory have been identified as one factor underlying reading and spelling disorders. However, the nature of this deficit is still unclear. It has been proposed that poor readers make less use of phonological coding, especially if the task can be solved through visual strategies. In the framework of Baddeley's phonological loop model, this study examined serial recall performance in German second-grade children with poor vs good reading and spelling abilities. Children were presented with four-item lists of common nouns for immediate serial recall. Word length and phonological similarity as well as presentation modality (visual vs auditory) and type of recall (visual vs verbal) were varied as within-subject factors in a mixed design. Word length and phonological similarity effects did not differ between groups, thus indicating equal use of phonological coding and rehearsal in poor and good readers. However, in all conditions, except the one that combined visual presentation and visual recall, overall performance was significantly lower in poor readers. The results suggest that the poor readers' difficulties do not arise from an avoidance of the phonological loop, but from its inefficient use. An alternative account referring to unstable phonological representations in long-term memory is discussed. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Morphological and syntactic awareness in poor comprehenders: another piece of the puzzle.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; Deacon, S Hélène; Cain, Kate

2014-01-01

Poor comprehenders have intact word-reading skills but struggle specifically with understanding what they read. We investigated whether two metalinguistic skills, morphological and syntactic awareness, are specifically related to poor reading comprehension by including separate and combined measures of each. We identified poor comprehenders (n = 15) and average comprehenders (n = 15) in Grade 4 who were matched on word-reading accuracy and speed, vocabulary, nonverbal cognitive ability, and age. The two groups performed comparably on a morphological awareness task that involved both morphological and syntactic cues. However, poor comprehenders performed less well than average comprehenders on a derivational word analogy task in which there was no additional syntactic information, thus tapping only morphological awareness, and also less well on a syntactic awareness task, in which there were no morphological manipulations. Our task and participant-selection process ruled out key nonmetalinguistic sources of influence on these tasks. These findings suggest that the relationships among reading comprehension, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness depend on the tasks used to measure the latter two. Future research needs to identify precisely in which ways these metalinguistic difficulties connect to challenges with reading comprehension.

Reading Teachers' Beliefs and Utilization of Computer and Technology: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Remetio, Jessica Espinas

2014-01-01

Many researchers believe that computers have the ability to help improve the reading skills of students. In an effort to improve the poor reading scores of students on state tests, as well as improve students' overall academic performance, computers and other technologies have been installed in Frozen Bay School classrooms. As the success of these…

Phonological Coding in Good and Poor Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Briggs, Pamela; Underwood, Geoffrey

1982-01-01

A set of four experiments investigates the relationship between phonological coding and reading ability, using a picture-word interference task and a decoding task. Results with regard to both adults and children suggest that while poor readers possess weak decoding skills, good and poor readers show equivalent evidence of direct semantic and…

Relationship of Auditory and Visual Skills to Reading Retardation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richardson, Ellis; And Others

1980-01-01

The relationship between subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration to a comprehensive battery of reading measures was investigated in a sample of 77 poor readers in grades 2 through 6. (Author/PHR)

A comparison of the language skills of ELLs and monolinguals who are poor decoders, poor comprehenders, or normal readers.

PubMed

Geva, Esther; Massey-Garrison, Angela

2013-01-01

The overall objective of this article is to examine how oral language abilities relate to reading profiles in English language learners (ELLs) and English as a first language (EL1) learners, and the extent of similarities and differences between ELLs and EL1s in three reading subgroups: normal readers, poor decoders, and poor comprehenders. The study included 100 ELLs and 50 EL1s in Grade 5. The effect of language group (ELL/EL1) and reading group on cognitive and linguistic skills was examined. Except for vocabulary, there was no language group effect on any measure. However, within ELL and EL1 alike, significant differences were found between reading groups: Normal readers outperformed the two other groups on all the oral language measures. Distinct cognitive and linguistic profiles were associated with poor decoders and poor comprehenders, regardless of language group. The ELL and EL1 poor decoders outperformed the poor comprehenders on listening comprehension and inferencing. The poor decoders displayed phonological-based weaknesses, whereas the poor comprehenders displayed a more generalized language processing weakness that is nonphonological in nature. Regardless of language status, students with poor decoding or comprehension problems display difficulties with various aspects of language.

Individual Differences in Adult Reading Are Associated with Left Temporo-parietal to Dorsal Striatal Functional Connectivity

PubMed Central

Achal, Sanjay; Hoeft, Fumiko; Bray, Signe

2016-01-01

Reading skills vary widely in both children and adults, with a number of factors contributing to this variability. The most prominent factor may be related to efficiency of storage, representation, or retrieval of speech sounds. This phonological hypothesis is supported by findings of reduced activation in poor readers in left hemisphere ventro-lateral prefrontal and temporo-parietal phonological processing regions. Less well explained by phonological theories are reported hyperactivation in prefrontal, striatal, and insular regions. This study investigated functional connectivity of a core phonological processing region, the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), in relation to reading skill in an adult community sample. We hypothesized that connectivity between TPJ and regions implicated in meta-analyses of reading disorder would correlate with individual differences in reading. Forty-four adults aged 30–54, ranging in reading ability, underwent resting fMRI scans. Data-driven connectivity clustering was used to identify TPJ subregions for seed-based connectivity analyses. Correlations were assessed between TPJ connectivity and timed-pseudoword reading (decoding) ability. We found a significant correlation wherein greater left supramarginal gyrus to anterior caudate connectivity was associated with weaker decoding. This suggests that hyperactivation of the dorsal striatum, reported in poor readers during reading tasks, may reflect compensatory or inefficient overintegration into attention networks. PMID:26400921

Is a "Phoenician" reading style superior to a "Chinese" reading style? Evidence from fourth graders.

PubMed

Bowey, Judith A

2008-07-01

This study compared normally achieving fourth-grade "Phoenician" readers, who identify nonwords significantly more accurately than they do exception words, with "Chinese" readers, who show the reverse pattern. Phoenician readers scored lower than Chinese readers on word identification, exception word reading, orthographic choice, spelling, reading comprehension, and verbal ability. When compared with normally achieving children who read nonwords and exception words equally well, Chinese readers scored as well as these children on word identification, regular word reading, orthographic choice, spelling, reading comprehension, phonological sensitivity, and verbal ability and scored better on exception word reading. Chinese readers also used rhyme-based analogies to read nonwords derived from high-frequency exception words just as often as did these children. As predicted, Phoenician and Chinese readers adopted somewhat different strategies in reading ambiguous nonwords constructed by analogy to high-frequency exception words. Phoenician readers were more likely than Chinese readers to read ambiguous monosyllabic nonwords via context-free grapheme-phoneme correspondences and were less likely to read disyllabic nonwords by analogy to high-frequency analogues. Although the Chinese reading style was more common than the Phoenician style in normally achieving fourth graders, there were similar numbers of poor readers with phonological dyslexia (identifying nonwords significantly more accurately than exception words) and surface dyslexia (showing the reverse pattern), although surface dyslexia was more common in the severely disabled readers. However, few of the poor readers showed pure patterns of phonological or surface dyslexia.

Why Do Preschool Language Abilities Correlate with Later Reading? A Twin Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlaar, Nicole; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Dale, Philip S.; Plomin, Robert

2008-01-01

Purpose: Language acquisition is predictive of successful reading development, but the nature of this link is poorly understood. Method: A sample of 7,179 twin pairs was assessed on parent-report measures of syntax and vocabulary at ages 2, 3, and 4 years and on teacher assessments of reading achievement (RA) at ages 7, 9, and 10 years. These…

Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura, 2002 (Reading and Life: Latin American Reading Magazine, 2002).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lectura y Vida: Revista Latinoamericana de Lectura, 2002

2002-01-01

Articles in this volume include the following titles (translated from the Spanish): "Who Is in Charge of Teaching Reading and Writing at the University? Tutorials, Exam Preparation, and Class Synthesis in the Humanities" (Paula Carlino); "False Conceptions of the Linguistic Abilities, Values, and the Culture of Girls and Boys from Poor Families"…

Relationship between Students' Reading Ability and Their Success in Medical Terminology at a Two-Year College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryan, Mary Gene

2011-01-01

Health sciences faculty members at a two-year college were concerned about the poor pass rates in medical terminology, a gateway course for all students planning to major in health-related fields. Faculty suspected that students coming out of developmental reading might not have adequate reading skills to do well in medical terminology.…

Early Language and Reading Development of Bilingual Preschoolers From Low-Income Families.

PubMed

Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Miccio, Adele W

2006-01-01

Learning to read is a complex process and a number of factors affect a child's success in beginning reading. This complexity increases when a child's home language differs from that of the school and when the child comes from a home with limited economic resources. This article discusses factors that have been shown to contribute to children's success in early reading, namely-phonological awareness, letter-word identification, oral language, and the home literacy environment. Preliminary evidence suggests that bilingual children from low-income backgrounds initially perform poorly on phonological awareness and letter identification tasks, but appear to acquire these abilities quickly in kindergarten once these abilities are emphasized in early reading instruction. In addition, the findings show that bilingual preschoolers' receptive language abilities in English and Spanish positively impact their early letter-word identification abilities at the end of kindergarten. A positive relationship between bilingual preschoolers' home literacy environment and early reading outcomes has not been found to date. Educational implications for serving young, bilingual children from programs such as Head Start are discussed.

The Specific Role of Inhibition in Reading Comprehension in Good and Poor Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borella, Erika; Carretti, Barbara; Pelegrina, Santiago

2010-01-01

Difficulties in inhibitory processes have been shown to characterize the performance of poor comprehenders. However, the inhibitory inefficiency of poor comprehenders is most often assessed by their resistance to proactive interference, that is, the ability to suppress off-goal task information from working memory (WM). In two studies tasks…

Reading comprehension in adolescents with ADHD: exploring the poor comprehender profile and individual differences in vocabulary and executive functions.

PubMed

Martinussen, Rhonda; Mackenzie, Genevieve

2015-03-01

The overall objective of this study was to investigate reading comprehension in youth with and without a prior diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The first goal was to determine whether youth with and without ADHD matched in word reading ability exhibited differences in reading comprehension proficiency. The next goal was to determine whether good and poor comprehenders within the ADHD subgroup differed from each other on language and academic achievement measures. The third objective was to examine whether word recognition or oral vocabulary knowledge mediated the effect of ADHD symptoms on reading comprehension performance. Youth with ADHD scored significantly lower than the comparison youth on a standardized measure of reading comprehension. Relative to good comprehenders with ADHD, poor comprehenders with ADHD exhibited weaknesses in expressive vocabulary, mathematical reasoning, written expression, and exhibited more executive function (EF) difficulties as reported by the teacher. Expressive vocabulary and word reading, but not teacher EF ratings, accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension performance and mediated the relationship between ADHD symptoms and reading comprehension. Implications for further research and educational practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The association between reading abilities and visual-spatial attention in Hong Kong Chinese children.

PubMed

Liu, Sisi; Liu, Duo; Pan, Zhihui; Xu, Zhengye

2018-03-25

A growing body of research suggests that visual-spatial attention is important for reading achievement. However, few studies have been conducted in non-alphabetic orthographies. This study extended the current research to reading development in Chinese, a logographic writing system known for its visual complexity. Eighty Hong Kong Chinese children were selected and divided into poor reader and typical reader groups, based on their performance on the measures of reading fluency, Chinese character reading, and reading comprehension. The poor and typical readers were matched on age and nonverbal intelligence. A Posner's spatial cueing task was adopted to measure the exogenous and endogenous orienting of visual-spatial attention. Although the typical readers showed the cueing effect in the central cue condition (i.e., responses to targets following valid cues were faster than those to targets following invalid cues), the poor readers did not respond differently in valid and invalid conditions, suggesting an impairment of the endogenous orienting of attention. The two groups, however, showed a similar cueing effect in the peripheral cue condition, indicating intact exogenous orienting in the poor readers. These findings generally supported a link between the orienting of covert attention and Chinese reading, providing evidence for the attentional-deficit theory of dyslexia. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Comparing the spelling and reading abilities of students with cochlear implants and students with typical hearing.

PubMed

Apel, Kenn; Masterson, Julie J

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with and without hearing loss (HL) differed in their spelling abilities and, specifically, in the underlying linguistic awareness skills that support spelling ability. Furthermore, we examined whether there were differences between the two groups in the relationship between reading and spelling. We assessed the spelling, word-level reading, and reading comprehension skills of nine students with cochlear implants and nine students with typical hearing who were matched for reading age. The students' spellings were analyzed to determine whether the misspellings were due to errors with phonemic awareness, orthographic pattern or morphological awareness, or poor mental graphemic representations. The students with HL demonstrated markedly less advanced spelling abilities than the students with typical hearing. For the students with HL, the misspellings were primarily due to deficiencies in orthographic pattern and morphological awareness. Correlations between measures of spelling and both real word reading and reading comprehension were lower for the students with HL. With additional investigations using a similar approach to spelling analysis that captures the underlying causes for spelling errors, researchers will better understand the linguistic awareness abilities that students with HL bring to the task of reading and spelling. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

An Investigation of Two Instructional Settings in the Use of Semantic Mapping with Poor Readers. Program Report 85-4.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pittelman, Susan D.; And Others

A study investigated whether semantic mapping is more effective for poor readers instructed in a small group of poor readers or in a class of students with mixed reading abilities. Students in five fourth-grade classes served as the control, receiving no semantic mapping instruction. Subjects, 39 fourth-grade poor readers, were presented semantic…

Applied kinesiology methods for a 10-year-old child with headaches, neck pain, asthma, and reading disabilities

PubMed Central

Cuthbert, Scott; Rosner, Anthony

2010-01-01

Objective The purpose of this case report is to describe the chiropractic care of a 10-year-old boy who presented with developmental delay syndromes, asthma, and chronic neck and head pain and to present an overview of his muscular imbalances during manual muscle testing evaluation that guided the interventions offered to this child. Clinical Features The child was a poor reader, suffered eye strain while reading, had poor memory for classroom material, and was unable to move easily from one line of text to another during reading. He was using 4 medications for the asthma but was still symptomatic during exercise. Intervention and Outcome Chiropractic care, using applied kinesiology, guided evaluation, and treatment. Following spinal and cranial treatment, the patient showed improvement in his reading ability, head and neck pain, and respiratory distress. His ability to read improved (in 3 weeks, after 5 treatments), performing at his own grade level. He has remained symptom free for 2 years. Conclusion The care provided to this patient seemed to help resolve his chronic musculoskeletal dysfunction and pain and improve his academic performance. PMID:22027037

Music Training Increases Phonological Awareness and Reading Skills in Developmental Dyslexia: A Randomized Control Trial

PubMed Central

Flaugnacco, Elena; Lopez, Luisa; Terribili, Chiara; Montico, Marcella; Zoia, Stefania; Schön, Daniele

2015-01-01

There is some evidence for a role of music training in boosting phonological awareness, word segmentation, working memory, as well as reading abilities in children with typical development. Poor performance in tasks requiring temporal processing, rhythm perception and sensorimotor synchronization seems to be a crucial factor underlying dyslexia in children. Interestingly, children with dyslexia show deficits in temporal processing, both in language and in music. Within this framework, we test the hypothesis that music training, by improving temporal processing and rhythm abilities, improves phonological awareness and reading skills in children with dyslexia. The study is a prospective, multicenter, open randomized controlled trial, consisting of test, rehabilitation and re-test (ID NCT02316873). After rehabilitation, the music group (N = 24) performed better than the control group (N = 22) in tasks assessing rhythmic abilities, phonological awareness and reading skills. This is the first randomized control trial testing the effect of music training in enhancing phonological and reading abilities in children with dyslexia. The findings show that music training can modify reading and phonological abilities even when these skills are severely impaired. Through the enhancement of temporal processing and rhythmic skills, music might become an important tool in both remediation and early intervention programs. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02316873 PMID:26407242

Music Training Increases Phonological Awareness and Reading Skills in Developmental Dyslexia: A Randomized Control Trial.

PubMed

Flaugnacco, Elena; Lopez, Luisa; Terribili, Chiara; Montico, Marcella; Zoia, Stefania; Schön, Daniele

2015-01-01

There is some evidence for a role of music training in boosting phonological awareness, word segmentation, working memory, as well as reading abilities in children with typical development. Poor performance in tasks requiring temporal processing, rhythm perception and sensorimotor synchronization seems to be a crucial factor underlying dyslexia in children. Interestingly, children with dyslexia show deficits in temporal processing, both in language and in music. Within this framework, we test the hypothesis that music training, by improving temporal processing and rhythm abilities, improves phonological awareness and reading skills in children with dyslexia. The study is a prospective, multicenter, open randomized controlled trial, consisting of test, rehabilitation and re-test (ID NCT02316873). After rehabilitation, the music group (N = 24) performed better than the control group (N = 22) in tasks assessing rhythmic abilities, phonological awareness and reading skills. This is the first randomized control trial testing the effect of music training in enhancing phonological and reading abilities in children with dyslexia. The findings show that music training can modify reading and phonological abilities even when these skills are severely impaired. Through the enhancement of temporal processing and rhythmic skills, music might become an important tool in both remediation and early intervention programs.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02316873

The Differential Effects of Labelling: How Do "Dyslexia" and "Reading Difficulties" Affect Teachers' Beliefs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibbs, Simon; Elliott, Julian

2015-01-01

This paper reports a survey of primary school teachers' beliefs about working with poor readers. The primary research question was "does the way difficulties with reading are labelled affect the teachers' beliefs about their ability to intervene effectively?" An opportunity sample of teachers was surveyed using 2 questionnaires. One…

Comprehending text versus reading words in young readers with varying reading ability: Distinct patterns of functional connectivity from common processing hubs

PubMed Central

Aboud, Katherine S.; Bailey, Stephen K.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Cutting, Laurie E.

2016-01-01

Skilled reading depends on recognizing words efficiently in isolation (word-level processing; WL) and extracting meaning from text (discourse-level processing; DL); deficiencies in either result in poor reading. FMRI has revealed consistent overlapping networks in word and passage reading, as well as unique regions for DL processing, however less is known about how WL and DL processes interact. Here we examined functional connectivity from seed regions derived from where BOLD signal overlapped during word and passage reading in 38 adolescents ranging in reading ability, hypothesizing that even though certain regions support word- and higher-level language, connectivity patterns from overlapping regions would be task modulated. Results indeed revealed that the left-lateralized semantic and working memory (WM) seed regions showed task-dependent functional connectivity patterns: during DL processes, semantic and WM nodes all correlated with the left angular gyrus, a region implicated in semantic memory/coherence building. In contrast, during WL, these nodes coordinated with a traditional WL area (left occipitotemporal region). Additionally, these WL and DL findings were modulated by decoding and comprehension abilities, respectively, with poorer abilities correlating with decreased connectivity. Findings indicate that key regions may uniquely contribute to multiple levels of reading; we speculate that these connectivity patterns may be especially salient for reading outcomes and intervention response. PMID:27147257

A Comparison of Updating Processes in Children Good or Poor in Arithmetic Word Problem-Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Passolunghi, Maria Chiara; Pazzaglia, Francesca

2005-01-01

This study examines the updating ability of poor or good problem solvers. Seventy-eight fourth-graders, 43 good and 35 poor arithmetic word problem-solvers, performed the Updating Test used in Palladino et al. [Palladino, P., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., and Pazzaglia F. (2002). Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension. Memory…

Development of Morphological Awareness in Young Chinese Readers: Comparing Poor Comprehenders and Good Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Haomin

2017-01-01

The present study explored the relationship between reading comprehension skill and morphological awareness among young Chinese readers. The objectives were to investigate whether morphological awareness is a critical cognitive and linguistic ability to differentiate poor comprehenders and good comprehenders and to further scrutinize the…

Teacher Knowledge of Basic Language Concepts and Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washburn, Erin K.; Joshi, R. Malatesha; Binks-Cantrell, Emily S.

2011-01-01

Roughly one-fifth of the US population displays one or more symptoms of dyslexia: a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language. Consequently, elementary school teachers are teaching students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing…

Color and luminance increment thresholds in poor readers.

PubMed

Dain, Stephen J; Floyd, Richard A; Elliot, Robert T

2008-01-01

The hypotheses of a visual basis to reading disabilities in some children have centered around deficits in the visual processes displaying more transient responses to stimuli although hyperactivity in the visual processes displaying sustained responses to stimuli has also been proposed as a mechanism. In addition, there is clear evidence that colored lenses and/or colored overlays and/or colored backgrounds can influence performance in reading and/or may assist in providing comfortable vision for reading and, as a consequence, the ability to maintain reading for longer. As a consequence, it is surprising that the color vision of poor readers is relatively little studied. We assessed luminance increment thresholds and equi-luminous red-green and blue-yellow increment thresholds using a computer based test in central vision and at 10 degrees nasally employing the paradigm pioneered by King-Smith. We examined 35 poor readers (based on the Neale Analysis of Reading) and compared their performance with 35 normal readers matched for age and IQ. Poor readers produced similar luminance contrast thresholds for both foveal and peripheral presentation compared with normals. Similarly, chromatic contrast discrimination for the red/green stimuli was the same in normal and poor readers. However, poor readers had significantly lower thresholds/higher sensitivity for the blue/yellow stimuli, for both foveal and peripheral presentation, compared with normal readers. This hypersensitivity in blue-yellow discrimination may point to why colored lenses and overlays are often found to be effective in assisting many poor readers.

Disabled readers: their intellectual and perceptual capacities at differing ages.

PubMed

Miller, J W; McKenna, M C

1981-04-01

To investigate the multiple relationships between selected measures of intelligence and perception and reading achievement a group of young, poor readers (MCA = 8.4 yr.) and a group of older, poor readers (MCA = 11.2 yr.) were given the Gates-MacGinitie Achievement Test, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Slosson Intelligence Test, Spatial Orientation Memory Test, and Auditory Discrimination Test. The combination of the four predictor variables accounted for a significant amount of the variance in reading vocabulary and comprehension for youngest and older poor readers. Greater variance was accounted for in the reading achievement of younger students than of older students. Perceptual abilities related more strongly for younger students, while intelligence related more strongly for older students. Questions are raised about the validity of using expectancy formulae with younger disabled readers and the "learning disabilities" approach with older disabled readers.

Generalist Genes and Learning Disabilities: A Multivariate Genetic Analysis of Low Performance in Reading, Mathematics, Language and General Cognitive Ability in a Sample of 8000 12-Year-Old Twins

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haworth, Claire M. A.; Kovas, Yulia; Harlaar, Nicole; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Dale, Philip S.; Plomin, Robert

2009-01-01

Background: Our previous investigation found that the same genes influence poor reading and mathematics performance in 10-year-olds. Here we assess whether this finding extends to language and general cognitive disabilities, as well as replicating the earlier finding for reading and mathematics in an older and larger sample. Methods: Using a…

The Impact of Language Ability and Text Variables on Sixth-Grade Students' Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penning, Marge J.; Raphael, Taffy E.

1991-01-01

Examines differences in language ability between normally achieving students and learning-disabled students with reading comprehension problems. Poor comprehending students differed from normal achievers for all language measures and in the manner that reader- and text-related variables predicted comprehension. Results supported the positive role…

The relation between children's reading comprehension level and their comprehension of idioms.

PubMed

Cain, Kate; Oakhill, Jane; Lemmon, Kate

2005-01-01

We report an investigation of 9-year-olds' ability to interpret idioms in relation to their reading comprehension level. We manipulated whether the idioms were transparent or opaque, whether they were real or novel, whether they were presented in isolation or in a supportive narrative context. As predicted, children were better able to explain the meanings of idioms in context than in isolation. The good and poor comprehenders did not differ in their abilities to interpret transparent idioms in context, but the poor comprehenders were significantly worse at using context to work out the meanings of opaque idioms. The explanation task revealed the source of information used by the children to derive nontarget interpretations. We discuss these findings in relation to idiom processing strategies and Levorato and Cacciari's global elaboration model.

The Comprehension Problems of Children with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K

2018-06-01

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the comprehension problems of children who have a specific reading comprehension deficit (SCD), which is characterized by poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. The meta-analysis included 86 studies of children with SCD who were assessed in reading comprehension and oral language (vocabulary, listening comprehension, storytelling ability, and semantic and syntactic knowledge). Results indicated that children with SCD had deficits in oral language ( d = -0.78, 95% CI [-0.89, -0.68], but these deficits were not as severe as their deficit in reading comprehension ( d = -2.78, 95% CI [-3.01, -2.54]). When compared to reading comprehension age-matched normal readers, the oral language skills of the two groups were comparable ( d = 0.32, 95% CI [-0.49, 1.14]), which suggests that the oral language weaknesses of children with SCD represent a developmental delay rather than developmental deviance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Effects of phonological contrast on auditory word discrimination in children with and without reading disability: A magnetoencephalography (MEG) study

PubMed Central

Wehner, Daniel T.; Ahlfors, Seppo P.; Mody, Maria

2007-01-01

Poor readers perform worse than their normal reading peers on a variety of speech perception tasks, which may be linked to their phonological processing abilities. The purpose of the study was to compare the brain activation patterns of normal and impaired readers on speech perception to better understand the phonological basis in reading disability. Whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded as good and poor readers, 7-13 years of age, performed an auditory word discrimination task. We used an auditory oddball paradigm in which the ‘deviant’ stimuli (/bat/, /kat/, /rat/) differed in the degree of phonological contrast (1 vs. 3 features) from a repeated standard word (/pat/). Both good and poor readers responded more slowly to deviants that were phonologically similar compared to deviants that were phonologically dissimilar to the standard word. Source analysis of the MEG data using Minimum Norm Estimation (MNE) showed that compared to good readers, poor readers had reduced left-hemisphere activation to the most demanding phonological condition reflecting their difficulties with phonological processing. Furthermore, unlike good readers, poor readers did not show differences in activation as a function of the degree of phonological contrast. These results are consistent with a phonological account of reading disability. PMID:17675109

Verbal Rehearsal and Short-Term Memory in Reading-disabled Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torgesen, Joseph; Goldman, Tina

1977-01-01

To determine whether the frequently found short-term memory deficits in poor readers reflect a lack of ability or inclination to use efficient task strategies, the performances of second-grade good and poor readers were compared on a task which allowed direct observation of the use of verbal rehearsal as a mnemonic strategy. (Author/JMB)

Investigating Orthographic and Semantic Aspects of Word Learning in Poor Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ricketts, Jessie; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Nation, Kate

2008-01-01

This study compared orthographic and semantic aspects of word learning in children who differed in reading comprehension skill. Poor comprehenders and controls matched for age (9-10 years), nonverbal ability and decoding skill were trained to pronounce 20 visually presented nonwords, 10 in a consistent way and 10 in an inconsistent way. They then…

Severity of Emotional and Behavioral Problems among Poor and Typical Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Elizabeth Mayfield; Goldston, David B.; Walsh, Adam K.; Reboussin, Beth A.; Daniel, Stephanie Sergent; Hickman, Enith; Wood, Frank B.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the severity of behavioral and emotional problems among adolescents with poor and typical single word reading ability (N = 188) recruited from public schools and followed for a median of 2.4 years. Youth and parents were repeatedly assessed to obtain information regarding the severity and course of symptoms…

Semantic and phonological coding in poor and normal readers.

PubMed

Vellutino, F R; Scanlon, D M; Spearing, D

1995-02-01

Three studies were conducted evaluating semantic and phonological coding deficits as alternative explanations of reading disability. In the first study, poor and normal readers in second and sixth grade were compared on various tests evaluating semantic development as well as on tests evaluating rapid naming and pseudoword decoding as independent measures of phonological coding ability. In a second study, the same subjects were given verbal memory and visual-verbal learning tasks using high and low meaning words as verbal stimuli and Chinese ideographs as visual stimuli. On the semantic tasks, poor readers performed below the level of the normal readers only at the sixth grade level, but, on the rapid naming and pseudoword learning tasks, they performed below the normal readers at the second as well as at the sixth grade level. On both the verbal memory and visual-verbal learning tasks, performance in poor readers approximated that of normal readers when the word stimuli were high in meaning but not when they were low in meaning. These patterns were essentially replicated in a third study that used some of the same semantic and phonological measures used in the first experiment, and verbal memory and visual-verbal learning tasks that employed word lists and visual stimuli (novel alphabetic characters) that more closely approximated those used in learning to read. It was concluded that semantic coding deficits are an unlikely cause of reading difficulties in most poor readers at the beginning stages of reading skills acquisition, but accrue as a consequence of prolonged reading difficulties in older readers. It was also concluded that phonological coding deficits are a probable cause of reading difficulties in most poor readers.

A Correlational Study of the Relationships between Music Aptitude and Phonemic Awareness of Kindergarten Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubinson, Laura E.

2010-01-01

More than one third of American children cannot read at a basic level by fourth grade (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007) and those numbers are even higher for African American, Hispanic and poor White students (Boorman et al., 2007). These are alarming statistics given that the ability to read is the most basic and fundamental skill for academic…

Effects of Phonological Contrast on Auditory Word Discrimination in Children with and without Reading Disability: A Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wehner, Daniel T.; Ahlfors, Seppo P.; Mody, Maria

2007-01-01

Poor readers perform worse than their normal reading peers on a variety of speech perception tasks, which may be linked to their phonological processing abilities. The purpose of the study was to compare the brain activation patterns of normal and impaired readers on speech perception to better understand the phonological basis in reading…

Contributions of early cortical processing and reading ability to functional status in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.

PubMed

Carrión, Ricardo E; Cornblatt, Barbara A; McLaughlin, Danielle; Chang, Jeremy; Auther, Andrea M; Olsen, Ruth H; Javitt, Daniel C

2015-05-01

There is a growing recognition that individuals at clinical high risk need intervention for functional impairments, along with emerging psychosis, as the majority of clinical high risk (CHR) individuals show persistent deficits in social and role functioning regardless of transition to psychosis. Recent studies have demonstrated reduced reading ability as a potential cause of functional disability in schizophrenia, related to underlying deficits in generation of mismatch negativity (MMN). The present study extends these findings to subjects at CHR. The sample consisted of 34 CHR individuals and 33 healthy comparison subjects (CNTLs) from the Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program at the Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York. At baseline, reading measures were collected, along with MMN to pitch, duration, and intensity deviants, and measures of neurocognition, and social and role (academic/work) functioning. CHR subjects showed impairments in reading ability, neurocognition, and MMN generation, relative to CNTLs. Lower-amplitude MMN responses were correlated with worse reading ability, slower processing speed, and poorer social and role functioning. However, when entered into a simultaneous regression, only reduced responses to deviance in sound duration and volume predicted poor social and role functioning, respectively. Deficits in reading ability exist even prior to illness onset in schizophrenia and may represent a decline in performance from prior abilities. As in schizophrenia, deficits are related to impaired MMN generation, suggesting specific contributions of sensory-level impairment to neurocognitive processes related to social and role function. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Synthetic phonics and decodable instructional reading texts: How far do these support poor readers?

PubMed

Price-Mohr, Ruth Maria; Price, Colin Bernard

2018-05-01

This paper presents data from a quasi-experimental trial with paired randomisation that emerged during the development of a reading scheme for children in England. This trial was conducted with a group of 12 children, aged 5-6, and considered to be falling behind their peers in reading ability and a matched control group. There were two intervention conditions (A: using mixed teaching methods and a high percentage of non-phonically decodable vocabulary; P: using mixed teaching methods and low percentage of non-decodable vocabulary); allocation to these was randomised. Children were assessed at pre- and post-test on standardised measures of receptive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, word reading, and comprehension. Two class teachers in the same school each selected 6 children, who they considered to be poor readers, to participate (n = 12). A control group (using synthetic phonics only and phonically decodable vocabulary) was selected from the same 2 classes based on pre-test scores for word reading (n = 16). Results from the study show positive benefits for poor readers from using both additional teaching methods (such as analytic phonics, sight word vocabulary, and oral vocabulary extension) in addition to synthetic phonics, and also non-decodable vocabulary in instructional reading text. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reading comprehension of ambiguous sentences by school-age children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Davidson, Meghan M; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-12-01

Weak central coherence (processing details over gist), poor oral language abilities, poor suppression, semantic interference, and poor comprehension monitoring have all been implicated to affect reading comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study viewed the contributions of different supporting skills as a collective set of skills necessary for context integration-a multi-component view-to examine individual differences in reading comprehension in school-age children (8-14 years) with ASD (n = 23) and typically developing control peers (n = 23). Participants completed a written ambiguous sentence comprehension task in which participants had to integrate context to determine the correct homonym meaning via picture selection. Both comprehension products (i.e., offline representations after reading) and processes (i.e., online processing during reading) were evaluated. Results indicated that children with ASD, similar to their TD peers, integrated the context to access the correct homonym meanings while reading. However, after reading the sentences, when participants were asked to select the meanings, both groups experienced semantic interference between the two meanings. This semantic interference hindered the children with ASD's sentence representation to a greater degree than their peers. Individual differences in age/development, word recognition, vocabulary breadth (i.e., number of words in the lexicon), and vocabulary depth (i.e., knowledge of the homonym meanings) contributed to sentence comprehension in both children with ASD and their peers. Together, this evidence supports a multi-component view, and that helping children with ASD develop vocabulary depth may have cascading effects on their reading comprehension. Autism Res 2017, 10: 2002-2022. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Like their peers, children with ASD were able to integrate context, or link words while reading sentences with ambiguous words (words with two meanings). After reading the sentences, both groups found it hard to pick the correct meaning of the ambiguous sentence and this decision was more difficult for the participants with ASD. Older children, children with better word reading abilities, and children with higher vocabularies were better at understanding ambiguous sentences. Helping children with ASD to develop richer vocabularies could be important for improving their reading comprehension. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dyslexia Limits the Ability to Categorize Talker Dialect

PubMed Central

Long, Gayle Beam; Jacewicz, Ewa

2016-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether the underlying phonological impairment in dyslexia is associated with a deficit in categorizing regional dialects. Method Twenty adults with dyslexia, 20 school-age children with dyslexia, and 40 corresponding control listeners with average reading ability listened to sentences produced by multiple talkers (both sexes) representing two dialects: Midland dialect in Ohio (same as listeners' dialect) and Southern dialect in Western North Carolina. Participants' responses were analyzed using signal detection theory. Results Listeners with dyslexia were less sensitive to talker dialect than listeners with average reading ability. Children were less sensitive to dialect than adults. Under stimulus uncertainty, listeners with average reading ability were biased toward Ohio dialect, whereas listeners with dyslexia were unbiased in their responses. Talker sex interacted with sensitivity and bias differently for listeners with dyslexia than for listeners with average reading ability. The correlations between dialect sensitivity and phonological memory scores were strongest for adults with dyslexia. Conclusions The results imply that the phonological deficit in dyslexia arises from impaired access to intact phonological representations rather than from poorly specified representations. It can be presumed that the impeded access to implicit long-term memory representations for indexical (dialect) information is due to less efficient operations in working memory, including deficiencies in utilizing talker normalization processes. PMID:27575597

Educational attainment in poor comprehenders

PubMed Central

Ricketts, Jessie; Sperring, Rachael; Nation, Kate

2014-01-01

To date, only one study has investigated educational attainment in poor (reading) comprehenders, providing evidence of poor performance on national UK school tests at age 11 years relative to peers (Cain and Oakhill, 2006). In the present study, we adopted a longitudinal approach, tracking attainment on such tests from 11 years to the end of compulsory schooling in the UK (age 16 years). We aimed to investigate the proposal that educational weaknesses (defined as poor performance on national assessments) might become more pronounced over time, as the curriculum places increasing demands on reading comprehension. Participants comprised 15 poor comprehenders and 15 controls; groups were matched for chronological age, nonverbal reasoning ability and decoding skill. Children were identified at age 9 years using standardized measures of nonverbal reasoning, decoding and reading comprehension. These measures, along with a measure of oral vocabulary knowledge, were repeated at age 11 years. Data on educational attainment were collected from all participants (n = 30) at age 11 and from a subgroup (n = 21) at 16 years. Compared to controls, educational attainment in poor comprehenders was lower at ages 11 and 16 years, an effect that was significant at 11 years. When poor comprehenders were compared to national performance levels, they showed significantly lower performance at both time points. Low educational attainment was not evident for all poor comprehenders. Nonetheless, our findings point to a link between reading comprehension difficulties in mid to late childhood and poor educational outcomes at ages 11 and 16 years. At these ages, pupils in the UK are making key transitions: they move from primary to secondary schools at 11, and out of compulsory schooling at 16. PMID:24904464

The long-term significance of teacher-rated hyperactivity and reading ability in childhood: findings from two longitudinal studies.

PubMed

McGee, Rob; Prior, Margot; Willams, Sheila; Smart, Diana; Sanson, Anne

2002-11-01

The aims of this study were twofold: first, to examine behavioural and academic outcomes of children with hyperactivity, using data from two longitudinal studies; and second, to examine comparable psychosocial outcomes for children with early reading difficulties. Measures of teacher-rated persistent hyperactivity, and reading ability obtained during early primary school were available for children from the Australian Temperament Project and the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Both samples were followed up to assess behavioural and academic outcomes during the adolescent and early adult years. Family background, antisocial behaviour and literacy were controlled in the first set of analyses to examine the influence of early hyperactivity. There were strong linear relationships between early hyperactivity and later adverse outcomes. Adjustment for other childhood variables suggested that early hyperactivity was associated with continuing school difficulties, problems with attention and poor reading in adolescence. Early reading difficulties, after controlling for early hyperactivity, predicted continuing reading problems in high school and leaving school with no qualifications. The findings suggest that there are dual pathways from early inattentive behaviours to later inattention and reading problems, and from early reading difficulties to substantial impairments in later academic outcomes.

Teacher quality moderates the genetic effects on early reading.

PubMed

Taylor, J; Roehrig, A D; Soden Hensler, B; Connor, C M; Schatschneider, C

2010-04-23

Children's reading achievement is influenced by genetics as well as by family and school environments. The importance of teacher quality as a specific school environmental influence on reading achievement is unknown. We studied first- and second-grade students in Florida from schools representing diverse environments. Comparison of monozygotic and dizygotic twins, differentiating genetic similarities of 100% and 50%, provided an estimate of genetic variance in reading achievement. Teacher quality was measured by how much reading gain the non-twin classmates achieved. The magnitude of genetic variance associated with twins' oral reading fluency increased as the quality of their teacher increased. In circumstances where the teachers are all excellent, the variability in student reading achievement may appear to be largely due to genetics. However, poor teaching impedes the ability of children to reach their potential.

Yellow filters can improve magnocellular function: motion sensitivity, convergence, accommodation, and reading.

PubMed

Ray, N J; Fowler, S; Stein, J F

2005-04-01

The magnocellular system plays an important role in visual motion processing, controlling vergence eye movements, and in reading. Yellow filters may boost magnocellular activity by eliminating inhibitory blue input to this pathway. It was found that wearing yellow filters increased motion sensitivity, convergence, and accommodation in many children with reading difficulties, both immediately and after three months using the filters. Motion sensitivity was not increased using control neutral density filters. Moreover, reading-impaired children showed significant gains in reading ability after three months wearing the filters compared with those who had used a placebo. It was concluded that yellow filters can improve magnocellular function permanently. Hence, they should be considered as an alternative to corrective lenses, prisms, or exercises for treating poor convergence and accommodation, and also as an aid for children with reading problems.

Individual differences in children's memory and reading comprehension: an investigation of semantic and inhibitory deficits.

PubMed

Cain, Kate

2006-07-01

Three experiments compared the verbal memory skills of children with poor reading comprehension with that of same-age good comprehenders. The aims were to determine if semantic and/or inhibitory deficits explained comprehenders' problems on measures of verbal short-term memory and verbal working memory. In Experiment 1 there were no group differences on word- and number-based measures of short-term storage and no evidence that semantic knowledge mediated word recall. In Experiment 2 poor comprehenders were impaired on word- and number-based assessments of working memory, the greatest deficit found on the word-based task. Error analysis of both word-based tasks revealed that poor comprehenders were more likely to recall items that should have been inhibited than were good comprehenders. Experiment 3 extended this finding: Poor comprehenders were less able to inhibit information that was no longer relevant. Together, these findings suggest that individual differences in inhibitory processing influence the ability to regulate the contents of working memory, which may contribute to the differential memory performance of good and poor comprehenders.

Development of Tract-Specific White Matter Pathways During Early Reading Development in At-Risk Children and Typical Controls.

PubMed

Wang, Yingying; Mauer, Meaghan V; Raney, Talia; Peysakhovich, Barbara; Becker, Bryce L C; Sliva, Danielle D; Gaab, Nadine

2017-04-01

Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a strong genetic basis. Previous studies observed white matter alterations in the left posterior brain regions in adults and school-age children with dyslexia. However, no study yet has examined the development of tract-specific white matter pathways from the pre-reading to the fluent reading stage in children at familial risk for dyslexia (FHD+) versus controls (FHD-). This study examined white matter integrity at pre-reading, beginning, and fluent reading stages cross-sectionally ( n = 78) and longitudinally (n = 45) using an automated fiber-tract quantification method. Our findings depict white matter alterations and atypical lateralization of the arcuate fasciculus at the pre-reading stage in FHD+ versus FHD- children. Moreover, we demonstrate faster white matter development in subsequent good versus poor readers and a positive association between white matter maturation and reading development using a longitudinal design. Additionally, the combination of white matter maturation, familial risk, and psychometric measures best predicted later reading abilities. Furthermore, within FHD+ children, subsequent good readers exhibited faster white matter development in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus compared with subsequent poor readers, suggesting a compensatory mechanism. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of white matter pathway maturation in the development of typical and atypical reading skills. Published by Oxford University Press 2016. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

Modifying the brain activation of poor readers during sentence comprehension with extended remedial instruction: a longitudinal study of neuroplasticity.

PubMed

Meyler, Ann; Keller, Timothy A; Cherkassky, Vladimir L; Gabrieli, John D E; Just, Marcel Adam

2008-08-01

This study used fMRI to longitudinally assess the impact of intensive remedial instruction on cortical activation among 5th grade poor readers during a sentence comprehension task. The children were tested at three time points: prior to remediation, after 100 h of intensive instruction, and 1 year after the instruction had ended. Changes in brain activation were also measured among 5th grade good readers at the same time points for comparison. The central finding was that prior to instruction, the poor readers had significantly less activation than good readers bilaterally in the parietal cortex. Immediately after instruction, poor readers made substantial gains in reading ability, and demonstrated significantly increased activation in the left angular gyrus and the left superior parietal lobule. Activation in these regions continued to increase among poor readers 1 year post-remediation, resulting in a normalization of the activation. These results are interpreted as reflecting changes in the processes involved in word-level and sentence-level assembly. Areas of overactivation were also found among poor readers in the medial frontal cortex, possibly indicating a more effortful and attentive guided reading strategy.

Modifying the Brain Activation of Poor Readers during Sentence Comprehension with Extended Remedial Instruction: A Longitudinal Study of Neuroplasticity

PubMed Central

Meyler, Ann; Keller, Timothy A.; Cherkassky, Vladimir L.; Gabrieli, John D. E.; Just, Marcel Adam

2008-01-01

This study used fMRI to longitudinally assess the impact of intensive remedial instruction on cortical activation among 5th grade poor readers during a sentence comprehension task. The children were tested at 3 time points: prior to remediation, after 100 hours of intensive instruction, and 1 year after the instruction had ended. Changes in brain activation were also measured among 5th grade good readers at the same time points for comparison. The central finding was that prior to instruction, the poor readers had significantly less activation than good readers bilaterally in the parietal cortex. Immediately after instruction, poor readers made substantial gains in reading ability, and demonstrated significantly increased activation in the left angular gyrus and the left superior parietal lobule. Activation in these regions continued to increase among poor readers 1 year post-remediation, resulting in a normalization of the activation. These results are interpreted as reflecting changes in the processes involved in word-level and sentence-level assembly. Areas of overactivation were also found among poor readers in the medial frontal cortex, possibly indicating a more effortful and attentionally-guided reading strategy. PMID:18495180

Patient education in rheumatoid arthritis: the effectiveness of the ARC booklet and the mind map.

PubMed

Walker, D; Adebajo, A; Heslop, P; Hill, J; Firth, J; Bishop, P; Helliwell, P S

2007-10-01

To determine the effectiveness of a pictorial 'mind map' together with the Arthritis Research Campaign (ARC) booklet for imparting knowledge to participants with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Also, we wished to relate this to their reading ability. We studied 363 participants with RA. Reading ability was assessed using the REALM, and knowledge was assessed using the Knowledge Scale Questionnaire (KSQ). Information on educational attainment, disease state and levels of anxiety and depression was also collected. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either the ARC booklet alone or the booklet and the mind map together. A significant minority (15%) of participants were functionally illiterate. There was a statistically significant increase in knowledge across both groups from baseline to reassessment after they were given the literature, but there was no difference in attainment between the groups. The more literate participants gained more knowledge regardless of the information they were given. They were also significantly less anxious and less depressed. The ARC booklet with or without the mind map was associated with a significant increase in knowledge. Poor readers had poor educational attainment and poor knowledge acquisition. The information on the mind map was not more accessible to them. Different educational strategies will be necessary to educate these patients.

DISCUS Ninth Grade, Earth Science, Part Two.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duval County School Board, Jacksonville, FL. Project DISCUS.

Included are instructional materials designed for use with disadvantaged students who have a limited reading ability and poor command of English. The guide is the second volume of a two volume, one year program in earth science, and contains these five units and activities: Rock Cycle, 12 activities; Minerals and Crystals, 6 activities; Weathering…

The Impact of Tutoring on Early Reading Achievement for Children With and Without Attention Problems

PubMed Central

Rabiner, David L.; Malone, Patrick S.

2009-01-01

This study examined whether the benefits of reading tutoring in first grade were moderated by children’s level of attention problems. Participants were 581 children from the intervention and control samples of Fast Track, a longitudinal multisite investigation of the development and prevention of conduct problems. Standardized reading achievement measures were administered after kindergarten and 1st grade, and teacher ratings of attention problems were obtained during 1st grade. During 1st grade, intervention participants received three 30-min tutoring sessions per week to promote the development of initial reading skills. Results replicated prior findings that attention problems predict reduced 1st grade reading achievement, even after controlling for IQ and earlier reading ability. Intervention was associated with modest reading achievement benefits for inattentive children without early reading difficulties, and substantial benefits for children with early reading difficulties who were not inattentive. It had no discernible impact, however, for children who were both inattentive and poor early readers. Results underscore the need to develop effective academic interventions for inattentive children, particularly for those with co-occurring reading difficulties. PMID:15228176

Adults with mild intellectual disabilities: can their reading comprehension ability be improved?

PubMed

van den Bos, K P; Nakken, H; Nicolay, P G; van Houten, E J

2007-11-01

Adults with a mild intellectual disability (ID) often show poor decoding and reading comprehension skills. The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of teaching text comprehension strategies to these adults. Specific research goals were to determine (1) the effects of two instruction conditions, i.e. strategy instruction to individuals and strategy instruction in small groups in a reciprocal teaching context; (2) intervention programme effects on specific strategy tests (so-called direct effects), and possible differences between strategies; (3) (long-term) transfer effects of the programme on general reading comprehension ability; and (4) the regression of general text comprehension by the variables of technical reading, IQ, reading comprehension of sentences (RCS), and pretest and posttest scores on the strategies taught. In total, 38 adults (age range 20-72 years; mean age of 36 years) with ID participated in the study. IQs ranged from 45 to 69 with a mean IQ of 58. The intervention programme involved 15 weekly lessons of 1 h each, taught during 3 months. Blocks of lessons included each of Brown and Palincsar's strategies of summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting, as participants read and studied narrative and expository texts. Results indicated no significant difference between group and individual instruction conditions. Second, direct programme effects - as determined by posttest-pretest contrasts for strategy tests - were substantial, except for the questioning strategy. Third, even more substantial was the transfer effect to general text comprehension. Moreover, the results on this test were well maintained at a follow-up test. Finally, the variance of general reading comprehension ability was best explained by the test of RCS, and only moderately by the strategies trained. The presently used intervention programme provides a good starting point for adults with ID to become better readers.

The Role of Reading Fluency in Children's Text Comprehension.

PubMed

Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Cuetos, Fernando

2015-01-01

Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however, they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade). Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances), pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency.

Reading and listening comprehension and their relation to inattention and hyperactivity.

PubMed

Cain, Kate; Bignell, Simon

2014-03-01

Children with diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently have reading problems. To date, it is not clear whether poor reading is associated with both inattention and hyperactivity and also whether poor reading comprehension is the result of poor word reading skills or more general language comprehension weaknesses. We report two studies to examine how reading and listening comprehension skills are related to inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Separate groups of 7- to 11-year-olds participated in each study. In both studies, we used teacher ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity to identify three groups at risk of ADHD: poor attention, high hyperactivity, poor attention and high hyperactivity, and also same-age controls. In Study 1, we explored how inattention and hyperactivity predicted reading after controlling for non-verbal IQ and vocabulary. In Study 2, we compared listening and reading comprehension in these groups. Poor attention was related to poor reading comprehension, although the relation was partially mediated by word reading skill (Study 1). Groups with high hyperactivity had weak listening comprehension relative to reading comprehension (Study 2). These results indicate that the reading comprehension problems of children with attention difficulties are related to poor word reading and that listening comprehension is particularly vulnerable in children at risk of ADHD. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Poor anchoring limits dyslexics' perceptual, memory, and reading skills.

PubMed

Oganian, Yulia; Ahissar, Merav

2012-07-01

The basic deficits underlying the severe and persistent reading difficulties in dyslexia are still highly debated. One of the major topics of debate is whether these deficits are language specific, or affect both verbal and non-verbal stimuli. Recently, Ahissar and colleagues proposed the "anchoring-deficit hypothesis" (Ahissar, Lubin, Putter-Katz, & Banai, 2006), which suggests that dyslexics have a general difficulty in automatic extraction of stimulus regularities from auditory inputs. This hypothesis explained a broad range of dyslexics' verbal and non-verbal difficulties. However, it was not directly tested in the context of reading and verbal memory, which poses the main stumbling blocks to dyslexics. Here we assessed the abilities of adult dyslexics to efficiently benefit from ("anchor to") regularities embedded in repeated tones, orally presented syllables, and written words. We also compared dyslexics' performance to that of individuals with attention disorder (ADHD), but no reading disability. We found an anchoring effect in all groups: all gained from stimulus repetition. However, in line with the anchoring-deficit hypothesis, controls and ADHD participants showed a significantly larger anchoring effect in all tasks. This study is the first that directly shows that the same domain-general deficit, poor anchoring, characterizes dyslexics' performance in perceptual, working memory and reading tasks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structural connectivity patterns associated with the putative visual word form area and children's reading ability.

PubMed

Fan, Qiuyun; Anderson, Adam W; Davis, Nicole; Cutting, Laurie E

2014-10-24

With the advent of neuroimaging techniques, especially functional MRI (fMRI), studies have mapped brain regions that are associated with good and poor reading, most centrally a region within the left occipito-temporal/fusiform region (L-OT/F) often referred to as the visual word form area (VWFA). Despite an abundance of fMRI studies of the putative VWFA, research about its structural connectivity has just started. Provided that the putative VWFA may be connected to distributed regions in the brain, it remains unclear how this network is engaged in constituting a well-tuned reading circuitry in the brain. Here we used diffusion MRI to study the structural connectivity patterns of the putative VWFA and surrounding areas within the L-OT/F in children with typically developing (TD) reading ability and with word recognition deficits (WRD; sometimes referred to as dyslexia). We found that L-OT/F connectivity varied along a posterior-anterior gradient, with specific structural connectivity patterns related to reading ability in the ROIs centered upon the putative VWFA. Findings suggest that the architecture of the putative VWFA connectivity is fundamentally different between TD and WRD, with TD showing greater connectivity to linguistic regions than WRD, and WRD showing greater connectivity to visual and parahippocampal regions than TD. Findings thus reveal clear structural abnormalities underlying the functional abnormalities in the putative VWFA in WRD. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Research review: reading comprehension in developmental disorders of language and communication.

PubMed

Ricketts, Jessie

2011-11-01

Deficits in reading airment (SLI), Down syndrome (DS) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this review (based on a search of the ISI Web of Knowledge database to 2011), the Simple View of Reading is used as a framework for considering reading comprehension in these groups. There is substantial evidence for reading comprehension impairments in SLI and growing evidence that weaknesses in this domain are common in DS and ASD. Further, in these groups reading comprehension is typically more impaired than word recognition. However, there is also evidence that some children and adolescents with DS, ASD and a history of SLI develop reading comprehension and word recognition skills at or above the age appropriate level. This review of the literature indicates that factors including word recognition, oral language, nonverbal ability and working memory may explain reading comprehension difficulties in SLI, DS and ASD. In addition, it highlights methodological issues, implications of poor reading comprehension and fruitful areas for future research. © 2011 The Author. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2011 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Helping Poor Readers Demonstrate Their Science Competence: Item Characteristics Supporting Text-Picture Integration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saß, Steffani; Schütte, Kerstin

2016-01-01

Solving test items might require abilities in test-takers other than the construct the test was designed to assess. Item and student characteristics such as item format or reading comprehension can impact the test result. This experiment is based on cognitive theories of text and picture comprehension. It examines whether integration aids, which…

Building an Evolving Method and Materials for Teaching Legal Writing in Large Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clarence, Sherran; Albertus, Latiefa; Mwambene, Lea

2014-01-01

In South Africa and in other parts of the world, many professions are bemoaning the poor ability of many graduates to communicate their skills and knowledge effectively once they enter the workplace. Increasingly, pressure is placed on higher education to do more in terms of equipping future professionals with the necessary critical reading,…

Individual Differences in Relative Metacomprehension Accuracy: Variation within and across Task Manipulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiang, Evelyn S.; Therriault, David J.; Franks, Bridget A.

2010-01-01

In recent decades, increasing numbers of studies have focused on metacomprehension accuracy, or readers' ability to distinguish between texts comprehended more vs. less well. Following early findings that suggested readers are fairly poor at doing so, a number of studies have identified specific tasks to supplement a single reading of text that…

Can verbal working memory training improve reading?

PubMed

Banales, Erin; Kohnen, Saskia; McArthur, Genevieve

2015-01-01

The aim of the current study was to determine whether poor verbal working memory is associated with poor word reading accuracy because the former causes the latter, or the latter causes the former. To this end, we tested whether (a) verbal working memory training improves poor verbal working memory or poor word reading accuracy, and whether (b) reading training improves poor reading accuracy or verbal working memory in a case series of four children with poor word reading accuracy and verbal working memory. Each child completed 8 weeks of verbal working memory training and 8 weeks of reading training. Verbal working memory training improved verbal working memory in two of the four children, but did not improve their reading accuracy. Similarly, reading training improved word reading accuracy in all children, but did not improve their verbal working memory. These results suggest that the causal links between verbal working memory and reading accuracy may not be as direct as has been assumed.

Reading performance with low-vision aids and vision-related quality of life after macular translocation surgery in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

PubMed

Nguyen, Nhung X; Besch, Dorothea; Bartz-Schmidt, Karl; Gelisken, Faik; Trauzettel-Klosinski, Susanne

2007-12-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the power of magnification required, reading performance with low-vision aids and vision-related quality of life with reference to reading ability and ability to carry out day-to-day activities in patients after macular translocation. This study included 15 patients who had undergone macular translocation with 360-degree peripheral retinectomy. The mean length of follow-up was 19.2 +/- 10.8 months (median 11 months). At the final examination, the impact of visual impairment on reading ability and quality of life was assessed according to a modified 9-item questionnaire in conjunction with a comprehensive clinical examination, which included assessment of best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), the magnification power required for reading, use of low-vision aids and reading speed. Patients rated the extent to which low vision restricted their ability to read and participate in other activities that affect quality of life. Responses were scored on a scale of 1.0 (optimum self-evaluation) to 5.0 (very poor). In the operated eye, overall mean postoperative BCVA (distance) was not significantly better than mean preoperative BCVA (0.11 +/- 0.06 and 0.15 +/- 0.08, respectively; p = 0.53). However, 53% of patients reported a subjective increase in visual function after treatment. At the final visit, the mean magnification required was x 7.7 +/- 6.7. A total of 60% of patients needed optical magnifiers for reading and in 40% of patients closed-circuit TV systems were necessary. All patients were able to read newspaper print using adapted low-vision aids at a mean reading speed of 71 +/- 40 words per minute. Mean self-reported scores were 3.2 +/- 1.1 for reading, 2.5 +/- 0.7 for day-to-day activities and 2.7 +/- 3.0 for outdoor walking and using steps or stairs. Patients' levels of dependency were significantly correlated with scores for reading (p = 0.01), day-to-day activities (p < 0.001) and outdoor walking and using steps (p = 0.001). The evaluation of self-reported visual function and vision-related quality of life in patients after macular translocation is necessary to obtain detailed information on treatment effects. Our results indicated improvement in patients' subjective evaluations of visual function, without significant improvement in visual acuity. The postoperative clinical benefits of treatment coincide with subjective benefits in terms of reading ability, quality of life and patient satisfaction. Our study confirms the importance and efficiency of visual rehabilitation with aids for low vision after surgery.

Magnitude Representation and Working Memory Updating in Children With Arithmetic and Reading Comprehension Disabilities.

PubMed

Pelegrina, Santiago; Capodieci, Agnese; Carretti, Barbara; Cornoldi, Cesare

2015-01-01

It has been argued that children with learning disabilities (LD) encounter severe problems in working memory (WM) tasks, especially when they need to update information stored in their WM. It is not clear, however, to what extent this is due to a generally poor updating ability or to a difficulty specific to the domain to be processed. To examine this issue, two groups of children with arithmetic or reading comprehension LD and a group of typically developing children (9 to 10 years old) were assessed using two updating tasks requiring to select the smallest numbers or objects presented. The results showed that children with an arithmetic disability failed in a number updating task, but not in the object updating task. The opposite was true for the group with poor reading comprehension, whose performance was worse in the object than in the number updating task. It may be concluded that the problem of WM updating in children with LD is also due to a poor representation of the material to be updated. In addition, our findings suggest that the mental representation of the size of objects relates to the semantic representation of the objects' properties and differs from the quantitative representation of numbers. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Pairing Nurses and Social Workers in Schools: North Carolina's School-Based Child and Family Support Teams

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gifford, Elizabeth J.; Wells, Rebecca; Bai, Yu; Troop, Tony O.; Miller, Shari; Babinski, Leslie M.

2010-01-01

When children are struggling in school, underlying causes often include physical or behavioral health problems, poverty, abuse, and/or neglect. Children's poor physical health status has been linked to deficits in memory and reading ability. Children with behavioral problems are much more likely than others to have lower grades, miss school, be…

Using Growth Rate of Reading Fluency to Predict Performance on Statewide Achievement Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinkle, Rachelle Whittaker

2011-01-01

Federal legislation has prescribed the increased use of statewide achievement tests as the culmination of a student's knowledge and ability at the end of a grade level; however, schools need to be able to predict those who are at-risk of performing poorly on these high-stakes tests. Three studies served to identify a means of predicting statewide…

The Role of Reading Fluency in Children’s Text Comprehension

PubMed Central

Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Cuetos, Fernando

2015-01-01

Understanding a written text requires some higher cognitive abilities that not all children have. Some children have these abilities, since they understand oral texts; however, they have difficulties with written texts, probably due to problems in reading fluency. The aim of this study was to determine which aspects of reading fluency are related to reading comprehension. Four expositive texts, two written and two read by the evaluator, were presented to a sample of 103 primary school children (third and sixth grade). Each text was followed by four comprehension questions. From this sample we selected two groups of participants in each grade, 10 with good results in comprehension of oral and written texts, and 10 with good results in oral and poor in written comprehension. These 40 subjects were asked to read aloud a new text while they were recorded. Using Praat software some prosodic parameters were measured, such as pausing and reading rate (number and duration of the pauses and utterances), pitch and intensity changes and duration in declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences and also errors and duration in words by frequency and stress. We compared the results of both groups with ANOVAs. The results showed that children with less reading comprehension made more inappropriate pauses and also intersentential pauses before comma than the other group and made more mistakes in content words; significant differences were also found in the final declination of pitch in declarative sentences and in the F0 range in interrogative ones. These results confirm that reading comprehension problems in children are related to a lack in the development of a good reading fluency. PMID:26640452

First-Grade Cognitive Abilities as Long-Term Predictors of Reading Comprehension and Disability Status

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Bryant, V. Joan; Hamlett, Carol L.; Lambert, Warren

2012-01-01

In a sample of 195 first graders selected for poor reading performance, the authors explored four cognitive predictors of later reading comprehension and reading disability (RD) status. In fall of first grade, the authors measured the children’s phonological processing, rapid automatized naming (RAN), oral language comprehension, and nonverbal reasoning. Throughout first grade, they also modeled the students’ reading progress by means of weekly Word Identification Fluency (WIF) tests to derive December and May intercepts. The authors assessed their reading comprehension in the spring of Grades 1–5. With the four cognitive variables and the WIF December intercept as predictors, 50.3% of the variance in fifth-grade reading comprehension was explained: 52.1% of this 50.3% was unique to the cognitive variables, 13.1% to the WIF December intercept, and 34.8% was shared. All five predictors were statistically significant. The same four cognitive variables with the May (rather than December) WIF intercept produced a model that explained 62.1% of the variance. Of this amount, the cognitive variables and May WIF intercept accounted for 34.5% and 27.7%, respectively; they shared 37.8%. All predictors in this model were statistically significant except RAN. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the accuracy with which the cognitive variables predicted end-of-fifth-grade RD status was 73.9%. The May WIF intercept contributed reliably to this prediction; the December WIF intercept did not. Results are discussed in terms of a role for cognitive abilities in identifying, classifying, and instructing students with severe reading problems. PMID:22539057

First-grade cognitive abilities as long-term predictors of reading comprehension and disability status.

PubMed

Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L; Fuchs, Lynn S; Bryant, V Joan; Hamlett, Carol L; Lambert, Warren

2012-01-01

In a sample of 195 first graders selected for poor reading performance, the authors explored four cognitive predictors of later reading comprehension and reading disability (RD) status. In fall of first grade, the authors measured the children's phonological processing, rapid automatized naming (RAN), oral language comprehension, and nonverbal reasoning. Throughout first grade, they also modeled the students' reading progress by means of weekly Word Identification Fluency (WIF) tests to derive December and May intercepts. The authors assessed their reading comprehension in the spring of Grades 1-5. With the four cognitive variables and the WIF December intercept as predictors, 50.3% of the variance in fifth-grade reading comprehension was explained: 52.1% of this 50.3% was unique to the cognitive variables, 13.1% to the WIF December intercept, and 34.8% was shared. All five predictors were statistically significant. The same four cognitive variables with the May (rather than December) WIF intercept produced a model that explained 62.1% of the variance. Of this amount, the cognitive variables and May WIF intercept accounted for 34.5% and 27.7%, respectively; they shared 37.8%. All predictors in this model were statistically significant except RAN. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the accuracy with which the cognitive variables predicted end-of-fifth-grade RD status was 73.9%. The May WIF intercept contributed reliably to this prediction; the December WIF intercept did not. Results are discussed in terms of a role for cognitive abilities in identifying, classifying, and instructing students with severe reading problems.

Early reading performance: a comparison of teacher-based and test-based assessments.

PubMed

Kenny, D T; Chekaluk, E

1993-04-01

An unresolved question in early screening is whether test-based or teacher-based assessments should form the basis of the classification of children at risk of educational failure. Available structured teacher rating scales are lacking in predictive validity, and teacher predictions of students likely to experience reading difficulties have yielded disappointing true positive rates, with teachers failing to identify the majority of severely disabled readers. For this study, three educational screening instruments were developed: (a) a single teacher rating, categorizing children into three levels of reading ability (advanced, average, poor); (b) a 15-item teacher questionnaire designed to measure students' cognitive and language ability, attentional and behavioral characteristics, and academic performance; and (c) a battery of language and reading tests that are predictive of, or correlate with, reading failure. The concurrent validity of each instrument was assessed in a sample of 312 Australian schoolchildren from kindergarten, Year 1, and Year 2. Students were assessed at the end of the 1989 school year after having completed 1, 2, or 3 years of schooling. The results suggest that the nature of the skills required for success in reading changes in the first 3 years of schooling. Both teachers and tests concur more closely as children progress through the elementary years and as the risk behavior (reading) becomes more accessible to direct measurement. Carefully focused teacher rating scales may be a cost-effective means of identifying children at risk of reading failure. Improved teacher rating scales should be developed and used to assist in the early screening process.

Toward an Executive Origin for Acquired Phonological Dyslexia: A Case of Specific Deficit of Context-Sensitive Grapheme-to-Phoneme Conversion Rules

PubMed Central

Auclair-Ouellet, Noémie; Fossard, Marion; St-Pierre, Marie-Catherine; Macoir, Joël

2013-01-01

Phonological dyslexia is a written language disorder characterized by poor reading of nonwords when compared with relatively preserved ability in reading real words. In this study, we report the case of FG, a 74-year-old man with phonological dyslexia. The nature and origin of his reading impairment were assessed using tasks involving activation and explicit manipulation of phonological representations as well as reading of words and nonwords in which the nature and complexity of grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules (GPC rules) were manipulated. FG also underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment battery in which he showed impaired performance in tests exploring verbal working memory and executive functions. FG showed no phonological impairment, and his performance was also largely unimpaired for reading words, with no effect of concreteness, grammatical class, morphological complexity, length or nature and complexity of the GPC rules. However, he showed substantial difficulties when asked to read nonwords with contextual GPC rules. The contribution of FG’s executive deficits to his performance in reading is discussed. PMID:22713417

Preliteracy signatures of poor-reading abilities in resting-state EEG

PubMed Central

Schiavone, Giuseppina; Linkenkaer-Hansen, Klaus; Maurits, Natasha M.; Plakas, Anna; Maassen, Ben A. M.; Mansvelder, Huibert D.; van der Leij, Aryan; van Zuijen, Titia L.

2014-01-01

The hereditary character of dyslexia suggests the presence of putative underlying neural anomalies already in preliterate age. Here, we investigated whether early neurophysiological correlates of future reading difficulties—a hallmark of dyslexia—could be identified in the resting-state EEG of preliterate children. The children in this study were recruited at birth and classified on the basis of parents' performance on reading tests to be at-risk of becoming poor readers (n = 48) or not (n = 14). Eyes-open rest EEG was measured at the age of 3 years, and the at-risk children were divided into fluent readers (n = 24) and non-fluent readers (n = 24) after reading assessment at their third grade of school. We found that fluent readers and non-fluent readers differed in normalized spectral amplitude. Non-fluent readers were characterized by lower amplitude in the delta-1 frequency band (0.5–2 Hz) and higher amplitude in the alpha-1 band (6–8 Hz) in multiple scalp regions compared to control and at-risk fluent readers. Interestingly, across groups these EEG biomarkers correlated with several behavioral test scores measured in the third grade. Specifically, the performance on reading fluency, phonological and orthographic tasks and rapid automatized naming task correlated positively with delta-1 and negatively with alpha-1. Together, our results suggest that combining family-risk status, neurophysiological testing and behavioral test scores in a longitudinal setting may help uncover physiological mechanisms implicated with neurodevelopmental disorders such as the predisposition to reading disabilities. PMID:25285075

Reading and Listening Comprehension and Their Relation to Inattention and Hyperactivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cain, Kate; Bignell, Simon

2014-01-01

Background: Children with diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently have reading problems. To date, it is not clear whether poor reading is associated with both inattention and hyperactivity and also whether poor reading comprehension is the result of poor word reading skills or more general language comprehension…

Evaluating the Relationship between Teacher Credential Students' Ability to Read and Their Interest in Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cockerham, Barbara Jean

2013-01-01

Teacher enthusiasm for reading has considerable influence on students' reading interest and reading ability. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between reading ability and reading interest among adults who plan to become teachers. This study tested whether there is a relationship between reading ability as measured…

Rhythm production at school entry as a predictor of poor reading and spelling at the end of first grade.

PubMed

Lundetræ, Kjersti; Thomson, Jenny M

2018-01-01

Rhythm plays an organisational role in the prosody and phonology of language, and children with literacy difficulties have been found to demonstrate poor rhythmic perception. This study explored whether students' performance on a simple rhythm task at school entry could serve as a predictor of whether they would face difficulties in word reading and spelling at the end of grade 1. The participants were 479 Norwegian 6-year-old first graders randomized as controls in the longitudinal RCT on track (n = 1171). Rhythmic timing and pre-reading skills were tested individually at school entry on a digital tablet. On the rhythm task, the students were told to tap a drum appearing on the screen to two different rhythms (2 Hz paced and 1.5 Hz paced). Children's responses were recorded as they tapped on the screen with their index finger. Significant group differences were found in rhythm tapping ability measured at school entry, when groups were defined upon whether children went on to score above or below the 20th percentile reading and spelling thresholds in national assessment tests at the end of grade one. Inclusion of the school-entry rhythmic tapping measure into a model of classification accuracy for above or below threshold reading and spelling improved accuracy of classification by 6.2 and 9.2% respectively.

The link between logic, mathematics and imagination: evidence from children with developmental dyscalculia and mathematically gifted children.

PubMed

Morsanyi, Kinga; Devine, Amy; Nobes, Alison; Szűcs, Dénes

2013-07-01

This study examined performance on transitive inference problems in children with developmental dyscalculia (DD), typically developing controls matched on IQ, working memory and reading skills, and in children with outstanding mathematical abilities. Whereas mainstream approaches currently consider DD as a domain-specific deficit, we hypothesized that the development of mathematical skills is closely related to the development of logical abilities, a domain-general skill. In particular, we expected a close link between mathematical skills and the ability to reason independently of one's beliefs. Our results showed that this was indeed the case, with children with DD performing more poorly than controls, and high maths ability children showing outstanding skills in logical reasoning about belief-laden problems. Nevertheless, all groups performed poorly on structurally equivalent problems with belief-neutral content. This is in line with suggestions that abstract reasoning skills (i.e. the ability to reason about content without real-life referents) develops later than the ability to reason about belief-inconsistent fantasy content.A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90DWY3O4xx8. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Response to intervention: are the Emperor's clothes really new?

PubMed

Carreker, Suzanne; Malatesha Joshi, R

2010-11-01

With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 2004, Response to Intervention (RTI) was officially introduced. Unlike the discrepancy model, which determines eligibility in special education with a discrepancy between achievement and ability, RTI was designed to provide intensive instruction to students in the general classroom as soon as difficulties in acquiring requisite reading skills are detected. The proposed goals of RTI include the improvement of reading achievement and the identification of students with learning disabilities (LD). Although RTI holds promise for the former goal when certain conditions are met, the latter goal is more elusive. The Component Model of Reading (CMR) is described in the current paper as an alternative to the discrepancy model and RTI. CMR, which consists of three domains, evaluates a poor reader's performance multidimensionally, so the most appropriate instruction for the reader can be designed to ensure reading success. Empirical evidence of CMR is presented.

Association of the DAT1 genotype with inattentive behavior is mediated by reading ability in a general population sample.

PubMed

Cornish, Kim M; Savage, Robert; Hocking, Darren R; Hollis, Chris P

2011-12-01

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) frequently co-occur in the child population and therefore raise the possibility of shared genetic etiology. We used a quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach to assess the involvement of the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene polymorphism in mediating reading disability and poor attention in a general population sample of primary school children aged 6-11 years in the UK. The potential confounding effects of IQ and chronological age were also investigated. We found an independent association between the homozygous DAT1 10/10 repeat genotype and RD that was not accounted for by the level of ADHD symptoms. This finding suggests that the DAT1 gene polymorphism may influence a common neural mechanism underlying both reading acquisition and ADHD symptoms. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Theory of mind and frontal lobe pathology in schizophrenia: a voxel-based morphometry study.

PubMed

Hirao, Kazuyuki; Miyata, Jun; Fujiwara, Hironobu; Yamada, Makiko; Namiki, Chihiro; Shimizu, Mitsuaki; Sawamoto, Nobukatsu; Fukuyama, Hidenao; Hayashi, Takuji; Murai, Toshiya

2008-10-01

Impaired ability to infer the mental states of others (theory of mind; ToM) is considered to be a key contributor to the poor social functioning of patients with schizophrenia. Although neuroimaging and lesion studies have provided empirical evidence for the neural basis of ToM ability, including the involvement of several prefrontal and temporal structures, the association between pathology of these structures and ToM impairment in schizophrenia patients is less well understood. To address this issue, we investigated structural brain abnormalities and ToM impairment in patients with schizophrenia, and examined the relationship between them. Twenty schizophrenia patients and 20 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and were examined for ToM ability based on the revised version of the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" (or Eyes) test [Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., Plumb, I., 2001. The 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test revised version: A study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 42, 241-251]. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was performed to investigate regional brain alterations. Relative to normal controls, schizophrenia patients exhibited gray matter reductions in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right superior temporal gyrus (STG) and right insula. The patients performed poorly on the Eyes test. Importantly, poor performance on the Eyes test was found to be associated with gray matter reduction in the left VLPFC in the patient group. These results suggest that prefrontal cortical reduction, especially in the left VLPFC, is a key pathology underlying the difficulties faced by schizophrenia patients in inferring the mental states of others.

A Longitudinal Examination of the Persistence of Late Emerging Reading Disabilities.

PubMed

Etmanskie, Jill M; Partanen, Marita; Siegel, Linda S

2016-01-01

There are some children who encounter unexpected reading difficulties in the fourth grade. This phenomenon has been described as late emerging reading disabilities (LERD). Using Grade 4 as a starting point, this study examined the reading development of 964 children between kindergarten and Grade 7. The results showed that 72.0% of children had typical reading performance in Grade 4, whereas there was 0.7% with poor word reading, 12.6% with poor reading comprehension, 2.5% with poor word reading and comprehension, and 12.2% with borderline performance. We also showed that there were similar proportions of children who had early versus late emerging reading difficulties; however, most of the late emerging poor readers recovered by Grade 7. Furthermore, our study showed that poor comprehenders showed poorer performance than typical readers on word reading, pseudoword decoding, and spelling between Grade 1 and Grade 7 and poorer performance on a working memory task in kindergarten. Overall, this study showed that most children recover from late emerging reading problems and that working memory may be an early indicator for reading comprehension difficulties. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Chinese-English Bilingual Children.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuhong; McBride, Catherine; Shu, Hua; Ho, Connie Suk-Han

2018-02-01

The co-occurrence of reading comprehension difficulties for first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English and associated longitudinal cognitive-linguistic correlates in each language were investigated. Sixteen poor comprehenders in English and 16 poor comprehenders in Chinese, 18 poor readers in both, and 18 children with normal performance in both were identified at age 10. The prevalence rate for being poor in both was 52.94%, suggesting that approximately half of children who are at risk for Chinese reading comprehension difficulty are also at risk for English reading comprehension difficulty. Chinese word reading, phonological, and morphological awareness were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in Chinese. English word reading and vocabulary were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in English. Chinese phonological awareness was an additional correlate of poor comprehension in English. Moreover, poor comprehenders in both Chinese and English showed slower rapid automatized naming scores than the other groups. Findings highlight some factors that might be critical for reading comprehension in L1 Chinese and L2 English; fluency is likely to be a critical part of reading comprehension across languages. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How Specific Are Specific Comprehension Difficulties? An Investigation of Poor Reading Comprehension in Nine-Year-Olds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rønberg, Louise Flensted; Petersen, Dorthe Klint

2016-01-01

This study explores the incidence of poor comprehenders, that is, children identified as having reading comprehension difficulties, despite age-appropriate word reading skills. It supports the findings that some children do show poor reading comprehension, despite age-appropriate word reading, as measured with a phonological coding test. However,…

Exploring the association between visual perception abilities and reading of musical notation.

PubMed

Lee, Horng-Yih

2012-06-01

In the reading of music, the acquisition of pitch information depends primarily upon the spatial position of notes as well as upon an individual's spatial processing ability. This study investigated the relationship between the ability to read single notes and visual-spatial ability. Participants with high and low single-note reading abilities were differentiated based upon differences in musical notation-reading abilities and their spatial processing; object recognition abilities were then assessed. It was found that the group with lower note-reading abilities made more errors than did the group with a higher note-reading abilities in the mental rotation task. In contrast, there was no apparent significant difference between the two groups in the object recognition task. These results suggest that note-reading may be related to visual spatial processing abilities, and not to an individual's ability with object recognition.

Socioemotional Features and Resilience in Italian University Students with and without Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Ghisi, Marta; Bottesi, Gioia; Re, Anna M.; Cerea, Silvia; Mammarella, Irene C.

2016-01-01

Dyslexia is a permanent condition characterized by reading difficulties that include inaccurate or slow and effortful word reading, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities. People with dyslexia may have psychological and psychopathological issues such as low self-esteem, poor resilience, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. They may also develop social problems and emotional issues, as well as low academic and social self-efficacy. The present study aimed to assess the psychological features of a sample of 28 Italian university students with dyslexia, comparing them with a control group of typically developing students matched for gender, education, and academic discipline, to enhance our knowledge of dyslexia outcomes in an Italian setting. The results show that university students with dyslexia experience higher levels of somatic complaints, social and attentional problems, lower self-esteem, and higher depression scores than controls, while no difference emerged between the two groups’ resilience scores. In conclusion, the present findings suggest that university students with dyslexia report more psychological issues than students without dyslexia and could benefit from intervention to improve their psychological and physical well-being. PMID:27065220

Not all reading disabilities are dyslexia: distinct neurobiology of specific comprehension deficits.

PubMed

Cutting, Laurie E; Clements-Stephens, Amy; Pugh, Kenneth R; Burns, Scott; Cao, Aize; Pekar, James J; Davis, Nicole; Rimrodt, Sheryl L

2013-01-01

Although an extensive literature exists on the neurobiological correlates of dyslexia (DYS), to date, no studies have examined the neurobiological profile of those who exhibit poor reading comprehension despite intact word-level abilities (specific reading comprehension deficits [S-RCD]). Here we investigated the word-level abilities of S-RCD as compared to typically developing readers (TD) and those with DYS by examining the blood oxygenation-level dependent response to words varying on frequency. Understanding whether S-RCD process words in the same manner as TD, or show alternate pathways to achieve normal word-reading abilities, may provide insights into the origin of this disorder. Results showed that as compared to TD, DYS showed abnormal covariance during word processing with right-hemisphere homologs of the left-hemisphere reading network in conjunction with left occipitotemporal underactivation. In contrast, S-RCD showed an intact neurobiological response to word stimuli in occipitotemporal regions (associated with fast and efficient word processing); however, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) abnormalities were observed. Specifically, TD showed a higher-percent signal change within right IFG for low-versus-high frequency words as compared to both S-RCD and DYS. Using psychophysiological interaction analyses, a coupling-by-reading group interaction was found in right IFG for DYS, as indicated by a widespread greater covariance between right IFG and right occipitotemporal cortex/visual word-form areas, as well as bilateral medial frontal gyrus, as compared to TD. For S-RCD, the context-dependent functional interaction anomaly was most prominently seen in left IFG, which covaried to a greater extent with hippocampal, parahippocampal, and prefrontal areas than for TD for low- as compared to high-frequency words. Given the greater lexical access demands of low frequency as compared to high-frequency words, these results may suggest specific weaknesses in accessing lexical-semantic representations during word recognition. These novel findings provide foundational insights into the nature of S-RCD, and set the stage for future investigations of this common, but understudied, reading disorder.

TagDust2: a generic method to extract reads from sequencing data.

PubMed

Lassmann, Timo

2015-01-28

Arguably the most basic step in the analysis of next generation sequencing data (NGS) involves the extraction of mappable reads from the raw reads produced by sequencing instruments. The presence of barcodes, adaptors and artifacts subject to sequencing errors makes this step non-trivial. Here I present TagDust2, a generic approach utilizing a library of hidden Markov models (HMM) to accurately extract reads from a wide array of possible read architectures. TagDust2 extracts more reads of higher quality compared to other approaches. Processing of multiplexed single, paired end and libraries containing unique molecular identifiers is fully supported. Two additional post processing steps are included to exclude known contaminants and filter out low complexity sequences. Finally, TagDust2 can automatically detect the library type of sequenced data from a predefined selection. Taken together TagDust2 is a feature rich, flexible and adaptive solution to go from raw to mappable NGS reads in a single step. The ability to recognize and record the contents of raw reads will help to automate and demystify the initial, and often poorly documented, steps in NGS data analysis pipelines. TagDust2 is freely available at: http://tagdust.sourceforge.net .

Children's comprehension skill and the understanding of nominal metaphors.

PubMed

Seigneuric, Alix; Megherbi, Hakima; Bueno, Steve; Lebahar, Julie; Bianco, Maryse

2016-10-01

According to Levorato and Cacciari's global elaboration model, understanding figurative language is explained by the same processes and background knowledge that are required for literal language. In this study, we investigated the relation between children's comprehension skill and the ability to understand referential nominal metaphors. Two groups of poor versus good comprehenders (8- to 10-year-olds) matched for word reading and vocabulary skills were invited to identify the referent of nouns used metaphorically or literally in short texts. Compared with good comprehenders, performance of poor comprehenders showed a substantial decrease in the metaphoric condition. Moreover, their performance was strongly affected by the degree of semantic incongruence between the terms of the nominal metaphor. These findings are discussed in relation to several factors, in particular the ability to use contextual information and semantic processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Comparison of the Metalinguistic Performance and Spelling Development of Children With Inconsistent Speech Sound Disorder and Their Age-Matched and Reading-Matched Peers.

PubMed

McNeill, Brigid C; Wolter, Julie; Gillon, Gail T

2017-05-17

This study explored the specific nature of a spelling impairment in children with speech sound disorder (SSD) in relation to metalinguistic predictors of spelling development. The metalinguistic (phoneme, morphological, and orthographic awareness) and spelling development of 28 children ages 6-8 years with a history of inconsistent SSD were compared to those of their age-matched (n = 28) and reading-matched (n = 28) peers. Analysis of the literacy outcomes of children within the cohort with persistent (n = 18) versus resolved (n = 10) SSD was also conducted. The age-matched peers outperformed the SSD group on all measures. Children with SSD performed comparably to their reading-matched peers on metalinguistic measures but exhibited lower spelling scores. Children with persistent SSD generally had less favorable outcomes than children with resolved SSD; however, even children with resolved SSD performed poorly on normative spelling measures. Children with SSD have a specific difficulty with spelling that is not commensurate with their metalinguistic and reading ability. Although low metalinguistic awareness appears to inhibit these children's spelling development, other factors should be considered, such as nonverbal rehearsal during spelling attempts and motoric ability. Integration of speech-production and spelling-intervention goals is important to enhance literacy outcomes for this group.

Effect of Preschool Working Memory, Language, and Narrative Abilities on Inferential Comprehension at School-Age in Children with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele and Typically Developing Children

PubMed Central

Pike, Meredith; Swank, Paul; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan; Barnes, Marcia A.

2014-01-01

Children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) are more likely to display a pattern of good-decoding/poor comprehension than their neurologically intact peers. The goals of the current study were to (1) examine the cognitive origins of one of the component skills of comprehension, bridging inferences, from a developmental perspective and (2) to test the effects of those relations on reading comprehension achievement. Data from a sample of children with SBM and a control group (n = 78) who participated in a longitudinal study were taken from age 36-month and 9.5-year time points. A multiple mediation model provided evidence that three preschool cognitive abilities (working memory/inhibitory control, oral comprehension, narrative recall), could partially explain the relation between group and bridging inference skill. A second mediation model supported that each of the 36-month abilities had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through bridging inference skill. Findings contribute to an understanding of both typical and atypical comprehension development, blending theories from the developmental, cognitive, and neuropsychological literature. PMID:23388065

Effect of preschool working memory, language, and narrative abilities on inferential comprehension at school-age in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele and typically developing children.

PubMed

Pike, Meredith; Swank, Paul; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan; Barnes, Marcia A

2013-04-01

Children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) are more likely to display a pattern of good-decoding/poor comprehension than their neurologically intact peers. The goals of the current study were to (1) examine the cognitive origins of one of the component skills of comprehension, bridging inferences, from a developmental perspective and (2) to test the effects of those relations on reading comprehension achievement. Data from a sample of children with SBM and a control group (n = 78) who participated in a longitudinal study were taken from age 36-month and 9.5-year time points. A multiple mediation model provided evidence that three preschool cognitive abilities (working memory/inhibitory control, oral comprehension, narrative recall), could partially explain the relation between group and bridging inference skill. A second mediation model supported that each of the 36-month abilities had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through bridging inference skill. Findings contribute to an understanding of both typical and atypical comprehension development, blending theories from the developmental, cognitive, and neuropsychological literature.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Early Reading and Language Skills in Children with Poor Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nation, Kate; Cocksey, Joanne; Taylor, Jo S. H.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2010-01-01

Background: Poor comprehenders have difficulty comprehending connected text, despite having age-appropriate levels of reading accuracy and fluency. We used a longitudinal design to examine earlier reading and language skills in children identified as poor comprehenders in mid-childhood. Method: Two hundred and forty-two children began the study at…

Metacognition and Reading: Comparing Three Forms of Metacognition in Normally Developing Readers and Readers with Dyslexia.

PubMed

Furnes, Bjarte; Norman, Elisabeth

2015-08-01

Metacognition refers to 'cognition about cognition' and includes metacognitive knowledge, strategies and experiences (Efklides, 2008; Flavell, 1979). Research on reading has shown that better readers demonstrate more metacognitive knowledge than poor readers (Baker & Beall, 2009), and that reading ability improves through strategy instruction (Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001). The current study is the first to specifically compare the three forms of metacognition in dyslexic (N = 22) versus normally developing readers (N = 22). Participants read two factual texts, with learning outcome measured by a memory task. Metacognitive knowledge and skills were assessed by self-report. Metacognitive experiences were measured by predictions of performance and judgments of learning. Individuals with dyslexia showed insight into their reading problems, but less general knowledge of how to approach text reading. They more often reported lack of available reading strategies, but groups did not differ in the use of deep and surface strategies. Learning outcome and mean ratings of predictions of performance and judgments of learning were lower in dyslexic readers, but not the accuracy with which metacognitive experiences predicted learning. Overall, the results indicate that dyslexic reading and spelling problems are not generally associated with lower levels of metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive strategies or sensitivity to metacognitive experiences in reading situations. 2015 The Authors. Dyslexia Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reading Abilities and Strategies: A Short Introduction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Feng

2010-01-01

This paper gives a short analysis of reading abilities and reading strategies. Much research has been done to investigate the nature of reading, though it's had to exactly define reading abilities and strategies. Different kinds of readings are discussed in this paper and distinctions are made between first language reading and second or foreign…

Reading Ability and Reading Engagement in Older Adults With Glaucoma

PubMed Central

Nguyen, Angeline M.; van Landingham, Suzanne W.; Massof, Robert W.; Rubin, Gary S.; Ramulu, Pradeep Y.

2014-01-01

Purpose. We evaluated the impact of glaucoma-related vision loss on reading ability and reading engagement in 10 reading activities. Methods. A total of 63 glaucoma patients and 59 glaucoma suspect controls self-rated their level of reading difficulty for 10 reading items, and responses were analyzed using Rasch analysis to determine reading ability. Reading engagement was assessed by asking subjects to report the number of days per week they engaged in each reading activity. Reading restriction was determined as a decrement in engagement. Results. Glaucoma subjects more often described greater reading difficulty than controls for all tasks except puzzles (P < 0.05). The most difficult reading tasks involved puzzles, books, and finances, while the least difficult reading tasks involved notes, bills, and mail. In multivariable weighted least squares regression models of Rasch-estimated person measures of reading ability, less reading ability was found for glaucoma patients compared to controls (β = −1.60 logits, P < 0.001). Among glaucoma patients, less reading ability was associated with more severe visual field (VF) loss (β = −0.68 logits per 5-dB decrement in better-eye VF mean deviation [MD], P < 0.001) and contrast sensitivity (β = −0.76 logits per 0.1-unit lower log CS, P < 0.001). Each 5-dB decrement in the better-eye VF MD was associated with book reading on 18% fewer days (P = 0.003) and newspaper reading on 10% fewer days (P = 0.008). No statistically significant reading restriction was observed for other reading activities (P > 0.05). Conclusions. Glaucoma patients have less reading ability and engage less in a variety of different reading activities, particularly those requiring sustained reading. Future work should evaluate the mechanisms underlying reading disability in glaucoma to determine how patients can maintain reading ability and engagement. PMID:25052992

Modeling individual differences in text reading fluency: a different pattern of predictors for typically developing and dyslexic readers

PubMed Central

Zoccolotti, Pierluigi; De Luca, Maria; Marinelli, Chiara V.; Spinelli, Donatella

2014-01-01

This study was aimed at predicting individual differences in text reading fluency. The basic proposal included two factors, i.e., the ability to decode letter strings (measured by discrete pseudo-word reading) and integration of the various sub-components involved in reading (measured by Rapid Automatized Naming, RAN). Subsequently, a third factor was added to the model, i.e., naming of discrete digits. In order to use homogeneous measures, all contributing variables considered the entire processing of the item, including pronunciation time. The model, which was based on commonality analysis, was applied to data from a group of 43 typically developing readers (11- to 13-year-olds) and a group of 25 chronologically matched dyslexic children. In typically developing readers, both orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components contributed significantly to the overall prediction of text reading fluency. The model prediction was higher (from ca. 37 to 52% of the explained variance) when we included the naming of discrete digits variable, which had a suppressive effect on pseudo-word reading. In the dyslexic readers, the variance explained by the two-factor model was high (69%) and did not change when the third factor was added. The lack of a suppression effect was likely due to the prominent individual differences in poor orthographic decoding of the dyslexic children. Analyses on data from both groups of children were replicated by using patches of colors as stimuli (both in the RAN task and in the discrete naming task) obtaining similar results. We conclude that it is possible to predict much of the variance in text-reading fluency using basic processes, such as orthographic decoding and integration of reading sub-components, even without taking into consideration higher-order linguistic factors such as lexical, semantic and contextual abilities. The approach validity of using proximal vs. distal causes to predict reading fluency is discussed. PMID:25477856

Functional basic reading skills in Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Brawn, Gabrielle; Kohnen, Saskia; Tassabehji, May; Porter, Melanie

2018-03-30

This study investigated whether individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) can attain a functional level of basic reading skills. The Study also investigated broader cognitive factors associated with reading ability in individuals with WS. Thirty individuals with WS participated in this study (mean chronological age 21 years and mean mental age 7 years 7 months). The results supported our hypotheses that: firstly, reading abilities would be heterogeneous in WS; secondly, at least some WS individuals are capable of achieving a functional basic reading level; and thirdly, on average, WS individuals would find reading of nonwords more difficult than reading of regular and irregular words. Moreover, higher reading ability was found to be associated with increased outcomes in adaptive functioning, in particular, Written and Expressive Communication skills and Community Living skills, highlighting the potential benefits of developing reading abilities in WS. Although Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was related to overall basic reading ability generally, it was not found to be a determining factor in reading subtypes. Several cognitive skills known to be related to reading ability in typically developing individuals were found to be associated with reading performance and reading subtypes. Implications for appropriate reading instruction are discussed.

Generalist genes and learning disabilities: a multivariate genetic analysis of low performance in reading, mathematics, language and general cognitive ability in a sample of 8000 12-year-old twins.

PubMed

Haworth, Claire M A; Kovas, Yulia; Harlaar, Nicole; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E; Petrill, Stephen A; Dale, Philip S; Plomin, Robert

2009-10-01

Our previous investigation found that the same genes influence poor reading and mathematics performance in 10-year-olds. Here we assess whether this finding extends to language and general cognitive disabilities, as well as replicating the earlier finding for reading and mathematics in an older and larger sample. Using a representative sample of 4000 pairs of 12-year-old twins from the UK Twins Early Development Study, we investigated the genetic and environmental overlap between internet-based batteries of language and general cognitive ability tests in addition to tests of reading and mathematics for the bottom 15% of the distribution using DeFries-Fulker extremes analysis. We compared these results to those for the entire distribution. All four traits were highly correlated at the low extreme (average group phenotypic correlation = .58). and in the entire distribution (average phenotypic correlation = .59). Genetic correlations for the low extreme were consistently high (average = .67), and non-shared environmental correlations were modest (average = .23). These results are similar to those seen across the entire distribution (.68 and .23, respectively). The 'Generalist Genes Hypothesis' holds for language and general cognitive disabilities, as well as reading and mathematics disabilities. Genetic correlations were high, indicating a strong degree of overlap in genetic influences on these diverse traits. In contrast, non-shared environmental influences were largely specific to each trait, causing phenotypic differentiation of traits.

'What do patients want?' Tailoring medicines information to meet patients' needs.

PubMed

Young, Amber; Tordoff, June; Smith, Alesha

2017-11-01

Medicines information leaflets can equip patients to be in control of their own healthcare and support the safe and effective use of medicines. The design and content of leaflets influences patients' willingness to read them, and poor examples can cause patient confusion and anxiety. Researchers examined the literature over the past 8 years to determine the content and design of medicine information leaflets that patients prefer in order to read, understand, and use them effectively. It was found that existing leaflets do not meet patients' needs and appear ineffective. Leaflets lack the information patients seek and may contain non-essential material, affecting patients' perception of, and willingness to read them. Additionally, the acceptable leaflet length varies between patients. Application of good design principles improves readability, comprehension, and ability to locate information. Medicine information leaflets must meet patients' needs and be well designed. Tailoring information leaflets to patient characteristics and requirements would enhance effectiveness. Passive provision of pre-printed leaflets is outdated, unvalued and ineffective. Using automated computer systems for leaflet tailoring with the ability to further adapt patients' information might be the best way forward. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Child-Centered Reading Intervention: See, Talk, Dictate, Read, Write!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastug, Muhammet; Demirtas, Gonca

2016-01-01

Poor reading achievement of children in elementary schools has been one of the major concerns in education. The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a child-centered reading intervention in eliminating the reading problems of a student with poor reading achievement. The research was conducted with a student having difficulty in…

Readability of Self-Report Alcohol Misuse Measures

PubMed Central

McHugh, R Kathryn; Sugarman, Dawn E; Kaufman, Julia S; Park, Sara; Weiss, Roger D; Greenfield, Shelly F

2014-01-01

Objective: Self-report measures of alcohol misuse and alcohol use disorders are valuable assessment tools for both research and clinical practice settings. However, readability is often overlooked when establishing the validity of these measures, which may result in measures written at a reading-grade level that is higher than the ability level of many potential respondents. The aim of the current study was to estimate the reading-grade level of validated measures of alcohol misuse and associated problems. Method: A total of 45 measures were identified, and reading-grade level was calculated using three validated readability formulas. Results: The majority of measures were written above the recommended reading-grade level for patient materials (5th–6th grade), with particularly poor readability for measure instructions. Conclusions: Given that many self-report alcohol misuse measures are written at a high reading-grade level, the consideration of readability is important when selecting measures for use in research and practice settings. Moreover, the development or modification of measures to target low-literacy populations may facilitate the broader applicability of these instruments. PMID:24650827

Visual processing during natural reading

PubMed Central

Weiss, Béla; Knakker, Balázs; Vidnyánszky, Zoltán

2016-01-01

Reading is a unique human ability that plays a pivotal role in the development and functioning of our modern society. However, its neural basis remains poorly understood since previous research was focused on reading words with fixed gaze. Here we developed a methodological framework for single-trial analysis of fixation onset-related EEG activity (FOREA) that enabled us to investigate visual information processing during natural reading. To reveal the effect of reading skills on orthographic processing during natural reading, we measured how altering the configural properties of the written text by modifying inter-letter spacing affects FOREA. We found that orthographic processing is reflected in FOREA in three consecutive time windows (120–175 ms, 230–265 ms, 345–380 ms after fixation onset) and the magnitude of FOREA effects in the two later time intervals showed a close association with the participants’ reading speed: FOREA effects were larger in fast than in slow readers. Furthermore, these expertise-driven configural effects were clearly dissociable from the FOREA signatures of visual perceptual processes engaged to handle the increased crowding (155–220 ms) as a result of decreasing letter spacing. Our findings revealed that with increased reading skills orthographic processing becomes more sensitive to the configural properties of the written text. PMID:27231193

IQ of four-year-olds who go on to develop dyslexia.

PubMed

van Bergen, Elsje; de Jong, Peter F; Maassen, Ben; Krikhaar, Evelien; Plakas, Anna; van der Leij, Aryan

2014-01-01

Do children who go on to develop dyslexia show normal verbal and nonverbal development before reading onset? According to the aptitude-achievement discrepancy model, dyslexia is defined as a discrepancy between intelligence and reading achievement. One of the underlying assumptions is that the general cognitive development of children who fail to learn to read has been normal. The current study tests this assumption. In addition, we investigated whether possible IQ deficits are uniquely related to later reading or are also related to arithmetic. Four-year-olds (N = 212) with and without familial risk for dyslexia were assessed on 10 IQ subtests. Reading and arithmetic skills were measured 4 years later, at the end of Grade 2. Relative to the controls, the at-risk group without dyslexia had subtle impairments only in the verbal domain, whereas the at-risk group with dyslexia lagged behind across IQ tasks. Nonverbal IQ was associated with both reading and arithmetic, whereas verbal IQ was uniquely related to later reading. The children who went on to develop dyslexia performed relatively poorly in both verbal and nonverbal abilities at age 4, which challenges the discrepancy model. Furthermore, we discuss possible causal and epiphenomenal models explaining the links between early IQ and later reading. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Specific Reading Comprehension Disability: Major Problem, Myth, or Misnomer?

PubMed Central

Spencer, Mercedes; Quinn, Jamie M.; Wagner, Richard K.

2013-01-01

The goal of the present study was to test three competing hypotheses about the nature of comprehension problems of students who are poor in reading comprehension. Participants in the study were first, second, and third graders, totaling 9 cohorts and over 425,000 participants in all. The pattern of results was consistent across all cohorts: Less than one percent of first- through third-grade students who scored as poor in reading comprehension were adequate in both decoding and vocabulary. Although poor reading comprehension certainly qualifies as a major problem rather than a myth, the term specific reading comprehension disability is a misnomer: Individuals with problems in reading comprehension that are not attributable to poor word recognition have comprehension problems that are general to language comprehension rather than specific to reading. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed. PMID:25143666

Specific Reading Comprehension Disability: Major Problem, Myth, or Misnomer?

PubMed

Spencer, Mercedes; Quinn, Jamie M; Wagner, Richard K

2014-02-01

The goal of the present study was to test three competing hypotheses about the nature of comprehension problems of students who are poor in reading comprehension. Participants in the study were first, second, and third graders, totaling 9 cohorts and over 425,000 participants in all. The pattern of results was consistent across all cohorts: Less than one percent of first- through third-grade students who scored as poor in reading comprehension were adequate in both decoding and vocabulary. Although poor reading comprehension certainly qualifies as a major problem rather than a myth, the term specific reading comprehension disability is a misnomer: Individuals with problems in reading comprehension that are not attributable to poor word recognition have comprehension problems that are general to language comprehension rather than specific to reading. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.

Reading, Mathematics, and Behavioral Difficulties Interrelate: Evidence from a Cross-lagged Panel Design and Population-based Sample

PubMed Central

Lin, Yu-Chu; Morgan, Paul L.; Farkas, George; Hillemeier, Marianne; Cook, Michael

2015-01-01

We examined three questions. First, do reading difficulties increase children’s risk of behavior difficulties? Second, do behavioral difficulties increase children’s risk of reading difficulties? Third, do mathematics difficulties increase children’s risk of reading or behavioral difficulties? We investigated these questions using a sample of 9,324 children followed from third to fifth grade as they participated in a nationally representative dataset, conducting multilevel logistic regression modeling and including statistical control for many potential confounds. Results indicated that poor readers in third grade were significantly more likely to display poor task management, poor self-control, poor interpersonal skills, internalizing behavior problems, and externalizing behavior problems in fifth grade (odds ratio [OR] range = 1.30 – 1.57). Statistically controlling for a prior history of reading difficulties, children with poor mathematics skills in third grade were also significantly more likely to display poor task management, poor interpersonal skills, internalizing behavior problems, and reading difficulties in fifth grade (OR range = 1.38 – 5.14). In contrast, only those children exhibiting poor task management, but not other types of problem behaviors, in third grade were more likely to be poor readers in fifth grade (OR = 1.49). PMID:26097274

Explaining the association between music training and reading in adults.

PubMed

Swaminathan, Swathi; Schellenberg, E Glenn; Venkatesan, Kirthika

2018-06-01

We sought to clarify whether the positive association between music lessons and reading ability is explained better by shared resources for processing pitch and temporal information, or by general cognitive abilities. Participants were native and nonnative speakers of English with varying levels of music training. We measured reading ability (comprehension and speed), music-perception skills (melody and rhythm), general cognitive ability (nonverbal intelligence, short-term memory, and working memory), and socioeconomic status (SES; family income, parents' education). Reading ability was associated positively with music training, English as a native language, and general cognitive ability. The association between reading and music training was significant after SES, native language, and music-perception skills were controlled. After general cognitive abilities were held constant, however, there was no longer an association between reading and music training. These findings suggest that the association between reading ability and music training is a consequence of general cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Relationship between reading and long-term storage and retrieval (Glr) in college students.

PubMed

Avitia, Maria Jesus; Kaufman, Alan S; Bray, Melissa; Kaufman, James C

2017-09-21

The purpose of this study was to (a) identify the relationship between specific types of reading ability, different forms of learning, and long-term memory and retrieval (Glr); and then (b) to determine the degree to which self-assessed reading ability and a Glr measure could predict objective reading ability. College students were administered three different reading assessments from the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement, Second Edition (KTEA-II): word reading, reading comprehension, and nonsense word decoding. They were also given two pairs of Glr subtests that consisted of immediate and delayed versions from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (KABC-II). One set was embedded within context, whereas the other was not. Results showed that although overall reading ability and reading comprehension correlated the highest with Glr measures that were embedded in context, word reading, and nonsense word decoding were correlated the highest with delayed measures of Glr. Second, the self-assessment accounted for 23% of the variability in overall reading ability. Not only do these results show the strength of the relationship between Glr and reading, but also the ability to use these measures along with self-assessment to screen for reading disabilities.

A tale of two writing systems: double dissociation and metalinguistic transfer between Chinese and English word reading among Hong Kong children.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; Tong, Xiuhong; McBride-Chang, Catherine

2015-01-01

This study investigated the rate of school-aged Chinese-English language learners at risk for reading difficulties in either Chinese or English only, or both, among second and fifth graders in Hong Kong. In addition, we examined the metalinguistic skills that distinguished those who were poor in reading Chinese from those who were poor in reading English. The prevalence of poor English readers among children identified to be poor in Chinese word recognition across the five participating schools was approximately 42% at Grade 2 and 57% at Grade 5. Across grades, children who were poor readers of both languages tended to have difficulties in phonological and morphological awareness. Poor readers of English only were found to manifest significantly poorer phonological awareness, compared to those who were poor readers of Chinese only; their average tone awareness score was also lower relative to normally developing controls. Apart from indicating possible dissociations between Chinese first language (L1) word reading and English second language (L2) word reading, these findings suggested that the degree to which different metalinguistic skills are important for reading in different writing systems may depend on the linguistic features of the particular writing system. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

The Genetic and Environmental Etiologies of the Relations between Cognitive Skills and Components of Reading Ability

PubMed Central

Christopher, Micaela E.; Keenan, Janice M.; Hulslander, Jacqueline; DeFries, John C.; Miyake, Akira; Wadsworth, Sally J.; Willcutt, Erik; Pennington, Bruce; Olson, Richard K.

2016-01-01

While previous research has shown cognitive skills to be important predictors of reading ability in children, the respective roles for genetic and environmental influences on these relations is an open question. The present study explored the genetic and environmental etiologies underlying the relations between selected executive functions and cognitive abilities (working memory, inhibition, processing speed, and naming speed) with three components of reading ability (word reading, reading comprehension, and listening comprehension). Twin pairs drawn from the Colorado Front Range (n = 676; 224 monozygotic pairs; 452 dizygotic pairs) between the ages of eight and 16 (M = 11.11) were assessed on multiple measures of each cognitive and reading-related skill. Each cognitive and reading-related skill was modeled as a latent variable, and behavioral genetic analyses estimated the portions of phenotypic variance on each latent variable due to genetic, shared environmental, and nonshared environmental influences. The covariance between the cognitive skills and reading-related skills was driven primarily by genetic influences. The cognitive skills also shared large amounts of genetic variance, as did the reading-related skills. The common cognitive genetic variance was highly correlated with the common reading genetic variance, suggesting that genetic influences involved in general cognitive processing are also important for reading ability. Skill-specific genetic variance in working memory and processing speed also predicted components of reading ability. Taken together, the present study supports a genetic association between children’s cognitive ability and reading ability. PMID:26974208

Verbal working memory and reading abilities among students with visual impairment.

PubMed

Argyropoulos, Vassilios; Masoura, Elvira; Tsiakali, Thomai K; Nikolaraizi, Magda; Lappa, Christina

2017-05-01

This study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM) and reading abilities among students with visual impairment (VI). Seventy-five students with VI (visually impairment and blindness), aged 10-15 years old participated in the study, of whom 44 were visually impaired and 31 were blind. The participants' reading ability was assessed with the standardized reading ability battery Test-A (Padeliadu & Antoniou, 2008) and their verbal working memory ability was assessed with the listening recall task from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children (Pickering et al., 2001). Data analysis indicated a strong correlation between verbal WM and decoding, reading comprehension and overall reading ability among the participants with VI, while no correlation was found between reading fluency and verbal WM. The present study points out the important role of verbal WM in reading among students who are VI and carries implications for the education of those individuals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of reading and listening-reading techniques for administration of PIAT Reading Comprehension subtest: justification for the bypass approach.

PubMed

Weinberg, W A; McLean, A; Brumback, R A

1988-04-01

The Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) Reading Comprehension subtest was administered to a group of 23 learning disabled children in Grades 5 through 7 who had been classified by the clinical Lexical Paradigm as good readers or poor readers. Using standardized test administration, 14 poor readers scored substantially below the 9 good readers; however, when the child was allowed to listen and read silently while the test item was read aloud, poor readers showed marked improvement in performance compared to only moderate improvement shown by the good readers. This difference in improvement between the groups was significant and resulted in poor readers achieving performance similar to that of the good readers administered the test in the standard manner.

Developmental dyscalculia in children and adolescents with idiopathic epilepsies in a Brazilian sample.

PubMed

Thomé, Ursula; Paixão Alves, Sandra Regina da; Guerreiro, Sabrina Mendonça; Machado da Costa, Célia Regina Carvalho; Souza Moreira, Fernanda de; Bandeira Lima, Andrea; Ferreira Tavares, Maria Rita; Souza Maia Filho, Heber

2014-04-01

Epilepsy is one of the most prevalent chronic disorders of childhood which can threaten child development and mental health. Among cognitive disorders, dyscalculia is one of the most important. In this study, 39 children and adolescents with idiopathic epilepsy underwent clinical and neuropsychological assessment to determine the intellectual level, math skills, reading and writing performance and neuropsychological profile. It was observed that the mathematical ability was below schooling expectations in a higher frequency than expected. There were no significant differences in mathematical performance among groups divided by number of antiepileptic drugs used, duration of disease and types and frequency of seizures. There was a positive correlation with intelligence quotient and attentional and reading level. These results suggest the existence not only of dyscalculia, but the concurrence of attentional and reading problems for the poor mathematical performance in this population.

Simple View of Reading in Down's syndrome: the role of listening comprehension and reading skills.

PubMed

Roch, Maja; Levorato, M Chiara

2009-01-01

According to the 'Simple View of Reading' (Hoover and Gough 1990), individual differences in reading comprehension are accounted for by decoding skills and listening comprehension, each of which makes a unique and specific contribution. The current research was aimed at testing the Simple View of Reading in individuals with Down's syndrome and comparing their profiles with typically developing first graders. Listening comprehension and the ability to read both words and non-words was compared in two groups with the same level of reading comprehension: 23 individuals with Down's syndrome aged between 11 years 3 months and 18 years 2 months and 23 first-grade typically developing children aged between 6 years 2 months and 7 years 4 months. The results indicate that at the same level of reading comprehension, individuals with Down's syndrome have less developed listening comprehension and more advanced word recognition than typically developing first graders. A comparison of the profiles of the two groups revealed that reading comprehension level was predicted by listening comprehension in both groups of participants and by word-reading skills only in typically developing children. The Simple View of Reading model is confirmed for individuals with Down's syndrome, although they do not show the reading profile of typically developing first graders; rather, they show an atypical profile similar to that of 'poor comprehenders' (Cain and Oakhill 2006). The crucial role of listening comprehension in Down's syndrome is also discussed with reference to the educational implications.

Readability and Reading Ability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Benjamin D.; Stenner, A. Jackson

This document discusses the measurement of reading ability and the readability of books by application of the Lexile framework. It begins by stating the importance of uniform measures. It then discusses the history of reading ability testing, based on the assumption that no researcher has been able to measure more than one kind of reading ability.…

Cognitive Abilities Underlying Reading Accuracy, Fluency and Spelling Acquisition in Korean Hangul Learners from Grades 1 to 4: A Cross-Sectional Study.

PubMed

Park, Hyun-Rin; Uno, Akira

2015-08-01

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the cognitive abilities that predict reading and spelling performance in Korean children in Grades 1 to 4, depending on expertise and reading experience. As a result, visual cognition, phonological awareness, naming speed and receptive vocabulary significantly predicted reading accuracy in children in Grades 1 and 2, whereas visual cognition, phonological awareness and rapid naming speed did not predict reading accuracy in children in higher grades. For reading, fluency, phonological awareness, rapid naming speed and receptive vocabulary were crucial abilities in children in Grades 1 to 3, whereas phonological awareness was not a significant predictor in children in Grade 4. In spelling, reading ability and receptive vocabulary were the most important abilities for accurate Hangul spelling. The results suggested that the degree of cognitive abilities required for reading and spelling changed depending on expertise and reading experience. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Not All Reading Disabilities Are Dyslexia: Distinct Neurobiology of Specific Comprehension Deficits

PubMed Central

Clements-Stephens, Amy; Pugh, Kenneth R.; Burns, Scott; Cao, Aize; Pekar, James J.; Davis, Nicole; Rimrodt, Sheryl L.

2013-01-01

Abstract Although an extensive literature exists on the neurobiological correlates of dyslexia (DYS), to date, no studies have examined the neurobiological profile of those who exhibit poor reading comprehension despite intact word-level abilities (specific reading comprehension deficits [S-RCD]). Here we investigated the word-level abilities of S-RCD as compared to typically developing readers (TD) and those with DYS by examining the blood oxygenation-level dependent response to words varying on frequency. Understanding whether S-RCD process words in the same manner as TD, or show alternate pathways to achieve normal word-reading abilities, may provide insights into the origin of this disorder. Results showed that as compared to TD, DYS showed abnormal covariance during word processing with right-hemisphere homologs of the left-hemisphere reading network in conjunction with left occipitotemporal underactivation. In contrast, S-RCD showed an intact neurobiological response to word stimuli in occipitotemporal regions (associated with fast and efficient word processing); however, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) abnormalities were observed. Specifically, TD showed a higher-percent signal change within right IFG for low-versus-high frequency words as compared to both S-RCD and DYS. Using psychophysiological interaction analyses, a coupling-by-reading group interaction was found in right IFG for DYS, as indicated by a widespread greater covariance between right IFG and right occipitotemporal cortex/visual word-form areas, as well as bilateral medial frontal gyrus, as compared to TD. For S-RCD, the context-dependent functional interaction anomaly was most prominently seen in left IFG, which covaried to a greater extent with hippocampal, parahippocampal, and prefrontal areas than for TD for low- as compared to high-frequency words. Given the greater lexical access demands of low frequency as compared to high-frequency words, these results may suggest specific weaknesses in accessing lexical-semantic representations during word recognition. These novel findings provide foundational insights into the nature of S-RCD, and set the stage for future investigations of this common, but understudied, reading disorder. PMID:23273430

Heritability of high reading ability and its interaction with parental education.

PubMed

Friend, Angela; DeFries, John C; Olson, Richard K; Pennington, Bruce; Harlaar, Nicole; Byrne, Brian; Samuelsson, Stefan; Willcutt, Erik G; Wadsworth, Sally J; Corley, Robin; Keenan, Janice M

2009-07-01

Moderation of the level of genetic influence on children's high reading ability by environmental influences associated with parental education was explored in two independent samples of identical and fraternal twins from the United States and Great Britain. For both samples, the heritability of high reading performance increased significantly with lower levels of parental education. Thus, resilience (high reading ability despite lower environmental support) is more strongly influenced by genotype than is high reading ability with higher environmental support. This result provides a coherent account when considered alongside results of previous research showing that heritability for low reading ability decreased with lower levels of parental education.

Item Banking Enables Stand-Alone Measurement of Driving Ability.

PubMed

Khadka, Jyoti; Fenwick, Eva K; Lamoureux, Ecosse L; Pesudovs, Konrad

2016-12-01

To explore whether large item sets, as used in item banking, enable important latent traits, such as driving, to form stand-alone measures. The 88-item activity limitation (AL) domain of the glaucoma module of the Eye-tem Bank was interviewer-administered to patients with glaucoma. Rasch analysis was used to calibrate all items in AL domain on the same interval-level scale and test its psychometric properties. Based on Rasch dimensionality metrics, the AL scale was separated into subscales. These subscales underwent separate Rasch analyses to test whether they could form stand-alone measures. Independence of these measures was tested with Bland and Altman (B&A) Limit of Agreement (LOA). The AL scale was completed by 293 patients (median age, 71 years). It demonstrated excellent precision (3.12). However, Rasch analysis dimensionality metrics indicated that the domain arguably had other dimensions which were driving, luminance, and reading. Once separated, the remaining AL items, driving and luminance subscales, were unidimensional and had excellent precision of 4.25, 2.94, and 2.22, respectively. The reading subscale showed poor precision (1.66), so it was not examined further. The luminance subscale demonstrated excellent agreement (mean bias, 0.2 logit; 95% LOA, -2.2 to 3.3 logit); however, the driving subscale demonstrated poor agreement (mean bias, 1.1 logit; 95% LOA, -4.8 to 7.0 logit) with the AL scale. These findings indicate that driving items in the AL domain of the glaucoma module were perceived and responded to differently from the other AL items, but the reading and luminance items were not. Therefore, item banking enables stand-alone measurement of driving ability in glaucoma.

The Design and Development of the Phillips-Patterson Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Linda M.

The design and development of a test of inference ability in reading comprehension for grades 6, 7, and 8 (the Phillips-Patterson Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension) are described. After development of a contemporary theoretical framework for the test of inference ability in reading comprehension, the design, item development, and…

Reading skills in young adolescents with a history of Specific Language Impairment: The role of early semantic capacity.

PubMed

Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier

2015-01-01

This study assessed the reading skills of 19 Spanish-Catalan children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and 16 age-matched control children. Children with SLI have difficulties with oral language comprehension, which may affect later reading acquisition. We conducted a longitudinal study examining reading acquisition in these children between 8 and 12 years old and we relate this data with early oral language acquisition at 6 years old. Compared to the control group, the SLI group presented impaired decoding and comprehension skills at age 8, as evidenced by poor scores in all the assessed tasks. Nevertheless, only text comprehension abilities appeared to be impaired at age 12. Individual analyses confirmed the presence of comprehension deficits in most of the SLI children. Furthermore, early semantic verbal fluency at age 6 appeared to significantly predict the reading comprehension capacity of SLI participants at age 12. Our results emphasize the importance of semantic capacity at early stages of oral language development over the consolidation of reading acquisition at later stages. Readers will recognize the relevance of prior oral language impairment, especially semantic capacity, in children with a history of SLI as a risk factor for the development of later reading difficulties. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

White matter microstructure integrity in relation to reading proficiency☆.

PubMed

Nikki Arrington, C; Kulesz, Paulina A; Juranek, Jenifer; Cirino, Paul T; Fletcher, Jack M

2017-11-01

Components of reading proficiency such asaccuracy, fluency, and comprehension require the successful coordination of numerous, yet distinct, cortical regions. Underlying white matter tracts allow for communication among these regions. This study utilized unique residualized tract - based spatial statistics methodology to identify the relations of white matter microstructure integrity to three components of reading proficiency in 49 school - aged children with typically developing phonological decoding skills and 27 readers with poor decoders. Results indicated that measures of white matter integrity were differentially associated with components of reading proficiency. In both typical and poor decoders, reading comprehension correlated with measures of integrity of the right uncinate fasciculus; reading comprehension was also related to the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus in poor decoders. Also in poor decoders, word reading fluency was related to the right uncinate and left inferior fronto - occipital fasciculi. Word reading was unrelated to white matter integrity in either group. These findings expand our knowledge of the association between white matter integrity and different elements of reading proficiency. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Diagnosis and Treatment of Reading and/or Spelling Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

PubMed

Galuschka, Katharina; Schulte-Körne, Gerd

2016-04-22

3-11% of children and adolescents suffer from a reading andor spelling disorder. Their poor written-language skills markedly impair their scholastic performance and are often associated with other mental disorders. A great deal of uncertainty still surrounds the question of the appropriate methods of diagnosis and treatment. We systematically searched for pertinent publications in databases and literature reference lists, summarized the evidence in six tables, and examined some of it in a meta-analysis. Recommendations were developed in a consensus conference. A reading and/or spelling disorder should only be diagnosed if performance in these areas is below average. It should be determined whether an attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorder, or disorder of arithmetical skills is also present. Reading and spelling performance should be reinforced with systematic instruction about letter-sound and sound-letter correspondences, letter-syllable-morpheme synthesis, and sound-syllablemorpheme analysis (g' = 0.32) (recommendation grade A). Spelling ability responds best to spelling-rule training (recommendation grade A). Irlen lenses, visual and/or auditory perceptual training, hemispheric stimulation, piracetam, and prism spectacles should not be used (recommendation grade A). Evidence- and consensus-based guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of reading and/or spelling disorders in children and adolescents are now available for the first time. Reading and spelling abilities should be systematically and comprehensively reinforced, and potential comorbid disorders should be sought and treated appropriately. The efficacy of many treatments now in use has not been documented; if they are to be used in the future, they must be tested in randomized, controlled trials. For adult sufferers, adequate diagnostic instruments and therapeutic methods are not yet available.

Estimates of premorbid ability in a neurodegenerative disease clinic population: comparing the Test of Premorbid Functioning and the Wide Range Achievement Test, 4th Edition.

PubMed

Berg, Jody-Lynn; Durant, January; Banks, Sarah J; Miller, Justin B

2016-05-01

Two frequently used measures to assess premorbid intellectual ability include the Wide Range Achievement Test, 4th Edition Reading Subtest (WRAT-4 READ) and the Test of Premorbid Functioning (TOPF). The present study compared estimates obtained from these measures in a neurodegenerative disease population. Records from 85 referrals seen for neuropsychological evaluation in a neurodegenerative disorders clinic were reviewed. Evaluations included TOPF, WRAT-4 READ, and measures of memory, reasoning, language, and executive functioning. Pairwise correlations and concordance correlation coefficients (CCC) were calculated between raw scores and predicted intelligence estimates. Discrepancy scores were calculated between estimates and data were divided into three groups based on size of standardized discrepancy score: Equal, WRAT-4 READ > TOPF, and TOPF > WRAT-4 READ. analysis of variances compared groups on demographic characteristics and cognitive performance. Despite strong Pearson correlation, CCC between predicted IQ estimates showed poor agreement between measures, with evidence of both fixed and proportional bias. Discrepancies ranged from -24.0 to 22.0 (M = 1.78, SD = 6.65), with TOPF generating higher estimates on average. Individuals performing better on WRAT-4 READ were significantly older (M age = 76.26, SD = 7.53) than those performing similarly on both measures and those performing better on TOPF (F (2, 82) = 7.31, p < .001). All other comparisons between groups on demographic variables and cognitive measures were non-significant. Estimates of premorbid intelligence obtained from the TOPF and WRAT-4 READ have a strong linear relationship, but systematically generate inconsistent estimates in a neurodegenerative disease clinical sample and should not be used interchangeably.

Measuring the Reading Ability of Incoming Freshmen: A Path Analysis Investigation into Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schuster, Jonathan

2012-01-01

Reading is a complex process involving numerous skills and abilities contributing to acquiring meaning from text. Individuals without the requisite reading skills will have difficulty not only in school but throughout their lifetimes. The purpose of the study was to compare the reading ability of incoming college freshmen with that of adults with…

Different Orthographies Different Context Effects: The Effects of Arabic Sentence Context in Skilled and Poor Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabia, Salim Abu; Siegel, Linda S.

1995-01-01

Investigates whether Arabic orthography differs from an alphabetic orthography regarding context effects among poor and skilled readers. Finds that skilled as well as poor readers significantly improved their reading accuracy when they read voweled and unvoweled words in context and that skilled readers significantly improved their reading voweled…

The effect of thematic learning model, learning style, and reading ability on the students’ learning outcomes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nurlaela, L.; Samani, M.; Asto, I. G. P.; Wibawa, S. C.

2018-01-01

This study aims at gaining empirical findings of the effectiveness of thematic instructional model as compared to conventional instruction; and the potential capacity of thematic instructional model in accommodating different learning styles and reading abilities. This is an experimental research design with 140 elementary students as research subject. The data were collected by using achievement test, learning style questionnaire, and reading comprehension test, and analyzed by using Anava. The results indicate: there is a significant difference in achievement between students who use thematic instructional model and those using conventional model; a significant difference in achievement between students with visual learning style and those having auditorial learning style; a significant difference between students with high reading ability and those with low reading ability. Student’s achievement is influenced by the interaction between instructional model and student’s learning style. Student’s achievement is not influenced by the interaction between instructional model and student’s reading ability, the interaction between student’s learning style and student’s reading ability, and the interaction among instructional model, learning style and student’s reading ability. The conclusion is thematic instructional model was more effective than conventional instruction and thematic instructional model had a capacity in accommodating different learning styles and reading abilities.

Are preservice teachers prepared to teach struggling readers?

PubMed

Washburn, Erin K; Joshi, R Malatesha; Binks Cantrell, Emily

2011-06-01

Reading disabilities such as dyslexia, a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language, are estimated to affect 15-20% of the general population. Consequently, elementary school teachers encounter students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. However, recent evidence may suggest that teacher preparation programs are not providing preservice teachers with information about basic language constructs and other components related to scientifically based reading instruction. As a consequence preservice teachers have not exhibited explicit knowledge of such concepts in previous studies. Few studies have sought to assess preservice teachers' knowledge about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts. The purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school preservice teachers' knowledge of basic language constructs and their perceptions and knowledge about dyslexia. Findings from the present study suggest that preservice teachers, on average, are able to display implicit skills related to certain basic language constructs (i.e., syllable counting), but fail to demonstrate explicit knowledge of others (i.e., phonics principles). Also, preservice teachers seem to hold the common misconception that dyslexia is a visual perception deficit rather than a problem with phonological processing. Implications for future research as well as teacher preparation are discussed.

Readability, Reading Ability, and Readership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kern, Richard P.; And Others

This paper presents data describing large differences between the reading difficulty levels of printed materials used in certain military occupational specialties (MOSs) and the relatively lower reading ability levels of men assigned to these MOSs. Initial data explore the relationship between reading ability and utilization of printed materials…

[Visual perception abilities in children with reading disabilities].

PubMed

Werpup-Stüwe, Lina; Petermann, Franz

2015-05-01

Visual perceptual abilities are increasingly being neglected in research concerning reading disabilities. This study measures the visual perceptual abilities of children with disabilities in reading. The visual perceptual abilities of 35 children with specific reading disorder and 30 controls were compared using the German version of the Developmental Test of Visual Perception – Adolescent and Adult (DTVP-A). 11 % of the children with specific reading disorder show clinically relevant performance on the DTVP-A. The perceptual abilities of both groups differ significantly. No significant group differences exist after controlling for general IQ or Perceptional Reasoning Index, but they do remain after controlling for Verbal Comprehension, Working Memory, and Processing Speed Index. The number of children with reading difficulties suffering from visual perceptual disorders has been underestimated. For this reason, visual perceptual abilities should always be tested when making a reading disorder diagnosis. Profiles of IQ-test results of children suffering from reading and visual perceptual disorders should be interpreted carefully.

Differences in the Predictors of Reading Comprehension in First Graders from Low Socio-Economic Status Families with Either Good or Poor Decoding Skills

PubMed Central

Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; Theurel, Anne

2015-01-01

Based on the assumption that good decoding skills constitute a bootstrapping mechanism for reading comprehension, the present study investigated the relative contribution of the former skill to the latter compared to that of three other predictors of reading comprehension (listening comprehension, vocabulary and phonemic awareness) in 392 French-speaking first graders from low SES families. This large sample was split into three groups according to their level of decoding skills assessed by pseudoword reading. Using a cutoff of 1 SD above or below the mean of the entire population, there were 63 good decoders, 267 average decoders and 62 poor decoders. 58% of the variance in reading comprehension was explained by our four predictors, with decoding skills proving to be the best predictor (12.1%, 7.3% for listening comprehension, 4.6% for vocabulary and 3.3% for phonemic awareness). Interaction between group versus decoding skills, listening comprehension and phonemic awareness accounted for significant additional variance (3.6%, 1.1% and 1.0%, respectively). The effects on reading comprehension of decoding skills and phonemic awareness were higher in poor and average decoders than in good decoders whereas listening comprehension accounted for more variance in good and average decoders than in poor decoders. Furthermore, the percentage of children with impaired reading comprehension skills was higher in the group of poor decoders (55%) than in the two other groups (average decoders: 7%; good decoders: 0%) and only 6 children (1.5%) had impaired reading comprehension skills with unimpaired decoding skills, listening comprehension or vocabulary. These results challenge the outcomes of studies on “poor comprehenders” by showing that, at least in first grade, poor reading comprehension is strongly linked to the level of decoding skills. PMID:25793519

Differences in the predictors of reading comprehension in first graders from low socio-economic status families with either good or poor decoding skills.

PubMed

Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; Theurel, Anne

2015-01-01

Based on the assumption that good decoding skills constitute a bootstrapping mechanism for reading comprehension, the present study investigated the relative contribution of the former skill to the latter compared to that of three other predictors of reading comprehension (listening comprehension, vocabulary and phonemic awareness) in 392 French-speaking first graders from low SES families. This large sample was split into three groups according to their level of decoding skills assessed by pseudoword reading. Using a cutoff of 1 SD above or below the mean of the entire population, there were 63 good decoders, 267 average decoders and 62 poor decoders. 58% of the variance in reading comprehension was explained by our four predictors, with decoding skills proving to be the best predictor (12.1%, 7.3% for listening comprehension, 4.6% for vocabulary and 3.3% for phonemic awareness). Interaction between group versus decoding skills, listening comprehension and phonemic awareness accounted for significant additional variance (3.6%, 1.1% and 1.0%, respectively). The effects on reading comprehension of decoding skills and phonemic awareness were higher in poor and average decoders than in good decoders whereas listening comprehension accounted for more variance in good and average decoders than in poor decoders. Furthermore, the percentage of children with impaired reading comprehension skills was higher in the group of poor decoders (55%) than in the two other groups (average decoders: 7%; good decoders: 0%) and only 6 children (1.5%) had impaired reading comprehension skills with unimpaired decoding skills, listening comprehension or vocabulary. These results challenge the outcomes of studies on "poor comprehenders" by showing that, at least in first grade, poor reading comprehension is strongly linked to the level of decoding skills.

Reading comprehension and reading related abilities in adolescents with reading disabilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Ghelani, Karen; Sidhu, Robindra; Jain, Umesh; Tannock, Rosemary

2004-11-01

Reading comprehension is a very complex task that requires different cognitive processes and reading abilities over the life span. There are fewer studies of reading comprehension relative to investigations of word reading abilities. Reading comprehension difficulties, however, have been identified in two common and frequently overlapping childhood disorders: reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The nature of reading comprehension difficulties in these groups remains unclear. The performance of four groups of adolescents (RD, ADHD, comorbid ADHD and RD, and normal controls) was compared on reading comprehension tasks as well as on reading rate and accuracy tasks. Adolescents with RD showed difficulties across most reading tasks, although their comprehension scores were average. Adolescents with ADHD exhibited adequate single word reading abilities. Subtle difficulties were observed, however, on measures of text reading rate and accuracy as well as on silent reading comprehension, but scores remained in the average range. The comorbid group demonstrated similar difficulties to the RD group on word reading accuracy and on reading rate but experienced problems on only silent reading comprehension. Implications for reading interventions are outlined, as well as the clinical relevance for diagnosis.

Does the Relation between Rapid Automatized Naming and Reading Depend on Age or on Reading Level? A Behavioral and ERP Study

PubMed Central

Cohen, Marjolaine; Mahé, G.; Laganaro, Marina; Zesiger, Pascal

2018-01-01

Reading predictors evolve through age: phonological awareness is the best predictor of reading abilities at the beginning of reading acquisition while Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) becomes the best reading predictor in more experienced readers (around 9–10 years old). Those developmental changes in the relationship between RAN and reading have so far been explained in term of participants' age. However, it should be noted that in the previous experiments age always co-vary with participants reading level. It is thus not clear whether RAN-reading relationship is developmental in nature or related to the reading system itself. This study investigates whether the behavioral changes in the relationship between RAN and reading and their electrophysiological correlates are related to the chronological age or to the reading level of the participants. Thirty two French-speaking children aged 7–10 years took part to the experiment: they were divided into groups contrasted on age but with similar reading levels and the other way round. Participants performed two reading tasks and four RAN tasks. EEG/ERP was recorded during discrete letter and picture RAN. Behavioral results revealed that alphanumeric RAN is more sensitive to age variations than reading level differences. The inverse profile was revealed for picture RAN, which discriminate poor and good readers among typically developed children within the same age-group. ERPs of both letter and picture RAN differed across age groups whereas only for the picture RAN ERPs differed across reading levels. Taken together, these results suggest that picture RAN is a particularly good indicator of reading level variance independently of age. PMID:29520226

Riddle appreciation and reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children.

PubMed

Tang, Ivy N Y; To, Carol K S; Weekes, Brendan S

2013-10-01

Inference-making skills are necessary for reading comprehension. Training in riddle appreciation is an effective way to improve reading comprehension among English-speaking children. However, it is not clear whether these methods generalize to other writing systems. The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between inference-making skills, as measured by riddle appreciation ability, and reading comprehension performance in typically developing Cantonese-speaking children in the 4th grade. Forty Cantonese-speaking children between the ages of 9;1 (years;months) and 11;0 were given tests of riddle appreciation ability and reading comprehension. Chinese character reading and auditory comprehension abilities were also assessed using tests that had been standardized in Hong Kong. Regression analyses revealed that riddle appreciation ability explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension after variance due to character reading skills and auditory comprehension skills were first considered. Orthographic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic riddles were also significantly correlated with reading comprehension. Riddle appreciation ability predicts reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking 4th-grade children. Therefore, training Cantonese speakers in riddle appreciation should improve their reading comprehension.

The Relationship between Parent Report of Adaptive Behavior and Direct Assessment of Reading Ability in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arciuli. Joanne; Stevens, Kirsten; Trembath, David; Simpson, Ian Craig

2013-01-01

Purpose: This study was designed to shed light on the profile of reading ability in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A key aim was to examine the relationship between parent report of adaptive behavior and direct assessment of reading ability in these children. Method: The authors investigated children's reading ability using the Wide…

Reading deficits in very low birthweight children are associated with vocabulary and attention issues at the age of seven.

PubMed

Leijon, Ingemar; Ingemansson, Fredrik; Nelson, Nina; Wadsby, Marie; Samuelsson, Stefan

2016-01-01

This Swedish study compared reading skills between seven-year-old children with a very low birthweight (VLBW) and controls with a normal birthweight, exploring associations between reading variables and cognition, parent-rated behaviour, perinatal factors and family factors. We studied 51 VLBW children, with no major neurodevelopmental impairments and attending their first year at a regular school, and compared them with the 51 sex- and age-matched controls. The test battery, carried out at 7.8 ± 0.4 years of age, included reading skills, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - III and the Child Behaviour Checklist. Very low birthweight children with a mean birthweight of 1105 g (± 291 g) and a gestational age of 28.8 (± 2.2) weeks scored significantly lower in all reading subtests and cognition and demonstrated more behavioural problems than normal birthweight controls. We also found significant associations between poor vocabulary, combined with attention problems, and phonological awareness, rapid naming and spelling control. Perinatal factors had no association with reading function, and socio-economic factors had very few. Very low birthweight children demonstrated deficits in all reading domains and had poorer cognition and more behavioural problems at the age of seven, with reading ability related to vocabulary and attention. ©2015 The Authors. Acta Paediatrica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

To Get Hold of the Wrong End of the Stick: Reasons for Poor Idiom Understanding in Children with Reading Comprehension Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cain, Kate; Towse, Andrea S.

2008-01-01

Purpose: The aim was to identify the source of idiom understanding difficulties in children with specific reading comprehension failure. Method: Two groups (ns = 15) of 9- to 10-year-olds participated. One group had age-appropriate word reading and reading comprehension; the other group had age-appropriate word reading but poor reading…

Teaching Home Economics Content Material in an Individualized Reading Skills Laboratory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comerford, Linnie Sue

Eighth grade students whose reading achievement scores fell between second and fourth grade level were given an individualized self-concept approach to reading instruction in home economics. Causes for their reading difficulties were identified as lack of interest in school, no set goals, poor attitudes, poor attendance and suspensions, and…

Screening Questions to Predict Limited Health Literacy: A Cross-Sectional Study of Patients With Diabetes Mellitus

PubMed Central

Jeppesen, Kelly Marvin; Coyle, James D.; Miser, William F.

2009-01-01

PURPOSE Limited health literacy is increasingly recognized as a barrier to receiving adequate health care. Identifying patients at risk of poor health outcomes secondary to limited health literacy is currently the responsibility of clinicians. Our objective was to identify which screening questions and demographics independently predict limited health literacy and could thus help clinicians individualize their patient education. METHODS Between August 2006 and July 2007, we asked 225 patients being treated for diabetes at an academic primary care office several questions regarding their reading ability as part of a larger study (57% response rate). We built a logistic regression model predicting limited health literacy to determine the independent predictive properties of these questions and demographic variables. Patients were classified as having limited health literacy if they had a Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (S-TOFHLA) score of less than 23. The potential predictors evaluated were self-rated reading ability, highest education level attained, Single-Item Literacy Screener (SILS) result, patients’ reading enjoyment, age, sex, and race. RESULTS Overall, 15.1% of the patients had limited health literacy. In the final model, 5 of the potential predictors were independently associated with increased odds of having limited health literacy. Specifically, patients were more likely to have limited health literacy if they had a poorer self-rated reading ability (odds ratio [OR] per point increase in the model = 3.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.71–6.63), more frequently needed help reading written health materials (assessed by the SILS) (OR = 2.03; 95% CI, 1.26–3.26), had a lower education level (OR = 1.89; 95% CI, 1.12–3.18), were male (OR = 4.46; 95% CI, 1.53–12.99), and were of nonwhite race (OR = 3.73; 95% CI, 1.04–13.40). These associations were not confounded by age. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.9212. CONCLUSIONS Self-rated reading ability, SILS result, highest education level attained, sex, and race independently predict whether a patient has limited health literacy. Clinicians should be aware of these associations and ask questions to identify patients at risk. We propose an “SOS” mnemonic based on these findings to help clinicians wishing to individualize patient education. PMID:19139446

Cognitive and emotional empathy in typical and impaired readers and its relationship to reading competence.

PubMed

Gabay, Yafit; Shamay-Tsoory, Simone G; Goldfarb, Liat

2016-12-01

Studies indicate a strong relationship between empathy and language skills, but the relationship between reading and empathy remains elusive, although a shared neural substrate (the temporoparietal junction; TPJ) has been implicated in both reading and empathy. Motivated by these observations, the purpose of the current study was to examine empathic skills in a large spectrum of reading abilities, including typical readers and individuals with dyslexia, and their relationship to reading competence. We administered the Intrapersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) test, which differentiates between two subscales of empathy (cognitive and emotional empathy), to a group of participants with dyslexia and typical readers. Results indicate that the general reading score (average z scores of all reading tests) was significantly positively correlated with empathic scores. In addition, tests of specific reading abilities-decoding, reading fluency, and reading-related measures of phonological awareness-were significantly positively correlated with empathic scores. Finally, participants with dyslexia who showed low reading abilities had significantly lower scores in total empathy and cognitive empathy, as measured by the IRI test, than did typical participants with high reading abilities. Taken together, these results indicate a strong association between reading-related skills and empathic abilities and may point to involvement of the TPJ in both empathy and reading.

Relationships Between Oral Reading Rates for Letters, Words, and Simple Text, and the Development of Reading Ability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biemiller, Andrew

The development of oral reading speed in the early elementary years and an examination of some underlying abilities that may be involved in individual differences in reading speed and ability are the concerns of this study. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data relating the time required to read orally 50 unrelated letters, 50 unrelated words, and…

Phenotypic and genetic associations between reading and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder dimensions in adolescence.

PubMed

Plourde, Vickie; Boivin, Michel; Brendgen, Mara; Vitaro, Frank; Dionne, Ginette

2017-10-01

Multiple studies have shown that reading abilities and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms, mainly inattention symptoms, are phenotypically and genetically associated during childhood. However, few studies have looked at these associations during adolescence to investigate possible developmental changes. The aim of the study is to examine the genetic and environmental etiology of the associations between inattention and hyperactivity reported by parents, and reading accuracy, reading speed, and word reading in a population-based twin sample (Quebec Newborn Twin Study). Participants were between 14 and 15 years of age at the time of testing (N = 668-837). Phenotypic results showed that when nonverbal and verbal abilities were controlled, inattention, but not hyperactivity/impulsivity, was a modest and significant predictor of reading accuracy, reading speed, and word reading. The associations between inattention and all reading abilities were partly explained by genetic and unique environmental factors. However, the genetic correlations were no longer significant after controlling for verbal abilities. In midadolescence, inattention is the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder dimension associated with reading abilities, but they could also share genetic factors with general verbal skills.

Continuities in Reading Acquisition, Reading Skill, and Reading Disability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfetti, Charles A.

1986-01-01

Learning to read depends on eventual mastery of coding procedures, and even skilled reading depends on coding processes low in cost to processing resources. Reading disability may be understood as a point on an ability continuum or a wide range of coding ability. Instructional goals of word reading skill, including rapid and fluent word…

Disciplinary knowledge of K-3 teachers and their knowledge calibration in the domain of early literacy.

PubMed

Cunningham, Anne E; Perry, Kathryn E; Stanovich, Keith E; Stanovich, Paula J

2004-06-01

Recently, investigators have begun to pay increasing attention to the role of teachers' domain specific knowledge in the area of reading, and its implications for both classroom practice and student learning. The aims of the present study were to assess kindergarten to third-grade teachers' actual and perceived reading-related subject matter knowledge, and to investigate the extent to which teachers calibrate their reading related subject matter knowledge by examining relationships between actual and perceived knowledge. Results indicated that while teachers demonstrated limited knowledge of children's literature, phoneme awareness, and phonics, the majority of these same teachers evaluated their knowledge levels quite positively. Teachers demonstrated some ability to calibrate their own knowledge levels in the area of children's literature, yet they were poorly calibrated in the domains of phoneme awareness and phonics. These findings suggest that teachers tend to overestimate their reading related subject matter knowledge and are often unaware of what they know and do not know. Implications for the design of teacher education at both the preservice and inservice levels are discussed.

Improving the Reading of Bisyllabic Words That Involve Context-Sensitive Spelling Rules: Focus on Successes or on Failures?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steenbeek-Planting, Esther G.; van Bon, Wim H. J.; Schreuder, Robert

2013-01-01

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…

Reading Comprehension in Children with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laws, Glynis; Brown, Heather; Main, Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Two studies aimed to investigate the reading comprehension abilities of 14 readers with Down syndrome aged 6 years 8 months to 13 years relative to those of typically developing children matched on word reading ability, and to investigate how these abilities were associated with reading accuracy, listening comprehension, phonological awareness and…

Reliability of Snellen charts for testing visual acuity for driving: prospective study and postal questionnaire

PubMed Central

Currie, Zanna; Bhan, Archana; Pepper, Irene

2000-01-01

Objectives To assess the ability of patients with binocular 6/9 or 6/12 vision on the Snellen chart (Snellen acuity) to read a number plate at 20.5 m (the required standard for driving) and to determine how health professionals advise such patients about driving. Design Prospective study of patients and postal questionnaire to healthcare professionals. Subjects 50 patients with 6/9 vision and 50 with 6/12 vision and 100 general practitioners, 100 optometrists or opticians, and 100 ophthalmologists. Setting Ophthalmology outpatient clinics in Sheffield. Main outcome measures Ability to read a number plate at 20.5 m and health professionals' advice about driving on the basis of visual acuity. Results 26% of patients with 6/9 vision failed the number plate test, and 34% with 6/12 vision passed it. Of the general practitioners advising patients with 6/9 vision, 76% said the patients could drive, 13% said they should not drive, and 11% were unsure. Of the general practitioners advising patients with 6/12 vision, 21% said the patients could drive, 54% said they should not drive, and 25% were unsure. The level of acuity at which optometrists, opticians, and ophthalmologists would advise drivers against driving ranged from 6/9−2 (ability to read all except two letters on the 6/9 line of the Snellen chart) to less than 6/18. Conclusions Snellen acuity is a poor predictor of an individual's ability to meet the required visual standard for driving. Patients with 6/9 vision or less should be warned that they may fail to meet this standard, but those with 6/12 vision should not be assumed to be below the standard. PMID:11039964

Teacher knowledge of basic language concepts and dyslexia.

PubMed

Washburn, Erin K; Joshi, R Malatesha; Binks-Cantrell, Emily S

2011-05-01

Roughly one-fifth of the US population displays one or more symptoms of dyslexia: a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process written language. Consequently, elementary school teachers are teaching students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. Findings from studies have indicated that teachers lack essential knowledge needed to teach struggling readers, particularly children with dyslexia. However, few studies have sought to assess teachers' knowledge and perceptions about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts related to reading instruction. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school teachers' knowledge of basic language concepts and their knowledge and perceptions about dyslexia. Findings from the present study indicated that teachers, on average, were able to display implicit skills related to certain basic language concepts (i.e. syllable counting), but failed to demonstrate explicit knowledge of others (i.e. phonics principles). Also, teachers seemed to hold the common misconception that dyslexia is a visual processing deficit rather than phonological processing deficit. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

What are the early indicators of persistent word reading difficulties among Chinese readers in elementary grades?

PubMed

Yeung, Pui-Sze; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Chan, David Wai-Ock; Chung, Kevin Kien-Hoa

2014-05-01

To identify the indicators of persistent reading difficulties among Chinese readers in early elementary grades, the performance of three groups of Chinese children with different reading trajectories ('persistent poor word readers', 'improved poor word readers' and 'skilled word readers') in reading-related measures was analysed in a 3-year longitudinal study. The three groups were classified according to their performance in a standardized Chinese word reading test in Grade 1 and Grade 4. Results of analysis of variance and logistic regression on the reading-related measures revealed that rapid naming and syntactic skills were important indicators of early word reading difficulty. Syntactic skills and morphological awareness were possible markers of persistent reading problems. Chinese persistent poor readers did not differ significantly from skilled readers on the measures of phonological skills. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Comprehension Problems of Children with Poor Reading Comprehension Despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the comprehension problems of children who have a specific reading comprehension deficit (SCD), which is characterized by poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. The meta-analysis included 86 studies of children with SCD who were assessed in reading comprehension and oral language…

Reading Self-Perceived Ability, Enjoyment and Achievement: A Genetically Informative Study of Their Reciprocal Links Over Time

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Extant literature has established a consistent association between aspects of reading motivation, such as enjoyment and self-perceived ability, and reading achievement, in that more motivated readers are generally more skilled readers. However, the developmental etiology of this relation is yet to be investigated. The present study explores the development of the motivation–achievement association and its genetic and environmental underpinnings. Applying cross-lagged design in a sample of 13,825 twins, we examined the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the association between reading enjoyment and self-perceived ability and reading achievement. Children completed a reading comprehension task and self-reported their reading enjoyment and perceived ability twice in middle childhood: when they were 9–10 and 12 years old. Results showed a modest reciprocal association over time between reading motivation (enjoyment and perceived ability) and reading achievement. Reading motivation at age 9–10 statistically predicted the development of later achievement, and similarly, reading achievement at age 9–10 predicted the development of later motivation. This reciprocal association was observed beyond the stability of the variables and their contemporaneous correlation and was largely explained by genetic factors. PMID:28333527

Reading comprehension difficulties in children with rolandic epilepsy.

PubMed

Currie, Nicola K; Lew, Adina R; Palmer, Tom M; Basu, Helen; De Goede, Christian; Iyer, Anand; Cain, Kate

2018-03-01

Difficulties in reading comprehension can arise from either word reading or listening comprehension difficulties, or a combination of the two. We sought to determine whether children with rolandic epilepsy had poor reading comprehension relative to typically developing comparison children, and whether such difficulties were associated with word reading and/or general language comprehension difficulties. In this cross-sectional study, children with rolandic epilepsy (n=25; 16 males, 9 females; mean age 9y 1mo, SD 1y 7mo) and a comparison group (n=39; 25 males, 14 females; mean age 9y 1mo, SD 1y 3mo) completed assessments of reading comprehension, listening comprehension, word/non-word reading, speech articulation, and Non-verbal IQ. Reading comprehension and word reading were worse in children with rolandic epilepsy (F 1,61 =6.89, p=0.011, ηp2=0.10 and F 1,61 =6.84, p=0.011, ηp2=0.10 respectively), with listening comprehension being marginal (F 1,61 =3.81, p=0.055, ηp2=0.06). Word reading and listening comprehension made large and independent contributions to reading comprehension, explaining 70% of the variance. Children with rolandic epilepsy may be at risk of reading comprehension difficulties. Thorough assessment of individual children is required to ascertain whether the difficulties lie with decoding text, or with general comprehension skills, or both. Children with rolandic epilepsy may be at risk of poor reading comprehension. This was related to poor word reading, poor listening comprehension, or both. Reading comprehension interventions should be tailored to the profile of difficulties. © 2017 Mac Keith Press.

Investigating the role of visual and auditory search in reading and developmental dyslexia

PubMed Central

Lallier, Marie; Donnadieu, Sophie; Valdois, Sylviane

2013-01-01

It has been suggested that auditory and visual sequential processing deficits contribute to phonological disorders in developmental dyslexia. As an alternative explanation to a phonological deficit as the proximal cause for reading disorders, the visual attention span hypothesis (VA Span) suggests that difficulties in processing visual elements simultaneously lead to dyslexia, regardless of the presence of a phonological disorder. In this study, we assessed whether deficits in processing simultaneously displayed visual or auditory elements is linked to dyslexia associated with a VA Span impairment. Sixteen children with developmental dyslexia and 16 age-matched skilled readers were assessed on visual and auditory search tasks. Participants were asked to detect a target presented simultaneously with 3, 9, or 15 distracters. In the visual modality, target detection was slower in the dyslexic children than in the control group on a “serial” search condition only: the intercepts (but not the slopes) of the search functions were higher in the dyslexic group than in the control group. In the auditory modality, although no group difference was observed, search performance was influenced by the number of distracters in the control group only. Within the dyslexic group, not only poor visual search (high reaction times and intercepts) but also low auditory search performance (d′) strongly correlated with poor irregular word reading accuracy. Moreover, both visual and auditory search performance was associated with the VA Span abilities of dyslexic participants but not with their phonological skills. The present data suggests that some visual mechanisms engaged in “serial” search contribute to reading and orthographic knowledge via VA Span skills regardless of phonological skills. The present results further open the question of the role of auditory simultaneous processing in reading as well as its link with VA Span skills. PMID:24093014

Investigating the role of visual and auditory search in reading and developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Lallier, Marie; Donnadieu, Sophie; Valdois, Sylviane

2013-01-01

It has been suggested that auditory and visual sequential processing deficits contribute to phonological disorders in developmental dyslexia. As an alternative explanation to a phonological deficit as the proximal cause for reading disorders, the visual attention span hypothesis (VA Span) suggests that difficulties in processing visual elements simultaneously lead to dyslexia, regardless of the presence of a phonological disorder. In this study, we assessed whether deficits in processing simultaneously displayed visual or auditory elements is linked to dyslexia associated with a VA Span impairment. Sixteen children with developmental dyslexia and 16 age-matched skilled readers were assessed on visual and auditory search tasks. Participants were asked to detect a target presented simultaneously with 3, 9, or 15 distracters. In the visual modality, target detection was slower in the dyslexic children than in the control group on a "serial" search condition only: the intercepts (but not the slopes) of the search functions were higher in the dyslexic group than in the control group. In the auditory modality, although no group difference was observed, search performance was influenced by the number of distracters in the control group only. Within the dyslexic group, not only poor visual search (high reaction times and intercepts) but also low auditory search performance (d') strongly correlated with poor irregular word reading accuracy. Moreover, both visual and auditory search performance was associated with the VA Span abilities of dyslexic participants but not with their phonological skills. The present data suggests that some visual mechanisms engaged in "serial" search contribute to reading and orthographic knowledge via VA Span skills regardless of phonological skills. The present results further open the question of the role of auditory simultaneous processing in reading as well as its link with VA Span skills.

Nursing students' reading and English aptitudes and their relationship to discipline-specific formal writing ability: a descriptive correlational study.

PubMed

Newton, Sarah; Moore, Gary

2010-01-01

Formal writing assignments are commonly used in nursing education to develop students' critical thinking skills, as well as to enhance their communication abilities. However, writing apprehension is a common phenomenon among nursing students. It has been suggested that reading and English aptitudes are related to formal writing ability, yet neither the reading nor the English aptitudes of undergraduate nursing students have been described in the literature, and the relationships that reading and English aptitude have with formal writing ability have not been explored. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to describe writing apprehension and to assess the relationships among reading and English aptitude and discipline-specific formal writing ability among undergraduate nursing students. The study sample consisted of 146 sophomores from one baccalaureate nursing program. The results indicated that both reading and English aptitude were related to students' formal writing ability.

Comparison of paragraph comprehension test scores with reading versus listening-reading and multiple-choice versus nominal recall administration techniques: justification for the bypass approach.

PubMed

Weinberg, W A; McLean, A; Snider, R L; Rintelmann, J W; Brumback, R A

1989-12-01

Eight groups of learning disabled children (N = 100), categorized by the clinical Lexical Paradigm as good readers or poor readers, were individually administered the Gilmore Oral Reading Test, Form D, by one of four input/retrieval methods: (1) the standardized method of administration in which the child reads each paragraph aloud and then answers five questions relating to the paragraph [read/recall method]; (2) the child reads each paragraph aloud and then for each question selects the correct answer from among three choices read by the examiner [read/choice method]; (3) the examiner reads each paragraph aloud and reads each of the five questions to the child to answer [listen/recall method]; and (4) the examiner reads each paragraph aloud and then for each question reads three multiple-choice answers from which the child selects the correct answer [listen/choice method]. The major difference in scores was between the groups tested by the recall versus the orally read multiple-choice methods. This study indicated that poor readers who listened to the material and were tested by orally read multiple-choice format could perform as well as good readers. The performance of good readers was not affected by listening or by the method of testing. The multiple-choice testing improved the performance of poor readers independent of the input method. This supports the arguments made previously that a "bypass approach" to education of poor readers in which testing is accomplished using an orally read multiple-choice format can enhance the child's school performance on reading-related tasks. Using a listening while reading input method may further enhance performance.

The Relationship Between Academic Performance and Reading Ability of Pensacola Junior College Freshmen.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Einbecker, Polly Godwin

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship between reading ability and academic performance of junior college freshman and to what degree a measure of reading ability could predict academic performance. The 313 Pensacola Junior College freshman for whom 1970 Reading Index Scores on the Florida Twelfth Grade Test were…

Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability.

PubMed

Catts, Hugh W; Kamhi, Alan G

2017-04-20

In this initial article of the clinical forum on reading comprehension, we argue that reading comprehension is not a single ability that can be assessed by one or more general reading measures or taught by a small set of strategies or approaches. We present evidence for a multidimensional view of reading comprehension that demonstrates how it varies as a function of reader ability, text, and task. The implications of this view for instruction of reading comprehension are considered. Reading comprehension is best conceptualized with a multidimensional model. The multidimensionality of reading comprehension means that instruction will be more effective when tailored to student performance with specific texts and tasks.

The Potency of "READS" to Inform Students' Reading Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohamed, Abdul Rashid; Eng, Lin Siew; Mohamed Ismail, Shaik Abdul Malik

2012-01-01

This paper shares an initiative conducted in Malaysia in terms of knowledge to gauge students' Reading Age and to inform teachers of their students' reading progress and learning. Ensuring teachers understand the needs of students' reading ability and preparing students to read and comprehend texts are the two most fundamental parallel tasks in…

Functional Neuroanatomical Evidence for the Double-Deficit Hypothesis of Developmental Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Norton, Elizabeth S.; Black, Jessica M.; Stanley, Leanne M.; Tanaka, Hiroko; Gabrieli, John D. E.; Sawyer, Carolyn; Hoeft, Fumiko

2015-01-01

The double-deficit hypothesis of dyslexia posits that both rapid naming and phonological impairments can cause reading difficulties, and that individuals who have both of these deficits show greater reading impairments compared to those with a single deficit. Despite extensive behavioral research, the brain basis of poor reading with a double-deficit has never been investigated. The goal of the study was to evaluate the double-deficit hypothesis using functional MRI. Activation patterns during a printed word rhyme judgment task in 90 children with a wide range of reading abilities showed dissociation between brain regions that were sensitive to phonological awareness (left inferior frontal and inferior parietal regions) and rapid naming (right cerebellar lobule VI). More specifically, the double-deficit group showed less activation in the fronto-parietal reading network compared to children with only a deficit in phonological awareness, who in turn showed less activation than the typically-reading group. On the other hand, the double-deficit group showed less cerebellar activation compared to children with only a rapid naming deficit, who in turn showed less activation than the typically-reading children. Functional connectivity analyses revealed that bilateral prefrontal regions were key for linking brain regions associated with phonological awareness and rapid naming, with the double-deficit group being the most aberrant in their connectivity. Our study provides the first functional neuroanatomical evidence for the double-deficit hypothesis of developmental dyslexia. PMID:24953957

The ABCs of Math: A Genetic Analysis of Mathematics and Its Links with Reading Ability and General Cognitive Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hart, Sara A.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Thompson, Lee A.; Plomin, Robert

2009-01-01

The goal of this first major report from the Western Reserve Reading Project Math component is to explore the etiology of the relationship among tester-administered measures of mathematics ability, reading ability, and general cognitive ability. Data are available on 314 pairs of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins analyzed across 5 waves of…

An Investigation of the Relationship between Reading Disabilities and Oral Syntax and the Temporal Aspects of that Relationship.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dumas, Marsha Rose

Fifteen eight- and nine-year-old boys with reading disabilities and 15 with normal reading ability participated in a study of the relationships among reading disabilities, oral syntax, and temporal functioning ability (sequencing and the ability to perceive relationships in time). Each subject was given an individual battery of tests which…

Spatial attention and reading ability: ERP correlates of flanker and cue-size effects in good and poor adult phonological decoders.

PubMed

Matthews, Allison Jane; Martin, Frances Heritage

2015-12-01

To investigate facilitatory and inhibitory processes during selective attention among adults with good (n=17) and poor (n=14) phonological decoding skills, a go/nogo flanker task was completed while EEG was recorded. Participants responded to a middle target letter flanked by compatible or incompatible flankers. The target was surrounded by a small or large circular cue which was presented simultaneously or 500ms prior. Poor decoders showed a greater RT cost for incompatible stimuli preceded by large cues and less RT benefit for compatible stimuli. Poor decoders also showed reduced modulation of ERPs by cue-size at left hemisphere posterior sites (N1) and by flanker compatibility at right hemisphere posterior sites (N1) and frontal sites (N2), consistent with processing differences in fronto-parietal attention networks. These findings have potential implications for understanding the relationship between spatial attention and phonological decoding in dyslexia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global, broad, or specific cognitive differences? Using a MIMIC model to examine differences in CHC abilities in children with learning disabilities.

PubMed

Niileksela, Christopher R; Reynolds, Matthew R

2014-01-01

This study was designed to better understand the relations between learning disabilities and different levels of latent cognitive abilities, including general intelligence (g), broad cognitive abilities, and specific abilities based on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory of intelligence (CHC theory). Data from the Differential Ability Scales-Second Edition (DAS-II) were used to create a multiple-indicator multiple cause model to examine the latent mean differences in cognitive abilities between children with and without learning disabilities in reading (LD reading), math (LD math), and reading and writing(LD reading and writing). Statistically significant differences were found in the g factor between the norm group and the LD groups. After controlling for differences in g, the LD reading and LD reading and writing groups showed relatively lower latent processing speed, and the LD math group showed relatively higher latent comprehension-knowledge. There were also some differences in some specific cognitive abilities, including lower scores in spatial relations and numerical facility for the LD math group, and lower scores in visual memory for the LD reading and writing group. These specific mean differences were above and beyond any differences in the latent cognitive factor means.

Comprehension by learning-disabled and nondisabled adolescents of personal/social problems presented in text.

PubMed

Williams, J P

1991-01-01

Four groups of 14-year-olds, differing in reading level, learning disability status, and socioeconomic status, read and retold short problem narratives and answered questions. The pattern of reporting components of the problem schema (goal/obstacles/choices) differed for problems presented with or without a statement of the character's priority for action, suggesting that including priorities adds another level of information to the problem text and changes its macrostructure. Even the poorest readers showed this sensitivity to text structure. Three of the four measures of problem representation (idea units recalled, problem-schema components reported, and error rate) reflected overall reading ability. However, the degree to which extraneous information was incorporated into problem representations did not. Learning-disabled students made more importations, and more implausible importations, than did non-disabled students. Moreover, this pattern was associated with poor problem solving. Only proficient readers showed awareness of the source of the information (text or extratext) on which their predictions were based.

Low self-concept in poor readers: prevalence, heterogeneity, and risk.

PubMed

McArthur, Genevieve; Castles, Anne; Kohnen, Saskia; Banales, Erin

2016-01-01

There is evidence that poor readers are at increased risk for various types of low self-concept-particularly academic self-concept. However, this evidence ignores the heterogeneous nature of poor readers, and hence the likelihood that not all poor readers have low self-concept. The aim of this study was to better understand which types of poor readers have low self-concept. We tested 77 children with poor reading for their age for four types of self-concept, four types of reading, three types of spoken language, and two types of attention. We found that poor readers with poor attention had low academic self-concept, while poor readers with poor spoken language had low general self-concept in addition to low academic self-concept. In contrast, poor readers with typical spoken language and attention did not have low self-concept of any type. We also discovered that academic self-concept was reliably associated with reading and receptive spoken vocabulary, and that general self-concept was reliably associated with spoken vocabulary. These outcomes suggest that poor readers with multiple impairments in reading, language, and attention are at higher risk for low academic and general self-concept, and hence need to be assessed for self-concept in clinical practice. Our results also highlight the need for further investigation into the heterogeneous nature of self-concept in poor readers.

Low self-concept in poor readers: prevalence, heterogeneity, and risk

PubMed Central

Castles, Anne; Kohnen, Saskia; Banales, Erin

2016-01-01

There is evidence that poor readers are at increased risk for various types of low self-concept—particularly academic self-concept. However, this evidence ignores the heterogeneous nature of poor readers, and hence the likelihood that not all poor readers have low self-concept. The aim of this study was to better understand which types of poor readers have low self-concept. We tested 77 children with poor reading for their age for four types of self-concept, four types of reading, three types of spoken language, and two types of attention. We found that poor readers with poor attention had low academic self-concept, while poor readers with poor spoken language had low general self-concept in addition to low academic self-concept. In contrast, poor readers with typical spoken language and attention did not have low self-concept of any type. We also discovered that academic self-concept was reliably associated with reading and receptive spoken vocabulary, and that general self-concept was reliably associated with spoken vocabulary. These outcomes suggest that poor readers with multiple impairments in reading, language, and attention are at higher risk for low academic and general self-concept, and hence need to be assessed for self-concept in clinical practice. Our results also highlight the need for further investigation into the heterogeneous nature of self-concept in poor readers. PMID:27867764

Processing Words Varying in Personal Familiarity (Based on Reading and Spelling) by Poor Readers and Age-Matched and Reading-Matched Controls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corcos, Evelyne; Willows, Dale M.

2009-01-01

To evaluate whether performance differences between good and poor readers relate to reading-specific cognitive factors that result from engaging in reading activities and other experiential factors, the authors gave students in Grades 4 and 6 a perceptual identification test of words not only drawn from their personal lexicon but also varying in…

The ABCs of Math: A Genetic Analysis of Mathematics and Its Links With Reading Ability and General Cognitive Ability

PubMed Central

Hart, Sara A.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Thompson, Lee A.; Plomin, Robert

2009-01-01

The goal of this first major report from the Western Reserve Reading Project Math component is to explore the etiology of the relationship among tester-administered measures of mathematics ability, reading ability, and general cognitive ability. Data are available on 314 pairs of monozygotic and same-sex dizygotic twins analyzed across 5 waves of assessment. Univariate analyses provide a range of estimates of genetic (h2 = .00 –.63) and shared (c2 = .15–.52) environmental influences across math calculation, fluency, and problem solving measures. Multivariate analyses indicate genetic overlap between math problem solving with general cognitive ability and reading decoding, whereas math fluency shares significant genetic overlap with reading fluency and general cognitive ability. Further, math fluency has unique genetic influences. In general, math ability has shared environmental overlap with general cognitive ability and decoding. These results indicate that aspects of math that include problem solving have different genetic and environmental influences than math calculation. Moreover, math fluency, a timed measure of calculation, is the only measured math ability with unique genetic influences. PMID:20157630

Examining the online reading behavior and performance of fifth-graders: evidence from eye-movement data

PubMed Central

Sung, Yao-Ting; Wu, Ming-Da; Chen, Chun-Kuang; Chang, Kuo-En

2015-01-01

Online reading is developing at an increasingly rapid rate, but the debate concerning whether learning is more effective when using hypertexts than when using traditional linear texts is still persistent. In addition, several researchers stated that online reading comprehension always starts with a question, but little empirical evidence has been gathered to investigate this claim. This study used eye-tracking technology and retrospective think aloud technique to examine online reading behaviors of fifth-graders (N = 50). The participants were asked to read four texts on the website. The present study employed a three-way mixed design: 2 (reading ability: high vs. low) × 2 (reading goals: with vs. without) × 2 (text types: hypertext vs. linear text). The dependent variables were eye-movement indices and the frequencies of using online reading strategy. The results show that fifth-graders, irrespective of their reading ability, found it difficult to navigate the non-linear structure of hypertexts when searching for and integrating information. When they read with goals, they adjusted their reading speed and the focus of their attention. Their offline reading ability also influenced their online reading performance. These results suggest that online reading skills and strategies have to be taught in order to enhance the online reading abilities of elementary-school students. PMID:26074837

Examining the online reading behavior and performance of fifth-graders: evidence from eye-movement data.

PubMed

Sung, Yao-Ting; Wu, Ming-Da; Chen, Chun-Kuang; Chang, Kuo-En

2015-01-01

Online reading is developing at an increasingly rapid rate, but the debate concerning whether learning is more effective when using hypertexts than when using traditional linear texts is still persistent. In addition, several researchers stated that online reading comprehension always starts with a question, but little empirical evidence has been gathered to investigate this claim. This study used eye-tracking technology and retrospective think aloud technique to examine online reading behaviors of fifth-graders (N = 50). The participants were asked to read four texts on the website. The present study employed a three-way mixed design: 2 (reading ability: high vs. low) × 2 (reading goals: with vs. without) × 2 (text types: hypertext vs. linear text). The dependent variables were eye-movement indices and the frequencies of using online reading strategy. The results show that fifth-graders, irrespective of their reading ability, found it difficult to navigate the non-linear structure of hypertexts when searching for and integrating information. When they read with goals, they adjusted their reading speed and the focus of their attention. Their offline reading ability also influenced their online reading performance. These results suggest that online reading skills and strategies have to be taught in order to enhance the online reading abilities of elementary-school students.

Analysis of Textual Features of a New Reading Comprehension Assessment: MOCCA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seipel, Ben; Biancarosa, Gina; Carlson, Sarah; Davison, Mark

2015-01-01

Previous research has established two types of struggling readers: those who struggle with lower-level reading skills and those who struggle with higher-level reading skills (Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Perfetti, 2007). The latter group is commonly termed "poor comprehenders": readers who exhibit poor comprehension compared to peers with…

Phonological Coding Abilities: Identification of Impairments Related to Phonologically Based Reading Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swank, Linda K.

1994-01-01

Relationships between phonological coding abilities and reading outcomes have implications for differential diagnosis of language-based reading problems. The theoretical construct of specific phonological coding ability is explained, including phonological encoding, phonological awareness and metaphonology, lexical access, working memory, and…

Verbal task demands are key in explaining the relationship between paired-associate learning and reading ability.

PubMed

Clayton, Francina J; Sears, Claire; Davis, Alice; Hulme, Charles

2018-07-01

Paired-associate learning (PAL) tasks measure the ability to form a novel association between a stimulus and a response. Performance on such tasks is strongly associated with reading ability, and there is increasing evidence that verbal task demands may be critical in explaining this relationship. The current study investigated the relationships between different forms of PAL and reading ability. A total of 97 children aged 8-10 years completed a battery of reading assessments and six different PAL tasks (phoneme-phoneme, visual-phoneme, nonverbal-nonverbal, visual-nonverbal, nonword-nonword, and visual-nonword) involving both familiar phonemes and unfamiliar nonwords. A latent variable path model showed that PAL ability is captured by two correlated latent variables: auditory-articulatory and visual-articulatory. The auditory-articulatory latent variable was the stronger predictor of reading ability, providing support for a verbal account of the PAL-reading relationship. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Confrontation Naming and Reading Abilities at Primary School: A Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Savelli, Enrico; Termine, Cristiano

2015-01-01

Background. Confrontation naming tasks are useful in the assessment of children with learning and language disorders. Objectives. The aims of this study were (1) providing longitudinal data on confrontation naming; (2) investigating the role of socioeconomic status (SES), intelligence, age, and gender in confrontation naming; (3) identifying relationship between confrontation naming and reading abilities (fluency, accuracy, and comprehension). Method. A five-year longitudinal investigation of confrontation naming (i.e., the Boston Naming Test (BNT)) in a nonclinical sample of Italian primary school children was conducted (n = 126), testing them at the end of each school year, to assess nonverbal intelligence, confrontation naming, and reading abilities. Results. Performance on the BNT emerged as a function of IQ and SES. Significant correlations between confrontation naming and reading abilities, especially comprehension, were found; BNT scores correlated better with reading fluency than with reading accuracy. Conclusions. The longitudinal data obtained in this study are discussed with regard to reading abilities, intelligence, age, gender, and socioeconomic status. PMID:26124541

The etiology of mathematical and reading (dis)ability covariation in a sample of Dutch twins.

PubMed

Markowitz, Ezra M; Willemsen, Gonneke; Trumbetta, Susan L; van Beijsterveldt, Toos C E M; Boomsma, Dorret I

2005-12-01

The genetic etiology of mathematical and reading (dis)ability has been studied in a number of distinct samples, but the true nature of the relationship between the two remains unclear. Data from the Netherlands Twin Register was used to determine the etiology of the relationship between mathematical and reading (dis)ability in adolescent twins. Ratings of mathematical and reading problems were obtained from parents of over 1500 twin pairs. Results of bivariate structural equation modeling showed a genetic correlation around .60, which explained over 90% of the phenotypic correlation between mathematical and reading ability. The genetic model was the same for males and females.

Do Teachers' Perceptions of Children's Math and Reading Related Ability and Effort Predict Children's Self-Concept of Ability in Math and Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Upadyaya, Katja; Eccles, Jacquelynne

2015-01-01

This study investigated to what extent primary school teachers' perceptions of their students' ability and effort predict developmental changes in children's self-concepts of ability in math and reading after controlling for students' academic performance and general intelligence. Three cohorts (N?=?849) of elementary school children and their…

Measuring the Effects of Reading Assistance Dogs on Reading Ability and Attitudes in Elementary Schoolchildren

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lenihan, Dawn; McCobb, Emily; Diurba, Amanda; Linder, Deborah; Freeman, Lisa

2016-01-01

Reading assistance dogs can be incorporated into reading programs to increase a child's desire and ability to read. However, more data is needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of such programs. A 5-week reading assistance dog program was implemented to assess feasibility and effectiveness. Participants included 18 children entering the 2nd grade…

Prologue: Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Catts, Hugh W.; Kamhi, Alan G.

2017-01-01

Purpose: In this initial article of the clinical forum on reading comprehension, we argue that reading comprehension is not a single ability that can be assessed by one or more general reading measures or taught by a small set of strategies or approaches. Method: We present evidence for a multidimensional view of reading comprehension that…

The Importance of Intrinsic Motivation for High and Low Ability Readers' Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Logan, Sarah; Medford, Emma; Hughes, Naomi

2011-01-01

The study examined how cognitive and motivational factors predicted reading skill and whether intrinsic reading motivation would explain significantly more variance in low ability readers' reading performance. One hundred and eleven children (aged 9-11) completed assessments of reading comprehension skill, verbal IQ, decoding skill and intrinsic…

Secondary Teachers Perceptions of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Sustained Silent Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feliciani, Meghan Lynn

2013-01-01

Educators often use reading programs to address younger students' reading abilities and teachers' perceptions of those reading abilities; however, few researchers have examined teachers' perceptions of the effects of sustained silent reading on middle and high school students. The conceptual framework for this study was based on social learning…

The Role of Feedback and Differences between Good and Poor Decoders in a Repeated Word Reading Paradigm in First Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Gorp, Karly; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2017-01-01

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.…

The Contribution of General Reading Ability to Science Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reed, Deborah K.; Petscher, Yaacov; Truckenmiller, Adrea J.

2017-01-01

This study explored the relationship between the reading ability and science achievement of students in grades 5, 8, and 9. Reading ability was assessed with four measures: word recognition, vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and comprehension (23% of all passages were on science topics). Science achievement was assessed with state…

Effect of Reading Ability and Internet Experience on Keyword-Based Image Search

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lei, Pei-Lan; Lin, Sunny S. J.; Sun, Chuen-Tsai

2013-01-01

Image searches are now crucial for obtaining information, constructing knowledge, and building successful educational outcomes. We investigated how reading ability and Internet experience influence keyword-based image search behaviors and performance. We categorized 58 junior-high-school students into four groups of high/low reading ability and…

Computerized trainings in four groups of struggling readers: Specific effects on word reading and comprehension.

PubMed

Potocki, Anna; Magnan, Annie; Ecalle, Jean

2015-01-01

Four groups of poor readers were identified among a population of students with learning disabilities attending a special class in secondary school: normal readers; specific poor decoders; specific poor comprehenders, and general poor readers (deficits in both decoding and comprehension). These students were then trained with a software program designed to encourage either their word decoding skills or their text comprehension skills. After 5 weeks of training, we observed that the students experiencing word reading deficits and trained with the decoding software improved primarily in the reading fluency task while those exhibiting comprehension deficits and trained with the comprehension software showed improved performance in listening and reading comprehension. But interestingly, the latter software also led to improved performance on the word recognition task. This result suggests that, for these students, training interventions focused at the text level and its comprehension might be more beneficial for reading in general (i.e., for the two components of reading) than word-level decoding trainings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Relating Adolescents' Second Language Reading Attitudes, Self Efficacy for Reading, and Reading Ability in a Non-Supportive ESL Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sani, Azlina Murad; Zain, Zaizati

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among second language reading attitudes, reading self-efficacy, and reading ability, as well as gender differences across the variables among adolescents in a setting that does not foster English as second language (ESL). Two hundred sixteen-year olds completed a translated version of the…

Semantic and Phonological Coding in Poor and Normal Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vellutino, Frank R.; And Others

1995-01-01

Using poor and normal readers, three studies evaluated semantic coding and phonological coding deficits as explanations for reading disability. It was concluded that semantic coding deficits are unlikely causes of difficulties in poor readers in early stages but accrue with prolonged reading difficulties in older readers. Phonological coding…

Early dynamics of white matter deficits in children developing dyslexia.

PubMed

Vanderauwera, Jolijn; Wouters, Jan; Vandermosten, Maaike; Ghesquière, Pol

2017-10-01

Neural anomalies have been demonstrated in dyslexia. Recent studies in pre-readers at risk for dyslexia and in pre-readers developing poor reading suggest that these anomalies might be a cause of their reading impairment. Our study goes one step further by exploring the neurodevelopmental trajectory of white matter anomalies in pre-readers with and without a familial risk for dyslexia (n=61) of whom a strictly selected sample develops dyslexia later on (n=15). We collected longitudinal diffusion MRI and behavioural data until grade 3. The results provide evidence that children with dyslexia exhibit pre-reading white matter anomalies in left and right long segment of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), with predictive power of the left segment above traditional cognitive measures and familial risk. Whereas white matter differences in the left AF seem most strongly related to the development of dyslexia, differences in the left IFOF and in the right AF seem driven by both familial risk and later reading ability. Moreover, differences in the left AF appeared to be dynamic. This study supports and expands recent insights into the neural basis of dyslexia, pointing towards pre-reading anomalies related to dyslexia, as well as underpinning the dynamic character of white matter. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

The Role of Prosodic Sensitivity in Children's Reading Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whalley, Karen; Hansen, Julie

2006-01-01

While the critical importance of phonological awareness (segmental phonology) to reading ability is well established, the potential role of prosody (suprasegmental phonology) in reading development has only recently been explored. This study examined the relationship between children's prosodic skills and reading ability. Hierarchical multiple…

ClereMed: Lessons Learned From a Pilot Study of a Mobile Screening Tool to Identify and Support Adults Who Have Difficulty With Medication Labels

PubMed Central

Gates, Allison; Dolovich, Lisa; Slavcev, Roderick; Drimmie, Rob; Aghaei, Behzad; Poon, Calvin; Khan, Shamrozé; Leat, Susan J

2014-01-01

Background In order to take medications safely and effectively, individuals need to be able to see, read, and understand the medication labels. However, one-half of medication labels are currently misunderstood, often because of low literacy, low vision, and cognitive impairment. We sought to design a mobile tool termed ClereMed that could rapidly screen for adults who have difficulty reading or understanding their medication labels. Objective The aim of this study was to build the ClereMed prototype; to determine the usability of the prototype with adults 55 and over; to assess its accuracy for identifying adults with low-functional reading ability, poor ability on a real-life pill-sorting task, and low cognition; and to assess the acceptability of a touchscreen device with older adults with age-related changes to vision and cognition. Methods This pilot study enrolled adults (≥55 years) who were recruited through pharmacies, retirement residences, and a low-vision optometry clinic. ClereMed is a hypertext markup language (HTML)-5 prototype app that simulates medication taking using an iPad, and also provides information on how to improve the accessibility of prescription labels. A paper-based questionnaire included questions on participant demographics, computer literacy, and the Systems Usability Scale (SUS). Cognition was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment tool, and functional reading ability was measured using the MNRead Acuity Chart. Simulation results were compared with a real-life, medication-taking exercise using prescription vials, tablets, and pillboxes. Results The 47 participants had a mean age of 76 (SD 11) years and 60% (28/47) were female. Of the participants, 32% (15/47) did not own a computer or touchscreen device. The mean SUS score was 76/100. ClereMed correctly identified 72% (5/7) of participants with functional reading difficulty, and 63% (5/8) who failed a real-life pill-sorting task, but only 21% (6/28) of participants with cognitive impairment. Participants who owned a computer or touchscreen completed ClereMed in a mean time of 26 (SD 16) seconds, compared with 52 (SD 34) seconds for those who do not own a device (P<.001). Those who had difficulty, struggled with screen glare, button activation, and the “drag and drop” function. Conclusions ClereMed was well accepted by older participants, but it was only moderately accurate for reading ability and not for mild cognitive impairment. Future versions may be most useful as part of a larger medication assessment or as a tool to help family members and caregivers identify individuals with impaired functional reading ability. Future research is needed to improve the sensitivity for measuring cognitive impairment and on the feasibility of implementing a mobile app into pharmacy workflow. PMID:25131813

Readability of Magazines of Interest to Reading-Deficit Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Maurice; And Others

The reading abilities of low achieving high school students at two schools were compared to the readability levels of the magazines in which they showed interest. The median tested reading ability of these students was reported as third/fourth grade by their reading teachers. The reading specialist at one high school reported that boys had an…

Musical Experience, Auditory Perception and Reading-Related Skills in Children

PubMed Central

Banai, Karen; Ahissar, Merav

2013-01-01

Background The relationships between auditory processing and reading-related skills remain poorly understood despite intensive research. Here we focus on the potential role of musical experience as a confounding factor. Specifically we ask whether the pattern of correlations between auditory and reading related skills differ between children with different amounts of musical experience. Methodology/Principal Findings Third grade children with various degrees of musical experience were tested on a battery of auditory processing and reading related tasks. Very poor auditory thresholds and poor memory skills were abundant only among children with no musical education. In this population, indices of auditory processing (frequency and interval discrimination thresholds) were significantly correlated with and accounted for up to 13% of the variance in reading related skills. Among children with more than one year of musical training, auditory processing indices were better, yet reading related skills were not correlated with them. A potential interpretation for the reduction in the correlations might be that auditory and reading-related skills improve at different rates as a function of musical training. Conclusions/Significance Participants’ previous musical training, which is typically ignored in studies assessing the relations between auditory and reading related skills, should be considered. Very poor auditory and memory skills are rare among children with even a short period of musical training, suggesting musical training could have an impact on both. The lack of correlation in the musically trained population suggests that a short period of musical training does not enhance reading related skills of individuals with within-normal auditory processing skills. Further studies are required to determine whether the associations between musical training, auditory processing and memory are indeed causal or whether children with poor auditory and memory skills are less likely to study music and if so, why this is the case. PMID:24086654

An Exploratory Study Examining the Influence of the Number of Reading Methods Courses on Pre-Service and In-Service Teacher Perceptions of Ability to Teach Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Sarah

2016-01-01

Teacher education programmes (TEPs) are left with limited research on how the coursework they provide influences the perceptions teachers have about their ability to teach young children how to read--especially over the long term. The purpose of this study was to compare how teacher candidates rate their ability to teach reading at the conclusion…

Semantic interference in picture naming during dual-task performance does not vary with reading ability.

PubMed

Piai, Vitória; Roelofs, Ardi; Roete, Ingeborg

2015-01-01

Previous dual-task studies examining the locus of semantic interference of distractor words in picture naming have obtained diverging results. In these studies, participants manually responded to tones and named pictures while ignoring distractor words (picture-word interference, PWI) with varying stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between tone and PWI stimulus. Whereas some studies observed no semantic interference at short SOAs, other studies observed effects of similar magnitude at short and long SOAs. The absence of semantic interference in some studies may perhaps be due to better reading skill of participants in these than in the other studies. According to such a reading-ability account, participants' reading skill should be predictive of the magnitude of their interference effect at short SOAs. To test this account, we conducted a dual-task study with tone discrimination and PWI tasks and measured participants' reading ability. The semantic interference effect was of similar magnitude at both short and long SOAs. Participants' reading ability was predictive of their naming speed but not of their semantic interference effect, contrary to the reading ability account. We conclude that the magnitude of semantic interference in picture naming during dual-task performance does not depend on reading skill.

Examining the Relationship Between Word Reading Efficiency and Oral Reading Rate in Predicting Comprehension Among Different Types of Readers

PubMed Central

Eason, Sarah H.; Sabatini, John; Goldberg, Lindsay; Bruce, Kelly; Cutting, Laurie E.

2013-01-01

To further explore contextual reading rate, an important aspect of reading fluency, we examined the relationship between word reading efficiency (WRE) and contextual oral reading rate (ORR), the degree to which they overlap across different comprehension measures, whether oral language (semantics and syntax) predicts ORR beyond contributions of word-level skills, and whether the WRE–ORR relationship varies based on different reader profiles. Assessing reading and language of average readers, poor decoders, and poor comprehenders, ages 10 to 14, ORR was the strongest predictor of comprehension across various formats; WRE contributed no unique variance after taking ORR into account. Findings indicated that semantics, not syntax, contributed to ORR. Poor comprehenders performed below average on measures of ORR, despite average WRE, expanding previous findings suggesting specific weaknesses in ORR for this group. Together, findings suggest that ORR draws upon skills beyond those captured by WRE and suggests a role for oral language (semantics) in ORR. PMID:23667307

The Comprehension Problems for Second-Language Learners with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K.

2016-01-01

We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language (d = −0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading comprehension deficit (d = −2.47). Second-language learners also had weaker oral language skills compared to native-speaking children regardless of comprehension status (d = −0.84). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the finding that second-language learners who are poor at reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have deficits in oral language but the deficit is not sufficient to explain their deficit in reading comprehension. PMID:28461711

The Comprehension Problems for Second-Language Learners with Poor Reading Comprehension despite Adequate Decoding: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K

2017-05-01

We conducted a meta-analysis of 16 existing studies to examine the nature of the comprehension problems for children who were second-language learners with poor reading comprehension despite adequate decoding. Results indicated that these children had deficits in oral language ( d = -0.80), but these deficits were not as severe as their reading comprehension deficit ( d = -2.47). Second-language learners also had weaker oral language skills compared to native-speaking children regardless of comprehension status ( d = -0.84). We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the finding that second-language learners who are poor at reading comprehension despite adequate decoding have deficits in oral language but the deficit is not sufficient to explain their deficit in reading comprehension.

Associations between Preschool Language and First Grade Reading Outcomes in Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

Davison, Megan Dunn; Hammer, Carol; Lawrence, Frank R.

2011-01-01

It is well established that monolingual preschoolers’ oral language development (vocabulary and oral comprehension) contributes to their later reading abilities; however, less is known about this relationship in bilingual populations where children are developing knowledge of two languages. It may be that children’s abilities in one language do not contribute to their reading abilities in their other language or that children’s experiences with either language assist them in developing a common underlying proficiency that they draw upon when learning to read. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among bilingual children’s receptive language development and reading outcomes in first grade. Eighty-one bilingual children who were attending Head Start participated in the study. Growth curve models were used to examine the relationship between children’s language abilities during two years in Head Start and reading outcomes at the end of first grade. Children’s growth in both English and Spanish receptive vocabulary and oral comprehension predicted their English and Spanish reading abilities at the end of first grade within languages. Associations were also observed between languages with growth in English receptive language predicting Spanish reading comprehension and growth in Spanish receptive language predicting English reading comprehension. PMID:21477813

Investigating the Effectiveness of Inquiry-Based Instruction on Students with Different Prior Knowledge and Reading Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jing-Ru; Wang, Yuh-Chao; Tai, Hsin-Jung; Chen, Wen-Ju

2010-01-01

This study examined the differential impacts of an inquiry-based instruction on conceptual changes across levels of prior knowledge and reading ability. The instrument emphasized four simultaneously important components: conceptual knowledge, reading ability, attitude toward science, and learning environment. Although the learning patterns and…

Gender Differences in the Relationship of Nascent Conservation and Reading Abilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Day, H. D.; Hollingsworth, Shirley

1983-01-01

Researchers investigated the effects of sex differences on the relationship between conservation ability and the reading and linguistic awareness of five-year-old children. Findings of this study and others consistently support the hypothesis that conservation ability correlates more highly with reading in girls than in boys. (Author/PP)

The Relationship of Pitch Sight-Singing Skills with Tonal Discrimination, Language Reading Skills, and Academic Ability in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reifinger, James L., Jr.

2018-01-01

This study investigated correlates that might explain variance in beginning sight-singing achievement, including tonal discrimination, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and academic ability. Both curriculum-based and standardized tests were used, including the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation, Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, and…

Informal Assessment of Older Readers' Abilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siedow, Mary Dunn

1991-01-01

Explores the utility of an informal reading inventory for assessing the reading abilities of college students. Determines the amount and kinds of information that can be learned from an informal reading inventory. Determines whether information gained from the Advanced Reading Inventory differed qualitatively from that obtained from the Nelson…

Reading Ability as a Predictor of Academic Procrastination among African American Graduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins, Kathleen M. T.; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.; Jiao, Qun G.

2008-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between reading ability (i.e., reading comprehension and reading vocabulary) and academic procrastination among 120 African American graduate students. A canonical correlation analysis revealed statistically significant and practically significant multivariate relationships between these two reading…

The Relationship between Intrinsic Couplings of the Visual Word Form Area with Spoken Language Network and Reading Ability in Children and Adults

PubMed Central

Li, Yu; Zhang, Linjun; Xia, Zhichao; Yang, Jie; Shu, Hua; Li, Ping

2017-01-01

Reading plays a key role in education and communication in modern society. Learning to read establishes the connections between the visual word form area (VWFA) and language areas responsible for speech processing. Using resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and Granger Causality Analysis (GCA) methods, the current developmental study aimed to identify the difference in the relationship between the connections of VWFA-language areas and reading performance in both adults and children. The results showed that: (1) the spontaneous connectivity between VWFA and the spoken language areas, i.e., the left inferior frontal gyrus/supramarginal gyrus (LIFG/LSMG), was stronger in adults compared with children; (2) the spontaneous functional patterns of connectivity between VWFA and language network were negatively correlated with reading ability in adults but not in children; (3) the causal influence from LIFG to VWFA was negatively correlated with reading ability only in adults but not in children; (4) the RSFCs between left posterior middle frontal gyrus (LpMFG) and VWFA/LIFG were positively correlated with reading ability in both adults and children; and (5) the causal influence from LIFG to LSMG was positively correlated with reading ability in both groups. These findings provide insights into the relationship between VWFA and the language network for reading, and the role of the unique features of Chinese in the neural circuits of reading. PMID:28690507

The Relationship between Intrinsic Couplings of the Visual Word Form Area with Spoken Language Network and Reading Ability in Children and Adults.

PubMed

Li, Yu; Zhang, Linjun; Xia, Zhichao; Yang, Jie; Shu, Hua; Li, Ping

2017-01-01

Reading plays a key role in education and communication in modern society. Learning to read establishes the connections between the visual word form area (VWFA) and language areas responsible for speech processing. Using resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) and Granger Causality Analysis (GCA) methods, the current developmental study aimed to identify the difference in the relationship between the connections of VWFA-language areas and reading performance in both adults and children. The results showed that: (1) the spontaneous connectivity between VWFA and the spoken language areas, i.e., the left inferior frontal gyrus/supramarginal gyrus (LIFG/LSMG), was stronger in adults compared with children; (2) the spontaneous functional patterns of connectivity between VWFA and language network were negatively correlated with reading ability in adults but not in children; (3) the causal influence from LIFG to VWFA was negatively correlated with reading ability only in adults but not in children; (4) the RSFCs between left posterior middle frontal gyrus (LpMFG) and VWFA/LIFG were positively correlated with reading ability in both adults and children; and (5) the causal influence from LIFG to LSMG was positively correlated with reading ability in both groups. These findings provide insights into the relationship between VWFA and the language network for reading, and the role of the unique features of Chinese in the neural circuits of reading.

Verbal Processing Reaction Times in "Normal" and "Poor" Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Culbertson, Jack; And Others

After it had been determined that reaction time (RT) was a sensitive measure of hemispheric dominance in a verbal task performed by normal adult readers, the reaction times of three groups of subjects (20 normal reading college students, 12 normal reading third graders and 11 poor reading grade school students) were compared. Ss were exposed to…

The Role of Knowledge Base and Declarative Metamemory in the Acquisition of a Reading Strategy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaultney, Jane F.; Hack-Weiner, Nancy

A study examined whether previous knowledge facilitates the acquisition of a reading comprehension strategy by children who are poor readers. Subjects, 54 fourth- and fifth-grade boys in Palm Beach County, Florida, who were poor readers and baseball experts, were trained in the use of a reading strategy (asking "why" questions), with…

Phonological Basis in Reading Disability: A Review and Analysis of the Evidence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mody, Maria

2003-01-01

Notes that poor readers are known to do consistently worse than their normal reading peers on tasks of phonological processing. Discusses an increasing body of evidence, which points to deficits in speech perception as a source of subtle, but ramifying effects in reading impaired children and adults. Explains poor readers' difficulties in…

Learning to Read in Arabic: Reading, Syntactic, Orthographic and Working Memory Skills in Normally Achieving and Poor Arabic Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, Salim

1995-01-01

Examines relationships between phonological skills and reading in 143 Arab children in Arab villages of central Israel. Finds that a word recognition test was highly correlated with phonological skills, semantic processing, syntactic knowledge, and short-term memory, and that poor readers significantly lagged in skill development. Discusses…

Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum

MedlinePlus

... such as walking, talking, or reading; challenges with social interactions; clumsiness and poor motor coordination, particularly on skills ... such as walking, talking, or reading; challenges with social interactions; clumsiness and poor motor coordination, particularly on skills ...

Predicting reading ability in teenagers who are deaf or hard of hearing: A longitudinal analysis of language and reading.

PubMed

Worsfold, Sarah; Mahon, Merle; Pimperton, Hannah; Stevenson, Jim; Kennedy, Colin

2018-06-01

Deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children and young people are known to show group-level deficits in spoken language and reading abilities relative to their hearing peers. However, there is little evidence on the longitudinal predictive relationships between language and reading in this population. To determine the extent to which differences in spoken language ability in childhood predict reading ability in D/HH adolescents. and procedures: Participants were drawn from a population-based cohort study and comprised 53 D/HH teenagers, who used spoken language, and a comparison group of 38 normally hearing teenagers. All had completed standardised measures of spoken language (expression and comprehension) and reading (accuracy and comprehension) at 6-10 and 13-19 years of age. and results: Forced entry stepwise regression showed that, after taking reading ability at age 8 years into account, language scores at age 8 years did not add significantly to the prediction of Reading Accuracy z-scores at age 17 years (change in R 2  = 0.01, p = .459) but did make a significant contribution to the prediction of Reading Comprehension z-scores at age 17 years (change in R 2  = 0.17, p < .001). and implications: In D/HH individuals who are spoken language users, expressive and receptive language skills in middle childhood predict reading comprehension ability in adolescence. Continued intervention to support language development beyond primary school has the potential to benefit reading comprehension and hence educational access for D/HH adolescents. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Relationship between sensibility and ability to read braille in diabetics.

PubMed

Nakada, M; Dellon, A L

1989-01-01

Twenty-five vision-impaired diabetics received an evaluation of sensibility. Each subject had received 2 years of instruction in braille reading at the Konan Rehabilitation Center prior to the sensibility testing. Sensibility evaluation consisted of cutaneous pressure threshold measurements with the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament and evaluation of moving and static two-point discrimination with Disk-Criminator. The ability to read braille was graded by the braille-teaching instructors as good, fair, and unable. The results of the evaluation of sensibility demonstrated that the value of the cutaneous pressure threshold did not correlate with the ability to read braille. Moving and static two-point discrimination were found to correlate highly (P less than .001) with the ability to read braille at a level of fair or good. No patient in this study with a moving two-point discrimination value of 4 or more or a static two-point discrimination value of 5 or more was able to read braille even at the fair level of ability.

Children's Reading Ability in Early Primary Schooling: Challenges for a Kenyan Rural Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mwoma, Teresa

2017-01-01

School outcomes and good performance in different subjects depends on children's ability to read. Thus teaching children on how to read during early grades is critical in promoting learning to read. More advanced skills acquired in later grades depend on early grade learning, so children who do not acquire these reading skills in their early…

Familial History of Reading Difficulty Is Associated with Diffused Bilateral Brain Activation during Reading and Greater Association with Visual Attention Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi

2017-01-01

Reading difficulty (RD; or dyslexia) is a heritable condition characterized by slow, inaccurate reading accompanied by executive dysfunction, specifically with respect to visual attention. The current study was designed to examine the effect of familial history of RD on the relationship between reading and visual attention abilities in children…

Revisiting the Relations between the WJ-IV Measures of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Cognitive Abilities and Reading Achievement during the School-Age Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cormier, Damien C.; McGrew, Kevin S.; Bulut, Okan; Funamoto, Allyson

2017-01-01

This study examined associations between broad cognitive abilities (Fluid Reasoning [Gf], Short-Term Working Memory [Gwm], Long-Term Storage and Retrieval [Glr], Processing Speed [Gs], Comprehension-Knowledge [Gc], Visual Processing [Gv], and Auditory Processing [Ga]) and reading achievement (Basic Reading Skills, Reading Rate, Reading Fluency,…

Effects of sequential and discrete rapid naming on reading in Japanese children with reading difficulty.

PubMed

Wakamiya, Eiji; Okumura, Tomohito; Nakanishi, Makoto; Takeshita, Takashi; Mizuta, Mekumi; Kurimoto, Naoko; Tamai, Hiroshi

2011-06-01

To clarify whether rapid naming ability itself is a main underpinning factor of rapid automatized naming tests (RAN) and how deep an influence the discrete decoding process has on reading, we performed discrete naming tasks and discrete hiragana reading tasks as well as sequential naming tasks and sequential hiragana reading tasks with 38 Japanese schoolchildren with reading difficulty. There were high correlations between both discrete and sequential hiragana reading and sentence reading, suggesting that some mechanism which automatizes hiragana reading makes sentence reading fluent. In object and color tasks, there were moderate correlations between sentence reading and sequential naming, and between sequential naming and discrete naming. But no correlation was found between reading tasks and discrete naming tasks. The influence of rapid naming ability of objects and colors upon reading seemed relatively small, and multi-item processing may work in relation to these. In contrast, in the digit naming task there was moderate correlation between sentence reading and discrete naming, while no correlation was seen between sequential naming and discrete naming. There was moderate correlation between reading tasks and sequential digit naming tasks. Digit rapid naming ability has more direct effect on reading while its effect on RAN is relatively limited. The ratio of how rapid naming ability influences RAN and reading seems to vary according to kind of the stimuli used. An assumption about components in RAN which influence reading is discussed in the context of both sequential processing and discrete naming speed. Copyright © 2010 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Literacy Attitudes, Habits and Achievements of Future Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benevides, Tina; Stagg Peterson, Shelley

2010-01-01

Pre-service teachers' reading habits and their literacy abilities affect their views toward teaching reading and writing and how they implement literacy instruction. This study explored the relationship between the past and current reading habits of pre-service teachers in relation to their reading and writing abilities. Participating teacher…

Predicting Word Reading Ability: A Quantile Regression Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIlraith, Autumn L.

2018-01-01

Predictors of early word reading are well established. However, it is unclear if these predictors hold for readers across a range of word reading abilities. This study used quantile regression to investigate predictive relationships at different points in the distribution of word reading. Quantile regression analyses used preschool and…

Poor readers' retrieval mechanism: efficient access is not dependent on reading skill

PubMed Central

Johns, Clinton L.; Matsuki, Kazunaga; Van Dyke, Julie A.

2015-01-01

A substantial body of evidence points to a cue-based direct-access retrieval mechanism as a crucial component of skilled adult reading. We report two experiments aimed at examining whether poor readers are able to make use of the same retrieval mechanism. This is significant in light of findings that poor readers have difficulty retrieving linguistic information (e.g., Perfetti, 1985). Our experiments are based on a previous demonstration of direct-access retrieval in language processing, presented in McElree et al. (2003). Experiment 1 replicates the original result using an auditory implementation of the Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff (SAT) method. This finding represents a significant methodological advance, as it opens up the possibility of exploring retrieval speeds in non-reading populations. Experiment 2 provides evidence that poor readers do use a direct-access retrieval mechanism during listening comprehension, despite overall poorer accuracy and slower retrieval speeds relative to skilled readers. The findings are discussed with respect to hypotheses about the source of poor reading comprehension. PMID:26528212

Familial history of reading difficulty is associated with diffused bilateral brain activation during reading and greater association with visual attention abilities.

PubMed

Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi

2017-10-01

Reading difficulty (RD; or dyslexia) is a heritable condition characterized by slow, inaccurate reading accompanied by executive dysfunction, specifically with respect to visual attention. The current study was designed to examine the effect of familial history of RD on the relationship between reading and visual attention abilities in children with RD using a functional MRI reading task. Seventy-one children with RD participated in the study. Based on parental reports of the existence of RD in one or both of each child's parents, children with RD were divided into two groups: (1) those with a familial history of RD and (2) those without a familial history of RD. Reading and visual attention measures were collected from all participants. Functional MRI data during word reading was acquired in 30 participants of the entire cohort. Children with or without a familial history of RD demonstrated below-average reading and visual attention scores, with greater interaction between these measures in the group with a familial history of RD. Greater bilateral and diffused activation during word reading also were found in this group. We suggest that a familial history of RD is related to greater association between lower reading abilities and visual attention abilities. Parental history of RD therefore may be an important preschool screener (before reading age) to prompt early intervention focused on executive functions and reading-related skills.

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

PubMed

van Gorp, Karly; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2017-04-01

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.

Assessment of Cognitive Abilities and Reading Comprehension across School-Age Development: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finn, Diana Baker

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of specific cognitive abilities and reading comprehension across a variety of norm referenced tests that align with Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities and integrative models of reading. Data from existing studies was analyzed by comparing the relationships of four…

Student-Teachers' Ability to Read Nature: Reflections on their Own Learning in Ecology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magntorn, Ola; Hellden, Gustav

2005-01-01

This paper addresses student-teachers' ability to "read nature" in a woodland habitat before and after a 10-week ecology course. "Reading nature" is our definition of the ability to observe, describe and explain basic ecology in the field. Data consists of field-based pre-course and post-course interviews followed up by…

Improving word reading speed: individual differences interact with a training focus on successes or failures.

PubMed

Steenbeek-Planting, Esther G; van Bon, Wim H J; Schreuder, Robert

2012-10-01

The effect of two training procedures on the development of reading speed in poor readers is examined. One training concentrates on the words the children read correctly (successes), the other on the words they read incorrectly (failures). Children were either informed or not informed about the training focus. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 79 poor readers. They repeatedly read regularly spelled Dutch consonant-vowel-consonant words, some children their successes, others their failures. The training used a computerized flashcards format. The exposure duration of the words was varied to maintain an accuracy rate at a constant level. Reading speed improved and transferred to untrained, orthographically more complex words. These transfer effects were characterized by an Aptitude-Treatment Interaction. Poor readers with a low initial reading level improved most in the training focused on successes. For poor readers with a high initial reading level, however, it appeared to be more profitable to practice with their failures. Informing students about the focus of the training positively affected training: The exposure duration needed for children informed about the focus of the training decreased more than for children who were not informed. This study suggests that neither of the two interventions is superior to the other in general. Rather, the improvement of general reading speed in a transparent orthography is closely related to both the children's initial reading level and the type of words they practice with: common and familiar words when training their successes and uncommon and less familiar words with training their failures.

Neural signatures of co-occurring reading and mathematical difficulties.

PubMed

Skeide, Michael A; Evans, Tanya M; Mei, Edward Z; Abrams, Daniel A; Menon, Vinod

2018-06-19

Impaired abilities in multiple domains is common in children with learning difficulties. Co-occurrence of low reading and mathematical abilities (LRLM) appears in almost every second child with learning difficulties. However, little is known regarding the neural bases of this combination. Leveraging a unique and tightly controlled sample including children with LRLM, isolated low reading ability (LR), and isolated low mathematical ability (LM), we uncover a distinct neural signature in children with co-occurring low reading and mathematical abilities differentiable from LR and LM. Specifically, we show that LRLM is neuroanatomically distinct from both LR and LM based on reduced cortical folding of the right parahippocampal gyrus, a medial temporal lobe region implicated in visual associative learning. LRLM children were further distinguished from LR and LM by patterns of intrinsic functional connectivity between parahippocampal gyrus and brain circuitry underlying reading and numerical quantity processing. Our results critically inform cognitive and neural models of LRLM by implicating aberrations in both domain-specific and domain-general brain regions involved in reading and mathematics. More generally, our results provide the first evidence for distinct multimodal neural signatures associated with LRLM, and suggest that this population displays an independent phenotype of learning difficulty that cannot be explained simply as a combination of isolated low reading and mathematical abilities. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Inhibition and Updating, but Not Switching, Predict Developmental Dyslexia and Individual Variation in Reading Ability

PubMed Central

Doyle, Caoilainn; Smeaton, Alan F.; Roche, Richard A. P.; Boran, Lorraine

2018-01-01

To elucidate the core executive function profile (strengths and weaknesses in inhibition, updating, and switching) associated with dyslexia, this study explored executive function in 27 children with dyslexia and 29 age matched controls using sensitive z-mean measures of each ability and controlled for individual differences in processing speed. This study found that developmental dyslexia is associated with inhibition and updating, but not switching impairments, at the error z-mean composite level, whilst controlling for processing speed. Inhibition and updating (but not switching) error composites predicted both dyslexia likelihood and reading ability across the full range of variation from typical to atypical. The predictive relationships were such that those with poorer performance on inhibition and updating measures were significantly more likely to have a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia and also demonstrate poorer reading ability. These findings suggest that inhibition and updating abilities are associated with developmental dyslexia and predict reading ability. Future studies should explore executive function training as an intervention for children with dyslexia as core executive functions appear to be modifiable with training and may transfer to improved reading ability. PMID:29892245

Relationship between Multiple Intelligence, Reading Proficiency, and Implementing Motivational Strategies: A Study of Iranian Secondary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fayazi-Nasab, Ensieh; Ghafournia, Narjes

2016-01-01

There exist many factors, affecting reading ability. Multiple intelligence and motivational strategies are among the factors that seem to make significant contribution to the reading process. Thus, the present study probed the probable significant relation between Iranian language learners' multiple intelligences and reading ability. The study…

Agriscience Teachers' Concern Profiles for Content Area Reading Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warner, Anna J.; Myers, Brian E.

2011-01-01

Although students today will need to rely on text more than in the past, American students are struggling to read and comprehend text. Research has supported the ability of content area reading strategies (CARS) to increase students' ability to read and comprehend text. The purpose of this research was to assess agriscience educators'…

The Effects of Self-Questioning on Reading Comprehension: A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Laurice M.; Alber-Morgan, Sheila; Cullen, Jennifer; Rouse, Christina

2016-01-01

The ability to monitor one's own reading comprehension is a critical skill for deriving meaning from text. Self-questioning during reading is a strategy that enables students to monitor their reading comprehension and increases their ability to learn independently. The purpose of this article was to review experimental research studies that…

Benchmarking Year Five Students' Reading Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Chang Kuan; Eng, Lin Siew; Mohamed, Abdul Rashid

2014-01-01

Reading and understanding a written text is one of the most important skills in English learning.This study attempts to benchmark Year Five students' reading abilities of fifteen rural schools in a district in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to develop a set of standardised written reading comprehension and a set of indicators to inform…

Dorothy Day: A Love of Fiction and Her Love of the Poor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Judith Ann

2010-01-01

Dorothy Day's love of the poor originated from reading novels that portrayed the poor as persons worthy of respect. This article explores how Day's reading novels opened her mind and heart to the realities of poverty. The methodology is literature-based. Dorothy Day's autobiography reveals the novelists who captivated her mind and cultivated a…

Online Learners’ Reading Ability Detection Based on Eye-Tracking Sensors

PubMed Central

Zhan, Zehui; Zhang, Lei; Mei, Hu; Fong, Patrick S. W.

2016-01-01

The detection of university online learners’ reading ability is generally problematic and time-consuming. Thus the eye-tracking sensors have been employed in this study, to record temporal and spatial human eye movements. Learners’ pupils, blinks, fixation, saccade, and regression are recognized as primary indicators for detecting reading abilities. A computational model is established according to the empirical eye-tracking data, and applying the multi-feature regularization machine learning mechanism based on a Low-rank Constraint. The model presents good generalization ability with an error of only 4.9% when randomly running 100 times. It has obvious advantages in saving time and improving precision, with only 20 min of testing required for prediction of an individual learner’s reading ability. PMID:27626418

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated with Reading Ability Show Connection to Socio-Economic Outcomes.

PubMed

Luciano, Michelle; Hagenaars, Saskia P; Cox, Simon R; Hill, William David; Davies, Gail; Harris, Sarah E; Deary, Ian J; Evans, David M; Martin, Nicholas G; Wright, Margaret J; Bates, Timothy C

2017-09-01

Impairments in reading and in language have negative consequences on life outcomes, but it is not known to what extent genetic effects influence this association. We constructed polygenic scores for difficulties with language and learning to read from genome-wide data in ~6,600 children, adolescents and young adults, and tested their association with health, socioeconomic outcomes and brain structure measures collected in adults (maximal N = 111,749). Polygenic risk of reading difficulties was associated with reduced income, educational attainment, self-rated health and verbal-numerical reasoning (p < 0.00055). Polygenic risk of language difficulties predicted income (p = 0.0005). The small effect sizes ranged 0.01-0.03 of a standard deviation, but these will increase as genetic studies for reading ability get larger. Polygenic scores for childhood cognitive ability and educational attainment were correlated with polygenic scores of reading and language (up to 0.09 and 0.05, respectively). But when they were included in the prediction models, the observed associations between polygenic reading and adult outcomes mostly remained. This suggests that the pathway from reading ability to social outcomes is not only via associated polygenic loads for general cognitive function and educational attainment. The presence of non-overlapping genetic effect is indicated by the genetic correlations of around 0.40 (childhood intelligence) and 0.70 (educational attainment) with reading ability. Mendelian randomization approaches will be important to dissociate any causal and moderating effects of reading and related traits on social outcomes.

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children.

PubMed

Strait, Dana L; Hornickel, Jane; Kraus, Nina

2011-10-17

Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input. Definition of common biological underpinnings for music and reading supports the usefulness of music for promoting child literacy, with the potential to improve reading remediation.

Metalinguistic awareness and reading performance: a cross language comparison.

PubMed

Ibrahim, Raphiq; Eviatar, Zohar; Aharon-Peretz, Judith

2007-07-01

The study examined two questions: (1) do the greater phonological awareness skills of billinguals affect reading performance; (2) to what extent do the orthographic characteristics of a language influence reading performance and how does this interact with the effects of phonological awareness. We estimated phonological metalinguistic abilities and reading measures in three groups of first graders: monolingual Hebrew speakers, bilingual Russian-Hebrew speakers, and Arabic-speaking children. We found that language experience affects phonological awareness, as both Russian-Hebrew bilinguals and the Arabic speakers achieved higher scores on metalinguistic tests than Hebrew speakers. Orthography affected reading measures and their correlation with phonological abilitites. Children reading Hebrew showed better text reading ability and significant correlations between phonological awareness and reading scores. Children reading Arabic showed a slight advantage in single word and nonword reading over the two Hebrew reading groups, and very weak relationships between phonological abilities and reading performance. We conclude that native Arabic speakers have more difficulty in processing Arabic orthography than Hebrew monolinguals and bilinguals have in processing Hebrew orthography, and suggest that this is due to the additional visual complexity of Arabic orthography.

Relationships among Selected Factors and the Sight-Reading Ability of High School Mixed Choirs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniels, Rose Dwiggins

1986-01-01

This study investigated the relationships among sight-reading ability and selected variables for 20 high school choirs. Results showed that the best predictors of sight-reading ability are ethnic makeup of the school, presence of a piano in the home, a rural school location, and occasional use of rote procedures to teach music. (JDH)

Spelling ability selectively predicts the magnitude of disruption in unspaced text reading.

PubMed

Veldre, Aaron; Drieghe, Denis; Andrews, Sally

2017-09-01

We examined the effect of individual differences in written language proficiency on unspaced text reading in a large sample of skilled adult readers who were assessed on reading comprehension and spelling ability. Participants' eye movements were recorded as they read sentences containing a low or high frequency target word, presented with standard interword spacing, or in one of three unsegmented text conditions that either preserved or eliminated word boundary information. The average data replicated previous studies: unspaced text reading was associated with increased fixation durations, a higher number of fixations, more regressions, reduced saccade length, and an inflation of the word frequency effect. The individual differences results provided insight into the mechanisms contributing to these effects. Higher reading ability was associated with greater overall reading speed and fluency in all conditions. In contrast, spelling ability selectively modulated the effect of interword spacing with poorer spelling ability predicting greater difficulty across the majority of sentence- and word-level measures. These results suggest that high quality lexical representations allowed better spellers to extract lexical units from unfamiliar text forms, inoculating them against the disruptive effects of being deprived of spacing information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Associations between musical abilities and precursors of reading in preschool aged children

PubMed Central

Degé, Franziska; Kubicek, Claudia; Schwarzer, Gudrun

2015-01-01

The association between music and language, in particular, the overlap in their processing results in the possibility to use one domain for the enhancement of the other. Especially in the preschool years music may be a valuable tool to train language abilities (e.g., precursors of reading). Therefore, detailed knowledge about associations between musical abilities and precursors of reading can be of great use for designing future music intervention studies that target language-related abilities. Hence, the present study investigated the association between music perception as well as music production and precursors of reading. Thereby, not only phonological awareness, the mostly studied precursor of reading, was investigated, but also other precursors were examined. We assessed musical abilities (production and perception) and precursors of reading (phonological awareness, working memory, and rapid retrieval from long-term memory) in 55 preschoolers (27 boys). Fluid intelligence was measured and controlled in the analyses. Results showed that phonological awareness, working memory, and rapid retrieval from long-term memory were related to music perception as well as to music production. Our data suggest that several precursors of reading were associated with music perception as well as music production. PMID:26347687

Speech Recognition in Noise by Children with and without Dyslexia: How is it Related to Reading?

PubMed

Nittrouer, Susan; Krieg, Letitia M; Lowenstein, Joanna H

2018-06-01

Developmental dyslexia is commonly viewed as a phonological deficit that makes it difficult to decode written language. But children with dyslexia typically exhibit other problems, as well, including poor speech recognition in noise. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the speech-in-noise problems of children with dyslexia are related to their reading problems, and if so, if a common underlying factor might explain both. The specific hypothesis examined was that a spectral processing disorder results in these children receiving smeared signals, which could explain both the diminished sensitivity to phonological structure - leading to reading problems - and the speech recognition in noise difficulties. The alternative hypothesis tested in this study was that children with dyslexia simply have broadly based language deficits. Ninety-seven children between the ages of 7 years; 10 months and 12 years; 9 months participated: 46 with dyslexia and 51 without dyslexia. Children were tested on two dependent measures: word reading and recognition in noise with two types of sentence materials: as unprocessed (UP) signals, and as spectrally smeared (SM) signals. Data were collected for four predictor variables: phonological awareness, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and digit span. Children with dyslexia showed deficits on both dependent and all predictor variables. Their scores for speech recognition in noise were poorer than those of children without dyslexia for both the UP and SM signals, but by equivalent amounts across signal conditions indicating that they were not disproportionately hindered by spectral distortion. Correlation analyses on scores from children with dyslexia showed that reading ability and speech-in-noise recognition were only mildly correlated, and each skill was related to different underlying abilities. No substantial evidence was found to support the suggestion that the reading and speech recognition in noise problems of children with dyslexia arise from a single factor that could be defined as a spectral processing disorder. The reading and speech recognition in noise deficits of these children appeared to be largely independent. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beyond word recognition: understanding pediatric oral health literacy.

PubMed

Richman, Julia Anne; Huebner, Colleen E; Leggott, Penelope J; Mouradian, Wendy E; Mancl, Lloyd A

2011-01-01

Parental oral health literacy is proposed to be an indicator of children's oral health. The purpose of this study was to test if word recognition, commonly used to assess health literacy, is an adequate measure of pediatric oral health literacy. This study evaluated 3 aspects of oral health literacy and parent-reported child oral health. A 3-part pediatric oral health literacy inventory was created to assess parents' word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, and comprehension of 35 terms used in pediatric dentistry. The inventory was administered to 45 English-speaking parents of children enrolled in Head Start. Parents' ability to read dental terms was not associated with vocabulary knowledge (r=0.29, P<.06) or comprehension (r=0.28, P>.06) of the terms. Vocabulary knowledge was strongly associated with comprehension (r=0.80, P<.001). Parent-reported child oral health status was not associated with word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, or comprehension; however parents reporting either excellent or fair/poor ratings had higher scores on all components of the inventory. Word recognition is an inadequate indicator of comprehension of pediatric oral health concepts; pediatric oral health literacy is a multifaceted construct. Parents with adequate reading ability may have difficulty understanding oral health information.

(Con)text-specific effects of visual dysfunction on reading in posterior cortical atrophy.

PubMed

Yong, Keir X X; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Cash, Dave; Henley, Susie M D; Warren, Jason D; Crutch, Sebastian J

2014-08-01

Reading deficits are a common early feature of the degenerative syndrome posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) but are poorly understood even at the single word level. The current study evaluated the reading accuracy and speed of 26 PCA patients, 17 typical Alzheimer's disease (tAD) patients and 14 healthy controls on a corpus of 192 single words in which the following perceptual properties were manipulated systematically: inter-letter spacing, font size, length, font type, case and confusability. PCA reading was significantly less accurate and slower than tAD patients and controls, with performance significantly adversely affected by increased letter spacing, size, length and font (cursive < non-cursive), and characterised by visual errors (69% of all error responses). By contrast, tAD and control accuracy rates were at or near ceiling, letter spacing was the only perceptual factor to influence reading speed in the same direction as controls, and, in contrast to PCA patients, control reading was faster for larger font sizes. The inverse size effect in PCA (less accurate reading of large than small font size print) was associated with lower grey matter volume in the right superior parietal lobule. Reading accuracy was associated with impairments of early visual (especially crowding), visuoperceptual and visuospatial processes. However, these deficits were not causally related to a universal impairment of reading as some patients showed preserved reading for small, unspaced words despite grave visual deficits. Rather, the impact of specific types of visual dysfunction on reading was found to be (con)text specific, being particularly evident for large, spaced, lengthy words. These findings improve the characterisation of dyslexia in PCA, shed light on the causative and associative factors, and provide clear direction for the development of reading aids and strategies to maximise and sustain reading ability in the early stages of disease. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

(Con)text-specific effects of visual dysfunction on reading in posterior cortical atrophy

PubMed Central

Yong, Keir X.X.; Shakespeare, Timothy J.; Cash, Dave; Henley, Susie M.D.; Warren, Jason D.; Crutch, Sebastian J.

2014-01-01

Reading deficits are a common early feature of the degenerative syndrome posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) but are poorly understood even at the single word level. The current study evaluated the reading accuracy and speed of 26 PCA patients, 17 typical Alzheimer's disease (tAD) patients and 14 healthy controls on a corpus of 192 single words in which the following perceptual properties were manipulated systematically: inter-letter spacing, font size, length, font type, case and confusability. PCA reading was significantly less accurate and slower than tAD patients and controls, with performance significantly adversely affected by increased letter spacing, size, length and font (cursive < non-cursive), and characterised by visual errors (69% of all error responses). By contrast, tAD and control accuracy rates were at or near ceiling, letter spacing was the only perceptual factor to influence reading speed in the same direction as controls, and, in contrast to PCA patients, control reading was faster for larger font sizes. The inverse size effect in PCA (less accurate reading of large than small font size print) was associated with lower grey matter volume in the right superior parietal lobule. Reading accuracy was associated with impairments of early visual (especially crowding), visuoperceptual and visuospatial processes. However, these deficits were not causally related to a universal impairment of reading as some patients showed preserved reading for small, unspaced words despite grave visual deficits. Rather, the impact of specific types of visual dysfunction on reading was found to be (con)text specific, being particularly evident for large, spaced, lengthy words. These findings improve the characterisation of dyslexia in PCA, shed light on the causative and associative factors, and provide clear direction for the development of reading aids and strategies to maximise and sustain reading ability in the early stages of disease. PMID:24841985

Can You Read Me Now? Disciplinary Literacy Reading Strategies in the 7th Grade Science Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McQuaid, Kelly Kathleen

Adolescent readers require a broad range of reading skills to deal with the challenges of reading complex text. Some researchers argue for a discipline-specific focus to address the low reading proficiency rates among secondary students. Disciplinary literacy attends to the different ways disciplines, such as science, generate and communicate knowledge. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine if and to what degree disciplinary literacy reading strategies impact student learning outcomes in reading comprehension and science content knowledge for 132 7th grade science students in five Southern Arizona charter schools and whether reading ability moderates that impact. The theoretical foundation for this study rested on expert-novice theory and Halliday's theory of critical moments of language development. It is not known if and to what degree disciplinary literacy reading strategies impact student learning outcomes in reading comprehension and science content knowledge for 7th grade science students and whether or not reading ability has a moderating effect on those student learning outcomes. The results for MANCOVA did not produce statistically significant results nor did the moderation analysis for the influence of reading ability on reading comprehension in the disciplinary literacy group. However, the moderation analysis for the influence of reading ability on science content knowledge resulted in conditional significant results for low (p < .01) and average readers (p <. 05). Low to average readers in the disciplinary literacy group appeared to benefit the most from reading comprehension instruction focused on learning science content in the science classroom.

Early writing deficits in preschoolers with oral language difficulties.

PubMed

Puranik, Cynthia S; Lonigan, Christopher J

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preschool children with language impairments (LI), a group with documented reading difficulties, also experience writing difficulties. In addition, a purpose was to examine if the writing outcomes differed when children had concomitant cognitive deficits in addition to oral language problems. A group of 293 preschool children were administered an assessment battery that included measures to examine oral language, nonverbal cognition, emergent reading, and writing. Children were divided into four groups based on their language and cognitive performance. The findings from this study show that as early as preschool, children with weaker oral language skills lag behind their peers with stronger oral language skills in terms of their writing-related skills. Children with oral language and cognitive deficits performed more poorly than children whose deficits were confined to oral language. A child's cognitive ability also has an impact on emergent writing skills, but it appears to be moderated by oral language skills. These results are consistent with research documenting links between preschool language and emergent reading in children with a history of LI. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Early Writing Deficits in Preschoolers with Oral Language Difficulties

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether preschool children with language impairments (LI), a group with documented reading difficulties, also experience writing difficulties. In addition, a purpose was to examine if the writing outcomes differed when children had concomitant cognitive deficits in addition to oral language problems. A group of 293 preschool children were administered an assessment battery that included measures to examine oral language, nonverbal cognition, emergent reading, and writing. Children were divided into four groups based on their language and cognitive performance. The findings from this study show that as early as preschool, children with weaker oral language skills lag behind their peers with stronger oral language skills in terms of their writing-related skills. Children with oral language and cognitive deficits performed more poorly than children whose deficits were confined to oral language. A child’s cognitive ability also has an impact on emergent writing skills, but it appears to be moderated by oral language skills. These results are consistent with research documenting links between preschool language and emergent reading in children with a history of LI. PMID:22043027

Effect of phonological and morphological awareness on reading comprehension in Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities.

PubMed

Schiff, Rachel; Schwartz-Nahshon, Sarit; Nagar, Revital

2011-06-01

This research explored phonological and morphological awareness among Hebrew-speaking adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) and its effect on reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities. Participants included 39 seventh graders with RD and two matched control groups of normal readers: 40 seventh graders matched for chronological age (CA) and 38 third graders matched for reading age (RA). We assessed phonological awareness, word reading, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. Findings indicated that the RD group performed similarly to the RA group on phonological awareness but lower on phonological decoding. On the decontextualized morphological task, RD functioned on par with RA, whereas in a contextualized task RD performed above RA but lower than CA. In reading comprehension, RD performed as well as RA. Finally, results indicated that for normal readers contextual morphological awareness uniquely contributed to reading comprehension beyond phonological and word-reading abilities, whereas no such unique contribution emerged for the RD group. The absence of an effect of morphological awareness in predicting reading comprehension was suggested to be related to a different recognition process employed by RD readers which hinder the ability of these readers to use morphosemantic structures. The lexical quality hypothesis was proposed as further support to the findings, suggesting that a low quality of lexical representation in RD students leads to ineffective reading skills and comprehension. Lexical representation is thus critical for both lexical as well as comprehension abilities.

Influence of Verb and Noun Bases on Reading Aloud Derived Nouns: Evidence from Children with Good and Poor Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traficante, Daniela; Marelli, Marco; Luzzatti, Claudio; Burani, Cristina

2014-01-01

Several studies on children and adults with and without linguistic impairment have reported differences between verb and noun processing. The present study assessed whether noun and verb bases affect differently children's reading of derived words. Thirty-six Italian good readers and 18 poor readers, all 4th or 5th graders, were asked to read…

Influence of mental imagery on spatial presence and enjoyment assessed in different types of media.

PubMed

Weibel, David; Wissmath, Bartholomäus; Mast, Fred W

2011-10-01

Previous research studies on spatial presence point out that the users' imagery abilities are of importance. However, this influence has not yet been tested for different media. This is surprising because theoretical considerations suggest that mental imagery comes into play when a mediated environment lacks vividness. The aim of this study was to clarify the influence mental imagery abilities can have on the sensation of presence and enjoyment in different mediated environments. We presented the participants (n = 60) a narrative text, a movie sequence, and a computer game. Across all media, no effect of mental imagery abilities on presence and enjoyment was found, but imagery abilities marginally interacted with the mediated environment. Individuals with high imagery abilities experienced more presence and enjoyment in the text condition. The results were different for the film condition: here, individuals with poor imagery abilities reported marginally higher enjoyment ratings, whereas the presence ratings did not differ between the two groups. Imagery abilities had no influence on presence and enjoyment within the computer game condition. The results suggest that good imagery abilities contribute to the sensations of presence and enjoyment when reading a narrative text. The results for this study have an applied impact for media use because their effectiveness can depend on the individual mental imagery abilities.

Reading Comprehension in Children with ADHD: Cognitive Underpinnings of the Centrality Deficit

PubMed Central

Miller, Amanda C.; Keenan, Janice M.; Betjemann, Rebecca S.; Willcutt, Erik; Pennington, Bruce F.; Olson, Richard K.

2012-01-01

We examined reading comprehension in children with ADHD by assessing their ability to build a coherent mental representation that allows them to recall central and peripheral information. We compared children with ADHD (mean age 9.78) to word reading-matched controls (mean age 9.89) on their ability to retell a passage. We found that even though children with ADHD recalled more central than peripheral information, they showed their greatest deficit, relative to controls, on central information – a centrality deficit (Miller & Keenan, 2009). We explored the cognitive underpinnings of this deficit using regressions to compare how well cognitive factors (working memory, inhibition, processing speed, and IQ) predicted the ability to recall central information, after controlling for word reading ability, and whether these cognitive factors interacted with ADHD symptoms. Working memory accounted for the most unique variance. Although previous evidence for reading comprehension difficulties in children with ADHD have been mixed, this study suggests that even when word reading ability is controlled, children with ADHD have difficulty building a coherent mental representation, and this difficulty is likely related to deficits in working memory. PMID:23054132

Comparing the Performance of Older Low-Progress Readers on the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension with Performance on the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability and Other Measures of Reading and Related Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheldall, Kevin; Arakelian, Sarah

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to compare the York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC) with the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA) and other measures of reading and related skills with a sample of older low-progress readers and to provide additional information regarding the validity of the YARC in Australia. The data from an…

The Relationship among ICT Skills, Traditional Reading Skills and Online Reading Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, I-Fang; Ko, Hwa-Wei

2016-01-01

Perspectives from reading and information fields have identified similar skills belong to two different kind of literacy being online reading abilities and ICT skills. It causes a conflict between two research fields and increase difficult of integrating study results. The purpose of this study was to determine which views are suitable for…

Reading Comprehension in Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Oral Language and Social Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ricketts, Jessie; Jones, Catherine R. G.; Happe, Francesca; Charman, Tony

2013-01-01

Reading comprehension is an area of difficulty for many individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). According to the Simple View of Reading, word recognition and oral language are both important determinants of reading comprehension ability. We provide a novel test of this model in 100 adolescents with ASD of varying intellectual ability.…

Judging the Emergent Reading Abilities of Kindergarten Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Otto, Beverly; Sulzby, Elizabeth

In 1981, a scale, the Emergent Reading Ability Judgments for Dictated and Handwritten Stories, was developed for use in assessing how close a child was to reading independently based upon the nature of the child's attempts to read from dictated and handwritten stories. A study was conducted to apply the scale to stories from a new sample of…

The Beautiful and the Ugly: Reading Ability Modulates Word Spacing Effects in Chinese Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Yu-Cheng; Lin, Pei-Ying

2017-01-01

There are no salient word spaces in Mandarin Chinese. Thus, it is unclear whether word spacing information differentially affects the reading speed of children with and without reading difficulties (RD). In the present study, native Chinese-speaking children of differential reading abilities were tested with Chinese text in un-spaced versus spaced…

The precursors of double dissociation between reading and spelling in a transparent orthography.

PubMed

Torppa, Minna; Georgiou, George K; Niemi, Pekka; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija

2017-04-01

Research and clinical practitioners have mixed views whether reading and spelling difficulties should be combined or seen as separate. This study examined the following: (a) if double dissociation between reading and spelling can be identified in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and (b) the cognitive and noncognitive precursors of this phenomenon. Finnish-speaking children (n = 1963) were assessed on reading fluency and spelling in grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. Dissociation groups in reading and spelling were formed based on stable difficulties in grades 1-4. The groups were compared in kindergarten phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, letter knowledge, home literacy environment, and task-avoidant behavior. The results indicated that the double dissociation groups could be identified even in the context of a highly transparent orthography: 41 children were unexpected poor spellers (SD), 36 were unexpected poor readers (RD), and 59 were poor in both reading and spelling (RSD). The RSD group performed poorest on all cognitive skills and showed the most task-avoidant behavior, the RD group performed poorly particularly on rapid automatized naming and letter knowledge, and the SD group had difficulties on phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Fathers' shared book reading was less frequent in the RD and RSD groups than in the other groups. The findings suggest that there are discernible double dissociation groups with distinct cognitive profiles. This further suggests that the identification of difficulties in Finnish and the planning of teaching and remediation practices should include both reading and spelling assessments.

Music education for improving reading skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia.

PubMed

Cogo-Moreira, Hugo; Andriolo, Régis B; Yazigi, Latife; Ploubidis, George B; Brandão de Ávila, Clara Regina; Mari, Jair J

2012-08-15

Dyslexia (or developmental dyslexia or specific reading disability) is a specific learning disorder that has a neurobiological origin. It is marked by difficulties with accurate or fluent recognition of words and poor spelling in people who have average or above average intelligence and these difficulties cannot be attributed to another cause, for example, poor vision, hearing difficulty, or lack of socio-environmental opportunities, motivation, or adequate instruction. Studies have correlated reading skills with musical abilities. It has been hypothesized that musical training may be able to remediate timing difficulties, improve pitch perception, or increase spatial awareness, thereby having a positive effect on skills needed in the development of language and literacy. To study the effectiveness of music education on reading skills (that is, oral reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and spelling) in children and adolescents with dyslexia. We searched the following electronic databases in June 2012: CENTRAL (2012, Issue 5), MEDLINE (1948 to May Week 4 2012 ), EMBASE (1980 to 2012 Week 22), CINAHL (searched 7 June 2012), LILACS (searched 7 June 2012), PsycINFO (1887 to May Week 5 2012), ERIC (searched 7 June 2012), Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1970 to 6 June 2012), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Sciences and Humanities (1990 to 6 June 2012), and WorldCat (searched 7 June 2012). We also searched the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and reference lists of studies. We did not apply any date or language limits. We planned to include randomized controlled trials. We looked for studies that included at least one of our primary outcomes. The primary outcomes were related to the main domain of the reading: oral reading skills, reading comprehension, reading fluency, phonological awareness, and spelling, measured through validated instruments. The secondary outcomes were self esteem and academic achievement. Two authors (HCM and RBA) independently screened all titles and abstracts identified through the search strategy to determine their eligibility. For our analysis we had planned to use mean difference for continuous data, with 95% confidence intervals, and to use the random-effects statistical model when the effect estimates of two or more studies could be combined in a meta-analysis. We retrieved 851 references via the search strategy. No randomized controlled trials testing music education for the improvement of reading skills in children with dyslexia could be included in this review. There is no evidence available from randomized controlled trials on which to base a judgment about the effectiveness of music education for the improvement of reading skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia. This uncertainty warrants further research via randomized controlled trials, involving a interdisciplinary team: musicians, hearing and speech therapists, psychologists, and physicians.

Poor Comprehenders in the Classroom: Teacher Ratings of Behavior in Children with Poor Reading Comprehension and Its Relationship with Individual Differences in Working Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pimperton, Hannah; Nation, Kate

2014-01-01

Differing etiological explanations have been proposed to account for poor comprehenders' difficulties with reading comprehension, with some researchers emphasizing working memory deficits and others arguing for oral language weaknesses playing a key causal role. The authors contrasted these two theoretical accounts using data obtained from direct…

Poor Auditory Task Scores in Children with Specific Reading and Language Difficulties: Some Poor Scores Are More Equal than Others

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McArthur, Genevieve M.; Hogben, John H.

2012-01-01

Children with specific reading disability (SRD) or specific language impairment (SLI), who scored poorly on an auditory discrimination task, did up to 140 runs on the failed task. Forty-one percent of the children produced widely fluctuating scores that did not improve across runs (untrainable errant performance), 23% produced widely fluctuating…

How Do Fluent and Poor Readers' Endurance Differ in Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastug, Muhammet; Keskin, Hasan Kagan; Akyol, Mustafa

2017-01-01

It was observed in this research how endurance status of fluent readers and poor readers changed as the text became longer. 40 students of the primary school 4th-grade, 20 were fluent readers and other 20 were poor readers, participated in the research. A narrative text was utilised in the data collection process. Students' oral readings were…

Assessment of Arabic phonological awareness and its relation to word reading ability.

PubMed

Abou-Elsaad, Tamer; Ali, Rawhia; Abd El-Hamid, Haidy

2016-12-01

Phonological awareness (PA) is one of the most important components in the development of normal reading ability. It refers to the ability to detect and manipulate the sound structure of words independently of their meaning. The current study aimed to assess Arabic PA skills and the relation to word reading abilities in Egyptian Arabic-speaking children. The designed assessment was applied to 80 typically developing children, divided into two subgroups ranging in age from 5 years 6 months to 8 years 6 months. The design of assessment involved six PA tasks covering three levels: rhyme awareness, syllabic awareness, and phonemic awareness, as well as the assessment of reading abilities that include real word and nonsense word reading tasks. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation), Student's t tests, and Pearson correlation coefficient tests were used to analyze the data. The reliability of the test was proven using the test-retest procedure. Validity of the test was estimated through internal consistency validity. The results revealed that the Arabic PA assessment test (APAAT) proved to be a reliable and valid tool for assessing Arabic reading skills. Findings from the study provided important insights into the developmental patterns of Arabic PA. In addition, the findings revealed a strong relationship between phonological awareness skills and the proficiency in word reading abilities in Arabic school-aged children.

Language and reading comprehension in middle childhood predicts emotional and behaviour difficulties in adolescence for those with permanent childhood hearing loss.

PubMed

Stevenson, Jim; Pimperton, Hannah; Kreppner, Jana; Worsfold, Sarah; Terlektsi, Emmanouela; Mahon, Merle; Kennedy, Colin

2018-02-01

Permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL) is associated with an elevated level of emotional and behaviour difficulties (EBD). In children and adolescents with PCHL, EBD has been found to be linked to language ability in children with PCHL. The present study was designed to test whether childhood language and/or reading comprehension abilities of children with PCHL predict subsequent EBD in adolescence. Language comprehension (LC) and reading comprehension (RC) were measured at ages 6-10 years (Time 1) and 13-20 years (Time 2) in participants with PCHL who preferred to communicate using spoken language (n = 57) and a hearing comparison group (n = 38). EBD was measured at both time points by parent and by teacher ratings on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Within the PCHL group there were negative correlations between EBD scores and concurrent LC and RC scores at Time 1 and at Time 2. Cross-lagged latent variable models fitted to the longitudinal data indicated that the associations between LC, RC and teacher-rated EBD were more likely to arise from the impact of LC and RC on behaviour rather than the other way around. In those with PCHL, poor language and reading comprehension in middle childhood increased the risk of emotional and behaviour difficulties at school in the teenage years. The results suggest that effective language and literacy interventions for children with hearing loss may also bring benefits to their mental health. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Cognitive and academic functioning of juvenile detainees: implications for correctional populations and public health.

PubMed

Lansing, Amy E; Washburn, Jason J; Abram, Karen M; Thomas, Ursula C; Welty, Leah J; Teplin, Linda A

2014-01-01

Cognitive functioning affects health. This study assessed cognitive functioning among participants in the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a stratified random sample of 1,829 newly detained juveniles (10 to 18 years old) from Cook County, Illinois. The study examined receptive vocabulary, oral reading, arithmetic computation skills, and general intellectual abilities. The sample exhibited impaired overall intellectual functioning and deficits in all areas. Males performed more poorly than females. More than three quarters of males showed below average overall intellectual functioning, and 9 in 10 had below average receptive vocabulary skills. Hispanic and African American males performed more poorly than non-Hispanic White males. The multiple systems that serve delinquent youth--correctional, health, legal, and rehabilitative--must collaborate to tailor needed services to the cognitive level of youth in the juvenile justice system.

Cognitive and academic functioning of juvenile detainees: Implications for correctional populations and public health

PubMed Central

Lansing, Amy E.; Washburn, Jason J.; Abram, Karen M.; Thomas, Ursula C.; Welty, Leah J.; Teplin, Linda A.

2014-01-01

Cognitive functioning affects health. This study assessed cognitive functioning among participants in the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a stratified random sample of 1,829 newly detained juveniles (10-18 years old) from Cook County, Illinois. We examined receptive vocabulary, oral reading, arithmetic computation skills, and general intellectual abilities. Our sample exhibited impaired overall intellectual functioning and deficits in all areas. Males performed more poorly than females overall. More than three-quarters of males showed below average overall intellectual functioning, and nine in ten males had below average receptive vocabulary skills. Hispanic and African American males performed more poorly than non-Hispanic white males; The multiple systems that serve delinquent youth—correctional, health, legal, and rehabilitative—must collaborate to tailor needed services to the cognitive level of youth in the juvenile justice system. PMID:24352405

Reading in a Root-Based-Morphology Language: The Case of Arabic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, S.

2002-01-01

Reviews the reading process in Arabic as a function of vowels and sentence context. Reviews reading accuracy and reading comprehension results in light of cross-cultural reading to develop a more comprehensive reading theory. Presents the phonology, morphology and sentence context of Arabic in two suggested reading models for poor/beginner Arabic…

Can Differences in Word Frequency Explain Why Narrative Fiction is a Better Predictor of Verbal Ability than Nonfiction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCreath, Graham A.; Linehan, Cormac M. J.; Mar, Raymond A.

2017-01-01

Individuals who read more tend to have stronger verbal skills than those who read less. Interestingly, what you read may make a difference. Past studies have found that reading narrative fiction, but not expository nonfiction, predicts verbal ability. Why this difference exists is not known. Here we investigate one possibility: whether fiction…

Intensity ratio curve analysis of small renal masses on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging: Differentiation of fat-poor angiomyolipoma from renal cell carcinoma.

PubMed

Moriyama, Shingo; Yoshida, Soichiro; Tanaka, Hajime; Tanaka, Hiroshi; Yokoyama, Minato; Ishioka, Junichiro; Matsuoka, Yoh; Saito, Kazutaka; Kihara, Kazunori; Fujii, Yasuhisa

2018-03-25

To assess the diagnostic ability of a pixel intensity-based analysis in evaluating the magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of small renal masses, especially in differentiating fat-poor angiomyolipoma from renal cell carcinoma. T2-weighted images from 121 solid small renal masses (<4 cm) without visible fat (14 fat-poor angiomyolipomas, 92 clear cell renal cell carcinomas, six chromophobe renal cell carcinomas and nine papillary renal cell carcinomas) were retrospectively evaluated. An intensity ratio curve was plotted using intensity ratios, which were ratios of signal intensities of tumor pixels (each pixel along a linear region of interest drawn across the renal tumor on T2-weighted image) to the signal intensity of a normal renal cortex. The diagnostic ability of the intensity ratio curve analysis was evaluated. The tumors were classified into three types: intensity ratio fat-poor angiomyolipoma (n = 19) with no pseudocapsule, iso-low intensity and no heterogeneity; intensity ratio clear cell renal cell carcinoma (n = 76) with a pseudocapsule, iso-high intensity and heterogeneity; and other type of intensity ratio (n = 26), including tumors that did not fall into the above two categories. The sensitivity/specificity/accuracy of the intensity ratio curve analysis in diagnosing fat-poor angiomyolipoma was 93%/94%/94%, respectively. When the intensity ratio curve analysis was applied only to the tumor with undetermined radiological diagnosis, the sensitivity for diagnosing fat-poor angiomyolipoma compared with subjective reading alone significantly improved (93% vs 50%; P = 0.014). Our novel semiquantitative model for combined assessment of key features of fat-poor angiomyolipoma, including low intensity, homogeneity and absence of a pseudocapsule on T2-weighted image, might make diagnosis of fat-poor angiomyolipoma more accurate. © 2018 The Japanese Urological Association.

An Analysis of Oral Reading Errors and Its Implications for Improvement of Reading Instruction. Technical Report No. 50.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Au, Kathryn H.

The oral reading errors of 15 second graders were analyzed to find out if strategies used by good and poor readers could be differentiated. Patterns of errors were identified, and it was found that good readers often used context cues, while poor readers relied heavily on visual-phonic information. It was also possible to identify good and poor…

Italian Children with Dyslexia Are Also Poor in Reading English Words, but Accurate in Reading English Pseudowords

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palladino, Paola; Bellagamba, Isabella; Ferrari, Marcella; Cornoldi, Cesare

2013-01-01

It has been argued that children with dyslexia (DC) are poor at learning a foreign language (L2) and, in particular, reading foreign words. This assumption is so general that an Italian law (law 170, October, 2010) has established that DC may be completely exempted from foreign language learning and, in any case, should not be engaged in tuition…

Home Economics Reading Skills: Problems and Selected References.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cranney, A. Garr; And Others

Home economics presents at least eight problems to secondary school reading teachers. These problems include poor readers, difficult reading material, lack of reading materials, teachers' lack of training in reading instruction, scarce information about home economics for reading teachers, diversity of the home economics field (requiring a wide…

Affective Variables and Japanese L2 Reading Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kondo-Brown, Kimi

2006-01-01

This study investigates how 17 affective factors are related to Japanese second language (L2) reading comprehension and "kanji" knowledge test scores of 43 university students in advanced Japanese courses. Major findings are that: a) reading comprehension ability and "kanji" knowledge have direct associations with…

A Study of Poor Black Children Who Are Successful Readers. Reading Education Report No. 33.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durkin, Dolores

A study was conducted to acquire information about poor black children who were successful readers in order to determine what can be done to increase the number of such children. For purposes of the study, "successful" was defined as scoring at or above grade level on a standardized reading test at the end of fifth grade, while "poor" was defined…

Diagnostic memory assessment in Italian-born Australians.

PubMed

Fratti, Sara; Bowden, Stephen C; Pino, Olimpia

2011-09-01

In many English-speaking countries neuropsychological assessment of non-English speakers is often performed in English or through an interpreter. Relying on interpreters often involves unstandardized and ad hoc translations of tests which may limit valid assessment. In a sample of 75 Italian-born elderly Australians from the general community (48 women and 27 men, aged 56-90 years) we administered standardized and normed psychological tests in both English (WMS-III, WAIS-III, BNT, Schonell Graded Word Reading Test) and Italian (Milan Overall Dementia Assessment, MODA). We examined the hypothesis that long-term retrieval ability assessed in English is primarily influenced by cognitive abilities assessed in Italian and by English language competence. Regression analysis showed that the strongest predictor of long-term retrieval in English was long-term retrieval in Italian (R2 = 0.229, F(72) = 29.12, p<0.01). After inclusion of an estimate of general cognitive ability in Italian, English language competence failed to add significantly to variance explained in memory tested in English (p > 0.05). Results of the present study support the view that long-term retrieval memory is not significantly affected by second language proficiency after control of cognitive ability assessed in Italian. As a consequence, if an Italian-born elder Australian with English as a second language scores poorly on a diagnostic memory test, this result may be due to cognitive impairment rather than language issues. If, instead, we attribute poor performance to language competence, an increased risk of false negative diagnosis may arise.

Malnutrition at age 3 years and lower cognitive ability at age 11 years: independence from psychosocial adversity.

PubMed

Liu, Jianghong; Raine, Adrian; Venables, Peter H; Dalais, Cyril; Mednick, Sarnoff A

2003-06-01

Early malnutrition is linked to poor cognition, but long-term effects have not been extensively examined and psychosocial confounds have not always been controlled. To test the hypothesis that malnutrition at age 3 years will be associated with poorer cognitive ability at age 11 years independent of psychosocial confounds. A prospective, longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1559 children originally assessed at age 3 years for malnutrition (low hemoglobin level, angular stomatitis, kwashiorkor, and sparse, thin hair) and followed up to age 11 years. A community sample of 1559 children (51.4% boys and 48.6% girls) born between September 1, 1969, and August 31, 1970, in 2 towns in the island of Mauritius, with 68.7% Indians and 25.7% Creoles (African origin). Verbal and spatial ability measured at ages 3 and 11 years and reading, scholastic ability, and neuropsychologic performance measured at age 11 years. Malnourished children had poorer cognition at both ages. Deficits were stable across time, applied to all sex and ethnic groups, and remained after controlling for multiple measures of psychosocial adversity. Children with 3 indicators of malnutrition had a 15.3-point deficit in IQ at age 11 years. Malnutrition at age 3 years is associated with poor cognition at age 11 years independent of psychosocial adversity. Promoting early childhood nutrition could enhance long-term cognitive development and school performance, especially in children with multiple nutritional deficits.

Malnutrition at Age 3 Years and Lower Cognitive Ability at Age 11 Years

PubMed Central

Liu, Jianghong; Raine, Adrian; Venables, Peter H.; Dalais, Cyril; Mednick, Sarnoff A.

2014-01-01

Background Early malnutrition is linked to poor cognition, but long-term effects have not been extensively examined and psychosocial confounds have not always been controlled. Objective To test the hypothesis that malnutrition at age 3 years will be associated with poorer cognitive ability at age 11 years independent of psychosocial confounds. Design A prospective, longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1559 children originally assessed at age 3 years for malnutrition (low hemoglobin level, angular stomatitis, kwashiorkor, and sparse, thin hair) and followed up to age 11 years. Setting and Participants A community sample of 1559 children (51.4% boys and 48.6% girls) born between September 1, 1969, and August 31, 1970, in 2 towns in the island of Mauritius, with 68.7% Indians and 25.7% Creoles (African origin). Main Outcome Measures Verbal and spatial ability measured at ages 3 and 11 years and reading, scholastic ability, and neuropsychologic performance measured at age 11 years. Results Malnourished children had poorer cognition at both ages. Deficits were stable across time, applied to all sex and ethnic groups, and remained after controlling for multiple measures of psychosocial adversity. Children with 3 indicators of malnutrition had a 15.3-point deficit in IQ at age 11 years. Conclusions Malnutrition at age 3 years is associated with poor cognition at age 11 years independent of psychosocial adversity. Promoting early childhood nutrition could enhance long-term cognitive development and school performance, especially in children with multiple nutritional deficits. PMID:12796242

Active Reading Procedures for Moderating the Effects of Poor Highlighting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gier, Vicki S.; Herring, Daniel; Hudnell, Jason; Montoya, Jodi; Kreiner, David S.

2010-01-01

We investigated two active reading techniques intended to eliminate the negative effect on reading comprehension of preexisting, inappropriate highlighting. College students read passages in three highlighting conditions: no highlighting, appropriate highlighting, and inappropriate highlighting. In Experiment 1, 30 students read the passages while…

Reading Instruction That Increases Thinking Abilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins, Cathy

1991-01-01

Analyzes the effects of eight reading and writing lessons designed to increase adolescent thinking ability. Finds that the lessons increased thinking abilities and scholastic achievement of middle school students. Notes that the lessons positively affect students' self-esteem and communication skills. (RS)

Improving English Reading Comprehension Ability through Survey, Questions, Read, Record, Recite, Review Strategy (SQ4R)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khusniyah, Nurul Lailatul; Lustyantie, Ninuk

2017-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of the survey, questions, read, record, recite, review (SQ4R) strategy of the reading comprehension ability students of 2nd semester. The research study was used action research method. The sampling was taken by 34 students. The validity of data used credibility, transferability, dependability, and…

The Effects of Cognitive Process and Decision Making Training in Reading Experience on Meaningful Learning with Underachieving College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dean, Rebecca J.

2010-01-01

The ability of underprepared college students to read and learn from their reading is essential to their academic success and to their ability to persist towards completing their degree. The purposes of this study were to (a) assess the relationship between the cognitive processes of reading-based decision making and meaningful learning and (b)…

Teacher-Parent Communication and Parents' Ability to Select Reading Material: A Study of a Baggy Book Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lorenz, Kelley M.

2013-01-01

This study examined the effects of a home-reading program on parent-teacher communication and on the ability of parents to select reading material for their children. In this qualitative case study, parents of 4th grade students participated in a reading homework program with their children. Using constructivist theories, the study's…

Why Ambiguity Detection Is a Predictor of Early Reading Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wankoff, Lorain Szabo; Cairns, Helen Smith

2009-01-01

This study was designed to determine the contributions of metalinguistic skill and psycholinguistic processing ability to children's ability to detect the ambiguity of sentences and the relationship among all three factors to early reading ability. A total of 20 first graders and 20 second graders were given tasks testing the following abilities:…

Associations Between the KIAA0319 Dyslexia Susceptibility Gene Variants, Antenatal Maternal Stress, and Reading Ability in a Longitudinal Birth Cohort.

PubMed

D'Souza, Stephanie; Backhouse-Smith, Amelia; Thompson, John M D; Slykerman, Rebecca; Marlow, Gareth; Wall, Clare; Murphy, Rinki; Ferguson, Lynnette R; Mitchell, Edwin A; Waldie, Karen E

2016-11-01

Maternal stress during pregnancy has been associated with detrimental cognitive developmental outcomes in offspring. This study investigated whether antenatal maternal perceived stress and variants of the rs12193738 and rs2179515 polymorphisms on the KIAA0319 gene interact to affect reading ability and full-scale IQ (FSIQ) in members of the longitudinal Auckland Birthweight Collaborative study. Antenatal maternal stress was measured at birth, and reading ability was assessed at ages 7 and 16. Reading data were available for 500 participants at age 7 and 479 participants at age 16. FSIQ was measured at ages 7 and 11. At age 11, DNA samples were collected. Analyses of covariance revealed that individuals with the TT genotype of the rs12193738 polymorphism exposed to high maternal stress during pregnancy possessed significantly poorer reading ability (as measured by Woodcock-Johnson Word Identification standard scores) during adolescence compared with TT carriers exposed to low maternal stress. TT carriers of the rs12193738 SNP also obtained lower IQ scores at age 7 than C allele carriers. These findings suggest that the KIAA0319 gene is associated with both reading ability and general cognition, but in different ways. The effect on IQ appears to occur earlier in development and is transient, whereas the effect of reading ability occurs later and is moderated by antenatal maternal stress. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension among typical and learning disabled native Arabic speakers.

PubMed

Mahfoudhi, Abdessatar; Elbeheri, Gad; Al-Rashidi, Mousa; Everatt, John

2010-01-01

This work examines the role of morphological awareness in contrast to phonological processing in reading comprehension amongst two groups of native Arabic children: a group with learning disabilities (LD) and a mainstream group who were matched to the LD group in age or reading level. Measures of reading comprehension fluency, phonological skills, and morphological ability were given to both groups in addition to tests of nonverbal ability. For the mainstream children, unique variability in comprehension was predicted by the morphological measures over that of the measures of phonological skills and general nonverbal ability. In contrast, for the LD data, variability in comprehension was not predicted by morphological ability even though the children with LD performed the morphology task as well as their typically developing peers did. These findings are discussed in terms of theories of reading acquisition across languages as well as recommendations for literacy teaching and LD intervention in Arabic.

Subcortical processing of speech regularities underlies reading and music aptitude in children

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities supports fundamental human behaviors such as hearing in noise and reading. Although the failure to encode acoustic regularities in ongoing speech has been associated with language and literacy deficits, how auditory expertise, such as the expertise that is associated with musical skill, relates to the brainstem processing of speech regularities is unknown. An association between musical skill and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities would not be surprising given the importance of repetition and regularity in music. Here, we aimed to define relationships between the subcortical processing of speech regularities, music aptitude, and reading abilities in children with and without reading impairment. We hypothesized that, in combination with auditory cognitive abilities, neural sensitivity to regularities in ongoing speech provides a common biological mechanism underlying the development of music and reading abilities. Methods We assessed auditory working memory and attention, music aptitude, reading ability, and neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities in 42 school-aged children with a wide range of reading ability. Neural sensitivity to acoustic regularities was assessed by recording brainstem responses to the same speech sound presented in predictable and variable speech streams. Results Through correlation analyses and structural equation modeling, we reveal that music aptitude and literacy both relate to the extent of subcortical adaptation to regularities in ongoing speech as well as with auditory working memory and attention. Relationships between music and speech processing are specifically driven by performance on a musical rhythm task, underscoring the importance of rhythmic regularity for both language and music. Conclusions These data indicate common brain mechanisms underlying reading and music abilities that relate to how the nervous system responds to regularities in auditory input. Definition of common biological underpinnings for music and reading supports the usefulness of music for promoting child literacy, with the potential to improve reading remediation. PMID:22005291

Enhanced Text Spacing Improves Reading Performance in Individuals with Macular Disease

PubMed Central

Blackmore-Wright, Sally; Georgeson, Mark A.; Anderson, Stephen J.

2013-01-01

The search by many investigators for a solution to the reading problems encountered by individuals with no central vision has been long and, to date, not very fruitful. Most textual manipulations, including font size, have led to only modest gains in reading speed. Previous work on spatial integrative properties of peripheral retina suggests that ‘visual crowding’ may be a major factor contributing to inefficient reading. Crowding refers to the fact that juxtaposed targets viewed eccentrically may be difficult to identify. The purpose of this study was to assess the combined effects of line spacing and word spacing on the ability of individuals with age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) to read short passages of text that were printed with either high (87.5%) or low contrast (17.5%) letters. Low contrast text was used to avoid potential ceiling effects and to mimic a possible reduction in letter contrast with light scatter from media opacities. For both low and high contrast text, the fastest reading speeds we measured were for passages of text with double line and double word spacing. In comparison with standard single spacing, double word/line spacing increased reading speed by approximately 26% with high contrast text (p < 0.001), and by 46% with low contrast text (p < 0.001). In addition, double line/word spacing more than halved the number of reading errors obtained with single spaced text. We compare our results with previous reading studies on ARMD patients, and conclude that crowding is detrimental to reading and that its effects can be reduced with enhanced text spacing. Spacing is particularly important when the contrast of the text is reduced, as may occur with intraocular light scatter or poor viewing conditions. We recommend that macular disease patients should employ double line spacing and double-character word spacing to maximize their reading efficiency. PMID:24244676

The Science of Reading and Its Educational Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seidenberg, Mark S.

2013-01-01

Research in cognitive science and neuroscience has made enormous progress toward understanding skilled reading, the acquisition of reading skill, the brain bases of reading, the causes of developmental reading impairments and how such impairments can be treated. My question is: if the science is so good, why do so many people read so poorly? I…

Prediction and Stability of Reading Problems in Middle Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritchey, Kristen D.; Silverman, Rebecca D.; Schatschneider, Christopher; Speece, Deborah L.

2015-01-01

The longitudinal prediction of reading problems from fourth grade to sixth grade was investigated with a sample of 173 students. Reading problems at the end of sixth grade were defined by significantly below average performance (= 15th percentile) on reading factors defining word reading, fluency, and reading comprehension. Sixth grade poor reader…

Growth of reading skills in children with a history of specific language impairment: the role of autistic symptomatology and language-related abilities.

PubMed

St Clair, Michelle C; Durkin, Kevin; Conti-Ramsden, Gina; Pickles, Andrew

2010-03-01

Individuals with a history of specific language impairment (SLI) often have subsequent problems with reading skills, but there have been some discrepant findings as to the developmental time course of these skills. This study investigates the developmental trajectories of reading skills over a 9-year time-span (from 7 to 16 years of age) in a large sample of individuals with a history of SLI. Relationships among reading skills, autistic symptomatology, and language-related abilities were also investigated. The results indicate that both reading accuracy and comprehension are deficient but that the development of these skills progresses in a consistently parallel fashion to what would be expected from a normative sample of same age peers. Language-related abilities were strongly associated with reading skills. Unlike individuals with SLI only, those with SLI and additional autistic symptomatology had adequate reading accuracy but did not differ from the individuals with SLI only in reading comprehension. They exhibited a significant gap between what they could read and what they could understand when reading. These findings provide strong evidence that individuals with SLI experience continued, long-term deficits in reading skills from childhood to adolescence.

Morphological awareness and reading comprehension: Examining mediating factors.

PubMed

Levesque, Kyle C; Kieffer, Michael J; Deacon, S Hélène

2017-08-01

The relation between morphological awareness-defined as the awareness of and ability to manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language-and reading comprehension remains in need of specification. In this study, we evaluated four potential intervening variables through which morphological awareness may contribute indirectly to reading comprehension. We assessed word reading and vocabulary as well as children's ability to read and analyze the meaning of morphologically complex words (morphological decoding and morphological analysis, respectively). Controls of phonological awareness and nonverbal ability were included in the model. Participants were 221 English-speaking children in Grade 3. Multivariate path analyses revealed evidence of two indirect relations and one direct relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. In the first indirect path, morphological awareness contributed to morphological decoding, which then influenced word reading and finally reading comprehension. In a second indirect path, morphological awareness contributed to morphological analysis, which contributed to reading comprehension. Finally, in a direct path, morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension beyond all other variables. These findings inform as to the potential mechanisms underlying the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in children. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the Fake Resistance of a Forced-choice Paired-comparison Computer Adaptive Personality Measure

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-08-01

version of NCAPS, participants higher in cognitive ability and reading ability were able to produce higher fakability scores. Higher intelligence ... intelligence and reading ability. Therefore, the adaptive paired- comparison NCAPS is very likely to provide scores close to the true trait scores for...regardless of the intelligence or reading levels associated with those taking the adaptive NCAPS; it will be difficult to fake the adaptive paired

Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy.

PubMed

Yong, Keir X X; Rajdev, Kishan; Shakespeare, Timothy J; Leff, Alexander P; Crutch, Sebastian J

2015-07-28

We report (1) the quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and (2) the effects of 2 novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in the reading ability of patients with PCA. Reading performance, eye movements, and fixations were assessed in patients with PCA and typical Alzheimer disease and in healthy controls (experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (experiment 2). Mean reading accuracy in patients with PCA was significantly worse (57%) compared with both patients with typical Alzheimer disease (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%-270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid in patients with PCA. These findings demonstrate how neurologic characterization of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PCA, 2 software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy. © 2015 American Academy of Neurology.

Facilitating text reading in posterior cortical atrophy

PubMed Central

Rajdev, Kishan; Shakespeare, Timothy J.; Leff, Alexander P.; Crutch, Sebastian J.

2015-01-01

Objective: We report (1) the quantitative investigation of text reading in posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), and (2) the effects of 2 novel software-based reading aids that result in dramatic improvements in the reading ability of patients with PCA. Methods: Reading performance, eye movements, and fixations were assessed in patients with PCA and typical Alzheimer disease and in healthy controls (experiment 1). Two reading aids (single- and double-word) were evaluated based on the notion that reducing the spatial and oculomotor demands of text reading might support reading in PCA (experiment 2). Results: Mean reading accuracy in patients with PCA was significantly worse (57%) compared with both patients with typical Alzheimer disease (98%) and healthy controls (99%); spatial aspects of passages were the primary determinants of text reading ability in PCA. Both aids led to considerable gains in reading accuracy (PCA mean reading accuracy: single-word reading aid = 96%; individual patient improvement range: 6%–270%) and self-rated measures of reading. Data suggest a greater efficiency of fixations and eye movements under the single-word reading aid in patients with PCA. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate how neurologic characterization of a neurodegenerative syndrome (PCA) and detailed cognitive analysis of an important everyday skill (reading) can combine to yield aids capable of supporting important everyday functional abilities. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that for patients with PCA, 2 software-based reading aids (single-word and double-word) improve reading accuracy. PMID:26138948

From emergent literacy to reading: how learning to read changes a child's brain.

PubMed

Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Hutton, John S

2015-07-01

The ability to comprehend language is uniquely human. Behavioural and neuroimaging data reinforce the importance of intact oral language as foundational for the establishment of proficient reading. However, proficient reading is achieved not only via intact biological systems, but also a stimulating Home Literacy Environment. Behavioural and neuroimaging correlates for linguistic ability and literacy exposure support the engagement of neural circuits related to reading acquisition. ©2015 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Learning to Read Music Fluently

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stauffer, Donald W.

2005-01-01

The ability to read music accurately at sight is an extremely important, if not indispensable, qualification of both professional and amateur musicians. Sight-reading can be defined as the ability to translate musical symbols and terms into a musical performance using strict time limits. The musician must quickly perceive symbols ahead while…

Working Memory in Children with Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gathercole, Susan Elizabeth; Alloway, Tracy Packiam; Willis, Catherine; Adams, Anne-Marie

2006-01-01

This study investigated associations between working memory (measured by complex memory tasks) and both reading and mathematics abilities, as well as the possible mediating factors of fluid intelligence, verbal abilities, short-term memory (STM), and phonological awareness, in a sample of 46 6- to 11-year-olds with reading disabilities. As a…

Explaining the Association between Music Training and Reading in Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swaminathan, Swathi; Schellenberg, E. Glenn; Venkatesan, Kirthika

2018-01-01

We sought to clarify whether the positive association between music lessons and reading ability is explained better by shared resources for processing pitch and temporal information, or by general cognitive abilities. Participants were native and nonnative speakers of English with varying levels of music training. We measured reading ability…

Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension Strategies Improves EFL Learners' Writing Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghorbani, Mohammad Reza; Gangeraj, Atefeh Ardeshir; Alavi, Sahar Zahed

2013-01-01

Although the importance of reading in developing writing ability is undeniable, few competent readers in EFL contexts develop into competent writers. Since students are not aware that reading can assist them in writing, this study examined the effect of reciprocal teaching--which focuses on four reading comprehension strategies, namely…

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Cognitive Abilities and Reading Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benson, Nicholas

2008-01-01

Structural equation modeling procedures are applied to the standardization sample of the Woodcock-Johnson III to simultaneously estimate the effects of a psychometric general factor (g), specific cognitive abilities, and reading skills on reading achievement. The results of this study indicate that g has a strong direct relationship with basic…

The Relationship between Reading Ability and Lateralized Lexical Decision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weems, Scott A.; Zaidel, Eran

2004-01-01

Although lexical decision remains one of the most extensively studied cognitive tasks, very little is known about its relationship to broader linguistic performance such as reading ability. In a correlational study, several aspects of lateralized lexical decision performance were related to vocabulary and reading comprehension measures, as…

Beyond Phonological and Morphological Processing: Pure Copying as a Marker of Dyslexia in Chinese but Not Poor Reading of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalindi, Sylvia Chanda; McBride, Catherine; Tong, Xiuhong; Wong, Natalie Lok Lee; Chung, Kien Hoa Kevin; Lee, Chia-Ying

2015-01-01

To examine cognitive correlates of dyslexia in Chinese and reading difficulties in English as a foreign language, a total of 14 Chinese dyslexic children (DG), 16 poor readers of English (PE), and 17 poor readers of both Chinese and English (PB) were compared to a control sample (C) of 17 children, drawn from a statistically representative sample…

Foetal growth restriction is associated with poor reading and spelling skills at eight years to 10 years of age.

PubMed

Partanen, Lea; Korkalainen, Noora; Mäkikallio, Kaarin; Olsén, Päivi; Laukkanen-Nevala, Päivi; Yliherva, Anneli

2018-01-01

Foetal growth restriction (FGR) is associated with communication problems, which might lead to poor literacy skills. The reading and spelling skills of eight- to 10-year-old FGR children born at 24-40 gestational weeks were compared with those of their gestational age-matched, appropriately grown (AGA) peers. A prospectively collected cohort of 37 FGR and 31 AGA children was recruited prenatally at a Finnish tertiary care centre during 1998-2001. The children's reading and spelling skills were assessed using standardised tests for Finnish-speaking second and third graders. Significantly more children performed below the 10th percentile normal values for reading and spelling skills in the FGR group than in the AGA group. At nine years of age, the FGR children had significantly poorer performance in word reading skills and reading fluency, reading accuracy and reading comprehension than the AGA controls. No between-group differences were detected at eight years of age. FGR is associated with poor performance in reading and spelling skills. A third of the FGR children performed below the 10th percentile normal values at nine years of age. These results indicate a need to continuously evaluate linguistic and literacy skills as FGR children age to ensure optimal support. ©2017 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reading Arabic Texts: Effects of Text Type, Reader Type and Vowelization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, Salim

1998-01-01

Investigates the effect of vowels on reading accuracy in Arabic orthography. Finds that vowels had a significant effect on reading accuracy of poor and skilled readers in reading each of four kinds of texts. (NH)

Brain Structural Integrity and Intrinsic Functional Connectivity Forecast 6 Year Longitudinal Growth in Children's Numerical Abilities.

PubMed

Evans, Tanya M; Kochalka, John; Ngoon, Tricia J; Wu, Sarah S; Qin, Shaozheng; Battista, Christian; Menon, Vinod

2015-08-19

Early numerical proficiency lays the foundation for acquiring quantitative skills essential in today's technological society. Identification of cognitive and brain markers associated with long-term growth of children's basic numerical computation abilities is therefore of utmost importance. Previous attempts to relate brain structure and function to numerical competency have focused on behavioral measures from a single time point. Thus, little is known about the brain predictors of individual differences in growth trajectories of numerical abilities. Using a longitudinal design, with multimodal imaging and machine-learning algorithms, we investigated whether brain structure and intrinsic connectivity in early childhood are predictive of 6 year outcomes in numerical abilities spanning childhood and adolescence. Gray matter volume at age 8 in distributed brain regions, including the ventrotemporal occipital cortex (VTOC), the posterior parietal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex, predicted longitudinal gains in numerical, but not reading, abilities. Remarkably, intrinsic connectivity analysis revealed that the strength of functional coupling among these regions also predicted gains in numerical abilities, providing novel evidence for a network of brain regions that works in concert to promote numerical skill acquisition. VTOC connectivity with posterior parietal, anterior temporal, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices emerged as the most extensive network predicting individual gains in numerical abilities. Crucially, behavioral measures of mathematics, IQ, working memory, and reading did not predict children's gains in numerical abilities. Our study identifies, for the first time, functional circuits in the human brain that scaffold the development of numerical skills, and highlights potential biomarkers for identifying children at risk for learning difficulties. Children show substantial individual differences in math abilities and ease of math learning. Early numerical abilities provide the foundation for future academic and professional success in an increasingly technological society. Understanding the early identification of poor math skills has therefore taken on great significance. This work provides important new insights into brain structure and connectivity measures that can predict longitudinal growth of children's math skills over a 6 year period, and may eventually aid in the early identification of children who might benefit from targeted interventions. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/3511743-08$15.00/0.

Can Neurotypical Individuals Read Autistic Facial Expressions? Atypical Production of Emotional Facial Expressions in Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Biotti, Federica; Catmur, Caroline; Press, Clare; Happé, Francesca; Cook, Richard; Bird, Geoffrey

2015-01-01

The difficulties encountered by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when interacting with neurotypical (NT, i.e. nonautistic) individuals are usually attributed to failure to recognize the emotions and mental states of their NT interaction partner. It is also possible, however, that at least some of the difficulty is due to a failure of NT individuals to read the mental and emotional states of ASD interaction partners. Previous research has frequently observed deficits of typical facial emotion recognition in individuals with ASD, suggesting atypical representations of emotional expressions. Relatively little research, however, has investigated the ability of individuals with ASD to produce recognizable emotional expressions, and thus, whether NT individuals can recognize autistic emotional expressions. The few studies which have investigated this have used only NT observers, making it impossible to determine whether atypical representations are shared among individuals with ASD, or idiosyncratic. This study investigated NT and ASD participants’ ability to recognize emotional expressions produced by NT and ASD posers. Three posing conditions were included, to determine whether potential group differences are due to atypical cognitive representations of emotion, impaired understanding of the communicative value of expressions, or poor proprioceptive feedback. Results indicated that ASD expressions were recognized less well than NT expressions, and that this is likely due to a genuine deficit in the representation of typical emotional expressions in this population. Further, ASD expressions were equally poorly recognized by NT individuals and those with ASD, implicating idiosyncratic, rather than common, atypical representations of emotional expressions in ASD. Autism Res 2016, 9: 262–271. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:26053037

Sensitivity to Structure in the Speech Signal by Children with Speech Sound Disorder and Reading Disability

PubMed Central

Johnson, Erin Phinney; Pennington, Bruce F.; Lowenstein, Joanna H.; Nittrouer, Susan

2011-01-01

Purpose Children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and reading disability (RD) have poor phonological awareness, a problem believed to arise largely from deficits in processing the sensory information in speech, specifically individual acoustic cues. However, such cues are details of acoustic structure. Recent theories suggest that listeners also need to be able to integrate those details to perceive linguistically relevant form. This study examined abilities of children with SSD, RD, and SSD+RD not only to process acoustic cues but also to recover linguistically relevant form from the speech signal. Method Ten- to 11-year-olds with SSD (n = 17), RD (n = 16), SSD+RD (n = 17), and Controls (n = 16) were tested to examine their sensitivity to (1) voice onset times (VOT); (2) spectral structure in fricative-vowel syllables; and (3) vocoded sentences. Results Children in all groups performed similarly with VOT stimuli, but children with disorders showed delays on other tasks, although the specifics of their performance varied. Conclusion Children with poor phonemic awareness not only lack sensitivity to acoustic details, but are also less able to recover linguistically relevant forms. This is contrary to one of the main current theories of the relation between spoken and written language development. PMID:21329941

Gamma phase locking modulated by phonological contrast during auditory comprehension in reading disability.

PubMed

Han, Jooman; Mody, Maria; Ahlfors, Seppo P

2012-10-03

Children with specific reading impairment may have subtle deficits in speech perception related to difficulties in phonological processing. The aim of this study was to examine brain oscillatory activity related to phonological processing in the context of auditory sentence comprehension using magnetoencephalography to better understand these deficits. Good and poor readers, 16-18 years of age, were tested on speech perception of sentence-terminal incongruent words that were phonologically manipulated to be similar or dissimilar to corresponding congruent target words. Functional coupling between regions was measured using phase-locking values (PLVs). Gamma-band (30-45 Hz) PLV between auditory cortex and superior temporal sulcus in the right hemisphere was differentially modulated in the two groups by the degree of phonological contrast between the congruent and the incongruent target words in the latency range associated with semantic processing. Specifically, the PLV was larger in the phonologically similar than in the phonologically dissimilar condition in the good readers. This pattern was reversed in the poor readers, whose lower PLV in the phonologically similar condition may be indicative of the impaired phonological coding abilities of the group, and consequent vulnerability under perceptually demanding conditions. Overall, the results support the role of gamma oscillations in spoken language processing.

Gender-specific contribution of a visual cognition network to reading abilities.

PubMed

Huestegge, Lynn; Heim, Stefan; Zettelmeyer, Elena; Lange-Küttner, Christiane

2012-02-01

Based on the assumption that boys are more likely to tackle reading based on the visual modality, we assessed reading skills, visual short-term memory (VSTM), visual long-term memory for details (VLTM-D), and general non-verbal cognitive ability in primary school children. Reading was within the normal range in both accuracy and understanding. There was no reading performance gap in favour of girls, on the contrary, in this sample boys read better. An entire array of visual, non-verbal processes was associated directly or indirectly with reading in boys, whereas this pattern was not observed for the girls. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Relationship between central auditory processing and reading skills: preliminary observations in Hebrew speaking children.

PubMed

Cohen-Mimran, Ravit; Sapir, Shimon

2008-01-01

To assess the relationships between central auditory processing (CAP) of sinusoidally modulated speech-like and non-speech acoustic signals and reading skills in shallow (pointed) and deep (unpointed) Hebrew orthographies. Twenty unselected fifth-grade Hebrew speakers performed a rate change detection (RCD) task using the aforementioned acoustic signals. They also performed reading and general ability (IQ) tests. After controlling for general ability, RCD tasks contributed a significant unique variance to the decoding skills. In addition, there was a fairly strong correlation between the score on the RCD with the speech-like stimuli and the unpointed text reading score. CAP abilities may affect reading skills, depending on the nature of orthography (deep vs shallow), at least in the Hebrew language.

Working memory deficits in developmental dyscalculia: The importance of serial order.

PubMed

Attout, Lucie; Majerus, Steve

2015-01-01

Although a number of studies suggests a link between working memory (WM) storage capacity of short-term memory and calculation abilities, the nature of verbal WM deficits in children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) remains poorly understood. We explored verbal WM capacity in DD by focusing on the distinction between memory for item information (the items to be retained) and memory for order information (the order of the items within a list). We hypothesized that WM for order could be specifically related to impaired numerical abilities given that recent studies suggest close interactions between the representation of order information in WM and ordinal numerical processing. We investigated item and order WM abilities as well as basic numerical processing abilities in 16 children with DD (age: 8-11 years) and 16 typically developing children matched on age, IQ, and reading abilities. The DD group performed significantly poorer than controls in the order WM condition but not in the item WM condition. In addition, the DD group performed significantly slower than the control group on a numerical order judgment task. The present results show significantly reduced serial order WM abilities in DD coupled with less efficient numerical ordinal processing abilities, reflecting more general difficulties in explicit processing of ordinal information.

Reading Anxiety in L1: Reviewing the Concept

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piccolo, Luciane R.; Giacomoni, Claudia Hofheinz; Julio-Costa, Annelise; Oliveira, Susani; Zbornik, John; Haase, Vitor G.; Salles, Jerusa F.

2017-01-01

Elevated levels of anxiety have been associated with students' poor academic performance. Research on domain-specific anxiety patterns in reading has demonstrated that reading anxiety is associated with, yet distinctive from, general anxiety. Reading anxiety is an unpleasant emotional reaction experienced by students when reading; it is a specific…

Annual Surveys of Reading Disability in a Scottish County

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cockburn, J.

1973-01-01

Considered an annual survey of reading attainment of all 7-year-olds in Angus, Scotland using the Vernon Graded Word Reading Test, a further reading survey of 10- to 11-year-olds, and a follow up annually of children, who have made a poor start in reading. (Editor/RK)

Reading Big Words: Instructional Practices to Promote Multisyllabic Word Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toste, Jessica R.; Williams, Kelly J.; Capin, Philip

2017-01-01

Poorly developed word recognition skills are the most pervasive and debilitating source of reading challenges for students with learning disabilities (LD). With a notable decrease in word reading instruction in the upper elementary grades, struggling readers receive fewer instructional opportunities to develop proficient word reading skills, yet…

Patterns of Word Reading Skill, Interest and Self-Concept of Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Viljaranta, Jaana; Kiuru, Noona; Lerkkanen, Marja-Kristiina; Silinskas, Gintautas; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2017-01-01

The majority of previous research on academic skills, self-concept of ability and interest has deployed the variable-oriented approach and focused on self-concept, or ability, or interest only. This study examined the patterns and dynamics of pattern change in Finnish children's word reading skill, self-concept of ability and interest from…

Evidence of a Differential Effect of Ability Grouping on the Reading Achievement Growth of Language-Minority Hispanics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Joseph P.

2008-01-01

Ability grouping is sometimes thought to exacerbate inequality by increasing achievement gaps; however, ability grouping may in fact benefit a fast growing and often marginalized student population: children from non-English-speaking home environments. The level-appropriate, small-group instruction received in reading ability groups may be…

Verbal Ability, Argument Order, and Attitude Formation

PubMed Central

Mozuraitis, Mindaugas; Chambers, Craig G.; Daneman, Meredyth

2016-01-01

The current study explored the interaction of verbal ability and presentation order on readers’ attitude formation when presented with two-sided arguments. Participants read arguments for and against compulsory voting and genetic engineering, and attitudes were assessed before and after reading the passages. Participants’ verbal ability was measured, combining vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skill. Results suggested that low verbal-ability participants were more persuaded by the most recent set of arguments whereas high verbal-ability participants formed attitudes independent of presentation order. Contrary to previous literature, individual differences in the personality trait need for cognition did not interact with presentation order. The results suggest that verbal ability is an important moderator of the effect of presentation order when formulating opinions from complex prose. PMID:27703437

The cognitive foundations of reading and arithmetic skills in 7- to 10-year-olds.

PubMed

Durand, Marianne; Hulme, Charles; Larkin, Rebecca; Snowling, Margaret

2005-06-01

A range of possible predictors of arithmetic and reading were assessed in a large sample (N=162) of children between ages 7 years 5 months and 10 years 4 months. A confirmatory factor analysis of the predictors revealed a good fit to a model consisting of four latent variables (verbal ability, nonverbal ability, search speed, and phonological memory) and two manifest variables (digit comparison and phoneme deletion). A path analysis showed that digit comparison and verbal ability were unique predictors of variations in arithmetic skills, whereas phoneme deletion and verbal ability were unique predictors of variations in reading skills. These results confirm earlier findings that phoneme deletion ability appears to be a critical foundation for learning to read (decode). In addition, variations in the speed of accessing numerical quantity information appear to be a critical foundation for the development of arithmetic skills.

Interaction Quality during Partner Reading

PubMed Central

Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Schwanenflugel, Paula J.; Bradley, Barbara A.; Stahl, Steven A.

2009-01-01

The influence of social relationships, positive interdependence, and teacher structure on the quality of partner reading interactions was examined. Partner reading, a scripted cooperative learning strategy, is often used in classrooms to promote the development of fluent and automatic reading skills. Forty-three pairs of second grade children were observed during partner reading sessions taking place in 12 classrooms. The degree to which the partners displayed social cooperation (instrumental support, emotional support, and conflict management) and on/off task behavior was evaluated. Children who chose their own partners showed greater social cooperation than those children whose teacher selected their partner. However, when the positive interdependence requirements of the task were not met within the pair (neither child had the skills to provide reading support or no one needed support), lower levels of on-task behavior were observed. Providing basic partner reading script instruction at the beginning of the year was associated with better social cooperation during partner reading, but providing elaborated instruction or no instruction was associated with poorer social cooperation. It is recommended that teachers provide basic script instruction and allow children to choose their own partners. Additionally, pairings of low ability children with other low ability children and high ability children with other high ability children should be avoided. Teachers may want to suggest alternate partners for children who inadvertently choose such pairings or adjust the text difficulty to the pair. Overall, partner reading seems to be an enjoyable pedagogical strategy for teaching reading fluency. PMID:19830259

Reaction Time Variability Associated with Reading Skills in Poor Readers with ADHD

PubMed Central

Tamm, Leanne; Epstein, Jeffery N.; Denton, Carolyn A.; Vaughn, Aaron J.; Peugh, James; Willcutt, Erik G.

2014-01-01

Objective Linkages between neuropsychological functioning (i.e., response inhibition, processing speed, reaction time variability) and word reading have been documented among children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and children with Reading Disorders. However, associations between neuropsychological functioning and other aspects of reading (i.e., fluency, comprehension) have not been well-documented among children with comorbid ADHD and Reading Disorder. Method Children with ADHD and poor word reading (i.e., ≤25th percentile) completed a stop signal task (SST) and tests of word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Multivariate multiple regression was conducted predicting the reading skills from SST variables [i.e., mean reaction time (MRT), reaction time standard deviation (SDRT), and stop signal reaction time (SSRT)]. Results SDRT predicted word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. MRT and SSRT were not associated with any reading skill. After including word reading in models predicting reading fluency and reading comprehension, the effects of SDRT were minimized. Discussion Reaction time variability (i.e., SDRT) reflects impairments in information processing and failure to maintain executive control. The pattern of results from this study suggest SDRT exerts its effects on reading fluency and reading comprehension through its effect on word reading (i.e., decoding) and that this relation may be related to observed deficits in higher-level elements of reading. PMID:24528537

Exploring the Relationship between Adolescent's Reading Skills, Reading Motivation and Reading Habits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGeown, Sarah P.; Duncan, Lynne G.; Griffiths, Yvonne M.; Stothard, Sue E.

2015-01-01

The present study examines the extent to which adolescents' reading affect (reading motivation) and behaviour (reading habits) predict different components of reading (word reading, comprehension, summarisation and text reading speed) and also adds to the limited research examining group differences (gender, age, ability) in adolescents' reading…

Ada Namelist Package

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klumpp, Allan R.

1991-01-01

Ada Namelist Package, developed for Ada programming language, enables calling program to read and write FORTRAN-style namelist files. Features are: handling of any combination of types defined by user; ability to read vectors, matrices, and slices of vectors and matrices; handling of mismatches between variables in namelist file and those in programmed list of namelist variables; and ability to avoid searching entire input file for each variable. Principle benefits derived by user: ability to read and write namelist-readable files, ability to detect most file errors in initialization phase, and organization keeping number of instantiated units to few packages rather than to many subprograms.

Verbal and visuospatial working memory as predictors of children's reading ability.

PubMed

Pham, Andy V; Hasson, Ramzi M

2014-08-01

Children with reading difficulties often demonstrate weaknesses in working memory (WM). This research study explored the relation between two WM systems (verbal and visuospatial WM) and reading ability in a sample of school-aged children with a wide range of reading skills. Children (N = 157), ages 9-12, were administered measures of short-term memory, verbal WM, visuospatial WM, and reading measures (e.g., reading fluency and comprehension). Although results indicated that verbal WM was a stronger predictor in reading fluency and comprehension, visuospatial WM also significantly predicted reading skills, but provided more unique variance in reading comprehension than reading fluency. These findings suggest that visuospatial WM may play a significant role in higher level reading processes, particularly in reading comprehension, than previously thought. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Reading Acquisition Enhances an Early Visual Process of Contour Integration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szwed, Marcin; Ventura, Paulo; Querido, Luis; Cohen, Laurent; Dehaene, Stanislas

2012-01-01

The acquisition of reading has an extensive impact on the developing brain and leads to enhanced abilities in phonological processing and visual letter perception. Could this expertise also extend to early visual abilities outside the reading domain? Here we studied the performance of illiterate, ex-illiterate and literate adults closely matched…

Development of L2 Word-Meaning Inference while Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Megumi

2009-01-01

Ability to infer the meaning of unknown words encountered while reading plays an important role in learners' L2 word-knowledge development. Despite numerous findings reported on word-meaning inference, how learners develop this ability is still unclear. In order to provide a developmental inquiry into L2 word-meaning inference while reading, this…

The Relationship between Iranian ESP Learners' Translation Ability and Resilience in Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malekan, Fatemeh; Hajimohammadi, Reza

2017-01-01

The present study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between Iranian ESP Learners' translation ability and resilience in reading comprehension. More specifically, the study aimed to study the resilience cognitive and metacognitive effect on raising L2 reading comprehension through translation. Secondly, the study aimed at pursuing the…

Reading Ability and the Utilization of Orthographic Structure in Reading. Technical Report No. 515.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massaro, Dominic W.; Taylor, Glen A.

Previous research has demonstrated that readers utilize orthographic structure in their perceptual recognition of letter strings. Two experiments were conducted to assess whether this utilization varied with reading ability. Anagrams of words were made to create strings that orthogonally combined high and low single letter positional frequency and…

Syntactic and Reading Abilities in Normal and Learning Disabled Junior High School Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferraro, Mary F.; Doyle, Beverly A.

The study involving 12 learning disabled (LD) junior high school students investigated whether LD students with reading comprehension difficulties were deficient in syntactic abilities as compared to normal students. Syntactic and reading tests were administered to each student. Comparison of the scores between the two groups showed that LD Ss…

Lexile Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Benjamin D.; Stenner, A. Jackson

2000-01-01

Discusses the use of the Lexile Framework(R) in several areas. Lexiles have been established for various job groups, and they may serve as an indication of reading ability for a given job. The uses of lexiles in school and in reading education are discussed, as is the achievement of Lexile reading abilities as indicators of probable income. (SLD)

Effects of Mora Deletion, Nonword Repetition, Rapid Naming, and Visual Search Performance on Beginning Reading in Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kobayashi, Maya Shiho; Haynes, Charles W.; Macaruso, Paul; Hook, Pamela E.; Kato, Junko

2005-01-01

This study examined the extent to which mora deletion (phonological analysis), nonword repetition (phonological memory), rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual search abilities predict reading in Japanese kindergartners and first graders. Analogous abilities have been identified as important predictors of reading skills in alphabetic languages…

Parents' Shared Storybook Reading--Learning to Read

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saracho, Olivia N.

2017-01-01

Parents engage in joint story book sharing where adults read an appropriate text to children, usually in the home environment. Story book sharing promotes the young children's development of receptive and expressive language abilities as well as their emerging early literacy abilities, which have an effect on the children's success in school-based…

Calibration of Comprehension and Performance in L2 Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarac, Seda; Tarhan, Betul

2009-01-01

Comprehension monitoring is crucial for successful reading. Although the researchers appreciate the importance of comprehension monitoring in L2 reading, there are only a few studies done on the comprehension monitoring ability of L2 readers. The main aim of this study was to investigate the comprehension monitoring abilities of university…

Reading Profiles for Adults with Low-Literacy: Cluster Analysis with Power and Speeded Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mellard, Daryl F.; Fall, Emily; Mark, Caroline

2009-01-01

The United States' National Institute for Literacy's (NIFL) review of adult literacy instruction research recommended adult education (AE) programs assess underlying reading abilities in order to plan appropriate instruction for low-literacy learners. This study developed adult reading ability groups using measures from power tests and speeded…

DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM IN REMEDIAL READING AND LANGUAGE ARTS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MILLER, ARTHUR; AND OTHERS

A SUMMER CAMP WAS SET UP AT AGASSIZ VILLAGE, MAINE, IN 1964, TO HELP DEVELOP READING ABILITY FOR CHILDREN OF BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS. OBJECTIVES WERE TO IMPROVE EACH CHILD'S READING ACHIEVEMENT AND RELATED LANGUAGE ARTS ABILITY. INFORMAL AND STANDARDIZED TESTS WERE USED TO MEASURE RESULTS. PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS WERE GIVEN TO DETECT ANY PHYSICAL…

Health literacy and ophthalmic patient education

PubMed Central

Muir, Kelly W.; Lee, Paul P.

2010-01-01

In 1997, Ebrahimzadeh, Davalos and Lee wrote in this journal that only 32% of the ophthalmic patient educational materials reviewed were written at or below the recommended eighth grade reading level. Since that time, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that more than one third of adult Americans possess only basic or below basic health literacy skills, defined as the ability to understand written information in a healthcare setting. Subsequently, investigators have shown that poor health literacy skills are associated with poor prescription medication adherence, increased hospital admissions and increased mortality. We review the readability of currently available ophthalmic educational materials, with particular attention to the health literacy status of the patient population for which the materials are intended. Examples of prose at various readability levels are provided. Optimizing patient education and improving clinical outcomes requires understanding the attributes that the patient brings to the patient–physician relationship, including health literacy. PMID:20650503

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles

PubMed Central

Kemény, Ferenc; Gangl, Melanie; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina; Landerl, Karin

2017-01-01

Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191) of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling). Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials) was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect). Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing), we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing). Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the causal status of which is yet unclear. PMID:28686635

Visuo-spatial cueing in children with differential reading and spelling profiles.

PubMed

Banfi, Chiara; Kemény, Ferenc; Gangl, Melanie; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina; Landerl, Karin

2017-01-01

Dyslexia has been claimed to be causally related to deficits in visuo-spatial attention. In particular, inefficient shifting of visual attention during spatial cueing paradigms is assumed to be associated with problems in graphemic parsing during sublexical reading. The current study investigated visuo-spatial attention performance in an exogenous cueing paradigm in a large sample (N = 191) of third and fourth graders with different reading and spelling profiles (controls, isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined deficit in reading and spelling). Once individual variability in reaction times was taken into account by means of z-transformation, a cueing deficit (i.e. no significant difference between valid and invalid trials) was found for children with combined deficits in reading and spelling. However, poor readers without spelling problems showed a cueing effect comparable to controls, but exhibited a particularly strong right-over-left advantage (position effect). Isolated poor spellers showed a significant cueing effect, but no position effect. While we replicated earlier findings of a reduced cueing effect among poor nonword readers (indicating deficits in sublexical processing), we also found a reduced cueing effect among children with particularly poor orthographic spelling (indicating deficits in lexical processing). Thus, earlier claims of a specific association with nonword reading could not be confirmed. Controlling for ADHD-symptoms reported in a parental questionnaire did not impact on the statistical analysis, indicating that cueing deficits are not caused by more general attentional limitations. Between 31 and 48% of participants in the three reading and/or spelling deficit groups as well as 32% of the control group showed reduced spatial cueing. These findings indicate a significant, but moderate association between certain aspects of visuo-spatial attention and subcomponents of written language processing, the causal status of which is yet unclear.

Longitudinal patterns of emerging literacy in beginning deaf and hearing readers.

PubMed

Kyle, Fiona E; Harris, Margaret

2011-01-01

The emerging reading and spelling abilities of 24 deaf and 23 hearing beginning readers were followed over 2 years. The deaf children varied in their language backgrounds and preferred mode of communication. All children were given a range of literacy, cognitive and language-based tasks every 12 months. Deaf and hearing children made similar progress in literacy in the beginning stages of reading development and then their trajectories began to diverge. The longitudinal correlates of beginning reading in the deaf children were earlier vocabulary, letter-sound knowledge, and speechreading. Earlier phonological awareness was not a longitudinal correlate of reading ability once earlier reading levels were controlled. Only letter name knowledge was longitudinally related to spelling ability. Speechreading was also a strong longitudinal correlate of reading and spelling in the hearing children. The findings suggested that deaf and hearing children utilize slightly different reading strategies over the first 2 years of schooling. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

[Relationship between clinical symptoms and Hiragana reading ability in children with difficulties in reading and writing:usefulness of a clinical-symptoms-checklist].

PubMed

Kita, Yosuke; Kobayashi, Tomoka; Koike, Toshihide; Koeda, Tatsuya; Wakamiya, Eiji; Hosokawa, Torn; Kaga, Makiko; Inagaki, Masumi

2010-11-01

We investigated the clinical symptoms of children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and evaluated the relationship between these symptoms and their Hiragana reading abilities. In order to detect the clinical symptoms of DD, we newly developed a clinical-symptoms-checklist (CL), which consisted of a total of 30 yes/no questions regarding symptoms linked to reading (15 questions) and writing (15 questions). Subjects were 98 Japanese school grade (1 to 9) children, aged 6 to 15 years old, with normal intelligence confirmed by the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children (WISC-Ill) and they were divided into 2 groups according to their diagnosis. Twenty four children diagnosed as developmental dyslexia consisted the DD group, and the remaining 74 children were grouped in the non-DD group. CL showed significant construct validity (p<0.05) and inner consistency (reading: a =0.82, writing: a =0.72) after deleting two questions from the originals. The number of questions checked in the CL reading subcategory significantly correlated with the Hiragana reading ability of articulation time in all Hiragana reading tasks (p<0.001). More severe clinical symptoms and lower reading ability were observed in the DD group compared to the non-DD group. Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis indicated that these two groups could be discriminated by the CL and the results of the reading task, and both sensitivity and specificity rate were approximately 80%. It was suggested that 7 or more positive checks in the CL and 2 or more abnormal scores in the reading tasks might discriminate DD from other conditions which cause difficulties in reading and writing in Japanese children.

Eye Movements during Silent and Oral Reading in a Regular Orthography: Basic Characteristics and Correlations with Childhood Cognitive Abilities and Adolescent Reading Skills

PubMed Central

Krieber, Magdalena; Bartl-Pokorny, Katrin D.; Pokorny, Florian B.; Zhang, Dajie; Landerl, Karin; Körner, Christof; Pernkopf, Franz; Pock, Thomas; Einspieler, Christa; Marschik, Peter B.

2017-01-01

The present study aimed to define differences between silent and oral reading with respect to spatial and temporal eye movement parameters. Eye movements of 22 German-speaking adolescents (14 females; mean age = 13;6 years;months) were recorded while reading an age-appropriate text silently and orally. Preschool cognitive abilities were assessed at the participants’ age of 5;7 (years;months) using the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. The participants’ reading speed and reading comprehension at the age of 13;6 (years;months) were determined using a standardized inventory to evaluate silent reading skills in German readers (Lesegeschwindigkeits- und -verständnistest für Klassen 6–12). The results show that (i) reading mode significantly influenced both spatial and temporal characteristics of eye movement patterns; (ii) articulation decreased the consistency of intraindividual reading performances with regard to a significant number of eye movement parameters; (iii) reading skills predicted the majority of eye movement parameters during silent reading, but influenced only a restricted number of eye movement parameters when reading orally; (iv) differences with respect to a subset of eye movement parameters increased with reading skills; (v) an overall preschool cognitive performance score predicted reading skills at the age of 13;6 (years;months), but not eye movement patterns during either silent or oral reading. However, we found a few significant correlations between preschool performances on subscales of sequential and simultaneous processing and eye movement parameters for both reading modes. Overall, the findings suggest that eye movement patterns depend on the reading mode. Preschool cognitive abilities were more closely related to eye movement patterns of oral than silent reading, while reading skills predicted eye movement patterns during silent reading, but less so during oral reading. PMID:28151950

Unpacking socio-economic risks for reading and academic self-concept in primary school: Differential effects and the role of the preschool home learning environment.

PubMed

Crampton, Alexandria; Hall, James

2017-09-01

Uncertainty remains concerning how children's reading and academic self-concept are related and how these are differentially affected by social disadvantage and home learning environments. To contrast the impacts of early socio-economic risks and preschool home learning environments upon British children's reading abilities and academic self-concept between 7 and 10 years. n = 3,172 British children aged 3-10 years and their families. A secondary analysis of the nationally representative UK EPPE database. Multilevel structural equation modelling calculated the direct, indirect, and total impacts of early socio-economic risks (0-3 years) and preschool home learning environments (3-5 years) upon children's reading ability and academic self-concept between 7 and 10 years. Early socio-economic risk had different effects upon children's reading ability and academic self-concept. Early socio-economic risks affected children's reading at ages 7 and 10 both directly and indirectly via effects upon preschool home learning environments. By contrast, early socio-economic risks had only indirect effects upon children's academic self-concept via less stimulating home learning environments in the preschool period and by limiting reading abilities early on in primary school. Although the impacts of early socio-economic risks are larger and more easily observed upon reading than upon academic self-concept, they can impact both by making it less likely that children will experience enriching home learning environments during the preschool period. This has implications for social policymakers, early educators, and interventionists. Intervening early and improving preschool home learning environments can do more than raise children's reading abilities; secondary benefits may also be achievable upon children's self-concept. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

Visual processing in reading disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and its contribution to basic reading ability

PubMed Central

Kibby, Michelle Y.; Dyer, Sarah M.; Vadnais, Sarah A.; Jagger, Audreyana C.; Casher, Gabriel A.; Stacy, Maria

2015-01-01

Whether visual processing deficits are common in reading disorders (RD), and related to reading ability in general, has been debated for decades. The type of visual processing affected also is debated, although visual discrimination and short-term memory (STM) may be more commonly related to reading ability. Reading disorders are frequently comorbid with ADHD, and children with ADHD often have subclinical reading problems. Hence, children with ADHD were used as a comparison group in this study. ADHD and RD may be dissociated in terms of visual processing. Whereas RD may be associated with deficits in visual discrimination and STM for order, ADHD is associated with deficits in visual-spatial processing. Thus, we hypothesized that children with RD would perform worse than controls and children with ADHD only on a measure of visual discrimination and a measure of visual STM that requires memory for order. We expected all groups would perform comparably on the measure of visual STM that does not require sequential processing. We found children with RD or ADHD were commensurate to controls on measures of visual discrimination and visual STM that do not require sequential processing. In contrast, both RD groups (RD, RD/ADHD) performed worse than controls on the measure of visual STM that requires memory for order, and children with comorbid RD/ADHD performed worse than those with ADHD. In addition, of the three visual measures, only sequential visual STM predicted reading ability. Hence, our findings suggest there is a deficit in visual sequential STM that is specific to RD and is related to basic reading ability. The source of this deficit is worthy of further research, but it may include both reduced memory for order and poorer verbal mediation. PMID:26579020

Visual processing in reading disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and its contribution to basic reading ability.

PubMed

Kibby, Michelle Y; Dyer, Sarah M; Vadnais, Sarah A; Jagger, Audreyana C; Casher, Gabriel A; Stacy, Maria

2015-01-01

Whether visual processing deficits are common in reading disorders (RD), and related to reading ability in general, has been debated for decades. The type of visual processing affected also is debated, although visual discrimination and short-term memory (STM) may be more commonly related to reading ability. Reading disorders are frequently comorbid with ADHD, and children with ADHD often have subclinical reading problems. Hence, children with ADHD were used as a comparison group in this study. ADHD and RD may be dissociated in terms of visual processing. Whereas RD may be associated with deficits in visual discrimination and STM for order, ADHD is associated with deficits in visual-spatial processing. Thus, we hypothesized that children with RD would perform worse than controls and children with ADHD only on a measure of visual discrimination and a measure of visual STM that requires memory for order. We expected all groups would perform comparably on the measure of visual STM that does not require sequential processing. We found children with RD or ADHD were commensurate to controls on measures of visual discrimination and visual STM that do not require sequential processing. In contrast, both RD groups (RD, RD/ADHD) performed worse than controls on the measure of visual STM that requires memory for order, and children with comorbid RD/ADHD performed worse than those with ADHD. In addition, of the three visual measures, only sequential visual STM predicted reading ability. Hence, our findings suggest there is a deficit in visual sequential STM that is specific to RD and is related to basic reading ability. The source of this deficit is worthy of further research, but it may include both reduced memory for order and poorer verbal mediation.

The Effect of Concurrent Music Reading and Performance on the Ability to Detect Tempo Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Mark Carlton

1989-01-01

Measures the ability of three groups of musicians to detect tempo change while reading and performing music. Compares this ability with that of the same musicians to detect tempo change while listening only. Found that for all groups the ability to detect tempo changes was inhibited by the playing task, although to different degrees for each…

The Nature of Preschool Phonological Processing Abilities and Their Relations to Vocabulary, General Cognitive Abilities, and Print Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Anthony, Jason L.; Phillips, Beth M.; Purpura, David J.; Wilson, Shauna B.; McQueen, Jessica D.

2009-01-01

The development of reading-related phonological processing abilities represents an important developmental milestone in the process of learning to read. In this cross-sectional study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the structure of phonological processing abilities in 129 younger preschoolers (M = 40.88 months, SD = 4.65) and 304…

Binocularity and Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brod, Nathan; Hamilton, David

1973-01-01

A sample of 162 fifth grade students were grouped as good, average, and poor readers on the basis of a standardized reading test to determine whether a relationship existed between binocularity and reading performance. (Author/MC)

Helping Underachieving Boys Read Well and Often. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Wendy

This digest discusses how schools and families can improve native English speaking boys' reading skills, particularly poor, minority boys. It examines ways to increase the time boys spend reading and the enjoyment they get from reading. Boys tend to learn to read later, take longer to learn, comprehend narrative texts less easily, value reading…

Effects of an Informational Text Reading Comprehension Intervention for Fifth-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritchey, Kristen D.; Palombo, Kimberly; Silverman, Rebecca D.; Speece, Deborah L.

2017-01-01

Upper elementary school students who have reading problems may have difficulty in one or more areas of reading, each requiring specific types of interventions. This study evaluated a short-term reading intervention for 46 fifth-grade students with poor reading comprehension. Students were randomly assigned to an intervention or no treatment…

Comprehension Strategy Instruction for Two Students with Attention-Related Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedin, Laura R.; Mason, Linda H.; Gaffney, Janet S.

2011-01-01

Many students struggle to maintain the attention needed to comprehend while reading. One 4th-grade student and 5th-grade student, both with poor comprehension and attention-related disabilities, were taught to use a proven systematic reading comprehension strategy, TWA (Think Before Reading, Think While Reading, Think After Reading), when reading…

Masked Speech Recognition and Reading Ability in School-Age Children: Is There a Relationship?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Gabrielle; Lewis, Barbara; Benchek, Penelope; Buss, Emily; Calandruccio, Lauren

2018-01-01

Purpose: The relationship between reading (decoding) skills, phonological processing abilities, and masked speech recognition in typically developing children was explored. This experiment was designed to evaluate the relationship between phonological processing and decoding abilities and 2 aspects of masked speech recognition in typically…

A Study of the Relationship between Kindergarten Nonverbal Ability and Third-Grade Reading Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wills, Aaron J.

2012-01-01

Increased scrutiny of educational proficiency targets has intensified the urgency for educators to identify measurements that indicate students' likelihood of eventual achievement in reading. This regression analysis explored the relationship between nonverbal ability in kindergarten as measured by the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test (NNAT) and…

Rapid Serial Naming Is a Unique Predictor of Spelling in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savage, Robert; Pillay, Vanitha; Melidona, Santo

2008-01-01

Some previous research has shown strong associations between spelling ability and rapid automatic naming (RAN) after controls for phonological processing and nonsense-word reading ability, consistent with the double-deficit hypothesis in reading and spelling. Previous studies did not, however, control for nonsense-word spelling ability before…

8 CFR 312.1 - Literacy requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

..., including an ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language. (b) Exceptions. The following persons need not demonstrate an ability to read, write and speak words in ordinary...) Verbal skills. The ability of an applicant to speak English shall be determined by a designated examiner...

8 CFR 312.1 - Literacy requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., including an ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language. (b) Exceptions. The following persons need not demonstrate an ability to read, write and speak words in ordinary...) Verbal skills. The ability of an applicant to speak English shall be determined by a designated examiner...

Processing Determinants of Reading Speed.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Mark D.; McClelland, James L.

1979-01-01

Two groups of undergraduates differing in reading ability were tested on a number of reaction-time tasks designed to determine the speed of encoding visual information at several different levels, tests of sensory functions, verbal and quantitative reasoning ability, short-term auditory memory span, and ability to comprehend spoken text.…

Underlying Reading-Related Skills and Abilities among Adult Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mellard, Daryl F.; Woods, Kari L.; Md Desa, Z. Deana; Vuyk, M. Alexandra

2015-01-01

This exploratory study identified underlying skill and ability differences among subgroups of adolescent and young adult struggling readers (N = 290) overall and in relation to a fluency-based instructional grouping method. We used principal axis factoring of participants' scores on 18 measures of reading-related skills and abilities identified in…

77 FR 40832 - Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-07-11

... ability of the flight crew to read primary displays for airplane attitude, altitude, or airspeed, and... displays for airplane attitude, altitude, or airspeed, and consequently reduce the ability of the flight...) malfunctions, which could affect the ability of the flight crew to read primary displays for airplane attitude...

Effectiveness of Corrective Reading on Reading Comprehension and Fluency in At-Risk Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weaver, Barbara Jean Alexander

2012-01-01

One of the greatest predictors and characteristics of a high school dropout has been poor reading skills. Students with low achievement levels in reading by the end of third grade are at greater risk of becoming a dropout. The study sought to determine whether the Corrective Reading Program impacted reading comprehension and fluency skills of…

Alternate reading strategies and variable asymmetry of the planum temporale in adult resilient readers.

PubMed

Welcome, Suzanne E; Leonard, Christiana M; Chiarello, Christine

2010-05-01

Resilient readers are characterized by impaired phonological processing despite skilled text comprehension. We investigated orthographic and semantic processing in resilient readers to examine mechanisms of compensation for poor phonological decoding. Performance on phonological (phoneme deletion, pseudoword reading), orthographic (orthographic choice, orthographic analogy), and semantic (semantic priming, homograph resolution) tasks was compared between resilient, poor and proficient readers. Asymmetry of the planum temporale was investigated in order to determine whether atypical readers showed unusual morphology in this language-relevant region. Resilient readers showed deficits on phonological tasks similar to those shown by poor readers. We obtained no evidence that resilient readers compensate via superior orthographic processing, as they showed neither exceptional orthographic skill nor increased reliance on orthography to guide pronunciation. Resilient readers benefited more than poor or proficient readers from semantic relationships between words and experienced greater difficulty when such relationships were not present. We suggest, therefore, that resilient readers compensate for poor phonological decoding via greater reliance on word meaning relationships. The reading groups did not differ in mean asymmetry of the planum temporale. However, resilient readers showed greater variability in planar asymmetry than proficient readers. Poor readers also showed a trend towards greater variability in planar asymmetry, with more poor readers than proficient readers showing extreme asymmetry. Such increased variability suggests that university students with less reading skill display less well regulated brain anatomy than proficient readers. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Increased Sensitivity of Diagnostic Mutation Detection by Re-analysis Incorporating Local Reassembly of Sequence Reads.

PubMed

Watson, Christopher M; Camm, Nick; Crinnion, Laura A; Clokie, Samuel; Robinson, Rachel L; Adlard, Julian; Charlton, Ruth; Markham, Alexander F; Carr, Ian M; Bonthron, David T

2017-12-01

Diagnostic genetic testing programmes based on next-generation DNA sequencing have resulted in the accrual of large datasets of targeted raw sequence data. Most diagnostic laboratories process these data through an automated variant-calling pipeline. Validation of the chosen analytical methods typically depends on confirming the detection of known sequence variants. Despite improvements in short-read alignment methods, current pipelines are known to be comparatively poor at detecting large insertion/deletion mutations. We performed clinical validation of a local reassembly tool, ABRA (assembly-based realigner), through retrospective reanalysis of a cohort of more than 2000 hereditary cancer cases. ABRA enabled detection of a 96-bp deletion, 4-bp insertion mutation in PMS2 that had been initially identified using a comparative read-depth approach. We applied an updated pipeline incorporating ABRA to the entire cohort of 2000 cases and identified one previously undetected pathogenic variant, a 23-bp duplication in PTEN. We demonstrate the effect of read length on the ability to detect insertion/deletion variants by comparing HiSeq2500 (2 × 101-bp) and NextSeq500 (2 × 151-bp) sequence data for a range of variants and thereby show that the limitations of shorter read lengths can be mitigated using appropriate informatics tools. This work highlights the need for ongoing development of diagnostic pipelines to maximize test sensitivity. We also draw attention to the large differences in computational infrastructure required to perform day-to-day versus large-scale reprocessing tasks.

Oral and Written Expression in Children with Reading Comprehension Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carretti, Barbara; Motta, Eleonora; Re, Anna Maria

2016-01-01

Several studies have highlighted that children with reading comprehension difficulties also have problems in tasks that involve telling a story, in writing or verbally. The main differences identified regard poor comprehenders' lower level of coherence in their productions by comparison with good comprehenders. Only one study has compared poor and…

Reading Does Not Depend on Writing, Even in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bi, Yanchao; Han, Zaizhu; Zhang, Yumei

2009-01-01

A recent hypothesis proposes that reading depends on writing in a logographic language--Chinese. We present a Chinese individual (HLD) with brain damage whose profile challenges this hypothesis. HLD was severely impaired in the whole process of writing. He could not access orthographic knowledge, had poor orthographic awareness, and was poor at…

Electroencephalographic coherences discriminate between children with different pedagogical evaluation.

PubMed

Marosi, E; Harmony, T; Becker, J; Reyes, A; Bernal, J; Fernández, T; Rodríguez, M; Silva, J; Guerrero, V

1995-02-01

The relationship of reading-writing ability and EEG coherences was studied in 84 subjects from two age groups 7.0-8.9 and 9-11.2 years old. All children were divided into three groups according to their performance on a pedagogical test: ped1, normal children; ped2, children with mild problems; ped3, children with reading-writing disability. The following results were obtained: in general, children showed higher coherences in groups with poor performance in the delta, theta and beta bands. In the alpha band, higher coherence values were related to better performance. The exceptions to this general pattern were rare. Group ped2 had higher coherences in delta, theta and alpha bands than ped1 and ped3, in left temporal leads. In older children the same tendency was observed, but group differences in the theta, alpha and beta bands were few. In this age range, the significant group differences were almost all interhemispheric coherences. The discriminant analysis that classified subjects by their coherence values gave very good results, fact that demonstrates, that EEG coherence is a highly sensitive measurement indicating not only the existence of a reading-writing problem, but also the degree of its severity.

The Science of Reading and Its Educational Implications

PubMed Central

Seidenberg, Mark S.

2013-01-01

Research in cognitive science and neuroscience has made enormous progress toward understanding skilled reading, the acquisition of reading skill, the brain bases of reading, the causes of developmental reading impairments and how such impairments can be treated. My question is: if the science is so good, why do so many people read so poorly? I mainly focus on the United States, which fares poorly on cross-national comparisons of literacy, with about 25-30% of the population exhibiting literacy skills that are low by standard metrics. I consider three possible contributing factors, all of which turn on issues concerning the relationships between written and spoken language. They are: the fact that English has a deep alphabetic orthography; how reading is taught; and the impact of linguistic variability as manifested in the Black-White “achievement gap”. I conclude that there are opportunities to increase literacy levels by making better use of what we have learned about reading and language, but also institutional obstacles and understudied issues for which more evidence is badly needed. PMID:24839408

TOEFL and IELTS as Measures of Academic Reading Ability: An Exploratory Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buell, James G.

This paper discusses research conducted in the spring of 1991 that measured the relationship of reading subtest scores to teacher ratings of students' reading abilities. Sixty-eight advanced-level students in an intensive English program took an institutional version of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and a specimen reading…

L2 Reading Ability: Further Insight into the Short-Circuit Hypothesis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taillefer, Gail F.

1996-01-01

Discusses the notion of a language proficiency threshold that short circuits the transfer of reading ability from the native language (L1) to a second language (L2). This study, in which cognitive complexity of tasks and students' L2 proficiency levels vary, focuses on university students in France reading preprofessional English texts. (39…

Commentary on "Reading Comprehension Is Not a Single Ability": Implications for Child Language Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ukrainetz, Teresa A.

2017-01-01

Purpose: This commentary responds to the implications for child language intervention of Catts and Kamhi's (2017) call to move from viewing reading comprehension as a single ability to recognizing it as a complex constellation of reader, text, and activity. Method: Reading comprehension, as Catts and Kamhi explain, is very complicated. In this…

The Reading Grade Level of Common Measures in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jensen, Scott A.; Fabiano, Gregory A.; Lopez-Williams, Andy; Chacko, Anil

2006-01-01

The purpose of this article is to provide easily accessible readability information for 49 parent- and 35 child- and adolescent-report measures commonly used by clinicians and researchers. There is a great deal of variability in reading ability required across measures. The majority of parent-report measures (65%) required reading ability above…

The Differential Relations between Verbal, Numerical and Spatial Working Memory Abilities and Children's Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakhill, Jane; Yuill, Nicola; Garnham, Alan

2011-01-01

Working memory predicts children's reading comprehension but it is not clear whether this relation is due to a modality-specific or general working memory. This study, which investigated the relations between children's reading skills and working memory (WM) abilities in 3 modalities, extends previous work by including measures of both reading…

Relationships between Reading Ability in Third Grade and Phonological Awareness in Kindergarten

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pannell, Melissa

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify relationships that exist between reading ability in 3rd grade and phonological awareness in kindergarten. A second purpose was to identify specific prereading skills that best predict later reading success. This study used a quantitative research design to answer the research questions posed. The…

An Examination of the Influences of a Teacher Preparation Program on Beginning Teachers' Reading Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Sarah K.; Jones, Cindy D.; Reutzel, D. Ray; Andreasen, Lindi

2013-01-01

In this study, we tracked elementary preservice teachers' (N = 41) perceived ability to teach reading as they moved through their teacher preparation program. After graduation, we conducted follow-up teaching observations and interviews with five of these novice teachers to explore their perceptions about their ability to teach reading. An…

The Dissociation of Word Reading and Text Comprehension: Evidence from Component Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakhill, J. V.; Cain, K.; Bryant, P. E.

2003-01-01

Discusses the relative contribution of several theoretically relevant skills and abilities in accounting for variance in both word reading and text comprehension. Data is presented from two waves of a longitudinal study. Shows there is a dissociation between the skills and abilities that account for variance in word reading, and those that account…

The Differential Roles of Paired Associate Learning in Chinese and English Word Reading Abilities in Bilingual Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chow, Bonnie Wing-Yin

2014-01-01

Paired associated learning (PAL) is a critical skill for making arbitrary associations among print, pronunciation and meaning in reading development. Extended from past research of PAL, this study investigated whether PAL operated flexibly to linguistic demands of languages, by examining word reading abilities in Chinese-English bilingual…

An Interactive Software Program to Develop Pianists' Sight-Reading Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsangari, Victoria

2010-01-01

Musical sight-reading, or sight-playing, is defined as "the ability to play music from a printed score or part for the first time without benefit of practice." While this is the most strict definition of the term, also known as "prima vista" (at first sight), some use the term "sight-reading" even if some rehearsal…

Is Overall Oral English Ability Related to Young Latinos' English Reading Growth?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzgerald, Jill; Amendum, Steven J.; Relyea, Jackie Eunjung; Garcia, Sandra G.

2015-01-01

The present study investigated whether young Latino dual-language learners' 2-year English reading growth varied over time according to their initial overall oral English ability. We followed 41 Latino children for 2 years. We tested overall oral English at the beginning of the study and administered multiple curriculum-based reading assessments…

Investigating Phonological Awareness and Naming Speed as Predictors of Reading in Arabic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tibi, Sana; Kirby, John R.

2018-01-01

Wolf and Bowers (1999) described a model in which phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (NS) make independent contributions to reading ability. We tested this model in a sample of 201 Grade 3 Arabic-speaking children in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Measures of general cognitive ability, vocabulary, PA, NS, word reading, and reading…

Development of a Reading Material Recommendation System Based on a Knowledge Engineering Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Ching-Kun; Hwang, Gwo-Jen; Chang, Chih-Kai

2010-01-01

In a language curriculum, the training of reading ability is one of the most important aspects. Previous studies have shown the importance of assigning proper articles to individual students for training their reading ability; nevertheless, previous experience has also shown the challenges of this issue owing to the complexity of personal factors…

The Development of Reading Ability in First and Second Grade. Technical Report No. 516.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Linda A.; And Others

This study determined how children develop reading ability in first and second grade. Subjects, approximately 315 children from 3 school districts in the midwest, were given a series of standardized and customized measures of reading comprehension. Linear structural models were developed at both grade levels using LISREL to explain variance in…

Current Developments in Reading Abilities through Phonological Processing Skills and Proficiency in a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Relojo, Dennis; Dela Rosa, Rona; Pilao, Sonia Janice

2016-01-01

During the past decades, the way that researchers and educators understand and describe the process of reading has been revolutionised. The present article examines the current developments in reading abilities among second language readers. The developments are further discussed in terms of a theory of general second language proficiency…

77 FR 73908 - Airworthiness Directives; The Boeing Company Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-12

... affect the ability of the flightcrew to read primary displays for airplane attitude, altitude, or... the ability of the flightcrew to read primary displays for airplane attitude, altitude, or airspeed...

Phonics training for English-speaking poor readers.

PubMed

McArthur, Genevieve; Eve, Philippa M; Jones, Kristy; Banales, Erin; Kohnen, Saskia; Anandakumar, Thushara; Larsen, Linda; Marinus, Eva; Wang, Hua-Chen; Castles, Anne

2012-12-12

Around 5% of English speakers have a significant problem with learning to read words. Poor word readers are often trained to use letter-sound rules to improve their reading skills. This training is commonly called phonics. Well over 100 studies have administered some form of phonics training to poor word readers. However, there are surprisingly few systematic reviews or meta-analyses of these studies. The most well-known review was done by the National Reading Panel (Ehri 2001) 12 years ago and needs updating. The most recent review (Suggate 2010) focused solely on children and did not include unpublished studies. The primary aim of this review was to measure the effect that phonics training has on the literacy skills of English-speaking children, adolescents, and adults whose reading was at least one standard deviation (SD), one year, or one grade below the expected level, despite no reported problems that could explain their impaired ability to learn to read. A secondary objective was to explore the impact of various factors, such as length of training or training group size, that might moderate the effect of phonics training on poor word reading skills. We searched the following databases in July 2012: CENTRAL 2012 (Issue 6), MEDLINE 1948 to June week 3 2012, EMBASE 1980 to 2012 week 26, DARE 2013 (Issue 6), ERIC (1966 to current), PsycINFO (1806 to current), CINAHL (1938 to current), Science Citation Index (1970 to 29 June 2012), Social Science Citation Index (1970 to 29 June 2012), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science (1990 to 29 June 2012), Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Social Science & Humanities (1990 to 29 June 2012), ZETOC, Index to Theses-UK and Ireland, ClinicalTrials.gov, ICTRP, the metaRegister of Controlled Trials, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, DART Europe E-theses Portal, Australasian Digital Theses Program, Education Research Theses, Electronic Theses Online System, Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. Theses Canada portal, www.dissertation.com, and www.thesisabstracts.com. We also contacted experts and examined the reference lists of published studies. We included studies that use randomisation, quasi-randomisation, or minimisation to allocate participants to either a phonics intervention group (phonics alone, phonics and phoneme awareness training, or phonics and irregular word reading training) or a control group (no training or alternative training, such as maths). Participants were English-speaking children, adolescents, or adults whose word reading was below the level expected for their age for no known reason (that is, they had adequate attention and no known physical, neurological, or psychological problems). Two review authors independently selected studies, assessed risk of bias, and extracted data. We found 11 studies that met the criteria for this review. They involved 736 participants. We measured the effect of phonics training on eight outcomes. The amount of evidence for each outcome varied considerably, ranging from 10 studies for word reading accuracy to one study for nonword reading fluency. The effect sizes for the outcomes were: word reading accuracy standardised mean difference (SMD) 0.47 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06 to 0.88; 10 studies), nonword reading accuracy SMD 0.76 (95% CI 0.25 to 1.27; eight studies), word reading fluency SMD -0.51 (95% CI -1.14 to 0.13; two studies), reading comprehension SMD 0.14 (95% CI -0.46 to 0.74; three studies), spelling SMD 0.36 (95% CI -0.27 to 1.00; two studies), letter-sound knowledge SMD 0.35 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.65; three studies), and phonological output SMD 0.38 (95% -0.04 to 0.80; four studies). There was one result in a negative direction for nonword reading fluency SMD 0.38 (95% CI -0.55 to 1.32; one study), though this was not statistically significant.We did five subgroup analyses on two outcomes that had sufficient data (word reading accuracy and nonword reading accuracy). The efficacy of phonics training was not moderated significantly by training type (phonics alone versus phonics and phoneme awareness versus phonics and irregular word training), training intensity (less than two hours per week versus at least two hours per week), training duration (less than three months versus at least three months), training group size (one-on-one versus small group training), or training administrator (human administration versus computer administration). Phonics training appears to be effective for improving some reading skills. Specifically, statistically significant effects were found for nonword reading accuracy (large effect), word reading accuracy (moderate effect), and letter-sound knowledge (small-to-moderate effect). For several other outcomes, there were small or moderate effect sizes that did not reach statistical significance but may be meaningful: word reading fluency, spelling, phonological output, and reading comprehension. The effect for nonword reading fluency, which was measured in only one study, was in a negative direction, but this was not statistically significant.Future studies of phonics training need to improve the reporting of procedures used for random sequence generation, allocation concealment, and blinding of participants, personnel, and outcome assessment.

Lexical-Access Ability and Cognitive Predictors of Speech Recognition in Noise in Adult Cochlear Implant Users

PubMed Central

Smits, Cas; Merkus, Paul; Festen, Joost M.; Goverts, S. Theo

2017-01-01

Not all of the variance in speech-recognition performance of cochlear implant (CI) users can be explained by biographic and auditory factors. In normal-hearing listeners, linguistic and cognitive factors determine most of speech-in-noise performance. The current study explored specifically the influence of visually measured lexical-access ability compared with other cognitive factors on speech recognition of 24 postlingually deafened CI users. Speech-recognition performance was measured with monosyllables in quiet (consonant-vowel-consonant [CVC]), sentences-in-noise (SIN), and digit-triplets in noise (DIN). In addition to a composite variable of lexical-access ability (LA), measured with a lexical-decision test (LDT) and word-naming task, vocabulary size, working-memory capacity (Reading Span test [RSpan]), and a visual analogue of the SIN test (text reception threshold test) were measured. The DIN test was used to correct for auditory factors in SIN thresholds by taking the difference between SIN and DIN: SRTdiff. Correlation analyses revealed that duration of hearing loss (dHL) was related to SIN thresholds. Better working-memory capacity was related to SIN and SRTdiff scores. LDT reaction time was positively correlated with SRTdiff scores. No significant relationships were found for CVC or DIN scores with the predictor variables. Regression analyses showed that together with dHL, RSpan explained 55% of the variance in SIN thresholds. When controlling for auditory performance, LA, LDT, and RSpan separately explained, together with dHL, respectively 37%, 36%, and 46% of the variance in SRTdiff outcome. The results suggest that poor verbal working-memory capacity and to a lesser extent poor lexical-access ability limit speech-recognition ability in listeners with a CI. PMID:29205095

Overlapping neural circuitry for narrative comprehension and proficient reading in children and adolescents.

PubMed

Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Vannest, Jennifer J; Holland, Scott K

2013-11-01

Narrative comprehension is a perinatal linguistic ability which is more intuitive than reading activity. Whether there are specific shared brain regions for narrative comprehension and reading that are tuned to reading proficiency, even before reading is acquired, is the question of the current study. We acquired fMRI data during a narrative comprehension task at two age points, when children are age 5-7 (K-2nd grade) and later when the same children were age 11 (5th-7th grade). We then examined correlations between this fMRI data and reading and reading comprehension scores from the same children at age 11. We found that greater frontal and supramarginal gyrus (BA 40) activation in narrative comprehension at the age of 5-7 years old was associated with better word reading and reading comprehension scores at the age of 11. A shift towards temporal and occipital activation was found when correlating their narrative comprehension functional data at age 11, with reading scores at the same age point. We suggest that increased reliance on executive functions and auditory-visual networks when listening to stories before reading is acquired, facilitates reading proficiency in older age and may be a biomarker for future reading ability. Children, who rely on use of imagination/visualization as well as auditory processing for narrative comprehension when they reach age 11, also show greater reading abilities. Understanding concordant neural pathways supporting auditory narrative and reading comprehension might be guide for development of effective tools for reading intervention programs. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Reading in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Literature Review.

PubMed

Fernandes, Fernanda Dreux Miranda; de La Higuera Amato, Cibelle Albuquerque; Cardoso, Carla; Navas, Ana Luiza Gomes Pinto; Molini-Avejonas, Daniela Regina

2015-01-01

To review what the literature says about reading abilities of children on the autism spectrum (autism spectrum disorders, ASD) as well as to assess the results of intervention proposals. The broad ASD diagnosis used in the last decades and the resulting changes in the prevalence of these disorders have led to a relevant increase in the number of children diagnosed with ASD in the school system. The purpose of this review is to identify the different profiles of reading abilities shown by children with ASD described in the recent literature and the results of reported intervention methods. A review of the literature was conducted in the Web of Sciences and PubMed databases with the keywords 'autism' AND 'read*' and the filter 2010-2015. All articles published in the last 5 years focusing on description of and intervention for reading abilities in individuals with ASD were included. Review articles were excluded. The selected 58 articles were divided into those that described reading abilities in individuals with ASD (n = 27) and those that reported intervention procedures for reading development (n = 31). Direct comparisons and associations were prevented due to different inclusion criteria and lack of detailed information about intervention processes. We propose tentative conclusions that should be confirmed by further studies. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Reading Comprehension Strategies: An International Comparison of Teacher Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kissau, Scott; Hiller, Florian

2013-01-01

In response to international concern over poor reading skills among adolescent learners, teachers of these students are encouraged to integrate reading comprehension instruction into their classrooms. To increase the likelihood that reading comprehension strategies are effectively used in schools, teachers in all content areas need extensive…

Decomposing the relation between Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and reading ability.

PubMed

Arnell, Karen M; Joanisse, Marc F; Klein, Raymond M; Busseri, Michael A; Tannock, Rosemary

2009-09-01

The Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) test involves rapidly naming sequences of items presented in a visual array. RAN has generated considerable interest because RAN performance predicts reading achievement. This study sought to determine what elements of RAN are responsible for the shared variance between RAN and reading performance using a series of cognitive tasks and a latent variable modelling approach. Participants performed RAN measures, a test of reading speed and comprehension, and six tasks, which tapped various hypothesised components of the RAN. RAN shared 10% of the variance with reading comprehension and 17% with reading rate. Together, the decomposition tasks explained 52% and 39% of the variance shared between RAN and reading comprehension and between RAN and reading rate, respectively. Significant predictors suggested that working memory encoding underlies part of the relationship between RAN and reading ability.

Theory of mind in emerging reading comprehension: A longitudinal study of early indirect and direct effects.

PubMed

Atkinson, Lynette; Slade, Lance; Powell, Daisy; Levy, Joseph P

2017-12-01

The relation between children's theory of mind (ToM) and emerging reading comprehension was investigated in a longitudinal study over 2.5years. A total of 80 children were tested for ToM, decoding, language skills, and executive function (EF) at Time 1 (mean age=3;10 [years;months]). At Time 2 (mean age=6;03), children's word reading efficiency, language skills, and reading comprehension were measured. Mediation analysis showed that ToM at Time 1, when children were around 4years old, indirectly predicted Time 2 reading comprehension, when children were 6years old, via language ability after controlling for age, nonverbal ability, decoding, EF, and earlier language ability. Importantly, ToM at 4years also directly predicted reading comprehension 2.5years later at 6years. This is the first longitudinal study to show a direct contribution of ToM to reading comprehension in typical development. Findings are discussed in terms of the simple view of reading (SVR); ToM not only supports reading comprehension indirectly by facilitating language but also contributes to it directly over and above the SVR. The potential role of metacognition is considered when accounting for the direct contribution of early ToM to later reading comprehension. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What Oral Text Reading Fluency Can Reveal about Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

2015-01-01

Text reading fluency--the ability to read quickly, accurately and with a natural intonation--has been proposed as a predictor of reading comprehension. In the current study, we examined the role of oral text reading fluency, defined as text reading rate and text reading prosody, as a contributor to reading comprehension outcomes in addition to…

Characterization and Prediction of Early Reading Abilities in Children on the Autism Spectrum

PubMed Central

Davidson, Meghan M.; Weismer, Susan Ellis

2013-01-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have reading profiles characterized by higher decoding skills and lower reading comprehension. This study assessed whether this profile was apparent in young children with ASD and examined concurrent and longitudinal predictors of early reading. A discrepant profile of reading (higher alphabet and lower meaning) was found in 62% of this sample. Concurrent analyses revealed that reading proficiency was associated with higher nonverbal cognition and expressive language, and that social ability was negatively related to alphabet knowledge. Nonverbal cognition and expressive language at mean age 2½ years predicted later reading performance at mean age 5½ years. These results support the importance of early language skills as a foundation for reading in children with ASD. PMID:24022730

Benefits of Repeated Reading Intervention for Low-Achieving Fourth- and Fifth-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vadasy, Patricia F.; Sanders, Elizabeth A.

2008-01-01

Many students have difficulty achieving reading fluency, and nearly half of fourth graders are not fluent readers in grade-level texts. Intensive and focused reading practice is recommended to help close the gap between students with poor fluency and their average reading peers. In this study, the "Quick Reads" fluency program was used…

Does Poor Spelling Equate to Slow Reading? The Relationship between Reading, Spelling, and Orthographic Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin-Chang, Sandra; Ouellette, Gene; Madden, Melanie

2014-01-01

High quality lexical representations in memory, characterized by accuracy and stability, are said to underpin fluent reading. Here, the relationship between orthographic quality and reading speed was examined by asking undergraduates (N = 74) to repeatedly read and spell words. Spelling performance over five trials indicated orthographic quality.…

After-School Tutoring for Reading Achievement and Urban Middle School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson-Royes, Andrea M.; Reglin, Gary L.

2011-01-01

This research study's purpose or theme was to qualitatively investigate the reading component of a private after-school tutoring program that offered academic assistance to eighth-grade students. The problem with reading is many urban middle school students have poor reading skills and do not perform well on reading standardized tests. Relative to…

Orthography and Modality Influence Speech Production in Adults and Children.

PubMed

Saletta, Meredith; Goffman, Lisa; Hogan, Tiffany P

2016-12-01

The acquisition of literacy skills influences the perception and production of spoken language. We examined if orthography influences implicit processing in speech production in child readers and in adult readers with low and high reading proficiency. Children (n = 17), adults with typical reading skills (n = 17), and adults demonstrating low reading proficiency (n = 18) repeated or read aloud nonwords varying in orthographic transparency. Analyses of implicit linguistic processing (segmental accuracy and speech movement stability) were conducted. The accuracy and articulatory stability of productions of the nonwords were assessed before and after repetition or reading. Segmental accuracy results indicate that all 3 groups demonstrated greater learning when they were able to read, rather than just hear, the nonwords. Speech movement results indicate that, for adults with poor reading skills, exposure to the nonwords in a transparent spelling reduces the articulatory variability of speech production. Reading skill was correlated with speech movement stability in the groups of adults. In children and adults, orthography interacts with speech production; all participants integrate orthography into their lexical representations. Adults with poor reading skills do not use the same reading or speaking strategies as children with typical reading skills.

Orthography and Modality Influence Speech Production in Adults and Children

PubMed Central

Goffman, Lisa; Hogan, Tiffany P.

2016-01-01

Purpose The acquisition of literacy skills influences the perception and production of spoken language. We examined if orthography influences implicit processing in speech production in child readers and in adult readers with low and high reading proficiency. Method Children (n = 17), adults with typical reading skills (n = 17), and adults demonstrating low reading proficiency (n = 18) repeated or read aloud nonwords varying in orthographic transparency. Analyses of implicit linguistic processing (segmental accuracy and speech movement stability) were conducted. The accuracy and articulatory stability of productions of the nonwords were assessed before and after repetition or reading. Results Segmental accuracy results indicate that all 3 groups demonstrated greater learning when they were able to read, rather than just hear, the nonwords. Speech movement results indicate that, for adults with poor reading skills, exposure to the nonwords in a transparent spelling reduces the articulatory variability of speech production. Reading skill was correlated with speech movement stability in the groups of adults. Conclusions In children and adults, orthography interacts with speech production; all participants integrate orthography into their lexical representations. Adults with poor reading skills do not use the same reading or speaking strategies as children with typical reading skills. PMID:27942710

A functional connectivity-based neuromarker of sustained attention generalizes to predict recall in a reading task.

PubMed

Jangraw, David C; Gonzalez-Castillo, Javier; Handwerker, Daniel A; Ghane, Merage; Rosenberg, Monica D; Panwar, Puja; Bandettini, Peter A

2018-02-01

Sustaining attention to the task at hand is a crucial part of everyday life, from following a lecture at school to maintaining focus while driving. Lapses in sustained attention are frequent and often problematic, with conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder affecting millions of people worldwide. Recent work has had some success in finding signatures of sustained attention in whole-brain functional connectivity (FC) measures during basic tasks, but since FC can be dynamic and task-dependent, it remains unclear how fully these signatures would generalize to a more complex and naturalistic scenario. To this end, we used a previously defined whole-brain FC network - a marker of attention that was derived from a sustained attention task - to predict the ability of participants to recall material during a free-viewing reading task. Though the predictive network was trained on a different task and set of participants, the strength of FC in the sustained attention network predicted reading recall significantly better than permutation tests where behavior was scrambled to simulate chance performance. To test the generalization of the method used to derive the sustained attention network, we applied the same method to our reading task data to find a new FC network whose strength specifically predicts reading recall. Even though the sustained attention network provided significant prediction of recall, the reading network was more predictive of recall accuracy. The new reading network's spatial distribution indicates that reading recall is highest when temporal pole regions have higher FC with left occipital regions and lower FC with bilateral supramarginal gyrus. Right cerebellar to right frontal connectivity is also indicative of poor reading recall. We examine these and other differences between the two predictive FC networks, providing new insight into the task-dependent nature of FC-based performance metrics. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Critical Reading Skills and Translation Ability of Thai EFL Students: Pragmatic, Syntactic, and Semantic Aspects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sriwantaneeyakul, Suttawan

2018-01-01

Translation ability requires many language skills to produce an accurate and complete text; however, one important skill, critical reading in the research, has been neglected. This research, therefore, employed the explanatory sequential mixed method to investigate the differences in Thai-English translation ability between students with a high…

The Ability to Tap to a Beat Relates to Cognitive, Linguistic, and Perceptual Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tierney, Adam T.; Kraus, Nina

2013-01-01

Reading-impaired children have difficulty tapping to a beat. Here we tested whether this relationship between reading ability and synchronized tapping holds in typically-developing adolescents. We also hypothesized that tapping relates to two other abilities. First, since auditory-motor synchronization requires monitoring of the relationship…

The Development of Reading Ability in Kindergarten. Technical Report No. 515.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Linda A.; And Others

A study was conducted to explore how children learn to read in kindergarten. The study employed a heuristic model that included entering ability, home background, instructional processes, home support for literacy development, and measures of student ability at the end of kindergarten. Children were tested, whole-day classroom observations were…

Does the PMSP Connectionist Model of Single Word Reading Learn to Read in the Same Way as a Child?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Daisy; Plaut, David; Funnell, Elaine

2006-01-01

The Plaut, McClelland, Seidenberg and Patterson (1996) connectionist model of reading was evaluated at two points early in its training against reading data collected from British children on two occasions during their first year of literacy instruction. First, the network's non-word reading was poor relative to word reading when compared with the…

Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Syllable Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children.

PubMed

Mehta, Sheena; Ding, Yi; Ness, Molly; Chen, Eric C

2018-06-01

The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental levels can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students, of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the importance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor readers struggled with spelling words with double consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two- and three-syllable words than typical readers. Practical implications for early identification and instruction are discussed.

Reading Comprehension: A Computerized Intervention with Primary-age Poor Readers.

PubMed

Horne, Joanna Kathryn

2017-05-01

The current study investigates the effectiveness of a computerized reading comprehension programme on the reading accuracy, reading comprehension and reading rate of primary-age poor readers. There is little published literature relating to computerized reading interventions in UK primary schools, and no previous studies have investigated the Comprehension Booster programme. Thirty-eight children (26 boys and 12 girls; aged 6:7 to 11:0) from two schools in East Yorkshire, UK, took part. Half of the participants (the intervention group) undertook the Comprehension Booster programme for a 6-week period, whilst the other half (the control group) continued with their usual teaching. Significant effects of the intervention were found, with increases in reading accuracy and reading comprehension for the intervention group. It is concluded that computerized reading programmes can be effective in improving reading skills, and these are particularly useful for pupils with reading difficulties in disadvantaged areas, where resources are limited and family support in reading is lower. However, such programmes are not a replacement for good teaching, and regular monitoring of children with reading difficulties is required. Further research is necessary to compare the programme used here to other conventional and computerized intervention programmes, using a larger sample. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reading and School Achievement--Cognitive and Affective Influences; Selected Readings from the 8th Annual Spring Reading Conference at Rutgers University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kling, Martin, Ed.

This conference report contains the following papers: "Ability versus Knowledge in Testing Educational Achievement" and "Knowledge vs. Ability in Achievement Testing," by Robert L. Ebel; "A Four-Domain Taxonomy for Classifying Educational Tasks and Objectives," by Bruce W. Tuckman; "On the Social Psychology of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Further…

The Contribution of Morphological Knowledge to 7th Grade Students' Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mokhtari, Kouider; Neel, Joanna; Matatall, Abbey; Richards, Andrea

2015-01-01

In this study, we examined the role of morphology, an important yet largely understudied source of difficulty, in reading ability among 7th grade students in one junior high school in the southwestern United States. We sought to find out how much variance in reading ability is accounted for by these students' morphological knowledge, and whether…

Does Reading Cause Later Intelligence? Accounting for Stability in Models of Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Drew H.; Littlefield, Andrew K.

2017-01-01

This study reanalyzes data presented by Ritchie, Bates, and Plomin (2015) who used a cross-lagged monozygotic twin differences design to test whether reading ability caused changes in intelligence. The authors used data from a sample of 1,890 monozygotic twin pairs tested on reading ability and intelligence at five occasions between the ages of 7…

The Effects of Control for Ability Level on EFL Reading of Graded Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wan-a-rom, Udorn

2012-01-01

The study was aimed to examine how EFL learners of English reacted to graded readers in terms of reading strategy use, comprehension, speed, and attitude as well as motivation when control for ability level was determined. Eighty Thai high school students placed into their own reading level of graded readers by the scores gained from the graded…

Reading Comprehension in Children with ADHD: Cognitive Underpinnings of the Centrality Deficit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Amanda C.; Keenan, Janice M.; Betjemann, Rebecca S.; Willcutt, Erik G.; Pennington, Bruce F.; Olson, Richard K.

2013-01-01

We examined reading comprehension in children with ADHD by assessing their ability to build a coherent mental representation that allows them to recall central and peripheral information. We compared children with ADHD (mean age 9.78) to word reading-matched controls (mean age 9.89) on their ability to retell a passage. We found that even though…

Altered Neural Circuits Accompany Lower Performance during Narrative Comprehension in Children with Reading Difficulties: An fMRI Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Buck, Catherine; Dorrmann, Dana

2016-01-01

Narrative comprehension is a linguistic ability that is foundational for future reading ability. The aim of the current study was to examine the neural circuitry of children with reading difficulties (RD) compared to typical readers during a narrative-comprehension task. We hypothesized that due to deficient executive functions, which support…

The Negative Consequences of becoming a Good Reader: Identity Theory as a Lens for Understanding Struggling Readers, Teachers, and Reading Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Leigh A.

2010-01-01

Background/Context: The majority of middle school students in U.S. schools are struggling readers and lack the reading abilities needed to successfully comprehend texts, complete reading-related assignments, and learn subject matter content. Researchers have suggested that struggling readers' comprehension abilities can be improved if their…

The Roles of Cognitive and Language Abilities in Predicting Decoding and Reading Comprehension: Comparisons of Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauterbach, Alexandra A.; Park, Yujeong; Lombardino, Linda J.

2017-01-01

This study aimed to (a) explore the roles of cognitive and language variables in predicting reading abilities of two groups of individuals with reading disabilities (i.e., dyslexia and specific language impairment) and (b) examine which variable(s) is the most predictive in differentiating two groups. Inclusion/exclusion criteria applied to…

The Relations between Early Working Memory Abilities and Later Developing Reading Skills: A Longitudinal Study from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nevo, Einat; Bar-Kochva, Irit

2015-01-01

This study investigated the relations of early working-memory abilities (phonological and visual-spatial short-term memory [STM] and complex memory and episodic buffer memory) and later developing reading skills. Sixty Hebrew-speaking children were followed from kindergarten through Grade 5. Working memory was tested in kindergarten and reading in…

Performance in a Visual Search Task Uniquely Predicts Reading Abilities in Third-Grade Hong Kong Chinese Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Duo; Chen, Xi; Chung, Kevin K. H.

2015-01-01

This study examined the relation between the performance in a visual search task and reading ability in 92 third-grade Hong Kong Chinese children. The visual search task, which is considered a measure of visual-spatial attention, accounted for unique variance in Chinese character reading after controlling for age, nonverbal intelligence,…

Suitability of prostate cancer education materials: applying a standardized assessment tool to currently available materials.

PubMed

Weintraub, Debra; Maliski, Sally L; Fink, Arlene; Choe, Sarah; Litwin, Mark S

2004-11-01

Written educational materials serve as important teaching instruments for prostate cancer patients and their families. However, they must be understandable for their intended audiences. We examined prostate cancer brochures and pamphlets using the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) instrument for the materials' overall suitability, readability, and cultural appropriateness. These factors are crucial to ensure that patients are able to understand and relate to the information. Our evaluation of 29 materials demonstrated that the majority, 22 (75.8%), scored "adequate" for their overall suitability. However, 26 materials (90%) scored "not suitable" for their reading grade level, while 55% of the materials could not be rated on cultural appropriateness because of lack of cues about the intended audience. Also, many of the materials scored poorly on content, graphics, self-efficacy, and learning motivation and stimulation. Most of the materials did well with typography and layout. Overall, the findings point to the need to carefully assess written materials used for multicultural audiences with low reading ability.

Computer assisted analysis of research-based teaching method in English newspaper reading teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jie, Zheng

2017-06-01

In recent years, the teaching of English newspaper reading has been developing rapidly. However, the teaching effect of the existing course is not ideal. The paper tries to apply the research-based teaching model to English newspaper reading teaching, investigates the current situation in higher vocational colleges, and analyzes the problems. It designs a teaching model of English newspaper reading and carries out the empirical research conducted by computers. The results show that the teaching mode can use knowledge and ability to stimulate learners interest and comprehensively improve their ability to read newspapers.

Comments on Jeong-Won Lee and Diane Lemonnier Schallert's "The Relative Contribution of L2 Language Proficiency and L1 Reading Ability to L2 Reading Performance: A Test of the Threshold Hypothesis in an EFL Context."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bamford, Julian; Day, Richard R.; Schallert, Diane Lemonnier; Lee, Jeong-Won

1998-01-01

Provides reactions to an article, "The Relative Contribution of L2 Language Proficiency and L1 Reading Ability to L2 Reading Performance: A Test of the Threshold Hypothesis in an EFL Context" published in an earlier issue of this journal (v31 n4). The authors of the article respond to these reactions. (Author/VWL)

The relative contributions of speechreading and vocabulary to deaf and hearing children's reading ability.

PubMed

Kyle, Fiona Elizabeth; Campbell, Ruth; MacSweeney, Mairéad

2016-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge and speechreading are important for deaf children's reading development but it is unknown whether they are independent predictors of reading ability. This study investigated the relationships between reading, speechreading and vocabulary in a large cohort of deaf and hearing children aged 5 to 14 years. 86 severely and profoundly deaf children and 91 hearing children participated in this study. All children completed assessments of reading comprehension, word reading accuracy, speechreading and vocabulary. Regression analyses showed that vocabulary and speechreading accounted for unique variance in both reading accuracy and comprehension for deaf children. For hearing children, vocabulary was an independent predictor of both reading accuracy and comprehension skills but speechreading only accounted for unique variance in reading accuracy. Speechreading and vocabulary are important for reading development in deaf children. The results are interpreted within the Simple View of Reading framework and the theoretical implications for deaf children's reading are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Orthographic Learning in Dyslexic Spanish Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Ramos, Sara; Álvarez-Cañizo, Marta; Cuetos, Fernando

2014-01-01

Reading fluency is one of the basic processes of learning to read. Children begin to develop fluency when they are able to form orthographic representations of words, which provide direct, smooth, and fast reading. Dyslexic children of transparent orthographic systems are mainly characterized by poor reading fluency (Cuetos & Suárez-Coalla…

A Linguistic Feature Comparison of the Verbal Protocols of Good and Poor Readers on Standardized Measures of Reading Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kavale, Kenneth A.

Sixteen sixth-grade students participated in a study of the reasoning strategies employed by good and poor readers. Students, trained in applying introspective procedures, completed instruments that measured verbal reasoning, determining cause and effect, reading for inference, and determining main idea. Protocols obtained during five consecutive…

A Multiple Strategy Framework Supporting Vocabulary Development for Students with Reading Comprehension Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woolley, Gary

2010-01-01

Poor comprehenders are generally students who have significant language-learning deficits. A particular problem for students with poor comprehension is that they have difficulty learning new vocabulary because they are inclined to read less, and are unable to apply new meanings to unfamiliar words. This leads to the situation where the gap widens…

Planning Behaviour in Good and Poor Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahapatra, Shamita

2016-01-01

A group of 50 good readers and a group of 50 poor readers of Grade 5 matched for age and intelligence and selected on the basis of their proficiency in reading comprehension were tested for their competence in word reading and the process of planning at three different levels, namely, perceptual, memory and conceptual in order to study the…

Goats Don't Wear Coats: An Examination of Semantic Interference in Rhyming Assessments of Reading Readiness for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreira, Sylvia; Hamilton, Maryellen

2006-01-01

Rhyming tests have historically been used in the education system to assess reading readiness. English language learners (ELLs) have consistently scored poorly on these assessment tools. The current article examines a possible reason for this poor performance by ELLs. Specifically, the authors examined the relationship between semantic…

Available web-based dental implants information for patients. How good is it?

PubMed

Leira-Feijoo, Yago; Ledesma-Ludi, Yanina; Seoane-Romero, Juan M; Blanco-Carrión, Juan; Seoane, Juan; Varela-Centelles, Pablo

2015-11-01

Massive use of the Internet for health issues has raised concerns about the quality of the information available and about consumers' ability to tell "good" from "bad" information. To assess the quality of patient-addressed, dental implants-related websites in terms of reliability, accessibility, usability and readability. Two search engines (Google and Yahoo) were used in this study. The first 100 sites, as listed by each engine, were considered for the study. Each site was categorised and analysed for quality using the DISCERN and the LIDA instruments. The Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade Level (FKRGL) and the Flesh Reading Ease Score (FRES) were used to assess legibility. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 32 single websites entered the study. The median score for the DISCERN instrument (3 [2-3]) indicated serious or potentially important shortcoming in the quality of the information obtained. LIDA scores showed modest percentages for accessibility (79.36 [74.60-85.31]) and intermediate for usability (59.20 (50.46-68.51)) and reliability (55.55 [45.37-66.66]). Legibility indices reached scores within the range of difficult to read (FRES = 51.72 [38.70-55.27]); FKRGL = 12.76 [10.07-14.87]). Available e-health information on dental implants in English language is difficult to read for the average patient and poor in terms of quality. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Reading Emotions from Body Movement: A Generalized Impairment in Schizophrenia.

PubMed

Vaskinn, Anja; Sundet, Kjetil; Østefjells, Tiril; Nymo, Katharina; Melle, Ingrid; Ueland, Torill

2015-01-01

Body language reading is a social cognitive process with importance for successful maneuvering of social situations. In this study, we investigated body language reading as assessed with human point-light displays in participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 84) compared to healthy control participants (n = 84), aiming to answer three questions: (1) whether persons with a diagnosis of schizophrenia have poorer body language reading abilities than healthy persons; (2) whether some emotions are easier to read from body language than others, and if this is the same for individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals, and (3) whether there are sex differences in body language reading in participants with schizophrenia and healthy participants. A fourth research aim concerned associations of body language reading with symptoms and functioning in participants with schizophrenia. Scores on the body language reading measure was first standardized using a separate sample of healthy control participants (n = 101). Further results showed that persons with schizophrenia had impaired body language reading ability compared to healthy persons. A significant effect of emotion indicated that some emotions (happiness, neutral) were easier to recognize and this was so for both individuals with schizophrenia and healthy individuals. There were no sex differences for either diagnostic group. Body language reading ability was not associated with symptoms or functioning. In conclusion; schizophrenia was characterized by a global impairment in body language reading that was present for all emotions and across sex.

Structural Neural Substrates of Reading the Mind in the Eyes.

PubMed

Sato, Wataru; Kochiyama, Takanori; Uono, Shota; Sawada, Reiko; Kubota, Yasutaka; Yoshimura, Sayaka; Toichi, Motomi

2016-01-01

The ability to read the minds of others in their eyes plays an important role in human adaptation to social environments. Behavioral studies have resulted in the development of a test to measure this ability (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, revised version; Eyes Test), and have demonstrated that this ability is consistent over time. Although functional neuroimaging studies revealed brain activation while performing the Eyes Test, the structural neural substrates supporting consistent performance on the Eyes Test remain unclear. In this study, we assessed the Eyes Test and analyzed structural magnetic resonance images using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in healthy participants. Test performance was positively associated with the gray matter volumes of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, inferior parietal lobule (temporoparietal junction), and precuneus in the left hemisphere. These results suggest that the fronto-temporoparietal network structures support the consistent ability to read the mind in the eyes.

Brief exposure to a self-paced computer-based reading programme and how it impacts reading ability and behaviour problems.

PubMed

Hughes, J Antony; Phillips, Gordon; Reed, Phil

2013-01-01

Basic literacy skills underlie much future adult functioning, and are targeted in children through a variety of means. Children with reading problems were exposed either to a self-paced computer programme that focused on improving phonetic ability, or underwent a classroom-based reading intervention. Exposure was limited to 3 40-min sessions a week, for six weeks. The children were assessed in terms of their reading, spelling, and mathematics abilities, as well as for their externalising and internalising behaviour problems, before the programme commenced, and immediately after the programme terminated. Relative to the control group, the computer-programme improved reading by about seven months in boys (but not in girls), but had no impact on either spelling or mathematics. Children on the programme also demonstrated fewer externalising and internalising behaviour problems than the control group. The results suggest that brief exposure to a self-paced phonetic computer-teaching programme had some benefits for the sample.

The Effect of Guided Reading Instruction on Reading Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Underwood, Vanda Lea

2010-01-01

Although reading achievement correlates highly with a student's ability to do well in school, not all children achieve in reading. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate whether reading instruction provided in small groups at the child's own reading level, known as "guided reading instruction," would result in…

The Contributions of Oral and Silent Reading Fluency to Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Price, Katherine W.; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Louwerse, Max M.; D'Mello, Sidney

2016-01-01

Silent reading fluency has received limited attention in the school-based literatures across the past decade. We fill this gap by examining both oral and silent reading fluency and their relation to overall abilities in reading comprehension in fourth-grade students. Lower-level reading skills (word reading, rapid automatic naming) and vocabulary…

Differences in perceived difficulty in print and online patient education materials.

PubMed

Farnsworth, Michael

2014-01-01

Written patient education materials frequently exceed the reading ability of the general public. Patients are often intimidated by the task of reading patient education materials, perceiving the materials’ difficulty levels as prohibitive, even when they do not exceed the patients’ reading abilities. It is unclear how the delivery mechanism--print or a computer screen--affects a patient’s reading experience through his/her perception of its difficulty. To determine whether first-year college students perceived online or print-based patient education materials as more difficult to read. Convenience sampling of first-year college students. Some first-year college students perceived online patient education materials to be more difficult to read than print-based ones--even when the reading level of the patient education materials was similar. Demographic information about this sample’s high levels of digital literacy suggests that other populations might also perceive online patient education materials as more difficult to read than print-based equivalents. Patients’ perceptions of the difficulty of patient education materials influenced their ability to effectively learn from those materials. This article concludes with a call for more research into patients’ perceptions of difficulty of patient education materials in print vs on a screen.

Impact of the Ability to Divide Attention on Reading Performance in Glaucoma.

PubMed

Swenor, Bonnielin K; Varadaraj, Varshini; Dave, Paulomi; West, Sheila K; Rubin, Gary S; Ramulu, Pradeep Y

2017-05-01

To determine if the ability to divide attention affects the relationship between glaucoma-related vision loss and reading speed. Better eye mean deviation (MD), contrast sensitivity (CS), and better-eye distance visual acuity (VA) were measured in 28 participants with glaucoma and 21 controls. Reading speeds were assessed using MNRead, IRest, and sustained silent reading tests (words per minute, wpm). The ability to divide attention was measured using the Brief Test of Attention (BTA; scored 0-10). Multivariable linear regression models were used to determine the relationship between visual factors and reading speeds. Effect modification by BTA score (low BTA: <7; high BTA: ≥7) was examined. Worse CS (per 0.1 log unit) was associated with slower maximum reading speed on MNRead test for participants with low BTA scores (β = -9 wpm; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -16, -2), but not for those with high BTA scores (β = -2 wpm; 95% CI: -6, +2). Similarly, for the IRest test, worse CS was associated with slower reading speeds (β = -12 wpm; 95% CI: -20, -4) among those with low, but not high BTA scores (β = -4 wpm; 95% CI: -10, +2). For the sustained silent reading test, glaucoma status (versus controls), worse visual field (VF) MD (per 5 dB), and worse CS were associated with 39%, 21%, and 19% slower reading speeds, respectively, for those with low BTA scores (P < 0.05), but these associations were not significant among those with high BTA scores (P > 0.1 for all). Decreased ability to divide attention, indicated by lower BTA scores, is associated with slower reading speeds in glaucoma with reduced CS and VF defects.

Impact of the Ability to Divide Attention on Reading Performance in Glaucoma

PubMed Central

Swenor, Bonnielin K.; Varadaraj, Varshini; Dave, Paulomi; West, Sheila K.; Rubin, Gary S.; Ramulu, Pradeep Y.

2017-01-01

Purpose To determine if the ability to divide attention affects the relationship between glaucoma-related vision loss and reading speed. Methods Better eye mean deviation (MD), contrast sensitivity (CS), and better-eye distance visual acuity (VA) were measured in 28 participants with glaucoma and 21 controls. Reading speeds were assessed using MNRead, IRest, and sustained silent reading tests (words per minute, wpm). The ability to divide attention was measured using the Brief Test of Attention (BTA; scored 0–10). Multivariable linear regression models were used to determine the relationship between visual factors and reading speeds. Effect modification by BTA score (low BTA: <7; high BTA: ≥7) was examined. Results Worse CS (per 0.1 log unit) was associated with slower maximum reading speed on MNRead test for participants with low BTA scores (β = −9 wpm; 95% confidence interval [CI]: −16, −2), but not for those with high BTA scores (β = −2 wpm; 95% CI: −6, +2). Similarly, for the IRest test, worse CS was associated with slower reading speeds (β = −12 wpm; 95% CI: −20, −4) among those with low, but not high BTA scores (β = −4 wpm; 95% CI: −10, +2). For the sustained silent reading test, glaucoma status (versus controls), worse visual field (VF) MD (per 5 dB), and worse CS were associated with 39%, 21%, and 19% slower reading speeds, respectively, for those with low BTA scores (P < 0.05), but these associations were not significant among those with high BTA scores (P > 0.1 for all). Conclusions Decreased ability to divide attention, indicated by lower BTA scores, is associated with slower reading speeds in glaucoma with reduced CS and VF defects. PMID:28460047

Newspaper Reading among College Students in Development of Their Analytical Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumar, Dinesh

2009-01-01

The study investigated the newspaper reading among college students in development of their analytical ability. Newspapers are one of the few sources of information that are comprehensive, interconnected and offered in one format. The main objective of the study was to find out the development of the analytical ability among college students by…

Contributions of Phonological Awareness, Phonological Short-Term Memory, and Rapid Automated Naming, toward Decoding Ability in Students with Mild Intellectual Disability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soltani, Amanallah; Roslan, Samsilah

2013-01-01

Reading decoding ability is a fundamental skill to acquire word-specific orthographic information necessary for skilled reading. Decoding ability and its underlying phonological processing skills have been heavily investigated typically among developing students. However, the issue has rarely been noticed among students with intellectual…

Comparing the Spelling and Reading Abilities of Students with Cochlear Implants and Students with Typical Hearing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Apel, Kenn; Masterson, Julie J.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with and without hearing loss (HL) differed in their spelling abilities and, specifically, in the underlying linguistic awareness skills that support spelling ability. Furthermore, we examined whether there were differences between the two groups in the relationship between reading and…

The Effects of Student and Text Characteristics on the Oral Reading Fluency of Middle-Grade Students

PubMed Central

Barth, Amy E.; Tolar, Tammy D.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Francis, David

2014-01-01

We evaluated the effects of student characteristics (sight word reading efficiency, phonological decoding, verbal knowledge, level of reading ability, grade, gender) and text features (passage difficulty, length, genre, and language and discourse attributes) on the oral reading fluency of a sample of middle-school students in Grades 6–8 (N = 1,794). Students who were struggling (n = 704) and typically developing readers (n = 1,028) were randomly assigned to read five 1-min passages from each of 5 Lexile bands (within student range of 550 Lexiles). A series of multilevel analyses showed that student and text characteristics contributed uniquely to oral reading fluency rates. Student characteristics involving sight word reading efficiency and level of decoding ability accounted for more variability than reader type and verbal knowledge, with small, but statistically significant effects of grade and gender. The most significant text feature was passage difficulty level. Interactions involving student text characteristics, especially attributes involving overall ability level and difficulty of the text, were also apparent. These results support views of the development of oral reading fluency that involve interactions of student and text characteristics and highlight the importance of scaling for passage difficulty level in assessing individual differences in oral reading fluency. PMID:24567659

Action video games make dyslexic children read better.

PubMed

Franceschini, Sandro; Gori, Simone; Ruffino, Milena; Viola, Simona; Molteni, Massimo; Facoetti, Andrea

2013-03-18

Learning to read is extremely difficult for about 10% of children; they are affected by a neurodevelopmental disorder called dyslexia [1, 2]. The neurocognitive causes of dyslexia are still hotly debated [3-12]. Dyslexia remediation is far from being fully achieved [13], and the current treatments demand high levels of resources [1]. Here, we demonstrate that only 12 hr of playing action video games-not involving any direct phonological or orthographic training-drastically improve the reading abilities of children with dyslexia. We tested reading, phonological, and attentional skills in two matched groups of children with dyslexia before and after they played action or nonaction video games for nine sessions of 80 min per day. We found that only playing action video games improved children's reading speed, without any cost in accuracy, more so than 1 year of spontaneous reading development and more than or equal to highly demanding traditional reading treatments. Attentional skills also improved during action video game training. It has been demonstrated that action video games efficiently improve attention abilities [14, 15]; our results showed that this attention improvement can directly translate into better reading abilities, providing a new, fast, fun remediation of dyslexia that has theoretical relevance in unveiling the causal role of attention in reading acquisition. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Developing a Problem-Based Course Based on Needs Analysis to Enhance English Reading Ability of Thai Undergraduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bosuwon, Takwa; Woodrow, Lindy

2009-01-01

This paper reports on a needs analysis underlying a proposed business English reading course using a problem-based learning approach designed to enhance English reading abilities of Thai undergraduate students. As part of a work in progress, the needs analysis survey was done prior to the course design with the major stakeholders in business and…

Global Processing Speed in Children with Low Reading Ability and in Children and Adults with Typical Reading Ability: Exploratory Factor Analytic Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peter, Beate; Matsushita, Mark; Raskind, Wendy H.

2011-01-01

Purpose: To investigate processing speed as a latent dimension in children with dyslexia and children and adults with typical reading skills. Method: Exploratory factor analysis (FA) was based on a sample of multigenerational families, each ascertained through a child with dyslexia. Eleven measures--6 of them timed--represented verbal and…

Dynamics of Strategies-Based Language Instruction: A Study of Reading Comprehension and Problem Solving Abilities via Structural Equation Modeling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghahari, Shima; Basanjideh, Mahin

2015-01-01

The study aimed at exploring the psychological as well as educational outcomes of strategies awareness and use. We set out to examine the effect of reading strategic investment on language achievement and problem solving ability (PSA). The participating EFL learners were heterogeneous in terms of reading instruction; two of the intact groups had…

Reading New Environments: Students' Ability to Generalise Their Understanding between Different Ecosystems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magntorn, Ola; Hellden, Gustav

2007-01-01

This paper is based on a study of how students' read nature in different ecosystems. Its focus is on ecology and the context is outdoors. This literacy has to do with an ability to recognise organisms and relate them to material cycling and energy flow in the specific habitat that is to be read. A teaching sequence was designed in order to develop…

Brain basis of cognitive resilience: Prefrontal cortex predicts better reading comprehension in relation to decoding

PubMed Central

Patael, Smadar Z.; Farris, Emily A.; Black, Jessica M.; Hancock, Roeland; Gabrieli, John D. E.; Cutting, Laurie E.; Hoeft, Fumiko

2018-01-01

Objective The ultimate goal of reading is to understand written text. To accomplish this, children must first master decoding, the ability to translate printed words into sounds. Although decoding and reading comprehension are highly interdependent, some children struggle to decode but comprehend well, whereas others with good decoding skills fail to comprehend. The neural basis underlying individual differences in this discrepancy between decoding and comprehension abilities is virtually unknown. Methods We investigated the neural basis underlying reading discrepancy, defined as the difference between reading comprehension and decoding skills, in a three-part study: 1) The neuroanatomical basis of reading discrepancy in a cross-sectional sample of school-age children with a wide range of reading abilities (Experiment-1; n = 55); 2) Whether a discrepancy-related neural signature is present in beginning readers and predictive of future discrepancy (Experiment-2; n = 43); and 3) Whether discrepancy-related regions are part of a domain-general or a language specialized network, utilizing the 1000 Functional Connectome data and large-scale reverse inference from Neurosynth.org (Experiment-3). Results Results converged onto the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), as related to having discrepantly higher reading comprehension relative to decoding ability. Increased gray matter volume (GMV) was associated with greater discrepancy (Experiment-1). Region-of-interest (ROI) analyses based on the left DLPFC cluster identified in Experiment-1 revealed that regional GMV within this ROI in beginning readers predicted discrepancy three years later (Experiment-2). This region was associated with the fronto-parietal network that is considered fundamental for working memory and cognitive control (Experiment-3). Interpretation Processes related to the prefrontal cortex might be linked to reading discrepancy. The findings may be important for understanding cognitive resilience, which we operationalize as those individuals with greater higher-order reading skills such as reading comprehension compared to lower-order reading skills such as decoding skills. Our study provides insights into reading development, existing theories of reading, and cognitive processes that are potentially significant to a wide range of reading disorders. PMID:29902208

The Use of "Literary Fiction" to Promote Mentalizing Ability.

PubMed

Pino, Maria Chiara; Mazza, Monica

2016-01-01

Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people's emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner' s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia.

The Use of “Literary Fiction” to Promote Mentalizing Ability

PubMed Central

Mazza, Monica

2016-01-01

Empathy is a multidimensional process that incorporates both mentalizing and emotional sharing dimensions. Empathic competencies are important for creating interpersonal relationships with other people and developing adequate social behaviour. The lack of these social components also leads to isolation and exclusion in healthy populations. However, few studies have investigated how to improve these social skills. In a recent study, Kidd and Castano (2013) found that reading literary fiction increases mentalizing ability and may change how people think about other people’s emotions and mental states. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of reading literary fiction, compared to nonfiction and science fiction, on empathic abilities. Compared to previous studies, we used a larger variety of empathy measures and utilized a pre and post-test design. In all, 214 healthy participants were randomly assigned to read a book representative of one of three literary genres (literary fiction, nonfiction, science fiction). Participants were assessed before and after the reading phase using mentalizing and emotional sharing tests, according to Zaki and Ochsner’ s (2012) model. Comparisons of sociodemographic, mentalizing, and emotional sharing variables across conditions were conducted using ANOVA. Our results showed that after the reading phase, the literary fiction group showed improvement in mentalizing abilities, but there was no discernible effect on emotional sharing abilities. Our study showed that the reading processes can promote mentalizing abilities. These results may set important goals for future low-cost rehabilitation protocols for several disorders in which the mentalizing deficit is considered central to the disease, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia. PMID:27490164

Brain Bases of Morphological Processing in Young Children

PubMed Central

Arredondo, Maria M.; Ip, Ka I; Hsu, Lucy Shih-Ju; Tardif, Twila; Kovelman, Ioulia

2017-01-01

How does the developing brain support the transition from spoken language to print? Two spoken language abilities form the initial base of child literacy across languages: knowledge of language sounds (phonology) and knowledge of the smallest units that carry meaning (morphology). While phonology has received much attention from the field, the brain mechanisms that support morphological competence for learning to read remain largely unknown. In the present study, young English-speaking children completed an auditory morphological awareness task behaviorally (n = 69, ages 6–12) and in fMRI (n = 16). The data revealed two findings: First, children with better morphological abilities showed greater activation in left temporo-parietal regions previously thought to be important for supporting phonological reading skills, suggesting that this region supports multiple language abilities for successful reading acquisition. Second, children showed activation in left frontal regions previously found active in young Chinese readers, suggesting morphological processes for reading acquisition might be similar across languages. These findings offer new insights for developing a comprehensive model of how spoken language abilities support children’s reading acquisition across languages. PMID:25930011

Reading skills, creativity, and insight: exploring the connections.

PubMed

Mourgues, Catalina V; Preiss, David D; Grigorenko, Elena L

2014-08-04

Studies of the relationship between creativity and specific reading disabilities have produced inconclusive results. We explored their relationship in a sample of 259 college students (age range: 17 to 38 years-old) from three Chilean universities. The students were tested on their verbal ability, creativity, and insight. A simple linear regression was performed on the complete sample, and on high- and low-achievement groups that were formed based on reading test scores. We observed a significant correlation in the total sample between outcomes on the verbal ability tasks, and on the creativity and insight tasks (range r =. 152 to r =. 356, ps <.001). Scores on the reading comprehension and phonological awareness tasks were the best predictors of performance on creativity and insight tasks (range β = .315 to β = .155, ps <.05). A comparison of the low- and high-scoring groups on verbal ability tasks yielded results to the same effect. These findings do not support the hypothesis that specific reading disability is associated with better performance on creative tasks. Instead, higher verbal ability was found to be associated with higher creativity and insight.

The Influence of 16-year-old Students' Gender, Mental Abilities, and Motivation on their Reading and Drawing Submicrorepresentations Achievements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Devetak, Iztok; Aleksij Glažar, Saša

2010-08-01

Submicrorepresentations (SMRs) are a powerful tool for identifying misconceptions of chemical concepts and for generating proper mental models of chemical phenomena in students' long-term memory during chemical education. The main purpose of the study was to determine which independent variables (gender, formal reasoning abilities, visualization abilities, and intrinsic motivation for learning chemistry) have the maximum influence on students' reading and drawing SMRs. A total of 386 secondary school students (aged 16.3 years) participated in the study. The instruments used in the study were: test of Chemical Knowledge, Test of Logical Thinking, two tests of visualization abilities Patterns and Rotations, and questionnaire on Intrinsic Motivation for Learning Science. The results show moderate, but statistically significant correlations between students' intrinsic motivation, formal reasoning abilities and chemical knowledge at submicroscopic level based on reading and drawing SMRs. Visualization abilities are not statistically significantly correlated with students' success on items that comprise reading or drawing SMRs. It can be also concluded that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female students in solving problems that include reading or drawing SMRs. Based on these statistical results and content analysis of the sample problems, several educational strategies can be implemented for students to develop adequate mental models of chemical concepts on all three levels of representations.

Reading intervention with a growth mindset approach improves children's skills.

PubMed

Andersen, Simon Calmar; Nielsen, Helena Skyt

2016-10-25

Laboratory experiments have shown that parents who believe their child's abilities are fixed engage with their child in unconstructive, performance-oriented ways. We show that children of parents with such "fixed mindsets" have lower reading skills, even after controlling for the child's previous abilities and the parents' socioeconomic status. In a large-scale randomized field trial (N classrooms = 72; N children = 1,587) conducted by public authorities, parents receiving a reading intervention were told about the malleability of their child's reading abilities and how to support their child by praising his/her effort rather than his/her performance. This low-cost intervention increased the reading and writing achievements of all participating children-not least immigrant children with non-Western backgrounds and children with low-educated mothers. As expected, effects were even bigger for parents who before the intervention had a fixed mindset.

Orthographic and phonological processing in developing readers revealed by ERPs

PubMed Central

EDDY, MARIANNA D.; GRAINGER, JONATHAN; HOLCOMB, PHILLIP J.; GABRIELI, JOHN D. E.

2018-01-01

The development of neurocognitive mechanisms in single word reading was studied in children ages 8–10 years using ERPs combined with priming manipulations aimed at dissociating orthographic and phonological processes. Transposed-letter (TL) priming (barin–BRAIN vs. bosin–BRAIN) was used to assess orthographic processing, and pseudohomophone (PH) priming (brane–BRAIN vs. brant–BRAIN) was used to assess phonological processing. Children showed TL and PH priming effects on both the N250 and N400 ERP components, and the magnitude of TL priming correlated positively with reading ability, with better readers showing larger TL priming effects. Phonological priming, on the other hand, did not correlate with reading ability. The positive correlations between TL priming and reading ability in children points to a key role for flexible sublexical orthographic representations in reading development, in line with their hypothesized role in the efficient mapping of orthographic information onto semantic information in skilled readers. PMID:27671210

Psychometric Research in Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Frederick B.

This review of psychometric research in reading analyzes the factors which seem related to reading comprehension skills. Experimental analysis of reading comprehension by L. E. Thorndike revealed two major components: knowledge of word meanings and verbal reasoning abilities. Subsequent analysis of experimental studies of reading comprehension…