Word-Decoding Skill Interacts with Working Memory Capacity to Influence Inference Generation during Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamilton, Stephen; Freed, Erin; Long, Debra L.

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine predictions derived from a proposal about the relation between word-decoding skill and working memory capacity, called verbal efficiency theory. The theory states that poor word representations and slow decoding processes consume resources in working memory that would otherwise be used to execute high-level…

Letter-Sound Reading: Teaching Preschool Children Print-to-Sound Processing

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

This intervention study investigated the growth of letter sound reading and growth of consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) word decoding abilities for a representative sample of 41 US children in preschool settings. Specifically, the study evaluated the effectiveness of a 3-step letter-sound teaching intervention in teaching pre-school children to decode, or read, single letters. The study compared a control group, which received the preschool’s standard letter-sound instruction, to an intervention group which received a 3-step letter-sound instruction intervention. The children’s growth in letter-sound reading and CVC word decoding abilities were assessed at baseline and 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks. When compared to the control group, the growth of letter-sound reading ability was slightly higher for the intervention group. The rate of increase in letter-sound reading was significantly faster for the intervention group. In both groups, too few children learned to decode any CVC words to allow for analysis. Results of this study support the use of the intervention strategy in preschools for teaching children print-to-sound processing. PMID:26839494

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.

Importance of Speech Production for Phonological Awareness and Word Decoding: The Case of Children with Cerebral Palsy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peeters, Marieke; Verhoeven, Ludo; de Moor, Jan; van Balkom, Hans

2009-01-01

The goal of this longitudinal study was to investigate the precursors of early reading development in 52 children with cerebral palsy at kindergarten level in comparison to 65 children without disabilities. Word Decoding was measured to investigate early reading skills, while Phonological Awareness, Phonological Short-term Memory (STM), Speech…

Wilson Reading System[R]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

Wilson Reading System[R] is a supplemental reading and writing curriculum designed to promote reading accuracy (decoding) and spelling (encoding) skills for students with word-level deficits. The program is designed to teach phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles (sound-symbol relationship), word study, spelling, sight word instruction,…

Development of First-Graders' Word Reading Skills: For Whom Can Dynamic Assessment Tell Us More?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Steacy, Laura M.; Collins, Alyson A.; Lindström, Esther R.

2017-01-01

Dynamic assessment (DA) of word reading measures learning potential for early reading development by documenting the amount of assistance needed to learn how to read words with unfamiliar orthography. We examined the additive value of DA for predicting first-grade decoding and word recognition development while controlling for autoregressive…

Emergence of representations through repeated training on pronouncing novel letter combinations leads to efficient reading.

PubMed

Takashima, Atsuko; Hulzink, Iris; Wagensveld, Barbara; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-08-01

Printed text can be decoded by utilizing different processing routes depending on the familiarity of the script. A predominant use of word-level decoding strategies can be expected in the case of a familiar script, and an almost exclusive use of letter-level decoding strategies for unfamiliar scripts. Behavioural studies have revealed that frequently occurring words are read more efficiently, suggesting that these words are read in a more holistic way at the word-level, than infrequent and unfamiliar words. To test whether repeated exposure to specific letter combinations leads to holistic reading, we monitored both behavioural and neural responses during novel script decoding and examined changes related to repeated exposure. We trained a group of Dutch university students to decode pseudowords written in an unfamiliar script, i.e., Korean Hangul characters. We compared behavioural and neural responses to pronouncing trained versus untrained two-character pseudowords (equivalent to two-syllable pseudowords). We tested once shortly after the initial training and again after a four days' delay that included another training session. We found that trained pseudowords were pronounced faster and more accurately than novel combinations of radicals (equivalent to letters). Imaging data revealed that pronunciation of trained pseudowords engaged the posterior temporo-parietal region, and engagement of this network was predictive of reading efficiency a month later. The results imply that repeated exposure to specific combinations of graphemes can lead to emergence of holistic representations that result in efficient reading. Furthermore, inter-individual differences revealed that good learners retained efficiency more than bad learners one month later. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development and validation of a reading-related assessment battery in Malay for the purpose of dyslexia assessment.

PubMed

Lee, Lay Wah

2008-06-01

Malay is an alphabetic language with transparent orthography. A Malay reading-related assessment battery which was conceptualised based on the International Dyslexia Association definition of dyslexia was developed and validated for the purpose of dyslexia assessment. The battery consisted of ten tests: Letter Naming, Word Reading, Non-word Reading, Spelling, Passage Reading, Reading Comprehension, Listening Comprehension, Elision, Rapid Letter Naming and Digit Span. Content validity was established by expert judgment. Concurrent validity was obtained using the schools' language tests as criterion. Evidence of predictive and construct validity was obtained through regression analyses and factor analyses. Phonological awareness was the most significant predictor of word-level literacy skills in Malay, with rapid naming making independent secondary contributions. Decoding and listening comprehension made separate contributions to reading comprehension, with decoding as the more prominent predictor. Factor analysis revealed four factors: phonological decoding, phonological naming, comprehension and verbal short-term memory. In conclusion, despite differences in orthography, there are striking similarities in the theoretical constructs of reading-related tasks in Malay and in English.

Hemispheric specialization for visual words is shaped by attention to sublexical units during initial learning.

PubMed

Yoncheva, Yuliya N; Wise, Jessica; McCandliss, Bruce

2015-01-01

Selective attention to grapheme-phoneme mappings during learning can impact the circuitry subsequently recruited during reading. Here we trained literate adults to read two novel scripts of glyph words containing embedded letters under different instructions. For one script, learners linked each embedded letter to its corresponding sound within the word (grapheme-phoneme focus); for the other, decoding was prevented so entire words had to be memorized. Post-training, ERPs were recorded during a reading task on the trained words within each condition and on untrained but decodable (transfer) words. Within this condition, reaction-time patterns suggested both trained and transfer words were accessed via sublexical units, yet a left-lateralized, late ERP response showed an enhanced left lateralization for transfer words relative to trained words, potentially reflecting effortful decoding. Collectively, these findings show that selective attention to grapheme-phoneme mappings during learning drives the lateralization of circuitry that supports later word recognition. This study thus provides a model example of how different instructional approaches to the same material may impact changes in brain circuitry. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preparing novice teachers to develop basic reading and spelling skills in children.

PubMed

Spear-Swerling, Louise; Brucker, Pamela Owen

2004-12-01

This study examined the word-structure knowledge of novice teachers and the progress of children tutored by a subgroup of the teachers. Teachers' word-structure knowledge was assessed using three tasks: graphophonemic segmentation, classification of pseudowords by syllable type, and classification of real words as phonetically regular or irregular. Tutored children were assessed on several measures of basic reading and spelling skills. Novice teachers who received word-structure instruction outperformed a comparison group of teachers in word-structure knowledge at post-test. Tutored children improved significantly from pre-test to post-test on all assessments. Teachers' post-test knowledge on the graphophonemic segmentation and irregular words tasks correlated significantly with tutored children's progress in decoding phonetically regular words; error analyses indicated links between teachers' patterns of word-structure knowledge and children's patterns of decoding progress. The study suggests that word-structure knowledge is important to effective teaching of word decoding and underscores the need to include this information in teacher preparation.

Toward an Interactive Analogy Model of Reading Development: Decoding Vowel Graphemes in Beginning Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha

1993-01-01

Three experiments on vowel decoding involving primary school children partially tested an interactive model of reading acquisition. The model suggests that children begin learning to read by establishing orthographic recognition units for words that have phonological underpinning that is initially at the onset-rime level but that becomes…

What Could Replace the Phonics Screening Check during the Early Years of Reading Development?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glazzard, Jonathan

2017-01-01

This article argues that the phonics screening check, introduced in England in 2012, is not fit for purpose. It is a test of children's ability to decode words rather than an assessment of their reading skills. Whilst this assessment may, to some extent, support the needs of children who rely on phonemic decoding as a route to word recognition, it…

Language deficits in poor comprehenders: a case for the simple view of reading.

PubMed

Catts, Hugh W; Adlof, Suzanne M; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2006-04-01

To examine concurrently and retrospectively the language abilities of children with specific reading comprehension deficits ("poor comprehenders") and compare them to typical readers and children with specific decoding deficits ("poor decoders"). In Study 1, the authors identified 57 poor comprehenders, 27 poor decoders, and 98 typical readers on the basis of 8th-grade reading achievement. These subgroups' performances on 8th-grade measures of language comprehension and phonological processing were investigated. In Study 2, the authors examined retrospectively subgroups' performances on measures of language comprehension and phonological processing in kindergarten, 2nd, and 4th grades. Word recognition and reading comprehension in 2nd and 4th grades were also considered. Study 1 showed that poor comprehenders had concurrent deficits in language comprehension but normal abilities in phonological processing. Poor decoders were characterized by the opposite pattern of language abilities. Study 2 results showed that subgroups had language (and word recognition) profiles in the earlier grades that were consistent with those observed in 8th grade. Subgroup differences in reading comprehension were inconsistent across grades but reflective of the changes in the components of reading comprehension over time. The results support the simple view of reading and the phonological deficit hypothesis. Furthermore, the findings indicate that a classification system that is based on the simple view has advantages over standard systems that focus only on word recognition and/or reading comprehension.

Teaching children with dyslexia to spell in a reading-writers' workshop.

PubMed

Berninger, Virginia W; Lee, Yen-Ling; Abbott, Robert D; Breznitz, Zvia

2013-04-01

To identify effective treatment for both the spelling and word decoding problems in dyslexia, 24 students with dyslexia in grades 4 to 9 were randomly assigned to treatments A (n=12) or B (n=12) in an after-school reading-writers' workshop at the university (thirty 1-h sessions twice a week over 5 months). First, both groups received step 1 treatment of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (gpc) for oral reading. At step 2, treatment A received gpc training for both oral reading and spelling, and treatment B received gpc training for oral reading and phonological awareness. At step 3, treatment A received orthographic spelling strategy and rapid accelerated reading program (RAP) training, and treatment B continued step 2 training. At step 4, treatment A received morphological strategies and RAP training, and treatment B received orthographic spelling strategy training. Each treatment also had the same integrated reading-writing activities, which many school assignments require. Both groups improved significantly in automatic letter writing, spelling real words, compositional fluency, and oral reading (decoding) rate. Treatment A significantly outperformed treatment B in decoding rate after step 3 orthographic training, which in turn uniquely predicted spelling real words. Letter processing rate increased during step 3 RAP training and correlated significantly with two silent reading fluency measures. Adding orthographic strategies with "working memory in mind" to phonics helps students with dyslexia spell and read English words.

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…

Reprogrammable read only variable threshold transistor memory with isolated addressing buffer

DOEpatents

Lodi, Robert J.

1976-01-01

A monolithic integrated circuit, fully decoded memory comprises a rectangular array of variable threshold field effect transistors organized into a plurality of multi-bit words. Binary address inputs to the memory are decoded by a field effect transistor decoder into a plurality of word selection lines each of which activates an address buffer circuit. Each address buffer circuit, in turn, drives a word line of the memory array. In accordance with the word line selected by the decoder the activated buffer circuit directs reading or writing voltages to the transistors comprising the memory words. All of the buffer circuits additionally are connected to a common terminal for clearing all of the memory transistors to a predetermined state by the application to the common terminal of a large magnitude voltage of a predetermined polarity. The address decoder, the buffer and the memory array, as well as control and input/output control and buffer field effect transistor circuits, are fabricated on a common substrate with means provided to isolate the substrate of the address buffer transistors from the remainder of the substrate so that the bulk clearing function of simultaneously placing all of the memory transistors into a predetermined state can be performed.

Cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

van Wingerden, Evelien; Segers, Eliane; van Balkom, Hans; Verhoeven, Ludo

2014-11-01

A considerable number of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to acquire basic word reading skills. However, not much is known about their achievements in more advanced reading comprehension skills. In the present study, a group of 49 children with ID and a control group of 21 typically developing children with word decoding skills in the normal ranges of first grade were compared in lower level (explicit meaning) and higher level (implicit meaning) reading comprehension abilities. Moreover, in the group of children with ID it was examined to what extent their levels of lower level and higher level reading comprehension could be predicted from their linguistic skills (word decoding, vocabulary, language comprehension) and cognitive skill (nonverbal reasoning). It was found that children with ID were weaker than typically developing children in higher level reading comprehension but not in lower level reading comprehension. Children with ID also performed below the control group on nonverbal reasoning and language comprehension. After controlling for nonverbal reasoning, linguistic skills predicted lower level reading comprehension but not higher level reading comprehension. It can be concluded that children with ID who have basic decoding skill do reasonably well on lower level reading comprehension but continue to have problems with higher level reading comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parallel and Serial Reading Processes in Children's Word and Nonword Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van den Boer, Madelon; de Jong, Peter F.

2015-01-01

Fluent reading is characterized by rapid and accurate identification of words. It is commonly accepted that such identification relies on the availability of orthographic knowledge. However, whether this orthographic knowledge should be seen as an accumulation of word-specific knowledge in a lexicon acquired through decoding or as a well-developed…

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 Effects of Word Walls and Word Wall Activities on the Reading Fluency of First Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jasmine, Joanne; Schiesl, Pamela

2009-01-01

Reading fluency is the ability to read orally with speed and efficiency, including word recognition, decoding, and comprehension (Chard & Pikulski, 2005). Able readers achieve fluency as they recognize words with speed and build upon them to aid in comprehension (Pumfrey & Elliott, 1990). One way to help students achieve fluency is through the use…

The contribution of executive skills to reading comprehension.

PubMed

Sesma, Heather Whitney; Mahone, E Mark; Levine, Terry; Eason, Sarah H; Cutting, Laurie E

2009-05-01

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9-15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF EXECUTIVE SKILLS TO READING COMPREHENSION

PubMed Central

Sesma, Heather Whitney; Mahone, E. Mark; Levine, Terry; Eason, Sarah H.; Cutting, Laurie E.

2009-01-01

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9–15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD. PMID:18629674

The Effects of Visual Attention Span and Phonological Decoding in Reading Comprehension in Dyslexia: A Path Analysis.

PubMed

Chen, Chen; Schneps, Matthew H; Masyn, Katherine E; Thomson, Jennifer M

2016-11-01

Increasing evidence has shown visual attention span to be a factor, distinct from phonological skills, that explains single-word identification (pseudo-word/word reading) performance in dyslexia. Yet, little is known about how well visual attention span explains text comprehension. Observing reading comprehension in a sample of 105 high school students with dyslexia, we used a pathway analysis to examine the direct and indirect path between visual attention span and reading comprehension while controlling for other factors such as phonological awareness, letter identification, short-term memory, IQ and age. Integrating phonemic decoding efficiency skills in the analytic model, this study aimed to disentangle how visual attention span and phonological skills work together in reading comprehension for readers with dyslexia. We found visual attention span to have a significant direct effect on more difficult reading comprehension but not on an easier level. It also had a significant direct effect on pseudo-word identification but not on word identification. In addition, we found that visual attention span indirectly explains reading comprehension through pseudo-word reading and word reading skills. This study supports the hypothesis that at least part of the dyslexic profile can be explained by visual attention abilities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Separating the influences of prereading skills on early word and nonword reading.

PubMed

Shapiro, Laura R; Carroll, Julia M; Solity, Jonathan E

2013-10-01

The essential first step for a beginning reader is to learn to match printed forms to phonological representations. For a new word, this is an effortful process where each grapheme must be translated individually (serial decoding). The role of phonological awareness in developing a decoding strategy is well known. We examined whether beginning readers recruit different skills depending on the nature of the words being read (familiar words vs. nonwords). Print knowledge, phoneme and rhyme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological short-term memory (STM), nonverbal reasoning, vocabulary, auditory skills, and visual attention were measured in 392 prereaders 4 and 5 years of age. Word and nonword reading were measured 9 months later. We used structural equation modeling to examine the skills-reading relationship and modeled correlations between our two reading outcomes and among all prereading skills. We found that a broad range of skills were associated with reading outcomes: early print knowledge, phonological STM, phoneme awareness and RAN. Whereas all of these skills were directly predictive of nonword reading, early print knowledge was the only direct predictor of word reading. Our findings suggest that beginning readers draw most heavily on their existing print knowledge to read familiar words. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Responsiveness to Intervention in Children with Dyslexia.

PubMed

Tilanus, Elisabeth A T; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-08-01

We examined the responsiveness to a 12-week phonics intervention in 54 s-grade Dutch children with dyslexia, and compared their reading and spelling gains to a control group of 61 typical readers. The intervention aimed to train grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), and word reading and spelling by using phonics instruction. We examined the accuracy and efficiency of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, decoding words and pseudowords, as well as the accuracy of spelling words before and after the intervention. Moreover, responsiveness to intervention was examined by studying to what extent scores at posttest could directly or indirectly be predicted from precursor measures. Results showed that the children with dyslexia were significantly behind in all reading and spelling measures at pretest. During the intervention, the children with dyslexia made more progress on GPC, (pseudo)word decoding accuracy and efficiency, and spelling accuracy than the typical reading group. Furthermore, we found a direct effect of the precursor measures rapid automatized naming, verbal working memory and phoneme deletion on the dyslexic children's progress in GPC speed, and indirect effects of rapid automatized naming and phoneme deletion on word and pseudoword efficiency and word decoding accuracy via the scores at pretest. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Phonological or orthographic training for children with phonological or orthographic decoding deficits.

PubMed

Gustafson, Stefan; Ferreira, Janna; Rönnberg, Jerker

2007-08-01

In a longitudinal intervention study, Swedish reading disabled children in grades 2-3 received either a phonological (n = 41) or an orthographic (n = 39) training program. Both programs were computerized and interventions took place in ordinary school settings with trained special instruction teachers. Two comparison groups, ordinary special instruction and normal readers, were also included in the study. Results showed strong average training effects on text reading and general word decoding for both phonological and orthographic training, but not significantly higher improvements than for the comparison groups. The main research finding was a double dissociation: children with pronounced phonological problems improved their general word decoding skill more from phonological than from orthographic training, whereas the opposite was observed for children with pronounced orthographic problems. Thus, in this population of children, training should focus on children's relative weakness rather than their relative strength in word decoding. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effectiveness of Scaffolding Interrogatives Method: Teaching Reading Comprehension to Young Children with Hyperlexia in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chia, Noel Kok Hwee; Kee, Norman Kiak Nam

2013-01-01

Children with hyperlexia display spontaneous superior word decoding ability before the age of five but impaired listening and reading comprehension. They have direct phonological processing of any given text with apparent ease and often well beyond their vocabulary usage. Though they can recognise and read words, words appear meaningless. As a…

The Relationship Between Reading Fluency and Vocabulary in Fifth Grade Turkish Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kasim; Rasinski, Timothy; Ates, Seyit; Fitzgerald, Shawn; Zimmerman, Belinda; Yildiz, Mustafa

2014-01-01

Reading fluency has traditionally been recognized as a competency associated with word recognition and comprehension. As readers become more automatic in word identification they are able to devote less attention and cognitive resources to word decoding and more to text comprehension. The act of reading itself has been associated with growth in…

The Fluid Reading Primer: Animated Decoding Support for Emergent Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zellweger, Polle T.; Mackinlay, Jock D.

A prototype application called the Fluid Reading Primer was developed to help emergent readers with the process of decoding written words into their spoken forms. The Fluid Reading Primer is part of a larger research project called Fluid Documents, which is exploring the use of interactive animation of typography to show additional information in…

The emergence of automaticity in reading: Effects of orthographic depth and word decoding ability on an adjusted Stroop measure.

PubMed

Megherbi, Hakima; Elbro, Carsten; Oakhill, Jane; Segui, Juan; New, Boris

2018-02-01

How long does it take for word reading to become automatic? Does the appearance and development of automaticity differ as a function of orthographic depth (e.g., French vs. English)? These questions were addressed in a longitudinal study of English and French beginning readers. The study focused on automaticity as obligatory processing as measured in the Stroop test. Measures of decoding ability and the Stroop effect were taken at three time points during first grade (and during second grade in the United Kingdom) in 84 children. The study is the first to adjust the classic Stroop effect for inhibition (of distracting colors). The adjusted Stroop effect was zero in the absence of reading ability, and it was found to develop in tandem with decoding ability. After a further control for decoding, no effects of age or orthography were found on the adjusted Stroop measure. The results are in line with theories of the development of whole word recognition that emphasize the importance of the acquisition of the basic orthographic code. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reading and writing skills in young adults with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

PubMed

Barnes, Marcia; Dennis, Maureen; Hetherington, Ross

2004-09-01

Reading and writing were studied in 31 young adults with spina bifida and hydrocephalus (SBH). Like children with this condition, young adults with SBH had better word decoding than reading comprehension, and, compared to population means, had lower scores on a test of writing fluency. Reading comprehension was predicted by word decoding and listening comprehension. Writing was predicted by fine motor finger function, verbal intelligence, and short-term and working memory. These findings are consistent with cognitive models of reading and writing. Writing, but not reading, was related to highest level of education achieved and writing fluency predicted several aspects of functional independence. Reading comprehension and writing remain deficient in adults with SBH and have consequences for educational attainments and functional independence.

English Word-Level Decoding and Oral Language Factors as Predictors of Third and Fifth Grade English Language Learners' Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landon, Laura L.

2017-01-01

This study examines the application of the Simple View of Reading (SVR), a reading comprehension theory focusing on word recognition and linguistic comprehension, to English Language Learners' (ELLs') English reading development. This study examines the concurrent and predictive validity of two components of the SVR, oral language and word-level…

The Contribution of Phonological Awareness to Reading Fluency and Its Individual Sub-skills in Readers Aged 9- to 12-years

PubMed Central

Elhassan, Zena; Crewther, Sheila G.; Bavin, Edith L.

2017-01-01

Research examining phonological awareness (PA) contributions to reading in established readers of different skill levels is limited. The current study examined the contribution of PA to phonological decoding, visual word recognition, reading rate, and reading comprehension in 124 fourth to sixth grade children (aged 9–12 years). On the basis of scores on the FastaReada measure of reading fluency participants were allocated to one of three reading ability categories: dysfluent (n = 47), moderate (n = 38) and fluent (n = 39). For the dysfluent group, PA contributed significantly to all reading measures except rate, but in the moderate group only to phonological decoding. PA did not influence performances on any of the reading measures examined for the fluent reader group. The results support the notion that fluency is characterized by a shift from conscious decoding to rapid and accurate visual recognition of words. Although PA may be influential in reading development, the results of the current study show that it is not sufficient for fluent reading. PMID:28443048

The Contribution of Phonological Awareness to Reading Fluency and Its Individual Sub-skills in Readers Aged 9- to 12-years.

PubMed

Elhassan, Zena; Crewther, Sheila G; Bavin, Edith L

2017-01-01

Research examining phonological awareness (PA) contributions to reading in established readers of different skill levels is limited. The current study examined the contribution of PA to phonological decoding, visual word recognition, reading rate, and reading comprehension in 124 fourth to sixth grade children (aged 9-12 years). On the basis of scores on the FastaReada measure of reading fluency participants were allocated to one of three reading ability categories: dysfluent ( n = 47), moderate ( n = 38) and fluent ( n = 39). For the dysfluent group, PA contributed significantly to all reading measures except rate, but in the moderate group only to phonological decoding. PA did not influence performances on any of the reading measures examined for the fluent reader group. The results support the notion that fluency is characterized by a shift from conscious decoding to rapid and accurate visual recognition of words. Although PA may be influential in reading development, the results of the current study show that it is not sufficient for fluent reading.

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.

Tile Test: A Hands-On Approach for Assessing Phonics in the Early Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norman, Kimberly A.; Calfee, Robert C.

2004-01-01

An instrument for assessing young students' understanding of the English orthographic system is presented. The Tile Test measures understanding of phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Metalinguistic questions embedded within…

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading "Disability"? Reading Without Meaning and the Simple View.

PubMed

Sparks, Richard L; Luebbers, Julie

Conventional wisdom suggests that students classified as learning disabled will exhibit difficulties with foreign language (FL) learning, but evidence has not supported a relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities. The simple view of reading model posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and language comprehension and that there are good readers and 3 types of poor readers-dyslexic, hyperlexic, and garden variety-who exhibit different profiles of strengths and/or deficits in word decoding and language comprehension. In this study, a random sample of U.S. high school students completing first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses were administered standardized measures of Spanish word decoding and reading comprehension, compared with monolingual Spanish readers from first to eleventh grades, and classified into reader types according to the simple view of reading. The majority of students fit the hyperlexic profile, and no participants fit the good reader profile until they were compared with first- and second-grade monolingual Spanish readers. Findings call into question the practice of diagnosing an FL "disability" before a student engages in FL study.

Morphological Awareness and Reading in Second and Fifth Grade: Evidence from Hebrew

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaknin-Nusbaum, Vered; Sarid, Miri; Shimron, Joseph

2016-01-01

Research suggests that morphological awareness facilitates word decoding, improves lexical knowledge, and helps reading comprehension (Carlisle, 2010; Nagy et al., 2014; Verhoeven & Perfetti, 2011). The present study examined the relationship among morphological awareness, word recognition and reading comprehension in 153 second- and…

Test Review: Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., and Rashotte, C. A. (2012), "Test of Word Reading Efficiency-Second Edition" (TOWRE-2). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarar, Jessica M.; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.; Dickens, Rachel H.

2015-01-01

The TOWRE-2 was developed to provide an efficient measure of two essential wordlevel reading skills, sight word reading and phonetic decoding skills. The Sight Word Efficiency (SWE) subtest assesses the number of real words that an individual can read from a vertical list within 45 s. This subtest is designed to measure the size of an individual's…

An Overview of Psycholinguistic Reading Theory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, Christopher G.

In the most adequate psycholinguistic model of the reading process the proficient silent reader decodes directly from graphic surface structure into deep structure, with no decoding into oral surface structure. Three cue systems used by all proficient readers include graphic cues (letters and words), syntactic cues (the grammatical arrangement of…

Understanding Variability in Reading Comprehension in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Interactions with Language Status and Decoding Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Courtenay; Nation, Kate

2011-01-01

Although it is well recognized that reading skills vary in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), reasons for this variability are not well understood. We used the simple view of reading model to investigate both word decoding and text comprehension processes in two well-established subtypes within the autism spectrum, those with…

Teaching Children to Fluently Decode Nonsense Words in Lists: Generalized Effects to Oral Reading Fluency of Connected Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werder, Candace Susan

2012-01-01

The present study examined the generalized effects of training children to fluently blend nonsense words containing target vowel teams on their reading of untrained real words in lists and passages. Eight second-grade students participated. Nonsense words containing each of 3 target vowel teams ("aw," "oi," and "au")…

Enhancing Decoding Efficiency in Poor Readers via a Word Identification Game

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorp, Karly; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2017-01-01

The effects of a word identification game aimed at enhancing decoding efficiency in poor readers were tested. Following a pretest-posttest-retention design with a waiting control group, 62 poor-reading Dutch second graders received a five-hour tablet intervention across a period of five weeks. During the intervention, participants practiced…

The Relative Contributions of Vocabulary, Decoding, and Phonemic Awareness to Word Reading in English versus German

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suggate, Sebastian; Reese, Elaine; Lenhard, Wolfgang; Schneider, Wolfgang

2014-01-01

Beginning readers in shallow orthographies acquire word reading skills more quickly than in deep orthographies like English. In addition to extending this evidence base by comparing reading acquisition in English with the more transparent German, we conducted a longitudinal study and investigated whether different early reading skills made…

Readers in Adult Basic Education.

PubMed

Barnes, Adrienne E; Kim, Young-Suk; Tighe, Elizabeth L; Vorstius, Christian

The present study explored the reading skills of a sample of 48 adults enrolled in a basic education program in northern Florida, United States. Previous research has reported on reading component skills for students in adult education settings, but little is known about eye movement patterns or their relation to reading skills for this population. In this study, reading component skills including decoding, language comprehension, and reading fluency are reported, as are eye movement variables for connected-text oral reading. Eye movement comparisons between individuals with higher and lower oral reading fluency revealed within- and between-subject effects for word frequency and word length as well as group and word frequency interactions. Bivariate correlations indicated strong relations between component skills of reading, eye movement measures, and both the Test of Adult Basic Education ( Reading subtest) and the Woodcock-Johnson III Diagnostic Reading Battery Passage Comprehension assessments. Regression analyses revealed the utility of decoding, language comprehension, and lexical activation time for predicting achievement on both the Woodcock Johnson III Passage Comprehension and the Test of Adult Basic Education Reading Comprehension.

Training Mispronunciation Correction and Word Meanings Improves Children's Ability to Learn to Read Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dyson, Hannah; Best, Wendy; Solity, Jonathan; Hulme, Charles

2017-01-01

Previous research has suggested that learning to read irregular words depends upon knowledge of a word's meaning and the ability to correct imperfect decoding attempts by reference to the known pronunciations of a word. In an experimental training study, 84 children ages 5-7 years were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group.…

Try a Little Bit of Teaching: A Dynamic Assessment of Word Decoding as a Kindergarten Predictor of Word Reading Difficulties at the End of Grade 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gellert, Anna S.; Elbro, Carsten

2017-01-01

The present study examined the construct and predictive validity of a dynamic test of decoding. In theory, a dynamic test provides a direct measure of potential for learning. In this study, children were taught 3 novel letters and how to blend the sounds of those into new words, then they were tested on different words comprising the 3 letters.…

Effects of Systematic and Strategic Analogy-Based Phonics on Grade 2 Students' Word Reading and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Thomas G.

2005-01-01

Fifteen regular grade 2 teachers used a set of 150 written lessons that were designed to develop, over the course of a school year, low and normally achieving students' ability to decode by analogy (i.e., to read unknown words using known words). The lessons provided (1) a planned sequence for teaching phonic elements including common spelling…

A test of the role of the medial temporal lobe in single-word decoding.

PubMed

Osipowicz, Karol; Rickards, Tyler; Shah, Atif; Sharan, Ashwini; Sperling, Michael; Kahn, Waseem; Tracy, Joseph

2011-01-15

The degree to which the MTL system contributes to effective language skills is not well delineated. We sought to determine if the MTL plays a role in single-word decoding in healthy, normal skilled readers. The experiment follows from the implications of the dual-process model of single-word decoding, which provides distinct predictions about the nature of MTL involvement. The paradigm utilized word (regular and irregularly spelled words) and pseudoword (phonetically regular) stimuli that differed in their demand for non-lexical as opposed lexical decoding. The data clearly showed that the MTL system was not involved in single word decoding in skilled, native English readers. Neither the hippocampus nor the MTL system as a whole showed significant activation during lexical or non-lexical based decoding. The results provide evidence that lexical and non-lexical decoding are implemented by distinct but overlapping neuroanatomical networks. Non-lexical decoding appeared most uniquely associated with cuneus and fusiform gyrus activation biased toward the left hemisphere. In contrast, lexical decoding appeared associated with right middle frontal and supramarginal, and bilateral cerebellar activation. Both these decoding operations appeared in the context of a shared widespread network of activations including bilateral occipital cortex and superior frontal regions. These activations suggest that the absence of MTL involvement in either lexical or non-lexical decoding appears likely a function of the skilled reading ability of our sample such that whole-word recognition and retrieval processes do not utilize the declarative memory system, in the case of lexical decoding, and require only minimal analysis and recombination of the phonetic elements of a word, in the case of non-lexical decoding. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Test of the Role of the Medial Temporal Lobe in Single-Word Decoding

PubMed Central

Osipowicz, Karol; Rickards, Tyler; Shah, Atif; Sharan, Ashwini; Sperling, Michael; Kahn, Waseem; Tracy, Joseph

2012-01-01

The degree to which the MTL system contributes to effective language skills is not well delineated. We sought to determine if the MTL plays a role in single-word decoding in healthy, normal skilled readers. The experiment follows from the implications of the dual-process model of single-word decoding, which provides distinct predictions about the nature of MTL involvement. The paradigm utilized word (regular and irregularly spelled words) and pseudoword (phonetically regular) stimuli that differed in their demand for non-lexical as opposed lexical decoding. The data clearly showed that the MTL system was not involved in single word decoding in skilled, native English readers. Neither the hippocampus, nor the MTL system as a whole showed significant activation during lexical or non-lexical based decoding. The results provide evidence that lexical and non-lexical decoding are implemented by distinct but overlapping neuroanatomical networks. Non-lexical decoding appeared most uniquely associated with cuneus and fusiform gyrus activation biased toward the left hemisphere. In contrast, lexical decoding appeared associated with right middle frontal and supramarginal, and bilateral cerebellar activation. Both these decoding operations appeared in the context of a shared widespread network of activations including bilateral occipital cortex and superior frontal regions. These activations suggest that the absence of MTL involvement in either lexical or non-lexical decoding appears likely a function of the skilled reading ability of our sample such that whole-word recognition and retrieval processes do not utilize the declarative memory system, in the case of lexical decoding, and require only minimal analysis and recombination of the phonetic elements of a word, in the case of non-lexical decoding. PMID:20884357

Comparison of meaning and graphophonemic feedback strategies for guided reading instruction of children with language delays.

PubMed

Kouri, Theresa A; Selle, Carrie A; Riley, Sarah A

2006-08-01

Guided reading is a common practice recommended for children in the early stages of literacy development. While experts agree that oral reading facilitates literacy skills, controversy exists concerning which corrective feedback strategies are most effective. The purpose of this study was to compare feedback procedures stemming from 2 different theoretical perspectives on literacy development. Fourteen children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 21 with typically developing language read aloud 2 stories to an adult examiner who presented corrective feedback prompts when reading miscues (errors) occurred. One type of feedback based on whole language principles emphasized meaning aspects of a text. The other type consisted of graphophonemic (GP) word-decoding strategies. Before reading, participants were provided instruction on 5 key words taken from each story text. This instruction emphasized either meaning or GP aspects of specific key words. Story comprehension questions followed readings. Findings indicated that more miscued words were corrected overall through the use of GP feedback cues; however, some meaning-based instructional advantages were indicated for key word identifications for children with SLI. Higher story comprehension scores were yielded in the GP condition for both groups. Both meaning-based and phonemic key word reviews, prior to oral reading, appear to be effective strategies for children with SLI. The use of GP word-decoding cues may be more effective than meaning-based cues for facilitating correction of reading miscues during children's oral readings. Further research findings are discussed along with clinical implications for using corrective feedback procedures.

Effects of an iPad-Supported Phonics Intervention on Decoding Performance and Time On-Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larabee, Kaitlyn M.; Burns, Matthew K.; McComas, Jennifer J.

2014-01-01

Despite their recent popularity in schools, there is minimal consensus in the educational literature regarding the use of mobile devices for reading intervention. The word box intervention (Joseph "Read Teach" 52:348-356, 1998) has been consistently associated with improvements in student decoding performance. This early efficacy study…

Intermediate Decoding Skills. NetNews. Volume 4, Number 4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LDA of Minnesota, 2004

2004-01-01

Intermediate decoding refers to word analysis skills that are beyond a beginning, one-syllable level as described in an earlier NetNews issue, yet are just as important for building adult level reading proficiency. Research from secondary settings indicates that struggling readers in middle school or high school programs often read between the…

Brain Routes for Reading in Adults with and without Autism: EMEG Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moseley, Rachel L.; Pulvermüller, Friedemann; Mohr, Bettina; Lombardo, Michael V.; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Shtyrov, Yury

2014-01-01

Reading utilises at least two neural pathways. The temporal lexical route visually maps whole words to their lexical entries, whilst the nonlexical route decodes words phonologically via parietal cortex. Readers typically employ the lexical route for familiar words, but poor comprehension plus precocity at mechanically "sounding out"…

Compact disk error measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howe, D.; Harriman, K.; Tehranchi, B.

1993-01-01

The objectives of this project are as follows: provide hardware and software that will perform simple, real-time, high resolution (single-byte) measurement of the error burst and good data gap statistics seen by a photoCD player read channel when recorded CD write-once discs of variable quality (i.e., condition) are being read; extend the above system to enable measurement of the hard decision (i.e., 1-bit error flags) and soft decision (i.e., 2-bit error flags) decoding information that is produced/used by the Cross Interleaved - Reed - Solomon - Code (CIRC) block decoder employed in the photoCD player read channel; construct a model that uses data obtained via the systems described above to produce meaningful estimates of output error rates (due to both uncorrected ECC words and misdecoded ECC words) when a CD disc having specific (measured) error statistics is read (completion date to be determined); and check the hypothesis that current adaptive CIRC block decoders are optimized for pressed (DAD/ROM) CD discs. If warranted, do a conceptual design of an adaptive CIRC decoder that is optimized for write-once CD discs.

The use of music to enhance reading skills of second grade students and students with reading disabilities.

PubMed

Register, Dena; Darrow, Alice-Ann; Standley, Jayne; Swedberg, Olivia

2007-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine the efficacy of using music as a remedial strategy to enhance the reading skills of second-grade students and students who have been identified as having a specific learning disability (SLD) in reading. First, an intensive short-term music curriculum was designed to target reading comprehension and vocabulary skills at the second grade level. The curriculum was then implemented in classrooms at two public schools in the Southeast. Reading skills were evaluated pre and post curriculum intervention via the vocabulary and reading comprehension subtests of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test for second grade. Analysis of pre/posttest data revealed that students with a specific disability in reading improved significantly from pre to post on all three subtests: word decoding (p = .04), word knowledge (p = .01), reading comprehension (p = .01), and test total (p = .01). Paired t-tests revealed that for 2nd grade students, both treatment and control classes improved significantly from pre to post on the subtests word decoding, word knowledge, and test total. While both classes made gains from pre to post on the subtest, reading comprehension, neither improved significantly. Analysis of Covariance revealed that the treatment class made greater gains pre to post than the control class on all 3 subtests (Including reading comprehension), and significantly greater gains on the subtest, word knowledge (p = .01).

A Secondary Intervention in Reading: Word Skills for Junior High

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klich, Sheila M.

2012-01-01

The school involved in the study is a diverse, faith-based, private school located in a large Midwestern city. Within the school, reading skills vary considerably. Typically, decoding and word skills are not widely taught after the third grade. Sixteen Junior High students who underachieve in reading were given additional instruction using the…

The effect of fine and grapho-motor skill demands on preschoolers' decoding skill.

PubMed

Suggate, Sebastian; Pufke, Eva; Stoeger, Heidrun

2016-01-01

Previous correlational research has found indications that fine motor skills (FMS) link to early reading development, but the work has not demonstrated causality. We manipulated 51 preschoolers' FMS while children learned to decode letters and nonsense words in a within-participants, randomized, and counterbalanced single-factor design with pre- and posttesting. In two conditions, children wrote with a pencil that had a conical shape fitted to the end filled with either steel (impaired writing condition) or polystyrene (normal writing condition). In a third control condition, children simply pointed at the letters with the light pencil as they learned to read the words (pointing condition). Results indicate that children learned the most decoding skills in the normal writing condition, followed by the pointing and impaired writing conditions. In addition, working memory, phonemic awareness, and grapho-motor skills were generally predictors of decoding skill development. The findings provide experimental evidence that having lower FMS is disadvantageous for reading development. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Relations between Children's Reading Comprehension, Working Memory, Language Skills and Components of Reading Decoding in a Normal Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goff, Deborah A.; Pratt, Chris; Ong, Ben

2005-01-01

The primary aim of the current study was to identify the strongest independent predictors of reading comprehension using word reading, language and memory variables in a normal sample of 180 children in grades 3-5, with a range of word reading skills. It was hypothesized that orthographic processing, receptive vocabulary and verbal working memory…

A Few Words about Words | Poster

Cancer.gov

By Ken Michaels, Guest Writer In Shakepeare’s play “Hamlet,” Polonius inquires of the prince, “What do you read, my lord?” Not at all pleased with what he’s reading, Hamlet replies, “Words, words, words.”1 I have previously described the communication model in which a sender encodes a message and then sends it via some channel (or medium) to a receiver, who decodes the message

Phonological Processing Skills as Predictors of Literacy amongst Arabic Speaking Bahraini Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

al Mannai, Haya; Everatt, John

2005-01-01

This paper reports a study of the reading and spelling skills of grades 1-3 Arabic-speaking children in Bahrain. Children were tested on their literacy skills (single word reading and spelling), their ability to decode letter strings (non-word reading) and measures of phonological awareness, short-term memory, speed of processing and non-verbal…

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.

The role of simultaneous and successive processing in EFL reading.

PubMed

Filickova, Marta; Kovalcikova, Iveta; Ropovik, Ivan

2016-10-01

This study examines the relationship between simultaneous and successive processing (the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive processing [PASS] theory processes) and reading skills in English as a foreign language (EFL). A group of 81 children were administered two batteries of tests. One was used to measure EFL reading skills, while the other one assessed simultaneous and successive processing. We hypothesised (a) cognitive processes to predict reading ability, as well as (b) the presence of a significant relationship between (c) simultaneous processing and reading comprehension and (d) successive processing and letter and word decoding. The findings confirmed that the anticipated relationships between these domains exist and are of moderate effect size. The research has helped to contribute to the understanding of how simultaneous and successive processing can affect EFL reading skills both on the level of basic word and letter decoding and reading comprehension. © 2015 International Union of Psychological Science.

Effects of a Randomized Reading Intervention Study Aimed at 9-Year-Olds: A 5-Year Follow-up.

PubMed

Wolff, Ulrika

2016-05-01

The present paper reports on a 5-year follow-up of a randomized reading intervention in grade 3 in Sweden. An intervention group (n = 57) received daily training for 12 weeks in phoneme/grapheme mapping, reading comprehension and reading speed, whereas a control group (n = 55) participated in ordinary classroom activities. The main aim was to investigate if there were remaining effects of the intervention on reading-related skills. Previous analyses showed that the intervention group performed significantly better than the control group on spelling, reading speed, reading comprehension and phoneme awareness at the immediate post-test with sustained effects 1 year later. Results from the 5-year follow-up show that the only significant difference between the intervention (n = 47) and the control group (n = 37) was on word decoding. There was also a significant interaction effect of group assignment and initial word decoding, in the way that the lowest-performing students benefitted the most from the intervention. Another aim was to examine if the children identified in a screening (n = 2212) as poor readers in grade 2 still performed worse than typical readers. The analyses showed that the typically developing students (n = 66) outperformed the students identified as poor readers in grade 2 on working memory, spelling, reading comprehension and word decoding. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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.

Monitoring Children with Reading Disabilities' Response to Phonics Intervention: Are There Differences between Intervention Aligned and General Skill Progress Monitoring Assessments?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olinghouse, Natalie G.; Lambert, Warren; Compton, Donald L.

2006-01-01

This study investigated whether 2 different progress monitoring assessments differentially predicted growth in reading skills associated with systematic phonics instruction. Oral reading fluency (ORE) was compared with an intervention aligned word list (IAWL) as predictors of growth in untimed and timed decoding and word identification and text…

IV. NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB): measuring language (vocabulary comprehension and reading decoding).

PubMed

Gershon, Richard C; Slotkin, Jerry; Manly, Jennifer J; Blitz, David L; Beaumont, Jennifer L; Schnipke, Deborah; Wallner-Allen, Kathleen; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Gleason, Jean Berko; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Adams, Marilyn Jager; Weintraub, Sandra

2013-08-01

Mastery of language skills is an important predictor of daily functioning and health. Vocabulary comprehension and reading decoding are relatively quick and easy to measure and correlate highly with overall cognitive functioning, as well as with success in school and work. New measures of vocabulary comprehension and reading decoding (in both English and Spanish) were developed for the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB). In the Toolbox Picture Vocabulary Test (TPVT), participants hear a spoken word while viewing four pictures, and then must choose the picture that best represents the word. This approach tests receptive vocabulary knowledge without the need to read or write, removing the literacy load for children who are developing literacy and for adults who struggle with reading and writing. In the Toolbox Oral Reading Recognition Test (TORRT), participants see a letter or word onscreen and must pronounce or identify it. The examiner determines whether it was pronounced correctly by comparing the response to the pronunciation guide on a separate computer screen. In this chapter, we discuss the importance of language during childhood and the relation of language and brain function. We also review the development of the TPVT and TORRT, including information about the item calibration process and results from a validation study. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of the measures are discussed. © 2013 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

The attentional blink is related to phonemic decoding, but not sight-word recognition, in typically reading adults.

PubMed

Tyson-Parry, Maree M; Sailah, Jessica; Boyes, Mark E; Badcock, Nicholas A

2015-10-01

This research investigated the relationship between the attentional blink (AB) and reading in typical adults. The AB is a deficit in the processing of the second of two rapidly presented targets when it occurs in close temporal proximity to the first target. Specifically, this experiment examined whether the AB was related to both phonological and sight-word reading abilities, and whether the relationship was mediated by accuracy on a single-target rapid serial visual processing task (single-target accuracy). Undergraduate university students completed a battery of tests measuring reading ability, non-verbal intelligence, and rapid automatised naming, in addition to rapid serial visual presentation tasks in which they were required to identify either two (AB task) or one (single target task) target/s (outlined shapes: circle, square, diamond, cross, and triangle) in a stream of random-dot distractors. The duration of the AB was related to phonological reading (n=41, β=-0.43): participants who exhibited longer ABs had poorer phonemic decoding skills. The AB was not related to sight-word reading. Single-target accuracy did not mediate the relationship between the AB and reading, but was significantly related to AB depth (non-linear fit, R(2)=.50): depth reflects the maximal cost in T2 reporting accuracy in the AB. The differential relationship between the AB and phonological versus sight-word reading implicates common resources used for phonemic decoding and target consolidation, which may be involved in cognitive control. The relationship between single-target accuracy and the AB is discussed in terms of cognitive preparation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High Frequency rTMS over the Left Parietal Lobule Increases Non-Word Reading Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costanzo, Floriana; Menghini, Deny; Caltagirone, Carlo; Oliveri, Massimiliano; Vicari, Stefano

2012-01-01

Increasing evidence in the literature supports the usefulness of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in studying reading processes. Two brain regions are primarily involved in phonological decoding: the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), which is associated with the auditory representation of spoken words, and the left inferior parietal lobe…

Effective Instruction for Persisting Dyslexia in Upper Grades: Adding Hope Stories and Computer Coding to Explicit Literacy Instruction.

PubMed

Thompson, Robert; Tanimoto, Steve; Lyman, Ruby Dawn; Geselowitz, Kira; Begay, Kristin Kawena; Nielsen, Kathleen; Nagy, William; Abbott, Robert; Raskind, Marshall; Berninger, Virginia

2018-05-01

Children in grades 4 to 6 ( N =14) who despite early intervention had persisting dyslexia (impaired word reading and spelling) were assessed before and after computerized reading and writing instruction aimed at subword, word, and syntax skills shown in four prior studies to be effective for treating dyslexia. During the 12 two-hour sessions once a week after school they first completed HAWK Letters in Motion© for manuscript and cursive handwriting, HAWK Words in Motion© for phonological, orthographic, and morphological coding for word reading and spelling, and HAWK Minds in Motion© for sentence reading comprehension and written sentence composing. A reading comprehension activity in which sentences were presented one word at a time or one added word at a time was introduced. Next, to instill hope they could overcome their struggles with reading and spelling, they read and discussed stories about struggles of Buckminister Fuller who overcame early disabilities to make important contributions to society. Finally, they engaged in the new Kokopelli's World (KW)©, blocks-based online lessons, to learn computer coding in introductory programming by creating stories in sentence blocks (Tanimoto and Thompson 2016). Participants improved significantly in hallmark word decoding and spelling deficits of dyslexia, three syntax skills (oral construction, listening comprehension, and written composing), reading comprehension (with decoding as covariate), handwriting, orthographic and morphological coding, orthographic loop, and inhibition (focused attention). They answered more reading comprehension questions correctly when they had read sentences presented one word at a time (eliminating both regressions out and regressions in during saccades) than when presented one added word at a time (eliminating only regressions out during saccades). Indicators of improved self-efficacy that they could learn to read and write were observed. Reminders to pay attention and stay on task needed before adding computer coding were not needed after computer coding was added.

Reading abilities in school-aged preterm children: a review and meta-analysis

PubMed Central

Kovachy, Vanessa N; Adams, Jenna N; Tamaresis, John S; Feldman, Heidi M

2014-01-01

AIM Children born preterm (at ≤32wk) are at risk of developing deficits in reading ability. This meta-analysis aims to determine whether or not school-aged preterm children perform worse than those born at term in single-word reading (decoding) and reading comprehension. METHOD Electronic databases were searched for studies published between 2000 and 2013, which assessed decoding or reading comprehension performance in English-speaking preterm and term-born children aged between 6 years and 13 years, and born after 1990. Standardized mean differences in decoding and reading comprehension scores were calculated. RESULTS Nine studies were suitable for analysis of decoding, and five for analysis of reading comprehension. Random-effects meta-analyses showed that children born preterm had significantly lower scores (reported as Cohen’s d values [d] with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) than those born at term for decoding (d=−0.42, 95% CI −0.57 to −0.27, p<0.001) and reading comprehension (d=−0.57, 95% CI −0.68 to −0.46, p<0.001). Meta-regressions showed that lower gestational age was associated with larger differences in decoding (Q[1]=5.92, p=0.02) and reading comprehension (Q[1]=4.69, p=0.03) between preterm and term groups. Differences between groups increased with age for reading comprehension (Q[1]=5.10, p=0.02) and, although not significant, there was also a trend for increased group differences for decoding (Q[1]=3.44, p=0.06). INTERPRETATION Preterm children perform worse than peers born at term on decoding and reading comprehension. These findings suggest that preterm children should receive more ongoing monitoring for reading difficulties throughout their education. PMID:25516105

Basic reading skills in Swedish children with late developing language and with or without autism spectrum disorder or ADHD.

PubMed

Miniscalco, Carmela; Dahlgren Sandberg, Annika

2010-01-01

Reading skills at age 7-8 years were examined in a community-representative sample of 21 screened and clinically examined children with language delay (LD) followed prospectively from 2.5 years of age. The present study aimed to (1) determine whether these children with a history of LD had deficits in basic reading skills, i.e. decoding and comprehension, compared to the age norms of standardized tests, (2) analyze if there was a relationship between reading outcome and neuropsychiatric diagnosis by comparing three subgroups of children, LD pure, LD+ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and LD+ADHD, and, (3) determine what language measures at age 6 years were associated with the 7-8-year reading outcome. Both decoding and comprehension of single word reading were significantly below the norm for the whole LD group, where children with LD+ASD scored lowest, and children with LD highest. However, the differences between the three groups did not reach significance. Two reader groups were identified according to the results of word decoding and comprehension, respectively, resulting in the same 7 children. ANOVA revealed that the only differences on the 6-year language tests between the two groups were found on color naming and word memory. This study has shown that children with LD and subsequently identified neurodevelopmental problems such as ASD and ADHD experience continued deficits, demonstrated also in reading skills and that the picture of the reading problems seemed to resemble those of typically developing children. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contributions of phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory, and rapid automated naming, toward decoding ability in students with mild intellectual disability.

PubMed

Soltani, Amanallah; Roslan, Samsilah

2013-03-01

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 disability who commonly suffer from reading decoding problems. This study is aimed at determining the contributions of phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory, and rapid automated naming, as three well known phonological processing skills, to decoding ability among 60 participants with mild intellectual disability of unspecified origin ranging from 15 to 23 years old. The results of the correlation analysis revealed that all three aspects of phonological processing are significantly correlated with decoding ability. Furthermore, a series of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that after controlling the effect of IQ, phonological awareness, and rapid automated naming are two distinct sources of decoding ability, but phonological short-term memory significantly contributes to decoding ability under the realm of phonological awareness. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Choice of Reading Comprehension Test Influences the Outcomes of Genetic Analyses

PubMed Central

Betjemann, Rebecca S.; Keenan, Janice M.; Olson, Richard K.; DeFries, John C.

2010-01-01

Does the choice of test for assessing reading comprehension influence the outcome of genetic analyses? A twin design compared two types of reading comprehension tests classified as primarily associated with word decoding (RC-D) or listening comprehension (RC-LC). For both types of tests, the overall genetic influence is high and nearly identical. However, the tests differed significantly in how they covary with the genes associated with decoding and listening comprehension. Although Cholesky decomposition showed that both types of comprehension tests shared significant genetic influence with both decoding and listening comprehension, RC-D tests shared most genetic variance with decoding, and RC-LC tests shared most with listening comprehension. Thus, different tests used to measure the same construct may manifest very different patterns of genetic covariation. These results suggest that the apparent discrepancies among the findings of previous twin studies of reading comprehension could be due at least in part to test differences. PMID:21804757

Role of Text and Student Characteristics in Real-Time Reading Processes across the Primary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Leeuw, Linda; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-01-01

Although much is known about beginning readers using behavioural measures, real-time processes are still less clear. The present study examined eye movements (skipping rate, gaze, look back and second-pass duration) as a function of text-related (difficulty and word class) and student-related characteristics (word decoding, reading comprehension,…

Detecting Different Types of Reading Difficulties: A Comparison of Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Danielle M.; Porter, Melanie A.; Kohnen, Saskia; Castles, Anne

2012-01-01

The focus of this paper is on the assessment of the two main processes that children must acquire at the single word reading level: word recognition (lexical) and decoding (nonlexical) skills. Guided by the framework of the dual route model, this study aimed to (1) investigate the impact of item characteristics on test performance, and (2)…

Phonological and Cognitive Correlates of Word-Reading Acquisition under Two Different Instructional Approaches in Greek.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papadopoulos, Timothy C.

2001-01-01

Examines the relationship between phonological and cognitive tasks with beginning reading acquisition. Uses two teaching techniques for tasks given first-grade students in Cyprus (n=50) and Greece (n=50). Reports differences were revealed in word-decoding accuracy, Greek students showed a higher linguistic ability, and successive processing and…

Beyond ORF: Student-Level Predictors of Reading Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Canto, Angela I.; Proctor, Briley E.

2013-01-01

This study explored student-level predictors of reading achievement among third grade regular education students. Predictors included student demographics (sex and socioeconomic status (SES), using free and reduced lunch as proxy for SES), direct observations of reading skills (oral reading fluency (ORF) and word decoding skill (nonsense word…

Matching Interventions to Reading Needs: A Case for Differentiation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Jill S.; Conradi, Kristin; Amendum, Steven J.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of providing reading interventions that are differentiated and aligned with an individual student's most foundational reading skill need. The authors present profiles of different readers and suggest three principal areas for support: decoding words, reading at an appropriate rate, and…

Minding Morphology: How Morphological Awareness Relates to Reading for English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Amanda P.; Huggins, A. Corinne; Carlo, Maria S.; August, Diane; Calderon, Margarita

2013-01-01

This study explored subprocesses of reading for 157 fifth grade Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) by examining whether morphological awareness made a unique contribution to reading comprehension beyond a strong covariate-phonological decoding. The role of word reading and reading vocabulary as mediators of this relationship was…

The Multisyllabic Word Dilemma: Helping Students Build Meaning, Spell, and Read "Big" Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Patricia M.

1998-01-01

Looks at what is known about multisyllabic words, which is a lot more than educators knew when the previous generation of multisyllabic word instruction was created. Reviews the few studies that have carried out instructional approaches to increase students' ability to decode big words. Outlines a program of instruction, based on what is currently…

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…

Reading Acquisition and Beyond: Decoding Includes Cognition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfetti, Charles A.

1984-01-01

Focuses on (1) the acquisition and use of word representations and (2) the acquisition of the alphabetic code. Urges that instruction provide conditions to promote the learning of three types of representation--word forms, letter patterns, and mapping. (RDN)

A Few Words about Words | Poster

Cancer.gov

By Ken Michaels, Guest Writer In Shakepeare’s play “Hamlet,” Polonius inquires of the prince, “What do you read, my lord?” Not at all pleased with what he’s reading, Hamlet replies, “Words, words, words.”1 I have previously described the communication model in which a sender encodes a message and then sends it via some channel (or medium) to a receiver, who decodes the message and, ideally, understands what was sent. Surely the most common way of encoding a message is in choosing the most appropriate words for the listener or reader.

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

Effects of Three Interventions on the Reading Skills of Children with Reading Disabilities in Grade 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gustafson, Stefan; Falth, Linda; Svensson, Idor; Tjus, Tomas; Heimann, Mikael

2011-01-01

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second…

Text-to-Speech and Reading While Listening: Reading Support for Individuals with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Judy

2013-01-01

Individuals with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) often have reading challenges. They maintain or reestablish basic decoding and word recognition skills following injury, but problems with reading comprehension often persist. Practitioners have the potential to accommodate struggling readers by changing the presentational mode of text in a…

What Is the Influence of Morphological Knowledge in the Early Stages of Reading Acquisition Among Low SES Children? A Graphical Modeling Approach

PubMed Central

Colé, Pascale; Cavalli, Eddy; Duncan, Lynne G.; Theurel, Anne; Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; El-Ahmadi, Abdessadek

2018-01-01

Children from low-SES families are known to show delays in aspects of language development which underpin reading acquisition such as vocabulary and listening comprehension. Research on the development of morphological skills in this group is scarce, and no studies exist in French. The present study investigated the involvement of morphological knowledge in the very early stages of reading acquisition (decoding), before reading comprehension can be reliably assessed. We assessed listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, morphological awareness as well as decoding, word reading and non-verbal IQ in 703 French first-graders from low-SES families after 3 months of formal schooling (November). Awareness of derivational morphology was assessed using three oral tasks: Relationship Judgment (e.g., do these words belong to the same family or not? heat-heater … ham-hammer); Lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who runs is a …? (runner)]; and Non-lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who lums is a…? (lummer)]. The tasks differ on implicit/explicit demands and also tap different kinds of morphological knowledge. The Judgement task measures the phonological and semantic properties of the morphological relationship and the Sentence Completion tasks measure knowledge of morphological production rules. Data were processed using a graphical modeling approach which offers key information about how skills known to be involved in learning to read are organized in memory. This modeling approach was therefore useful in revealing a potential network which expresses the conditional dependence structure between skills, after which recursive structural equation modeling was applied to test specific hypotheses. Six main conclusions can be drawn from these analyses about low SES reading acquisition: (1) listening comprehension is at the heart of the reading acquisition process; (2) word reading depends directly on phonemic awareness and indirectly on listening comprehension; (3) decoding depends on word reading; (4) Morphological awareness and vocabulary have an indirect influence on word reading via both listening comprehension and phoneme awareness; (5) the components of morphological awareness assessed by our tasks have independent relationships with listening comprehension; and (6) neither phonemic nor morphological awareness influence vocabulary directly. The implications of these results with regard to early reading acquisition among low SES groups are discussed. PMID:29725313

What Is the Influence of Morphological Knowledge in the Early Stages of Reading Acquisition Among Low SES Children? A Graphical Modeling Approach.

PubMed

Colé, Pascale; Cavalli, Eddy; Duncan, Lynne G; Theurel, Anne; Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; El-Ahmadi, Abdessadek

2018-01-01

Children from low-SES families are known to show delays in aspects of language development which underpin reading acquisition such as vocabulary and listening comprehension. Research on the development of morphological skills in this group is scarce, and no studies exist in French. The present study investigated the involvement of morphological knowledge in the very early stages of reading acquisition (decoding), before reading comprehension can be reliably assessed. We assessed listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, morphological awareness as well as decoding, word reading and non-verbal IQ in 703 French first-graders from low-SES families after 3 months of formal schooling (November). Awareness of derivational morphology was assessed using three oral tasks: Relationship Judgment (e.g., do these words belong to the same family or not? heat-heater … ham-hammer); Lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who runs is a …? (runner)]; and Non-lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who lums is a…? (lummer)]. The tasks differ on implicit/explicit demands and also tap different kinds of morphological knowledge. The Judgement task measures the phonological and semantic properties of the morphological relationship and the Sentence Completion tasks measure knowledge of morphological production rules. Data were processed using a graphical modeling approach which offers key information about how skills known to be involved in learning to read are organized in memory. This modeling approach was therefore useful in revealing a potential network which expresses the conditional dependence structure between skills, after which recursive structural equation modeling was applied to test specific hypotheses. Six main conclusions can be drawn from these analyses about low SES reading acquisition: (1) listening comprehension is at the heart of the reading acquisition process; (2) word reading depends directly on phonemic awareness and indirectly on listening comprehension; (3) decoding depends on word reading; (4) Morphological awareness and vocabulary have an indirect influence on word reading via both listening comprehension and phoneme awareness; (5) the components of morphological awareness assessed by our tasks have independent relationships with listening comprehension; and (6) neither phonemic nor morphological awareness influence vocabulary directly. The implications of these results with regard to early reading acquisition among low SES groups are discussed.

Assessing spelling in kindergarten: further comparison of scoring metrics and their relation to reading skills.

PubMed

Clemens, Nathan H; Oslund, Eric L; Simmons, Leslie E; Simmons, Deborah

2014-02-01

Early reading and spelling development share foundational skills, yet spelling assessment is underutilized in evaluating early reading. This study extended research comparing the degree to which methods for scoring spelling skills at the end of kindergarten were associated with reading skills measured at the same time as well as at the end of first grade. Five strategies for scoring spelling responses were compared: totaling the number of words spelled correctly, totaling the number of correct letter sounds, totaling the number of correct letter sequences, using a rubric for scoring invented spellings, and calculating the Spelling Sensitivity Score (Masterson & Apel, 2010b). Students (N=287) who were identified at kindergarten entry as at risk for reading difficulty and who had received supplemental reading intervention were administered a standardized spelling assessment in the spring of kindergarten, and measures of phonological awareness, decoding, word recognition, and reading fluency were administered concurrently and at the end of first grade. The five spelling scoring metrics were similar in their strong relations with factors summarizing reading subskills (phonological awareness, decoding, and word reading) on a concurrent basis. Furthermore, when predicting first-grade reading skills based on spring-of-kindergarten performance, spelling scores from all five metrics explained unique variance over the autoregressive effects of kindergarten word identification. The practical advantages of using a brief spelling assessment for early reading evaluation and the relative tradeoffs of each scoring metric are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Examining the Simple View of Reading Model for United States High School Spanish Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard; Patton, Jon

2016-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) model, which posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and language comprehension that make independent contributions to reading skill, has been found to explain the acquisition of first language (L1) reading and second language (L2) reading in young English language learners (ELLs).…

Developmental Relations between Reading and Writing at the Word, Sentence and Text Levels: A Latent Change Score Analysis

PubMed Central

Ahmed, Yusra; Wagner, Richard K.; Lopez, Danielle

2013-01-01

Relations between reading and writing have been studied extensively but the less is known about the developmental nature of their interrelations. This study applied latent change score modeling to investigate longitudinal relations between reading and writing skills at the word, sentence and text levels. Latent change score models were used to compare unidirectional pathways (reading-to-writing and writing-to-reading) and bidirectional pathways in a test of nested models. Participants included 316 boys and girls who were assessed annually in grades 1 through 4. Measures of reading included pseudo-word decoding, sentence reading efficiency, oral reading fluency and passage comprehension. Measures of writing included spelling, a sentence combining task and writing prompts. Findings suggest that a reading-to-writing model better described the data for the word and text levels of language, but a bidirectional model best fit the data at the sentence level. PMID:24954951

A Tension between Theory and Practice: Shared Reading Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ong, Justina

2014-01-01

This study had two main aims: first, to offer a descriptive account of shared reading program using an evaluative lens and second, to examine whether teachers' perceptions of the importance of phonological awareness, word decoding, and text comprehension in helping young learners develop their reading abilities were indeed emphasized during…

How Can I Help My Struggling Readers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duke, Nell K.; Pressley, Michael

2005-01-01

The reasons some children struggle with reading are as varied as the children themselves. From trouble decoding words to problems retaining information, reading difficulties are complex. All kids, says the International Reading Association, "have a right to instruction designed with their specific needs in mind." The question is how to identify…

Explaining Variance in Comprehension for Students in a High-Poverty Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conradi, Kristin; Amendum, Steven J.; Liebfreund, Meghan D.

2016-01-01

This study examined the contributions of decoding, language, spelling, and motivation to the reading comprehension of elementary school readers in a high-poverty setting. Specifically, the research questions addressed whether and how the influences of word reading efficiency, semantic knowledge, reading self-concept, and spelling on reading…

Name that Word: Using Song Lyrics to Improve the Decoding Skills of Adolescents with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hines, Sara J.

2010-01-01

Many adolescents, especially those with learning disabilities, lack basic word identification skills. Finding motivating instructional techniques to improve word-level reading skills is increasingly difficult as students move through the grades. One technique that holds promise in motivating adolescents involves using song lyrics from their…

Developing Reading Fluency and Comprehension Using Repeated Reading: Evidence from Longitudinal Student Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorsuch, Greta; Taguchi, Etsuo

2010-01-01

In recent years, interest in reading fluency development in first language, and second and foreign language (L2/FL) settings has increased. Reading fluency, in which readers decode and comprehend at the same time, is critical to successful reading. Fluent readers are accurate and fast in their ability to recognize words, and in their use of…

Open Court Reading©. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report. Updated October 2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

2014-01-01

"Open Court Reading©" is a reading program for grades K-6 published by McGraw-Hill Education that is designed to teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry, and writing in a three-part logical progression. Part One of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics, fluency, and word knowledge. Part…

Open Court Reading[c]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2012

2012-01-01

"Open Court Reading"[c] is a core reading program for grades K-6 developed by SRA/McGraw-Hill that is designed to teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry, and writing in a logical progression. Part 1 of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics, fluency, and word knowledge. Part 2, Reading…

Patterns of Change in the Reading Decoding and Comprehension Performance of Adolescents with Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palikara, Olympia; Dockrell, Julie E.; Lindsay, Geoff

2011-01-01

Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is associated with reading difficulties. The evidence to support this association, typically, is drawn from studies of elementary school children. Additionally, the extent of the relationship between language and reading skills during adolescence is not yet clear. This study aimed to examine the word reading and…

Learning to Read and Write Polysyllabic Words: The Effects of Morphology and Context on the Acquisition of Whole-Word Representations in Fourth and Fifth Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al Ghanem, Reem

2017-01-01

Accurate and rapid word recognition requires highly-specified phonological, orthographic, and semantic word-specific representations. It has been established that children acquire these representations through phonological decoding in a process known as orthographic learning. Studies examining orthographic learning and its predictors have thus far…

There are multiple contributors to the verbal short-term memory deficit in children with developmental reading disabilities.

PubMed

Kibby, Michelle Y

2009-09-01

Prior research has put forth at least four possible contributors to the verbal short-term memory (VSTM) deficit in children with developmental reading disabilities (RD): poor phonological awareness that affects phonological coding into VSTM, a less effective phonological store, slow articulation rate, and fewer/poorer quality long-term memory (LTM) representations. This project is among the first to test the four suppositions in one study. Participants included 18 children with RD and 18 controls. VSTM was assessed using Baddeley's model of the phonological loop. Findings suggest all four suppositions are correct, depending upon the type of material utilized. Children with RD performed comparably to controls in VSTM for common words but worse for less frequent words and nonwords. Furthermore, only articulation rate predicted VSTM for common words, whereas Verbal IQ and articulation rate predicted VSTM for less frequent words, and phonological awareness and articulation rate predicted VSTM for nonwords. Overall, findings suggest that the mechanism(s) used to code and store items by their meaning is intact in RD, and the deficit in VSTM for less frequent words may be a result of fewer/poorer quality LTM representations for these words. In contrast, phonological awareness and the phonological store are impaired, affecting VSTM for items that are coded phonetically. Slow articulation rate likely affects VSTM for most material when present. When assessing reading performance, VSTM predicted decoding skill but not word identification after controlling Verbal IQ and phonological awareness. Thus, VSTM likely contributes to reading ability when words are novel and must be decoded.

Nurturing a lexical legacy: reading experience is critical for the development of word reading skill

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nation, Kate

2017-12-01

The scientific study of reading has taught us much about the beginnings of reading in childhood, with clear evidence that the gateway to reading opens when children are able to decode, or `sound out' written words. Similarly, there is a large evidence base charting the cognitive processes that characterise skilled word recognition in adults. Less understood is how children develop word reading expertise. Once basic reading skills are in place, what factors are critical for children to move from novice to expert? This paper outlines the role of reading experience in this transition. Encountering individual words in text provides opportunities for children to refine their knowledge about how spelling represents spoken language. Alongside this, however, reading experience provides much more than repeated exposure to individual words in isolation. According to the lexical legacy perspective, outlined in this paper, experiencing words in diverse and meaningful language environments is critical for the development of word reading skill. At its heart is the idea that reading provides exposure to words in many different contexts, episodes and experiences which, over time, sum to a rich and nuanced database about their lexical history within an individual's experience. These rich and diverse encounters bring about local variation at the word level: a lexical legacy that is measurable during word reading behaviour, even in skilled adults.

Multimodal Alexia: Neuropsychological Mechanisms and Implications for Treatment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Esther S.; Rapcsak, Steven Z.; Andersen, Sarah; Beeson, Pelagie M.

2011-01-01

Letter-by-letter (LBL) reading is the phenomenon whereby individuals with acquired alexia decode words by sequential identification of component letters. In cases where letter recognition or letter naming is impaired, however, a LBL reading approach is obviated, resulting in a nearly complete inability to read, or global alexia. In some such…

Reading Skills in Children with Down Syndrome: A Meta-Analytic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naess, Kari-Anne B.; Melby-Lervag, Monica; Hulme, Charles; Lyster, Solveig-Alma Halaas

2012-01-01

The authors examine the reading profile in children with Down syndrome by comparing the nonword decoding skills in children with Down syndrome and typically developing children matched for word recognition level. Journal articles published before 04.05.2010 were identified by using the keyword Down* cross-referenced to "reading", "literacy",…

Retooling the Reading Lesson: Matching the Right Tools to the Job.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Short, Ruth A.; Kane, Mary; Peeling, Tammy

2000-01-01

Describes a year long literacy improvement project in two third-grade classrooms that focused on struggling readers. Describes small-group reading instruction in the classrooms that focused on 3 components: rereading familiar texts; shared and guided reading, incorporating strategy use in decoding unfamiliar words; and shared and guided writing.…

Meaning Construction and Integration in Children with Hydrocephalus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Marcia A.; Faulkner, Heather; Wilkinson, Margaret; Dennis, Maureen

2004-01-01

Text comprehension processes were investigated in children with hydrocephalus, a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with good word decoding, but deficient reading comprehension. In Experiment 1, hydrocephalus and control groups were similar in processes related to activating word meanings and using context to enhance meaning. The hydrocephalus…

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

The Effects of Musical Training on the Decoding Skills of German-Speaking Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rautenberg, Iris

2015-01-01

This paper outlines the results of a long-term study of 159 German-speaking primary school children. The correlations between musical skills (perception and differentiation of rhythmical and tonal/melodic patterns) and decoding skills, and the effects of musical training on word-level reading abilities were investigated. Cognitive skills and…

Identifying Children in Middle Childhood Who Are at Risk for Reading Problems.

PubMed

Speece, Deborah L; Ritchey, Kristen D; Silverman, Rebecca; Schatschneider, Christopher; Walker, Caroline Y; Andrusik, Katryna N

2010-06-01

The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate a universal screening battery for reading that is appropriate for older elementary students in a response to intervention model. Multiple measures of reading and reading correlates were administered to 230 fourth-grade children. Teachers rated children's reading skills, academic competence, and attention. Children were classified as not-at-risk or at-risk readers based on a three-factor model reflecting reading comprehension, word recognition/decoding, and word fluency. Predictors of reading status included group-administered tests of reading comprehension, silent word reading fluency, and teacher ratings of reading problems. Inclusion of individually administered tests and growth estimates did not add substantial variance. The receiver-operator characteristic curve analysis yielded an area under the curve index of 0.90, suggesting this model may both accurately and efficiently screen older elementary students with reading problems.

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading "Disability"? Reading without Meaning and the Simple View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Luebbers, Julie

2018-01-01

Conventional wisdom suggests that students classified as learning disabled will exhibit difficulties with foreign language (FL) learning, but evidence has not supported a relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities. The simple view of reading model posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and…

On the importance of listening comprehension

PubMed Central

Hogan, Tiffany P.; Adlof, Suzanne M.; Alonzo, Crystle

2015-01-01

The simple view of reading highlights the importance of two primary components which account for individual differences in reading comprehension across development: word recognition (i.e., decoding) and listening comprehension. While assessments and interventions for decoding have been the focus of pedagogy in the past several decades, the importance of listening comprehension has received less attention. This paper reviews evidence showing that listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension starting even in the elementary grades. It also highlights a growing number of children who fail to develop adequate reading comprehension skills, primarily due to deficient listening comprehension skills: poor comprehenders. Finally it discusses key language influences on listening comprehension for consideration during assessment and treatment of reading disabilities. PMID:24833426

On the importance of listening comprehension.

PubMed

Hogan, Tiffany P; Adlof, Suzanne M; Alonzo, Crystle N

2014-06-01

The simple view of reading highlights the importance of two primary components which account for individual differences in reading comprehension across development: word recognition (i.e., decoding) and listening comprehension. While assessments and interventions for decoding have been the focus of pedagogy in the past several decades, the importance of listening comprehension has received less attention. This paper reviews evidence showing that listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension starting even in the elementary grades. It also highlights a growing number of children who fail to develop adequate reading comprehension skills, primarily due to deficient listening comprehension skills (i.e., poor comprehenders). Finally we discuss key language influences on listening comprehension for consideration during assessment and treatment of reading disabilities.

Reading component skills in dyslexia: word recognition, comprehension and processing speed.

PubMed

de Oliveira, Darlene G; da Silva, Patrícia B; Dias, Natália M; Seabra, Alessandra G; Macedo, Elizeu C

2014-01-01

The cognitive model of reading comprehension (RC) posits that RC is a result of the interaction between decoding and linguistic comprehension. Recently, the notion of decoding skill was expanded to include word recognition. In addition, some studies suggest that other skills could be integrated into this model, like processing speed, and have consistently indicated that this skill influences and is an important predictor of the main components of the model, such as vocabulary for comprehension and phonological awareness of word recognition. The following study evaluated the components of the RC model and predictive skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia. 40 children and adolescents (8-13 years) were divided in a Dyslexic Group (DG; 18 children, MA = 10.78, SD = 1.66) and control group (CG 22 children, MA = 10.59, SD = 1.86). All were students from the 2nd to 8th grade of elementary school and groups were equivalent in school grade, age, gender, and IQ. Oral and RC, word recognition, processing speed, picture naming, receptive vocabulary, and phonological awareness were assessed. There were no group differences regarding the accuracy in oral and RC, phonological awareness, naming, and vocabulary scores. DG performed worse than the CG in word recognition (general score and orthographic confusion items) and were slower in naming. Results corroborated the literature regarding word recognition and processing speed deficits in dyslexia. However, dyslexics can achieve normal scores on RC test. Data supports the importance of delimitation of different reading strategies embedded in the word recognition component. The role of processing speed in reading problems remain unclear.

Fluency and reading comprehension in students with reading difficulties.

PubMed

Nascimento, Tânia Augusto; Carvalho, Carolina Alves Ferreira de; Kida, Adriana de Souza Batista; Avila, Clara Regina Brandão de

2011-12-01

To characterize the performance of students with reading difficulties in decoding and reading comprehension tasks as well as to investigate the possible correlations between them. Sixty students (29 girls) from 3rd to 5th grades of public Elementary Schools were evaluated. Thirty students (Research Group - RG), ten from each grade, were nominated by their teachers as presenting evidences of learning disabilities. The other thirty students were indicated as good readers, and were matched by gender, age and grade to the RG, composing the Comparison Group (CG). All subjects were assessed regarding the parameters of reading fluency (rate and accuracy in words, pseudowords and text reading) and reading comprehension (reading level, number and type of ideas identified, and correct responses on multiple choice questions). The RG presented significantly lower scores than the CG in fluency and reading comprehension. Different patterns of positive and negative correlations, from weak to excellent, among the decoding and comprehension parameters were found in both groups. In the RG, low values of reading rate and accuracy were observed, which were correlated to low scores in comprehension and improvement in decoding, but not in comprehension, with grade increase. In CG, correlation was found between different fluency parameters, but none of them was correlated to the reading comprehension variables. Students with reading and writing difficulties show lower values of reading fluency and comprehension than good readers. Fluency and comprehension are correlated in the group with difficulties, showing that deficits in decoding influence reading comprehension, which does not improve with age increase.

Evaluation of a Phonological Reading Programme for Children with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baylis, Pamela; Snowling, Margaret J.

2012-01-01

This article reports the evaluation of a 10-week phonologically-based literacy programme involving 10 children with Down syndrome (DS). At the outset, each child relied on a whole word method of reading with no apparent use of decoding strategies. The reading and phonological skills of the children were assessed twice prior to undertaking the…

Vocabulary Does Not Complicate the Simple View of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braze, David; Katz, Leonard; Magnuson, James S.; Mencl, W. Einar; Tabor, Whitney; Van Dyke, Julie A.; Gong, Tao; Johns, Clinton L.; Shankweiler, Donald P.

2016-01-01

Gough and Tunmer's (1986) simple view of reading (SVR) proposed that reading comprehension (RC) is a function of language comprehension (LC) and word recognition/decoding. Braze et al. (2007) presented data suggesting an extension of the SVR in which knowledge of vocabulary (V) affected RC over and above the effects of LC. Tunmer and Chapman…

Reading Redefined for a Transmedia Universe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamb, Annette

2011-01-01

Once upon a time, reading was as simple and straightforward as decoding words on a page. No more. Digital age technologies have made such an impact on the way people interact with content that the old definitions of "reading" and "books" no longer apply. Times, as they say, are changing. The digital age is transforming nearly every aspect of one's…

The Contribution of Naming Speed to the Simple View of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Timothy C.; Kirby, John R.

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether naming speed makes a contribution to the prediction of reading comprehension, after taking into account the product of word decoding and listening comprehension (i.e., the Simple View of Reading; [Gough, P.B. & Tunmer, W.E. (1986). "Remedial and Special Education 7," 6-10]), and…

Subgroups of Adult Basic Education Learners with Different Profiles of Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacArthur, Charles A.; Konold, Timothy R.; Glutting, Joseph J.; Alamprese, Judith A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of adult basic education (ABE) learners with different profiles of skills in the core reading components of decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. The analysis uses factor scores of those 5 reading components from on a prior investigation of the reliability and…

Boosting Orthographic Learning during Independent Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Anne-Mette Veber

2016-01-01

Research has shown that phonological decoding is critical for orthographic learning of new words during independent reading. Moreover, correlational studies have demonstrated that the strength of orthographic learning is related to the orthographic knowledge with which readers approach a text. The present training study was conducted to assess…

Special Education Teachers Integrating Reading with 8th Grade U.S. History Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2017-01-01

This research replicates an earlier study (O'Connor, Beach, Sanchez, Bocian, & Flynn, 2015) and extends it by shifting instructional responsibility from researchers to special education teachers, who implemented reading instruction that included multisyllabic word decoding, academic vocabulary, and three comprehension strategies (generating…

Reading Clinic. A New Use for Dr. Seuss: Rhymes Help Children Learn About Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Patricia

1998-01-01

This activity for K-3 students helps them learn to decode and spell words using rhyme, noting that hearing and creating rhyme helps children hear similarities among words. Books with the Dr. Seuss imprint are recommended because they appeal to children. A sample poem entitled March, by Solveig Paulson Russell, is included on a reproducible sheet.…

Development of First-Graders' Word Reading Skills: For Whom Can Dynamic Assessment Tell Us More?

PubMed

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L; Gilbert, Jennifer K; Steacy, Laura M; Collins, Alyson A; Lindström, Esther R

2017-01-01

Dynamic assessment (DA) of word reading measures learning potential for early reading development by documenting the amount of assistance needed to learn how to read words with unfamiliar orthography. We examined the additive value of DA for predicting first-grade decoding and word recognition development while controlling for autoregressive effects. Additionally, we examined whether predictive validity of DA would be higher for students who have poor phonological awareness skills. First-grade students (n = 105) were assessed on measures of word reading, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and DA in the fall and again assessed on word reading measures in the spring. A series of planned, moderated multiple regression analyses indicated that DA made a significant and unique contribution in predicting word recognition development above and beyond the autoregressor, particularly for students with poor phonological awareness skills. For these students, DA explained 3.5% of the unique variance in end-of-first-grade word recognition that was not attributable to autoregressive effect. Results suggest that DA provides an important source of individual differences in the development of word recognition skills that cannot be fully captured by merely assessing the present level of reading skills through traditional static assessment, particularly for students at risk for developing reading disabilities. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2015.

Scaffolding Students' Independent Decoding of Unfamiliar Text with a Prototype of an eBook-Feature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gissel, Stig T.

2015-01-01

This study was undertaken to design, evaluate and refine an eBook-feature that supports students' decoding of unfamiliar text. The feature supports students' independent reading of eBooks with text-to-speech, graded support in the form of syllabification and rhyme analogy, and by dividing the word material into different categories based on the…

More than Words: An Early Grades Reading Program Builds Skills and Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dubin, Jennifer

2012-01-01

Five years ago, as a way to ensure that students not only learn to decode but also understand what they decode, the Core Knowledge Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes the Core Knowledge curriculum, created a language arts program for kindergarten through second grade. The program includes two 60-minute strands: (1) a "Skills Strand," in which…

Building Capacity for Professional Development in Adolescent Reading: The National Writing Project's National Reading Initiative. Evaluation Summary Report 2003-2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Academy for Educational Development, 2007

2007-01-01

An area of particular concern in adolescent literacy is comprehension of informational text: many students can successfully decode words without actually being able to understand the texts they read. As they progress through school, they have to read increasingly complex texts but receive little if any explicit instruction to help them. Beyond the…

Advancing Stage 2 Research on Measures for Monitoring Kindergarten Reading Progress.

PubMed

Clemens, Nathan H; Soohoo, Michelle M; Wiley, Colby P; Hsiao, Yu-Yu; Estrella, Ivonne; Allee-Smith, Paula J; Yoon, Myeongsun

Although several measures exist for frequently monitoring early reading progress, little research has specifically investigated their technical properties when administered on a frequent basis with kindergarten students. In this study, kindergarten students ( N = 137) of whom the majority was receiving supplemental intervention for reading skills were monitored using Letter Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Word Reading Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, Highly Decodable Passages, and Spelling on a biweekly basis between February and May. Acceptable reliability was observed for all measures. Analyses of slope validity using latent growth models, latent change score models, and slope differences according to level of year-end achievement indicated that the relation of slope to overall reading skills varied across the measures. A suggested approach to kindergarten students' reading progress is offered that includes Letter Sound Fluency and a measure of word-reading skills to provide a comprehensive picture of student growth toward important year-end reading outcomes.

Special Education Teachers Integrating Reading with Eighth Grade U.S. History Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2017-01-01

This research replicates an earlier study and extends it by shifting instructional responsibility from researchers to special education teachers, who implemented reading instruction that included multisyllabic word decoding, academic vocabulary, and three comprehension strategies (generating main ideas, comparing and contrasting people and events,…

Wilson Reading System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO.

This paper provides an overview of the Wilson Reading System, which teaches students word structure and language through a carefully sequenced, 12-step system that helps them master decoding and spelling. The program targets the needs of students at all levels (K-12), specifically students with language learning disabilities such as dyslexia;…

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

Multimodal Alexia: Neuropsychological Mechanisms and Implications for Treatment

PubMed Central

Kim, Esther S.; Rapcsak, Steven Z.; Andersen, Sarah; Beeson, Pélagie M.

2011-01-01

Letter-by-letter (LBL) reading is the phenomenon whereby individuals with acquired alexia decode words by sequential identification of component letters. In cases where letter recognition or letter naming is impaired, however, a LBL reading approach is obviated, resulting in a nearly complete inability to read, or global alexia. In some such cases, a treatment strategy wherein letter tracing is used to provide tactile and/or kinesthetic input has resulted in improved letter identification. In this study, a kinesthetic treatment approach was implemented with an individual who presented with severe alexia in the context of relatively preserved recognition of orally spelled words, and mildly impaired oral/written spelling. Eight weeks of kinesthetic treatment resulted in improved letter identification accuracy and oral reading of trained words; however, the participant remained unable to successfully decode untrained words. Further testing revealed that, in addition to the visual-verbal disconnection that resulted in impaired word reading and letter naming, her limited ability to derive benefit from the kinesthetic strategy was attributable to a disconnection that prevented access to letter names from kinesthetic input. We propose that this kinesthetic-verbal disconnection resulted from damage to the left parietal lobe and underlying white matter, a neuroanatomical feature that is not typically observed in patients with global alexia or classic LBL reading. This unfortunate combination of visual-verbal and kinesthetic-verbal disconnections demonstrated in this individual resulted in a persistent multimodal alexia syndrome that was resistant to behavioral treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which the nature of this form of multimodal alexia has been fully characterized, and our findings provide guidance regarding the requisite cognitive skills and lesion profiles that are likely to be associated with a positive response to tactile/kinesthetic treatment. PMID:21952194

Multimodal alexia: neuropsychological mechanisms and implications for treatment.

PubMed

Kim, Esther S; Rapcsak, Steven Z; Andersen, Sarah; Beeson, Pélagie M

2011-11-01

Letter-by-letter (LBL) reading is the phenomenon whereby individuals with acquired alexia decode words by sequential identification of component letters. In cases where letter recognition or letter naming is impaired, however, a LBL reading approach is obviated, resulting in a nearly complete inability to read, or global alexia. In some such cases, a treatment strategy wherein letter tracing is used to provide tactile and/or kinesthetic input has resulted in improved letter identification. In this study, a kinesthetic treatment approach was implemented with an individual who presented with severe alexia in the context of relatively preserved recognition of orally spelled words, and mildly impaired oral/written spelling. Eight weeks of kinesthetic treatment resulted in improved letter identification accuracy and oral reading of trained words; however, the participant remained unable to successfully decode untrained words. Further testing revealed that, in addition to the visual-verbal disconnection that resulted in impaired word reading and letter naming, her limited ability to derive benefit from the kinesthetic strategy was attributable to a disconnection that prevented access to letter names from kinesthetic input. We propose that this kinesthetic-verbal disconnection resulted from damage to the left parietal lobe and underlying white matter, a neuroanatomical feature that is not typically observed in patients with global alexia or classic LBL reading. This unfortunate combination of visual-verbal and kinesthetic-verbal disconnections demonstrated in this individual resulted in a persistent multimodal alexia syndrome that was resistant to behavioral treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which the nature of this form of multimodal alexia has been fully characterized, and our findings provide guidance regarding the requisite cognitive skills and lesion profiles that are likely to be associated with a positive response to tactile/kinesthetic treatment. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Effects of Tier 3 Intervention for Students With Persistent Reading Difficulties and Characteristics of Inadequate Responders.

PubMed

Denton, Carolyn A; Tolar, Tammy D; Fletcher, Jack M; Barth, Amy E; Vaughn, Sharon; Francis, David J

2013-08-01

This article describes a randomized controlled trial conducted to evaluate the effects of an intensive, individualized, Tier 3 reading intervention for second grade students who had previously experienced inadequate response to quality first grade classroom reading instruction (Tier 1) and supplemental small-group intervention (Tier 2). Also evaluated were cognitive characteristics of students with inadequate response to intensive Tier 3 intervention. Students were randomized to receive the research intervention ( N = 47) or the instruction and intervention typically provided in their schools ( N = 25). Results indicated that students who received the research intervention made significantly better growth than those who received typical school instruction on measures of word identification, phonemic decoding, and word reading fluency and on a measure of sentence- and paragraph-level reading comprehension. Treatment effects were smaller and not statistically significant on phonemic decoding efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension in extended text. Effect sizes for all outcomes except oral reading fluency met criteria for substantive importance; however, many of the students in the intervention continued to struggle. An evaluation of cognitive profiles of adequate and inadequate responders was consistent with a continuum of severity (as opposed to qualitative differences), showing greater language and reading impairment prior to the intervention in students who were inadequate responders.

Effects of Tier 3 Intervention for Students With Persistent Reading Difficulties and Characteristics of Inadequate Responders

PubMed Central

Denton, Carolyn A.; Tolar, Tammy D.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Barth, Amy E.; Vaughn, Sharon; Francis, David J.

2013-01-01

This article describes a randomized controlled trial conducted to evaluate the effects of an intensive, individualized, Tier 3 reading intervention for second grade students who had previously experienced inadequate response to quality first grade classroom reading instruction (Tier 1) and supplemental small-group intervention (Tier 2). Also evaluated were cognitive characteristics of students with inadequate response to intensive Tier 3 intervention. Students were randomized to receive the research intervention (N = 47) or the instruction and intervention typically provided in their schools (N = 25). Results indicated that students who received the research intervention made significantly better growth than those who received typical school instruction on measures of word identification, phonemic decoding, and word reading fluency and on a measure of sentence- and paragraph-level reading comprehension. Treatment effects were smaller and not statistically significant on phonemic decoding efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension in extended text. Effect sizes for all outcomes except oral reading fluency met criteria for substantive importance; however, many of the students in the intervention continued to struggle. An evaluation of cognitive profiles of adequate and inadequate responders was consistent with a continuum of severity (as opposed to qualitative differences), showing greater language and reading impairment prior to the intervention in students who were inadequate responders. PMID:25308995

Evidence-based interventions for reading and language difficulties: creating a virtuous circle.

PubMed

Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2011-03-01

BACKGROUND. Children may experience two very different forms of reading problem: decoding difficulties (dyslexia) and reading comprehension difficulties. Decoding difficulties appear to be caused by problems with phonological (speech sound) processing. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be caused by problems with 'higher level' language difficulties including problems with semantics (including deficient knowledge of word meanings) and grammar (knowledge of morphology and syntax). AIMS. We review evidence concerning the nature, causes of, and treatments for children's reading difficulties. We argue that any well-founded educational intervention must be based on a sound theory of the causes of a particular form of learning difficulty, which in turn must be based on an understanding of how a given skill is learned by typically developing children. Such theoretically motivated interventions should in turn be evaluated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to establish whether they are effective, and for whom. RESULTS. There is now considerable evidence showing that phonologically based interventions are effective in ameliorating children's word level decoding difficulties, and a smaller evidence base showing that reading and oral language (OL) comprehension difficulties can be ameliorated by suitable interventions to boost vocabulary and broader OL skills. CONCLUSIONS. The process of developing theories about the origins of children's educational difficulties and evaluating theoretically motivated treatments in RCTs, produces a 'virtuous circle' whereby theory informs practice, and the evaluation of effective interventions in turn feeds back to inform and refine theories about the nature and causes of children's reading and language difficulties. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

Do L1 Reading Achievement and L1 Print Exposure Contribute to the Prediction of L2 Proficiency?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Patton, Jon; Ganschow, Leonore; Humbach, Nancy

2012-01-01

The study examined whether individual differences in high school first language (L1) reading achievement and print exposure would account for unique variance in second language (L2) written (word decoding, spelling, writing, reading comprehension) and oral (listening/speaking) proficiency after adjusting for the effects of early L1 literacy and…

Stress Judgment and Production in English Derivation, and Word Reading in Adult Mandarin-Speaking English Learners.

PubMed

Chung, Wei-Lun; Jarmulowicz, Linda

2017-08-01

For monolingual English-speaking children, judgment and production of stress in derived words, including words with phonologically neutral (e.g., -ness) and non-neutral suffixes (e.g., -ity), is important to both academic vocabulary growth and to word reading. For Mandarin-speaking adult English learners (AELs) the challenge of learning the English stress system might be complicated by cross-linguistic differences in prosodic function and features. As Mandarin-speakers become more proficient in English, patterns similar to those seen in monolingual children could emerge in which awareness and use of stress and suffix cues benefit word reading. A correlational design was used to examine the contributions of English stress in derivation with neutral and non-neutral suffixes to English word and nonword reading. Stress judgment in non-neutral derivation predicted word reading after controlling for working memory and English vocabulary; whereas stress production in neutral derivation contributed to word reading and pseudoword decoding, independent of working memory and English vocabulary. Although AELs could use stress and suffix cues for word reading, AELs were different from native English speakers in awareness of non-neutral suffix cues conditioning lexical stress placement. AELs may need to rely on lexical storage of primary stress in derivations with non-neutral suffixes.

The role of short-term memory impairment in nonword repetition, real word repetition, and nonword decoding: A case study.

PubMed

Peter, Beate

2018-01-01

In a companion study, adults with dyslexia and adults with a probable history of childhood apraxia of speech showed evidence of difficulty with processing sequential information during nonword repetition, multisyllabic real word repetition and nonword decoding. Results suggested that some errors arose in visual encoding during nonword reading, all levels of processing but especially short-term memory storage/retrieval during nonword repetition, and motor planning and programming during complex real word repetition. To further investigate the role of short-term memory, a participant with short-term memory impairment (MI) was recruited. MI was confirmed with poor performance during a sentence repetition and three nonword repetition tasks, all of which have a high short-term memory load, whereas typical performance was observed during tests of reading, spelling, and static verbal knowledge, all with low short-term memory loads. Experimental results show error-free performance during multisyllabic real word repetition but high counts of sequence errors, especially migrations and assimilations, during nonword repetition, supporting short-term memory as a locus of sequential processing deficit during nonword repetition. Results are also consistent with the hypothesis that during complex real word repetition, short-term memory is bypassed as the word is recognized and retrieved from long-term memory prior to producing the word.

Morphology and Vocabulary Acquisition: Using Visual Cues from Word Parts to Enhance Recall and Decode Newly Encountered Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bellomo, Tom

2012-01-01

An enhanced replication of an original quasi-experiment (Tom Bellomo, 2009b) was conducted to quantify the extent of long term retention of word parts and vocabulary. Such were introduced as part of a vocabulary acquisition strategy in a developmental reading course at one southeast four-year college. Aside from incorporating changes to the test…

Accelerating Decoding-Related Skills in Poor Readers Learning a Foreign Language: A Computer-Based Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Björn, Piia Maria; Leppänen, Paavo H. T.

2013-01-01

The results of Fast ForWord® training on English decoding-related skills were examined. Finnish fifth-grade students were identified as having reading fluency problems and poor skills in English as a foreign language learned at school and were randomly assigned to either a training group (TRG) or a control group. The TRG ("n"?=?13)…

Automatic multi-banking of memory for microprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiker, G. A. (Inventor)

1984-01-01

A microprocessor system is provided with added memories to expand its address spaces beyond its address word length capacity by using indirect addressing instructions of a type having a detectable operations code and dedicating designated address spaces of memory to each of the added memories, one space to a memory. By decoding each operations code of instructions read from main memory into a decoder to identify indirect addressing instructions of the specified type, and then decoding the address that follows in a decoder to determine which added memory is associated therewith, the associated added memory is selectively enabled through a unit while the main memory is disabled to permit the instruction to be executed on the location to which the effective address of the indirect address instruction points, either before the indirect address is read from main memory or afterwards, depending on how the system is arranged by a switch.

Replicability of sight word training and phonics training in poor readers: a randomised controlled trial

PubMed Central

Kohnen, S; Jones, K; Eve, P; Banales, E; Larsen, L; Castles, A

2015-01-01

Given the importance of effective treatments for children with reading impairment, paired with growing concern about the lack of scientific replication in psychological science, the aim of this study was to replicate a quasi-randomised trial of sight word and phonics training using a randomised controlled trial (RCT) design. One group of poor readers (N = 41) did 8 weeks of phonics training (i.e., phonological decoding) and then 8 weeks of sight word training (i.e., whole-word recognition). A second group did the reverse order of training. Sight word and phonics training each had a large and significant valid treatment effect on trained irregular words and word reading fluency. In addition, combined sight word and phonics training had a moderate and significant valid treatment effect on nonword reading accuracy and fluency. These findings demonstrate the reliability of both phonics and sight word training in treating poor readers in an era where the importance of scientific reliability is under close scrutiny. PMID:26019992

Letter-Sound Reading: Teaching Preschool Children Print-to-Sound Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Gail Marie

2016-01-01

This intervention study investigated the growth of letter sound reading and growth of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word decoding abilities for a representative sample of 41 US children in preschool settings. Specifically, the study evaluated the effectiveness of a 3-step letter-sound teaching intervention in teaching preschool children to…

Learner Variables Associated with Reading and Learning in a Hypertext Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niederhauser, Dale S.; Shapiro, Amy

While many elements like character decoding, word recognition, comprehension, and others remain the same as in learning from traditional text, when learning from hypertext, a number of features that are unique to reading hypertext produce added complexity. It is these features that drive research on hypertext in education. There is a greater…

Tier 3 Specialized Writing Instruction for Students with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berninger, Virginia W.; Winn, William D.; Stock, Patricia; Abbott, Robert D.; Eschen, Kate; Lin, Shin-Ju; Garcia, Noelia; Anderson-Youngstrom, Marci; Murphy, Heather; Lovitt, Dan; Trivedi, Pamala; Jones, Janine; Amtmann, Dagmar; Nagy, William

2008-01-01

Two instructional experiments used randomized, controlled designs to evaluate the effectiveness of writing instruction for students with carefully diagnosed dyslexia, which is both an oral reading and writing disorder, characterized by impaired "word" decoding, reading, and spelling. In Study 1 (4th to 6th grade sample and 7th to 9th grade…

The Impact of New Technologies on the Literacy Attainment of Deaf Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Margaret

2015-01-01

To become successful readers, hearing children require competence in both decoding--the ability to read individual words, underpinned by phonological skills and letter-sound knowledge--and linguistic comprehension--the ability to understand what they read--underpinned by language skills, including vocabulary knowledge. Children who are born with a…

Cognitive Difficulties in Struggling Comprehenders and their Relation to Reading Comprehension: A Comparison of Group Selection and Regression-Based Models

PubMed Central

Barnes, Marcia A.; Stuebing, Karla; Fletcher, Jack M.; Barth, Amy; Francis, David

2016-01-01

Difficulties suppressing previously encountered, but currently irrelevant information from working memory characterize less skilled comprehenders in studies in which they are matched to skilled comprehenders on word decoding and nonverbal IQ. These “extreme” group designs are associated with several methodological issues. When sample size permits, regression approaches permit a more accurate estimation of effects. Using data for students in grades 6 to 12 (n = 766), regression techniques assessed the significance and size of the relation of suppression to reading comprehension across the distribution of comprehension skill. After accounting for decoding efficiency and nonverbal IQ, suppression, measured by performance on a verbal proactive interference task, accounted for a small amount of significant unique variance in comprehension (less than 1%). A comparison of suppression in less skilled comprehenders matched to more skilled comprehenders (48 per group) on age, word reading efficiency and nonverbal IQ did not show significant group differences in suppression. The implications of the findings for theories of reading comprehension and for informing comprehension assessment and intervention are discussed. PMID:27175222

Can the Relationship Between Rapid Automatized Naming and Word Reading Be Explained by a Catastrophe? Empirical Evidence From Students With and Without Reading Difficulties.

PubMed

Sideridis, Georgios D; Simos, Panagiotis; Mouzaki, Angeliki; Stamovlasis, Dimitrios; Georgiou, George K

2018-05-01

The purpose of the present study was to explain the moderating role of rapid automatized naming (RAN) in word reading with a cusp catastrophe model. We hypothesized that increases in RAN performance speed beyond a critical point would be associated with the disruption in word reading, consistent with a "generic shutdown" hypothesis. Participants were 587 elementary schoolchildren (Grades 2-4), among whom 87 had reading comprehension difficulties per the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion. Data were analyzed via a cusp catastrophe model derived from the nonlinear dynamics systems theory. Results indicated that for children with reading comprehension difficulties, as naming speed falls below a critical level, the association between core reading processes (word recognition and decoding) becomes chaotic and unpredictable. However, after the significant common variance attributed to motivation, emotional, and internalizing symptoms measures from RAN scores was partialed out, its role as a bifurcation variable was no longer evident. Taken together, these findings suggest that RAN represents a salient cognitive measure that may be associated with psychoemotional processes that are, at least in part, responsible for unpredictable and chaotic word reading behavior among children with reading comprehension deficits.

A predictive study of reading comprehension in third-grade Spanish students.

PubMed

López-Escribano, Carmen; Elosúa de Juan, María Rosa; Gómez-Veiga, Isabel; García-Madruga, Juan Antonio

2013-01-01

The study of the contribution of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension is an important goal of current reading research. However, reading comprehension is not easily assessed by a single instrument, as different comprehension tests vary in the type of tasks used and in the cognitive demands required. This study examines the contribution of basic language and cognitive skills (decoding, word recognition, reading speed, verbal and nonverbal intelligence and working memory) to reading comprehension, assessed by two tests utilizing various tasks that require different skill sets in third-grade Spanish-speaking students. Linguistic and cognitive abilities predicted reading comprehension. A measure of reading speed (the reading time of pseudo-words) was the best predictor of reading comprehension when assessed by the PROLEC-R test. However, measures of word recognition (the orthographic choice task) and verbal working memory were the best predictors of reading comprehension when assessed by means of the DARC test. These results show, on the one hand, that reading speed and word recognition are better predictors of Spanish language comprehension than reading accuracy. On the other, the reading comprehension test applied here serves as a critical variable when analyzing and interpreting results regarding this topic.

Using Serial and Discrete Digit Naming to Unravel Word Reading Processes

PubMed Central

Altani, Angeliki; Protopapas, Athanassios; Georgiou, George K.

2018-01-01

During reading acquisition, word recognition is assumed to undergo a developmental shift from slow serial/sublexical processing of letter strings to fast parallel processing of whole word forms. This shift has been proposed to be detected by examining the size of the relationship between serial- and discrete-trial versions of word reading and rapid naming tasks. Specifically, a strong association between serial naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed serially, whereas a strong association between discrete naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed in parallel as wholes. In this study, 429 Grade 1, 3, and 5 English-speaking Canadian children were tested on serial and discrete digit naming and word reading. Across grades, single word reading was more strongly associated with discrete naming than with serial naming of digits, indicating that short high-frequency words are processed as whole units early in the development of reading ability in English. In contrast, serial naming was not a unique predictor of single word reading across grades, suggesting that within-word sequential processing was not required for the successful recognition for this set of words. Factor mixture analysis revealed that our participants could be clustered into two classes, namely beginning and more advanced readers. Serial naming uniquely predicted single word reading only among the first class of readers, indicating that novice readers rely on a serial strategy to decode words. Yet, a considerable proportion of Grade 1 students were assigned to the second class, evidently being able to process short high-frequency words as unitized symbols. We consider these findings together with those from previous studies to challenge the hypothesis of a binary distinction between serial/sublexical and parallel/lexical processing in word reading. We argue instead that sequential processing in word reading operates on a continuum, depending on the level of reading proficiency, the degree of orthographic transparency, and word-specific characteristics. PMID:29706918

Using Serial and Discrete Digit Naming to Unravel Word Reading Processes.

PubMed

Altani, Angeliki; Protopapas, Athanassios; Georgiou, George K

2018-01-01

During reading acquisition, word recognition is assumed to undergo a developmental shift from slow serial/sublexical processing of letter strings to fast parallel processing of whole word forms. This shift has been proposed to be detected by examining the size of the relationship between serial- and discrete-trial versions of word reading and rapid naming tasks. Specifically, a strong association between serial naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed serially, whereas a strong association between discrete naming of symbols and single word reading suggests that words are processed in parallel as wholes. In this study, 429 Grade 1, 3, and 5 English-speaking Canadian children were tested on serial and discrete digit naming and word reading. Across grades, single word reading was more strongly associated with discrete naming than with serial naming of digits, indicating that short high-frequency words are processed as whole units early in the development of reading ability in English. In contrast, serial naming was not a unique predictor of single word reading across grades, suggesting that within-word sequential processing was not required for the successful recognition for this set of words. Factor mixture analysis revealed that our participants could be clustered into two classes, namely beginning and more advanced readers. Serial naming uniquely predicted single word reading only among the first class of readers, indicating that novice readers rely on a serial strategy to decode words. Yet, a considerable proportion of Grade 1 students were assigned to the second class, evidently being able to process short high-frequency words as unitized symbols. We consider these findings together with those from previous studies to challenge the hypothesis of a binary distinction between serial/sublexical and parallel/lexical processing in word reading. We argue instead that sequential processing in word reading operates on a continuum, depending on the level of reading proficiency, the degree of orthographic transparency, and word-specific characteristics.

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…

Reading Fluency and Speech Perception Speed of Beginning Readers with Persistent Reading Problems: The Perception of Initial Stop Consonants and Consonant Clusters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snellings, Patrick; van der Leij, Aryan; Blok, Henk; de Jong, Peter F.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the role of speech perception accuracy and speed in fluent word decoding of reading disabled (RD) children. A same-different phoneme discrimination task with natural speech tested the perception of single consonants and consonant clusters by young but persistent RD children. RD children were slower than chronological age…

Are First- and Second-Language Factors Related in Predicting Second-Language Reading Comprehension? A Study of Spanish-Speaking Children Acquiring English as a Second Language from First to Second Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottardo, Alexandra; Mueller, Julie

2009-01-01

First-language (L1) and 2nd-language (L2) oral language skills and L2 word reading were used as predictors to test the simple view of reading as a model of 2nd-language reading comprehension. The simple view of reading states that reading comprehension is related to decoding and oral language comprehension skills. One hundred thirty-one…

The Genetic and Environmental Foundation of the Simple View of Reading in Chinese

PubMed Central

Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Chow, Bonnie Wing-Yin; Wong, Simpson Wai-Lap; Waye, Mary M. Y.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2012-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) in Chinese was examined in a genetically sensitive design. A total of 270 pairs of Chinese twins (190 pairs of monozygotic twins and 80 pairs of same-sex dizygotic twins) were tested on Chinese vocabulary and word reading at the mean age 7.8 years and reading comprehension of sentences and passages one year later. Results of behavior-genetic analyses showed that both vocabulary and word reading had significant independent genetic influences on reading comprehension, and the two factors together accounted for most but not all of the genetic influences on reading comprehension. In addition, sentence comprehension had a stronger genetic correlation with word reading while passage comprehension showed a trend of stronger genetic overlap with vocabulary. These findings suggest that the genetic foundation of the SVR in Chinese is largely supported in that language comprehension and decoding are two core skills for reading comprehension in nonalphabetic as well as alphabetic written languages. PMID:23112862

Cell Phone Use and Child and Adolescent Reading Proficiency

PubMed Central

Hofferth, Sandra L.; Moon, Ui Jeong

2016-01-01

This study examined the association between cell phone use, including minutes spent talking and number of text messages sent, and two measures of children’s reading proficiency — tests of word decoding and reading comprehension — in the United States. Data were drawn from the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a nationally representative survey of 1,147 children 10–18 in 2009. Children whose parents were better educated, who had higher family incomes, who had fewer siblings, and who lived in urban areas were more likely to own or share a cell phone. Among those with access to a phone, children who spent more time talking on the phone were less proficient at word decoding, whereas children who spent more time sending text messages had greater reading comprehension. Although girls spent more time texting than did boys, there were no gender differences in the association between time spent talking or number of text messages sent with achievement. In spite of racial/ethnic differences in cell phone use levels, there were no racial/ethnic differences in the association between cell phone use and reading proficiency. PMID:27683624

Prosody's Contribution to Fluency: An Examination of the Theory of Automatic Information Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schrauben, Julie E.

2010-01-01

LaBerge and Samuels' (1974) theory of automatic information processing in reading offers a model that explains how and where the processing of information occurs and the degree to which processing of information occurs. These processes are dependent upon two criteria: accurate word decoding and automatic word recognition. However, LaBerge and…

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…

Convergent and diagnostic validity of STAVUX, a word and pseudoword spelling test for adults.

PubMed

Östberg, Per; Backlund, Charlotte; Lindström, Emma

2016-10-01

Few comprehensive spelling tests are available in Swedish, and none have been validated in adults with reading and writing disorders. The recently developed STAVUX test includes word and pseudoword spelling subtests with high internal consistency and adult norms stratified by education. This study evaluated the convergent and diagnostic validity of STAVUX in adults with dyslexia. Forty-six adults, 23 with dyslexia and 23 controls, took STAVUX together with a standard word-decoding test and a self-rated measure of spelling skills. STAVUX subtest scores showed moderate to strong correlations with word-decoding scores and predicted self-rated spelling skills. Word and pseudoword subtest scores both predicted dyslexia status. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed excellent diagnostic discriminability. Sensitivity was 91% and specificity 96%. In conclusion, the results of this study support the convergent and diagnostic validity of STAVUX.

Beyond decoding: phonological processing during silent reading in beginning readers.

PubMed

Blythe, Hazel I; Pagán, Ascensión; Dodd, Megan

2015-07-01

In this experiment, the extent to which beginning readers process phonology during lexical identification in silent sentence reading was investigated. The eye movements of children aged seven to nine years and adults were recorded as they read sentences containing either a correctly spelled target word (e.g., girl), a pseudohomophone (e.g., gerl), or a spelling control (e.g., garl). Both children and adults showed a benefit from the valid phonology of the pseudohomophone, compared to the spelling control during reading. This indicates that children as young as seven years old exhibit relatively skilled phonological processing during reading, despite having moved past the use of overt phonological decoding strategies. In addition, in comparison to adults, children's lexical processing was more disrupted by the presence of spelling errors, suggesting a developmental change in the relative dependence upon phonological and orthographic processing in lexical identification during silent sentence reading. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

The nature of orthographic learning in self-teaching: Testing the extent of transfer.

PubMed

Tucker, Rebecca; Castles, Anne; Laroche, Annie; Deacon, S Hélène

2016-05-01

The current study was designed to test how orthographic learning, or the learning of the spelling patterns of words, happens within the self-teaching paradigm. One possibility is that orthographic learning occurs on a word-specific basis. Two other possibilities are that orthographic learning transfers specifically to the processing of novel words that are morphologically related or that it transfers to novel words that are orthographically similar, regardless of morphological relationship. In an orthographic learning paradigm, we asked children in Grades 3 and 5 to read nonwords embedded in short stories. In a between-participants design, some children read nonwords that were base forms, others read nonwords that were morphologically complex forms, and others read nonwords that were orthographically complex forms (e.g., feap, feaper, and feaple, respectively). Children completed an orthographic choice task with the same items as in the stories. To evaluate transfer of learning, children also completed orthographic choices for the two forms of the nonwords not seen in the stories. Results indicated that children's orthographic learning affected processing of novel items that appeared to be morphologically related as well as those that shared only orthographic structure (e.g., both feaper and feaple). Additional analyses showed that these effects were held across cases when children did and did not successfully decode the novel words in the learning experience, although successful decoding did lead to higher levels of orthographic learning and transfer. Together, the findings suggest that children's prior experiences affect their processing of novel words that share orthographic similarity, likely reflecting a role for orthographic analogies in the self-teaching process. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The prevalence of specific reading disability in an amblyopic population. A preliminary report.

PubMed

Koklanis, Konstandina; Georgievski, Zoran; Brassington, Kate; Bretherton, Lesley

2006-01-01

To investigate the prevalence of specific reading disability in children with functional amblyopia and to explore the relationship between the two. In this prospective study, 20 consecutive children, aged 6 to 15 years (mean 8 +/-1.99 years), and diagnosed with amblyopia underwent a vision and reading assessment. The orthoptic examination included the assessment of participants' visual acuity, ocular motility and binocular functions. Specific reading disability was diagnosed using the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT III Reading Subtest). Intelligence, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and the ability to read pseudo or nonsense words was also assessed using various psycho-linguistic reading tests. The prevalence of specific reading disability in this small series of amblyopic children was found to be 5% (n=1/20). This was even less than that reported in the local Victoria general population (16%). The type of amblyopia appeared related to phonological awareness (p=0.018) and decoding words (p=0.024), those with anisometropic amblyopia performing significantly better on these tasks than the strabismic amblyopes. The presence of binocular vision functions was also related to decoding words; those with binocular single vision performed better than those with suppression and lacking single binocular vision (p=0.007). Generally, amblyopic children also showed a lower RAN score when compared to phonological awareness score. There was no statistically significant difference for the severity of amblyopia (p=>0.05). In this very small pilot series, reading disorders were relatively rare in children with amblyopia. However, strabismic amblyopia and presence of suppression may have an adverse effect on phonological skills. In addition, amblyopia may be associated with a deficit in RAN. Further research is needed and planned to gain a better understanding about the relationship between amblyopia and reading ability.

Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals.

PubMed

Stone, Adam; Kartheiser, Geo; Hauser, Peter C; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Allen, Thomas E

2015-01-01

Studies have shown that American Sign Language (ASL) fluency has a positive impact on deaf individuals' English reading, but the cognitive and cross-linguistic mechanisms permitting the mapping of a visual-manual language onto a sound-based language have yet to be elucidated. Fingerspelling, which represents English orthography with 26 distinct hand configurations, is an integral part of ASL and has been suggested to provide deaf bilinguals with important cross-linguistic links between sign language and orthography. Using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this study examined the relationship of age of ASL exposure, ASL fluency, and fingerspelling skill on reading fluency in deaf college-age bilinguals. After controlling for ASL fluency, fingerspelling skill significantly predicted reading fluency, revealing for the first-time that fingerspelling, above and beyond ASL skills, contributes to reading fluency in deaf bilinguals. We suggest that both fingerspelling--in the visual-manual modality--and reading--in the visual-orthographic modality--are mutually facilitating because they share common underlying cognitive capacities of word decoding accuracy and automaticity of word recognition. The findings provide support for the hypothesis that the development of English reading proficiency may be facilitated through strengthening of the relationship among fingerspelling, sign language, and orthographic decoding en route to reading mastery, and may also reveal optimal approaches for reading instruction for deaf and hard of hearing children.

White matter properties differ in 6-year old Readers and Pre-Readers

PubMed Central

Kovachy, Vanessa N; Ben-Shachar, Michal; Feldman, Heidi M

2016-01-01

Reading, an essential life skill in modern society, is typically learned during childhood. Adults who can read show white matter differences compared to adults who never learned to read. Studies have not established whether children who can read show similar white matter differences compared to children who cannot read. We compared 6-year old children who could decode written English words and pseudowords (n=31; Readers) and 6-year old children who could not decode pseudowords and had a standard score < 100 on a task for reading single words (n=11; Pre-Readers). We employed diffusion MRI and tractography to extract fractional anisotropy (FA) along the trajectory of 6 bilateral intra-hemispheric tracts and 2 posterior subdivisions of the corpus callosum. Readers demonstrated significantly increased FA within the left anterior segment of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (aSLF-L) and the right uncinate fasciculus (UF-R) compared to Pre-Readers. FA in the aSLF-L was significantly correlated with phonological awareness; FA in the UF-R was significantly correlated with language. Correlations in the UF-R but not the aSLF-L remained significant after controlling for reading ability, revealing that UF-R group differences were related to both children's language and reading abilities. Taken together, these findings demonstrate new evidence showing that individual differences in white matter structure relate to whether children have begun to read. PMID:27631434

Basic Learning Skills Grades K-6. Minimum Statewide Educational Objectives Approved by the Board of Education May 27, 1977.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virginia State Dept. of Education, Richmond. Div. of Elementary Education.

The specific educational objectives or basic learning skills are listed for the Virginia elementary school grades. Minimum skills are listed in reading, communications, and mathematics. Terminal objectives for reading include skills in word identification or decoding, comprehension, and study skills. Communication skills include listening,…

The Understanding Words Reading Intervention: Evidence from a Case Series Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Craig; Conlon, Elizabeth G.; Wright, Michalle

2012-01-01

Using a case-series design with double baseline and 10-week maintenance phase, 5 struggling readers from middle- to high-income families (age range 6.4-7.9 years) completed a 5-times-weekly intervention (96 sessions) administered by a parent. All participants completed the intervention with phonological decoding, text-reading accuracy and reading…

Music and Phonemic Awareness: The Kindergarten Connection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newland, Cheyrl M.

2013-01-01

With the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001), schools have become aware of the consequences of successfully teaching children to read. A major building block in early childhood education includes the decoding of phonemes, rhymes, and the rhythm of spoken and written word. As reading is crucial to success in any subject area or career…

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…

Working Memory Influences Processing Speed and Reading Fluency in ADHD

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Lisa A.; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B.; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H.; Denckla, Martha B.; Mahone, E. Mark

2012-01-01

Processing speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This “slowing” in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the “processing” speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency, and reduced processing speed—driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed “processing” speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory, but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intra-subject variability. Further, “processing” speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally-mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally-mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus. PMID:21287422

Working memory influences processing speed and reading fluency in ADHD.

PubMed

Jacobson, Lisa A; Ryan, Matthew; Martin, Rebecca B; Ewen, Joshua; Mostofsky, Stewart H; Denckla, Martha B; Mahone, E Mark

2011-01-01

Processing-speed deficits affect reading efficiency, even among individuals who recognize and decode words accurately. Children with ADHD who decode words accurately can still have inefficient reading fluency, leading to a bottleneck in other cognitive processes. This "slowing" in ADHD is associated with deficits in fundamental components of executive function underlying processing speed, including response selection. The purpose of the present study was to deconstruct processing speed in order to determine which components of executive control best explain the "processing" speed deficits related to reading fluency in ADHD. Participants (41 ADHD, 21 controls), ages 9-14 years, screened for language disorders, word reading deficits, and psychiatric disorders, were administered measures of copying speed, processing speed, reading fluency, working memory, reaction time, inhibition, and auditory attention span. Compared to controls, children with ADHD showed reduced oral and silent reading fluency and reduced processing speed-driven primarily by deficits on WISC-IV Coding. In contrast, groups did not differ on copying speed. After controlling for copying speed, sex, severity of ADHD-related symptomatology, and GAI, slowed "processing" speed (i.e., Coding) was significantly associated with verbal span and measures of working memory but not with measures of response control/inhibition, lexical retrieval speed, reaction time, or intrasubject variability. Further, "processing" speed (i.e., Coding, residualized for copying speed) and working memory were significant predictors of oral reading fluency. Abnormalities in working memory and response selection (which are frontally mediated and enter into the output side of processing speed) may play an important role in deficits in reading fluency in ADHD, potentially more than posteriorally mediated problems with orienting of attention or perceiving the stimulus.

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.

Fingerspelling as a Novel Gateway into Reading Fluency in Deaf Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Stone, Adam; Kartheiser, Geo; Hauser, Peter C.; Petitto, Laura-Ann; Allen, Thomas E.

2015-01-01

Studies have shown that American Sign Language (ASL) fluency has a positive impact on deaf individuals’ English reading, but the cognitive and cross-linguistic mechanisms permitting the mapping of a visual-manual language onto a sound-based language have yet to be elucidated. Fingerspelling, which represents English orthography with 26 distinct hand configurations, is an integral part of ASL and has been suggested to provide deaf bilinguals with important cross-linguistic links between sign language and orthography. Using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this study examined the relationship of age of ASL exposure, ASL fluency, and fingerspelling skill on reading fluency in deaf college-age bilinguals. After controlling for ASL fluency, fingerspelling skill significantly predicted reading fluency, revealing for the first-time that fingerspelling, above and beyond ASL skills, contributes to reading fluency in deaf bilinguals. We suggest that both fingerspelling—in the visual-manual modality—and reading—in the visual-orthographic modality—are mutually facilitating because they share common underlying cognitive capacities of word decoding accuracy and automaticity of word recognition. The findings provide support for the hypothesis that the development of English reading proficiency may be facilitated through strengthening of the relationship among fingerspelling, sign language, and orthographic decoding en route to reading mastery, and may also reveal optimal approaches for reading instruction for deaf and hard of hearing children. PMID:26427062

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.

Disentangling Genuine Semantic Stroop Effects in Reading from Contingency Effects: On the Need for Two Neutral Baselines

PubMed Central

Lorentz, Eric; McKibben, Tessa; Ekstrand, Chelsea; Gould, Layla; Anton, Kathryn; Borowsky, Ron

2016-01-01

The automaticity of reading is often explored through the Stroop effect, whereby color-naming is affected by color words. Color associates (e.g., “sky”) also produce a Stroop effect, suggesting that automatic reading occurs through to the level of semantics, even when reading sub-lexically (e.g., the pseudohomophone “skigh”). However, several previous experiments have confounded congruency with contingency learning, whereby faster responding occurs for more frequent stimuli. Contingency effects reflect a higher frequency-pairing of the word with a font color in the congruent condition than in the incongruent condition due to the limited set of congruent pairings. To determine the extent to which the Stroop effect can be attributed to contingency learning of font colors paired with lexical (word-level) and sub-lexical (phonetically decoded) letter strings, as well as assess facilitation and interference relative to contingency effects, we developed two neutral baselines: each one matched on pair-frequency for congruent and incongruent color words. In Experiments 1 and 3, color words (e.g., “blue”) and their pseudohomophones (e.g., “bloo”) produced significant facilitation and interference relative to neutral baselines, regardless of whether the onset (i.e., first phoneme) was matched to the color words. Color associates (e.g., “ocean”) and their pseudohomophones (e.g., “oshin”), however, showed no significant facilitation or interference relative to onset matched neutral baselines (Experiment 2). When onsets were unmatched, color associate words produced consistent facilitation on RT (e.g., “ocean” vs. “dozen”), but pseudohomophones (e.g., “oshin” vs. “duhzen”) failed to produce facilitation or interference. Our findings suggest that the Stroop effects for color and associated stimuli are sensitive to the type of neutral baseline used, as well as stimulus type (word vs. pseudohomophone). In general, contingency learning plays a large role when repeating congruent items more than incongruent items, but appropriate pair-frequency matched neutral baselines allow for the assessment of genuine facilitation and interference. Using such baselines, we found reading processes proceed to a semantic level for familiar words, but not pseudohomophones (i.e., phonetic decoding). Such assessment is critical for separating the effects of genuine congruency from contingency during automatic word reading in the Stroop task, and when used with color associates, isolates the semantic contribution. PMID:27014177

Disentangling Genuine Semantic Stroop Effects in Reading from Contingency Effects: On the Need for Two Neutral Baselines.

PubMed

Lorentz, Eric; McKibben, Tessa; Ekstrand, Chelsea; Gould, Layla; Anton, Kathryn; Borowsky, Ron

2016-01-01

The automaticity of reading is often explored through the Stroop effect, whereby color-naming is affected by color words. Color associates (e.g., "sky") also produce a Stroop effect, suggesting that automatic reading occurs through to the level of semantics, even when reading sub-lexically (e.g., the pseudohomophone "skigh"). However, several previous experiments have confounded congruency with contingency learning, whereby faster responding occurs for more frequent stimuli. Contingency effects reflect a higher frequency-pairing of the word with a font color in the congruent condition than in the incongruent condition due to the limited set of congruent pairings. To determine the extent to which the Stroop effect can be attributed to contingency learning of font colors paired with lexical (word-level) and sub-lexical (phonetically decoded) letter strings, as well as assess facilitation and interference relative to contingency effects, we developed two neutral baselines: each one matched on pair-frequency for congruent and incongruent color words. In Experiments 1 and 3, color words (e.g., "blue") and their pseudohomophones (e.g., "bloo") produced significant facilitation and interference relative to neutral baselines, regardless of whether the onset (i.e., first phoneme) was matched to the color words. Color associates (e.g., "ocean") and their pseudohomophones (e.g., "oshin"), however, showed no significant facilitation or interference relative to onset matched neutral baselines (Experiment 2). When onsets were unmatched, color associate words produced consistent facilitation on RT (e.g., "ocean" vs. "dozen"), but pseudohomophones (e.g., "oshin" vs. "duhzen") failed to produce facilitation or interference. Our findings suggest that the Stroop effects for color and associated stimuli are sensitive to the type of neutral baseline used, as well as stimulus type (word vs. pseudohomophone). In general, contingency learning plays a large role when repeating congruent items more than incongruent items, but appropriate pair-frequency matched neutral baselines allow for the assessment of genuine facilitation and interference. Using such baselines, we found reading processes proceed to a semantic level for familiar words, but not pseudohomophones (i.e., phonetic decoding). Such assessment is critical for separating the effects of genuine congruency from contingency during automatic word reading in the Stroop task, and when used with color associates, isolates the semantic contribution.

Effectiveness of Supplemental Kindergarten Vocabulary Instruction for English Learners: A Randomized Study of Immediate and Longer-Term Effects of Two Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vadasy, Patricia F.; Sanders, Elizabeth A.; Nelson, J. Ron

2015-01-01

A two-cohort cluster randomized trial was conducted to estimate effects of small-group supplemental vocabulary instruction for at-risk kindergarten English learners (ELs). "Connections" students received explicit instruction in high-frequency decodable root words, and interactive book reading (IBR) students were taught the same words in…

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

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

Cognitive flexibility predicts early reading skills

PubMed Central

Colé, Pascale; Duncan, Lynne G.; Blaye, Agnès

2014-01-01

An important aspect of learning to read is efficiency in accessing different kinds of linguistic information (orthographic, phonological, and semantic) about written words. The present study investigates whether, in addition to the integrity of such linguistic skills, early progress in reading may require a degree of cognitive flexibility in order to manage the coordination of this information effectively. Our study will look for evidence of a link between flexibility and both word reading and passage reading comprehension, and examine whether any such link involves domain-general or reading-specific flexibility. As the only previous support for a predictive relationship between flexibility and early reading comes from studies of reading comprehension in the opaque English orthography, another possibility is that this relationship may be largely orthography-dependent, only coming into play when mappings between representations are complex and polyvalent. To investigate these questions, 60 second-graders learning to read the more transparent French orthography were presented with two multiple classification tasks involving reading-specific cognitive flexibility (based on words) and non-specific flexibility (based on pictures). Reading skills were assessed by word reading, pseudo-word decoding, and passage reading comprehension measures. Flexibility was found to contribute significant unique variance to passage reading comprehension even in the less opaque French orthography. More interestingly, the data also show that flexibility is critical in accounting for one of the core components of reading comprehension, namely, the reading of words in isolation. Finally, the results constrain the debate over whether flexibility has to be reading-specific to be critically involved in reading. PMID:24966842

The Effect of Student-Related and Text-Related Characteristics on Student's Reading Behaviour and Text Comprehension: An Eye Movement Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Leeuw, Linda; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-01-01

The focus of the present study was on the mediation and moderation effects of reading processes as evidenced from eye movements on the relation between cognitive and linguistic student characteristics (word decoding, vocabulary, comprehension skill, short-term memory, working memory, and nonverbal intelligence) and text comprehension. Forty 4th…

Adaptation of the Wilson Reading System for Braille Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowley, Roz; McCarthy, Mary; Rines, Justine Carlone

2014-01-01

Teachers at Perkins School for the Blind have been teaching braille to students of all ages for many years. As part of this experience, the teachers at Perkins have seen many capable students of different ages struggle to learn to read and write braille. In particular, they observed students who were unable to sound out or decode words because of…

Exploration of the Consortium on Reading Excellence Phonics Survey: An Instrument for Assessing Primary-Grade Students' Phonics Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reutzel, D. Ray; Brandt, Lorilynn; Fawson, Parker C.; Jones, Cindy D.

2014-01-01

This article examines the Consortium on Reading Excellence-Phonics Survey (CORE-PS), an informal, inexpensive, and widely disseminated assessment tool that is used to determine primary-grade students' knowledge of and abilities to apply key alphabetic and phonics understandings to decode a mix of real and pseudo-words. Evidence is reported of the…

"Decoding versus comprehension": Brain responses underlying reading comprehension in children with autism.

PubMed

Bednarz, Haley M; Maximo, Jose O; Murdaugh, Donna L; O'Kelley, Sarah; Kana, Rajesh K

2017-06-01

Despite intact decoding ability, deficits in reading comprehension are relatively common in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, few neuroimaging studies have tested the neural bases of this specific profile of reading deficit in ASD. This fMRI study examined activation and synchronization of the brain's reading network in children with ASD with specific reading comprehension deficits during a word similarities task. Thirteen typically developing children and 18 children with ASD performed the task in the MRI scanner. No statistically significant group differences in functional activation were observed; however, children with ASD showed decreased functional connectivity between the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left inferior occipital gyrus (LIOG). In addition, reading comprehension ability significantly positively predicted functional connectivity between the LIFG and left thalamus (LTHAL) among all subjects. The results of this study provide evidence for altered recruitment of reading-related neural resources in ASD children and suggest specific weaknesses in top-down modulation of semantic processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Silent Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

O'Brien, Beth A.; Wallot, Sebastian

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on reading fluency by bilingual primary school students, and the relation of text fluency to their reading comprehension. Group differences were examined in a cross-sectional design across the age range when fluency is posed to shift from word-level to text-level. One hundred five bilingual children from primary grades 3, 4, and 5 were assessed for English word reading and decoding fluency, phonological awareness, rapid symbol naming, and oral language proficiency with standardized measures. These skills were correlated with their silent reading fluency on a self-paced story reading task. Text fluency was quantified using non-linear analytic methods: recurrence quantification and fractal analyses. Findings indicate that more fluent text reading appeared by grade 4, similar to monolingual findings, and that different aspects of fluency characterized passage reading performance at different grade levels. Text fluency and oral language proficiency emerged as significant predictors of reading comprehension. PMID:27630590

Narrative Ability of Children With Speech Sound Disorders and the Prediction of Later Literacy Skills

PubMed Central

Wellman, Rachel L.; Lewis, Barbara A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Avrich, Allison A.; Hansen, Amy J.; Stein, Catherine M.

2012-01-01

Purpose The main purpose of this study was to examine how children with isolated speech sound disorders (SSDs; n = 20), children with combined SSDs and language impairment (LI; n = 20), and typically developing children (n = 20), ages 3;3 (years;months) to 6;6, differ in narrative ability. The second purpose was to determine if early narrative ability predicts school-age (8–12 years) literacy skills. Method This study employed a longitudinal cohort design. The children completed a narrative retelling task before their formal literacy instruction began. The narratives were analyzed and compared for group differences. Performance on these early narratives was then used to predict the children’s reading decoding, reading comprehension, and written language ability at school age. Results Significant group differences were found in children’s (a) ability to answer questions about the story, (b) use of story grammars, and (c) number of correct and irrelevant utterances. Regression analysis demonstrated that measures of story structure and accuracy were the best predictors of the decoding of real words, reading comprehension, and written language. Measures of syntax and lexical diversity were the best predictors of the decoding of nonsense words. Conclusion Combined SSDs and LI, and not isolated SSDs, impact a child’s narrative abilities. Narrative retelling is a useful task for predicting which children may be at risk for later literacy problems. PMID:21969531

Improving reading skills in students with dyslexia: the efficacy of a sublexical training with rhythmic background

PubMed Central

Bonacina, Silvia; Cancer, Alice; Lanzi, Pier Luca; Lorusso, Maria Luisa; Antonietti, Alessandro

2015-01-01

The core deficit underlying developmental dyslexia (DD) has been identified in difficulties in dynamic and rapidly changing auditory information processing, which contribute to the development of impaired phonological representations for words. It has been argued that enhancing basic musical rhythm perception skills in children with DD may have a positive effect on reading abilities because music and language share common mechanisms and thus transfer effects from the former to the latter are expected to occur. A computer-assisted training, called Rhythmic Reading Training (RRT), was designed in which reading exercises are combined with rhythm background. Fourteen junior high school students with DD took part to 9 biweekly individual sessions of 30 min in which RRT was implemented. Reading improvements after the intervention period were compared with ones of a matched control group of 14 students with DD who received no intervention. Results indicated that RRT had a positive effect on both reading speed and accuracy and significant effects were found on short pseudo-words reading speed, long pseudo-words reading speed, high frequency long words reading accuracy, and text reading accuracy. No difference in rhythm perception between the intervention and control group were found. Findings suggest that rhythm facilitates the development of reading skill because of the temporal structure it imposes to word decoding. PMID:26500581

Shallow and deep orthographies in Hebrew: the role of vowelization in reading development for unvowelized scripts.

PubMed

Schiff, Rachel

2012-12-01

The present study explored the speed, accuracy, and reading comprehension of vowelized versus unvowelized scripts among 126 native Hebrew speaking children in second, fourth, and sixth grades. Findings indicated that second graders read and comprehended vowelized scripts significantly more accurately and more quickly than unvowelized scripts, whereas among fourth and sixth graders reading of unvowelized scripts developed to a greater degree than the reading of vowelized scripts. An analysis of the mediation effect for children's mastery of vowelized reading speed and accuracy on their mastery of unvowelized reading speed and comprehension revealed that in second grade, reading accuracy of vowelized words mediated the reading speed and comprehension of unvowelized scripts. In the fourth grade, accuracy in reading both vowelized and unvowelized words mediated the reading speed and comprehension of unvowelized scripts. By sixth grade, accuracy in reading vowelized words offered no mediating effect, either on reading speed or comprehension of unvowelized scripts. The current outcomes thus suggest that young Hebrew readers undergo a scaffolding process, where vowelization serves as the foundation for building initial reading abilities and is essential for successful and meaningful decoding of unvowelized scripts.

The Dyslexia Simulation: Impact and Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wadlington, Elizabeth; Elliot, Cynthia; Kirylo, James

2008-01-01

Many students with reading difficulties have a specific learning disability called dyslexia, which is neurobiological in origin and characterized by problems with spelling, decoding, and accurate/fluent word identification, negatively impacting vocabulary growth and comprehension. Consequently, the role of the insightful teacher is critical in…

A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study of lexical decision task supports the dual route model and the phonological deficit theory of dyslexia.

PubMed

Sela, Itamar; Izzetoglu, Meltem; Izzetoglu, Kurtulus; Onaral, Banu

2014-01-01

The dual route model (DRM) of reading suggests two routes of reading development: the phonological and the orthographic routes. It was proposed that although the two routes are active in the process of reading; the first is more involved at the initial stages of reading acquisition, whereas the latter needs more reading training to mature. A number of studies have shown that deficient phonological processing is a core deficit in developmental dyslexia. According to the DRM, when the Lexical Decision Task (LDT) is performed, the orthographic route should also be involved when decoding words, whereas it is clear that when decoding pseudowords the phonological route should be activated. Previous functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) studies have suggested that the upper left frontal lobe is involved in decision making in the LDT. The current study used fNIR to compare left frontal lobe activity during LDT performance among three reading-level groups: 12-year-old children, young adult dyslexic readers, and young adult typical readers. Compared to typical readers, the children demonstrated lower activity under the word condition only, whereas the dyslexic readers showed lower activity under the pseudoword condition only. The results provide evidence for upper left frontal lobe involvement in LDT and support the DRM and the phonological deficit theory of dyslexia.

Teaching Children with Dyslexia to Spell in a Reading-Writers' Workshop

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berninger, Virginia W.; Lee, Yen-Ling; Abbott, Robert D.; Breznitz, Zvia

2013-01-01

To identify effective treatment for both the spelling and word decoding problems in dyslexia, 24 students with dyslexia in grades 4 to 9 were randomly assigned to treatments A (n = 12) or B (n = 12) in an after-school reading-writers' workshop at the university (thirty 1-h sessions twice a week over 5 months). First, both groups received step 1…

Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese.

PubMed

Li, Luan; Wang, Hua-Chen; Castles, Anne; Hsieh, Miao-Ling; Marinus, Eva

2018-07-01

According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995), phonological decoding is fundamental to acquiring orthographic representations of novel written words. However, phonological decoding is not straightforward in non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese, where words are presented as characters. Here, we present the first study investigating the role of phonological decoding in orthographic learning in Chinese. We examined two possible types of phonological decoding: the use of phonetic radicals, an internal phonological aid, andthe use of Zhuyin, an external phonological coding system. Seventy-three Grade 2 children were taught the pronunciations and meanings of twelve novel compound characters over four days. They were then exposed to the written characters in short stories, and were assessed on their reading accuracy and on their subsequent orthographic learning via orthographic choice and spelling tasks. The novel characters were assigned three different types of pronunciation in relation to its phonetic radical - (1) a pronunciation that is identical to the phonetic radical in isolation; (2) a common alternative pronunciation associated with the phonetic radical when it appears in other characters; and (3) a pronunciation that is unrelated to the phonetic radical. The presence of Zhuyin was also manipulated. The children read the novel characters more accurately when phonological cues from the phonetic radicals were available and in the presence of Zhuyin. However, only the phonetic radicals facilitated orthographic learning. The findings provide the first empirical evidence of orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese, and reveal how phonological decoding functions to support learning in non-alphabetic writing systems. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A developmental perspective on reading dysfunction: accuracy and rate criteria in the subtyping of dyslexic children.

PubMed

Lovett, M W

1984-05-01

Children referred with specific reading dysfunction were subtyped as accuracy disabled or rate disabled according to criteria developed from an information processing model of reading skill. Multiple measures of oral and written language development were compared for two subtyped samples matched on age, sex, and IQ. The two samples were comparable in reading fluency, reading comprehension, word knowledge, and word retrieval functions. Accuracy disabled readers demonstrated inferior decoding and spelling skills. The accuracy disabled sample proved deficient in their understanding of oral language structure and in their ability to associate unfamiliar pseudowords and novel symbols in a task designed to simulate some of the learning involved in initial reading acquisition. It was suggested that these two samples of disabled readers may be best described with respect to their relative standing along a theoretical continuum of normal reading development.

[Spatio-Temporal Bioelectrical Brain Activity Organization during Reading Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Collocations by Students with Different Foreign Language Proficiency].

PubMed

Sokolova, L V; Cherkasova, A S

2015-01-01

Texts or words/pseudowords are often used as stimuli for human verbal activity research. Our study pays attention to decoding processes of grammatical constructions consisted of two-three words--collocations. Russian and English collocation sets without any narrative were presented to Russian-speaking students with different English language skill. Stimulus material had two types of collocations: paradigmatic and syntagmatic. 30 students (average age--20.4 ± 0.22) took part in the study, they were divided into two equal groups depending on their English language skill (linguists/nonlinguists). During reading brain bioelectrical activity of cortex has been registered from 12 electrodes in alfa-, beta-, theta-bands. Coherent function reflecting cooperation of different cortical areas during reading collocations has been analyzed. Increase of interhemispheric and diagonal connections while reading collocations in different languages in the group of students with low knowledge of foreign language testifies of importance of functional cooperation between the hemispheres. It has been found out that brain bioelectrical activity of students with good foreign language knowledge during reading of all collocation types in Russian and English is characterized by economization of nervous substrate resources compared to nonlinguists. Selective activation of certain cortical areas has also been observed (depending on the grammatical construction type) in nonlinguists group that is probably related to special decoding system which processes presented stimuli. Reading Russian paradigmatic constructions by nonlinguists entailed increase between left cortical areas, reading of English syntagmatic collocations--between right ones.

Enhancement of Automatization through Vocabulary Learning Using CALL: Can Prompt Language Processing Lead to Better Comprehension in L2 Reading?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sato, Takeshi; Matsunuma, Mitsuyasu; Suzuki, Akio

2013-01-01

Our study aims to optimize a multimedia application for vocabulary learning for English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Our study is based on the concept that difficulty in reading a text in a second language is due to the need for more working memory for word decoding skills, although the working memory must also be used for text comprehension…

Efficacy of a Word- and Text-Based Intervention for Students With Significant Reading Difficulties.

PubMed

Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Garrett J; Miciak, Jeremy; Taylor, Pat; Fletcher, Jack M

2018-05-01

We examine the efficacy of an intervention to improve word reading and reading comprehension in fourth- and fifth-grade students with significant reading problems. Using a randomized control trial design, we compare the fourth- and fifth-grade reading outcomes of students with severe reading difficulties who were provided a researcher-developed treatment with reading outcomes of students in a business-as-usual (BAU) comparison condition. A total of 280 fourth- and fifth-grade students were randomly assigned within school in a 1:1 ratio to either the BAU comparison condition ( n = 139) or the treatment condition ( n = 141). Treatment students were provided small-group tutoring for 30 to 45 minutes for an average of 68 lessons (mean hours of instruction = 44.4, SD = 11.2). Treatment students performed statistically significantly higher than BAU students on a word reading measure (effect size [ES] = 0. 58) and a measure of reading fluency (ES = 0.46). Though not statistically significant, effect sizes for students in the treatment condition were consistently higher than BAU students for decoding measures (ES = 0.06, 0.08), and mixed for comprehension (ES = -0.02, 0.14).

The inadequacy of Individual Educational Program (IEP) goals for high school students with word-level reading difficulties.

PubMed

Catone, William V; Brady, Susan A

2005-06-01

This investigation analyzed goals from the Individual Educational Programs (IEPs) of 54 high school students with diagnosed reading disabilities in basic skills (decoding and/or word identification). Results showed that for 73% of the students, the IEPs written when they were in high school failed to specify any objectives regarding their acute difficulties with basic skills. IEPs from earlier points in the students' educations were also reviewed, as available. For 23 of the students, IEPs were present in the students' files for three time points: elementary school (ES), middle school (MS), and high school (HS). Another 20 students from the sample of 54 had IEPs available for two time points (HS and either MS or ES). Comparisons with the IEPs from younger years showed a pattern of decline from ES to MS to HS in the percentage of IEPs that commented on or set goals pertaining to weaknesses in decoding. These findings suggest that basic skills deficits that persist into the upper grade levels are not being sufficiently targeted for remediation, and help explain why older students frequently fail to resolve their reading problems.

"Neural overlap of L1 and L2 semantic representations across visual and auditory modalities: a decoding approach".

PubMed

Van de Putte, Eowyn; De Baene, Wouter; Price, Cathy J; Duyck, Wouter

2018-05-01

This study investigated whether brain activity in Dutch-French bilinguals during semantic access to concepts from one language could be used to predict neural activation during access to the same concepts from another language, in different language modalities/tasks. This was tested using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA), within and across language comprehension (word listening and word reading) and production (picture naming). It was possible to identify the picture or word named, read or heard in one language (e.g. maan, meaning moon) based on the brain activity in a distributed bilateral brain network while, respectively, naming, reading or listening to the picture or word in the other language (e.g. lune). The brain regions identified differed across tasks. During picture naming, brain activation in the occipital and temporal regions allowed concepts to be predicted across languages. During word listening and word reading, across-language predictions were observed in the rolandic operculum and several motor-related areas (pre- and postcentral, the cerebellum). In addition, across-language predictions during reading were identified in regions typically associated with semantic processing (left inferior frontal, middle temporal cortex, right cerebellum and precuneus) and visual processing (inferior and middle occipital regions and calcarine sulcus). Furthermore, across modalities and languages, the left lingual gyrus showed semantic overlap across production and word reading. These findings support the idea of at least partially language- and modality-independent semantic neural representations. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Effects of orthographic consistency on eye movement behavior: German and English children and adults process the same words differently.

PubMed

Rau, Anne K; Moll, Kristina; Snowling, Margaret J; Landerl, Karin

2015-02-01

The current study investigated the time course of cross-linguistic differences in word recognition. We recorded eye movements of German and English children and adults while reading closely matched sentences, each including a target word manipulated for length and frequency. Results showed differential word recognition processes for both developing and skilled readers. Children of the two orthographies did not differ in terms of total word processing time, but this equal outcome was achieved quite differently. Whereas German children relied on small-unit processing early in word recognition, English children applied small-unit decoding only upon rereading-possibly when experiencing difficulties in integrating an unfamiliar word into the sentence context. Rather unexpectedly, cross-linguistic differences were also found in adults in that English adults showed longer processing times than German adults for nonwords. Thus, although orthographic consistency does play a major role in reading development, cross-linguistic differences are detectable even in skilled adult readers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sociocultural Variation in Literacy Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verhoeven, Ludo

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to describe the variations in literacy achievement among native and non-native upper primary school children (grades three to six) in the Netherlands. Various measures of word decoding, reading literacy and writing skill were collected from 1091 native Dutch children, 753 children with a former Dutch colonial…

Nursery Rhyme Knowledge and Phonological Awareness in Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harper, Laurie J.

2011-01-01

Phonological awareness is an important precursor in learning to read. This awareness of phonemes fosters a child's ability to hear and blend sounds, encode and decode words, and to spell phonetically. This quantitative study assessed pre-K children's existing Euro-American nursery rhyme knowledge and phonological awareness literacy, provided…

Neurally dissociable cognitive components of reading deficits in subacute stroke.

PubMed

Boukrina, Olga; Barrett, A M; Alexander, Edward J; Yao, Bing; Graves, William W

2015-01-01

According to cognitive models of reading, words are processed by interacting orthographic (spelling), phonological (sound), and semantic (meaning) information. Despite extensive study of the neural basis of reading in healthy participants, little group data exist on patients with reading deficits from focal brain damage pointing to critical neural systems for reading. Here, we report on one such study. We have performed neuropsychological testing and magnetic resonance imaging on 11 patients with left-hemisphere stroke (<=5 weeks post-stroke). Patients completed tasks assessing cognitive components of reading such as semantics (matching picture or word choices to a target based on meaning), phonology (matching word choices to a target based on rhyming), and orthography (a two-alternative forced choice of the most plausible non-word). They also read aloud pseudowords and words with high or low levels of usage frequency, imageability, and spelling-sound consistency. As predicted by the cognitive model, when averaged across patients, the influence of semantics was most salient for low-frequency, low-consistency words, when phonological decoding is especially difficult. Qualitative subtraction analyses revealed lesion sites specific to phonological processing. These areas were consistent with those shown previously to activate for phonology in healthy participants, including supramarginal, posterior superior temporal, middle temporal, inferior frontal gyri, and underlying white matter. Notable divergence between this analysis and previous functional imaging is the association of lesions in the mid-fusiform gyrus and anterior temporal lobe with phonological reading deficits. This study represents progress toward identifying brain lesion-deficit relationships in the cognitive components of reading. Such correspondences are expected to help not only better understand the neural mechanisms of reading, but may also help tailor reading therapy to individual neurocognitive deficit profiles.

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.

Orthographic processing in pigeons (Columba livia)

PubMed Central

Scarf, Damian; Boy, Karoline; Uber Reinert, Anelisie; Devine, Jack; Güntürkün, Onur; Colombo, Michael

2016-01-01

Learning to read involves the acquisition of letter–sound relationships (i.e., decoding skills) and the ability to visually recognize words (i.e., orthographic knowledge). Although decoding skills are clearly human-unique, given they are seated in language, recent research and theory suggest that orthographic processing may derive from the exaptation or recycling of visual circuits that evolved to recognize everyday objects and shapes in our natural environment. An open question is whether orthographic processing is limited to visual circuits that are similar to our own or a product of plasticity common to many vertebrate visual systems. Here we show that pigeons, organisms that separated from humans more than 300 million y ago, process words orthographically. Specifically, we demonstrate that pigeons trained to discriminate words from nonwords picked up on the orthographic properties that define words and used this knowledge to identify words they had never seen before. In addition, the pigeons were sensitive to the bigram frequencies of words (i.e., the common co-occurrence of certain letter pairs), the edit distance between nonwords and words, and the internal structure of words. Our findings demonstrate that visual systems organizationally distinct from the primate visual system can also be exapted or recycled to process the visual word form. PMID:27638211

Phonological working memory and reading in students with dyslexia

PubMed Central

de Carvalho, Carolina A. F.; Kida, Adriana de S. B.; Capellini, Simone A.; de Avila, Clara R. B.

2014-01-01

Purpose: To investigate parameters related to fluency, reading comprehension and phonological processing (operational and short-term memory) and identify potential correlation between the variables in Dyslexia and in the absence of reading difficulties. Method: One hundred and fifteen students from the third to eighth grade of elementary school were grouped into a Control Group (CG) and Group with Dyslexia (GDys). Reading of words, pseudowords and text (decoding); listening and reading comprehension; phonological short-term and working memory (repetition of pseudowords and Digit Span) were evaluated. Results: The comparison of the groups showed significant differences in decoding, phonological short-term memory (repetition of pseudowords) and answers to text-connecting questions (TC) on reading comprehension, with the worst performances identified for GDys. In this group there were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both on listening comprehension. No correlations were found between operational and short-term memory (Digit Span) and parameters of fluency and reading comprehension in dyslexia. For the sample without complaint, there were positive correlations between some parameters of reading fluency and repetition of pseudowords and also between answering literal questions in listening comprehension and repetition of digits on the direct and reverse order. There was no correlation with the parameters of reading comprehension. Conclusion: GDys and CG showed similar performance in listening comprehension and in understanding of explicit information and gap-filling inference on reading comprehension. Students of GDys showed worst performance in reading decoding, phonological short-term memory (pseudowords) and on inferences that depends on textual cohesion understanding in reading. There were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both in listening comprehension. PMID:25101021

Learning to Be a Good Orthographic Reader

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castles, Anne; Nation, Kate

2008-01-01

Recent years have brought about rapid advances in our understanding of reading and how it develops, particularly in relation to the importance of alphabetic coding skills. However, much less has been known about the transition from alphabetic decoding to the rapid and automatic orthographic recognition of words, which is the hallmark of skilled…

Volumetric Analysis of Regional Variability in the Cerebellum of Children with Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Stuebing, Karla; Juranek, Jenifer; Fletcher, Jack M.

2013-01-01

Cerebellar deficits and subsequent impairment in procedural learning may contribute to both motor difficulties and reading impairment in dyslexia. We used quantitative magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the role of regional variation in cerebellar anatomy in children with single-word decoding impairments (N=23), children with impairment in fluency alone (N=8), and typically developing children (N=16). Children with decoding impairments (dyslexia) demonstrated no statistically significant differences in overall grey and white matter volumes or cerebellar asymmetry; however, reduced volume in the anterior lobe of the cerebellum relative to typically developing children was observed. These results implicate cerebellar involvement in dyslexia and establish an important foundation for future research on the connectivity of the cerebellum and cortical regions typically associated with reading impairment. PMID:23828023

Volumetric analysis of regional variability in the cerebellum of children with dyslexia.

PubMed

Fernandez, Vindia G; Stuebing, Karla; Juranek, Jenifer; Fletcher, Jack M

2013-12-01

Cerebellar deficits and subsequent impairment in procedural learning may contribute to both motor difficulties and reading impairment in dyslexia. We used quantitative magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the role of regional variation in cerebellar anatomy in children with single-word decoding impairments (N = 23), children with impairment in fluency alone (N = 8), and typically developing children (N = 16). Children with decoding impairments (dyslexia) demonstrated no statistically significant differences in overall grey and white matter volumes or cerebellar asymmetry; however, reduced volume in the anterior lobe of the cerebellum relative to typically developing children was observed. These results implicate cerebellar involvement in dyslexia and establish an important foundation for future research on the connectivity of the cerebellum and cortical regions typically associated with reading impairment.

Reading component skills of learners in adult basic education.

PubMed

MacArthur, Charles A; Konold, Timothy R; Glutting, Joseph J; Alamprese, Judith A

2010-01-01

The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures. Investigation of measures of reading components is needed because available measures were neither developed for nor normed on ABE populations or with nonnative speakers of English. The study included 486 students, 334 born or educated in the United States (native) and 152 not born or educated in the United States (nonnative) but who spoke English well enough to participate in English reading classes. All students had scores on 11 measures covering five constructs: decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test three models: a two-factor model with print and meaning factors; a three-factor model that separated out a fluency factor; and a five-factor model based on the hypothesized constructs. The five-factor model fit best. In addition, the CFA model fit both native and nonnative populations equally well without modification, showing that the tests measure the same constructs with the same accuracy for both groups. Group comparisons found no difference between the native and nonnative samples on word recognition, but the native sample scored higher on fluency and comprehension and lower on decoding than did the nonnative sample. Students with self-reported learning disabilities scored lower on all reading components. Differences by age and gender were also analyzed.

Teaching Literacy Skills to French Minimally Verbal School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders with the Serious Game SEMA-TIC: An Exploratory Study

PubMed Central

Serret, Sylvie; Hun, Stéphanie; Thümmler, Susanne; Pierron, Prescillia; Santos, Andreia; Bourgeois, Jérémy; Askenazy, Florence

2017-01-01

Learning to read is very challenging for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but also very important, as it can give them access to new knowledge. This is even more challenging in minimally verbal children, who do not have the verbal abilities to learn through usual methods. To address the learning of literacy skills in French minimally verbal school-aged children with ASD, we designed the serious game SEMA-TIC, which relies on non-verbal cognitive skills and uses specific learning strategies adapted to the features of autistic individuals. This study investigated the usability of SEMA-TIC (in terms of adaptability, efficiency, and effectiveness) for the acquisition of literacy skills in French minimally verbal school-aged children with ASD. Twenty-five children with ASD and no functional language participated in the study. Children in the training group received the SEMA-TIC training over 23 weeks (on average), while no intervention was provided to children in the non-training group. Results indicated that SEMA-TIC presents a suitable usability, as all participants were able to play (adaptability), to complete the training (efficiency) and to acquire significant literacy skills (effectiveness). Indeed, the literacy skills in the training group significantly improved after the training, as measured by specific experimental tasks (alphabet knowledge, word reading, word-non-word discrimination, sentence reading and word segmentation; all p ≤ 0.001) compared to the non-training group. More importantly, 3 out of 12 children of the training group could be considered as word decoders at the end of the intervention, whereas no children of the non-training group became able to decode words efficiently. The present study thus brings preliminary evidence that French minimally verbal school-aged children with ASD are able to learn literacy skills through SEMA-TIC, a specific computerized intervention consisting in a serious game based on non-verbal cognitive skills. PMID:28928701

Teaching Literacy Skills to French Minimally Verbal School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders with the Serious Game SEMA-TIC: An Exploratory Study.

PubMed

Serret, Sylvie; Hun, Stéphanie; Thümmler, Susanne; Pierron, Prescillia; Santos, Andreia; Bourgeois, Jérémy; Askenazy, Florence

2017-01-01

Learning to read is very challenging for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but also very important, as it can give them access to new knowledge. This is even more challenging in minimally verbal children, who do not have the verbal abilities to learn through usual methods. To address the learning of literacy skills in French minimally verbal school-aged children with ASD, we designed the serious game SEMA-TIC, which relies on non-verbal cognitive skills and uses specific learning strategies adapted to the features of autistic individuals. This study investigated the usability of SEMA-TIC (in terms of adaptability, efficiency, and effectiveness) for the acquisition of literacy skills in French minimally verbal school-aged children with ASD. Twenty-five children with ASD and no functional language participated in the study. Children in the training group received the SEMA-TIC training over 23 weeks (on average), while no intervention was provided to children in the non-training group. Results indicated that SEMA-TIC presents a suitable usability, as all participants were able to play (adaptability), to complete the training (efficiency) and to acquire significant literacy skills (effectiveness). Indeed, the literacy skills in the training group significantly improved after the training, as measured by specific experimental tasks (alphabet knowledge, word reading, word-non-word discrimination, sentence reading and word segmentation; all p ≤ 0.001) compared to the non-training group. More importantly, 3 out of 12 children of the training group could be considered as word decoders at the end of the intervention, whereas no children of the non-training group became able to decode words efficiently. The present study thus brings preliminary evidence that French minimally verbal school-aged children with ASD are able to learn literacy skills through SEMA-TIC, a specific computerized intervention consisting in a serious game based on non-verbal cognitive skills.

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.

Examining the Relationships of Component Reading Skills to Reading Comprehension in Struggling Adult Readers: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Tighe, Elizabeth L; Schatschneider, Christopher

2016-07-01

The current study employed a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relative importance of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers. A total of 10 component skills were consistently identified across 16 independent studies and 2,707 participants. Random effects models generated 76 predictor-reading comprehension effect sizes among the 10 constructs. The results indicated that six of the component skills exhibited strong relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .50): morphological awareness, language comprehension, fluency, oral vocabulary knowledge, real word decoding, and working memory. Three of the component skills yielded moderate relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .30 and < .50): pseudoword decoding, orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) was the only component skill that was weakly related to reading comprehension (r = .15). Morphological awareness was a significantly stronger correlate of reading comprehension than phonological awareness and RAN. This study provides the first attempt at a systematic synthesis of the recent research investigating the reading skills of adults with low literacy skills, a historically understudied population. Directions for future research, the relation of our results to the children's literature, and the implications for researchers and adult basic education programs are discussed. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Examining the Relationships of Component Reading Skills to Reading Comprehension in Struggling Adult Readers: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

The current study employed a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relative importance of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers. A total of 10 component skills were consistently identified across 16 independent studies and 2,707 participants. Random effects models generated 76 predictor-reading comprehension effect sizes among the 10 constructs. The results indicated that six of the component skills exhibited strong relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .50): morphological awareness, language comprehension, fluency, oral vocabulary knowledge, real word decoding, and working memory. Three of the component skills yielded moderate relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .30 and < .50): pseudoword decoding, orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) was the only component skill that was weakly related to reading comprehension (r = .15). Morphological awareness was a significantly stronger correlate of reading comprehension than phonological awareness and RAN. This study provides the first attempt at a systematic synthesis of the recent research investigating the reading skills of adults with low literacy skills, a historically under-studied population. Directions for future research, the relation of our results to the children’s literature, and the implications for researchers and Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs are discussed. PMID:25350926

Weak and strong novice readers of English as a foreign language: effects of first language and socioeconomic status.

PubMed

Kahn-Horwitz, Janina; Shimron, Joseph; Sparks, Richard L

2006-06-01

This study examined individual differences among beginning readers of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study concentrated on the effects of underlying first language (L1) knowledge as well as EFL letter and vocabulary knowledge. Phonological and morphological awareness, spelling, vocabulary knowledge, and word reading in Hebrew L1, in addition to knowledge of EFL letters and EFL vocabulary, were measured. The study also investigated the effect of socioeconomic background (SES) on beginning EFL readers. Participants included 145 fourth graders from three schools representing two socioeconomic backgrounds in the north of Israel. The results indicate that knowledge of English letters played a more prominent role than knowledge of Hebrew L1 components in differentiating between strong and weak EFL readers. The Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis was supported by L1 phonological awareness, word reading, and vocabulary knowledge appearing as part of discriminating functions. The presence of English vocabulary knowledge as part of the discriminant functions provides support for English word reading being more than just a decoding task for EFL beginner readers. Socioeconomic status differentiated the groups for EFL word recognition but not for EFL reading comprehension.

Using precise word timing information improves decoding accuracy in a multiband-accelerated multimodal reading experiment.

PubMed

Vu, An T; Phillips, Jeffrey S; Kay, Kendrick; Phillips, Matthew E; Johnson, Matthew R; Shinkareva, Svetlana V; Tubridy, Shannon; Millin, Rachel; Grossman, Murray; Gureckis, Todd; Bhattacharyya, Rajan; Yacoub, Essa

2016-01-01

The blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal measured in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments is generally regarded as sluggish and poorly suited for probing neural function at the rapid timescales involved in sentence comprehension. However, recent studies have shown the value of acquiring data with very short repetition times (TRs), not merely in terms of improvements in contrast to noise ratio (CNR) through averaging, but also in terms of additional fine-grained temporal information. Using multiband-accelerated fMRI, we achieved whole-brain scans at 3-mm resolution with a TR of just 500 ms at both 3T and 7T field strengths. By taking advantage of word timing information, we found that word decoding accuracy across two separate sets of scan sessions improved significantly, with better overall performance at 7T than at 3T. The effect of TR was also investigated; we found that substantial word timing information can be extracted using fast TRs, with diminishing benefits beyond TRs of 1000 ms.

The unique role of lexical accessibility in predicting kindergarten emergent literacy.

PubMed

Verhoeven, Ludo; van Leeuwe, Jan; Irausquin, Rosemarie; Segers, Eliane

The goal of this longitudinal study was to examine how lexical quality predicts the emergence of literacy abilities in 169 Dutch kindergarten children before formal reading instruction has started. At the beginning of the school year, a battery of precursor measures associated with lexical quality was related to the emergence of letter knowledge and word decoding. Confirmatory factor analysis evidenced five domains related to lexical quality, i.e., vocabulary, phonological coding, phonological awareness, lexical retrieval and phonological working memory. Structural equation modeling showed that the development of letter knowledge during the year could be predicted from children's phonological awareness and lexical retrieval, and the emergence of word decoding from their phonological awareness and letter knowledge. It is concluded that it is primarily the accessibility of phonological representations in the mental lexicon that predicts the emergence of literacy in kindergarten.

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.

Effects of three interventions on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in grade 2.

PubMed

Gustafson, Stefan; Fälth, Linda; Svensson, Idor; Tjus, Tomas; Heimann, Mikael

2011-01-01

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second intervention focused on top-down processing on the word and sentence levels, and the third was a combination of these two training programs (n = 25 in each group). In addition, there were two comparison groups, 25 children with reading disabilities who received ordinary special instruction and 30 age-matched typical readers. All reading disabled participants completed 25 training sessions with special education teachers. All groups improved their reading skills. The group who received combined training showed higher improvements than the ordinary special instruction group and the typical readers. Different cognitive variables were related to treatment gains for different groups. Thus, a treatment combining bottom-up and top-down aspects of reading was the most effective in general, but individual differences among children need to be considered.

The Relationship between Parents' Literacy Skills and Their Preschool Children's Emergent Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Nicole A.; Greenberg, Daphne; Terry, Nicole Patton

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlational and predictive relationships between parents with low literacy skills (n = 96) and their 3-5 year old children's emergent literacy skills (n = 96). In the study parents were assessed on measures of reading comprehension, decoding, fluency, oral vocabulary, and word identification,…

Cognitive Difficulties in Struggling Comprehenders and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension: A Comparison of Group Selection and Regression-Based Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barnes, Marcia A.; Stuebing, Karla K.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Barth, Amy E.; Francis, David J.

2016-01-01

Difficulties suppressing previously encountered but currently irrelevant information from working memory characterize less skilled comprehenders in studies in which they are matched to skilled comprehenders on word decoding and nonverbal IQ. These "extreme" group designs are associated with several methodological issues. When sample size…

Adolescent Weak Decoders Writing in a Shallow Orthography: Process and Product

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torrance, Mark; Rønneberg, Vibeke; Johansson, Christer; Uppstad, Per Henning

2016-01-01

It has been hypothesized that students with dyslexia struggle with writing because of a word-level focus that reduces attention to higher level textual features (structure, theme development). This may result from difficulties with spelling and/or difficulties with reading. Twenty-six Norwegian upper secondary students (M = 16.9 years) with weak…

Effective Methodology for Teaching Beginning Reading in English to Bilingual Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sainz, Jo-Ann; Biggins, Maria Goretti

A systematic model for accelerating the process of developing the word decoding skills and building the vocabularies of bilingual adults was used among prison populations in Rockland County, Dutchess County, Suffolk County, and Essex County, New York, as well as in work-study programs in community centers in New York City. Literacy levels of the…

Using miscue analysis to assess comprehension in deaf college readers.

PubMed

Albertini, John; Mayer, Connie

2011-01-01

For over 30 years, teachers have used miscue analysis as a tool to assess and evaluate the reading abilities of hearing students in elementary and middle schools and to design effective literacy programs. More recently, teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing students have also reported its usefulness for diagnosing word- and phrase-level reading difficulties and for planning instruction. To our knowledge, miscue analysis has not been used with older, college-age deaf students who might also be having difficulty decoding and understanding text at the word level. The goal of this study was to determine whether such an analysis would be helpful in identifying the source of college students' reading comprehension difficulties. After analyzing the miscues of 10 college-age readers and the results of other comprehension-related tasks, we concluded that comprehension of basic grade school-level passages depended on the ability to recognize and comprehend key words and phrases in these texts. We also concluded that these diagnostic procedures provided useful information about the reading abilities and strategies of each reader that had implications for designing more effective interventions.

Do students with and without lexical retrieval weaknesses respond differently to instruction?

PubMed

Allor, J H; Fuchs, D; Mathes, P G

2001-01-01

Deficits in phonological processing are theorized to be responsible for at least some reading disabilities. A considerable amount of research demonstrates that many students can be taught one of these phonological processes-phonemic awareness. However, not all students have responded favorably to this instruction. Research has suggested that these nonresponders may be unable to retrieve phonological codes quickly from long-term memory. The purpose of this study was to examine whether such a deficiency, which we refer to as lexical retrieval weakness, blunts the effectiveness of combined phonemic awareness and decoding training. To this end, we compared the effectiveness of phonemic awareness and decoding training for students with and without severe lexical retrieval weaknesses. All students in both groups demonstrated poor phonemic awareness. The results suggested that students with relatively strong lexical retrieval skill responded more favorably to beginning reading instruction than did students with weak lexical retrieval skill. In other words, lexical retrieval weakness may influence reading development independently of the effects of phonemic awareness. Implications for instruction are discussed.

Test differences in diagnosing reading comprehension deficits.

PubMed

Keenan, Janice M; Meenan, Chelsea E

2014-01-01

The authors examined the implications of test differences for defining and diagnosing comprehension deficits using reading comprehension tests. They had 995 children complete the Gray Oral Reading Test-3, the Qualitative Reading Inventory-3, the Woodcock-Johnson Passage Comprehension-3, and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test and compared which children were identified by each test as being in the lowest 10%. Although a child who performs so poorly might be expected to do poorly on all tests, the authors found that the average overlap between tests in diagnosing comprehension difficulties was only 43%. Consistency in diagnosis was greater for younger children, when comprehension deficits are the result of weaker decoding skills, than for older children. Inconsistencies between tests were just as evident when identifying the top performers. The different children identified as having a comprehension deficit by each test were compared on four profile variables-word decoding skill, IQ, ADHD symptoms, and working memory skill-to understand the nature of the different deficits assessed by each test. Theoretical and practical implications of these test differences in defining and diagnosing comprehension deficits are discussed.

Test Differences in Diagnosing Reading Comprehension Deficits

PubMed Central

Keenan, Janice M.; Meenan, Chelsea E.

2012-01-01

We examined the implications of test differences for defining and diagnosing comprehension deficits using reading comprehension tests. We had 995 children complete the Gray Oral Reading Test-3, the Qualitative Reading Inventory-3, the Woodcock-Johnson Passage Comprehension-3, and the Peabody Individual Achievement Test, and compared which children were identified by each test as being in the lowest 10%. Although a child who performs so poorly might be expected to do poorly on all tests, we found that the average overlap between tests in diagnosing comprehension difficulties was only 43%. Consistency in diagnosis was greater for younger children, when comprehension deficits are due to weaker decoding skills, than for older children. Inconsistencies between tests were just as evident when identifying the top performers. The different children identified as having a comprehension deficit by each test were compared on four profile variables - word decoding skill, IQ, ADHD symptoms, and working memory skill – to understand the nature of the different deficits assessed by each test. Theoretical and practical implications of these test differences in defining and diagnosing comprehension deficits are discussed. PMID:22442251

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.

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.

Relative Ease in Creating Detailed Orthographic Representations Contrasted with Severe Difficulties to Maintain Them in Long-term Memory Among Dyslexic Children.

PubMed

Binamé, Florence; Danzio, Sophie; Poncelet, Martine

2015-11-01

Most research into orthographic learning abilities has been conducted in English with typically developing children using reading-based tasks. In the present study, we examined the abilities of French-speaking children with dyslexia to create novel orthographic representations for subsequent use in spelling and to maintain them in long-term memory. Their performance was compared with that of chronological age (CA)-matched and reading age (RA)-matched control children. We used an experimental task designed to provide optimal learning conditions (i.e. 10 spelling practice trials) ensuring the short-term acquisition of the spelling of the target orthographic word forms. After a 1-week delay, the long-term retention of the targets was assessed by a spelling post-test. Analysis of the results revealed that, in the short term, children with dyslexia learned the novel orthographic word forms well, only differing from both CA and RA controls on the initial decoding of the targets and from CA controls on the first two practice trials. In contrast, a dramatic drop was observed in their long-term retention relative to CA and RA controls. These results support the suggestion of the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995) that initial errors in the decoding and spelling of unfamiliar words may hinder the establishment of fully specified novel orthographic representations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Optical bias selector based on a multilayer a-SiC:H optical filter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vieira, M.; Vieira, M. A.; Louro, P.

2017-08-01

In this paper we present a MUX/DEMUX device based on a multilayer a-SiC:H optical filter that requires nearultraviolet steady state optical switches to select desired wavelengths in the visible range. Spectral response and transmittance measurements are presented and show the feasibility of tailoring the wavelength and bandwidth of a polychromatic mixture of different wavelengths. The selector filter is realized by using a two terminal double pi'n/pin a-SiC:H photodetector. Five visible communication channels are transmitted together, each one with a specific bit sequence. The combined optical signal is analyzed by reading out the photocurrent, under near-UV front steady state background. Data shows that 25 current levels are detected and corresponds to the thirty-two on/off possible states. The proximity of the magnitude of consecutive levels causes occasional errors in the decoded information. To minimize the errors, four parity bit are generated and stored along with the data word. The parity of the word is checked after reading the word to detect and correct the transmitted data. Results show that the background works as a selector in the visible range, shifting the sensor sensitivity and together with the parity check bits allows the identification and decoding of the different input channels. A transmission capability of 60 kbps using the generated codeword was achieved. An optoeletronic model gives insight on the system physics.

Word and Person Effects on Decoding Accuracy: A New Look at an Old Question

PubMed Central

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

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to extend the literature on decoding by bringing together two lines of research, namely person and word factors that affect decoding, using a crossed random-effects model. The sample was comprised of 196 English-speaking grade 1 students. A researcher-developed pseudoword list was used as the primary outcome measure. Because grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) knowledge was treated as person and word specific, we are able to conclude that it is neither necessary nor sufficient for a student to know all GPCs in a word before accurately decoding the word. And controlling for word-specific GPC knowledge, students with lower phonemic awareness and slower rapid naming skill have lower predicted probabilities of correct decoding than counterparts with superior skills. By assessing a person-by-word interaction, we found that students with lower phonemic awareness have more difficulty applying knowledge of complex vowel graphemes compared to complex consonant graphemes when decoding unfamiliar words. Implications of the methodology and results are discussed in light of future research. PMID:21743750

Determining English Language Learners' Response to Intervention: Questions and Some Answers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linan-Thompson, Sylvia; Cirino, Paul T.; Vaughn, Sharon

2007-01-01

Using an extant database, we examined three grade 1 criteria for identifying response to intervention (RTI) in English language learners (ELLs): (a) set benchmark criteria with a standard score above 95 (37th %ile) on both decoding and comprehension measures and a raw score of 40 or more correct words per minute (CWPM) on oral reading fluency; (b)…

Relationships among L1 Print Exposure and Early L1 Literacy Skills, L2 Aptitude, and L2 Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Patton, Jon; Ganschow, Leonore; Humbach, Nancy

2012-01-01

Authors examined the relationship between individual differences in L1 print exposure and differences in early L1 skills and later L2 aptitude, L2 proficiency, and L2 classroom achievement. Participants were administered measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and listening…

Relations of the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) to the Development of Reading-Related Abilities: A One-Year Longitudinal Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgess, Stephen R.; Hecht, Steven A.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2002-01-01

Examines the nature of the relations between home literacy environment (HLE) and oral language, letter knowledge, phonological sensitivity, and word decoding during a one-year interval in preschool children. Finds that each of the HLE conceptualizations was consistently related to the outcomes studies, but the magnitude of the relations varied…

Omega 3/6 fatty acids for reading in children: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in 9-year-old mainstream schoolchildren in Sweden.

PubMed

Johnson, Mats; Fransson, Gunnar; Östlund, Sven; Areskoug, Björn; Gillberg, Christopher

2017-01-01

Previous research has shown positive effects of Omega 3/6 fatty acids in children with inattention and reading difficulties. We aimed to investigate if Omega 3/6 improved reading ability in mainstream schoolchildren. We performed a 3-month parallel, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial followed by 3-month active treatment for all subjects. Mainstream schoolchildren aged 9-10 years were randomized 1:1 to receive three Omega 3/6 capsules twice daily or identical placebo. Assessments were made at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. The primary outcome measure was the Logos test battery for evaluating reading abilities. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02557477. The study enrolled 154 children (active n = 78; placebo n = 76), of whom 122 completed the first 3 months (active n = 64; placebo n = 58) and 105 completed the whole study (active/active n = 55; placebo/active n = 50). Outcomes were assessed by per protocol (PP) and intention-to-treat (ITT) analyses. Active treatment was superior to placebo at 3 months for improvement in phonologic decoding time (PP active/placebo difference -0.16; 95% CI -0.03, -0.29; effect size (ES) .44; p = .005; and ITT ES .37; p = .036), in visual analysis time (PP active/placebo difference -0.19; 95% CI -0.05, -0.33; ES .49; p = .013; and ITT ES .40; p = .01), and for boys in phonologic decoding time (PP -0.22; 95% CI -0.03, -0.41; ES .62; p = .004). Children with ADHD-RS scores above the median showed treatment benefits in visual analysis time (PP ES .8, p = .009), reading speed per word (PP ES .61, p = .008), and phonologic decoding time per word (PP ES .85, p = .006). Adverse events were rare and mild, mainly stomach pain/diarrhea (active n = 9, placebo n = 2). Compared with placebo, 3 months of Omega 3/6 treatment improved reading ability - specifically the clinically relevant 'phonologic decoding time' and 'visual analysis time' - in mainstream schoolchildren. In particular, children with attention problems showed treatment benefits. © 2016 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Neuroimaging of decoding and language comprehension in young very low birth weight (VLBW) adolescents: Indications for compensatory mechanisms.

PubMed

van Ettinger-Veenstra, Helene; Widén, Carin; Engström, Maria; Karlsson, Thomas; Leijon, Ingemar; Nelson, Nina

2017-01-01

In preterm children with very low birth weight (VLBW ≤ 1500 g), reading problems are often observed. Reading comprehension is dependent on word decoding and language comprehension. We investigated neural activation-within brain regions important for reading-related to components of reading comprehension in young VLBW adolescents in direct comparison to normal birth weight (NBW) term-born peers, with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We hypothesized that the decoding mechanisms will be affected by VLBW, and expect to see increased neural activity for VLBW which may be modulated by task performance and cognitive ability. The study investigated 13 (11 included in fMRI) young adolescents (ages 12 to 14 years) born preterm with VLBW and in 13 NBW controls (ages 12-14 years) for performance on the Block Design and Vocabulary subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children; and for semantic, orthographic, and phonological processing during an fMRI paradigm. The VLBW group showed increased phonological activation in left inferior frontal gyrus, decreased orthographic activation in right supramarginal gyrus, and decreased semantic activation in left inferior frontal gyrus. Block Design was related to altered right-hemispheric activation, and VLBW showed lower WISC Block Design scores. Left angular gyrus showed activation increase specific for VLBW with high accuracy on the semantic test. Young VLBW adolescents showed no accuracy and reaction time performance differences on our fMRI language tasks, but they did exhibit altered neural activation during these tasks. This altered activation for VLBW was observed as increased activation during phonological decoding, and as mainly decreased activation during orthographic and semantic processing. Correlations of neural activation with accuracy on the semantic fMRI task and with decreased WISC Block Design performance were specific for the VLBW group. Together, results suggest compensatory mechanisms by recruiting additional brain regions upon altered neural development of decoding for VLBW.

Complex dynamics of semantic memory access in reading.

PubMed

Baggio, Giosué; Fonseca, André

2012-02-07

Understanding a word in context relies on a cascade of perceptual and conceptual processes, starting with modality-specific input decoding, and leading to the unification of the word's meaning into a discourse model. One critical cognitive event, turning a sensory stimulus into a meaningful linguistic sign, is the access of a semantic representation from memory. Little is known about the changes that activating a word's meaning brings about in cortical dynamics. We recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants read sentences that could contain a contextually unexpected word, such as 'cold' in 'In July it is very cold outside'. We reconstructed trajectories in phase space from single-trial EEG time series, and we applied three nonlinear measures of predictability and complexity to each side of the semantic access boundary, estimated as the onset time of the N400 effect evoked by critical words. Relative to controls, unexpected words were associated with larger prediction errors preceding the onset of the N400. Accessing the meaning of such words produced a phase transition to lower entropy states, in which cortical processing becomes more predictable and more regular. Our study sheds new light on the dynamics of information flow through interfaces between sensory and memory systems during language processing.

Tiers of intervention in kindergarten through third grade.

PubMed

O'Connor, Rollanda E; Harty, Kristin R; Fulmer, Deborah

2005-01-01

This study measured the effects of increasing levels of intervention in reading for a cohort of children in Grades K through 3 to determine whether the severity of reading disability (RD) could be significantly reduced in the catchment schools. Tier 1 consisted of professional development for teachers of reading. The focus of this study is on additional instruction that was provided as early as kindergarten for children whose achievement fell below average. Tier 2 intervention consisted of small-group reading instruction 3 times per week, and Tier 3 of daily instruction delivered individually or in groups of two. A comparison of the reading achievement of third-grade children who were at risk in kindergarten showed moderate to large differences favoring children in the tiered interventions in decoding, word identification, fluency, and reading comprehension.

Does Knowing What a Word Means Influence How Easily Its Decoding Is Learned?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michaud, Mélissa; Dion, Eric; Barrette, Anne; Dupéré, Véronique; Toste, Jessica

2017-01-01

Theoretical models of word recognition suggest that knowing what a word means makes it easier to learn how to decode it. We tested this hypothesis with at-risk young students, a group that often responds poorly to conventional decoding instruction in which word meaning is not addressed systematically. A total of 53 first graders received explicit…

Interactive Stories and Exercises with Dynamic Feedback for Improving Reading Comprehension Skills in Deaf Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mich, Ornella; Pianta, Emanuele; Mana, Nadia

2013-01-01

Deaf children have significant difficulties in comprehending written text. This is mainly due to the hearing loss that prevents them from being exposed to oral language when they were an infant. However, it is also due to the type of educational intervention they are faced with, which accustoms them to decoding single words and isolated sentences,…

Computer-assisted reading intervention with a phonics approach for children using cochlear implants or hearing aids.

PubMed

Nakeva von Mentzer, Cecilia; Lyxell, Björn; Sahlén, Birgitta; Dahlström, Orjan; Lindgren, Magnus; Ors, Marianne; Kallioinen, Petter; Uhlén, Inger

2014-10-01

The present study examined computer-assisted reading intervention with a phonics approach for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children in Sweden using cochlear implants or hearing aids, or a combination of both. The study included 48 children, 5, 6 and 7 years of age. Sixteen children with normal hearing (NH) served as a reference group. The first purpose of the study was to compare NH and DHH children's reading ability at pre and post-intervention. The second purpose was to investigate effects of the intervention. Cognitive and demographic factors were analyzed in relation to reading improvement. Results showed no statistically significant difference for reading ability at the group level, although NH children showed overall higher reading scores at both test points. Age comparisons revealed a statistically significant higher reading ability in the NH 7-year-olds compared to the DHH 7-year-olds. The intervention proved successful for word decoding accuracy, passage comprehension and as a reduction of nonword decoding errors in both NH and DHH children. Reading improvement was associated with complex working memory and phonological processing skills in NH children. Correspondent associations were observed with visual working memory and letter knowledge in the DHH children. Age was the only demographic factor that was significantly correlated with reading improvement. The results suggest that DHH children's beginning reading may be influenced by visual strategies that might explain the reading delay in the older children. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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.

Role of Gender and Linguistic Diversity in Word Decoding Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verhoeven, Ludo; van Leeuwe, Jan

2011-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of gender and linguistic diversity in the growth of Dutch word decoding skills throughout elementary school for a representative sample of children living in the Netherlands. Following a longitudinal design, the children's decoding abilities for (1) regular CVC words, (2) complex…

Investigating the Improvement of Decoding Abilities and Working Memory in Children with Incremental or Entity Personal Conceptions of Intelligence: Two Case Reports

PubMed Central

Alesi, Marianna; Rappo, Gaetano; Pepi, Annamaria

2016-01-01

One of the most significant current discussions has led to the hypothesis that domain-specific training programs alone are not enough to improve reading achievement or working memory abilities. Incremental or Entity personal conceptions of intelligence may be assumed to be an important prognostic factor to overcome domain-specific deficits. Specifically, incremental students tend to be more oriented toward change and autonomy and are able to adopt more efficacious strategies. This study aims at examining the effect of personal conceptions of intelligence to strengthen the efficacy of a multidimensional intervention program in order to improve decoding abilities and working memory. Participants included two children (M age = 10 years) with developmental dyslexia and different conceptions of intelligence. The children were tested on a whole battery of reading and spelling tests commonly used in the assessment of reading disabilities in Italy. Afterwards, they were given a multimedia test to measure motivational factors such as conceptions of intelligence and achievement goals. The children took part in the T.I.R.D. Multimedia Training for the Rehabilitation of Dyslexia (Rappo and Pepi, 2010) reinforced by specific units to improve verbal working memory for 3 months. This training consisted of specific tasks to rehabilitate both visual and phonological strategies (sound blending, word segmentation, alliteration test and rhyme test, letter recognition, digraph recognition, trigraph recognition, and word recognition as samples of visual tasks) and verbal working memory (rapid words and non-words recognition). Posttest evaluations showed that the child holding the incremental theory of intelligence improved more than the child holding a static representation. On the whole this study highlights the importance of treatment programs in which both specificity of deficits and motivational factors are both taken into account. There is a need to plan multifaceted intervention programs based on a transverse approach, considering both cognitive and motivational factors. PMID:26779069

Neural dysfunction in ADHD with Reading Disability during a word rhyming Continuous Performance Task.

PubMed

Mohl, B; Ofen, N; Jones, L L; Robin, A L; Rosenberg, D R; Diwadkar, V A; Casey, J E; Stanley, J A

2015-10-01

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a heterogeneous, neurodevelopmental disorder which co-occurs often with Reading Disability (RD). ADHD with and without RD consistently have higher inattentive ratings compared with typically developing controls, with co-occurring ADHD and RD also demonstrating impaired phonological processing. Accordingly, inattention has been associated with greater phonological impairment, though the neural correlates of the association are poorly understood from a functional neuroimaging perspective. It was postulated that only the co-occurring subgroup would demonstrate hypoactivation of posterior, left hemispheric, reading-related areas and, to a lesser extent, alterations in right hemispheric, attention areas compared with controls. A novel word rhyming Continuous Performance Task assesses functional activation differences in phonology- and attention-related areas between three groups: ten boys with ADHD and RD, fourteen boys with ADHD without RD, and fourteen typically developing controls. Subjects respond to words that rhyme with a target word as mono- and disyllabic, English words are visually presented over 90s blocks. Behavioral performance was not different between groups. Some hypoactivation of left hemispheric, reading-related areas was apparent in ADHD and RD, but not ADHD without RD, compared with controls. Right hemispheric, attention areas showed alterations in both ADHD subgroups relative to controls; however, the differences for each subgroup were dissimilar. The dorsal decoding subnetwork may not be grossly compromised in ADHD with Reading Disability. The role of cognitive impairments, including the level of inattention, on phonology requires clarification from a neuroimaging perspective. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Predicting reading comprehension academic achievement in late adolescents with velo-cardio-facial (22q11.2 deletion) syndrome (VCFS): A longitudinal study

PubMed Central

Antshel, Kevin M.; Hier, Bridget O.; Fremont, Wanda; Faraone, Stephen V.; Kates, Wendy R.

2015-01-01

Background The primary objective of the current study was to examine the childhood predictors of adolescent reading comprehension in velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS). Although much research has focused on mathematics skills among individuals with VCFS, no studies have examined predictors of reading comprehension. Methods 69 late adolescents with VCFS , 23 siblings of youth with VCFS and 30 community controls participated in a longitudinal research project and had repeat neuropsychological test batteries and psychiatric evaluations every 3 years. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – 2nd edition (WIAT-II) Reading Comprehension subtest served as our primary outcome variable. Results Consistent with previous research, children and adolescents with VCFS had mean reading comprehension scores on the WIAT-II which were approximately two standard deviations below the mean and word reading scores approximately one standard deviation below the mean. A more novel finding is that relative to both control groups, individuals with VCFS demonstrated a longitudinal decline in reading comprehension abilities yet a slight increase in word reading abilities. In the combined control sample, WISC-III FSIQ, WIAT-II Word Reading, WISC-III Vocabulary and CVLT-C List A Trial 1 accounted for 75% of the variance in Time 3 WIAT-II Reading Comprehension scores. In the VCFS sample, WISC-III FSIQ, BASC-Teacher Aggression, CVLT-C Intrusions, Tower of London, Visual Span Backwards, WCST non-perseverative errors, WIAT-II Word Reading and WISC-III Freedom from Distractibility index accounted for 85% of the variance in Time 3 WIAT-II Reading Comprehension scores. A principal component analysis with promax rotation computed on the statistically significant Time 1 predictor variables in the VCFS sample resulted in three factors: Word reading decoding / Interference control, Self-Control / Self-Monitoring and Working Memory. Conclusions Childhood predictors of late adolescent reading comprehension in VCFS differ in some meaningful ways from predictors in the non-VCFS population. These results offer some guidance for how best to consider intervention efforts to improve reading comprehension in the VCFS population. PMID:24861691

E-Readers Are More Effective than Paper for Some with Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Schneps, Matthew H.; Thomson, Jenny M.; Chen, Chen; Sonnert, Gerhard; Pomplun, Marc

2013-01-01

E-readers are fast rivaling print as a dominant method for reading. Because they offer accessibility options that are impossible in print, they are potentially beneficial for those with impairments, such as dyslexia. Yet, little is known about how the use of these devices influences reading in those who struggle. Here, we observe reading comprehension and speed in 103 high school students with dyslexia. Reading on paper was compared with reading on a small handheld e-reader device, formatted to display few words per line. We found that use of the device significantly improved speed and comprehension, when compared with traditional presentations on paper for specific subsets of these individuals: Those who struggled most with phoneme decoding or efficient sight word reading read more rapidly using the device, and those with limited VA Spans gained in comprehension. Prior eye tracking studies demonstrated that short lines facilitate reading in dyslexia, suggesting that it is the use of short lines (and not the device per se) that leads to the observed benefits. We propose that these findings may be understood as a consequence of visual attention deficits, in some with dyslexia, that make it difficult to allocate attention to uncrowded text near fixation, as the gaze advances during reading. Short lines ameliorate this by guiding attention to the uncrowded span. PMID:24058697

IQ Predicts Word Decoding Skills in Populations with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levy, Yonata

2011-01-01

This is a study of word decoding in adolescents with Down syndrome and in adolescents with Intellectual Deficits of unknown etiology. It was designed as a replication of studies of word decoding in English speaking and in Hebrew speaking adolescents with Williams syndrome ([0230] and [0235]). Participants' IQ was matched to IQ in the groups with…

Early Word Decoding Ability as a Longitudinal Predictor of Academic Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nordström, Thomas; Jacobson, Christer; Söderberg, Pernilla

2016-01-01

This study, using a longitudinal design with a Swedish cohort of young readers, investigates if children's early word decoding ability in second grade can predict later academic performance. In an effort to estimate the unique effect of early word decoding (grade 2) with academic performance (grade 9), gender and non-verbal cognitive ability were…

Reading skills of students with speech sound disorders at three stages of literacy development.

PubMed

Skebo, Crysten M; Lewis, Barbara A; Freebairn, Lisa A; Tag, Jessica; Avrich Ciesla, Allison; Stein, Catherine M

2013-10-01

The relationship between phonological awareness, overall language, vocabulary, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills to decoding and reading comprehension was examined for students at 3 stages of literacy development (i.e., early elementary school, middle school, and high school). Students with histories of speech sound disorders (SSD) with and without language impairment (LI) were compared to students without histories of SSD or LI (typical language; TL). In a cross-sectional design, students ages 7;0 (years;months) to 17;9 completed tests that measured reading, language, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills. For the TL group, phonological awareness predicted decoding at early elementary school, and overall language predicted reading comprehension at early elementary school and both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and high school. For the SSD-only group, vocabulary predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at early elementary school, and overall language predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and decoding at high school. For the SSD and LI group, overall language predicted decoding at all 3 literacy stages and reading comprehension at early elementary school and middle school, and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension at high school. Although similar skills contribute to reading across the age span, the relative importance of these skills changes with children's literacy stages.

Reading Skills of Students With Speech Sound Disorders at Three Stages of Literacy Development

PubMed Central

Skebo, Crysten M.; Lewis, Barbara A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Tag, Jessica; Ciesla, Allison Avrich; Stein, Catherine M.

2015-01-01

Purpose The relationship between phonological awareness, overall language, vocabulary, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills to decoding and reading comprehension was examined for students at 3 stages of literacy development (i.e., early elementary school, middle school, and high school). Students with histories of speech sound disorders (SSD) with and without language impairment (LI) were compared to students without histories of SSD or LI (typical language; TL). Method In a cross-sectional design, students ages 7;0 (years; months) to 17;9 completed tests that measured reading, language, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills. Results For the TL group, phonological awareness predicted decoding at early elementary school, and overall language predicted reading comprehension at early elementary school and both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and high school. For the SSD-only group, vocabulary predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at early elementary school, and overall language predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and decoding at high school. For the SSD and LI group, overall language predicted decoding at all 3 literacy stages and reading comprehension at early elementary school and middle school, and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension at high school. Conclusion Although similar skills contribute to reading across the age span, the relative importance of these skills changes with children’s literacy stages. PMID:23833280

Working Memory Training Does Not Improve Performance on Measures of Intelligence or Other Measures of “Far Transfer”

PubMed Central

Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Redick, Thomas S.; Hulme, Charles

2016-01-01

It has been claimed that working memory training programs produce diverse beneficial effects. This article presents a meta-analysis of working memory training studies (with a pretest-posttest design and a control group) that have examined transfer to other measures (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, or arithmetic; 87 publications with 145 experimental comparisons). Immediately following training there were reliable improvements on measures of intermediate transfer (verbal and visuospatial working memory). For measures of far transfer (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, arithmetic) there was no convincing evidence of any reliable improvements when working memory training was compared with a treated control condition. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that across studies, the degree of improvement on working memory measures was not related to the magnitude of far-transfer effects found. Finally, analysis of publication bias shows that there is no evidential value from the studies of working memory training using treated controls. The authors conclude that working memory training programs appear to produce short-term, specific training effects that do not generalize to measures of “real-world” cognitive skills. These results seriously question the practical and theoretical importance of current computerized working memory programs as methods of training working memory skills. PMID:27474138

Bounded-Angle Iterative Decoding of LDPC Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dolinar, Samuel; Andrews, Kenneth; Pollara, Fabrizio; Divsalar, Dariush

2009-01-01

Bounded-angle iterative decoding is a modified version of conventional iterative decoding, conceived as a means of reducing undetected-error rates for short low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. For a given code, bounded-angle iterative decoding can be implemented by means of a simple modification of the decoder algorithm, without redesigning the code. Bounded-angle iterative decoding is based on a representation of received words and code words as vectors in an n-dimensional Euclidean space (where n is an integer).

Complex dynamics of semantic memory access in reading

PubMed Central

Baggio, Giosué; Fonseca, André

2012-01-01

Understanding a word in context relies on a cascade of perceptual and conceptual processes, starting with modality-specific input decoding, and leading to the unification of the word's meaning into a discourse model. One critical cognitive event, turning a sensory stimulus into a meaningful linguistic sign, is the access of a semantic representation from memory. Little is known about the changes that activating a word's meaning brings about in cortical dynamics. We recorded the electroencephalogram (EEG) while participants read sentences that could contain a contextually unexpected word, such as ‘cold’ in ‘In July it is very cold outside’. We reconstructed trajectories in phase space from single-trial EEG time series, and we applied three nonlinear measures of predictability and complexity to each side of the semantic access boundary, estimated as the onset time of the N400 effect evoked by critical words. Relative to controls, unexpected words were associated with larger prediction errors preceding the onset of the N400. Accessing the meaning of such words produced a phase transition to lower entropy states, in which cortical processing becomes more predictable and more regular. Our study sheds new light on the dynamics of information flow through interfaces between sensory and memory systems during language processing. PMID:21715401

The Construct and Predictive Validity of a Dynamic Assessment of Young Children Learning to Read: Implications for RTI Frameworks

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Bouton, Bobette; Caffrey, Erin

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct and predictive validity of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding learning. Students (N = 318) were assessed in the fall of first grade on an array of instruments that were given in hopes of forecasting responsiveness to reading instruction. These instruments included DA as well as one-point-in-time (static) measures of early alphabetic knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonemic awareness, oral vocabulary, listening comprehension, attentive behavior, and hyperactive or impulsive behavior. An IQ test was administered in spring of second grade. Measures of reading outcomes administered in spring of first grade were accuracy and fluency of word identification skills and reading comprehension. Factor analysis using principal axis factor extraction indicated that DA loaded on a first factor that also included language abilities and IQ, which the authors refer to as the “language, IQ, and DA” factor. It was relatively distinct from two additional factors: (a) “speeded alphabetic knowledge and RAN” and (b) “task-oriented behavior.” A three-level (children nested within classroom; classrooms nested within school) random intercept model with fixed effects predictors suggested that DA differed from word attack in predicting future reading skill and that DA was a significant predictor of responsiveness to instruction, contributing unique variance to end-of-first-grade word identification and reading comprehension beyond that explained by other well-established predictors of reading development. PMID:21685347

Is a cerebellar deficit the underlying cause of reading disabilities?

PubMed

Irannejad, Shahrzad; Savage, Robert

2012-04-01

This study investigated whether children with dyslexia differed in their performance on reading, phonological, rapid naming, motor, and cerebellar-related tasks and automaticity measures compared to reading age (RA)-matched and chronological age (CA)-matched control groups. Participants were 51 children attending mainstream English elementary schools in Quebec. All participants completed measures of IQ, word and nonword reading fluency, elision, nonword decoding, rapid naming, bead threading, peg moving, toe tapping, postural stability, and muscle tone. Results from both group contrasts and analyses at the individual case level did not provide support for claims of motor-cerebellar involvement in either typical or atypical reading acquisition. Results were more consistent with a phonological core process account of both typical reading and reading difficulty. Phonological deficits for children with dyslexia compared to RA-matched controls were, however, only evident in group contrasts. Findings thus also have important implications for identifying at-risk readers among their same-aged peers.

Decoding and Reading Comprehension: A Meta-Analysis to Identify Which Reader and Assessment Characteristics Influence the Strength of the Relationship in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García, J. Ricardo; Cain, Kate

2014-01-01

The twofold purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the relative importance of decoding skills to reading comprehension in reading development and to identify which reader characteristics and reading assessment characteristics contribute to differences in the decoding and reading comprehension correlation. A meta-analysis of 110 studies…

Mapping the reading circuitry for skilled deaf readers: an fMRI study of semantic and phonological processing.

PubMed

Emmorey, Karen; Weisberg, Jill; McCullough, Stephen; Petrich, Jennifer A F

2013-08-01

We examined word-level reading circuits in skilled deaf readers whose primary language is American Sign Language, and hearing readers matched for reading ability (college level). During fMRI scanning, participants performed a semantic decision (concrete concept?), a phonological decision (two syllables?), and a false-font control task (string underlined?). The groups performed equally well on the semantic task, but hearing readers performed better on the phonological task. Semantic processing engaged similar left frontotemporal language circuits in deaf and hearing readers. However, phonological processing elicited increased neural activity in deaf, relative to hearing readers, in the left precentral gyrus, suggesting greater reliance on articulatory phonological codes, and in bilateral parietal cortex, suggesting increased phonological processing effort. Deaf readers also showed stronger anterior-posterior functional segregation between semantic and phonological processes in left inferior prefrontal cortex. Finally, weaker phonological decoding ability did not alter activation in the visual word form area for deaf readers. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Conceptual design of a 10 to the 8th power bit magnetic bubble domain mass storage unit and fabrication, test and delivery of a feasibility model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1972-01-01

The conceptual design of a highly reliable 10 to the 8th power-bit bubble domain memory for the space program is described. The memory has random access to blocks of closed-loop shift registers, and utilizes self-contained bubble domain chips with on-chip decoding. Trade-off studies show that the highest reliability and lowest power dissipation is obtained when the memory is organized on a bit-per-chip basis. The final design has 800 bits/register, 128 registers/chip, 16 chips/plane, and 112 planes, of which only seven are activated at a time. A word has 64 data bits +32 checkbits, used in a 16-adjacent code to provide correction of any combination of errors in one plane. 100 KHz maximum rotational frequency keeps power low (equal to or less than, 25 watts) and also allows asynchronous operation. Data rate is 6.4 megabits/sec, access time is 200 msec to an 800-word block and an additional 4 msec (average) to a word. The fabrication and operation are also described for a 64-bit bubble domain memory chip designed to test the concept of on-chip magnetic decoding. Access to one of the chip's four shift registers for the read, write, and clear functions is by means of bubble domain decoders utilizing the interaction between a conductor line and a bubble.

Current Perspectives on the Cerebellum and Reading Development.

PubMed

Alvarez, Travis A; Fiez, Julie A

2018-05-03

The dominant neural models of typical and atypical reading focus on the cerebral cortex. However, Nicolson et al. (2001) proposed a model, the cerebellar deficit hypothesis, in which the cerebellum plays an important role in reading. To evaluate the evidence in support of this model, we qualitatively review the current literature and employ meta-analytic tools examining patterns of functional connectivity between the cerebellum and the cerebral reading network. We find evidence for a phonological circuit with connectivity between the cerebellum and a dorsal fronto-parietal pathway, and a semantic circuit with cerebellar connectivity to a ventral fronto-temporal pathway. Furthermore, both cerebral pathways have functional connections with the mid-fusiform gyrus, a region implicated in orthographic processing. Consideration of these circuits within the context of the current literature suggests the cerebellum is positioned to influence both phonological and word-based decoding procedures for recognizing unfamiliar printed words. Overall, multiple lines of research provide support for the cerebellar deficit hypothesis, while also highlighting the need for further research to test mechanistic hypotheses. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Effects of reading goals on reading comprehension, reading rate, and allocation of working memory in children and adolescents with spina bifida meningomyelocele

PubMed Central

ENGLISH, LIANNE; BARNES, MARCIA A.; FLETCHER, JACK M.; DENNIS, MAUREEN; RAGHUBAR, KIMBERLY P.

2011-01-01

Spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with intact word decoding and deficient text and discourse comprehension. This study investigated the ability to adjust reading in accordance with specified reading goals in 79 children and adolescents with SBM (9–19 years of age) and 39 controls (8–17 years of age). Both groups demonstrated slower reading times and enhanced comprehension when reading to study or to come up with a title than when reading for specific information or for entertainment. For both groups, verbal working memory contributed to comprehension performance in those reading conditions hypothesized to require more cognitive effort. Despite their sensitivity to the goals of reading, the group with SBM answered fewer comprehension questions correctly across all reading goal conditions. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized cognitive underpinnings of comprehension deficits in SBM and to current models of text comprehension. PMID:20338082

Trellises and Trellis-Based Decoding Algorithms for Linear Block Codes. Part 3; An Iterative Decoding Algorithm for Linear Block Codes Based on a Low-Weight Trellis Search

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Shu; Fossorier, Marc

1998-01-01

For long linear block codes, maximum likelihood decoding based on full code trellises would be very hard to implement if not impossible. In this case, we may wish to trade error performance for the reduction in decoding complexity. Sub-optimum soft-decision decoding of a linear block code based on a low-weight sub-trellis can be devised to provide an effective trade-off between error performance and decoding complexity. This chapter presents such a suboptimal decoding algorithm for linear block codes. This decoding algorithm is iterative in nature and based on an optimality test. It has the following important features: (1) a simple method to generate a sequence of candidate code-words, one at a time, for test; (2) a sufficient condition for testing a candidate code-word for optimality; and (3) a low-weight sub-trellis search for finding the most likely (ML) code-word.

Vocabulary knowledge mediates the link between socioeconomic status and word learning in grade school.

PubMed

Maguire, Mandy J; Schneider, Julie M; Middleton, Anna E; Ralph, Yvonne; Lopez, Michael; Ackerman, Robert A; Abel, Alyson D

2018-02-01

The relationship between children's slow vocabulary growth and the family's low socioeconomic status (SES) has been well documented. However, previous studies have often focused on infants or preschoolers and primarily used static measures of vocabulary at multiple time points. To date, there is no research investigating whether SES predicts a child's word learning abilities in grade school and, if so, what mediates this relationship. In this study, 68 children aged 8-15 years performed a written word learning from context task that required using the surrounding text to identify the meaning of an unknown word. Results revealed that vocabulary knowledge significantly mediated the relationship between SES (as measured by maternal education) and word learning. This was true despite the fact that the words in the linguistic context surrounding the target word are typically acquired well before 8 years of age. When controlling for vocabulary, word learning from written context was not predicted by differences in reading comprehension, decoding, or working memory. These findings reveal that differences in vocabulary growth between grade school children from low and higher SES homes are likely related to differences in the process of word learning more than knowledge of surrounding words or reading skills. Specifically, children from lower SES homes are not as effective at using known vocabulary to build a robust semantic representation of incoming text to identify the meaning of an unknown word. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Reading visually embodied meaning from the brain: Visually grounded computational models decode visual-object mental imagery induced by written text.

PubMed

Anderson, Andrew James; Bruni, Elia; Lopopolo, Alessandro; Poesio, Massimo; Baroni, Marco

2015-10-15

Embodiment theory predicts that mental imagery of object words recruits neural circuits involved in object perception. The degree of visual imagery present in routine thought and how it is encoded in the brain is largely unknown. We test whether fMRI activity patterns elicited by participants reading objects' names include embodied visual-object representations, and whether we can decode the representations using novel computational image-based semantic models. We first apply the image models in conjunction with text-based semantic models to test predictions of visual-specificity of semantic representations in different brain regions. Representational similarity analysis confirms that fMRI structure within ventral-temporal and lateral-occipital regions correlates most strongly with the image models and conversely text models correlate better with posterior-parietal/lateral-temporal/inferior-frontal regions. We use an unsupervised decoding algorithm that exploits commonalities in representational similarity structure found within both image model and brain data sets to classify embodied visual representations with high accuracy (8/10) and then extend it to exploit model combinations to robustly decode different brain regions in parallel. By capturing latent visual-semantic structure our models provide a route into analyzing neural representations derived from past perceptual experience rather than stimulus-driven brain activity. Our results also verify the benefit of combining multimodal data to model human-like semantic representations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Contribution of Attentional Control and Working Memory to Reading Comprehension and Decoding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arrington, C. Nikki; Kulesz, Paulina A.; Francis, David J.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Barnes, Marcia A.

2014-01-01

Little is known about how specific components of working memory, namely, attentional processes including response inhibition, sustained attention, and cognitive inhibition, are related to reading decoding and comprehension. The current study evaluated the relations of reading comprehension, decoding, working memory, and attentional control in…

Examining the Predictive Validity of a Dynamic Assessment of Decoding to Forecast Response Tier 2 to Intervention

PubMed Central

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L.; Fuchs, Doug; Fuchs, Lynn S.; Bouton, Bobette

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding in predicting responsiveness to Tier 2 small group tutoring in a response-to-intervention model. First-grade students (n=134) who did not show adequate progress in Tier 1 based on 6 weeks of progress monitoring received Tier 2 small-group tutoring in reading for 14 weeks. Student responsiveness to Tier 2 was assessed weekly with word identification fluency (WIF). A series of conditional individual growth curve analyses were completed that modeled the correlates of WIF growth (final level of performance and growth). Its purpose was to examine the predictive validity of DA in the presence of 3 sets of variables: static decoding measures, Tier 1 responsiveness indicators, and pre-reading variables (phonemic awareness, rapid letter naming, oral vocabulary, and IQ). DA was a significant predictor of final level and growth, uniquely explaining 3% – 13% of the variance in Tier 2 responsiveness depending on the competing predictors in the model and WIF outcome (final level of performance or growth). Although the additional variances explained uniquely by DA were relatively small, results indicate the potential of DA in identifying Tier 2 nonresponders. PMID:23213050

From Spelling Pronunciation to Lexical Access: A Second Step in Word Decoding?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elbro, Carsten; de Jong, Peter F.; Houter, Daphne; Nielsen, Anne-Mette

2012-01-01

There is a gap between "w..aa..sss" and "woz" ("was"). This is a gap between the output from a phonological recoding of a word and its lexical pronunciation. We suggest that ease of recognition of words from spelling pronunciations (like "w..aa..sss") contributes independent variance to word decoding ability…

[Efficacy of decoding training for children with difficulty reading hiragana].

PubMed

Uchiyama, Hitoshi; Tanaka, Daisuke; Seki, Ayumi; Wakamiya, Eiji; Hirasawa, Noriko; Iketani, Naotake; Kato, Ken; Koeda, Tatsuya

2013-05-01

The present study aimed to clarify the efficacy of decoding training focusing on the correspondence between written symbols and their readings for children with difficulty reading hiragana (Japanese syllabary). Thirty-five children with difficulty reading hiragana were selected from among 367 first-grade elementary school students using a reading aloud test and were then divided into intervention (n=15) and control (n=20) groups. The intervention comprised 5 minutes of decoding training each day for a period of 3 weeks using an original program on a personal computer. Reading time and number of reading errors in the reading aloud test were compared between the groups. The intervention group showed a significant shortening of reading time (F(1,33)=5.40, p<0.05, two-way ANOVA) compared to the control group. However, no significant difference in the number of errors was observed between the two groups. Ten children in the control group who wished to participate in the decoding training were included in an additional study;as a result, improvement of the number of reading errors was observed (t= 2.863, p< 0.05, paired t test), but there was no improvement in reading time. Decoding training was found to be effective for improving both reading time and reading errors in children with difficulty reading hiragana.

Working Memory Training Does Not Improve Performance on Measures of Intelligence or Other Measures of "Far Transfer": Evidence From a Meta-Analytic Review.

PubMed

Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Redick, Thomas S; Hulme, Charles

2016-07-01

It has been claimed that working memory training programs produce diverse beneficial effects. This article presents a meta-analysis of working memory training studies (with a pretest-posttest design and a control group) that have examined transfer to other measures (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, or arithmetic; 87 publications with 145 experimental comparisons). Immediately following training there were reliable improvements on measures of intermediate transfer (verbal and visuospatial working memory). For measures of far transfer (nonverbal ability, verbal ability, word decoding, reading comprehension, arithmetic) there was no convincing evidence of any reliable improvements when working memory training was compared with a treated control condition. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that across studies, the degree of improvement on working memory measures was not related to the magnitude of far-transfer effects found. Finally, analysis of publication bias shows that there is no evidential value from the studies of working memory training using treated controls. The authors conclude that working memory training programs appear to produce short-term, specific training effects that do not generalize to measures of "real-world" cognitive skills. These results seriously question the practical and theoretical importance of current computerized working memory programs as methods of training working memory skills. © The Author(s) 2016.

Probing the perceptual and cognitive underpinnings of braille reading. An Estonian population study.

PubMed

Veispak, Anneli; Boets, Bart; Männamaa, Mairi; Ghesquière, Pol

2012-01-01

Similar to many sighted children who struggle with learning to read, a proportion of blind children have specific difficulties related to reading braille which cannot be easily explained. A lot of research has been conducted to investigate the perceptual and cognitive processes behind (impairments in) print reading. Very few studies, however, have aimed for a deeper insight into the relevant perceptual and cognitive processes involved in braille reading. In the present study we investigate the relations between reading achievement and auditory, speech, phonological and tactile processing in a population of Estonian braille reading children and youngsters and matched sighted print readers. Findings revealed that the sequential nature of braille imposes constant decoding and effective recruitment of phonological skills throughout the reading process. Sighted print readers, on the other hand, seem to switch between the use of phonological and lexical processing modes depending on the familiarity, length and structure of the word. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Validation of the Informal Decoding Inventory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKenna, Michael C.; Walpole, Sharon; Jang, Bong Gee

2017-01-01

This study investigated the reliability and validity of Part 1 of the Informal Decoding Inventory (IDI), a free diagnostic assessment used to plan Tier 2 intervention for first graders with decoding deficits. Part 1 addresses single-syllable words and consists of five subtests that progress in difficulty and that contain real word and pseudoword…

Acquisition of Malay word recognition skills: lessons from low-progress early readers.

PubMed

Lee, Lay Wah; Wheldall, Kevin

2011-02-01

Malay is a consistent alphabetic orthography with complex syllable structures. The focus of this research was to investigate word recognition performance in order to inform reading interventions for low-progress early readers. Forty-six Grade 1 students were sampled and 11 were identified as low-progress readers. The results indicated that both syllable awareness and phoneme blending were significant predictors of word recognition, suggesting that both syllable and phonemic grain-sizes are important in Malay word recognition. Item analysis revealed a hierarchical pattern of difficulty based on the syllable and the phonic structure of the words. Error analysis identified the sources of errors to be errors due to inefficient syllable segmentation, oversimplification of syllables, insufficient grapheme-phoneme knowledge and inefficient phonemic code assembly. Evidence also suggests that direct instruction in syllable segmentation, phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme correspondence is necessary for low-progress readers to acquire word recognition skills. Finally, a logical sequence to teach grapheme-phoneme decoding in Malay is suggested. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Effects of Word Box Instruction on Acquisition, Generalization, and Maintenance of Decoding and Spelling Skills for First Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alber-Morgan, Sheila R.; Joseph, Laurice M.; Kanotz, Brittany; Rouse, Christina A.; Sawyer, Mary R.

2016-01-01

This study examined the effects of implementing word boxes as a supplemental instruction method on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of word identification and spelling. Word box intervention consists of using manipulatives to learn phonological decoding skills. The participants were three African-American urban first graders…

The Relation of Decoding and Fluency Skills to Skilled Reading. Research Review Series 1979-80. Volume 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Maravene Beth

The author reviews literature on fluency of decoding, sentence awareness or comprehension, and comprehension of larger than sentence texts, in relation to reading comprehension problems in learning disabled children. Initial sections look at the relation of decoding and fluency skills to skilled reading and differences between good and poor…

Predictors of word-level literacy amongst Grade 3 children in five diverse languages.

PubMed

Smythe, Ian; Everatt, John; Al-Menaye, Nasser; He, Xianyou; Capellini, Simone; Gyarmathy, Eva; Siegel, Linda S

2008-08-01

Groups of Grade 3 children were tested on measures of word-level literacy and undertook tasks that required the ability to associate sounds with letter sequences and that involved visual, auditory and phonological-processing skills. These groups came from different language backgrounds in which the language of instruction was Arabic, Chinese, English, Hungarian or Portuguese. Similar measures were used across the groups, with tests being adapted to be appropriate for the language of the children. Findings indicated that measures of decoding and phonological-processing skills were good predictors of word reading and spelling among Arabic- and English-speaking children, but were less able to predict variability in these same early literacy skills among Chinese- and Hungarian-speaking children, and were better at predicting variability in Portuguese word reading than spelling. Results were discussed with reference to the relative transparency of the script and issues of dyslexia assessment across languages. Overall, the findings argue for the need to take account of features of the orthography used to represent a language when developing assessment procedures for a particular language and that assessment of word-level literacy skills and a phonological perspective of dyslexia may not be universally applicable across all language contexts. Copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Decoding vowels and consonants in spoken and imagined words using electrocorticographic signals in humans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pei, Xiaomei; Barbour, Dennis L.; Leuthardt, Eric C.; Schalk, Gerwin

2011-08-01

Several stories in the popular media have speculated that it may be possible to infer from the brain which word a person is speaking or even thinking. While recent studies have demonstrated that brain signals can give detailed information about actual and imagined actions, such as different types of limb movements or spoken words, concrete experimental evidence for the possibility to 'read the mind', i.e. to interpret internally-generated speech, has been scarce. In this study, we found that it is possible to use signals recorded from the surface of the brain (electrocorticography) to discriminate the vowels and consonants embedded in spoken and in imagined words, and we defined the cortical areas that held the most information about discrimination of vowels and consonants. The results shed light on the distinct mechanisms associated with production of vowels and consonants, and could provide the basis for brain-based communication using imagined speech.

Accuracy of student performance while reading leveled books rated at their instructional level by a reading inventory.

PubMed

Burns, Matthew K; Pulles, Sandra M; Maki, Kathrin E; Kanive, Rebecca; Hodgson, Jennifer; Helman, Lori A; McComas, Jennifer J; Preast, June L

2015-12-01

Identifying a student's instructional level is necessary to ensure that students are appropriately challenged in reading. Informal reading inventories (IRIs) purport to assess the highest reading level at which a student can accurately decode and comprehend text. However, the use of IRIs in determining a student's instructional level has been questioned because of a lack of research. The current study examined the percentage of words read correctly with 64 second- and third-grade students while reading from texts at their instructional level as determined by an IRI. Students read for 1 min from three leveled texts that corresponded to their instructional level as measured by an IRI, and the percentage of words read correctly was recorded. The percentage read correctly correlated across the three books from r=.47 to r=.68 and instructional level categories correlated from tau=.59 to tau=.65. Percent agreement calculations showed that the categorical scores (frustration, instructional, and independent) for the three readings agreed approximately 67% to 70% of the time, which resulted in a kappa estimate of less than .50. Kappa coefficients of .70 are considered strong indicators of agreement. Moreover, more than half of the students with the lowest reading skills read at a frustration level when attempting to read books rated at their instructional level by an IRI. The current study questions how reliably and accurately IRIs identify students' instructional level for reading. Copyright © 2015 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Intervention Provided to Linguistically Diverse Middle School Students with Severe Reading Difficulties

PubMed Central

Denton, Carolyn A.; Wexler, Jade; Vaughn, Sharon; Bryan, Deanna

2012-01-01

This study investigated the effectiveness of a multicomponent reading intervention implemented with middle school students with severe reading difficulties, all of whom had received remedial and/or special education for several years with minimal response to intervention. Participants were 38 students in grades 6–8 who had severe deficits in word reading, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Most were Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) with identified disabilities. Nearly all demonstrated severely limited oral vocabularies in English and, for ELLs, in both English and Spanish. Students were randomly assigned to receive the research intervention (n = 20) or typical instruction provided in their school’s remedial reading or special education classes (n = 18). Students in the treatment group received daily explicit and systematic small-group intervention for 40 minutes over 13 weeks, consisting of a modified version of a phonics-based remedial program augmented with English as a Second Language practices and instruction in vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension strategies. Results indicated that treatment students did not demonstrate significantly higher outcomes in word recognition, comprehension, or fluency than students who received the school’s typical instruction and that neither group demonstrated significant growth over the course of the study. Significant correlations were found between scores on teachers’ ratings of students’ social skills and problem behaviors and posttest decoding and spelling scores, and between English oral vocabulary scores and scores in word identification and comprehension. The researchers hypothesize that middle school students with the most severe reading difficulties, particularly those who are ELLs and those with limited oral vocabularies, may require intervention of considerably greater intensity than that provided in this study. Further research directly addressing features of effective remediation for these students is needed. PMID:22736893

Influence of First Language Orthographic Experience on Second Language Decoding and Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Megumi; Koda, Keiko

2008-01-01

This study examined the influence of first language (L1) orthographic experiences on decoding and semantic information retention of new words in a second language (L2). Hypotheses were that congruity in L1 and L2 orthographic experiences determines L2 decoding efficiency, which, in turn, affects semantic information encoding and retention.…

The Role of Phonological Decoding in Second Language Word-Meaning Inference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Megumi; Koda, Keiko

2010-01-01

Two hypotheses were tested: Similarity between first language (L1) and second language (L2) orthographic processing facilitates L2-decoding efficiency; and L2-decoding efficiency contributes to word-meaning inference to different degrees among L2 learners with diverse L1 orthographic backgrounds. The participants were college-level English as a…

Replication of an Experimental Study Investigating the Efficacy of a Multisyllabic Word Reading Intervention With and Without Motivational Beliefs Training for Struggling Readers.

PubMed

Toste, Jessica R; Capin, Philip; Williams, Kelly J; Cho, Eunsoo; Vaughn, Sharon

2018-05-01

This randomized control trial examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at improving multisyllabic word reading (MWR) skills among fourth- and fifth-grade struggling readers ( n = 109, 48.6% male), as well as the relative effects of an embedded motivational beliefs training component. This study was a closely aligned replication of our earlier work. The intervention was replicated with a three-condition design: MWR only, MWR with a motivational beliefs component, and business-as-usual control. Students were tutored in small groups for 40 lessons (four 40-min lessons each week). When we combined performance of students in both MWR conditions, intervention students significantly outperformed controls on proximal measures of affix reading and MWR, as well as standardized measures of decoding, spelling, and text comprehension. Furthermore, there was a noted interaction between English learner status and treatment on spelling performance. There were no statistically significant main effects between the MWR groups on proximal or standardized measures of interest. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to MWR instruction for students with persistent reading difficulties and considerations for future research related to the malleability of motivation.

Distinct patterns of brain function in children with isolated spelling impairment: new insights.

PubMed

Gebauer, Daniela; Enzinger, Christian; Kronbichler, Martin; Schurz, Matthias; Reishofer, Gernot; Koschutnig, Karl; Kargl, Reinhard; Purgstaller, Christian; Fazekas, Franz; Fink, Andreas

2012-06-01

Studies investigating reading and spelling difficulties heavily focused on the neural correlates of reading impairments, whereas spelling impairments have been largely neglected so far. Hence, the aim of the present study was to investigate brain structure and function of children with isolated spelling difficulties. Therefore, 31 children, aged ten to 15 years, were investigated by means of functional MRI and DTI. This study revealed that children with isolated spelling impairment exhibit a stronger right hemispheric activation compared to children with reading and spelling difficulties and controls, when engaged in an orthographic decision task, presumably reflecting a highly efficient serial grapheme-phoneme decoding compensation strategy. In addition, children with spelling impairment activated bilateral inferior and middle frontal gyri during processing correctly spelled words and misspelled words, whereas the other two groups showed bilateral activation only in the misspelled condition, suggesting that additional right frontal engagement could be related to generally higher task demand and effort. DTI analyses revealed stronger frontal white matter integrity (fractional anisotropy) in controls (compared to spelling and reading impaired children), whereas no structural differences between controls and spelling impaired children were observed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptual and academic patterns of learning-disabled/gifted students.

PubMed

Waldron, K A; Saphire, D G

1992-04-01

This research explored ways gifted children with learning disabilities perceive and recall auditory and visual input and apply this information to reading, mathematics, and spelling. 24 learning-disabled/gifted children and a matched control group of normally achieving gifted students were tested for oral reading, word recognition and analysis, listening comprehension, and spelling. In mathematics, they were tested for numeration, mental and written computation, word problems, and numerical reasoning. To explore perception and memory skills, students were administered formal tests of visual and auditory memory as well as auditory discrimination of sounds. Their responses to reading and to mathematical computations were further considered for evidence of problems in visual discrimination, visual sequencing, and visual spatial areas. Analyses indicated that these learning-disabled/gifted students were significantly weaker than controls in their decoding skills, in spelling, and in most areas of mathematics. They were also significantly weaker in auditory discrimination and memory, and in visual discrimination, sequencing, and spatial abilities. Conclusions are that these underlying perceptual and memory deficits may be related to students' academic problems.

Trellises and Trellis-Based Decoding Algorithms for Linear Block Codes. Part 3; The Map and Related Decoding Algirithms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Shu; Fossorier, Marc

1998-01-01

In a coded communication system with equiprobable signaling, MLD minimizes the word error probability and delivers the most likely codeword associated with the corresponding received sequence. This decoding has two drawbacks. First, minimization of the word error probability is not equivalent to minimization of the bit error probability. Therefore, MLD becomes suboptimum with respect to the bit error probability. Second, MLD delivers a hard-decision estimate of the received sequence, so that information is lost between the input and output of the ML decoder. This information is important in coded schemes where the decoded sequence is further processed, such as concatenated coding schemes, multi-stage and iterative decoding schemes. In this chapter, we first present a decoding algorithm which both minimizes bit error probability, and provides the corresponding soft information at the output of the decoder. This algorithm is referred to as the MAP (maximum aposteriori probability) decoding algorithm.

Decoding word and category-specific spatiotemporal representations from MEG and EEG

PubMed Central

Chan, Alexander M.; Halgren, Eric; Marinkovic, Ksenija; Cash, Sydney S.

2010-01-01

The organization and localization of lexico-semantic information in the brain has been debated for many years. Specifically, lesion and imaging studies have attempted to map the brain areas representing living versus non-living objects, however, results remain variable. This may be due, in part, to the fact that the univariate statistical mapping analyses used to detect these brain areas are typically insensitive to subtle, but widespread, effects. Decoding techniques, on the other hand, allow for a powerful multivariate analysis of multichannel neural data. In this study, we utilize machine-learning algorithms to first demonstrate that semantic category, as well as individual words, can be decoded from EEG and MEG recordings of subjects performing a language task. Mean accuracies of 76% (chance = 50%) and 83% (chance = 20%) were obtained for the decoding of living vs. non-living category or individual words respectively. Furthermore, we utilize this decoding analysis to demonstrate that the representations of words and semantic category are highly distributed both spatially and temporally. In particular, bilateral anterior temporal, bilateral inferior frontal, and left inferior temporal-occipital sensors are most important for discrimination. Successful intersubject and intermodality decoding shows that semantic representations between stimulus modalities and individuals are reasonably consistent. These results suggest that both word and category-specific information are present in extracranially recorded neural activity and that these representations may be more distributed, both spatially and temporally, than previous studies suggest. PMID:21040796

Accuracy and speed of orthographic processing in persons with developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

King, Wayne M; Lombardino, Linda L; Ahmed, Sarah

2005-08-01

A group of 39 persons (20 male and 19 female, 11.0 to 32.5 yr.) with developmental dyslexia and 42 controls (21 male and 21 female, 11.2 to 32.3 years) were compared on computerized tests of sight word reading, nonword decoding, and spelling recognition. The subjects with developmental dyslexia performed significantly slower and less accurately than controls on all tasks. Further, the effect size of the group differences was larger for the older group. Within-group analyses showed a significant difference by age group on accuracy. Only the control group showed a significant age difference between groups on response time. Mean accuracy and response times for the reading-disabled subjects resembled shifted versions of the control group means. These results agree with previous reports that phonological deficits persist for reading-disabled adults and suggest a test of whether the discrepancy between reading-disabled and typically achieving readers may actually increase across age groups.

The Contribution of Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonology to Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to examine the relation between decoding and segmental and suprasegmental phonology, and their contribution to reading comprehension, in the upper primary grades. Following a longitudinal design, the performance of 99 Dutch primary school children on phonological awareness (segmental phonology) and text reading prosody (suprasegmental phonology) in fourth-grade and fifth-grade, and reading comprehension in sixth-grade were examined. In addition, decoding efficiency as a general assessment of reading was examined. Structural path modeling firstly showed that the relation between decoding efficiency and both measures of phonology from fourth- to fifth grade was unidirectional. Secondly, the relation between decoding in fourth- and fifth-grade and reading comprehension in sixth-grade became indirect when segmental and suprasegmental phonology were added to the model. Both factors independently exerted influence on later reading comprehension. This leads to the conclusion that not only segmental, but also suprasegmental phonology, contributes substantially to children's reading development. PMID:27551159

Elegant grapheme-phoneme correspondence: a periodic chart and singularity generalization unify decoding.

PubMed

Gates, Louis

2018-04-01

The accompanying article introduces highly transparent grapheme-phoneme relationships embodied within a Periodic table of decoding cells, which arguably presents the quintessential transparent decoding elements. The study then folds these cells into one highly transparent but simply stated singularity generalization-this generalization unifies the decoding cells (97% transparency). Deeper, the periodic table and singularity generalization together highlight the connectivity of the periodic cells. Moreover, these interrelated cells, coupled with the singularity generalization, clarify teaching targets and enable efficient learning of the letter-sound code. This singularity generalization, in turn, serves as a model for creating unified but easily stated subordinate generalizations for any one of the transparent cells or groups of cells shown within the tables. The article then expands the periodic cells into two tables of teacher-ready sample word lists-one table includes sample words for the basic and phonogram vowel cells, and the other table embraces word samples for the transparent consonant cells. The paper concludes with suggestions for teaching the cellular transparency embedded within reoccurring isolated words and running text to promote decoding automaticity of the periodic cells.

Reading Comprehension in a Large Cohort of French First Graders from Low Socio-Economic Status Families: A 7-Month Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

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

2013-01-01

Background The literature suggests that a complex relationship exists between the three main skills involved in reading comprehension (decoding, listening comprehension and vocabulary) and that this relationship depends on at least three other factors orthographic transparency, children’s grade level and socioeconomic status (SES). This study investigated the relative contribution of the predictors of reading comprehension in a longitudinal design (from beginning to end of the first grade) in 394 French children from low SES families. Methodology/Principal findings Reading comprehension was measured at the end of the first grade using two tasks one with short utterances and one with a medium length narrative text. Accuracy in listening comprehension and vocabulary, and fluency of decoding skills, were measured at the beginning and end of the first grade. Accuracy in decoding skills was measured only at the beginning. Regression analyses showed that listening comprehension and decoding skills (accuracy and fluency) always significantly predicted reading comprehension. The contribution of decoding was greater when reading comprehension was assessed via the task using short utterances. Between the two assessments, the contribution of vocabulary, and of decoding skills especially, increased, while that of listening comprehension remained unchanged. Conclusion/Significance These results challenge the ‘simple view of reading’. They also have educational implications, since they show that it is possible to assess decoding and reading comprehension very early on in an orthography (i.e., French), which is less deep than the English one even in low SES children. These assessments, associated with those of listening comprehension and vocabulary, may allow early identification of children at risk for reading difficulty, and to set up early remedial training, which is the most effective, for them. PMID:24250802

The Influence of Formulaic Language on L2 Listener Decoding in Extended Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeldham, Michael

2018-01-01

This study investigated the effect of formulaic language on L2 learners' ability to decode words in listening texts. One possibility was that formulas would facilitate listening by reducing the need to process every word of the sequences. However, a contrasting possibility was that the commonly reduced nature of formulaic words would hinder…

Literacy achievement of children with intellectual disabilities and differing linguistic backgrounds.

PubMed

Verhoeven, L; Vermeer, A

2006-10-01

The aim of the present study was to examine the literacy achievement of 10- to 12-year-old native and non-native children with intellectual disabilities (ID) living in the Netherlands. An intriguing question within this context was whether the second language learning non-native children with ID would show a double disadvantage when compared with their monolingual Dutch peers with no ID. Dutch literacy scores in the domains of word decoding, vocabulary, syntax and text were therefore compared for: (1) intellectually disabled native Dutch children; (2) intellectually disabled non-native children; (3) normally developing native Dutch children; and (4) normally developing non-native children. The interrelations between literacy subskills were also compared for native vs. non-native children with ID. The native and non-native students diagnosed as intellectually disabled produced substantially lower literacy scores than their non-disabled peers. The differences between the native (L1) and non-native (L2) children in regular vs. special education were found to depend on the aspect of literacy considered. Word decoding and language skills turned out to significantly predict the children's reading comprehension, although some differences in the strength of relationships could also be evidenced. The literacy achievement of intellectually disabled children with differing linguistic backgrounds generally falls behind that of their non-disabled peers. For word decoding, the non-native children in regular and special education were generally able to keep up with their native peers. For higher-order literacy abilities closely related to the mental lexicon, sentence processing and text processing, however, significant differences in the performances of the native (L1) and non-native (L2) children in regular vs. special education were found, suggesting a double disadvantage for the non-native children in special education.

Decoding and Spelling Accommodations for Postsecondary Students Demonstrating Dyslexia--It's More than Processing Speed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregg, Noel; Hoy, Cheri; Flaherty, Donna Ann; Norris, Peggy; Coleman, Christopher; Davis, Mark; Jordan, Michael

2005-01-01

The vast majority of students with learning disabilities at the postsecondary level demonstrate reading decoding, reading fluency, and writing deficits. Identification of valid and reliable psychometric measures for documenting decoding and spelling disabilities at the postsecondary level is critical for determining appropriate accommodations. The…

Contrasting group analysis of Brazilian students with dyslexia and good readers using the computerized reading and writing assessment battery “BALE”

PubMed Central

Toledo Piza, Carolina M. J.; de Macedo, Elizeu C.; Miranda, Monica C.; Bueno, Orlando F. A.

2014-01-01

The analysis of cognitive processes underpinning reading and writing skills may help to distinguish different reading ability profiles. The present study used a Brazilian reading and writing battery to compare performance of students with dyslexia with two individually matched control groups: one contrasting on reading competence but not age and the other group contrasting on age but not reading competence. Participants were 28 individuals with dyslexia (19 boys) with a mean age of 9.82 (SD ± 1.44) drawn from public and private schools. These were matched to: (1) an age control group (AC) of 26 good readers with a mean age of 9.77 (SD ± 1.44) matched by age, sex, years of schooling, and type of school; (2) reading control group (RC) of 28 younger controls with a mean age of 7.82 (SD ± 1.06) matched by sex, type of school, and reading level. All groups were tested on four tasks from the Brazilian Reading and Writing Assessment battery (“BALE”): Written Sentence Comprehension Test (WSCT); Spoken Sentence Comprehension Test (OSCT); Picture-Print Writing Test (PPWT 1.1-Writing); and the Reading Competence Test (RCT). These tasks evaluate reading and listening comprehension for sentences, spelling, and reading isolated words and pseudowords (non-words). The dyslexia group scored lower and took longer to complete tasks than the AC group. Compared with the RC group, there were no differences in total scores on reading or oral comprehension tasks. However, dyslexics presented slower reading speeds, longer completion times, and lower scores on spelling tasks, even compared with younger controls. Analysis of types of errors on word and pseudoword reading items showed students with dyslexia scoring lower for pseudoword reading than the other two groups. These findings suggest that the dyslexics overall scores were similar to those of younger readers. However, specific phonological and visual decoding deficits showed that the two groups differ in terms of underpinning reading strategies. PMID:25132829

Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading

PubMed Central

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A.; Ward, Michael J.; Fiez, Julie A.; Ghuman, Avniel Singh

2016-01-01

The nature of the visual representation for words has been fiercely debated for over 150 y. We used direct brain stimulation, pre- and postsurgical behavioral measures, and intracranial electroencephalography to provide support for, and elaborate upon, the visual word form hypothesis. This hypothesis states that activity in the left midfusiform gyrus (lmFG) reflects visually organized information about words and word parts. In patients with electrodes placed directly in their lmFG, we found that disrupting lmFG activity through stimulation, and later surgical resection in one of the patients, led to impaired perception of whole words and letters. Furthermore, using machine-learning methods to analyze the electrophysiological data from these electrodes, we found that information contained in early lmFG activity was consistent with an orthographic similarity space. Finally, the lmFG contributed to at least two distinguishable stages of word processing, an early stage that reflects gist-level visual representation sensitive to orthographic statistics, and a later stage that reflects more precise representation sufficient for the individuation of orthographic word forms. These results provide strong support for the visual word form hypothesis and demonstrate that across time the lmFG is involved in multiple stages of orthographic representation. PMID:27325763

Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading.

PubMed

Hirshorn, Elizabeth A; Li, Yuanning; Ward, Michael J; Richardson, R Mark; Fiez, Julie A; Ghuman, Avniel Singh

2016-07-19

The nature of the visual representation for words has been fiercely debated for over 150 y. We used direct brain stimulation, pre- and postsurgical behavioral measures, and intracranial electroencephalography to provide support for, and elaborate upon, the visual word form hypothesis. This hypothesis states that activity in the left midfusiform gyrus (lmFG) reflects visually organized information about words and word parts. In patients with electrodes placed directly in their lmFG, we found that disrupting lmFG activity through stimulation, and later surgical resection in one of the patients, led to impaired perception of whole words and letters. Furthermore, using machine-learning methods to analyze the electrophysiological data from these electrodes, we found that information contained in early lmFG activity was consistent with an orthographic similarity space. Finally, the lmFG contributed to at least two distinguishable stages of word processing, an early stage that reflects gist-level visual representation sensitive to orthographic statistics, and a later stage that reflects more precise representation sufficient for the individuation of orthographic word forms. These results provide strong support for the visual word form hypothesis and demonstrate that across time the lmFG is involved in multiple stages of orthographic representation.

Perspectives on dyslexia

PubMed Central

Siegel, Linda S

2006-01-01

Dyslexia, or a reading disability, occurs when an individual has significant difficulty with speed and accuracy of word decoding. Comprehension of text and spelling are also affected. The diagnosis of dyslexia involves the use of reading tests, but the continuum of reading performance means that any cutoff point is arbitrary. The IQ score does not play a role in the diagnosis of dyslexia. The cognitive difficulties of dyslexics include problems with speech perception, recognizing and manipulating the basic sounds in a language, language memory, and learning the sounds of letters. Dyslexia is a neurological condition with a genetic basis. There are abnormalities in the brains of dyslexic individuals. There are also differences in the electrophysiological and structural characteristics of the brains of dyslexics. Physicians play a particularly important role in recognizing children who are at risk for dyslexia and helping their parents obtain the proper assessment. PMID:19030329

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.

Does Linguistic Comprehension Support the Decoding Skills of Struggling Readers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blick, Michele; Nicholson, Tom; Chapman, James; Berman, Jeanette

2017-01-01

This study investigated the contribution of linguistic comprehension to the decoding skills of struggling readers. Participants were 36 children aged between eight and 12 years, all below average in decoding but differing in linguistic comprehension. The children read passages from the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability and their first 25 miscues…

The Relationship between Reading Comprehension, Decoding, and Fluency in Greek: A Cross-Sectional Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Padeliadu, Susana; Antoniou, Faye

2014-01-01

Experts widely consider decoding and fluency as the basis of reading comprehension, while at the same time consistently documenting problems in these areas as major characteristics of students with learning disabilities. However, scholars have developed most of the relevant research within phonologically deep languages, wherein decoding problems…

Imitated Prosodic Fluency Predicts Reading Comprehension Ability in Good and Poor High School Readers

PubMed Central

Breen, Mara; Kaswer, Lianne; Van Dyke, Julie A.; Krivokapić, Jelena; Landi, Nicole

2016-01-01

Researchers have established a relationship between beginning readers' silent comprehension ability and their prosodic fluency, such that readers who read aloud with appropriate prosody tend to have higher scores on silent reading comprehension assessments. The current study was designed to investigate this relationship in two groups of high school readers: Specifically Poor Comprehenders (SPCs), who have adequate word level and phonological skills but poor reading comprehension ability, and a group of age- and decoding skill-matched controls. We compared the prosodic fluency of the two groups by determining how effectively they produced prosodic cues to syntactic and semantic structure in imitations of a model speaker's production of syntactically and semantically varied sentences. Analyses of pitch and duration patterns revealed that speakers in both groups produced the expected prosodic patterns; however, controls provided stronger durational cues to syntactic structure. These results demonstrate that the relationship between prosodic fluency and reading comprehension continues past the stage of early reading instruction. Moreover, they suggest that prosodically fluent speakers may also generate more fluent implicit prosodic representations during silent reading, leading to more effective comprehension. PMID:27486409

[Intervention in dyslexic disorders: phonological awareness training].

PubMed

Etchepareborda, M C

2003-02-01

Taking into account the systems for the treatment of brain information when drawing up a work plan allows us to recreate processing routines that go from multisensory perception to motor, oral and cognitive production, which is the step prior to executive levels of thought, bottom-up and top-down processing systems. In recent years, the use of phonological methods to prevent or resolve reading disorders has become the fundamental mainstay in the treatment of dyslexia. The work is mainly based on phonological proficiency, which enables the patient to detect phonemes (input), to think about them (performance) and to use them to build words (output). Daily work with rhymes, the capacity to listen, the identification of phrases and words, and handling syllables and phonemes allows us to perform a preventive intervention that enhances the capacity to identify letters, phonological analysis and the reading of single words. We present the different therapeutic models that are most frequently employed. Fast For Word (FFW) training helps make progress in phonematic awareness and other linguistic skills, such as phonological awareness, semantics, syntax, grammar, working memory and event sequencing. With Deco-Fon, a programme for training phonological decoding, work is carried out on the auditory discrimination of pure tones, letters and consonant clusters, auditory processing speed, auditory and phonematic memory, and graphophonological processing, which is fundamental for speech, language and reading writing disorders. Hamlet is a programme based on categorisation activities for working on phonological conceptualisation. It attempts to encourage the analysis of the segments of words, syllables or phonemes, and the classification of a certain segment as belonging or not to a particular phonological or orthographical category. Therapeutic approaches in the early phases of reading are oriented towards two poles based on the basic mechanisms underlying the process of learning to read, the grapheme phoneme transformation process and global word recognition. The interventionalist strategies used at school are focused on the use of cognitive strategy techniques. The purpose of these techniques is to teach pupils practical strategies or resources aimed at overcoming specific deficiencies.

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…

Reconsidering the Simple View of Reading in an Intriguing Case of Equivalent Models: Commentary on Tunmer and Chapman (2012)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2015-01-01

Recently, Tunmer and Chapman provided an alternative model of how decoding and listening comprehension affect reading comprehension that challenges the simple view of reading. They questioned the simple view's fundamental assumption that oral language comprehension and decoding make independent contributions to reading comprehension by arguing…

Levels of text comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD): the influence of language phenotype.

PubMed

Lucas, Rebecca; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2014-11-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have reading comprehension difficulties, but the level of processing at which comprehension is most vulnerable and the influence of language phenotype on comprehension skill is currently unclear. We explored comprehension at sentence and passage levels across language phenotypes. Children with ASD and age-appropriate language skills (n = 25) demonstrated similar syntactic and semantic facilitation to typically developing peers. In contrast, few children with ASD and language impairments (n = 25) could read beyond the single word level. Those who could read sentences benefited from semantic coherence, but were less sensitive to syntactic coherence. At the passage level, the strongest predictor of comprehension was vocabulary knowledge. This emphasizes that the intimate relationship between language competence and both decoding skill and comprehension is evident at the sentence, as well as the passage level, for children with ASD.

Teaching reading comprehension to learners with autism spectrum disorder: Discrepancies between teacher and research-recommended practices.

PubMed

Accardo, Amy L; Finnegan, Elizabeth G

2017-11-01

Students with autism spectrum disorder have been found to experience difficulty with reading comprehension despite intact decoding and word recognition. This identified need for targeted reading comprehension remediation results in a need for teachers to utilize research-based practices and to individualize instruction for students with autism spectrum disorder; however, teachers report a lack of access to such practices. This study utilized survey methodology to gather perceptions and experiences of teachers and to compare teacher preparedness to use effective instructional practices emerging from the extant research to teacher-reported effective practices in the classroom. Study findings, based on 112 participants, reveal a discrepancy between teacher-reported effective practices, and the practices identified as effective through research, indicating a research to practice gap. Implications for practice include professional development recommendations, and the need for increased communication between researchers and teachers.

Toward a research-based assessment of dyslexia: using cognitive measures to identify reading disabilities.

PubMed

Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R Steve; Cox, Elizabeth A

2003-01-01

One hundred five participants from a random sample of elementary and middle school children completed measures of reading achievement and cognitive abilities presumed, based on a synthesis of current dyslexia research, to underlie reading. Factor analyses of these cognitive variables (including auditory processing, phonological awareness, short-term auditory memory, visual memory, rapid automatized naming, and visual processing speed) produced three empirically and theoretically derived factors (auditory processing, visual processing/speed, and memory), each of which contributed to the prediction of reading and spelling skills. Factor scores from the three factors combined predicted 85% of the variance associated with letter/sight word naming, 70% of the variance associated with reading comprehension, 73% for spelling, and 61% for phonetic decoding. The auditory processing factor was the strongest predictor, accounting for 27% to 43% of the variance across the different achievement areas. The results provide practitioner and researcher with theoretical and empirical support for the inclusion of measures of the three factors, in addition to specific measures of reading achievement, in a standardized assessment of dyslexia. Guidelines for a thorough, research-based assessment are provided.

Teaching Rural Students with Learning Disabilities: A Paraphrasing Strategy to Increase Comprehension of Main Ideas.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Edwin S.; Graves, Anne W.

1990-01-01

Among 68 rural learning-disabled students in grades 5-7 having moderate decoding fluency and high decoding accuracy, a paraphrasing cognitive strategy increased reading comprehension of main ideas more effectively than repeated readings or control training. Paraphrasing plus repeated readings was no more effective than paraphrasing alone. Contains…

Validation of the Simple View of Reading in Hebrew--A Semitic Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joshi, R. Malatesha; Ji, Xuejun Ryan; Breznitz, Zvia; Amiel, Meirav; Yulia, Astri

2015-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) in Hebrew was tested by administering decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension measures to 1,002 students from Grades 2 to 10 in the northern part of Israel. Results from hierarchical regression analyses supported the SVR in Hebrew with decoding and listening comprehension measures explaining…

A Dual Coding Theoretical Model of Decoding in Reading: Subsuming the LaBerge and Samuels Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadoski, Mark; McTigue, Erin M.; Paivio, Allan

2012-01-01

In this article we present a detailed Dual Coding Theory (DCT) model of decoding. The DCT model reinterprets and subsumes The LaBerge and Samuels (1974) model of the reading process which has served well to account for decoding behaviors and the processes that underlie them. However, the LaBerge and Samuels model has had little to say about…

Phenotypic and Genetic Associations between Reading Comprehension, Decoding Skills, and ADHD Dimensions: Evidence from Two Population-Based Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plourde, Vickie; Boivin, Michel; Forget-Dubois, Nadine; Brendgen, Mara; Vitaro, Frank; Marino, Cecilia; Tremblay, Richard T.; Dionne, Ginette

2015-01-01

Background: The phenotypic and genetic associations between decoding skills and ADHD dimensions have been documented but less is known about the association with reading comprehension. The aim of the study is to document the phenotypic and genetic associations between reading comprehension and ADHD dimensions of inattention and…

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.

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.

Reading for meaning: The foundational knowledge every teacher of science should have

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patterson, Alexis; Roman, Diego; Friend, Michelle; Osborne, Jonathan; Donovan, Brian

2018-02-01

Reading is fundamental to science and not an adjunct to its practice. In other words, understanding the meaning of the various forms of written discourse employed in the creation, discussion, and communication of scientific knowledge is inherent to how science works. The language used in science, however, sets up a barrier, that in order to be overcome requires all students to have a clear understanding of the features of the multimodal informational texts employed in science and the strategies they can use to decode the scientific concepts communicated in informational texts. We argue that all teachers of science must develop a functional understanding of reading comprehension as part of their professional knowledge and skill. After describing our rationale for including knowledge about reading as a professional knowledge base every teacher of science should have, we outline the knowledge about language teachers must develop, the knowledge about the challenges that reading comprehension of science texts poses for students, and the knowledge about instructional strategies science teachers should know to support their students' reading comprehension of science texts. Implications regarding the essential role that knowledge about reading should play in the preparation of science teachers are also discussed here.

Magnocellular-dorsal pathway and sub-lexical route in developmental dyslexia

PubMed Central

Gori, Simone; Cecchini, Paolo; Bigoni, Anna; Molteni, Massimo; Facoetti, Andrea

2014-01-01

Although developmental dyslexia (DD) is frequently associate with a phonological deficit, the underlying neurobiological cause remains undetermined. Recently, a new model, called “temporal sampling framework” (TSF), provided an innovative prospect in the DD study. TSF suggests that deficits in syllabic perception at a specific temporal frequencies are the critical basis for the poor reading performance in DD. This approach was presented as a possible neurobiological substrate of the phonological deficit of DD but the TSF can also easily be applied to the visual modality deficits. The deficit in the magnocellular-dorsal (M-D) pathway - often found in individuals with DD - fits well with a temporal oscillatory deficit specifically related to this visual pathway. This study investigated the visual M-D and parvocellular-ventral (P-V) pathways in dyslexic and in chronological age and IQ-matched normally reading children by measuring temporal (frequency doubling illusion) and static stimuli sensitivity, respectively. A specific deficit in M-D temporal oscillation was found. Importantly, the M-D deficit was selectively shown in poor phonological decoders. M-D deficit appears to be frequent because 75% of poor pseudo-word readers were at least 1 SD below the mean of the controls. Finally, a replication study by using a new group of poor phonological decoders and reading level controls suggested a crucial role of M-D deficit in DD. These results showed that a M-D deficit might impair the sub-lexical mechanisms that are critical for reading development. The possible link between these findings and TSF is discussed. PMID:25009484

Word Decoding Development in Incremental Phonics Instruction in a Transparent Orthography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaars, Moniek M.; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2017-01-01

The present longitudinal study aimed to investigate the development of word decoding skills during incremental phonics instruction in Dutch as a transparent orthography. A representative sample of 973 Dutch children in the first grade (M[subscript age] = 6;1, SD = 0;5) was exposed to incremental subsets of Dutch grapheme-phoneme correspondences…

Performance analysis of the word synchronization properties of the outer code in a TDRSS decoder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Costello, D. J., Jr.; Lin, S.

1984-01-01

A self-synchronizing coding scheme for NASA's TDRSS satellite system is a concatenation of a (2,1,7) inner convolutional code with a (255,223) Reed-Solomon outer code. Both symbol and word synchronization are achieved without requiring that any additional symbols be transmitted. An important parameter which determines the performance of the word sync procedure is the ratio of the decoding failure probability to the undetected error probability. Ideally, the former should be as small as possible compared to the latter when the error correcting capability of the code is exceeded. A computer simulation of a (255,223) Reed-Solomon code as carried out. Results for decoding failure probability and for undetected error probability are tabulated and compared.

Reading disorders and dyslexia.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2016-12-01

We review current knowledge about the nature of reading development and disorders, distinguishing between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading comprehension. Children with decoding difficulties/dyslexia experience deficits in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming in the preschool years and beyond. These phonological/language difficulties appear to be proximal causes of the problems in learning to decode print in dyslexia. We review data from a prospective study of children at high risk of dyslexia to show that being at family risk of dyslexia is a primary risk factor for poor reading and children with persistent language difficulties at school entry are more likely to develop reading problems. Early oral language difficulties are strong predictors of later difficulties in reading comprehension. There are two distinct forms of reading disorder in children: dyslexia (a difficulty in learning to translate print into speech) and reading comprehension impairment. Both forms of reading problem appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. Implications for screening and for the delivery of robust interventions for language and reading are discussed.

What’s the Story? The Tale of Reading Fluency Told at Speed

PubMed Central

Benjamin, Christopher F. A.; Gaab, Nadine

2012-01-01

Fluent readers process written text rapidly and accurately, and comprehend what they read. Historically, reading fluency has been modeled as the product of discrete skills such as single word decoding. More recent conceptualizations emphasize that fluent reading is the product of competency in, and the coordination of, multiple cognitive sub-skills (a multi-componential view). In this study, we examined how the pattern of activation in core reading regions changes as the ability to read fluently is manipulated through reading speed. We evaluated 13 right-handed adults with a novel fMRI task assessing fluent sentence reading and lower-order letter reading at each participant’s normal fluent reading speed, as well as constrained (slowed) and accelerated reading speeds. Comparing fluent reading conditions with rest revealed regions including bilateral occipito-fusiform, left middle temporal, and inferior frontal gyral clusters across reading speeds. The selectivity of these regions’ responses to fluent sentence reading was shown by comparison with the letter reading task. Region of interest analyses showed that at constrained and accelerated speeds these regions responded significantly more to fluent sentence reading. Critically, as reading speed increased, activation increased in a single reading-related region: occipital/fusiform cortex (left > right). These results demonstrate that while brain regions engaged in reading respond selectively during fluent reading, these regions respond differently as the ability to read fluently is manipulated. Implications for our understanding of reading fluency, reading development, and reading disorders are discussed. PMID:21954000

Intelligence and dyslexia: implications for diagnosis and intervention.

PubMed

Gustafson, S; Samuelsson, S

1999-06-01

In this paper we critically examine theoretical issues and practical consequences of including IQ in the definition of dyslexia. According to the discrepancy criterion individuals are classified as dyslexic if their reading skills are below what would be expected from their IQ scores. However, we argue that intelligence is a fuzzy concept and that there is no clear causal relationship between intelligence level and word decoding skills. Also, high and low IQ poor readers show the same reading performance patterns, indicating that both groups might benefit from the same remedial activities. Evidence for the critical role of phonological skills in dyslexia is presented and a more recent definition of dyslexia is discussed in relation to these findings. Finally, two alternative, more outcome-based classifications of poor readers are suggested and some critical consequences for individual interventions are outlined.

Exploring the Cross-Linguistic Transfer of Reading Skills in Spanish to English in the Context of a Computer Adaptive Reading Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Doris Luft; Basaraba, Deni Lee; Smolkowski, Keith; Conry, Jillian; Hautala, Jarkko; Richardson, Ulla; English, Sherril; Cole, Ron

2017-01-01

We explore the potential of a computer-adaptive decoding game in Spanish to increase the decoding skills and oral reading fluency in Spanish and English of bilingual students. Participants were 78 first-grade Spanish-speaking students attending bilingual programs in five classrooms in Texas. Classrooms were randomly assigned to the treatment…

Algorithms used for read-out optical system pointing to multiplexed computer generated 1D-Fourier holograms and decoding the encrypted information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Donchenko, Sergey S.; Odinokov, Sergey B.; Betin, Alexandr U.; Hanevich, Pavel; Semishko, Sergey; Zlokazov, Evgenii Y.

2017-05-01

The holographic disk reading device for recovery of CGFH is described. Principle of its work is shown. Analyzed approaches for developing algorithms, used in this device: guidance and decoding. Listed results of experimental researches.

Perceptual and Cognitive Factors Imposing “Speed Limits” on Reading Rate: A Study with the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

PubMed Central

Spinelli, Donatella; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi; De Luca, Maria; Martelli, Marialuisa

2016-01-01

Adults read at high speed, but estimates of their reading rate vary greatly, i.e., from 100 to 1500 words per minute (wpm). This discrepancy is likely due to different recording methods and to the different perceptual and cognitive processes involved in specific test conditions. The present study investigated the origins of these notable differences in RSVP reading rate (RR). In six experiments we investigated the role of many different perceptual and cognitive variables. The presence of a mask caused a steep decline in reading rate, with an estimated masking cost of about 200 wpm. When the decoding process was isolated, RR approached values of 1200 wpm. When the number of stimuli exceeded the short-term memory span, RR decreased to 800 wpm. The semantic context contributed to reading speed only by a factor of 1.4. Finally, eye movements imposed an upper limit on RR (around 300 wpm). Overall, data indicate a speed limit of 300 wpm, which corresponds to the time needed for eye movement execution, i.e., the most time consuming mechanism. Results reconcile differences in reading rates reported by different laboratories and thus provide suggestions for targeting different components of reading rate. PMID:27088226

Does IQ affect the functional brain network involved in pseudoword reading in students with reading disability? A magnetoencephalography study

PubMed Central

Simos, Panagiotis G.; Rezaie, Roozbeh; Papanicolaou, Andrew C.; Fletcher, Jack M.

2014-01-01

The study examined whether individual differences in performance and verbal IQ affect the profiles of reading-related regional brain activation in 127 students experiencing reading difficulties and typical readers. Using magnetoencephalography in a pseudoword read-aloud task, we compared brain activation profiles of students experiencing word-level reading difficulties who did (n = 29) or did not (n = 36) meet the IQ-reading achievement discrepancy criterion. Typical readers assigned to a lower-IQ (n = 18) or a higher IQ (n = 44) subgroup served as controls. Minimum norm estimates of regional cortical activity revealed that the degree of hypoactivation in the left superior temporal and supramarginal gyri in both RD subgroups was not affected by IQ. Moreover, IQ did not moderate the positive association between degree of activation in the left fusiform gyrus and phonological decoding ability. We did find, however, that the hypoactivation of the left pars opercularis in RD was restricted to lower-IQ participants. In accordance with previous morphometric and fMRI studies, degree of activity in inferior frontal, and inferior parietal regions correlated with IQ across reading ability subgroups. Results are consistent with current views questioning the relevance of IQ-discrepancy criteria in the diagnosis of dyslexia. PMID:24409136

Does IQ affect the functional brain network involved in pseudoword reading in students with reading disability? A magnetoencephalography study.

PubMed

Simos, Panagiotis G; Rezaie, Roozbeh; Papanicolaou, Andrew C; Fletcher, Jack M

2014-01-01

The study examined whether individual differences in performance and verbal IQ affect the profiles of reading-related regional brain activation in 127 students experiencing reading difficulties and typical readers. Using magnetoencephalography in a pseudoword read-aloud task, we compared brain activation profiles of students experiencing word-level reading difficulties who did (n = 29) or did not (n = 36) meet the IQ-reading achievement discrepancy criterion. Typical readers assigned to a lower-IQ (n = 18) or a higher IQ (n = 44) subgroup served as controls. Minimum norm estimates of regional cortical activity revealed that the degree of hypoactivation in the left superior temporal and supramarginal gyri in both RD subgroups was not affected by IQ. Moreover, IQ did not moderate the positive association between degree of activation in the left fusiform gyrus and phonological decoding ability. We did find, however, that the hypoactivation of the left pars opercularis in RD was restricted to lower-IQ participants. In accordance with previous morphometric and fMRI studies, degree of activity in inferior frontal, and inferior parietal regions correlated with IQ across reading ability subgroups. Results are consistent with current views questioning the relevance of IQ-discrepancy criteria in the diagnosis of dyslexia.

Reading Ads, Reading the World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parry, Becky

2016-01-01

This paper challenges the reductive notion of children as "efferent" readers who learn to decode written language in order to "take away" knowledge. This anachronistic idea has become entrenched in current UK curriculum and education policy. However, it is well established that decoding letters and sounds is only one aspect of…

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…

French immersion experience and reading skill development in at-risk readers.

PubMed

Kruk, Richard S; Reynolds, Kristin A A

2012-06-01

We tracked the developmental influences of exposure to French on developing English phonological awareness, decoding and reading comprehension of English-speaking at-risk readers from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Teacher-nominated at-risk readers were matched with not-at-risk readers in French immersion and English language programs. Exposure to spoken French phonetic and syllabic forms and to written French orthographic and morphological forms by children attending French immersion programs was expected to promote phonological, decoding and reading comprehension achievement. Growth in all outcomes was found, with children in immersion experiencing higher final status in phonological awareness and more rapid growth and higher final status in decoding, using multilevel modeling. At-risk readers in French immersion experienced faster growth and higher final status in reading comprehension. Benefits to reading of exposure to an additional language are discussed in relation to cross-language transfer, phonological grain size and enhanced executive control processes.

The Structure of Oral Language and Reading and Their Relation to Comprehension in Kindergarten through Grade 2

PubMed Central

Foorman, Barbara R.; Herrera, Sarah; Petscher, Yaacov; Mitchell, Alison; Truckenmiller, Adrea

2016-01-01

This study examined the structure of oral language and reading and their relation to comprehension from a latent variable modeling perspective in Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. Participants were students in Kindergarten (n = 218), Grade 1 (n = 372), and Grade 2 (n = 273), attending Title 1 schools. Students were administered phonological awareness, syntax, vocabulary, listening comprehension, and decoding fluency measures in mid-year. Outcome measures included a listening comprehension measure in Kindergarten and a reading comprehension test in Grades1 and 2. In Kindergarten, oral language (consisting of listening comprehension, syntax, and vocabulary) shared variance with phonological awareness in predicting a listening comprehension outcome. However, in Grades 1 and 2, phonological awareness was no longer predictive of reading comprehension when decoding fluency and oral language were included in the model. In Grades 1 and 2, oral language and decoding fluency were significant predictors of reading comprehension. PMID:27660395

Effects of tutoring in phonological and early reading skills on students at risk for reading disabilities.

PubMed

Vadasy, P F; Jenkins, J R; Pool, K

2000-01-01

This study examined the effectiveness of nonprofessional tutors in a phonologically based reading treatment similar to those in which successful reading outcomes have been demonstrated. Participants were 23 first graders at risk for learning disability who received intensive one-to-one tutoring from noncertified tutors for 30 minutes, 4 days a week, for one school year. Tutoring included instruction in phonological skills, letter-sound correspondence, explicit decoding, rime analysis, writing, spelling, and reading phonetically controlled text. At year end, tutored students significantly outperformed untutored control students on measures of reading, spelling, and decoding. Effect sizes ranged from .42 to 1.24. Treatment effects diminished at follow-up at the end of second grade, although tutored students continued to significantly outperform untutored students in decoding and spelling. Findings suggest that phonologically based reading instruction for first graders at risk for learning disability can be delivered by nonteacher tutors. Our discussion addresses the character of reading outcomes associated with tutoring, individual differences in response to treatment, and the infrastructure required for nonprofessional tutoring programs.

Decoding the Semantic Content of Natural Movies from Human Brain Activity

PubMed Central

Huth, Alexander G.; Lee, Tyler; Nishimoto, Shinji; Bilenko, Natalia Y.; Vu, An T.; Gallant, Jack L.

2016-01-01

One crucial test for any quantitative model of the brain is to show that the model can be used to accurately decode information from evoked brain activity. Several recent neuroimaging studies have decoded the structure or semantic content of static visual images from human brain activity. Here we present a decoding algorithm that makes it possible to decode detailed information about the object and action categories present in natural movies from human brain activity signals measured by functional MRI. Decoding is accomplished using a hierarchical logistic regression (HLR) model that is based on labels that were manually assigned from the WordNet semantic taxonomy. This model makes it possible to simultaneously decode information about both specific and general categories, while respecting the relationships between them. Our results show that we can decode the presence of many object and action categories from averaged blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) responses with a high degree of accuracy (area under the ROC curve > 0.9). Furthermore, we used this framework to test whether semantic relationships defined in the WordNet taxonomy are represented the same way in the human brain. This analysis showed that hierarchical relationships between general categories and atypical examples, such as organism and plant, did not seem to be reflected in representations measured by BOLD fMRI. PMID:27781035

Effects of a Decoding Program on a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Infantino, Josephine; Hempenstall, Kerry

2006-01-01

This case study examined the effects of a parent-presented Direct Instruction decoding program on the reading and language skills of a child with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. Following the 23 hour intervention, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and fluency skills improved to grade level, whilst statistically significant…

Examining the predictive validity of a dynamic assessment of decoding to forecast response to tier 2 intervention.

PubMed

Cho, Eunsoo; Compton, Donald L; Fuchs, Douglas; Fuchs, Lynn S; Bouton, Bobette

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of a dynamic assessment (DA) of decoding in predicting responsiveness to Tier 2 small-group tutoring in a response-to-intervention model. First grade students (n = 134) who did not show adequate progress in Tier 1 based on 6 weeks of progress monitoring received Tier 2 small-group tutoring in reading for 14 weeks. Student responsiveness to Tier 2 was assessed weekly with word identification fluency (WIF). A series of conditional individual growth curve analyses were completed that modeled the correlates of WIF growth (final level of performance and growth). Its purpose was to examine the predictive validity of DA in the presence of three sets of variables: static decoding measures, Tier 1 responsiveness indicators, and prereading variables (phonemic awareness, rapid letter naming, oral vocabulary, and IQ). DA was a significant predictor of final level and growth, uniquely explaining 3% to 13% of the variance in Tier 2 responsiveness depending on the competing predictors in the model and WIF outcome (final level of performance or growth). Although the additional variances explained uniquely by DA were relatively small, results indicate the potential of DA in identifying Tier 2 nonresponders. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming Predicting Early Development in Reading and Spelling: Results from a Cross-Linguistic Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Furnes, Bjarte; Samuelsson, Stefan

2010-01-01

In this study, the relationship between latent constructs of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) were investigated and related to later measures of reading and spelling in children learning to read in different alphabetic writing systems (i.e., Norwegian/Swedish vs. English). 750 U.S./Australian children and 230 Scandinavian children were followed longitudinally between kindergarten and 2nd grade. PA and RAN were measured in kindergarten and Grade 1, while word recognition, phonological decoding, and spelling were measured in kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. In general, high stability was observed for the various reading and spelling measures, such that little additional variance was left open for PA and RAN. However, results demonstrated that RAN was more related to reading than spelling across orthographies, with the opposite pattern shown for PA. In addition, tests of measurement invariance show that the factor loadings of each observed indicator on the latent PA factor was the same across U.S./Australia and Scandinavia. Similar findings were obtained for RAN. In general, tests of structural invariance show that models of early literacy development are highly transferable across languages. PMID:21359098

Links between Early Oral Narrative and Decoding Skills and Later Reading in a New Zealand Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schaughency, Elizabeth; Suggate, Sebastian; Reese, Elaine

2017-01-01

We examined earlier oral narrative and decoding and later reading in two samples spanning the first four years of reading instruction. The Year 1 sample (n = 44) was initially assessed after one year of instruction (M = 6; 1 years) and followed through their third year (M = 8; 1 years); the Year 2 sample (n = 34) assessed after two years of…

Reading comprehension and its underlying components in second-language learners: A meta-analysis of studies comparing first- and second-language learners.

PubMed

Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Lervåg, Arne

2014-03-01

We report a systematic meta-analytic review of studies comparing reading comprehension and its underlying components (language comprehension, decoding, and phonological awareness) in first- and second-language learners. The review included 82 studies, and 576 effect sizes were calculated for reading comprehension and underlying components. Key findings were that, compared to first-language learners, second-language learners display a medium-sized deficit in reading comprehension (pooled effect size d = -0.62), a large deficit in language comprehension (pooled effect size d = -1.12), but only small differences in phonological awareness (pooled effect size d = -0.08) and decoding (pooled effect size d = -0.12). A moderator analysis showed that characteristics related to the type of reading comprehension test reliably explained the variation in the differences in reading comprehension between first- and second-language learners. For language comprehension, studies of samples from low socioeconomic backgrounds and samples where only the first language was used at home generated the largest group differences in favor of first-language learners. Test characteristics and study origin reliably contributed to the variations between the studies of language comprehension. For decoding, Canadian studies showed group differences in favor of second-language learners, whereas the opposite was the case for U.S. studies. Regarding implications, unless specific decoding problems are detected, interventions that aim to ameliorate reading comprehension problems among second-language learners should focus on language comprehension skills.

The Relationship among Oral Language, Decoding Skills, and Reading Comprehension in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cronin, Kathleen A.

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among oral language, decoding, and reading comprehension for children with autism. Participants included 13 English-speaking children with a diagnosis of high-functioning autism (IQ > 70) who were included in a typical classroom, and who had parents who spoke English. Parts of the…

Role of Narrative Skills on Reading Comprehension: Spanish-English and Cantonese-English Dual Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uchikoshi, Yuuko; Yang, Lu; Liu, Siwei

2018-01-01

This longitudinal study examined the role of narrative skills in English reading comprehension, after controlling for vocabulary and decoding, with a sample of 112 dual language learners (DLLs), including both Spanish-English and Cantonese-English children. Decoding, vocabulary, and narrative samples were collected in the winter of first grade and…

The interface between spoken and written language: developmental disorders.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2014-01-01

We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).

Writing and reading: connections between language by hand and language by eye.

PubMed

Berninger, Virginia W; Abbott, Robert D; Abbott, Sylvia P; Graham, Steve; Richards, Todd

2002-01-01

Four approaches to the investigation of connections between language by hand and language by eye are described and illustrated with studies from a decade-long research program. In the first approach, multigroup structural equation modeling is applied to reading and writing measures given to typically developing writers to examine unidirectional and bidirectional relationships between specific components of the reading and writing systems. In the second approach, structural equation modeling is applied to a multivariate set of language measures given to children and adults with reading and writing disabilities to examine how the same set of language processes is orchestrated differently to accomplish specific reading or writing goals, and correlations between factors are evaluated to examine the level at which the language-by-hand system and the language-by-eye system communicate most easily. In the third approach, mode of instruction and mode of response are systematically varied in evaluating effectiveness of treating reading disability with and without a writing component. In the fourth approach, functional brain imaging is used to investigate residual spelling problems in students whose problems with word decoding have been remediated. The four approaches support a model in which language by hand and language by eye are separate systems that interact in predictable ways.

Thalamo-Cortical Connectivity: What Can Diffusion Tractography Tell Us About Reading Difficulties in Children?

PubMed Central

Fan, Qiuyun; Davis, Nicole; Anderson, Adam W.

2014-01-01

Abstract Reading is an essential skill in modern society, but many people have deficits in the decoding and word recognition aspects of reading, a difficulty often referred to as dyslexia. The primary focus of neuroimaging studies to date in dyslexia has been on cortical regions; however, subcortical regions may also be important for explaining this disability. Here, we used diffusion tensor imaging to examine the association between thalamo-cortical connectivity and children's reading ability in 20 children with typically developed reading ability (age range 8–17/10–17 years old from two imaging centers) and 19 children with developmental dyslexia (DYS) (age range 9–17/9–16 years old). To measure thalamo-cortical connections, the structural images were segmented into cortical and subcortical anatomical regions that were used as target and seed regions in the probabilistic tractography analysis. Abnormal thalamic connectivity was found in the dyslexic group in the sensorimotor and lateral prefrontal cortices. These results suggest that the thalamus may play a key role in reading behavior by mediating the functions of task-specific cortical regions; such findings lay the foundation for future studies to investigate further neurobiological anomalies in the development of thalamo-cortical connectivity in DYS. PMID:24963547

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

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Mercedes; Wagner, Richard K.

2017-01-01

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…

Interactions of Text and Illustration in Beginning Reading. Technical Report No. 355.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Georgia M.; Olsen, Margaret S.

A study examined whether illustrations that must be attended to in order to make sense of a text hinder decoding by encouraging dependence on such illustrations for interpretation of text, both for decoding and for answering questions. Subjects--167 first graders--were asked to read four stories, two of which were taken from basal readers and two…

Lexical processing while deciding what task to perform: reading aloud in the context of the task set paradigm.

PubMed

O'Malley, Shannon; Besner, Derek

2011-12-01

The results of two experiments provide the first direct demonstration that subjects can process a word lexically despite concurrently being engaged in decoding a task cue telling them which of two tasks to perform. These results, taken together with others, point to qualitative differences between the mind's ability to engage in lexical versus sublexical processing during the time they are engaged with other tasks. The emerging picture is one in which some form of resource(s) plays little role during lexical processing whereas the need for some form of resource(s) during sublexical processing serves to bottleneck performance. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hands-On Decoding: Guidelines for Using Manipulative Letters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pullen, Paige Cullen; Lane, Holly B.

2016-01-01

Manipulative objects have long been an essential tool in the development of mathematics knowledge and skills. A growing body of evidence suggests using manipulative letters for decoding practice is an also an effective method for teaching reading, particularly in improving the phonological and decoding skills of students at risk for reading…

Bidirectional Relations between Text Reading Prosody and Reading Comprehension in the Upper Primary School Grades: A Longitudinal Perspective

PubMed Central

Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the directionality of the relationship between text reading prosody and reading comprehension in the upper grades of primary school. We compared three theoretical possibilities: Two unidirectional relations from text reading prosody to reading comprehension and from reading comprehension to text reading prosody and a bidirectional relation between text reading prosody and reading comprehension. Further, we controlled for autoregressive effects and included decoding efficiency as a measure of general reading skill. Participants were 99 Dutch children, followed longitudinally, from fourth- to sixth-grade. Structural equation modeling showed that the bidirectional relation provided the best fitting model. In fifth-grade, text reading prosody was related to prior decoding and reading comprehension, whereas in sixth-grade, reading comprehension was related to prior text reading prosody. As such, the results suggest that the relation between text reading prosody and reading comprehension is reciprocal, but dependent on grade level. PMID:27667916

Is inhibitory control involved in discriminating pseudowords that contain the reversible letters b and d?

PubMed

Brault Foisy, Lorie-Marlène; Ahr, Emmanuel; Masson, Steve; Houdé, Olivier; Borst, Grégoire

2017-10-01

Children tend to confuse reversible letters such as b and d when they start learning to read. According to some authors, mirror errors are a consequence of the mirror generalization (MG) process that allows one to recognize objects independently of their left-right orientation. Although MG is advantageous for the visual recognition of objects, it is detrimental for the visual recognition of reversible letters. Previous studies comparing novice and expert readers demonstrated that MG must be inhibited to discriminate reversible single letters. In this study, we investigated whether MG must also be inhibited by novice readers to discriminate between two pseudowords containing reversible letters. Readable pseudowords, rather than words, were used to mimic early non-automatic stages of reading when reading is achieved by decoding words through grapheme-phoneme pairing and combination. We designed a negative priming paradigm in which school-aged children (10-year-olds) were asked to judge whether two pseudowords were identical on the prime and whether two animals were identical on the probe. Children required more time to determine that two animals were mirror images of each other when preceded by pseudowords containing the reversible letter b or d than when preceded by different pseudowords containing the control letter f or t (Experiment 1) or by different pseudowords that differed only by the target letter f or k (Experiment 2). These results suggest that MG must be inhibited to discriminate between pseudowords containing reversible letters, generalizing the findings regarding single letters to a context more representative of the early stages of reading. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Large grain instruction and phonological awareness skill influence rime sensitivity, processing speed, and early decoding skill in adult L2 learners

PubMed Central

Brennan, Christine; Booth, James R.

2016-01-01

Linguistic knowledge, cognitive ability, and instruction influence how adults acquire a second orthography yet it remains unclear how different forms of instruction influence grain size sensitivity and subsequent decoding skill and speed. Thirty-seven monolingual, literate English-speaking adults were trained on a novel artificial orthography given initial instruction that directed attention to either large or small grain size units (i.e., words or letters). We examined how initial instruction influenced processing speed (i.e., reaction time (RT)) and sensitivity to different orthographic grain sizes (i.e., rimes and letters). Directing attention to large grain size units during initial instruction resulted in higher accuracy for rimes, whereas directing attention to smaller grain size units resulted in slower RTs across all measures. Additionally, phonological awareness skill modulated early learning effects, compensating for the limitations of the initial instruction provided. Collectively, these findings suggest that when adults are learning to read a second orthography, consideration should be given to how initial instruction directs attention to different grain sizes and inherent phonological awareness ability. PMID:27829705

Applying a Multiple Group Causal Indicator Modeling Framework to the Reading Comprehension Skills of Third, Seventh, and Tenth Grade Students

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Wagner, Richard K.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

This study demonstrates the utility of applying a causal indicator modeling framework to investigate important predictors of reading comprehension in third, seventh, and tenth grade students. The results indicated that a 4-factor multiple indicator multiple indicator cause (MIMIC) model of reading comprehension provided adequate fit at each grade level. This model included latent predictor constructs of decoding, verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and working memory and accounted for a large portion of the reading comprehension variance (73% to 87%) across grade levels. Verbal reasoning contributed the most unique variance to reading comprehension at all grade levels. In addition, we fit a multiple group 4-factor MIMIC model to investigate the relative stability (or variability) of the predictor contributions to reading comprehension across development (i.e., grade levels). The results revealed that the contributions of verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and working memory to reading comprehension were stable across the three grade levels. Decoding was the only predictor that could not be constrained to be equal across grade levels. The contribution of decoding skills to reading comprehension was higher in third grade and then remained relatively stable between seventh and tenth grade. These findings illustrate the feasibility of using MIMIC models to explain individual differences in reading comprehension across the development of reading skills. PMID:25821346

An Examination of a Small-Group Decoding Intervention for Struggling Readers: Comparing Accuracy and Automaticity Criteria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hudson, Roxanne F.; Isakson, Carole; Richman, Taylor; Lane, Holly B.; Arriaza-Allen, Stephanie

2011-01-01

In this study, we compared methods to improve the decoding and reading fluency of struggling readers. Second-grade poor readers were randomly assigned to one of the two practice conditions within a repeated reading intervention. Both interventions were in small groups, were 20-28 min long, took place 2-4 days per week, and consisted of phonemic…

Cross-Linguistic Transfer of Oral Language, Decoding, Phonological Awareness and Reading Comprehension: A Meta-Analysis of the Correlational Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melby-Lervag, Monica; Lervag, Arne

2011-01-01

We present a meta-analysis of cross-linguistic transfer of oral language (vocabulary and listening comprehension), phonology (decoding and phonological awareness) and reading comprehension. Our findings show a small meta-correlation between first (L1) and second (L2) oral language and a moderate to large correlation between L1 and L2 phonological…

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Cognitive Abilities and Their Effects on Reading Decoding Skills: g Has Indirect Effects, More Specific Abilities Have Direct Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floyd, Randy G.; Keith, Timothy Z.; Taub, Gordon E.; McGrew, Kevin S.

2007-01-01

This study employed structural equation modeling to examine the effects of Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) abilities on reading decoding skills using five age-differentiated subsamples from the standardization sample of the Woodcock-Johnson III (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001). Using the Spearman Model including only g, strong direct effects of g on…

Should bilingual children learn reading in two languages at the same time or in sequence?

PubMed Central

Berens, Melody S.; Kovelman, Ioulia; Petitto, Laura-Ann

2013-01-01

Is it best to learn reading in two languages simultaneously or sequentially? We observed 2nd and 3rd grade children in two-way dual-language learning contexts: (i) 50:50 or Simultaneous dual-language (two languages within same developmental period) and (ii) 90:10 or Sequential dual-language (one language, followed gradually by the other). They were compared to matched monolingual English-only children in single-language English schools. Bilinguals (home language was Spanish only, English-only, or Spanish and English in dual-language schools), were tested in both languages, and monolingual children were tested in English using standardized reading and language tasks. Bilinguals in 50:50 programs performed better than bilinguals in 90:10 programs on English Irregular Words and Passage Comprehension tasks, suggesting language and reading facilitation for underlying grammatical class and linguistic structure analyses. By contrast, bilinguals in 90:10 programs performed better than bilinguals in the 50:50 programs on English Phonological Awareness and Reading Decoding tasks, suggesting language and reading facilitation for surface phonological regularity analysis. Notably, children from English-only homes in dual-language learning contexts performed equally well, or better than, children from monolingual English-only homes in single-language learning contexts. Overall, the findings provide tantalizing evidence that dual-language learning during the same developmental period may provide bilingual reading advantages. PMID:23794952

Exploring the Link between Visual Perception, Visual-Motor Integration, and Reading in Normal Developing and Impaired Children using DTVP-2.

PubMed

Bellocchi, Stéphanie; Muneaux, Mathilde; Huau, Andréa; Lévêque, Yohana; Jover, Marianne; Ducrot, Stéphanie

2017-08-01

Reading is known to be primarily a linguistic task. However, to successfully decode written words, children also need to develop good visual-perception skills. Furthermore, motor skills are implicated in letter recognition and reading acquisition. Three studies have been designed to determine the link between reading, visual perception, and visual-motor integration using the Developmental Test of Visual Perception version 2 (DTVP-2). Study 1 tests how visual perception and visual-motor integration in kindergarten predict reading outcomes in Grade 1, in typical developing children. Study 2 is aimed at finding out if these skills can be seen as clinical markers in dyslexic children (DD). Study 3 determines if visual-motor integration and motor-reduced visual perception can distinguish DD children according to whether they exhibit or not developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Results showed that phonological awareness and visual-motor integration predicted reading outcomes one year later. DTVP-2 demonstrated similarities and differences in visual-motor integration and motor-reduced visual perception between children with DD, DCD, and both of these deficits. DTVP-2 is a suitable tool to investigate links between visual perception, visual-motor integration and reading, and to differentiate cognitive profiles of children with developmental disabilities (i.e. DD, DCD, and comorbid children). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Action video games improve reading abilities and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting in English-speaking children with dyslexia.

PubMed

Franceschini, Sandro; Trevisan, Piergiorgio; Ronconi, Luca; Bertoni, Sara; Colmar, Susan; Double, Kit; Facoetti, Andrea; Gori, Simone

2017-07-19

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in learning to read and there is some evidence that action video games (AVG), without any direct phonological or orthographic stimulation, improve reading efficiency in Italian children with dyslexia. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying this improvement and the extent to which the benefits of AVG training would generalize to deep English orthography, remain two critical questions. During reading acquisition, children have to integrate written letters with speech sounds, rapidly shifting their attention from visual to auditory modality. In our study, we tested reading skills and phonological working memory, visuo-spatial attention, auditory, visual and audio-visual stimuli localization, and cross-sensory attentional shifting in two matched groups of English-speaking children with dyslexia before and after they played AVG or non-action video games. The speed of words recognition and phonological decoding increased after playing AVG, but not non-action video games. Furthermore, focused visuo-spatial attention and visual-to-auditory attentional shifting also improved only after AVG training. This unconventional reading remediation program also increased phonological short-term memory and phoneme blending skills. Our report shows that an enhancement of visuo-spatial attention and phonological working memory, and an acceleration of visual-to-auditory attentional shifting can directly translate into better reading in English-speaking children with dyslexia.

Annual Research Review: The nature and classification of reading disorders – a commentary on proposals for DSM-5

PubMed Central

Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2012-01-01

This article reviews our understanding of reading disorders in children and relates it to current proposals for their classification in DSM-5. There are two different, commonly occurring, forms of reading disorder in children which arise from different underlying language difficulties. Dyslexia (as defined in DSM-5), or decoding difficulty, refers to children who have difficulty in mastering the relationships between the spelling patterns of words and their pronunciations. These children typically read aloud inaccurately and slowly, and experience additional problems with spelling. Dyslexia appears to arise principally from a weakness in phonological (speech sound) skills, and there is good evidence that it can be ameliorated by systematic phonic teaching combined with phonological awareness training. The other major form of reading difficulty is reading comprehension impairment. These children read aloud accurately and fluently, but have difficulty understanding what they have read. Reading comprehension impairment appears to arise from weaknesses in a range of oral language skills including poor vocabulary knowledge, weak grammatical skills and difficulties in oral language comprehension. We suggest that the omission of reading comprehension impairment from DSM-5 is a serious one that should be remedied. Both dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment are dimensional in nature, and show strong continuities with other disorders of language. We argue that recognizing the continuities between reading and language disorders has important implications for assessment and treatment, and we note that the high rates of comorbidity between reading disorders and other seemingly disparate disorders (including ADHD and motor disorders) raises important challenges for understanding these disorders. PMID:22141434

Real-time inference of word relevance from electroencephalogram and eye gaze

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wenzel, M. A.; Bogojeski, M.; Blankertz, B.

2017-10-01

Objective. Brain-computer interfaces can potentially map the subjective relevance of the visual surroundings, based on neural activity and eye movements, in order to infer the interest of a person in real-time. Approach. Readers looked for words belonging to one out of five semantic categories, while a stream of words passed at different locations on the screen. It was estimated in real-time which words and thus which semantic category interested each reader based on the electroencephalogram (EEG) and the eye gaze. Main results. Words that were subjectively relevant could be decoded online from the signals. The estimation resulted in an average rank of 1.62 for the category of interest among the five categories after a hundred words had been read. Significance. It was demonstrated that the interest of a reader can be inferred online from EEG and eye tracking signals, which can potentially be used in novel types of adaptive software, which enrich the interaction by adding implicit information about the interest of the user to the explicit interaction. The study is characterised by the following novelties. Interpretation with respect to the word meaning was necessary in contrast to the usual practice in brain-computer interfacing where stimulus recognition is sufficient. The typical counting task was avoided because it would not be sensible for implicit relevance detection. Several words were displayed at the same time, in contrast to the typical sequences of single stimuli. Neural activity was related with eye tracking to the words, which were scanned without restrictions on the eye movements.

Sum of the Magnitude for Hard Decision Decoding Algorithm Based on Loop Update Detection.

PubMed

Meng, Jiahui; Zhao, Danfeng; Tian, Hai; Zhang, Liang

2018-01-15

In order to improve the performance of non-binary low-density parity check codes (LDPC) hard decision decoding algorithm and to reduce the complexity of decoding, a sum of the magnitude for hard decision decoding algorithm based on loop update detection is proposed. This will also ensure the reliability, stability and high transmission rate of 5G mobile communication. The algorithm is based on the hard decision decoding algorithm (HDA) and uses the soft information from the channel to calculate the reliability, while the sum of the variable nodes' (VN) magnitude is excluded for computing the reliability of the parity checks. At the same time, the reliability information of the variable node is considered and the loop update detection algorithm is introduced. The bit corresponding to the error code word is flipped multiple times, before this is searched in the order of most likely error probability to finally find the correct code word. Simulation results show that the performance of one of the improved schemes is better than the weighted symbol flipping (WSF) algorithm under different hexadecimal numbers by about 2.2 dB and 2.35 dB at the bit error rate (BER) of 10 -5 over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, respectively. Furthermore, the average number of decoding iterations is significantly reduced.

Large-Constraint-Length, Fast Viterbi Decoder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collins, O.; Dolinar, S.; Hsu, In-Shek; Pollara, F.; Olson, E.; Statman, J.; Zimmerman, G.

1990-01-01

Scheme for efficient interconnection makes VLSI design feasible. Concept for fast Viterbi decoder provides for processing of convolutional codes of constraint length K up to 15 and rates of 1/2 to 1/6. Fully parallel (but bit-serial) architecture developed for decoder of K = 7 implemented in single dedicated VLSI circuit chip. Contains six major functional blocks. VLSI circuits perform branch metric computations, add-compare-select operations, and then store decisions in traceback memory. Traceback processor reads appropriate memory locations and puts out decoded bits. Used as building block for decoders of larger K.

The Role of Speech Prosody and Text Reading Prosody in Children's Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

2014-01-01

Background: Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody--which is independent from reading skills--in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could…

Decoding Dyslexia, a Common Learning Disability | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

MedlinePlus

... JavaScript on. Feature: Dyslexia Decoding Dyslexia, a Common Learning Disability Past Issues / Winter 2016 Table of Contents What Are Learning Disabilities? Learning disabilities affect how someone learns to read, ...

Assessing Specific Grapho-Phonemic Skills in Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Kelly P.; Hosp, John L.; Hosp, Michelle K.; Flynn, Lindsay J.

2010-01-01

This study examines the relation between decoding and spelling performance on tasks that represent identical specific grapho-phonemic patterns. Elementary students (N = 206) were administered a 597 pseudoword decoding inventory representing 12 specific grapho-phonemic patterns and a 104 real-word spelling inventory representing identical…

The design plan of a VLSI single chip (255, 223) Reed-Solomon decoder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hsu, I. S.; Shao, H. M.; Deutsch, L. J.

1987-01-01

The very large-scale integration (VLSI) architecture of a single chip (255, 223) Reed-Solomon decoder for decoding both errors and erasures is described. A decoding failure detection capability is also included in this system so that the decoder will recognize a failure to decode instead of introducing additional errors. This could happen whenever the received word contains too many errors and erasures for the code to correct. The number of transistors needed to implement this decoder is estimated at about 75,000 if the delay for received message is not included. This is in contrast to the older transform decoding algorithm which needs about 100,000 transistors. However, the transform decoder is simpler in architecture than the time decoder. It is therefore possible to implement a single chip (255, 223) Reed-Solomon decoder with today's VLSI technology. An implementation strategy for the decoder system is presented. This represents the first step in a plan to take advantage of advanced coding techniques to realize a 2.0 dB coding gain for future space missions.

Examining General and Specific Factors in the Dimensionality of Oral Language and Reading in 4th–10th Grades

PubMed Central

Foorman, Barbara R.; Koon, Sharon; Petscher, Yaacov; Mitchell, Alison; Truckenmiller, Adrea

2015-01-01

The objective of this study was to explore dimensions of oral language and reading and their influence on reading comprehension in a relatively understudied population—adolescent readers in 4th through 10th grades. The current study employed latent variable modeling of decoding fluency, vocabulary, syntax, and reading comprehension so as to represent these constructs with minimal error and to examine whether residual variance unaccounted for by oral language can be captured by specific factors of syntax and vocabulary. A 1-, 3-, 4-, and bifactor model were tested with 1,792 students in 18 schools in 2 large urban districts in the Southeast. Students were individually administered measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary, syntax, and decoding fluency in mid-year. At the end of the year students took the state reading test as well as a group-administered, norm-referenced test of reading comprehension. The bifactor model fit the data best in all 7 grades and explained 72% to 99% of the variance in reading comprehension. The specific factors of syntax and vocabulary explained significant unique variance in reading comprehension in 1 grade each. The decoding fluency factor was significantly correlated with the reading comprehension and oral language factors in all grades, but, in the presence of the oral language factor, was not significantly associated with the reading comprehension factor. Results support a bifactor model of lexical knowledge rather than the 3-factor model of the Simple View of Reading, with the vast amount of variance in reading comprehension explained by a general oral language factor. PMID:26346839

Is Native-Language Decoding Skill Related to Second-Language Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meschyan, Gayane; Hernandez, Arturo

2002-01-01

Investigated the mechanisms through which native-language (English) word decoding ability predicted individual differences in native- and second-language (Spanish) learning. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that second-language learning is founded on native-language phonological-orthographic ability among college-age adults, especially…

The effect of phonics-enhanced Big Book reading on the language and literacy skills of 6-year-old pupils of different reading ability attending lower SES schools.

PubMed

Tse, Laura; Nicholson, Tom

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to improve the literacy achievement of lower socioeconomic status (SES) children by combining explicit phonics with Big Book reading. Big Book reading is a component of the text-centered (or book reading) approach used in New Zealand schools. It involves the teacher in reading an enlarged book to children and demonstrating how to use semantic, syntactic, and grapho-phonic cues to learn to read. There has been little research, however, to find out whether the effectiveness of Big Book reading is enhanced by adding explicit phonics. In this study, a group of 96 second graders from three lower SES primary schools in New Zealand were taught in 24 small groups of four, tracked into three different reading ability levels. All pupils were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: a control group who received math instruction, Big Book reading enhanced with phonics (BB/EP), Big Book reading on its own, and Phonics on its own. The results showed that the BB/EP group made significantly better progress than the Big Book and Phonics groups in word reading, reading comprehension, spelling, and phonemic awareness. In reading accuracy, the BB/EP and Big Book groups scored similarly. In basic decoding skills the BB/EP and Phonics groups scored similarly. The combined instruction, compared with Big Book reading and phonics, appeared to have no comparative disadvantages and considerable advantages. The present findings could be a model for New Zealand and other countries in their efforts to increase the literacy achievement of disadvantaged pupils.

The effect of phonics-enhanced Big Book reading on the language and literacy skills of 6-year-old pupils of different reading ability attending lower SES schools

PubMed Central

Tse, Laura; Nicholson, Tom

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to improve the literacy achievement of lower socioeconomic status (SES) children by combining explicit phonics with Big Book reading. Big Book reading is a component of the text-centered (or book reading) approach used in New Zealand schools. It involves the teacher in reading an enlarged book to children and demonstrating how to use semantic, syntactic, and grapho-phonic cues to learn to read. There has been little research, however, to find out whether the effectiveness of Big Book reading is enhanced by adding explicit phonics. In this study, a group of 96 second graders from three lower SES primary schools in New Zealand were taught in 24 small groups of four, tracked into three different reading ability levels. All pupils were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: a control group who received math instruction, Big Book reading enhanced with phonics (BB/EP), Big Book reading on its own, and Phonics on its own. The results showed that the BB/EP group made significantly better progress than the Big Book and Phonics groups in word reading, reading comprehension, spelling, and phonemic awareness. In reading accuracy, the BB/EP and Big Book groups scored similarly. In basic decoding skills the BB/EP and Phonics groups scored similarly. The combined instruction, compared with Big Book reading and phonics, appeared to have no comparative disadvantages and considerable advantages. The present findings could be a model for New Zealand and other countries in their efforts to increase the literacy achievement of disadvantaged pupils. PMID:25431560

Neuro-Cognitive Intervention for Working Memory: Preliminary Results and Future Directions.

PubMed

Bree, Kathleen D; Beljan, Paul

2016-01-01

Definitions of working memory identify it as a function of the executive function system in which an individual maintains two or more pieces of information in mind and uses that information simultaneously for some purpose. In academics, working memory is necessary for a variety of functions, including attending to the information one's teacher presents and then using that information simultaneously for problem solving. Research indicates difficulties with working memory are observed in children with mathematics learning disorder (MLD) and reading disorders (RD). To improve working memory and other executive function difficulties, and as an alternative to medication treatments for attention and executive function disorders, the Motor Cognition(2)® (MC(2)®)program was developed. Preliminary research on this program indicates statistically significant improvements in working memory, mathematics, and nonsense word decoding for reading. Further research on the MC(2)® program and its impact on working memory, as well as other areas of executive functioning, is warranted.

Assessing Decoding Ability: The Role of Speed and Accuracy and a New Composite Indicator to Measure Decoding Skill in Elementary Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morlini, Isabella; Stella, Giacomo; Scorza, Maristella

2015-01-01

Tools for assessing decoding skill in students attending elementary grades are of fundamental importance for guaranteeing an early identification of reading disabled students and reducing both the primary negative effects (on learning) and the secondary negative effects (on the development of the personality) of this disability. This article…

Approximate maximum likelihood decoding of block codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greenberger, H. J.

1979-01-01

Approximate maximum likelihood decoding algorithms, based upon selecting a small set of candidate code words with the aid of the estimated probability of error of each received symbol, can give performance close to optimum with a reasonable amount of computation. By combining the best features of various algorithms and taking care to perform each step as efficiently as possible, a decoding scheme was developed which can decode codes which have better performance than those presently in use and yet not require an unreasonable amount of computation. The discussion of the details and tradeoffs of presently known efficient optimum and near optimum decoding algorithms leads, naturally, to the one which embodies the best features of all of them.

Making Sense of Phonics: The Hows and Whys. Second Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beck, Isabel L.; Beck, Mark E.

2013-01-01

This bestselling book provides indispensable tools and strategies for explicit, systematic phonics instruction in K-3. Teachers learn effective ways to build students' decoding skills by teaching letter-sound relationships, blending, word building, multisyllabic decoding, fluency, and more. The volume is packed with engaging classroom activities,…

The effects and interactions of student, teacher, and setting variables on reading outcomes for kindergartners receiving supplemental reading intervention.

PubMed

Hagan-Burke, Shanna; Coyne, Michael D; Kwok, Oi-Man; Simmons, Deborah C; Kim, Minjung; Simmons, Leslie E; Skidmore, Susan T; Hernandez, Caitlin L; McSparran Ruby, Maureen

2013-01-01

This exploratory study examined the influences of student, teacher, and setting characteristics on kindergarteners' early reading outcomes and investigated whether those relations were moderated by type of intervention. Participants included 206 kindergarteners identified as at risk for reading difficulties and randomly assigned to one of two supplemental interventions: (a) an experimental explicit, systematic, code-based program or (b) their schools' typical kindergarten reading intervention. Results from separate multilevel structural equation models indicated that among student variables, entry-level alphabet knowledge was positively associated with phonemic and decoding outcomes in both conditions. Entry-level rapid automatized naming also positively influenced decoding outcomes in both conditions. However, its effect on phonemic outcomes was statistically significant only among children in the typical practice comparison condition. Regarding teacher variables, the quality of instruction was associated with significantly higher decoding outcomes in the typical reading intervention condition but had no statistically significant influence on phonemic outcomes in either condition. Among setting variables, instruction in smaller group sizes was associated with better phonemic outcomes in the comparison condition but had no statistically significant influence on outcomes of children in the intervention group. Mode of delivery (i.e., pullout vs. in class) had no statistically significant influence on either outcome variable.

Effect of Atomoxetine Treatment on Reading and Phonological Skills in Children with Dyslexia or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Comorbid Dyslexia in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

PubMed

Shaywitz, Sally; Shaywitz, Bennett; Wietecha, Linda; Wigal, Sharon; McBurnett, Keith; Williams, David; Kronenberger, William G; Hooper, Stephen R

2017-02-01

Evaluated the effects of atomoxetine on the reading abilities of children with dyslexia only or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid dyslexia. Children aged 10-16 years (N = 209) met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for dyslexia only (n = 58), ADHD and comorbid dyslexia (n = 124), or ADHD only (n = 27) and were of normal intelligence. Patients were treated with atomoxetine (1.0-1.4 mg/kg/day) or placebo in a 16-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The dyslexia-only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia groups were randomized 1:1; the ADHD-only group received atomoxetine in a blinded manner. Reading abilities were measured with the Woodcock Johnson III (WJIII), Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP), Gray Oral Reading Tests-4, and Test of Word Reading Efficiency. Atomoxetine-treated dyslexia-only patients compared with placebo patients had significantly greater improvement (p < 0.02) with moderate to approaching high effect sizes (ES) on WJIII Word Attack (ES = 0.72), Basic Reading Skills (ES = 0.48), and Reading Vocabulary (ES = 0.73). In the atomoxetine-treated ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group, improvement on the CTOPP Elision measure (ES = 0.50) was significantly greater compared with placebo (p < 0.02). Total, inattentive, and hyperactive/impulsive ADHD symptom reductions were significant in the atomoxetine-treated ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group compared with placebo, and from baseline in the ADHD-only group (p ≤ 0.02). ADHD symptom improvements in the ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group were not correlated with improvements in reading. Atomoxetine treatment improved reading scores in patients with dyslexia only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia. Improvements for patients with dyslexia only were in critical components of reading, including decoding and reading vocabulary. For patients with ADHD and comorbid dyslexia, improvements in reading scores were distinct from improvement in ADHD inattention symptoms alone. These data represent the first report of improvements in reading measures following pharmacotherapy treatment in patients with dyslexia only evaluated in a randomized, double-blind trial.

Effect of Atomoxetine Treatment on Reading and Phonological Skills in Children with Dyslexia or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Comorbid Dyslexia in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

PubMed Central

Shaywitz, Bennett; Wietecha, Linda; Wigal, Sharon; McBurnett, Keith; Williams, David; Kronenberger, William G.; Hooper, Stephen R.

2017-01-01

Abstract Objectives: Evaluated the effects of atomoxetine on the reading abilities of children with dyslexia only or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid dyslexia. Methods: Children aged 10–16 years (N = 209) met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for dyslexia only (n = 58), ADHD and comorbid dyslexia (n = 124), or ADHD only (n = 27) and were of normal intelligence. Patients were treated with atomoxetine (1.0–1.4 mg/kg/day) or placebo in a 16-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The dyslexia-only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia groups were randomized 1:1; the ADHD-only group received atomoxetine in a blinded manner. Reading abilities were measured with the Woodcock Johnson III (WJIII), Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP), Gray Oral Reading Tests-4, and Test of Word Reading Efficiency. Results: Atomoxetine-treated dyslexia-only patients compared with placebo patients had significantly greater improvement (p < 0.02) with moderate to approaching high effect sizes (ES) on WJIII Word Attack (ES = 0.72), Basic Reading Skills (ES = 0.48), and Reading Vocabulary (ES = 0.73). In the atomoxetine-treated ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group, improvement on the CTOPP Elision measure (ES = 0.50) was significantly greater compared with placebo (p < 0.02). Total, inattentive, and hyperactive/impulsive ADHD symptom reductions were significant in the atomoxetine-treated ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group compared with placebo, and from baseline in the ADHD-only group (p ≤ 0.02). ADHD symptom improvements in the ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group were not correlated with improvements in reading. Conclusions: Atomoxetine treatment improved reading scores in patients with dyslexia only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia. Improvements for patients with dyslexia only were in critical components of reading, including decoding and reading vocabulary. For patients with ADHD and comorbid dyslexia, improvements in reading scores were distinct from improvement in ADHD inattention symptoms alone. These data represent the first report of improvements in reading measures following pharmacotherapy treatment in patients with dyslexia only evaluated in a randomized, double-blind trial. PMID:27410907

Sum of the Magnitude for Hard Decision Decoding Algorithm Based on Loop Update Detection

PubMed Central

Meng, Jiahui; Zhao, Danfeng; Tian, Hai; Zhang, Liang

2018-01-01

In order to improve the performance of non-binary low-density parity check codes (LDPC) hard decision decoding algorithm and to reduce the complexity of decoding, a sum of the magnitude for hard decision decoding algorithm based on loop update detection is proposed. This will also ensure the reliability, stability and high transmission rate of 5G mobile communication. The algorithm is based on the hard decision decoding algorithm (HDA) and uses the soft information from the channel to calculate the reliability, while the sum of the variable nodes’ (VN) magnitude is excluded for computing the reliability of the parity checks. At the same time, the reliability information of the variable node is considered and the loop update detection algorithm is introduced. The bit corresponding to the error code word is flipped multiple times, before this is searched in the order of most likely error probability to finally find the correct code word. Simulation results show that the performance of one of the improved schemes is better than the weighted symbol flipping (WSF) algorithm under different hexadecimal numbers by about 2.2 dB and 2.35 dB at the bit error rate (BER) of 10−5 over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, respectively. Furthermore, the average number of decoding iterations is significantly reduced. PMID:29342963

Annual research review: the nature and classification of reading disorders--a commentary on proposals for DSM-5.

PubMed

Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2012-05-01

This article reviews our understanding of reading disorders in children and relates it to current proposals for their classification in DSM-5. There are two different, commonly occurring, forms of reading disorder in children which arise from different underlying language difficulties. Dyslexia (as defined in DSM-5), or decoding difficulty, refers to children who have difficulty in mastering the relationships between the spelling patterns of words and their pronunciations. These children typically read aloud inaccurately and slowly, and experience additional problems with spelling. Dyslexia appears to arise principally from a weakness in phonological (speech sound) skills, and there is good evidence that it can be ameliorated by systematic phonic teaching combined with phonological awareness training. The other major form of reading difficulty is reading comprehension impairment. These children read aloud accurately and fluently, but have difficulty understanding what they have read. Reading comprehension impairment appears to arise from weaknesses in a range of oral language skills including poor vocabulary knowledge, weak grammatical skills and difficulties in oral language comprehension. We suggest that the omission of reading comprehension impairment from DSM-5 is a serious one that should be remedied. Both dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment are dimensional in nature, and show strong continuities with other disorders of language. We argue that recognizing the continuities between reading and language disorders has important implications for assessment and treatment, and we note that the high rates of comorbidity between reading disorders and other seemingly disparate disorders (including ADHD and motor disorders) raises important challenges for understanding these disorders. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2011 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Oral Reading Fluency and Prosody: A Preliminary Analysis of the Greek Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarris, Menelaos; Dimakos, Ioannis C.

2015-01-01

This article presents results from an initial investigation of Greek oral reading fluency and prosody. Although currently held perspectives consider reading the product of reading decoding and reading comprehension, there is enough evidence (both Greek and foreign) to suggest that other variables may affect reading, as well. Such variables include…

How Does Speed and Accuracy in Reading Relate to Reading Comprehension in Arabic?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Leil, Aula Khateeb; Share, David L.; Ibrahim, Raphiq

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential contribution of decoding efficiency to the development of reading comprehension among skilled adult native Arabic speakers. In addition, we tried to investigate the influence of Arabic vowels on reading accuracy, reading speed, and therefore to reading comprehension. Seventy-five Arabic…

Assessment Data-Informed Guidance to Individualize Kindergarten Reading Instruction: Findings from a Cluster-Randomized Control Field Trial

PubMed Central

Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Connor, Carol M; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Greulich, Luana; Meadows, Jane; Li, Zhi

2010-01-01

The purpose of this cluster-randomized control field trial was to was to examine the extent to which kindergarten teachers could learn a promising instructional strategy, wherein kindergarten reading instruction was differentiated based upon students’ ongoing assessments of language and literacy skills and documented child characteristic by instruction (CXI) interactions; and to test the efficacy of this differentiated reading instruction on the reading outcomes of students from culturally diverse backgrounds. The study involved 14 schools and included 23 treatment (n = 305 students) and 21 contrast teacher (n = 251 students). Teachers in the contrast condition received only a baseline professional development that included a researcher-delivered summer day-long workshop on individualized instruction. Data sources included parent surveys, individually administered child assessments of language, cognitive, and reading skills and videotapes of classroom instruction. Using Hierarchical Multivariate Linear Modeling (HMLM), we found students in treatment classrooms outperformed students in the contrast classrooms on a latent measure of reading skills, comprised of letter-word reading, decoding, alphabetic knowledge, and phonological awareness (ES = .52). Teachers in both conditions provided small group instruction, but teachers in the treatment condition provided significantly more individualized instruction. Our findings extend research on the efficacy of teachers using Individualized Student Instruction to individualize instruction based upon students’ language and literacy skills in first through third grade. Findings are discussed regarding the value of professional development related to differentiating core reading instruction and the challenges of using Response to Intervention approaches to address students’ needs in the areas of reading in general education contexts. PMID:21818158

The Construction of Visual-spatial Situation Models in Children's Reading and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Barnes, Marcia A.; Raghubar, Kimberly P.; Faulkner, Heather; Denton, Carolyn A.

2014-01-01

Readers construct mental models of situations described by text to comprehend what they read, updating these situation models based on explicitly described and inferred information about causal, temporal, and spatial relations. Fluent adult readers update their situation models while reading narrative text based in part on spatial location information that is consistent with the perspective of the protagonist. The current study investigates whether children update spatial situation models in a similar way, whether there are age-related changes in children's formation of spatial situation models during reading, and whether measures of the ability to construct and update spatial situation models are predictive of reading comprehension. Typically-developing children from ages 9 through 16 years (n=81) were familiarized with a physical model of a marketplace. Then the model was covered, and children read stories that described the movement of a protagonist through the marketplace and were administered items requiring memory for both explicitly stated and inferred information about the character's movements. Accuracy of responses and response times were evaluated. Results indicated that: (a) location and object information during reading appeared to be activated and updated not simply from explicit text-based information but from a mental model of the real world situation described by the text; (b) this pattern showed no age-related differences; and (c) the ability to update the situation model of the text based on inferred information, but not explicitly stated information, was uniquely predictive of reading comprehension after accounting for word decoding. PMID:24315376

Relative Effectiveness of Reading Intervention Programs for Adults with Low Literacy.

PubMed

Sabatini, John P; Shore, Jane; Holtzman, Steven; Scarborough, Hollis S

2011-01-01

To compare the efficacy of instructional programs for adult learners with basic reading skills below the seventh grade level, 300 adults were randomly assigned to one of three supplementary tutoring programs designed to strengthen decoding and fluency skills, and gains were examined for the 148 adult students who completed the program. The three intervention programs were based on or adapted from instructional programs that have been shown to benefit children with reading levels similar to those of the adult sample. Each program varied in its relative emphasis on basic decoding versus reading fluency instruction. A repeated measures MANOVA confirmed small to moderate reading gains from pre- to post-testing across a battery of targeted reading measures, but no significant relative differences across interventions. An additional 152 participants who failed to complete the intervention differed initially from those who persisted. Implications for future research and adult literacy instruction are discussed.

How Can You Translate If You Can't Express Yourself in Writing?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zucker, George K.

Good translation requires writing skills in each of its three stages: decoding the original text; transferring its cultural and linguistic element into the context of the target language; and encoding the information in that context. During decoding, the translator must be conscious of speech level, word usage, cultural references, syntactic…

Application of Automated Data-Scanning Techniques to U.S. Army Directorates of Engineering and Housing Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

back of a paper or plastic card. A decoder reads the flux reversals and translates them into letters and numbers for processing by a computer. The best...read without decoding. In the past 3 or 4 years, OCR technology has been improved significantly due mostly to the availability of relatively low-cost...transaction readers, and hand- held readers. Page readers scan pages of text either directly from paper or from digitized images of documents stored in the

The Association Between Motor Skills and Academic Achievement Among Pediatric Survivors of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

PubMed

Balsamo, Lyn M; Sint, Kyaw J; Neglia, Joseph P; Brouwers, Pim; Kadan-Lottick, Nina S

2016-04-01

Assess the association between fine motor (FM) and visual-motor integration (VMI) skills and academic achievement in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors. In this 28-site cross-sectional study of 256 children in first remission, a mean of 8.9 ± 2.2 years after treatment for standard-risk precursor-B ALL, validated measures of FM, VMI, reading, math, and intelligence were administered at mean follow-up age of 12.8 ± 2.5 years.   VMI was significantly associated with written math calculation ability (p < .0069) after adjusting for intelligence (p < .0001). VMI was more strongly associated with math in those with lower intelligence (p = .0141). Word decoding was also significantly associated with VMI but with no effect modification by intelligence. FM skills were not associated with either reading or math achievement. These findings suggest that VMI is associated with aspects of math and reading achievement in leukemia survivors. These skills may be amenable to intervention. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The incidence of dyslexia among young offenders in Kuwait.

PubMed

Elbeheri, Gad; Everatt, John; Al Malki, Mohammad

2009-05-01

This paper investigates the incidence of dyslexia among young offenders in Kuwait. A total of 91 children/young adults from 8 juvenile delinquent welfare centres across Kuwait were interviewed and tested. A measure of non-verbal reasoning ability was used to exclude those with low general ability. The remaining 53 participants were tested on their ability to identify alliteration and rhyme, retain and manipulate sequences of digit and letter names, decode novel letter strings and identify words within letter chains. Participants' reading accuracy, rate of reading, reading comprehension and ability to spell correctly dictated text were also assessed. These measures were used to determine those with indicators of dyslexia. The results indicated that the percentage of individuals presenting evidence of dyslexia was much larger (greater than 20%) in this population of young offenders than would be expected based on the national average (around 6%) of dyslexics in Kuwait derived from a nationwide study (A survey study of dyslexia in Kuwait, Kuwait Dyslexia Association: Kuwait City; 2002). These findings replicate previous evidence for an increased frequency of dyslexia among young offenders. The implications of such findings are discussed in terms of dyslexia awareness, socio-cultural factors, education and intervention, particularly in Kuwait juvenile delinquent welfare centres.

Sending Foreign Language Word Processor Files over Networks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feustle, Joseph A., Jr.

1992-01-01

Advantages of using online systems are described, and specific techniques for successfully transmitting computer text files are described. Topics covered include Microsoft's Rich TextFile, WordPerfect encoding, text compression, and especially encoding and decoding with UNIX programs. (LB)

The association of ADHD symptoms and reading acquisition during elementary school years.

PubMed

Ehm, Jan-Henning; Kerner Auch Koerner, Julia; Gawrilow, Caterina; Hasselhorn, Marcus; Schmiedek, Florian

2016-09-01

The present longitudinal study aimed to investigate the influence of ADHD symptoms on reading development in elementary schoolchildren. To this end, repeated assessments of ADHD symptoms (teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and reading achievement (standardized tests of decoding speed and text comprehension) were examined in a sample comprising 2,014 elementary schoolchildren at the end of Grades 1, 2, 3, respectively, and in the middle of Grade 4. Latent change score models revealed that the level of ADHD symptoms was associated with lower levels and less growth in decoding speed and text comprehension. Furthermore, individual differences in changes in ADHD symptoms and reading performance were negatively associated. Together, these results indicate commonalities in the development of ADHD symptomatology and reading achievement throughout elementary school. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessment of Reading Comprehension, Panel 5; Conference on Studies in Reading (Washington, D.C., August 1974).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Marshall S., Ed.

The aim of the panel on reading comprehension, sponsored by the National Institute of Education Conference on Studies in Reading, was to determine the influence of intellectual factors, general experiences with the world, knowledge specific to the particular reading task, and general decoding skills to successful reading performance. In addition,…

The effect of aging on the brain network for exception word reading.

PubMed

Provost, Jean-Sebastien; Brambati, Simona M; Chapleau, Marianne; Wilson, Maximiliano A

2016-11-01

Cognitive and computational models of reading aloud agree on the existence of two procedures for reading. Pseudowords (e.g., atendier) are correctly read through subword processes only while exception words (e.g., pint) are only correctly read via whole-words processes. Regular words can be correctly read by means of either way. Previous behavioral studies showed that older adults relied more on whole-word processing for reading. The aim of the present fMRI study was to verify whether this larger whole-word reliance for reading in older adults was reflected by changes in the pattern of brain activation. Both young and elderly participants read aloud pseudowords, exception and regular words in the scanner. Behavioral results reproduced those of previous studies showing that older adults made significantly less errors when reading exception words. Neuroimaging results showed significant activation of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), a key region implicated in whole-word reading for exception word reading in both young and elderly participants. Critically, ATL activation was also found for regular word reading in the elderly. No differences were observed in the pattern of activation between regular and pseudowords in the young. In conclusion, these results extend evidence on the critical role of the left ATL for exception word reading to elderly participants. Additionally, our study shows for the first time from a developmental point of view that the behavioral changes found in reading during normal aging also have a brain counterpart in the reading network changes that sustain exception and regular word reading in the elderly. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Relationships among Cognitive Correlates and Irregular Word, Non-Word, and Word Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Hamour, Bashir; University, Mu'tah; Urso, Annmarie; Mather, Nancy

2012-01-01

This study explored four hypotheses: (a) the relationships among rapid automatized naming (RAN) and processing speed (PS) to irregular word, non-word, and word reading; (b) the predictive power of various RAN and PS measures, (c) the cognitive correlates that best predicted irregular word, non-word, and word reading, and (d) reading performance of…

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…

The First R: Fundamentals of Initial Reading Instruction. Developments in Classroom Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shuman, R. Baird

Addressing subjects ranging from reading readiness to phonics, this book examines several fundamental elements of beginning reading instruction. Divided into 12 chapters, the book begins with a chapter providing a general overview of reading instruction, including the debate between the perception of reading as decoding or comprehension, and other…

Early language mediates the relations between preschool inattention and school-age reading achievement.

PubMed

O'Neill, Sarah; Thornton, Veronica; Marks, David J; Rajendran, Khushmand; Halperin, Jeffrey M

2016-05-01

Early inattention is associated with later reading problems in children, but the mechanism by which this occurs is unclear. We investigated whether the negative relation between preschoolers' ADHD symptoms and 8-year-old reading achievement is directly related to the severity of inattention or is mediated by early language skills. Children (n = 150; 76% boys) were evaluated at 3 time points: preschool (T1), mean (SD) age = 4.24 (.49) years; 1 year later (T2), mean (SD) age = 5.28 (.50) years; and during school age (T3), mean (SD) age = 8.61 (.31) years. At T1, parents' Kiddie-SADS responses were dimensionalized to reflect ADHD severity. Children completed the Language domain of the NEPSY (i.e., A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment) at T1 and again at T2. At T3, children completed the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, Second Edition Word Reading, Pseudoword Decoding, Reading Comprehension, and Spelling subtests, and their teachers completed ratings of Reading and Written Expression performance in school. The mediating effect of T2 Language on the relation between preschool Inattention and age 8 Reading was examined using the nonparametric bootstrapping procedure, while controlling for T1 Language. Language ability at T2 mediated the path from preschool inattention (but not hyperactivity/impulsivity) to 8-year-old reading achievement (both test scores and ratings) after controlling for preschoolers' language ability. Early attentional deficits may negatively impact school-age reading outcomes by compromising the development of language skills, which in turn imperils later reading achievement. Screening children with attentional problems for language impairment, as well as implementing early intervention for both attentional and language problems may be critical to promote reading achievement during school years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Working Memory Deficits Underlie Reading Problems in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

PubMed

Kofler, Michael J; Spiegel, Jamie A; Soto, Elia F; Irwin, Lauren N; Wells, Erica L; Austin, Kristin E

2018-06-19

Reading problems are common in children with ADHD and show strong covariation with these children's underdeveloped working memory abilities. In contrast, working memory training does not appear to improve reading performance for children with ADHD or neurotypical children. The current study bridges the gap between these conflicting findings, and combines dual-task methodology with Bayesian modeling to examine the role of working memory for explaining ADHD-related reading problems. Children ages 8-13 (M = 10.50, SD = 1.59) with and without ADHD (N = 78; 29 girls; 63% Caucasian/Non-Hispanic) completed a counterbalanced series of reading tasks that systematically manipulated concurrent working memory demands. Adding working memory demands produced disproportionate decrements in reading comprehension for children with ADHD (d = -0.67) relative to Non-ADHD children (d = -0.18); comprehension was significantly reduced in both groups when working memory demands were increased. These effects were robust to controls for foundational reading skills (decoding, sight word vocabulary) and comorbid reading disability. Concurrent working memory demands did not slow reading speed for either group. The ADHD group showed lower comprehension (d = 1.02) and speed (d = 0.69) even before adding working memory demands beyond those inherently required for reading. Exploratory conditional effects analyses indicated that underdeveloped working memory overlapped with 41% (comprehension) and 85% (speed) of these between-group differences. Reading problems in ADHD appear attributable, at least in part, to their underdeveloped working memory abilities. Combined with prior cross-sectional and longitudinal findings, the current experimental evidence positions working memory as a potential causal mechanism that is necessary but not sufficient for effectively understanding written language.

A few words about dyslexia.

PubMed

Peretz, Benny

2009-10-01

More and more, one encounters people who describe themselves as dyslectic. What is dyslexia? A detailed article in the July issue of Science, explains the phenomenon, and related aspects (1). The following are some of its points. Dyslexia is characterized by a difficulty is understanding and using alphabetic or logographic principles to acquire accurate and fluent reading skills. Dyslexia is persistent: a child who fails to read adequately in 1st grade has a high probability of reading poorly in 4th grade and in high school. Thus, difficulty in early reading limits reading comprehension in the later years of education, as students shift from learning to read to reading to learn. Dyslexia is often defined by a discrepancy between an average or above-average score on a test of general intelligence (intelligence quotient [IQ] test) and a low score on a standardized reading test. There is an observation that dyslexia is independent of other talents that allow some children with dyslexia to grow into re markably successful adults. Dyslexia is strongly heritable, occurring in up to 70% of identical twins and 50% of individuals who have a parent or sibling with dyslexia. Environmental factors are also important in reading development, even in children at genetic risk for dyslexia. Dyslexia can be treated. Once children are diagnosed with dyslexia because of reading failure, treatments are instructional. Instruction yields substantial improvement in reading accuracy for many, but not all, children if instruction is more intensive (for instance, 100 minutes per day for 8 weeks), occurs in small groups (1 or 2 students per teacher), and includes explicit and systematic instruction in phonological awareness and decoding strategies.

Low Power LDPC Code Decoder Architecture Based on Intermediate Message Compression Technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimizu, Kazunori; Togawa, Nozomu; Ikenaga, Takeshi; Goto, Satoshi

Reducing the power dissipation for LDPC code decoder is a major challenging task to apply it to the practical digital communication systems. In this paper, we propose a low power LDPC code decoder architecture based on an intermediate message-compression technique which features as follows: (i) An intermediate message compression technique enables the decoder to reduce the required memory capacity and write power dissipation. (ii) A clock gated shift register based intermediate message memory architecture enables the decoder to decompress the compressed messages in a single clock cycle while reducing the read power dissipation. The combination of the above two techniques enables the decoder to reduce the power dissipation while keeping the decoding throughput. The simulation results show that the proposed architecture improves the power efficiency up to 52% and 18% compared to that of the decoder based on the overlapped schedule and the rapid convergence schedule without the proposed techniques respectively.

High speed data compactor

DOEpatents

Baumbaugh, Alan E.; Knickerbocker, Kelly L.

1988-06-04

A method and apparatus for suppressing from transmission, non-informational data words from a source of data words such as a video camera. Data words having values greater than a predetermined threshold are transmitted whereas data words having values less than a predetermined threshold are not transmitted but their occurrences instead are counted. Before being transmitted, the count of occurrences of invalid data words and valid data words are appended with flag digits which a receiving system decodes. The original data stream is fully reconstructable from the stream of valid data words and count of invalid data words.

Individual and group sensitivity to remedial reading program design: Examining reading gains across three middle school reading projects

PubMed Central

Calhoon, Mary Beth; Petscher, Yaacov

2015-01-01

The purpose of this project was to examine group- and individual-level responses by struggling adolescents readers (6th – 8th grades; N = 155) to three different modalities of the same reading program, Reading Achievement Multi-Component Program (RAMP-UP). The three modalities differ in the combination of reading components (phonological decoding, spelling, fluency, comprehension) that are taught and their organization. Latent change scores were used to examine changes in phonological decoding, fluency, and comprehension for each modality at the group level. In addition, individual students were classified as gainers versus non-gainers (a reading level increase of a year or more vs. less than one year) so that characteristics of gainers and differential sensitivity to instructional modality could be investigated. Findings from both group and individual analyses indicated that reading outcomes were related to modalities of reading instruction. Furthermore, differences in reading gains were seen between students who began treatment with higher reading scores than those with lower reading scores; dependent on modality of treatment. Results, examining group and individual analyses similarities and differences, and the effect the different modalities have on reading outcomes for older struggling readers will be discussed. PMID:25657503

Making Sense of Reading Scores with Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (READS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

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

2010-01-01

It is imperative that teachers need to assess their learners' reading proficiency. Incidentally, most assessments developed and conducted by teachers merely discriminate who among their learners are performing better than the other. These assessments deplorably provide nothing more than norm reference data. Nonetheless, this is the only…

De-coding Reading at Work: Workplace Reading Competencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Searle, Jean

1998-01-01

Naturalistic observations and interviews with service workers found on-the-job reading was based on knowledge of codes and rules of practice and required problem-solving and metacognitive strategies. Workplace competencies should be considered within their social and cultural context. (SK)

More than meets the eye: the role of self-identity in decoding complex emotional states.

PubMed

Stevenson, Michael T; Soto, José A; Adams, Reginald B

2012-10-01

Folk wisdom asserts that "the eyes are the window to the soul," and empirical science corroborates a prominent role for the eyes in the communication of emotion. Herein we examine variation in the ability to "read" the eyes of others as a function of social group membership, employing a widely used emotional state decoding task: "Reading the Mind in Eyes." This task has documented impaired emotional state decoding across racial groups, with cross-race performance on par with that previously reported as a function of autism spectrum disorders. The present study extended this work by examining the moderating role of social identity in such impairments. For college students more highly identified with their university, cross-race performance differences were not found for judgments of "same-school" eyes but remained for "rival-school" eyes. These findings suggest that impaired emotional state decoding across groups may thus be more amenable to remediation than previously realized.

The Effects of Selective Attention on the Decoding Skills of Children with Learning Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schworm, Ronald W.

1979-01-01

To test the effects of selective attention on decoding skills, 23 children (grades 2 through 6) with learning disabilities were studied. Results showed that treatment directly improved the ability of the experimental groups to transfer spelling patterns learned in isolation to unknown words containing those patterns and improved the ability of Ss…

EEG-based time and spatial interpretation of activation areas for relaxation and words writing between poor and capable dyslexic children.

PubMed

Mohamad, N B; Lee, Khuan Y; Mansor, W; Mahmoodin, Z; Fadzal, C W N F C W; Amirin, S

2015-01-01

Symptoms of dyslexia such as difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and/or poor spelling as well as decoding abilities, are easily misinterpreted as laziness and defiance amongst school children. Indeed, 37.9% of 699 school dropouts and failures are diagnosed as dyslexic. Currently, Screening for dyslexia relies heavily on therapists, whom are few and subjective, yet objective methods are still unavailable. EEG has long been a popular method to study the cognitive processes in human such as language processing and motor activity. However, its interpretation is limited to time and frequency domain, without visual information, which is still useful. Here, our research intends to illustrate an EEG-based time and spatial interpretation of activated brain areas for the poor and capable dyslexic during the state of relaxation and words writing, being the first attempt ever reported. From the 2D distribution of EEG spectral at the activation areas and its progress with time, it is observed that capable dyslexics are able to relax compared to poor dyslexics. During the state of words writing, neural activities are found higher on the right hemisphere than the left hemisphere of the capable dyslexics, which suggests a neurobiological compensation pathway in the right hemisphere, during reading and writing, which is not observed in the poor dyslexics.

Word skipping: effects of word length, predictability, spelling and reading skill.

PubMed

Slattery, Timothy J; Yates, Mark

2017-08-31

Readers eyes often skip over words as they read. Skipping rates are largely determined by word length; short words are skipped more than long words. However, the predictability of a word in context also impacts skipping rates. Rayner, Slattery, Drieghe and Liversedge (2011) reported an effect of predictability on word skipping for even long words (10-13 characters) that extend beyond the word identification span. Recent research suggests that better readers and spellers have an enhanced perceptual span (Veldre & Andrews, 2014). We explored whether reading and spelling skill interact with word length and predictability to impact word skipping rates in a large sample (N=92) of average and poor adult readers. Participants read the items from Rayner et al. (2011) while their eye movements were recorded. Spelling skill (zSpell) was assessed using the dictation and recognition tasks developed by Sally Andrews and colleagues. Reading skill (zRead) was assessed from reading speed (words per minute) and accuracy of three 120 word passages each with 10 comprehension questions. We fit linear mixed models to the target gaze duration data and generalized linear mixed models to the target word skipping data. Target word gaze durations were significantly predicted by zRead while, the skipping likelihoods were significantly predicted by zSpell. Additionally, for gaze durations, zRead significantly interacted with word predictability as better readers relied less on context to support word processing. These effects are discussed in relation to the lexical quality hypothesis and eye movement models of reading.

Screening for Dyslexia Using Eye Tracking during Reading.

PubMed

Nilsson Benfatto, Mattias; Öqvist Seimyr, Gustaf; Ygge, Jan; Pansell, Tony; Rydberg, Agneta; Jacobson, Christer

2016-01-01

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental reading disability estimated to affect 5-10% of the population. While there is yet no full understanding of the cause of dyslexia, or agreement on its precise definition, it is certain that many individuals suffer persistent problems in learning to read for no apparent reason. Although it is generally agreed that early intervention is the best form of support for children with dyslexia, there is still a lack of efficient and objective means to help identify those at risk during the early years of school. Here we show that it is possible to identify 9-10 year old individuals at risk of persistent reading difficulties by using eye tracking during reading to probe the processes that underlie reading ability. In contrast to current screening methods, which rely on oral or written tests, eye tracking does not depend on the subject to produce some overt verbal response and thus provides a natural means to objectively assess the reading process as it unfolds in real-time. Our study is based on a sample of 97 high-risk subjects with early identified word decoding difficulties and a control group of 88 low-risk subjects. These subjects were selected from a larger population of 2165 school children attending second grade. Using predictive modeling and statistical resampling techniques, we develop classification models from eye tracking records less than one minute in duration and show that the models are able to differentiate high-risk subjects from low-risk subjects with high accuracy. Although dyslexia is fundamentally a language-based learning disability, our results suggest that eye movements in reading can be highly predictive of individual reading ability and that eye tracking can be an efficient means to identify children at risk of long-term reading difficulties.

Task set persistence modulates word reading following resolution of picture-word interference.

PubMed

Masson, Michael E J; Bub, Daniel N; Ishigami, Yoko

2007-12-01

We extend the finding that word reading slows following successful responses to a color-word Stroop interference task (Masson, Bub, Woodward, & Chan, 2003). Word reading was assessed in a picture-word interference task in which subjects alternated between naming a picture (with either a word or a row of Xs superimposed on it) and reading a word. For the word-reading task, words were presented either in isolation or superimposed on a picture. Word reading was slower after subjects responded to a bivalent stimulus that required resolution of conflict (naming a picture with a word superimposed on it) than after they responded to a stimulus that involved no conflict (naming a picture with Xs superimposed on it), indicating modulation of dominant task performance. This effect was found when word-reading targets were superimposed on pictures but not when those targets were presented in isolation. Modulation of word reading, therefore, appears to be the result of interference from a persistent picture-naming task set, cued by a stimulus configuration that invites execution of both competing tasks.

Eye movements when reading sentences with handwritten words.

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Marcet, Ana; Uixera, Beatriz; Vergara-Martínez, Marta

2016-10-17

The examination of how we read handwritten words (i.e., the original form of writing) has typically been disregarded in the literature on reading. Previous research using word recognition tasks has shown that lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) are magnified when reading difficult handwritten words. To examine this issue in a more ecological scenario, we registered the participants' eye movements when reading handwritten sentences that varied in the degree of legibility (i.e., sentences composed of words in easy vs. difficult handwritten style). For comparison purposes, we included a condition with printed sentences. Results showed a larger reading cost for sentences with difficult handwritten words than for sentences with easy handwritten words, which in turn showed a reading cost relative to the sentences with printed words. Critically, the effect of word frequency was greater for difficult handwritten words than for easy handwritten words or printed words in the total times on a target word, but not on first-fixation durations or gaze durations. We examine the implications of these findings for models of eye movement control in reading.

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…

Children's Orthographic Knowledge and Their Word Reading Skill: Testing Bidirectional Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conrad, Nicole J.; Deacon, S. Hélène

2016-01-01

Prominent models of word reading concur that the development of efficient word reading depends on the establishment of lexical orthographic representations in memory. In turn, word reading skills are conceptualised as supporting the development of these orthographic representations. As such, models of word reading development make clear…

Reading as a Thinking Process; Proceedings of the Annual Reading Conference (5th, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, June 12-13, 1975).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waterman, David C.; Gibbs, Vanita M.

Thinking skills in children, effectively developed through reading, were emphasized at this reading conference. Three types of thinking skills linked to reading are: decoding symbols from the printed page, seeking factual meaning through recall; reading interpretively, understanding cause and effect reasoning or seeking the main idea of sentences;…

The Simple View of Reading: Assessment and Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Jenny A.; Scott, Kathleen A.

2006-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (P. B. Gough & W. Tunmer, 1986; W. A. Hoover & P. B. Gough, 1990) provides a 2-component model of reading. Each of these 2 components, decoding and comprehension, is necessary for normal reading to occur. The Simple View of Reading provides a relatively transparent model that can be used by professionals not only to…

An Evaluation of Supplemental Reading Instruction for At-Risk Middle School Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berkeley, Sheri; Lindstrom, Jennifer H.; Regan, Kelley; Nealy, Allison; Southall, Candice; Stagliano, Christina

2012-01-01

One middle school's implementation of corrective reading was evaluated for student reading outcomes and treatment fidelity. Findings indicated that sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students made progress in decoding and oral reading fluency over the school year; however, students did not demonstrate greater gains during the semester enrolled in…

Toward a New Model of Usability: Guidelines for Selecting Reading Fluency Apps Suitable for Instruction of Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rinehart, Steven D.; Ahern, Terence C.

2016-01-01

Computer applications related to reading instruction have become commonplace in schools and link with established components of the reading process, emergent skills, decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. This article focuses on computer technology in conjunction with durable methods for building oral reading fluency when readers…

Predictors of Reading Ability in English for Mandarin-Speaking Bilingual Children in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Yah Hui; Poon, Kenneth K.; Rickard Liow, Susan J.

2013-01-01

Research on the reading skills of monolingual children has established a convergent skills model for acquisition involving context-free decoding, language comprehension, and visual and phonological processing. This study sought to identify the predictors of Primary One bilingual children's reading accuracy and reading comprehension in English.…

A Synthesis of Reading Interventions and Effects on Reading Comprehension Outcomes for Older Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edmonds, Meaghan S.; Vaughn, Sharon; Wexler, Jade; Reutebuch, Colleen; Cable, Amory; Tackett, Kathryn Klingler; Schnakenberg, Jennifer Wick

2009-01-01

This article reports a synthesis of intervention studies conducted between 1994 and 2004 with older students (Grades 6-12) with reading difficulties. Interventions addressing decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension were included if they measured the effects on reading comprehension. Twenty-nine studies were located and synthesized.…

Learning to Read: Should We Keep Things Simple?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reading Research Quarterly, 2015

2015-01-01

The simple view of reading describes reading comprehension as the product of decoding and listening comprehension and the relative contribution of each to reading comprehension across development. We present a cross-sectional analysis of first, second, and third graders (N = 123-125 in each grade) to assess the adequacy of the basic model.…

Do handwritten words magnify lexical effects in visual word recognition?

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Gil-López, Cristina; Beléndez, Victoria; Carreiras, Manuel

2016-01-01

An examination of how the word recognition system is able to process handwritten words is fundamental to formulate a comprehensive model of visual word recognition. Previous research has revealed that the magnitude of lexical effects (e.g., the word-frequency effect) is greater with handwritten words than with printed words. In the present lexical decision experiments, we examined whether the quality of handwritten words moderates the recruitment of top-down feedback, as reflected in word-frequency effects. Results showed a reading cost for difficult-to-read and easy-to-read handwritten words relative to printed words. But the critical finding was that difficult-to-read handwritten words, but not easy-to-read handwritten words, showed a greater word-frequency effect than printed words. Therefore, the inherent physical variability of handwritten words does not necessarily boost the magnitude of lexical effects.

Reading speed benefits from increased vertical word spacing in normal peripheral vision.

PubMed

Chung, Susana T L

2004-07-01

Crowding, the adverse spatial interaction due to proximity of adjacent targets, has been suggested as an explanation for slow reading in peripheral vision. The purposes of this study were to (1) demonstrate that crowding exists at the word level and (2) examine whether or not reading speed in central and peripheral vision can be enhanced with increased vertical word spacing. Five normal observers read aloud sequences of six unrelated four-letter words presented on a computer monitor, one word at a time, using rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). Reading speeds were calculated based on the RSVP exposure durations yielding 80% correct. Testing was conducted at the fovea and at 5 degrees and 10 degrees in the inferior visual field. Critical print size (CPS) for each observer and at each eccentricity was first determined by measuring reading speeds for four print sizes using unflanked words. We then presented words at 0.8x or 1.4x CPS, with each target word flanked by two other words, one above and one below the target word. Reading speeds were determined for vertical word spacings (baseline-to-baseline separation between two vertically separated words) ranging from 0.8x to 2x the standard single-spacing, as well as the unflanked condition. At the fovea, reading speed increased with vertical word spacing up to about 1.2x to 1.5x the standard spacing and remained constant and similar to the unflanked reading speed at larger vertical word spacings. In the periphery, reading speed also increased with vertical word spacing, but it remained below the unflanked reading speed for all spacings tested. At 2x the standard spacing, peripheral reading speed was still about 25% lower than the unflanked reading speed for both eccentricities and print sizes. Results from a control experiment showed that the greater reliance of peripheral reading speed on vertical word spacing was also found in the right visual field. Increased vertical word spacing, which presumably decreases the adverse effect of crowding between adjacent lines of text, benefits reading speed. This benefit is greater in peripheral than central vision.

Children's Reading Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Rexel E., Ed.

1980-01-01

This issue of the "Journal of Children and Youth" focuses on children's strategies for decoding and comprehending written language and teacher's strategies for facilitating this process. The issue includes eleven papers by members of the Indiana Reading Professors division of the Indiana State Reading Council and several invited guests. Peggy…

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

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.

Investigating the Effects of a Read-Aloud Alteration on the Third-Grade Reading Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRT) for Students with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fincher, Melissa L.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a controversial test administration alteration, the read-aloud alteration, in which text (passages and questions) is read aloud to the student on a reading comprehension test. For students whose disabilities impair their skill in decoding text and reading fluently, accessing text to…

Textual Input Enhancement for Vowel Blindness: A Study with Arabic ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alsadoon, Reem; Heift, Trude

2015-01-01

This study explores the impact of textual input enhancement on the noticing and intake of English vowels by Arabic L2 learners of English. Arabic L1 speakers are known to experience "vowel blindness," commonly defined as a difficulty in the textual decoding and encoding of English vowels due to an insufficient decoding of the word form.…

Systematic Basic Phonics. A Handbook for the 20th Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albert, Elaine Acker

Designed for use in the home, this booklet describes how someone can be taught how the alphabet works; that is, by decoding the ABC's into spoken language. Among the steps to decoding discussed in this booklet are these: (1) teaching the sounds of individual letters; (2) teaching the different sounds of the vowels; (3) sounding out little words;…

Thinking Aloud about L2 Decoding: An Exploration of the Strategies Used by Beginner Learners when Pronouncing Unfamiliar French Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woore, Robert

2010-01-01

"Decoding"--converting the written symbols (or graphemes) of an alphabetical writing system into the sounds (or phonemes) they represent, using knowledge of the language's symbol/sound correspondences--has been argued to be an important but neglected skill in the teaching of second language (L2) French in English secondary schools.…

Genetic variance in a component of the language acquisition device: ROBO1 polymorphisms associated with phonological buffer deficits.

PubMed

Bates, Timothy C; Luciano, Michelle; Medland, Sarah E; Montgomery, Grant W; Wright, Margaret J; Martin, Nicholas G

2011-01-01

The region containing ROBO1 (Chromosome 3p12.3) has been implicated as a susceptibility gene for reading disorder and language deficit by translocation and linkage data. No association studies have yet been reported supporting any candidate gene. Here we report the first association of this gene with language deficits, specifically with phonological buffer deficits (a phenotype implicated in language acquisition, Specific Language Impairment and Speech Sound Disorder) and dyslexia (reading and spelling ability traits) in an unselected sample of adolescent twins and their siblings. Family-based analyses were performed on 144 tag SNPs in ROBO1, typed in 538 families with up to five offspring and tested for association with a developmental marker of language impairment (phonological buffer capacity, assessed using non word repetition). A reading and spelling ability measure--based on validated measures of lexical processing (irregular word) and grapheme-phoneme decoding (pseudo word)--and measures of short-term and working memory were also analysed. Significant association for phonological buffer capacity was observed for 21 of 144 SNPs tested, peaking at 8.70 × 10(-05) and 9.30 × 10(-05) for SNPs rs6803202 and rs4535189 respectively for nonword repetition, values that survive correction for multiple testing. Twenty-two SNPs showed significant associations for verbal storage (forward digit span)--a trait linked to phonological span. By contrast, just 5 SNPs reached nominal significance for working-memory, not surviving correction, and, importantly, only one SNP in the 144 tested reached nominal significance (0.04) for association with reading and spelling ability. These results provide strong support for ROBO1 as a gene involved in a core trait underpinning language acquisition, with a specific function in supporting a short-term buffer for arbitrary phonological strings. These effects of ROBO1 appear to be unrelated to brain mechanisms underpinning reading ability, at least by adolescence. While replication will be critical, the present results strongly support ROBO1 as the first gene discovered to be associated with language deficits affecting normal variation in language ability. Its functional role in neuronal migration underlying bilateral symmetry and lateralization of neuronal function further suggests a role in the evolution of human language ability.

Oral Braille Reading Decoding Strategies of Middle School Students Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nannemann, Allison C.; Bruce, Susan M.; Hussey, Colleen; Vercollone, Becky S.; McCarthy, Mary

2017-01-01

Students who are visually impaired may face unique literacy challenges as they learn to read and write braille. One such challenge relates to slower reading speeds for students who read braille as compared to those who read print. In addition to learning letters, sounds, grammar, and spelling, braille readers must learn contractions and…

Pre-Reading Materials from Subject Matter Texts--Learner Choices and the Underlying Learner Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Shu-Chen; Cheng, Yuh-Show; Chern, Chiou-Lan

2006-01-01

In this study, attempts were made to design pre-reading materials for EAP reading using resources available from the subject matter texts. These materials were considered more facilitative in motivating learners to read and helping them to understand rather than to decode the texts. EFL college participants read three articles with three types of…

Reading Strategies in a L2: A Study on Machine Translation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karnal, Adriana Riess; Pereira, Vera Vanmacher

2015-01-01

This article aims at understanding cognitive strategies which are involved in reading academic texts in English as a L2/FL. Specifically, we focus on reading comprehension when a text is read either using Google translator or not. From this perspective we must consider the reading process in its complexity not only as a decoding process. We follow…

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

Effects of Individualized and Standardized Interventions on Middle School Students With Reading Disabilities

PubMed Central

VAUGHN, SHARON; WEXLER, JADE; ROBERTS, GREG; BARTH, AMY A.; CIRINO, PAUL T.; ROMAIN, MELISSA A.; FRANCIS, DAVID; FLETCHER, JACK; DENTON, CAROLYN A.

2011-01-01

This study reports the effectiveness of a year-long, small-group, tertiary (Tier 3) intervention that examined 2 empirically derived but conceptually different treatments and a comparison condition. The researchers had randomly assigned all students to treatment or comparison conditions. The participants were seventh- and eighth-grade students from the previous year who received an intervention and did not meet exit criteria. The researchers assigned them to one of two treatments: standardized (n = 69) or individualized (n = 71) for 50 min a day, in group sizes of 5, for the entire school year. Comparison students received no researcher-provided intervention (n = 42). The researchers used multigroup modeling with nested comparisons to evaluate the statistical significance of Time 3 estimates. Students in both treatments outperformed the comparison students on assessments of decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Intervention type did not moderate the pattern of effects, although students in the standardized treatment had a small advantage over individualized students on word attack. This study provides a framework from which to refine further interventions for older students with reading disabilities. PMID:23125463

Reading Skill and Word Skipping: Implications for Visual and Linguistic Accounts of Word Skipping

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eskenazi, Michael A.; Folk, Jocelyn R.

2015-01-01

We investigated whether high-skill readers skip more words than low-skill readers as a result of parafoveal processing differences based on reading skill. We manipulated foveal load and word length, two variables that strongly influence word skipping, and measured reading skill using the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. We found that reading skill did…

The effect of the position of atypical character-to-sound correspondences on reading kanji words aloud: Evidence for a sublexical serially operating kanji reading process.

PubMed

Sambai, Ami; Coltheart, Max; Uno, Akira

2018-04-01

In English, the size of the regularity effect on word reading-aloud latency decreases across position of irregularity. This has been explained by a sublexical serially operating reading mechanism. It is unclear whether sublexical serial processing occurs in reading two-character kanji words aloud. To investigate this issue, we studied how the position of atypical character-to-sound correspondences influenced reading performance. When participants read inconsistent-atypical words aloud mixed randomly with nonwords, reading latencies of words with an inconsistent-atypical correspondence in the initial position were significantly longer than words with an inconsistent-atypical correspondence in the second position. The significant difference of reading latencies for inconsistent-atypical words disappeared when inconsistent-atypical words were presented without nonwords. Moreover, reading latencies for words with an inconsistent-atypical correspondence in the first position were shorter than for words with a typical correspondence in the first position. This typicality effect was absent when the atypicality was in the second position. These position-of-atypicality effects suggest that sublexical processing of kanji occurs serially and that the phonology of two-character kanji words is generated from both a lexical parallel process and a sublexical serial process.

Word pair classification during imagined speech using direct brain recordings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, Stephanie; Brunner, Peter; Iturrate, Iñaki; Millán, José Del R.; Schalk, Gerwin; Knight, Robert T.; Pasley, Brian N.

2016-05-01

People that cannot communicate due to neurological disorders would benefit from an internal speech decoder. Here, we showed the ability to classify individual words during imagined speech from electrocorticographic signals. In a word imagery task, we used high gamma (70-150 Hz) time features with a support vector machine model to classify individual words from a pair of words. To account for temporal irregularities during speech production, we introduced a non-linear time alignment into the SVM kernel. Classification accuracy reached 88% in a two-class classification framework (50% chance level), and average classification accuracy across fifteen word-pairs was significant across five subjects (mean = 58% p < 0.05). We also compared classification accuracy between imagined speech, overt speech and listening. As predicted, higher classification accuracy was obtained in the listening and overt speech conditions (mean = 89% and 86%, respectively; p < 0.0001), where speech stimuli were directly presented. The results provide evidence for a neural representation for imagined words in the temporal lobe, frontal lobe and sensorimotor cortex, consistent with previous findings in speech perception and production. These data represent a proof of concept study for basic decoding of speech imagery, and delineate a number of key challenges to usage of speech imagery neural representations for clinical applications.

Word pair classification during imagined speech using direct brain recordings

PubMed Central

Martin, Stephanie; Brunner, Peter; Iturrate, Iñaki; Millán, José del R.; Schalk, Gerwin; Knight, Robert T.; Pasley, Brian N.

2016-01-01

People that cannot communicate due to neurological disorders would benefit from an internal speech decoder. Here, we showed the ability to classify individual words during imagined speech from electrocorticographic signals. In a word imagery task, we used high gamma (70–150 Hz) time features with a support vector machine model to classify individual words from a pair of words. To account for temporal irregularities during speech production, we introduced a non-linear time alignment into the SVM kernel. Classification accuracy reached 88% in a two-class classification framework (50% chance level), and average classification accuracy across fifteen word-pairs was significant across five subjects (mean = 58%; p < 0.05). We also compared classification accuracy between imagined speech, overt speech and listening. As predicted, higher classification accuracy was obtained in the listening and overt speech conditions (mean = 89% and 86%, respectively; p < 0.0001), where speech stimuli were directly presented. The results provide evidence for a neural representation for imagined words in the temporal lobe, frontal lobe and sensorimotor cortex, consistent with previous findings in speech perception and production. These data represent a proof of concept study for basic decoding of speech imagery, and delineate a number of key challenges to usage of speech imagery neural representations for clinical applications. PMID:27165452

Reading Remediation Based on Sequential and Simultaneous Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gunnison, Judy; And Others

1982-01-01

The theory postulating a dichotomy between sequential and simultaneous processing is reviewed and its implications for remediating reading problems are reviewed. Research is cited on sequential-simultaneous processing for early and advanced reading. A list of remedial strategies based on the processing dichotomy addresses decoding and lexical…

Good Phonic Generalizations for Decoding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gates, Louis

2007-01-01

An exhaustive analysis of 88,641 individual letters and letter combinations within 16,928 words drawn from the Zeno, et al. word list unveiled remarkable phonic transparency. The individual letter and letter combinations sorted into just six general categories: three basic categories of vowels (single vowels, vowel digraphs, and final…

Academic Achievement of University Students with Dyslexia.

PubMed

Olofsson, Åke; Taube, Karin; Ahl, Astrid

2015-11-01

Broadened recruitment to higher education is on the agenda in many countries, and it is also widely recognized that the number of dyslexic students entering higher education is increasing. In Sweden, as in many other European countries, higher education institutions are required to accommodate students with dyslexia. The present study focuses on the study outcome for 50 students with diagnosed dyslexia, mainly in teacher education and nurses' training, at three universities in Northern Sweden. The students trusted their own ability to find information on the Internet but mistrusted their own abilities in reading course books and articles in English and in taking notes. The mean rate of study was 23.5 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System credits per semester, which is slightly below the national baseline of 26.7. The results show that more than half of the students are examined at a normal rate of study but that about one fifth have a very low rate of study. Messages Most students with dyslexia can compensate for their reading problems. Taking notes during lessons and reading in foreign language may be especially difficult for students with dyslexia. Diagnoses should distinguish between reading comprehension and word decoding. More than half of the students with dyslexia can achieve at a normal rate of study. One-fifth of the students with dyslexia may need a longer period of study than other students. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Evidence for simultaneous syntactic processing of multiple words during reading.

PubMed

Snell, Joshua; Meeter, Martijn; Grainger, Jonathan

2017-01-01

A hotly debated issue in reading research concerns the extent to which readers process parafoveal words, and how parafoveal information might influence foveal word recognition. We investigated syntactic word processing both in sentence reading and in reading isolated foveal words when these were flanked by parafoveal words. In Experiment 1 we found a syntactic parafoveal preview benefit in sentence reading, meaning that fixation durations on target words were decreased when there was a syntactically congruent preview word at the target location (n) during the fixation on the pre-target (n-1). In Experiment 2 we used a flanker paradigm in which participants had to classify foveal target words as either noun or verb, when those targets were flanked by syntactically congruent or incongruent words (stimulus on-time 170 ms). Lower response times and error rates in the congruent condition suggested that higher-order (syntactic) information can be integrated across foveal and parafoveal words. Although higher-order parafoveal-on-foveal effects have been elusive in sentence reading, results from our flanker paradigm show that the reading system can extract higher-order information from multiple words in a single glance. We propose a model of reading to account for the present findings.

Cross-Language Transfer of Word Reading Accuracy and Word Reading Fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English Bilinguals: Script-Universal and Script-Specific Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pasquarella, Adrian; Chen, Xi; Gottardo, Alexandra; Geva, Esther

2015-01-01

This study examined cross-language transfer of word reading accuracy and word reading fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants included 51 Spanish-English and 64 Chinese-English bilinguals. Both groups of children completed parallel measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy,…

Reading Readiness Deficiency in Children: Causes and Ways of Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akubuilo, Francis; Okorie, Eugene U.; Onwuka, Gloria; Uloh-Bethels, Annah Chinyeaka

2015-01-01

Reading is one of the important skills of language. It is a basic tool of education whether formal or informal. Reading is a receptive skill, which involves the ability to meaningfully interpret or decode written or graphic symbols of language. Through reading, the hidden treasure of knowledge is unfolded; knowledge is gained thereby empowering…

Open Court Reading[c]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2008

2008-01-01

"Open Court Reading"[c] is an elementary basal reading program for grades K-6 developed by SRA/McGraw-Hill. The program is designed to systematically teach decoding, comprehension, inquiry and investigation, and writing in a logical progression. Part 1 of each unit, Preparing to Read, focuses on phonemic awareness, sounds and letters, phonics,…

The Electric Company; Television and Reading, 1971-1980: A Mid-Experiment Appraisal.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooney, Joan Ganz

"The Electric Company" was created by the Children's Television Workshop as an experiment to teach reading to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade children having difficulty learning to read. Solidly based on research in the teaching of reading, the curriculum emphasizes decoding skills. The production process included several phases: (1) assembling…

A Scope of Learner Behaviors in Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lake Washington School District 414, Kirkland, WA.

This guide reflects the definition of reading as a complex intellectual act involving a variety of behaviors to decode and comprehend printed symbols and is intended to help the teacher be aware of all the skills within each dimension of the reading act. The reading skills are described in terms of learner behavior and a criterion reference is…

Dimensionality of Reading Skills with Elementary-School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Burgess, Stephen R.

2017-01-01

Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 1,501 kindergarten to 5th-grade children who completed 3 measures of decoding, 3 measures of reading comprehension, and 3 measures of listening comprehension as part of a larger study were used to identify the dimensionality of reading skills across elementary school. A 1-factor (reading) model was the…

The Role of First-Language Listening Comprehension in Second-Language Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edele, Aileen; Stanat, Petra

2016-01-01

Although the simple view of reading and other theories suggest that listening comprehension is an important determinant of reading comprehension, previous research on linguistic transfer has mainly focused on the role of first language (L1) decoding skills in second language (L2) reading. The present study tested the assumption that listening…

Computer-assisted instruction to prevent early reading difficulties in students at risk for dyslexia: Outcomes from two instructional approaches.

PubMed

Torgesen, Joseph K; Wagner, Richard K; Rashotte, Carol A; Herron, Jeannine; Lindamood, Patricia

2010-06-01

The relative effectiveness of two computer-assisted instructional programs designed to provide instruction and practice in foundational reading skills was examined. First-grade students at risk for reading disabilities received approximately 80 h of small-group instruction in four 50-min sessions per week from October through May. Approximately half of the instruction was delivered by specially trained teachers to prepare students for their work on the computer, and half was delivered by the computer programs. At the end of first grade, there were no differences in student reading performance between students assigned to the different intervention conditions, but the combined-intervention students performed significantly better than control students who had been exposed to their school's normal reading program. Significant differences were obtained for phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, reading accuracy, rapid automatic naming, and reading comprehension. A follow-up test at the end of second grade showed a similar pattern of differences, although only differences in phonemic awareness, phonemic decoding, and rapid naming remained statistically reliable.

Lexical-Semantic Reading in a Shallow Orthography: Evidence from a Girl with Williams Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barca, Laura; Bello, Arianna; Volterra, Virginia; Burani, Cristina

2010-01-01

The reading skills of a girl with Williams Syndrome are assessed by a timed word-naming task. To test the efficiency of lexical and nonlexical reading, we considered four marker effects: Lexicality (better reading of words than nonwords), frequency (better reading of high than low frequency words), length (better reading of short than long words),…

Testing and Performance Analysis of the Multichannel Error Correction Code Decoder

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soni, Nitin J.

1996-01-01

This report provides the test results and performance analysis of the multichannel error correction code decoder (MED) system for a regenerative satellite with asynchronous, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) uplink channels. It discusses the system performance relative to various critical parameters: the coding length, data pattern, unique word value, unique word threshold, and adjacent-channel interference. Testing was performed under laboratory conditions and used a computer control interface with specifically developed control software to vary these parameters. Needed technologies - the high-speed Bose Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codec from Harris Corporation and the TRW multichannel demultiplexer/demodulator (MCDD) - were fully integrated into the mesh very small aperture terminal (VSAT) onboard processing architecture and were demonstrated.

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.

Taken out of Context: Differential Processing in Contextual and Isolated Word Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin-Chang, Sandra; Levesque, Kyle

2013-01-01

Three experiments are reported that investigate the cognitive processes underlying contextual and isolated word reading. In Phase 1, undergraduate participants were exposed to 75 target words under three conditions. The participants generated 25 words from definitions, read 25 words in context and read 25 in isolation. In Phase 2, volunteers…

Skipped words and fixated words are processed differently during reading.

PubMed

Eskenazi, Michael A; Folk, Jocelyn R

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether words are processed differently when they are fixated during silent reading than when they are skipped. According to a serial processing model of eye movement control (e.g., EZ Reader) skipped words are fully processed (Reichle, Rayner, Pollatsek, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26(04):445-476, 2003), whereas in a parallel processing model (e.g., SWIFT) skipped words do not need to be fully processed (Engbert, Nuthmann, Richter, Kliegl, Psychological Review, 112(4):777-813, 2005). Participants read 34 sentences with target words embedded in them while their eye movements were recorded. All target words were three-letter, low-frequency, and unpredictable nouns. After the reading session, participants completed a repetition priming lexical decision task with the target words from the reading session included as the repetition prime targets, with presentation of those same words during the reading task acting as the prime. When participants skipped a word during the reading session, their reaction times on the lexical decision task were significantly longer (M = 656.42 ms) than when they fixated the word (M = 614.43 ms). This result provides evidence that skipped words are sometimes not processed to the same degree as fixated words during reading.

[Attempt for development of rapid word reading test for children--evaluation of reliability and validity].

PubMed

Hashimoto, Ryusaku; Kashiwagi, Mitsuru; Suzuki, Shuhei

2008-09-01

We developed a rapid word reading test for examining the phonological processing ability of Japanese children. We prepared two versions of the test, version A and B. Each test has word and non-word tasks. Twenty-two healthy boys of third grade in primary schools participated in this validation study. For criterion related validity, we performed the serial Hiragana reading test, the sentence reading test, Raven's coloured progressive matrices (RCPM), the Token test for children, the Kana word dictation test, the standardized comprehension test of abstract words (SCTAW), and Trail Circle test. The reading times of the newly developed test correlated moderately or highly with those of the serial Hiragana reading test and the sentence reading test. However, the scores of the other tests (RCPM, Token test for children, Kana word dictation test, SCTAW, Trail Circle test) did not correlated with the reading time of the rapid word reading test. Test-retest reliabilities in the word tasks were more than moderate: 0.52 and 0.76 in versions A and B, while those in the non-word tasks were high: 0.91 and 0.88 in versions A and B. The correlation coefficient between versions A and B was 0.7 for the word tasks and 0.92 for the non-word tasks. This study showed that the rapid word reading test has substantial validity and reliability for testing the phonological processing ability of Japanese children. In addition, the non-word tasks were more suitable for selectively examining the speed of the grapheme to phoneme conversion process.

Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension.

PubMed

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2015-01-01

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)-how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children ( N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development.

Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2015-01-01

The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)—how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children (N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development. PMID:26435550

SOME DIFFERENCES IN ENCODING AND DECODING MESSAGES.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BICKLEY, A. C.; WEAVER, WENDELL W.

LANGUAGE ENCODING AND DECODING PROCESSES WERE EXAMINED BY DETERMINING THE ABILITY OF SUBJECTS TO PREDICT OMISSIONS FROM A NATURAL LANGUAGE TEXT WHICH THEY HAD PREVIOUSLY PRODUCED THEMSELVES, AND BY COMPARING THIS PERFORMANCE WITH THAT OF OTHER SUBJECTS TO PREDICT OMISSIONS FROM THESE SAME TEXTS WHICH THE SECOND GROUP READ AT THE TIME OF…

Process Dissociation of Sight Vocabulary and Phonetic Decoding in Reading: A New Perspective on Surface and Phonological Dyslexias

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Patricia; Borowsky, Ron; MacKinnon, G. E.; Hymel, Shelley

2005-01-01

Recent research on developmental dyslexia has suggested a phonological core deficit hypothesis (e.g., Manis, Seidenberg, Doi, McBride-Chang, & Peterson, 1996; Stanovich, Siegel, & Gottardo, 1997) whereby pure cases of developmental phonological dyslexia (dysfunctional phonetic decoding processing but normal sight vocabulary processing) can exist,…

Process-Based Remediation of Decoding in Gifted LD Students: Three Case Studies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Shawn; Snart, Fern

1994-01-01

Three gifted males (ages 10-13) with deficits in successive coding participated in a process-based remedial program which combined global training on tasks requiring successive processing and tasks applying successive processing to decoding in reading, and which utilized verbal mediation. Differences in student improvement were related to entry…

What Do Beginning Special Educators Need to Know about Intensive Reading Interventions?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyne, Michael D.; Koriakin, Taylor A.

2017-01-01

Evidence based reading instruction and intervention are essential for students with disabilities. The authors recommend that elementary special education teachers emphasize both code-based and meaning-based skills as part of delivering intensive reading interventions, including providing explicit and systematic decoding and vocabulary instruction.…

Reading Online News Media for Science Content: A Social Psychological Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roth, Wolff-Michael

2010-01-01

Reading multimodal (popularized) scientific texts is studied predominantly in terms of said-to-be-required technical decoding skills. In this article I suggest that there are other interesting approaches to studying the reading of multimodal (popularized) scientific texts, approaches that are grounded in social psychological concerns. These…

Learning English Vocabulary by Hyperglossing and Narrow Reading: Readlang

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiliçkaya, Ferit

2017-01-01

Hyperglossing -textual and/or pictorial representations of lexical items is found to be aiding the development of decoding, and narrow reading is a useful strategy for L2 reading pedagogy. Although the research on glossing provides mixed findings regarding the benefits, it is also acknowledged that glossing improves especially incidental…

The Association of ADHD Symptoms and Reading Acquisition during Elementary School Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ehm, Jan-Henning; Kerner auch Koerner, Julia; Gawrilow, Caterina; Hasselhorn, Marcus; Schmiedek, Florian

2016-01-01

The present longitudinal study aimed to investigate the influence of ADHD symptoms on reading development in elementary schoolchildren. To this end, repeated assessments of ADHD symptoms (teacher ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity) and reading achievement (standardized tests of decoding speed and text comprehension) were…

Basic Reading Instruction for Students in Automotive Occupations. Student's Handbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

General Behavioral Systems, Inc., Torrance, CA.

The basic reading course outlined in this student handbook emphasizes the decoding process. The contents consist of a letter-and-sound spelling chart and 87 course modules which are based on single-letter and letter-combination sounds. Many of the modules include exercises, and some contain reading material. (JM)

Minding the Brain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hruby, George G.

2011-01-01

In literacy education, neuroscience research has been alluded to increasingly in work meant to substantiate cognitive models of the reading process related to text decoding and its instruction. As a result, this material tends to focus on early reading or reading disability and dyslexia (e.g., Hudson, High, & Al Otaiba, 2007; Shaywitz, 2003). It…

Review of Research: Neuroscience and Reading--A Review for Reading Education Researchers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hruby, George G.; Goswami, Usha

2011-01-01

In this review, we lay the groundwork for an interdisciplinary conversation between literacy education research and relevant neuroscience research. We review recent neuroscience research on correlates of proposed cognitive subprocesses in text decoding and reading comprehension and analyze some of the methodological and conceptual challenges of…

Cattell-Horn-Carroll Cognitive Ability Profiles of Poor Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Floyd, Randy G.; Bergeron, Renee; Alfonso, Vincent C.

2006-01-01

This study examines cognitive ability profiles of children with specific age-based normative weaknesses in reading comprehension and compares those profiles to the profiles of (a) children with at least average achievement in reading comprehension, reading decoding skills, and mathematics and (b) children with low achievement across the 3…

Adults Who Read Like Children: The Psycholinguistic Bases. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Read, Charles

A study examined basic reading skills among men in prison, comparing poor and adequate readers with respect to comprehension, decoding, short-term memory, and speech perception. Subjects, 88 inmates of normal intelligence, normal hearing, and no significant speech abnormalities, at a minimum-security prison, were given reading comprehension tests…

Translating Advances in Reading Comprehension Research to Educational Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNamara, Danielle S.; Kendeou, Panayiota

2011-01-01

The authors review five major findings in reading comprehension and their implications for educational practice. First, research suggests that comprehension skills are separable from decoding processes and important at early ages, suggesting that comprehension skills should be targeted early, even before the child learns to read. Second, there is…

A Critical Disability Pedagogy: Legitimizing Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cosenza, Julie

2017-01-01

A common understanding is that dyslexia is the inability to spell words, the inability to recall symbols, the inability to recognize sight words, or the inability to decode. Dyslexia is often described in deficiency language--the inability to do something. Deficiency language is a product of special education and continues to dominate common…

Pork Puzzlers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Pork Producers Council, Des Moines, IA.

Pork Puzzlers is a nutrition education activity booklet for elementary-level students. It includes word scrambles; quizzes with pictures that describe the Food Guide Pyramid; a nutrition word search; a mathematics problem that includes questions on pork; a maze that uses food clues; a letter decoding activity that focuses on a pork dinner; a meal…

Reading sentences of uniform word length: Evidence for the adaptation of the preferred saccade length during reading.

PubMed

Cutter, Michael G; Drieghe, Denis; Liversedge, Simon P

2017-11-01

In the current study, the effect of removing word length variability within sentences on spatial aspects of eye movements during reading was investigated. Participants read sentences that were uniform in terms of word length, with each sentence consisting entirely of three-, four-, or five-letter words, or a combination of these word lengths. Several interesting findings emerged. Adaptation of the preferred saccade length occurred for sentences with different uniform word length; participants would be more accurate at making short saccades while reading uniform sentences of three-letter words, while they would be more accurate at making long saccades while reading uniform sentences of five-letter words. Furthermore, word skipping was affected such that three- and four-letter words were more likely, and five-letter words less likely, to be directly fixated in uniform compared to non-uniform sentences. It is argued that saccadic targeting during reading is highly adaptable and flexible toward the characteristics of the text currently being read, as opposed to the idea implemented in most current models of eye movement control during reading that readers develop a preference for making saccades of a certain length across a lifetime of experience with a given language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Speed discrimination predicts word but not pseudo-word reading rate in adults and children

PubMed Central

Main, Keith L.; Pestilli, Franco; Mezer, Aviv; Yeatman, Jason; Martin, Ryan; Phipps, Stephanie; Wandell, Brian

2014-01-01

Word familiarity may affect magnocellular processes of word recognition. To explore this idea, we measured reading rate, speed-discrimination, and contrast detection thresholds in adults and children with a wide range of reading abilities. We found that speed-discrimination thresholds are higher in children than in adults and are correlated with age. Speed discrimination thresholds are also correlated with reading rate, but only for words, not for pseudo-words. Conversely, we found no correlation between contrast sensitivity and reading rate and no correlation between speed discrimination thresholds WASI subtest scores. These findings support the position that reading rate is influenced by magnocellular circuitry attuned to the recognition of familiar word-forms. PMID:25278418

Substituted-letter and transposed-letter effects in a masked priming paradigm with French developing readers and dyslexics.

PubMed

Lété, Bernard; Fayol, Michel

2013-01-01

The aim of the study was to undertake a behavioral investigation of the development of automatic orthographic processing during reading acquisition in French. Following Castles and colleagues' 2007 study (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97, 165-182) and their lexical tuning hypothesis framework, substituted-letter and transposed-letter primes were used in a masked priming paradigm with third graders, fifth graders, adults, and phonological dyslexics matched on reading level with the third graders. No priming effect was found in third graders. In adults, only a transposed-letter priming effect was found; there was no substituted-letter priming effect. Finally, fifth graders and dyslexics showed both substituted-letter and transposed-letter priming effects. Priming effects between the two groups were of the same magnitude after response time (RT) z-score transformation. Taken together, our results show that the pattern of priming effects found by Castles and colleagues in English normal readers emerges later in French normal readers. In other words, language orthographies seem to constrain the tuning of the orthographic system, with an opaque orthography producing faster tuning of orthographic processing than more transparent orthographies because of the high level of reliance on phonological decoding while learning to read. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Classroom phonological awareness instruction and literacy outcomes in the first year of school.

PubMed

Carson, Karyn L; Gillon, Gail T; Boustead, Therese M

2013-04-01

Despite strong investment in raising literacy achievement for all children, significant inequalities in literacy outcomes continue to exist among some of the world's most advanced economies. This study investigated the influence of a short, intensive period of phonological awareness (PA) instruction implemented by classroom teachers on raising the literacy achievement of children with and without spoken language impairment (SLI). A quasi-experimental design was employed to measure the PA, reading, and spelling development of one hundred twenty-nine 5-year-olds. Thirty-four children received 10 weeks of PA instruction from their teachers. Ninety-five children continued with their usual reading program, which included phonics instruction but did not target PA. Children who received PA instruction demonstrated superior literacy outcomes compared to children who followed the usual literacy curriculum. Children with SLI showed significant improvements in PA, reading, and spelling but had a different pattern of response to instruction compared to children with typical language. Importantly, the number of children experiencing word decoding difficulties at the end of the program was 26% among children who followed the usual literacy curriculum compared to 6% among children who received the PA instruction. A short, intensive period of classroom PA instruction can raise the literacy profiles of children with and without spoken language difficulties.

Pathway Evidence of How Musical Perception Predicts Word-Level Reading Ability in Children with Reading Difficulties

PubMed Central

Cogo-Moreira, Hugo; Brandão de Ávila, Clara Regina; Ploubidis, George B.; de Jesus Mari, Jair

2013-01-01

Objective To investigate whether specific domains of musical perception (temporal and melodic domains) predict the word-level reading skills of eight- to ten-year-old children (n = 235) with reading difficulties, normal quotient of intelligence, and no previous exposure to music education classes. Method A general-specific solution of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), which underlies a musical perception construct and is constituted by three latent factors (the general, temporal, and the melodic domain), was regressed on word-level reading skills (rate of correct isolated words/non-words read per minute). Results General and melodic latent domains predicted word-level reading skills. PMID:24358358

Reading is fundamentally similar across disparate writing systems: A systematic characterization of how words and characters influence eye movements in Chinese reading

PubMed Central

Li, Xingshan; Bicknell, Klinton; Liu, Pingping; Wei, Wei; Rayner, Keith

2013-01-01

While much previous work on reading in languages with alphabetic scripts has suggested that reading is word-based, reading in Chinese has been argued to be less reliant on words. This is primarily because in the Chinese writing system words are not spatially segmented, and characters are themselves complex visual objects. Here, we present a systematic characterization of the effects of a wide range of word and character properties on eye movements in Chinese reading, using a set of mixed-effects regression models. The results reveal a rich pattern of effects of the properties of the current, previous, and next words on a range of reading measures, which is strikingly similar to the pattern of effects of word properties reported in spaced alphabetic languages. This finding provides evidence that reading shares a word-based core and may be fundamentally similar across languages with highly dissimilar scripts. We show that these findings are robust to the inclusion of character properties in the regression models, and are equally reliable when dependent measures are defined in terms of characters rather than words, providing strong evidence that word properties have effects in Chinese reading above and beyond characters. This systematic characterization of the effects of word and character properties in Chinese advances our knowledge of the processes underlying reading and informs the future development of models of reading. More generally, however, this work suggests that differences in script may not alter the fundamental nature of reading. PMID:23834023