Preventing reading failure in young children with phonological processing disabilities: Group and individual responses to instruction.

The relative effectiveness of 3 instructional approaches for the prevention of reading disabilities in young children with weak phonological skills was examined. Two programs varying in the intensity of instruction in phonemic decoding were contrasted with each other and with a 3rd approach that supported the children's regular classroom reading program. The children were provided with 88 hr of one-to-one instruction beginning the second semester of kindergarten and extending through 2nd grade. The most phonemically explicit condition produced the strongest growth in word level reading skills, but there were no differences between groups in reading comprehension. Word level skills of children in the strongest group were in the middle of the average range. Growth curve analyses showed that beginning phonological skills, home background, and ratings of classroom behavior all predicted unique variance in growth of word level skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Regularity effects and the phonological deficit model of reading disabilities: A meta-analytic review.

This article presents a meta-analysis of spelling-to-sound regularity effects in individuals with reading disabilities and reading-level comparison groups. The phonological-deficit model of reading disabilities, coupled with the classic dual-route model of word recognition, has led to two predictions: (a) a specific deficit in the pseudoword reading of those with reading disabilities and (b) an absent or reduced regularity effect for those with reading disabilities relative to reading-level controls. Previous reviews confirm the first prediction. The present meta-analysis tested the second prediction. There was a clear effect of word regularity for individuals with reading disabilities, the magnitude of which did not differ from the word regularity effect for reading-level controls. The authors explore how the contradictory support for these 2 predictions is inconsistent with classic dual-route models of word reading and how connectionist models are consistent with the empirical findings on reading disability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treating the core deficits of developmental dyslexia: Evidence of transfer of learning after phonologically- and strategy-based reading training programs.

Individuals with dyslexia have difficulty generalizing from word identification training. This study compared 2 forms of word identification training to promote transfer of learning by children with dyslexia. 62 children were randomly assigned to 1 of the training programs or to a study skills control program. One program trained phonological analysis and blending skills and provided direct instruction of letter–sound correspondences; the other trained the acquisition, use, and monitoring of 4 metacognitive decoding strategies. Results provided clear evidence of transfer of learning after treatment of the core reading deficits of these children. Both training approaches were associated with large positive effects, transfer on several measures, and generalized achievement gains. The phonological program resulted in greater generalized gains in the phonological domain and the strategy program in broader-based transfer for real words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Genetic and environmental effects of serial naming and phonological awareness on early reading outcomes.

The current study involved 281 early-school-age twin pairs (118 monozygotic, 163 same-sex dizygotic) participating in the ongoing Western Reserve Reading Project (S. A. Petrill, K. Deater-Deckard, L. A. Thompson, & C. Schatschneider, 2006). Twins were tested in their homes by separate examiners on a battery of reading-related skills including phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, word knowledge, and phonological decoding. Results suggested that a core genetic factor accounted for a significant portion of the covariance between phonological awareness, rapid naming, and reading outcomes. However, shared environmental influences related to phonological awareness were also associated with reading skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defining phonological awareness and its relationship to early reading.

Phonological awareness (PA) has been operationally defined by many different tasks, and task comparisons have been confounded by differing levels of linguistic complexity among items. A sample of 113 kindergartners and first graders completed PA tasks designed to separate task difficulty from linguistic complexity. These measures were, in turn, compared with measures of early literacy. Results indicated that the measures loaded on a single factor and that PA measured by differences in linguistic complexity, rather than by task differences, seemed to be more closely related to the factor. A logical analysis suggested that alphabet knowledge is necessary for children to separate onsets from rimes and that awareness of onsets and rimes is necessary both for word reading and for more complex levels of phonemic analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Converging evidence for phonological and surface subtypes of reading disability.

Using regression-based procedures introduced by A. Castles and M. Coltheart (1993), the authors identified 17 phonological and 15 surface dyslexics from a sample of 68 reading-disabled 3rd-grade children by comparing them to chronological-age (CA) controls on exception word and pseudoword reading. However, when the dyslexic subtypes were defined by reference to reading-level (RL) controls, 17 phonological dyslexics were defined but only 1 surface dyslexic. When the CA-defined subtypes were compared to RL controls, the phonological dyslexics displayed superior exception word reading but displayed deficits in pseudoword naming, phonological sensitivity, working memory, and syntactic processing. The surface dyslexics, in contrast, displayed a cognitive profile remarkably similar to that of the RL controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of semantic and phonological codes during reading.

Examined coding processes involved in reading connected text in 3 experiments with 54 Ss who read text passages and occasionally responded to lexical-decision probes. Exp I focused on semantic and surface codes. Results suggest that the activation of semantic codes increased over time, whereas surface codes did not. In addition, Ss who were instructed to remember the exact wording of the passages showed stronger activation of surface codes than did Ss who read for comprehension. Exps II and III explored the role of phonological codes in reading. Results from Exp II indicate that phonological codes were activated by specific words in a passage; however, Exp III results fail to demonstrate that phonological codes were activated by the more general passage context. Combined results suggest that reading involves several coding systems that are activated according to time and reading instruction constraints. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of phonological awareness to reading disability in children and adults.

Research has shown that for young children, success at learning to read is related to the extent to which they are aware of the phonological structure of spoken language. We determined that this relation is also evident in older children (third graders) and in adults who have had considerable reading instruction. Differences in phonological awareness, measured on three tasks, accounted for much of the variance between good readers and poor readers at both age levels. In contrast, no correspondence was found between reading ability and performance on a nonspeech task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subtypes of reading disability: Variability around a phonological core.

Eight measures of cognitive and language functions in 232 children were subjected to multiple methods of cluster analysis in an effort to identify subtypes of reading disability. Clustering yielded 9 reliable subtypes representing 90% of the sample, including 2 nondisabled subtypes, and 7 reading-disabled subtypes. Of the reading-disabled subtypes, 2 were globally deficient in language skills, whereas 4 of the 5 specific reading-disabled subtypes displayed a relative weakness in phonological awareness and variations in rapid serial naming and verbal short-term memory. The remaining disabled subtype was impaired on verbal and nonverbal measures associated with rate of processing, including rate and accuracy of oral reading. Studies showed evidence for discriminative validity among the 7 reading-disabled subtypes. Results support the view that children with reading disability usually display impairments on phonological awareness measures, with discriminative variability on other measures involving phonological processing, language, and cognitive skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to improve Bayesian reasoning without instruction: Frequency formats.

Is the mind, by design, predisposed against performing Bayesian inference? Previous research on base rate neglect suggests that the mind lacks the appropriate cognitive algorithms. However, any claim against the existence of an algorithm, Bayesian or otherwise, is impossible to evaluate unless one specifies the information format in which it is designed to operate. The authors show that Bayesian algorithms are computationally simpler in frequency formats than in the probability formats used in previous research. Frequency formats correspond to the sequential way information is acquired in natural sampling, from animal foraging to neural networks. By analyzing several thousand solutions to Bayesian problems, the authors found that when information was presented in frequency formats, statistically naive participants derived up to 50% of all inferences by Bayesian algorithms. Non-Bayesian algorithms included simple versions of Fisherian and Neyman-Pearsonian inference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of an adapted interactive writing intervention on kindergarten children's phonological awareness, spelling, and early reading development: A contextualized approach to instruction.

Using a pretest-posttest comparison-group design, this 16-week study investigated the effects of 2 instructional approaches on the phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, and early reading of kindergarten children. The primary goal was to compare a form of contextualized instruction based on an adapted interactive writing program with a field-tested program of metalinguistic games. For instructional purposes, the children in each treatment group were divided into small intervention classes, with groupings based on children's common strengths and needs. Each week, these classes met with trained literacy tutors for 4 20-min lessons. Pretest and posttest measures provided data on children's phonological awareness, spelling, and reading development. Statistical analyses of the data indicated no between-groups differences with regard to phonological awareness and spelling achievement. In contrast, results revealed statistically significant differences between the 2 groups on word identification, passage comprehension, and word reading development measures, with the adapted interactive writing group demonstrating greater achievement. These findings verify that the children participating in a contextualized program matched or exceeded the achievement of the children participating in a structured program of metalinguistic games. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generation(s) of phonological codes in reading: A reply to Guttentag.

Addresses R. E. Guttentag's (see record 1982-11297-001) 2 questions about the review by L. X. McCusker et al (see record 1981-11846-001) of the phonological recoding literature. Following Guttentag's suggestion, the possibility of phonological mediation without the use of grapheme–phoneme correspondence rules is considered. It is recognized as a logically possible supplement to phonological recoding, but no empirical support was found. Guttentag's discussion of how dependence on phonological recoding might change with increased age and reading skill is also addressed. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rowed to recovery: The use of phonological and orthographic information in reading Chinese and English.

To examine how readers of Chinese and English take advantage of orthographic and phonological features in reading, the authors investigated the effects of spelling errors on reading text in Chinese and English using the error disruption paradigm of M. Daneman and E. Reingold (1993). Skilled readers in China and the United States read passages in their native language that contained occasional spelling errors. Results showed that under some circumstances very early phonological activation can be identified in English, but no evidence for early phonology was found in Chinese. In both languages, homophone errors showed a benefit in measures of later processing, suggesting that phonology helps readers recover from the disruptive effects of errors. These results suggest that skilled readers take advantage of the special features of particular orthographies but that these orthographic effects may be most pronounced in the early stages of lexical access. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Informed Strategies for Learning: A program to improve children's reading awareness and comprehension.

Examined the role of awareness about their own cognitive skills on the learning and development of 87 3rd graders and 83 5th graders. Half of the Ss were given an experimental curriculum—informed strategies for learning (ISL)—designed to increase Ss' awareness and use of effective reading strategies. The remainder of the Ss were used as controls. Results show that Ss who participated in ISL made larger gains than did controls on cloze and error detection tasks. No differences between groups were found on 2 standardized tests of reading comprehension. Findings demonstrate that metacognition can be promoted through direct instruction in classrooms and that increased awareness can lead to better use of reading strategies. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naming speed and phonological awareness as predictors of reading development.

This article investigates how well kindergarten phonological awareness (PA) and naming speed (NS) account for reading development to Grade 5. The authors use regression analyses to predict reading development, with mental ability and prior achievement controlled, and follow the reading development of children having combinations of adequate or inadequate PA and NS. PA was most strongly related to reading in the first 2 years of school, and NS's initially weaker relationship increased with grade level. Children with weak PA and slow NS were most likely to develop reading difficulties by Grade 5, followed by children with slow NS alone. The authors discuss the roles of NS and PA in reading development and the need to clarify the constructs underlying NS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of phonological and orthographic processing to early reading: Comparing two approaches to regression-based, reading-level-match designs.

K. E. Stanovich and L. Siegel (see record 81-030191) introduced regression-based logic to the reading-level-match design by statistically matching children with reading disabilities, with and without discrepancies in IQ, to normal-reading children on the basis of grade-adjusted decoding scores. The authors replicated this approach but contrasted it with statistical matches using w scores, which are Rasch-scaled decoding scores based on a common metric regardless of age or grade. No differences were found in cognitive skills between children whose reading performance was discrepant and not discrepant with IQ, regardless of whether age-adjusted decoding scores or w scores were used. Matching on w scores did not result in the phonological and orthographic tradeoffs seen when standardized scores were used. The orthographic-decoding relationship was nonlinear, with little functional relation between the skills at low levels of decoding. These results question the conclusion that orthographic skills are compensatory for reading-disabled children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time course of phonological activation during reading: Evidence from eye fixations.

Eye fixation data suggest that readers use orthographic codes rather than phonological codes to activate word meanings. Whereas proofreading data show that readers are less likely to detect homophonic errors (e.g., He was in his silk stocking feat) than nonhomophonic errors (e.g., He was in his silk stocking fate), the eye fixations revealed that readers initially experienced as much difficulty encountering a homophonic error as a nonhomophonic one. However, homophony facilitated the recovery process, thus suggesting that phonology has its influence after lexical access. Exp 1 showed that the findings were consistent whether the error was the lower frequency homophone (stocking feat) or the higher frequency homophone (feet of courage). Exp 2 showed that proofreading responses are unreliable indices of error detection because even when readers fail to make an overt error detection response, their eye fixations reveal that they have detected the error. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of phonological processing and inattentive behavior on reading acquisition.

This article reports the findings from a longitudinal study investigating the influence of phonological processing and inattentive behavior on reading acquisition. Data from individually administered measures of phonological processing and reading, as well as teacher ratings of children's behavior, were collected from a cohort of 132 children at 12-month intervals, from kindergarten to 2nd grade. Results from multiple linear regression analyses employing latent constructs of phonological abilities and inattentive behavior provided support for the hypothesized model, with kindergarten measures of inattentiveness and phonological abilities predicting subsequent reading performance. An analysis of reciprocal relationships among these constructs revealed evidence that inattentiveness also interfered with the acquisition of phonological analysis skills. Implications for reading instruction and reading interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)