Future Reading Skills Research Articles

Unique longitudinal contributions of sulcal interruptions to reading acquisition in children.

A growing body of literature indicates strong associations between indentations of the cerebral cortex (i.e., sulci) and individual differences in cognitive performance. Interruptions, or gaps, of sulci (historically known as pli de passage) are particularly intriguing as previous work suggests that these interruptions have a causal effect on cognitive development. Here, we tested how the presence and morphology of sulcal interruptions in the left posterior occipitotemporal sulcus (pOTS) longitudinally impact the development of a culturally-acquired skill: reading. Forty-three children were successfully followed from age 5 in kindergarten, at the onset of literacy instruction, to ages 7 and 8 with assessments of cognitive, pre-literacy, and literacy skills, as well as MRI anatomical scans at ages 5 and 8. Crucially, we demonstrate that the presence of a left pOTS gap at 5 years is a specific and robust longitudinal predictor of better future reading skills in children, with large observed benefits on reading behavior ranging from letter knowledge to reading comprehension. The effect of left pOTS interruptions on reading acquisition accumulated through time, and was larger than the impact of benchmark cognitive and familial predictors of reading ability and disability. Finally, we show that increased local U-fiber white matter connectivity associated with such sulcal interruptions possibly underlie these behavioral benefits, by providing a computational advantage. To our knowledge, this is the first quantitative evidence supporting a potential integrative gray-white matter mechanism underlying the cognitive benefits of macro-anatomical differences in sulcal morphology related to longitudinal improvements in a culturally-acquired skill.

Error-monitoring: A predictor of future reading skills? A 3-year longitudinal study in children

Investigation of the factors explaining individual differences in the acquisition of expert reading skills has become of particular interest these last decades. Non-verbal abilities, such as visual attention and executive functions play an important role in reading acquisition. Among those non-verbal factors, error-monitoring, which allows one to detect one's own errors and to avoid repeating them in the future, has been reported to be impaired in dyslexic readers. The present three-year longitudinal study aims at determining whether error-monitoring efficiency evaluated before and during reading instruction could improve the explanation of reading skills. To do so, 85 children will be followed from the last year of kindergarten to the second grade. The classic predictors of reading will be assessed at each grade level. Error-monitoring indices in domain-general and reading-related contexts will be derived from EMG data recorded during a Simon task in kindergarten and during both a Simon and a lexical decision tasks in the first and second grades. Findings concerning the role of error-monitoring on reading skills are expected to have an important impact on reading instruction to prevent reading difficulties in at-risk children and improve remediation to help children with reading difficulties.

Does early exposure to spoken and sign language affect reading fluency in deaf and hard-of-hearing adult signers?

Early linguistic background, and in particular, access to language, lays the foundation of future reading skills in deaf and hard-of-hearing signers. The current study aims to estimate the impact of two factors - early access to sign and/or spoken language - on reading fluency in deaf and hard-of-hearing adult Russian Sign Language speakers. In the eye-tracking experiment, 26 deaf and 14 hard-of-hearing native Russian Sign Language speakers read 144 sentences from the Russian Sentence Corpus. Analysis of global eye-movement trajectories (scanpaths) was used to identify clusters of typical reading trajectories. The role of early access to sign and spoken language as well as vocabulary size as predictors of the more fluent reading pattern was tested. Hard-of-hearing signers with early access to sign language read more fluently than those who were exposed to sign language later in life or deaf signers without access to speech sounds. No association between early access to spoken language and reading fluency was found. Our results suggest a unique advantage for the hard-of-hearing individuals from having early access to both sign and spoken language and support the existing claims that early exposure to sign language is beneficial not only for deaf but also for hard-of-hearing children.

Methodology, advantages and difficulties of forming reading skills in learning English

Abstract. The English language is becoming one of the global languages all over the world. One of the main, but at the same time difficult, tasks in teaching any foreign language is teaching reading which is known as an important type of speech activity, as well as the most common method of communication. It is very difficult to learn any language without basic skills and reading skills. The first stage of learning to read is the formation of technical skills that are the basis for the formation and development of future reading skills. In this article reading is the studied as the process of looking at written symbols and letters and understanding the meaning of them. Students in non-philological directions come across some difficulties in linguistic causes as vocabulary, grammar structures, background knowledge and in some strategies, such as guessing meaning from the context, skimming, scanning and also in psychological causes as attitude and motivation. The paper also finds out some obstacles to help students to get over their difficulties.

Early Precursors of Reading Development in Simultaneous Bilinguals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose: Literacy precursors are cognitive, linguistic, and oral-language skills that predict future reading skills in children as young as 4 years. Speech-language pathologists and educators utilize these precursors as assessment tools to identify children at risk for reading difficulties. Most current tools are developed based on monolinguals (predominantly in English), despite the significant percentage of bilinguals globally. As such, bilingual children are typically assessed on tools developed for monolinguals in research and clinical settings. Despite this common practice, there is a lack of comprehensive synthesis on whether these precursors are a reliable indicator of reading skills in bilingual children. Our article examines whether literacy precursors commonly used with monolinguals are associated with reading development in simultaneous bilinguals. Method: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Cochrane guidelines, our review includes four databases (Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, Educational Resources Information Center, Modern Language Association, and PsycINFO), in addition to gray-literature and manual reference-list searches. To control for age of acquisition and language dominance variability, we included typically developing simultaneous bilinguals exposed to both languages before age 3 years ( N = 5,942). We analyzed reported statistical associations between code-related or oral-language precursors and reading outcome measures, using correlational meta-analyses. Results: The 41 reports, which met inclusion/exclusion criteria, were published between 1977 and 2022. The average age at assessment was 7;5 (years;months; range: 3;0–11;0), with children speaking over 21 bilingual language combinations. Our meta-analysis demonstrated significant within-language correlations and cross-language transfer effects for code-related (e.g., phonological awareness) and oral-language (e.g., vocabulary and morphological awareness) precursors. Semantic awareness, however, was not a reliable predictor in bilinguals. Conclusions: Phonological awareness and vocabulary measures—even if originally developed for monolingual children—can form a meaningful component of early literacy assessment in simultaneous bilingual children: These precursors may be used as assessment tools across heritage and societal languages in research and clinical practice. Future research suggestions within this domain are also discussed. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23880465

Learning to Read in Arabic Diglossia: The Relation of Spoken and Standard Arabic Language in Kindergarten to Reading Skills in First Grade

ABSTRACT The contribution of linguistic skills to reading has been reported in different languages; however, this contribution varies according to the specific features of each language. Arabic is characterized by diglossia, i.e. the existence of two distinct varieties: Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA). This study examined the extent to which linguistic components (phonemic awareness, vocabulary, morphological and syntactic knowledge) and orthographic knowledge of kindergartners (N = 261) predict future reading skills, i.e. word reading accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension in the first year of elementary school (first grade). In addition, the relevant contributions of SpA and StA to reading skills were tested. The results revealed that while phonemic awareness, syntactic and orthographic knowledge significantly predicted almost all reading skills, morphological knowledge and vocabulary predicted only reading comprehension. In addition, hierarchical regression showed that the general index of StA linguistic measures predicted all reading measures, after controlling for orthographic knowledge and SpA linguistic measures. The results are discussed in relation to the critical role of StA in reading acquisition despite the difficulties of Arabic-speaking kindergartners in processing language in StA compared to SpA. The study emphasizes the influence of oral and written linguistic skills on reading acquisition in Arabic.

The Arabic Diglossia Reality: The Effect of Specific Story Reading in Kindergarten on Reading Acquisition in First Grade

ABSTRACT Due to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, Arabic-speaking children enter their first year of school with immaturity in literary language and word representations in their mental lexicon. This study examined the effects of interactive story reading in kindergarten on future reading skills and whether this effect can be generalized to reading skills of infrequent words. 102 Arabic-speaking kindergarten children were divided into two groups: 1) the intervention group was based on a first-grade textbook; 2) the control group was based on classic stories from the kindergarten library. The program was implemented for three months during the kindergarten year. The findings show that the intervention group’s scores were higher than the control group in measures of represented/practiced and unfamiliar items. Additionally, the gain of the intervention group in reading unfamiliar items provide evidence for a generalization effect of the intervention program. We conclude that the negative impact of diglossia on reading acquisition in Arabic can be reduced during kindergarten.

Preliteracy assessment in children living with HIV in Tanzania: comparison to results from children living without HIV in Tanzania and the United States.

Children with HIV (CWH) are at increased risk for cognitive and developmental delays. Whether HIV affects literacy development, however, remains unknown. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) tasks offer the simplest preliteracy assessment a child can perform that predicts future reading skills across languages. RAN performance was analyzed cross-sectionally on 473 children (249 children without HIV and 217 CWH; ages 3-9) drawn from a longitudinal study in Tanzania. These data were compared to results from 341 normally developing children without HIV (ages 3-8) from the United States. Participants performed two RAN subtests: colors and objects. RAN object completion was greater than for the RAN color in Tanzanian children. CWH were less likely to complete either subtest and performed worse on the object subtest compared to Tanzanian children without HIV. Compared to the US cohort, the Tanzanian cohort was less likely to complete both subtests - in particular the colors subtest - and showed more variability in responses at younger ages. After approximately age 6, however, the trajectory of improvement between the United States and Tanzania was similar. CWH performed worse on this per-literacy test, indicating literacy skill development in CWH needs further study. The differences between US and Tanzanian results likely reflect variability in when children learn to name colors and objects. The trajectory of improvement between countries became more similar as the children aged. This study motivates further longitudinal analyses aimed at assessing the developmental trajectory of the RAN, its predictive ability for reading skills, and its link with other preliteracy and cognitive skills.

Evaluating the Effects of Instructional Prompts and Strategic Incremental Rehearsal on the Letter Identification Mastery of Two Typically Developing Kindergarteners.

Letter identification impacts the developmental progression of future reading skills. In this study, we evaluated the effects of instructional prompts on letter identification in a single-subject design for 2 kindergarten students who experienced difficulties with letter identification skills. In Phase 1, we evaluated the number of letters participants correctly identified without instructional prompts, and in Phase 2, we evaluated the effects of 2 different instructional prompts and rewards. Phase 3 evaluated the combined effects of strategic incremental rehearsal (SIR) and the most effective instructional prompt identified in Phase 2. Results showed that an effective, yet different instructional prompt was identified for each participant and that SIR plus an instructional prompt was effective for further increasing both participants' correct letter identification. The results of this study demonstrated a useful and effective method for identifying instructional prompts, strategies, or other interventions that improve students' academic responding.

Prenatal bisphenol A exposure is associated with language development but not with ADHD-related behavior in toddlers from the Odense Child Cohort

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a non-persistent chemical with endocrine disrupting abilities widely used in a variety of consumer products. The fetal brain is particularly sensitive to chemical exposures due to its rapid growth and complexity. Some studies have reported associationbetween maternal BPA exposure and behavior but few have assessed impact on cognitive development, and to our knowledge no studies have specifically assessed the impact on language development. We therefore assessed whether maternal urinary BPA concentration during pregnancy was associated with language development and attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in offspring aged 18–36 months in the prospective Odense Child Cohort. BPA was analyzed in 3rd trimester maternal fasting urine spot samples. Language development was addressed among 535 children using the Danish adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories at median age 21 months; ADHD traits were assessed by parents of 658 children using the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 1½-5 years at mean age 2.7 years. Associations were assessed using logistic regression models comparing children below the 15th percentile score for language and above the 85 percentiles score for ADHD with the other children while stratifying by sex and adjusting for maternal education, duration of breastfeeding and maternal urine phthalates. BPA was detected in 85.3% of the urine samples (median 1.2 ng/ml). Boys of mothers with BPA exposure in the highest tertile had an odds ratio of 3.70 (95% CI 1.34–10.21) of being in the lowest 15th percentile of vocabulary score compared to boys of mothers within the lowest tertile of BPA exposure after adjustment, whereas no association was found in girls. No clear dose-response relationship between maternal BPA and ADHD scores above the 85th percentile was found for either sex. Since early language development is a predictor of future reading skills and educational success, more epidemiological studies assessing BPA exposure and language skills are needed to confirm our findings.

Neurobiological signatures of L2 proficiency: Evidence from a bi-directional cross-linguistic study.

Recent evidence has shown that convergence of print and speech processing across a network of primarily left-hemisphere regions of the brain is a predictor of future reading skills in children, and a marker of fluent reading ability in adults. The present study extends these findings into the domain of second-language (L2) literacy, through brain imaging data of English and Hebrew L2 learners. Participants received an fMRI brain scan, while performing a semantic judgement task on spoken and written words and pseudowords in both their L1 and L2, alongside a battery of L1 and L2 behavioural measures. Imaging results show, overall, show a similar network of activation for reading across the two languages, alongside significant convergence of print and speech processing across a network of left-hemisphere regions in both L1 and L2 and in both cohorts. Importantly, convergence is greater for L1 in occipito-temporal regions tied to automatic skilled reading processes including the visual word-form area, but greater for L2 in frontal regions of the reading network, tied to more effortful, active processing. The main groupwise brain effects tell a similar story, with greater L2 than L1 activation across frontal, temporal and parietal regions, but greater L1 than L2 activation in parieto-occipital regions tied to automatic mapping processes in skilled reading. These results provide evidence for the shifting of the reading networks towards more automatic processing as reading proficiency rises and the mappings and statistics of the new orthography are learned and incorporated into the reading system.

Simulating reading acquisition: The link between reading outcome and multimodal brain signatures of letter\u2013speech sound learning in prereaders

During reading acquisition, neural reorganization of the human brain facilitates the integration of letters and speech sounds, which enables successful reading. Neuroimaging and behavioural studies have established that impaired audiovisual integration of letters and speech sounds is a core deficit in individuals with developmental dyslexia. This longitudinal study aimed to identify neural and behavioural markers of audiovisual integration that are related to future reading fluency. We simulated the first step of reading acquisition by performing artificial-letter training with prereading children at risk for dyslexia. Multiple logistic regressions revealed that our training provides new precursors of reading fluency at the beginning of reading acquisition. In addition, an event-related potential around 400 ms and functional magnetic resonance imaging activation patterns in the left planum temporale to audiovisual correspondences improved cross-validated prediction of future poor readers. Finally, an exploratory analysis combining simultaneously acquired electroencephalography and hemodynamic data suggested that modulation of temporoparietal brain regions depended on future reading skills. The multimodal approach demonstrates neural adaptations to audiovisual integration in the developing brain that are related to reading outcome. Despite potential limitations arising from the restricted sample size, our results may have promising implications both for identifying poor-reading children and for monitoring early interventions.

Dynamics of the Compelex Forms of Visual Perception in Children of Pre-School Age (A Neuropsychological Analysis)

Abstract: Experimental data in preschool aged children proves the determining role of the auditory and visual processes for future reading skills, therefore the investigation of complex forms of visual perception in this age period is diagnostically important.: Basic aim of the research is assessment of the sensitive period for the non-verbal perceptive operations in pre-school aged children, and determination of subgroup with low results for non-verbal perception.: The dynamics of the visual perception (visual gnosis) in typically developing children were tested with an adapted version of the Poppelreuter-Ghent Test for figure-ground segregation. The total number of overlapping objects is 33, grouped according to the level of difficulty. The children are given a group of objects separately in a following sequence and they should segregate and name the objects.A number of 365 typically developing children without diagnosis of visual disorders and without corrected visus took part in the research. All children, aged 4, 5, and 6 from three different settlements attend state nursery schools and have Bulgarian as a mother tongue. A three-factor dispersion analysis was held to define the statistical significance of the independent factors age, gender and settlement. The research’s data define the 5 year olds as sensitive about the dynamics of the complex forms of visual perception, compared to the four year old children (p<0.000009) and the six year old children (p<0.001650). The influence of the demographic factor is engaged with the significantly better results of the children from the big town compared to the capital (p<0.000926) and small town (p<0.000700). The influence of the gender as a factor is due to the better functioning of the non-verbal perceptive operations in the females (F = 1,346, p<0.019). According to the additional analysis, 25% of the children at the age of six demonstrate a low rating of the complex forms of non-verbal visual gnosis that could be reviewed as risk for developing dyslexia.: In the age period 4 – 6, there is a process of dynamic maturation of the right-hemispheric structures of the ventral visual system, leading to substantial improvement of the abilities for discrimination of objects in visual crowding. Poppelreuter’s test allows an objective assessment of the state of the non-verbal perceptive abilities in pre-school age and could be used in the diagnostics of predictors for dyslexia.

Tracing children's vocabulary development from preschool through the school-age years: an 8-year longitudinal study.

In this 8-year longitudinal study, we traced the vocabulary growth of Chinese children, explored potential precursors of vocabulary knowledge, and investigated how vocabulary growth predicted future reading skills. Two hundred and sixty-four (264) native Chinese children from Beijing were measured on a variety of reading and language tasks over 8 years. Between the ages of 4 to 10 years, they were administered tasks of vocabulary and related cognitive skills. At age 11, comprehensive reading skills, including character recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension were examined. Individual differences in vocabulary developmental profiles were estimated using the intercept-slope cluster method. Vocabulary development was then examined in relation to later reading outcomes. Three subgroups of lexical growth were classified, namely high-high (with a large initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate), low-high (with a small initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate) and low-low (with a small initial vocabulary size and a slow growth rate) groups. Low-high and low-low groups were distinguishable mostly through phonological skills, morphological skills and other reading-related cognitive skills. Childhood vocabulary development (using intercept and slope) explained subsequent reading skills. Findings suggest that language-related and reading-related cognitive skills differ among groups with different developmental trajectories of vocabulary, and the initial size and growth rate of vocabulary may be two predictors for later reading development.

Early predictors of future reading skills: A follow-up of French-speaking children from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of the second grade (age 5 to 8)

Résumé Dans cet article sont présentés les résultats de deux études sur les prédicteurs précoces du futur niveau de lecture. L’objectif principal de la première étude était d’examiner si le niveau de lecture à 8 ans peut être prédit par une compétence précoce très rarement examinée: la discrimination phonémique. Deux groupes d’enfants ont été sélectionnés en fonction de leurs compétences en discrimination phonémique à 5 ans : un groupe avec des faibles compétences et un groupe avec des compétences moyennes à élevées dans ce domaine. Ces deux groupes, respectivement classés comme étant «à risque» et «non à risque» pour l’apprentissage de la lecture, ont été appariés sur l’âge chronologique, le QI non-verbal et le vocabulaire. La discrimination phonémique se révèle être un prédicteur important de l’acquisition de lecture. En effet, les deux groupes définis à 5 ans en fonction de leur niveau dans ce domaine obtiennent des résultats significativement différents en lecture à 8 ans et la proportion d’enfants ayant des difficultés de lecture est plus forte dans le groupe à risque que dans l’autre groupe. L’objectif principal de la seconde étude était d’évaluer si, dans cette population, les compétences en lecture à 8 ans peuvent être prédites par les prédicteurs « classiques » de l’apprentissage de la lecture évalués à 5 ans: niveau de pré-lecture, connaissance des lettres, capacités de segmentation phonémique et de mémoire à court terme phonologique (MCT). Une forte proportion de la variance en lecture à 8 ans (52,8%) est prédite par ces compétences, quatre d’entre elles expliquant une part unique et significative de cette variance: niveau de pré-lecture, connaissance des lettres pour les voyelles (pas pour les consonnes), capacités de segmentation phonémique (mais pas celles de segmentation syllabique) et de MCT phonologique.

Early predictors of future reading skills: A follow-up of French-speaking children from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of the second grade (age 5 to 8)

<titre>R&#233;sum&#233;</titre> Dans cet article sont pr&#233;sent&#233;s les r&#233;sultats de deux &#233;tudes sur les pr&#233;dicteurs pr&#233;coces du futur niveau de lecture. L&#8217;objectif principal de la premi&#232;re &#233;tude &#233;tait d&#8217;examiner si le niveau de lecture &#224; 8 ans peut &#234;tre pr&#233;dit par une comp&#233;tence pr&#233;coce tr&#232;s rarement examin&#233;e: la discrimination phon&#233;mique. Deux groupes d&#8217;enfants ont &#233;t&#233; s&#233;lectionn&#233;s en fonction de leurs comp&#233;tences en discrimination phon&#233;mique &#224; 5 ans : un groupe avec des faibles comp&#233;tences et un groupe avec des comp&#233;tences moyennes &#224; &#233;lev&#233;es dans ce domaine. Ces deux groupes, respectivement class&#233;s comme &#233;tant &#171;&#224; risque&#187; et &#171;non &#224; risque&#187; pour l&#8217;apprentissage de la lecture, ont &#233;t&#233; appari&#233;s sur l&#8217;&#226;ge chronologique, le QI non-verbal et le vocabulaire. La discrimination phon&#233;mique se r&#233;v&#232;le &#234;tre un pr&#233;dicteur important de l&#8217;acquisition de lecture. En effet, les deux groupes d&#233;finis &#224; 5 ans en fonction de leur niveau dans ce domaine obtiennent des r&#233;sultats significativement diff&#233;rents en lecture &#224; 8 ans et la proportion d&#8217;enfants ayant des difficult&#233;s de lecture est plus forte dans le groupe &#224; risque que dans l&#8217;autre groupe. L&#8217;objectif principal de la seconde &#233;tude &#233;tait d&#8217;&#233;valuer si, dans cette population, les comp&#233;tences en lecture &#224; 8 ans peuvent &#234;tre pr&#233;dites par les pr&#233;dicteurs &#171;&#160;classiques&#160;&#187; de l&#8217;apprentissage de la lecture &#233;valu&#233;s &#224; 5 ans: niveau de pr&#233;-lecture, connaissance des lettres, capacit&#233;s de segmentation phon&#233;mique et de m&#233;moire &#224; court terme phonologique (MCT). Une forte proportion de la variance en lecture &#224; 8 ans (52,8%) est pr&#233;dite par ces comp&#233;tences, quatre d&#8217;entre elles expliquant une part unique et significative de cette variance: niveau de pr&#233;-lecture, connaissance des lettres pour les voyelles (pas pour les consonnes), capacit&#233;s de segmentation phon&#233;mique (mais pas celles de segmentation syllabique) et de MCT phonologique.

Print-specific multimodal brain activation in kindergarten improves prediction of reading skills in second grade

Children who are poor readers usually experience troublesome school careers and consequently often suffer from secondary emotional and behavioural problems. Early identification and prediction of later reading problems thus are critical in order to start targeted interventions for those children with an elevated risk for emerging reading problems. In this study, behavioural precursors of reading were assessed in nineteen (aged 6.4±0.3years) non-reading kindergarteners before training letter-speech sound associations with a computerized game (Graphogame) for eight weeks. The training aimed to introduce the basic principles of letter-speech sound correspondences and to initialize the sensitization of specific brain areas to print. Event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded during an explicit word/symbol processing task after the training. Reading skills were assessed two years later in second grade. The focus of this study was on clarifying whether electrophysiological and fMRI data of kindergarten children significantly improve prediction of future reading skills in 2nd grade over behavioural data alone. Based on evidence from previous studies demonstrating the importance of initial print sensitivity in the left occipito-temporal visual word form system (VWFS) for learning to read, the first pronounced difference in processing words compared to symbols in the ERP, an occipito-temporal negativity (N1: 188–281ms) along with the corresponding functional activation in the left occipito-temporal VWFS were defined as potential predictors. ERP and fMRI data in kindergarteners significantly improved the prediction of reading skills in 2nd grade over behavioural data alone. Together with the behavioural measures they explained up to 88% of the variance. An additional discriminant analysis revealed a remarkably high accuracy in classifying normal (n=11) and poor readers (n=6). Due to the key limitation of the study, i.e. the small group sizes, the results of our prediction analyses should be interpreted with caution and regarded as preliminary despite cross-validation. Nevertheless our results indicate the potential of combining neuroimaging and behavioural measures to improve prediction at an early stage, when literacy skills are acquired and interventions are most beneficial.

Print-specific multimodal brain activation in kindergarten improves prediction of reading skills in second grade

Children who are poor readers usually experience troublesome school careers and consequently often suffer from secondary emotional and behavioural problems. Early identification and prediction of later reading problems thus is critical in order to start targeted interventions for those children with an elevated risk for emerging reading problems. In this study, behavioural precursors of reading were assessed in nineteen (aged 6.4 ± 0.3 years) non-reading kindergarteners before training letter-speech sound associations with a computerized game (Graphogame) for eight weeks. The training aimed to introduce the basic principles of letter–speech sound correspondences and to initialize the sensitization of specific brain areas to print. Event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded during an explicit word/symbol processing task after the training. Reading skills were assessed two years later in second grade. The focus of this study was on clarifying whether electrophysiological and fMRI data of kindergarten children significantly improve prediction of future reading skills in 2nd grade over behavioural data alone. Based on evidence from previous studies demonstrating the importance of initial print sensitivity in the left occipito-temporal visual word form system (VWFS) for learning to read, the first pronounced difference in processing words compared to symbols in the ERP, an occipito-temporal negativity (N1: 188–281 ms) along with the corresponding functional activation in the left occipito-temporal VWFS was defined as potential predictors. ERP and fMRI data in kindergarteners significantly improved the prediction of reading skills in 2nd grade over behavioural data alone. Together with the behavioural measures they explained up to 88% of the variance. An additional discriminant analysis revealed a remarkably high accuracy in classifying normal (n = 11) and poor readers (n = 6). Due to the key limitation of the study, i.e. the small group sizes, the results of our prediction analyses should be interpreted with caution and regarded as preliminary despite crossvalidation. Nevertheless our results indicate the potential of combining neuroimaging and behavioural measures to improve prediction at an early stage, when literacy skills are acquired and interventions are most beneficial.

Revisiting the home literacy model of reading development in an orthographically consistent language

We examined the applicability of the Home Literacy Model in an orthographically transparent language (Greek). Seventy Greek children were followed from kindergarten until grade 4. In kindergarten they were tested in non-verbal intelligence, vocabulary, phonological sensitivity, rapid naming, and letter knowledge. The parents of the children also responded on a questionnaire regarding the frequency of storybook reading, the number of books at home, and the frequency of teaching letter names, sounds, and words. Reading fluency and comprehension were measured in grade 4. The results indicated that the early home literacy experience variables were related to the emergent literacy skills but did not directly predict future reading skills. Thus, the Home Literacy Model applies to consistent orthographies before any formal reading instruction takes place.

Teacher Use Of Interactive Read Alouds Using Nonfiction In Early Childhood Classrooms

Children enter kindergarten in the United States with large differences in their background knowledge, vocabulary, and early literacy experiences. There is a strong relationship between language development during the early years and reading ability in the primary grade and teachers must understand the importance of developing vocabulary and its relationship to literacy. It is essential that teachers provide time and effort to quality language experiences. One researched based strategy to accomplish this is the use of interactive read-alouds. Teachers have traditionally used fictional literature in the classroom, but there is growing research that nonfiction or informational literature are also needed to provide children with quality vocabulary building experiences in the early school years. This research study examined the results of a survey that was given to childcare providers and preschool through 2nd grade teachers about the amount of time they read aloud to children and the amount of time they spend reading fiction compared to nonfiction text. Results showed that teachers in classrooms (pre- through 2nd grade) reported reading to children almost every day, though the time devoted to this activity was a small percentage of the total time spent in class. Also, nonfiction literature was a small percentage of the literature that was being read to children. The findings in this paper have implications for practice in the field. Because vocabulary development is a key ingredient in the learning-to-read process and is a predictor of success in future reading skills, teachers in the early grades should be aware of the benefits of using interactive read alouds and the genre of nonfiction literature in vocabulary development.