Nonword Reading Skills Research Articles

The relationship between receptive vocabulary and word and nonword reading skills in monolingual and language minority bilingual children in Italy across primary school grades

ABSTRACT The role of children's receptive vocabulary knowledge in word and nonword reading (decoding) in an orthographically transparent language is debated. Moreover, we have little understanding of how the role of vocabulary might differ between monolingual children and bilingual children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children (LMBC)) at different stages of reading development. This study examined the relation of receptive vocabulary to word and nonword reading accuracy and speed in 140 monolingual and bilingual students attending Grades 1, 3, or 5 in Italy. Both receptive vocabulary and reading performance were assessed using standardized tests in Italian. Regression models showed that for monolingual Italian children receptive vocabulary was related to word reading accuracy and speed in Grade 1 and word reading accuracy in Grade 5. In the LMBC group, receptive vocabulary was related to word and nonword reading accuracy and speed in Grade 1, to word reading accuracy in Grade 3, and to word reading speed in Grade 5. These findings suggest that vocabulary knowledge supports reading even in the earlier stages of reading development in a language with transparent orthography and underscore the importance of strengthening and assessing LMBC's receptive vocabulary for the adequate development of their reading skills.

Improving Vulnerable Populations’ Emergent Reading Outcomes by Training Preservice Teachers in an Evidence-Based Program

ABSTRACT This article details a large-scale tutor-to-teacher pipeline created in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program addressed two vital needs: 1) improving outcomes for striving readers in high-needs communities, and 2) improving teacher training in both evidence- and research-based instruction. Across school year (SY) 2020–2021 and 2021–2022, 608 preservice teachers delivered an evidence-based (Reading Rescue) or research-based (Reading Ready) early literacy intervention. Through a coordinated effort between the City University of New York (CUNY) and the NYC Department of Education (NYC DOE), 857 NYC DOE students received one-on-one, interactive, remote tutoring three to five days a week, for an average of 21 sessions. Results demonstrated that students who received the emergent word reading program, Reading Ready, improved in their phoneme segmentation and nonword reading skills by 31–47%, and students who received the follow-up evidence-based program, Reading Rescue, consistently improved by one intervention reading level per 10 sessions, and showed age equivalent reading gains of one-half to almost a full year of growth as measured by a standardized, nationally normed assessment. Discussion focuses on the value of this high-quality training and tutoring experience for preservice teachers and on the critical support provided to striving readers in underserved communities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vocabulary and reading speed in the majority language are affected by maternal language proficiency and language exposure at home: a study of language minority bilingual children in Italy

ABSTRACT Environmental sources of variance in the Italian vocabulary and reading skills of bilingual primary school children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children (LMBC)) in Italy were investigated, and the LMBC’s skill levels were compared to those of their monolingual classmates. A total of 140 children from the first, third, and fifth grades were administered standardized tests of receptive vocabulary, word reading, and nonword reading skills. LMBC’s exposure to Italian at home and their mothers’ Italian proficiency were reported by mothers. Immigrant mothers’ Italian proficiency was a significant predictor of vocabulary and word reading speed but not of word accuracy or nonword reading. High levels of Italian exposure at home in combination with low levels of maternal Italian proficiency was a negative predictor of vocabulary; high exposure to Italian at home was positively associated with word reading speed and negatively associated with nonword reading speed. LMBC had lower vocabulary scores but did not differ from monolingual children in measures of reading skill. The findings underscore the importance of the quality of language exposure for language development and replicate findings that bilingual children show decoding skills on a par with monolingual children despite smaller vocabularies.

Morphological segmentation of nonwords in individuals with acquired dyslexia

The current study investigated the influence of morphological structure in nonword reading in a case series of individuals with acquired dyslexia following brain damage. The aim of the study was to test the separate influence of embedded stems and suffixes on reading skills by comparing four different types of complex nonwords: stem + suffix (e.g., nightness), stem + non-suffix (e.g., nightlude), non-stem + suffix (e.g., nishtness), and non-stem + non-suffix (e.g., nishtlude); and two types of words: suffixed (e.g., baker) and non-suffixed (e.g., diamond). We report five individuals with excellent word reading skills, including no difficulties in reading morphologically complex words, but who had difficulty in reading nonwords. Nonword reading skills drastically improved when the nonwords were composed of a real stem compared to a non-stem, or a real suffix compared to a non-suffix. In one of the individuals (RF), a significant stem-by-suffix interaction was observed, suggesting that they additionally benefited when letter-strings were decomposable into two morphemes. Another individual’s reading (SH) was facilitated by the presence of suffixes, but not by the presence stems. The impact of morphological structure on nonword reading, clearly observed in all five individuals, points to a pre-lexical activation of morphemes during reading. The results suggest that complex word reading involves three dissociable mechanisms: whole word processing, phonological decoding, and pre-lexical morpheme activation.

A large-scale investigation of white matter microstructural associations with reading ability

Reading involves the functioning of a widely distributed brain network, and white matter tracts are responsible for transmitting information between constituent network nodes. Several studies have analyzed fiber bundle microstructural properties to shed insights into the neural basis of reading abilities and disabilities. Findings have been inconsistent, potentially due to small sample sizes and varying methodology. To address this, we analyzed a large data set of 686 children ages 5–18 using state-of-the-art neuroimaging acquisitions and processing techniques. We searched for associations between fractional anisotropy (FA) and single-word and single-nonword reading skills in children with diverse reading abilities across multiple tracts previously thought to contribute to reading. We also looked for group differences in tract FA between typically reading children and children with reading disabilities. FA of the white matter increased with age across all participants. There were no significant correlations between overall reading abilities and tract FAs across all children, and no significant group differences in tract FA between children with and without reading disabilities. There were associations between FA and nonword reading ability in older children (ages 9 and above). Higher FA in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and left inferior cerebellar peduncle (ICP) correlated with better nonword reading skills. These results suggest that letter-sound correspondence skills, as measured by nonword reading, are associated with greater white matter coherence among older children in these two tracts, as indexed by higher FA.

Language and Reading Progress of Young Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children.

We examined the language and reading progress of 336 young DHH children in kindergarten, first and second grades. Trained assessors tested children's language, reading, and spoken and fingerspelled phonological awareness in the fall and spring of the school year. Children were divided into groups based on their auditory access and classroom communication: a spoken-only group (n = 101), a sign-only group (n = 131), and a bimodal group (n = 104). Overall, children showed delays in language and reading compared to norms established for hearing children. For language, vocabulary standard scores were higher than for English syntax. Although delayed in language, children made expected gains based on hearing norms from kindergarten to second grade. Reading scores declined from kindergarten to second grade. Spoken-only and bimodal children had similar word reading and reading comprehension abilities and higher scores than sign-only children. Spoken-only children had better spoken phonological awareness and nonword reading skills than the other two groups. The sign-only and bimodal groups made similar and significant gains in ASL syntax and fingerspelling phonological awareness.

Investigating Auditory Spectral and Temporal Resolution Deficits in Children with Reading Difficulties.

The types of reading difficulties experienced by children are highly heterogeneous in nature, which makes diagnosis and intervention difficult. Over the past 30 years, there has been much debate over the cause of dyslexia. The two most popular theories for phonological deficits in dyslexia are the rate-processing constraint hypothesis, which relates to short timescale processing, and the temporal sampling framework hypothesis, which relates to longer timescale processing. To investigate the relationship between sublexical (i.e., nonword) reading skills and auditory spectral and temporal resolution patterns in children with reading difficulties using the Phoneme Identification Test (PIT) and the Parsing Syllable Envelopes Test (ParSE). These tests were developed to assess the rate-processing constraint and the temporal sampling framework hypotheses, respectively. We hypothesized that a proportion of children who have sublexical reading difficulties may have an underlying auditory-resolution deficit which may impact their ability to form letter-sound correspondences. We predicted that children's sublexical reading difficulties may not be explained by one theory, but instead that both theories may describe different types of reading difficulties found in different children. We also hypothesized that children with lexical (i.e., irregular word) reading difficulties but intact sublexical reading skills would not show atypical results on PIT or ParSE. Behavioral experimental clinical study with children who have reading difficulties. Sixteen children with nonword, irregular word, or mixed reading difficulties diagnosed by the Castles and Coltheart Test 2. Children completed a test battery consisting of a hearing screen and tests of reading, auditory resolution, phonological awareness, attention, spatial auditory processing, auditory memory, and intelligence. Categorization and correlational analyses were conducted. All four children with a pure sublexical reading deficit also had an auditory-resolution deficit. Four of seven children with a mixed reading deficit had an auditory-resolution deficit. Only one of five children with a lexical reading deficit had an auditory-resolution deficit. Individual children's specific deficits were related to either rate processing (n = 5) or temporal sampling (n = 4), but never both. Children's nonword reading scores were strongly correlated with their performance on the PIT in noise, but not with the PIT in quiet or the ParSE. Children's irregular word scores were not significantly correlated with their performance on the PIT in quiet or in noise, or the ParSE, as hypothesized. Strong correlations were also found between children's nonword scores and their phonological awareness scores. The results of this study suggest that neither the rate-processing hypothesis nor the temporal sampling framework is the single cause of reading difficulties in children. Instead, both of these hypotheses are likely to account for different types of reading deficits found in children. This is an important finding as the specific mechanisms driving different reading impairments must be identified to create tools to better diagnose and treat different types of reading difficulties. Further investigation of the PIT and ParSE as potential diagnostic tools for specific auditory-resolution-based reading difficulties in a larger group of children is currently underway.

Cognitive predictors of word reading in Sinhala

We examined whether akshara knowledge, phonological awareness, phonological memory, and RAN predict variability in word and nonword reading skills in Grade 1–4 children (N = 200) learning to read Sinhala. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that akshara knowledge had the strongest unique association with both word and nonword reading accuracy across grades. Akshara knowledge and RAN predicted word and nonword reading fluency. The impact of phonological memory and syllable awareness on reading was mostly mediated by akshara knowledge, and phoneme awareness was not uniquely associated with word reading skills in any grade. These results suggest that there are multiple cognitive correlates of accurate and fluent word reading in Sinhala, and akshara knowledge is the most important predictor of learning to read words. The findings have implications for the literacy acquisition, development, and instruction in alphasyllabaries.

Dimensions of the Adult Reading History Questionnaire and their relationships with reading ability

The Adult Reading History Questionnaire (ARHQ; Lefly & Pennington, 2000) is a widely used measure of self-reported reading difficulties. We explored the factor structure underlying this questionnaire using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. A six-factor solution emerged, with childhood reading ability, current reading attitude, spelling skill, reversal, print media use, and memory factors. We created subscales reflecting these factors and explored relationships between subscale scores and different reading abilities (word reading, nonword reading, and passage comprehension). The total ARHQ score, as well as scores on the childhood reading ability, current reading attitude, and spelling skill subscales were significantly associated with word reading, nonword reading, and passage comprehension. The spelling skills subscale showed a stronger relationship with nonword reading than other reading skills, while scores on the current reading attitude subscale showed a weaker relationship between nonword Reading skill and other measures of reading. Overall, the results suggest that reading history is multidimensional and should be regarded as such in future research. Importantly, this self-report measure of lifetime reading experience was associated with adult reading skill in a population of university students showing typical variation in reading skill, with different aspects of the scale relating to different reading subskills.

Individual differences in orthographic priming relate to phonological decoding skill in adults.

We examined relationships between individual differences in orthographic priming and a battery of measures assessing orthographic processing ability, reading history, current reading ability, and verbal intelligence in university students. Pronounceable and unpronounceable nonword primes preceded word and nonword targets. Individual differences in nonword reading skill and other measures of reading and spelling ability were associated with the degree of orthographic priming. Individuals with less phonological decoding skill benefited more from anagram primes for word targets preceded by unpronounceable primes and nonword targets preceded by pronounceable primes. Analyses of extreme groups revealed that the group with the lowest phonemic decoding efficiency scores showed a general benefit of orthographic relatedness, while the group with the highest phonemic decoding efficiency scores showed a benefit only under certain conditions. Thus, individuals with worse nonword reading skills may have less precise orthographic representations and therefore benefit more from overlapping coarse-grained orthographic information, regardless of the pronounceability of the prime or the lexical status of the target. These findings demonstrate that university students vary in their orthographic processing skill and the degree to which orthographic information is used during word recognition.

Individual differences in the vocabulary skills of children with poor reading comprehension

As a group, poor comprehenders (children who have poor reading comprehension despite age-appropriate decoding abilities) have often been shown to have vocabulary difficulties. However, vocabulary knowledge is complex and could affect reading comprehension in more than one way. We explored this complexity by assessing the vocabulary and oral language skills of poor comprehenders at the individual level. All poor comprehenders displayed some degree of oral language deficit in the context of intact nonword and irregular word reading skills, but patterns of oral language deficit differed across participants. The majority had weak vocabulary skills which took the form of semantic weaknesses, while a minority had age-appropriate vocabulary skills but poor syntactic or listening comprehension skills. Our results support the Simple View of Reading and demonstrate the importance of considering individual variation when developing theories of, and treatments for, poor reading comprehension.

Reading skills in Persian deaf children with cochlear implants and hearing aids

ObjectivesReading skills are necessary for educational development in children. Many studies have shown that children with hearing loss often experience delays in reading. This study aimed to examine reading skills of Persian deaf children with cochlear implant and hearing aid and compare them with normal hearing counterparts. MethodThe sample consisted of 72 s and third grade Persian-speaking children aged 8–12 years. They were divided into three equal groups including 24 children with cochlear implant (CI), 24 children with hearing aid (HA), and 24 children with normal hearing (NH). Reading performance of participants was evaluated by the “Nama” reading test. “Nama” provides normative data for hearing and deaf children and consists of 10 subtests and the sum of the scores is regarded as reading performance score. ResultsResults of ANOVA on reading test showed that NH children had significantly better reading performance than deaf children with CI and HA in both grades (P < 0.001). Post-hoc analysis, using Tukey test, indicated that there was no significant difference between HA and CI groups in terms of non-word reading, word reading, and word comprehension skills (respectively, P = 0.976, P = 0.988, P = 0.998). ConclusionConsidering the findings, cochlear implantation is not significantly more effective than hearing aid for improvement of reading abilities. It is clear that even with considerable advances in hearing aid technology, many deaf children continue to find literacy a challenging struggle.

The involvement of long-term serial-order memory in reading development: A longitudinal study

Recent findings suggest that Hebb repetition learning—a paradigmatic example of long-term serial-order learning—is impaired in adults with dyslexia. The current study further investigated the link between serial-order learning and reading using a longitudinal developmental design. With this aim, verbal and visual Hebb repetition learning performance and reading skills were assessed in 96 Dutch-speaking children who we followed from first through second grade of primary school. We observed a positive association between order learning capacities and reading ability as well as weaker Hebb learning performance in early readers with poor reading skills even at the onset of reading instruction. Hebb learning further predicted individual differences in later (nonword) reading skills. Finally, Hebb learning was shown to explain a significant part of the variance in reading performance above and beyond phonological awareness. These findings highlight the role of serial-order memory in reading ability.

Literacy skills of Australian Indigenous school children with and without otitis media and hearing loss

This study examined the relationship between reading, spelling, and the presence of otitis media (OM) and co-occurring hearing loss (HL) in metropolitan Indigenous Australian children, and compared their reading and spelling outcomes with those of their non-Indigenous peers. OM and HL may hinder language development and phonological awareness skills, but there is little empirical evidence to link OM/HL and literacy in this population. Eighty-six Indigenous and non-Indigenous children attending pre-primary, year one and year two at primary schools in the Perth metropolitan area participated in the study. The ear health of the participants was screened by Telethon Speech and Hearing Centre EarBus in 2011/2012. Participants’ reading and spelling skills were tested with culturally modified sub-tests of the Queensland University Inventory of Literacy. Of the 46 Indigenous children, 18 presented with at least one episode of OM and one episode of HL. Results indicated that Indigenous participants had significantly poorer non-word and real word reading and spelling skills than their non-Indigenous peers. There was no significant difference between the groups of Indigenous participants with OM and HL and those with normal ear health on either measure. This research provides evidence to suggest that Indigenous children have ongoing literacy development difficulties and discusses the possibility of OM as one of many impacting factors.

Towards an understanding of how children read and spell irregular words: the role of nonword and orthographic processing skills

This study examined, in 180 children aged from 6 to 9 years, to what extent irregular word reading and spelling were predicted by vocabulary knowledge, reading frequency, orthographic processing and nonword reading skill. Consistent with models of reading highlighting the quasi‐regular nature of irregular words, it was found that nonword reading was a large and significant predictor of irregular word reading even when entered into a regression analysis after all of the other variables. However, irregular word spelling was equally well predicted by orthographic and nonword reading skills. The results are discussed in relation to models of word reading and reading development.

A comparison of two-coloured filter systems for treating visual reading difficulties

Purpose: Visual disturbances that make it difficult to read text are often termed “visual stress”. Coloured filters in spectacles may help some children overcome reading problems that are often caused by visual stress. It has been suggested that for optimal effect each child requires an individually prescribed colour for each eye, as determined in systems such as the “Harris Foundation” coloured filters. Alternatively, it has been argued that only blue or yellow filters, as used in the “Dyslexia Research Trust” (DRT) filter system, are necessary to affect the underlying physiology. Method: A randomised, double blind trial with 73 delayed readers, was undertaken to compare changes in reading and spelling as well as irregular and non-word reading skills after 3 months of wearing either the Harris or the DRT filters. Results: Reading improved significantly after wearing either type of filter (t = −8.4, p < 0.01), with 40% of the children improving their reading age by 6 months or more during the 3 month trial. However, spelling ability (t = 2.1, p = 0.05) and non-word reading (f = 4.7, p < 0.05) improved significantly more with the DRT than with the Harris filters. Conclusion: Education and rehabilitation professionals should therefore, consider coloured filters as an effective intervention for delayed readers experiencing visual stress.Implications for RehabilitationAny disability that impacts on a child’s capacity to read has serious implications for academic development as well as the ability to participate independently in activities of daily living.One reading disability, generally termed “visual stress”, is related to visual disturbances that make it difficult to read text.This research demonstrates the beneficial use of coloured filters for promoting visual reading capacity for children with visual stress.Professionals who are involved in the needs of children with reading delay, may like to consider the benefits that coloured filters can afford children with visual reading problems.

A follow-up study on word and non-word reading skills in Down syndrome

The current study was designed to trace changes in the relationship between non-word reading and irregular word reading on the one hand, and between phonological awareness and non-word reading on the other, through a follow-up study of a group of individuals with Down syndrome. Twelve individuals with Down syndrome, whose data were originally reported in Roch and Jarrold (2008), were seen four years later, and were given the same tasks as in the previous study evaluating phonological awareness, non-word reading and irregular word reading. After four years, an improvement was observed in all the skills of interest. Furthermore, the pattern of relationships among the three skills was observed to change considerably across the four year period. At the first time point, a weak association between non-word and irregular word reading was found, but there was a strong association between these two measures at the second time point. In contrast, a strong relationship was found at Time 1 between non-word reading and phonological awareness, which became weaker at Time 2. Longitudinal associations between the three skills were also examined in order to explain this changing pattern of associations. The results indicated that the ability to decode non-words plays a marginal role on later irregular word reading. In contrast, irregular word reading is a longitudinal predictor of later non-word reading. Phonological awareness was not longitudinally related to non-word reading. The results indicate that developing word knowledge can facilitate later non-word reading in Down syndrome, perhaps by a process of reading by visual analogy to known lexical items.Learning outcomes: Readers will be able to (a) explain the development of word reading, non-word reading and phonological awareness in Down syndrome; (b) explain the longitudinal changes in the relationships among the three skills; (c) explain the relevance for education of the influence of word reading for the improvement in non-word reading.

Prediction of Reading Skill Several Years Later Depends on Age and Brain Region: Implications for Developmental Models of Reading

We investigated whether brain activity was predictive of future reading skill and, if so, how this brain-behavior correlation informs developmental models of reading. A longitudinal study followed 26 normally developing human children ranging in age from 9 to 15 years who were initially assessed for reading skill and performed a rhyming judgment task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patterns of brain activation in this task predicted changes between initial and a follow-up assessment of nonword reading skill administered up to 6 years later. Brain activity in areas typically active during imaging studies of reading was found to predict future nonword reading ability, but the predictive ability of these areas depended on age. Increased activity relative to peers in neural circuits associated with phonological recoding (i.e., inferior frontal gyrus and basal ganglia) was predictive of greater gains in reading fluency in younger children, whereas increased activity relative to peers in orthographic processing circuits (i.e., fusiform gyrus) was predictive of smaller gains in fluency for older children. Interpreted within the context of a connectionist model of reading, these results suggest that younger children who are more sensitive to higher-order phonological word characteristics (e.g., coarticulations) may make greater reading proficiency gains, whereas older children who focus more on whole-word orthographic representations may make smaller proficiency gains.

Phonological awareness and decoding skills in deaf adolescents

This study investigated the phonological awareness skills of a group of deaf adolescents and how these skills correlated with decoding skills (single word and non-word reading) and receptive vocabulary.Twenty, congenitally profoundly deaf adolescents with at least average nonverbal cognitive skills were tested on a range of phonological awareness tasks, and a non-word and real-word reading task, and their speech intelligibility was rated. Scores on a receptive vocabulary measure were gathered from existing records. All participants met an inclusion criterion of scoring within one standard deviation of the mean on a non-verbal reasoning task.As a group, compared to the hearing standardisation samples, the participants' single-word reading fell within the normal range; their non-word reading skills were significantly stronger and their phonological awareness skills and receptive vocabulary were significantly weaker. The participants' phonological awareness skills were relatively stronger at the level of the phoneme than the rhyme. Correlations between single word and non-word reading and phonological awareness skills were significant. Taking receptive vocabulary as a covariate, the association between word reading and phonological awareness was reduced but remained significant, but the association between non-word reading and phonological awareness became non-significant.The participants had developed good grapheme-phoneme knowledge in spite of relatively weak phonological awareness skills. This study is not able to inform whether this has occurred because only a minimal level of phonological awareness is necessary for grapheme-phoneme skills to develop or whether the process of learning to read has led to the development of grapheme-phoneme and phonological awareness skills, but ideas for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Phonological awareness and decoding skills in deaf adolescents

Abstract This study investigated the phonological awareness skills of a group of deaf adolescents and how these skills correlated with decoding skills (single word and non-word reading) and receptive vocabulary.Twenty, congenitally profoundly deaf adolescents with at least average nonverbal cognitive skills were tested on a range of phonological awareness tasks, and a non-word and real-word reading task, and their speech intelligibility was rated. Scores on a receptive vocabulary measure were gathered from existing records. All participants met an inclusion criterion of scoring within one standard deviation of the mean on a non-verbal reasoning task.As a group, compared to the hearing standardisation samples, the participants' single-word reading fell within the normal range; their non-word reading skills were significantly stronger and their phonological awareness skills and receptive vocabulary were significantly weaker. The participants' phonological awareness skills were relatively stronger at the lev...