Phonological Awareness Literacy Research Articles

Spillover effects of gestational age on sibling’s literacy

ABSTRACT Adverse health events within families can harm children’s development, including their early literacy. Using data from a longitudinal Wisconsin birth cohort, we estimated the spillover effect of younger siblings’ gestational ages on older siblings’ kindergarten-level literacy. We sampled 20,014 sibling pairs born during 2007-2010 who took Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Kindergarten tests during 2012-2016. Exposures were gestational age (completed weeks), preterm birth (gestational age <37 weeks), and very preterm birth (gestational age <32 weeks). We used gain-score regression – a fixed effects strategy – to estimate spillover effects. A one-week increase in younger siblings’ gestational age improved the older siblings’ test score by 0.011 SD (95% confidence interval: 0.001, 0.021 SD). The estimated spillover effect was larger among siblings whose mothers reported having a high school diploma/equivalent only (0.024 SD; 95% confidence interval: 0.004, 0.044 SD). The finding underscores the networked effects of one individual’s early-life health shocks on their family members.

Phonological and morphological literacy skills in English and Chinese: A cross-linguistic neuroimaging comparison of Chinese-English bilingual and monolingual English children.

Over the course of literacy development, children learn to recognize word sounds and meanings in print. Yet, they do so differently across alphabetic and character-based orthographies such as English and Chinese. To uncover cross-linguistic influences on children's literacy, we asked young Chinese-English simultaneous bilinguals and English monolinguals (N = 119, ages 5-10) to complete phonological and morphological awareness (MA) literacy tasks. Children completed the tasks in the auditory modality in each of their languages during functional near-infrared spectroscopy neuroimaging. Cross-linguistically, comparisons between bilinguals' two languages revealed that the task that was more central to reading in a given orthography, such as phonological awareness (PA) in English and MA in Chinese, elicited less activation in the left inferior frontal and parietal regions. Group comparisons between bilinguals and monolinguals in English, their shared language of academic instruction, revealed that the left inferior frontal was less active during phonology but more active during morphology in bilinguals relative to monolinguals. MA skills are generally considered to have greater language specificity than PA skills. Bilingual literacy training in a skill that is maximally similar across languages, such as PA, may therefore yield greater automaticity for this skill, as reflected in the lower activation in bilinguals relative to monolinguals. This interpretation is supported by negative correlations between proficiency and brain activation. Together, these findings suggest that both the structural characteristics and literacy experiences with a given language can exert specific influences on bilingual and monolingual children's emerging brain networks for learning to read.

Dialect density, language abilities and emergent literacy skills of prekindergarten children who speak African American English

BackgroundNumerous studies have observed a significant and unique relationship between children's use of nonmainstream dialect and reading outcomes. We aimed to examine the relationship between nonmainstream dialect and reading at its roots by completing a preliminary evaluation of the relationship between African American English (AAE) dialect and multiple dimensions of emergent literacy skills in young African American children enrolled in Head Start.MethodsSeventy‐eight African American preschoolers completed the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening‐PreK (PALS‐PreK) and a narrative retell of the wordless picture book, Frog, Where Are You? The narratives were used to generate three measures of narrative productivity and the dialect density measure (DDM).ResultsStructural equation modelling found that the PALS‐PreK measures significantly loaded onto a single print‐related emergent literacy latent variable and that the three narrative measures significantly loaded onto a single language‐based emergent literacy latent variable. There was a significant relationship between print‐related emergent literacy skills and DDM, but the overall model had a poor fit, showing that the relationship between emergent literacy and DDM was weak.ConclusionsWe conclude the manuscript by discussing implications of this research and suggestions for further study.

Estimating sibling spillover effects with unobserved confounding using gain-scores

A growing area of research in epidemiology is the identification of health-related sibling spillover effects, or the effect of one individual's exposure on their sibling's outcome. The health within families may be confounded by unobserved factors, rendering identification of sibling spillovers challenging. We demonstrate a gain-score (fixed effects) regression method for identifying exposure-to-outcome spillover effects within sibling pairs in linear models. The method identifies the exposure-to-outcome spillover effect if only one sibling's exposure affects the other's outcome, and it identifies the difference between the spillover effects if both siblings' exposures affect the others' outcomes. The method fails with outcome-to-exposure spillover or with outcome-to-outcome spillover. Analytic results, Monte Carlo simulations, and a brief application demonstrate the method and its limitations. We estimate the spillover effect of a child's preterm birth on an older sibling's literacy skills, measured by the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Kindergarten test. We analyze 20,010 sibling pairs from a population-wide, Wisconsin-based (United States) birth cohort. Without covariate adjustment, we estimate that preterm birth modestly decreases an older sibling's test score. Gain-scores are a promising strategy for identifying exposure-to-outcome spillover effects in sibling pairs while controlling for sibling-invariant unobserved confounding.

Differences In At-Risk Children's Preschool Assessment by Educators' Levels of Education

We determined that significant differences existed between assessment scores of at-risk children taught by assistant teachers with different levels of education using standardized assessments (Teaching Strategies GOLD [TSG] and Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening [PALS]). A 1-way MANOVA indicated that assistant teachers’ level of education was statistically significant at &lt;em&gt;p&lt;/em&gt; = .012. Archived pretest and posttest data were collected from TSG and PALS assessment scores of 142 at-risk Prekindergarten 4 children taught by 18 different Prekindergarten 4 lead and assistant teachers at a local Head Start site. We found that irrespective of teachers’ levels of education, the role of assistant teachers should not be underestimated in at-risk children’s learning process. We recommend future studies focus on the role of assistant teachers in the classroom to ascertain whether teacher-child interaction was a factor in this study. Keywords: Lead teacher, Assistant teacher, Levels of education, At-Risk, TSG, PALS,

A Text-Based Intervention to Promote Literacy: An RCT.

Children entering kindergarten ready to learn are more likely to thrive. Inequitable access to high-quality, early educational settings creates early educational disparities. TipsByText, a text-message-based program for caregivers of young children, improves literacy of children in preschool, but efficacy for families without access to early childhood education was unknown. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with caregivers of 3- and 4-year-olds in 2 public pediatric clinics. Intervention caregivers received TipsByText 3 times a week for 7 months. At pre- and postintervention, we measured child literacy using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening Tool (PALS-PreK) and caregiver involvement using the Parent Child Interactivity Scale (PCI). We estimated effects on PALS-PreK and PCI using multivariable linear regression. We enrolled 644 families, excluding 263 because of preschool participation. Compared with excluded children, those included in the study had parents with lower income and educational attainment and who were more likely to be Spanish speaking. Three-quarters of enrollees completed pre- and postintervention assessments. Postintervention PALS-PreK scores revealed an unadjusted treatment effect of 0.260 (P = .040); adjusting for preintervention score, child age, and caregiver language, treatment effect was 0.209 (P = .016), equating to ∼3 months of literacy gains. Effects were greater for firstborn children (0.282 vs 0.178), children in 2-parent families (0.262 vs 0.063), and 4-year-olds (0.436 vs 0.107). The overall effect on PCI was not significant (1.221, P = .124). The health sector has unique access to difficult-to-reach young children. With this clinic-based texting intervention, we reached underresourced families and increased child literacy levels.

Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Development of an Early Literacy App in Dhuwaya

Phonological awareness is a skill which is crucial in learning to read. In this paper, we report on the challenges encountered while developing a digital application (app) for teaching phonological awareness and early literacy skills in Dhuwaya. Dhuwaya is a Yolŋu language variety spoken in Yirrkala and surrounding areas in East Arnhem Land. Dhuwaya is the first language of the children who attend a bilingual school in which Dhuwaya and English are the languages of instruction. Dhuwaya and English have different phonemic inventories and different alphabets. The Dhuwaya alphabet is based on Roman alphabet symbols and has 31 graphemes (compared to 26 in English). The app was designed to teach children how to segment and blend syllables and phonemes and to identify common words as well as suffixes used in the language. However, the development was not straightforward, and the impact of the linguistic, cultural and educational challenges could not have been predicted. Amongst these was the inherent variation in the language, including glottal stops, the pronunciation of stops, the focus on syllables as a decoding strategy for literacy development and challenges of finding one-syllable words such as those initially used with English-speaking children. Another challenge was identifying culturally appropriate images which the children could relate to and which were not copyrighted. In this paper, we discuss these plus a range of other issues that emerged, identifying how these problems were addressed and resolved by the interdisciplinary and intercultural team.

Print Knowledge in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Do Child and Family Variables Play a Role?

Purpose This study aimed to examine the print knowledge of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to children who have developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing (TD) children as well as examine the child and family predictors of print knowledge. Method A total of 629 preschool children, including 33 children with ASD, 93 children with DLD, and 503 TD children, were the focus of the current study. Teachers completed direct assessments with the children in the fall and spring of the academic year on print knowledge using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screener. Results Analyses of covariance were used to compare the print knowledge skills (uppercase and lowercase letter identification, print and word awareness, name writing) in the fall and spring for each of the three groups. The groups were significantly different for the Print and Word Awareness and Name Writing subtests in both the fall and spring. A Tukey's honestly significant difference further indicated that, for these subtests, the children with ASD had significantly lower scores than both the children with DLD and TD children. When examining the child and family predictors of residualized gain in print knowledge for the children with ASD, the only significant predictor for any outcome was fall scores. When examining the predictors for the full sample, fall scores, age, ASD status, and mothers' education level were significant predictors of print and word awareness and name writing scores. Conclusions None of the child and family characteristics seemed to be related to residualized gain in print knowledge for children with ASD. However, when examining predictors of residualized gain in print knowledge for the full sample, ASD status was related to lower scores for both print and word awareness and name writing.

The effects of a phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge intervention on four-year-old children in an early childhood setting

Phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK) are two of the strongest predictors of reading acquisition, and evidence shows that many New Zealand children are entering school with low levels of emergent literacy (EL) skills. The current research showed that four-year-old children identified as having low levels of EL, who participated in an evidence-based 10-week intervention using games and books, made significant gains in PA and AK in comparison to a control group. The children were assessed pre-intervention and post-intervention using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening PreK and it was found that the PA and AK intervention used in this research was effective in significantly raising the levels of upper-case letter naming, letter-sound awareness and beginning sound awareness.

Effect of music instruction on phonological awareness and early literacy skills of five- to seven-year-old children

ABSTRACT Multiple studies and systematic reviews have shown that music instruction improves phonological awareness (PA) and early literacy skills in children, although findings vary. In meta-analyses, the reliability and significance of the transfer effect are reduced. The study evaluated the effect of varying durations of music instruction exposure, over a single academic year, on PA and early literacy of young children. Based on the exposure to music instruction, participants were assigned to either a low- or high-exposure group. Additional analyses were conducted for 17 age-matched pairs and to compare participants that only received class music to those that received additional music instruction. Between-groups comparisons showed no significant difference after a single academic year of music instruction. Within-groups comparisons identified more PA improvements in the high-exposure group. Exposure to music instruction for no less than one academic year, is required to conclusively evaluate the effect on PA and early literacy.

Gestational age, kindergarten-level literacy, and effect modification by maternal socio-economic and demographic factors.

Shorter gestational age at birth is associated with worse academic performance in childhood. Socio-economic and demographic factors that affect a child's development may modify the relationship between gestational age and later academic performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate socio-economic and demographic effect modification of gestational age's association with kindergarten-level literacy skills in a longitudinal Wisconsin birth cohort. We sampled 153145 singleton births (2007-2010) that linked to Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening-Kindergarten (PALS-K) scores (2012-2016 school years). PALS-K outcomes included meeting the screening benchmark (≥28 points, range 0-102 points) and the standardised score. Multivariable linear regressions of PALS-K outcomes on gestational age (completed weeks) included individual interactions for five maternal attributes measured at delivery: Medicaid coverage, education, age, race/ethnicity, and marital status. Each additional completed gestational week was associated with a 0.5 percentage point increase in the probability of meeting the PALS-K literacy benchmark. The benefit of an additional week of gestational age was 0.5 percentage points (95% confidence interval 0.3, 0.7 percentage points) greater for Medicaid-covered births (0.8 percentage points) relative to non-Medicaid births (0.3 percentage points). Relative to only completing high school, having college education weakened this association by 0.3-0.6 percentage points, depending on years in college. Similar but modest relations emerged with standardised scores. Socio-economic advantage as indicated by non-Medicaid coverage or higher levels of completed maternal education may diminish the cost of preterm birth on a child's kindergarten-level literacy skills.

Phonological awareness training and reading gains in a child with Williams Syndrome: a case report

ABSTRACT Williams syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder with different manifestations caused by a heterozygous segmental deletion of 1.55-1.83Mb at chromosomal band 7q11.23. The Williams syndrome phenotype is characterized by intellectual deficiency and expressive learning deficits, with impairments in phonological awareness skills. The aim of the study was to verify the effects of an intervention in phonological awareness and grammar teaching, for the acquisition of reading skills and literacy indicators in a child with Williams Syndrome. A case of a 6-year old girl, enrolled in the first year of Elementary School, was reported. The Phonological Awareness Test by Oral Production, the Words and Pseudo-words Reading Competence Test, the Provinha Brasil (reading test), and a Phonological Awareness Literacy Software, were used for phonological awareness and grammar teaching intervention. The study was developed in four phases: pre-intervention assessment, intervention, post-intervention assessment and follow-up, after six months. The results showed progress in phonological awareness skills, mainly in tasks of rhyme, alliteration and syllabic synthesis, as well as reading indicators that were compatible with the school year, following the intervention.

Internal Structure and Item Characteristics of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening in Spanish for Preschool

We used multidimensional item response theory to test the internal structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening in Spanish for Preschool and test for item parameter drift. The measure is aligned with the simple view of reading, which defines reading as consisting of two equally important dimensions: decoding and language comprehension. It involves 134 items grouped into nine different tasks. We administered a pilot version of the measure to 677 students in 2014 and a final version to 968 students in 2015. We did not find evidence that code-related skills and oral language are distinct but correlated dimensions among preschoolers. Rather, a single general dimension of early literacy with task-related specific dimensions fit best. A benefit of our modeling approach is that we can examine the internal structure while also evaluating the difficulty and discrimination of individual items. Results suggest a stable ordering of items within tasks and that some Spanish letters are learned more easily than others.

Latent variable structure and measurement invariance of a modified early literacy assessment

ABSTRACTThis study reports the dimensionality and measurement invariance of a modified version of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschoolers (PALS PreK). Practical constraints of conducting child assessments created an opportunity to develop a modified PALS PreK. The sample consisted of 1,168 children tested in a Southwestern state in the United States. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with the modified PALS PreK supported the two-factor structure of the full PALS PreK. Multigroup CFA revealed measurement invariance for the modified PALS PreK for gender and ethnicity. The implications of a similar two-factor structure in the modified PALS PreK are discussed.

A Quasi-Experimental Study of a Movement and Preliteracy Program for 3- and 4-Year-Old Children.

Approximately 28% of children are not ready for kindergarten, 91% are inactive according to current guidelines, and 21% are overweight/obese. Early intervention to strengthen movement and preliteracy skills may help to curb the concerning rates of poor school readiness, inactivity, obesity, and subsequently positively impact health across the lifespan. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a motor and preliteracy skill program for a community sample of 3- to 4-year-old children. A quasi-experimental study design was used. The program was run for 1 h/week for 10 weeks and consisted of movement skill instruction, free play, and an interactive reading circle with care-giver involvement throughout each session. Movement and preliteracy skills were assessed in all children pre- and post-intervention using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales-2nd edition, the Preschool Word and Print Awareness tool, and the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening tool. Nineteen families (experimental group, n = 8; control group, n = 11) were recruited (mean age = 3 years, 8 m; 47% male). There was a significant effect of group on gross motor raw scores overall [F(1, 16) = 4.67, p < 0.05; [Formula: see text]] and print-concept knowledge [F(1, 16) = 11.9, p < 0.05; [Formula: see text]]. This study was one of the first to examine the impact of a community-based movement skill and preliteracy program with care-giver involvement in preschool children. Future research should continue to explore the effects of the program with larger and more diverse samples on multiple health and developmental outcomes. Play and Preliteracy among Young Children (PLAY) NCT02432443.

Assessing Early Literacy With Hispanic Preschoolers: The Factor Structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening—Español

For two decades, it has been recommended that assessment of literacy for preschool children be conducted in a child’s primary language. However, only a few literacy assessments have been validated with a preschool, Spanish-speaking population. The purpose of the present study was to test the latent structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK) Español with a sample of Spanish-speaking children in the southwestern United States. Children who could recognize at least 16 uppercase and nine lowercase letters were included in the analyses. Subscales of the PreK Español included Name Writing, Letter/Sound Association, Print Concepts, and Rhyme Awareness. Confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a two-factor model of alphabet knowledge (upper and lowercase letter recognition, letter sounds) and print and phonological awareness (name writing, print and rhyme awareness, letter sounds) with letter sounds loading on both factors. We found that the structure of PALS-PreK Español is similar to the English version and discussed implications.

The effectiveness of synthetic phonics in the development of early reading skills among struggling young ESL readers

ABSTRACTA quasi-experimental research design was used to investigate the effectiveness of synthetic phonics in the development of early reading skills among struggling young English as a second language (ESL) readers in a rural school. The pretest and posttest, adapted from the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) for Preschool Students and Grades 1 to 3 tests, assessed children’s early reading skills. A semi-structured interview was used to gather information. The findings indicated that the performance of students in the experimental group in decoding was significantly higher in the posttest, where t(39) = 31.441, p < .00005. Likewise, in comprehension, the experimental group achieved significantly higher scores in the posttest, where t(39) = 15.322, p < .00005. There was a significant difference in the achievement between the two groups, where t(78) = 31.010, p < .00005. This indicates that synthetic phonics could be effective in developing early reading skills for struggling readers.

The development of phonological awareness literacy measures for isiXhosa

This study outlines the development of linguistically based, language-specific measures of phonological awareness in isiXhosa and presents some preliminary findings. Hitherto, the study of phonological awareness has predominantly focussed on English, and to date phonological awareness in Bantu languages has not been adequately addressed. This study explicitly discusses the decisions made when developing a phonological awareness test for isiXhosa, which can easily be adapted for other Bantu languages. Our results show how participants perform better in syllable awareness tasks and how this is conditioned by the language-specific structures of isiXhosa. We demonstrate the need for micro-linguistic and language-specific considerations in the development of phonological awareness tests.

Using a Bifactor Model to Assess the Factor Structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Grades 1 Through 3

The factor structure of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Grades 1 through 3 (PALS 1-3), a widely used early literacy screener in the Commonwealth of Virginia, was investigated using a large sample of public-school second-grade students ( n = 14,993). Three alternative factor models (i.e., a one-factor, two-correlated factors, and a bifactor model) were tested and explored using an exploratory sample consisting of a randomly selected half of the overall sample. Model fit indices using confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a bifactor model fit the best and supported the scoring methods used with PALS 1-3, which is largely measured by a general factor of orthographic knowledge. The model was found to replicate in the randomly selected hold-out sample as well and exhibited adequate measurement precision (ω h = .88).

A phonological awareness intervention case study of a child with Down syndrome

Children with Down syndrome face considerable challenges in developing spoken and written language which can have serious implications for their social, emotional, and academic success. Given the persistent nature of these challenges it is vital that interventions to support this development address both immediate and longer term intervention effects. A case study evaluation was used to describe the speech, phonological awareness, and literacy development of Ben (pseudonym), a boy with Down syndrome aged 5;2 at the start of the study. Ben was one of 10 pre-school children with Down syndrome who participated in an integrated phonological awareness intervention designed to simultaneously facilitate speech, phonological awareness, and early literacy skills. The intervention was conducted over 18 weeks. Ben's speech and literacy development were monitored up to the age of 8;0 (34 months post pre-school intervention). The evaluation revealed continued speech development characterized by increased speech accuracy, an increased phonemic inventory, and the reduction of speech error patterns. Growth in letter knowledge and phonological awareness were apparent during the 34-month period and the generalization of these skills to early reading and writing was also evident. Early intervention which targets spoken and written language development for children with Down syndrome may be useful in supporting this development both immediately and in the longer term.