Phonological Skills Research Articles

Phonological awareness mediates the relationship between DCDC2 and reading performance with home environment

Proficient reading requires critical phonological processing skill that interacts with both genetic and environmental factors. However, the precise nature of the relationships between phonological processing and genetic and environmental factors are poorly understood. We analyzed data from the Genes, Reading and Dyslexia (GRaD) Study on 1419 children ages 8–15 years from African-American and Hispanic-American family backgrounds living in North America. The analyses showed that phonological awareness mediated the relationship between DCDC2-READ1 and reading outcomes when parental education and socioeconomic status was low. The association between READ1 and reading performance is complex, whereby mediation by phonological awareness was significantly moderated by both parental education and socioeconomic status. These results show the importance of home environment and phonological skills when determining associations between READ1 and reading outcomes. This will be an important consideration in the development of genetic screening for risk of reading disability.

Parental linguistic support in a home environment is associated with language development of preschool-aged children.

In today's increasingly digitalised society, there is a growing need for information on how parents can support their children's language development at home. We investigated the associations between three types of parental linguistic support and children's language skills in different domains. Between April 2019 and March 2020, 164 children aged between 2.5 and 4.1 years and their parents were recruited via daycare centres in Helsinki. Information on how frequently parents read, told free stories and sang to their children was collected. The children's lexical and grammatical skills and general language ability were assessed using validated instruments. More frequent reading, storytelling and singing were all separately associated with higher-level expressive lexical and general expressive language ability. More frequent reading and storytelling were also associated with higher-level phonological skills. Only reading was associated with receptive skills. The regression analyses revealed that reading had the highest explanatory value for lexical and general language ability after controlling for the effect of background factors. Furthermore, storytelling had the highest explanatory value for grammatical skills. The results highlight the benefits of parental reading. However, broad use of all parental linguistic activities is recommended to support the development of children's different language domains.

L1–L2 phonological skills predict L2 early literacy in bilinguals with developmental language disorder

In this study, we investigated first- (L1) and second-language (L2) vocabulary and phonology, and selective attention, as precursors of L2 early literacy in bilingual kindergartners with and without Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We compared typically developing (TD) and DLD bilinguals with TD/DLD monolinguals (n = 157, MAGE = 3;8), and examined how TD/DLD bilinguals' precursor abilities predicted L2 phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and letter knowledge. The precursor variables were assessed during preschool, including L1/L2 Dutch and L1 Turkish/Polish. Two years later, we assessed L2 Dutch early literacy. The results showed that at preschool, DLD bilinguals scored lower than the other groups on L1 vocabulary and L1–L2 phonology. By kindergarten, bilingual and DLD groups had poorer Dutch rhyme and RAN than monolingual and TD groups, respectively. Combined L1–L2 phonological skills predicted phonological awareness and RAN among TD/DLD bilinguals. We conclude that poorer L1–L2 phonology in DLD bilingual preschoolers poses a risk for their L2 early literacy at kindergarten.

Do early musical impairments predict later reading difficulties? A longitudinal study of pre-readers with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

The present longitudinal study investigated the hypothesis that early musical skills (as measured by melodic and rhythmic perception and memory) predict later literacy development via a mediating effect of phonology. We examined 130 French-speaking children, 31 of whom with a familial risk for developmental dyslexia (DD). Their abilities in the three domains were assessed longitudinally with a comprehensive battery of behavioral tests in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we examined potential longitudinal effects from music to literacy via phonology. We then investigated how familial risk for DD may influence these relationships by testing whether atypical music processing is a risk factor for DD. Results showed that children with a familial risk for DD consistently underperformed children without familial risk in music, phonology, and literacy. A small effect of musical ability on literacy via phonology was observed, but may have been induced by differences in stability across domains over time. Furthermore, early musical skills did not add significant predictive power to later literacy difficulties beyond phonological skills and family risk status. These findings are consistent with the idea that certain key auditory skills are shared between music and speech processing, and between DD and congenital amusia. However, they do not support the notion that music perception and memory skills can serve as a reliable early marker of DD, nor as a valuable target for reading remediation. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Music, phonology, and literacy skills of 130 children, 31 of whom with a familial risk for dyslexia, were examined longitudinally. Children with a familial risk for dyslexia consistently underperformed children without familial risk in musical, phonological, and literacy skills. Structural equation models showed a small effect of musical ability in kindergarten on literacy in second grade, via phonology in first grade. However, early musical skills did not add significant predictive power to later literacy difficulties beyond phonological skills and family risk status.

Assessment of phonological awareness: Effects of emotional words on preschoolers’ skills

Phonological awareness is recognized as a precursor to reading success. Choosing material to assess children’s phonological awareness is a major challenge. The literature highlights factors that can influence children’s phonological skills, such as the frequency of words, their lexical status, and their linguistic parameters. To date, no study has looked at the potential effect of the emotional parameters of words on phonological skills. The emotional polarity of words (valence: pleasant, unpleasant) has effects on cognitive skills related to phonological awareness, i.e., executive functions, and working memory. The aim of this research is to measure the influence of emotional (positive, negative) and non-emotional (neutral, nonwords) words on the phonological awareness of children aged 4–6 years. Our results show a differential effect of emotional valence words on phonological skills. More specifically, the emotional valence of words facilitates the performance of epiphonological tasks, whereas negative valence disrupts the performance of metaphonological tasks. These results are discussed in relation to current models of interaction between emotion and cognition.

Exposure to Canadian French Cued Speech Improves Consonant Articulation in Children With Cochlear Implants: Acoustic and Articulatory Data.

One of the strategies that can be used to support speech communication in deaf children is cued speech, a visual code in which manual gestures are used as additional phonological information to supplement the acoustic and labial speech information. Cued speech has been shown to improve speech perception and phonological skills. This exploratory study aims to assess whether and how cued speech reading proficiency may also have a beneficial effect on the acoustic and articulatory correlates of consonant production in children. Eight children with cochlear implants (from 5 to 11 years of age) and with different receptive proficiency in Canadian French Cued Speech (three children with low receptive proficiency vs. five children with high receptive proficiency) are compared to 10 children with typical hearing (from 4 to 11 years of age) on their production of stop and fricative consonants. Articulation was assessed with ultrasound measurements. The preliminary results reveal that cued speech proficiency seems to sustain the development of speech production in children with cochlear implants and to improve their articulatory gestures, particularly for the place contrast in stops as well as fricatives. This work highlights the importance of studying objective data and comparing acoustic and articulatory measurements to better characterize speech production in children.

A Study Measuring the Impact of Memory Training and Phonological Processing Intervention on Verbal Working Memory and Phonological Skills in Children

A Study Measuring the Impact of Memory Training and Phonological Processing Intervention on Verbal Working Memory and Phonological Skills in Children

Development of a vocabulary list for the Persian version of the profile of early expressive phonological skills: a pilot study

ABSTRACT This research presents a two-phase study aimed at developing and validating the Profile of Early Expressive Phonological Skills for Persian (PEEPS-P) as an assessment tool for evaluating phonological abilities in toddlers. In Phase 1, a total of 60 words were meticulously selected for inclusion in both the basic and expanded word lists, taking into account factors such as age of acquisition (AoA) and phonological complexity. The word lists included monosyllabic and multisyllabic words with diverse consonant clusters, covering various semantic categories. Moving on to Phase 2, data were collected from a sample of 81 toddlers belonging to different age groups. Three elicitation methods were employed to gather data for both the basic and expanded word lists. The study also examined the time required to complete the test and Percentage of Consonant Correct (PCC) scores. The results revealed that, as children's age increased, there was an increase in the percentage of words produced, accompanied by a decrease in the time taken to complete the test. For instance, the youngest age group (18–23 months) produced approximately 46.83% of words in the basic word list, taking an average of about 22 minutes and 3 seconds, while the oldest age group (30–35 months) produced approximately 95.5% of words in both word lists in less than 17 minutes. Ultimately, the findings suggest that the PEEPS-P has the potential to serve as a valuable tool for assessing phonological abilities in toddlers aged 18–35 months.

Investigating the relationship between math literacy and linguistic synchrony in online mathematical discussions through large‐scale data analytics

AbstractPrevious literature has associated math literacy with linguistic factors such as verbal ability and phonological skills. However, few studies have investigated linguistic synchrony, shown in mathematical discussions. This study modelled math literacy and examined the relationship of math literacy with linguistic synchrony between students and facilitators. We retrieved data from 20,776 online mathematical discussion threads at a secondary school level. First, we assessed students' math literacy based on their discussions and classified them into high‐ and low‐math literacy groups. Then, we conducted Cross‐Recurrence Quantification Analysis (CRQA) to calculate linguistic synchrony within each thread. The result implies that students with high math literacy are more likely to share common words (eg, mathematical terms) with facilitators. At the same time, they would paraphrase the facilitators' words rather than blindly mimic them as the exact sentences or phrases. On the other hand, students with low math literacy tend to use overlapping words with facilitators less frequently and are more likely to repeat the exact same phrases from the facilitators. The findings provide an empirical data analysis and insights into mathematical discussions and linguistic synchrony. In addition, this paper implies the directions to improve online mathematical discussions and foster math literacy. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Mathematical discussions are known to be an effective way to promote math literacy. Math literacy and linguistic skills have a strong link. Linguistic synchrony is related to better collaboration and common knowledge building. What this paper adds Reveals the relationship between math literacy and linguistic synchrony and deepens the understanding of digital communication in online learning environments. Provides empirical analysis of natural language data in group discussions using CRQA. Conceptualizes linguistic synchrony with three sub‐concepts: linguistic concurrence, predictability, and complexity. Implications for practice and/or policy Educators and practitioners could utilize the automatic formative assessment of math literacy based on the student's language use in mathematical discussions. Educational technology researchers and designers could include CRQA indices and recurrence plots in the dashboard design to provide information to support teachers and learners. Teachers would be able to provide real‐time interventions to promote effective mathematical communication and foster math literacy throughout mathematical discussions.

The effect of otitis media with effusion on phonological performance of preschool children

ObjectivesPhonological development is dependent on the integrity of the auditory system. Otitis media with effusion (OME) may affect speech perception in children and therefore phonological development. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of persistent OME on the phonological performance of preschool children.MethodsSixty children with persistent OME who were candidates for myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion were included in this prospective observational study. We assessed their phonological skills before and after surgery (3 and 6 months) by phonological production tasks that included calculation of percentage of consonants correct (PCC) and process density index (PDI).ResultsWe detected preoperative poor phonological performance in 91.7% of children. We found statistically significant differences in PCC and PDI between the three time periods. Also, there was a significant improvement after 6 months compared to 3 months.ConclusionsOME has an adverse consequence on the phonological performance of preschool children, it can affect different domains such as PCC and PDI. The findings of this study revealed that myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion for children with persistent OME could aid in the development of intact phonological skills.

Content validity of the Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills-Brazilian Portuguese (PEEPS-BP) - Expanded List.

To carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the Instrument Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills- Brazilian Portuguese (PEEPS-BP) - Expanded list, performing content validation. Cross-cultural, quantitative and cross- sectional adaptation study, considering psychometric criteria. A study was carried out on the list of 423 words from the Communicative Development Inventory - MacArthur - Words and Sentences, adapted to Brazilian Portuguese. The method was divided into four steps. The list was judged by expert judges (JE) and non-specialist judges (JNE), considering as a criterion the familiarity of the word for a child aged between 24 and 36 months, and the representativeness of the word with toy/object, contemplating Steps 1 and 2. The child judges analyzed, in a data collection situation, the familiarity and representativeness of the stimulus-words, presented in Step 3. Afterwards, the pilot study - Step 4, was carried out with the selected stimulus-words. In the statistical analysis by expert and non-specialist judges, the Fleiss' Kappa and Gwet Concordance index was used. In the analysis of the responses of the child judges and in the Pilot Study, the analysis was made in relation to the type of response of the child, specifically scoring the spontaneous naming of the toy/object, scoring qualitatively. The result of Steps 1 and 2, and the agreement of the statistical tests for the Familiarity and Representativeness criteria was 45.7% for JE and 76.4% for JNE, and a result of 100% for the agreement of Representativeness. A total of 122 words were analyzed, resulting from previously established criteria, totaling 34 words (exclusion of one word by the researchers), totaling 33 stimulus-words. In Stage 3, of the 33 stimulus-words applied, nine presented spontaneous naming scores below expectations, being retested for Step 4, the Pilot Study. The result of the Pilot Study showed that of the nine retested stimulus-words, four of them still had a score below, being excluded from the study. Therefore, with the application of the Pilot Study, the expanded list of PEEPS-BP resulted in 29 words. The PEEPS-BP - Expanded List showed satisfactory evidence of content validity for the cross-cultural adaptation of the test.

Response to intervention as an identification strategy of the risk for dyslexia.

To develop on intervention process to identify children at risk of dyslexia, based on the Response to Intervention model. Specifically, to identify the pattern of changes in post-intervention performance in tasks of phonological awareness, working memory, lexical access, reading and writing; and to analyze which cognitive functions had a significant effect on the discriminating students at risk of dyslexia. Sample of 30 participants with Reading and writing difficulties, aged 8-11, from public/private schools, students from 3rd to 5th grade. Participants were submitted to a battery of cognitive-linguistic tests, before and after 12 intervention sessions. To monitor their performance, five reading and writing lists of words and pseudowords were applied. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the differences in pre- and post-intervention performance of each participant; and among participants in the post-assessment, to understand the patterns of dyslexia vs non-dyslexia groups. There were statistically significant changes in: rapid automatized naming, narrative text comprehension, phonological awareness, rate and typology of hits/misses in reading and writing, and reading speed. Being the last three variables the most sensitive to discriminate the two groups, all with less post-intervention gains for the dyslexia group. The intervention focused on the stimulation of phonological skills and explicit and systematic teaching of graphophonemic correspondences contributed positively to the evolution of the group's participants. The intervention response approach favored the identification of children with a profile at risk for dyslexia, as distinct from children with other learning difficulties.

Resposta à intervenção como estratégia de identificação do risco para dislexia

ABSTRACT Purpose To develop on intervention process to identify children at risk of dyslexia, based on the Response to Intervention model. Specifically, to identify the pattern of changes in post-intervention performance in tasks of phonological awareness, working memory, lexical access, reading and writing; and to analyze which cognitive functions had a significant effect on the discriminating students at risk of dyslexia. Method Sample of 30 participants with Reading and writing difficulties, aged 8-11, from public/private schools, students from 3rd to 5th grade. Participants were submitted to a battery of cognitive-linguistic tests, before and after 12 intervention sessions. To monitor their performance, five reading and writing lists of words and pseudowords were applied. We qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed the differences in pre- and post-intervention performance of each participant; and among participants in the post-assessment, to understand the patterns of dyslexia vs non-dyslexia groups. Results There were statistically significant changes in: rapid automatized naming, narrative text comprehension, phonological awareness, rate and typology of hits/misses in reading and writing, and reading speed. Being the last three variables the most sensitive to discriminate the two groups, all with less post-intervention gains for the dyslexia group. Conclusions The intervention focused on the stimulation of phonological skills and explicit and systematic teaching of graphophonemic correspondences contributed positively to the evolution of the group's participants. The intervention response approach favored the identification of children with a profile at risk for dyslexia, as distinct from children with other learning difficulties.

Validade de conteúdo do Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills-Brazilian Portuguese (PEEPS-BP) - Lista Expandida

ABSTRACT Purpose To carry out the cross-cultural adaptation of the Instrument Profiles of Early Expressive Phonological Skills- Brazilian Portuguese (PEEPS-BP) - Expanded list, performing content validation. Methods Cross-cultural, quantitative and cross- sectional adaptation study, considering psychometric criteria. A study was carried out on the list of 423 words from the Communicative Development Inventory - MacArthur - Words and Sentences, adapted to Brazilian Portuguese. The method was divided into four steps. The list was judged by expert judges (JE) and non-specialist judges (JNE), considering as a criterion the familiarity of the word for a child aged between 24 and 36 months, and the representativeness of the word with toy/object, contemplating Steps 1 and 2. The child judges analyzed, in a data collection situation, the familiarity and representativeness of the stimulus-words, presented in Step 3. Afterwards, the pilot study - Step 4, was carried out with the selected stimulus-words. In the statistical analysis by expert and non-specialist judges, the Fleiss’ Kappa and Gwet Concordance index was used. In the analysis of the responses of the child judges and in the Pilot Study, the analysis was made in relation to the type of response of the child, specifically scoring the spontaneous naming of the toy/object, scoring qualitatively. Results The result of Steps 1 and 2, and the agreement of the statistical tests for the Familiarity and Representativeness criteria was 45.7% for JE and 76.4% for JNE, and a result of 100% for the agreement of Representativeness. A total of 122 words were analyzed, resulting from previously established criteria, totaling 34 words (exclusion of one word by the researchers), totaling 33 stimulus-words. In Stage 3, of the 33 stimulus-words applied, nine presented spontaneous naming scores below expectations, being retested for Step 4, the Pilot Study. The result of the Pilot Study showed that of the nine retested stimulus-words, four of them still had a score below, being excluded from the study. Therefore, with the application of the Pilot Study, the expanded list of PEEPS-BP resulted in 29 words. Conclusion The PEEPS-BP - Expanded List showed satisfactory evidence of content validity for the cross-cultural adaptation of the test.

Mismatch Responses to Speech Contrasts in Preschoolers with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

This study compared cortical responses to speech in preschoolers with typical language development (TLD) and with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). We investigated whether top-down language effects modulate speech perception in young children in an adult-like manner. We compared cortical mismatch responses (MMRs) during the passive perception of speech contrasts in three groups of participants: preschoolers with TLD (n = 11), preschoolers with DLD (n = 16), and adults (n = 20). We also measured children's phonological skills and investigated whether they are associated with the cortical discrimination of phonemic changes involving different linguistic complexities. The results indicated top-down language effects in adults, with enhanced cortical discrimination of lexical stimuli but not of non-words. In preschoolers, the TLD and DLD groups did not differ in the MMR measures, and no top-down effects were detected. Moreover, we found no association between MMRs and phonological skills, even though the DLD group's phonological skills were significantly lower. Our findings suggest that top-down language modulations in speech discrimination may not be present during early childhood, and that children with DLD may not exhibit cortical speech perception deficits. The lack of association between phonological and MMR measures indicates that further research is needed to understand the link between language skills and cortical activity in preschoolers.

Left-dominance for resting-state temporal low-gamma power in children with impaired word-decoding and without comorbid ADHD.

One theory of the origins of reading disorders (i.e., dyslexia) is a language network which cannot effectively 'entrain' to speech, with cascading effects on the development of phonological skills. Low-gamma (low-γ, 30-45 Hz) neural activity, particularly in the left hemisphere, is thought to correspond to tracking at phonemic rates in speech. The main goals of the current study were to investigate temporal low-γ band-power during rest in a sample of children and adolescents with and without reading disorder (RD). Using a Bayesian statistical approach to analyze the power spectral density of EEG data, we examined whether (1) resting-state temporal low-γ power was attenuated in the left temporal region in RD; (2) low-γ power covaried with individual reading performance; (3) low-γ temporal lateralization was atypical in RD. Contrary to our expectations, results did not support the hypothesized effects of RD status and poor decoding ability on left hemisphere low-γ power or lateralization: post-hoc tests revealed that the lack of atypicality in the RD group was not due to the inclusion of those with comorbid attentional deficits. However, post-hoc tests also revealed a specific left-dominance for low-γ rhythms in children with reading deficits only, when participants with comorbid attentional deficits were excluded. We also observed an inverse relationship between decoding and left-lateralization in the controls, such that those with better decoding skills were less likely to show left-lateralization. We discuss these unexpected findings in the context of prior theoretical frameworks on temporal sampling. These results may reflect the importance of real-time language processing to evoke gamma rhythms in the phonemic range during childhood and adolescence.

Contributions of listening effort and intelligibility to cortical tracking of speech in adverse listening conditions

Cortical tracking of speech is vital for speech segmentation and is linked to speech intelligibility. However, there is no clear consensus as to whether reduced intelligibility leads to a decrease or an increase in cortical speech tracking, warranting further investigation of the factors influencing this relationship. One such factor is listening effort, defined as the cognitive resources necessary for speech comprehension, and reported to have a strong negative correlation with speech intelligibility. Yet, no studies have examined the relationship between speech intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech. The aim of the present study was thus to examine these factors in quiet and distinct adverse listening conditions. Forty-nine normal hearing adults listened to sentences produced casually, presented in quiet and two adverse listening conditions: cafeteria noise and reverberant speech. Electrophysiological responses were registered with electroencephalogram, and listening effort was estimated subjectively using self-reported scores and objectively using pupillometry. Results indicated varying impacts of adverse conditions on intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech, depending on the preservation of the speech temporal envelope. The more distorted envelope in the reverberant condition led to higher listening effort, as reflected in higher subjective scores, increased pupil diameter, and stronger cortical tracking of speech in the delta band. These findings suggest that using measures of listening effort in addition to those of intelligibility is useful for interpreting cortical tracking of speech results. Moreover, reading and phonological skills of participants were positively correlated with listening effort in the cafeteria condition, suggesting a special role of expert language skills in processing speech in this noisy condition. Implications for future research and theories linking atypical cortical tracking of speech and reading disorders are further discussed.

Assessment of phonological skills in the context of intellectual disabilities: comparative study between children with Down syndrome and children with intellectual disabilities

This scientific investigation delves into the pivotal role of phonemes in language acquisition among children aged 8 to 11 with Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities. The study uncovers significant disparities between these groups, emphasizing the need for tailored educational strategies. Findings reveal fluctuations in rhyme, syllable, and phoneme recognition, underscoring the complexity of linguistic development. Noteworthy is the positive correlation between higher intelligence and enhanced phonological performance in both groups. The study suggests the importance of early interventions for children with Down syndrome and advocates for personalized educational programs.

Phonological awareness training and phonological therapy approaches for specific language impairment children with speech sound disorders: a comparative outcome study.

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) might present with speech sound disorder (SSD) and phonological awareness (PA) deficits which put them at risk of potential reading problems. This work aimed to organizean intervention program in Arabic forphonologicaltraining and to assess the effect of PA training versus the phonological therapy (PT) for children with SLI and SSD. The study was carried out on 60 children with comorbid SLI and SSD, aged 5-7 years. Children were equally divided into two groups; each group received language therapy combined with (PT or PA training). Measures of language development, phonological output, and PA were taken before therapy and at 4 month post-therapy for all children. The two therapy groups made nearly the same amount of progress in the development of language and phonological production, with no significant differences regarding language age and percent of consonants correct (PCC). The PA training group progressed more on the PA skills than children who received PT over the same time. PA training could facilitate the development of phonological skills by targeting the child's awareness of phonemes and improving the production of sound patterns.

Phonological deficits in dyslexia impede lexical processing of spoken words: Linking behavioural and MEG data

Phonological difficulties have been identified as a core deficit in developmental dyslexia, yet everyday speech comprehension, which relies on phonological processing, is seemingly unaffected. This raises the question as to how dyslexic readers process spoken words to achieve normal word comprehension. Here we establish a link between neural correlates of lexical and sublexical processing in auditory words and behaviourally measured phonological deficits using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Spatiotemporally resolved cortical responses to phonological and lexico-semantic information were computed with the event-related regression technique (Hauk et al., 2009) and correlated with dyslexic and non-dyslexic subjects’ phonological skills. We found that phonological deficits reduced cortical responses to both phonological and lexico-semantic information (phonological neighbours and word frequency). Individuals with lower phonological skills – independent of dyslexia diagnosis – showed weaker neural responses to phonological neighbourhood information in both hemispheres 200–500 ms after word onset and reduced sensitivity to written and spoken word frequency between 200 and 650 ms. Dyslexic readers showed weaker responses to written word frequency in particular compared to the control group, pointing towards an additional effect of print exposure on auditory word processing. Source space analysis localised phonological and lexico-semantic effect peaks to the left superior temporal gyrus, a key area that has been related to core deficits in dyslexia across a range of neuroimaging studies. The results provide comprehensive evidence that phonological deficits impact both sublexical and lexical stages of spoken word processing and that these deficits cannot be fully compensated through neural re-organization of lexical-distributional information at the single word level. Theoretical and practical implications for typical readers, dyslexic readers, and readers with developmental language disorder are discussed.