Children's Reading Strategies Research Articles

Research on Children's Reading Strategies in the Context of Family Education

Research on Children's Reading Strategies in the Context of Family Education

How do Eye Movements and Visual Attention in Letter-Finding Tasks Differ in Children with Different Levels of Reading Skills?

Children with different levels of reading proficiency demonstrate different information processing speed, reading accuracy and cognitive strategies. The study presents the results of analyses of eye movement features when performing letter search tasks in lexical and sub-lexical environments. The task of searching for a particular grapheme by the respondents is approximated to real-life conditions, since in the course of language learning students regularly face the tasks of searching for certain orthograms in educational texts or self-checking tasks (i.e., errors in their own texts), which is especially important for children with dysorphographia, regulatory dysgraphia, and other learning difficulties. Forty-nine children aged 9 to 10 years participated in the study. Reading skills were assessed using the Standardized Assessment of Reading Skills (SARS). Nonverbal intelligence was assessed by using Raven’s coloured progressive matrices. Participants performed a letter search task in text and letter list, eye movements were recorded using the EyeLink 1000 Plus eye tracker. Rank correlation analyses showed that the level of reading skill development was related to the efficiency of finding specific items in a given context. In addition, the duration and number of gaze fixations on the searched units in the letter list were not always related to the number of correct answers, indicating a complex process of visual attention during the search task. In addition, it was observed that foveal vision was not always necessary for performing search tasks in children with normally developed reading skill levels. The study also investigated the concept of functional visual field and how the surroundings of the items being searched affect the attentional mechanisms involved in visual search. Overall, this study provides evidence on the relationship between reading skills, attention and visual information processing, which contributes to understanding reading strategies in children with dyslexia and creating new methods for screening children with dyslexia in the future.

Cortical tracking of speech in noise accounts for reading strategies in children.

Humans' propensity to acquire literacy relates to several factors, including the ability to understand speech in noise (SiN). Still, the nature of the relation between reading and SiN perception abilities remains poorly understood. Here, we dissect the interplay between (1) reading abilities, (2) classical behavioral predictors of reading (phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming), and (3) electrophysiological markers of SiN perception in 99 elementary school children (26 with dyslexia). We demonstrate that, in typical readers, cortical representation of the phrasal content of SiN relates to the degree of development of the lexical (but not sublexical) reading strategy. In contrast, classical behavioral predictors of reading abilities and the ability to benefit from visual speech to represent the syllabic content of SiN account for global reading performance (i.e., speed and accuracy of lexical and sublexical reading). In individuals with dyslexia, we found preserved integration of visual speech information to optimize processing of syntactic information but not to sustain acoustic/phonemic processing. Finally, within children with dyslexia, measures of cortical representation of the phrasal content of SiN were negatively related to reading speed and positively related to the compromise between reading precision and reading speed, potentially owing to compensatory attentional mechanisms. These results clarify the nature of the relation between SiN perception and reading abilities in typical child readers and children with dyslexia and identify novel electrophysiological markers of emergent literacy.

Effects of reading strategies on grade one children’s phonemic awareness performance

This study examined the effects of language teaching strategies in Amhara region, Ethiopia on children’s phonemic awareness reading performance. To this end, one hundred and two grade one children of two intact sections (n=50) and (n=52) were selected and participated as experimental and control groups, respectively. The research employed quasi-experimental pre- and post-test research design that aimed at examining the effects of reading strategies in children’s phonemic awareness performance. Besides, the researchers collected data through non-participant observation and teacher self-reflection reports. To analyze children’s phonemic awareness, paired samples t-test was computed using pre- and post-test scores of the children. To analyze the qualitative data, researchers employed narratives based on categories formed considering the basic themes of the research questions of this paper. Findings indicated that phonemic awareness reading strategies used in Amhara region could improve children’s phonemic awareness performance. Furthermore, observation and teachers’ reflections showed that there were positive results on the application of the strategies in improving children’s phonemic awareness. Eventually, recommendations and implications for further research were suggested.

Metacognitive reading strategies of children with learning disabilities.

to check the use of metacognitive reading strategies in children with learning disabilities and determine whether there is a relationship between their use and text comprehension. the study was conducted on 30 children, aged 8 to 12 years, of both genders, divided into experimental group (EG) - 15 children with learning disabilities; and control group (CG) - 15 children without disability. All children were submitted to the Reading Strategies Scale and Prolec text comprehension subtest. The sample was described in mean, median, minimum and maximum values. Comparative analysis was performed between the groups using the Mann-Whitney test. The degree of correlation between variables was verified by Spearman Correlation Analysis. The significance level was set at 5%. across the total scores of the scale, EG performance was lower in all descriptive measures, with a significant difference compared to CG. The EG achieved a performance close to children without difficulties only in global strategies. The correlation between the use of metacognitive strategies and reading comprehension was positive. children with learning disabilities showed deficits in the use of metacognitive reading strategies when compared to children without learning disabilities. The better the performance in reading strategies, the better textual comprehension was and vice versa, suggesting that metacognitive reading skills contribute to reading comprehension.

Changes in Reading Strategies in School-Age Children

Learning to read is one of the most important cognitive milestones in the human social environment. One of the most accepted models explaining such process is the Double-Route Cascaded Model. It suggests the existence of two reading strategies: lexical and sublexical. In the Spanish language there are some contradictions about how these strategies are applied for reading. In addition, there are only a few studies dealing with the analysis of shifts between them, achieving a fluent reading process. In this paper we use a reading task including words and pseudowords for characterizing the cost of shifting between reading strategies in children with developmental dyslexia and normal controls. Our results suggest the presence of both strategies in these two experimental groups. In controls, both strategies become more efficient in correspondence to the increased exposition to written material. However, in children with developmental dyslexia only the lexical strategy exhibits such improvement. Their also point to a low cost for shifting between strategies in controls and a much more significant one in children with developmental dyslexia, differentiating subgroups with distinct shifting patterns.

Beginning readers' use of ‘talking books’ software can affect their reading strategies

This paper reports on a small‐scale study that considered whether a phonic‐based ‘talking book’ could outperform one‐to‐one reading tuition with an adult with respect to improving beginning readers' phonological awareness over a short period. It also examined whether the children's reading strategies were affected by their use of the software. Two groups of children, one aged five years and one aged six years, used three phonic‐based talking books over six 15‐minute sessions and were assessed on their phonological awareness and reading strategies both before and after this intervention. Their performance was compared to that of matched comparison groups who were given one‐to‐one adult tutoring with the paper versions of the same books. There were no significant differences between the two groups in their phonological awareness attainment, with both groups showing equivalent gains from pre‐ to post‐test. Use of specific features of the software was associated with gains in rhyme detection ability and with changes in the children's reading strategies.

Reading Strategies in Children with Cerebral Visual Impairment caused by Periventricular Leukomalacia

Four children with cerebral visual impairment caused by periventricular leukomalacia were followed in an ethnographic clinical case study for two years during their process of learning to read in mainstream classes. When compared to children with ocular visual impairment, children with cerebral visual impairment often exhibit an uneven cognitive profile with visuo-spatial deficits but good verbal capacities. One main problem for children with deficits due to periventricular leukomalacia is decreased visual acuity with crowding, that is, an inability to identify symbols in a line, while single symbols of the same size may be identified. A question addressed in the study is what kind of strategies does the child with "crowding" problems develop in reading long words in print. Could Braille, as a sequential reading medium, be an alternative for the child with simultaneous visual problems? Two children were offered both Braille and print reading as reading media, one of whom preferred Braille after two years of training. The other two children read ordinary print without any special teaching. After two years, considerable differences in reading acquisition and reading strategies could be detected among the four children. No single factor seemed to account for the differences. Individual factors as well as teaching methods could be reasons for the differences.

Trying Something New: Meaning-Based Reading Instruction in a Finnish First-Grade Classroom

This study investigated children's reading strategies and progress when a meaning-based approach to reading instruction was implemented in a Finnish 1st-grade classroom. A reading program was designed in which the teacher introduced predictable books, literacy-related centers, and minilessons in context on selected letter-sound correspondences. Field notes and videotapes of individual reading sessions were analyzed to describe the strategies the students used while reading both familiar and unfamiliar books. In the fall, in a familiar context, the students read mostly based on their memory. In an unfamiliar context, the students used graphemic information and sounded out and elongated the words and named some letters. Later, they used their phonological recoding skills in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts. All the students progressed toward conventional reading, demonstrating that they had reached at least the alphabetic phase of reading development.

Beginning reading strategies in children experiencing contrasting teaching methods

Two groups of 4.5–5.5 year old children in their first year at school were examined; one taught by a whole word teaching method and one taught by a mixed whole word and phonological teaching method. The children were given a test to investigate their reading of normal words. The results of this test were subjected to a detailed error analysis and the two groups were examined in order to see if there were differences in the reading strategies they used. No evidence was found counter to the assumption that reading begins with a logographic stage. However, it was found that teaching method was having a significant impact on the reading strategies which the children adopted. In addition it was found that a number of children from the whole school appeared to exhibit letter by letter reading. This suggests that letter by letter dyslexia might in part be an extreme form of a strategy used by normal readers.

Young children's reading strategies as they read self-selected books in school

An ethnographic investigation was conducted to examine beginning readers' strategies as they read self-selected texts in the reading center of their first-grade, whole language classroom. Observations occurred from the first day of school through February, a time when most of these children emerged as conventional readers. The talk, actions, and books the children read were documented through observations and audiotaping. Patterns of reading behaviors show a general movement from a focus on pictures to a focus on print. The strategies were not developmentally linear across the 7-month period, they were recursive, as children often used more than one strategy to read one book. Several of the strategies, such as reading the text from memory, were indicative of the contextual environment, including the materials the children read as well as the instruction which emphasized oral language as the basis for learning written language.

Children's reading strategies, metacognition, and motivation

Training studies in the field of children's reading have been useful methods for both theoretical understanding of the development of skilled reading and the improvement of educational practices. The data reported here are from an instructional study designed to improve students' use of reading strategies by increasing their metacognitive knowledge about reading. Approximately 500 third-grade and 500 fifth-grade children received an experimental curriculum that explicitly taught them to use reading strategies. An additional 600 children participated as control subjects. All children were tested at the beginning and end of the school year on a broad range of reading comprehension, strategy, metacognitive, and motivational measures. The findings indicate that children in experimental classrooms made significantly greater gains in awareness about reading than control children and demonstrated superior strategic skills. Additional analyses revealed the patterns of reading strategies, motivation, and metacognition characterizing readers of different ages and abilities. The implications of these results for conceptualizing reading and for educational practice were discussed.

The interaction of strategy and context in children's oral reading performance

An experiment was designed to test the interactive reading theory prediction that children's reading strategies vary with the availability of higher-level information. Third- and fourthgrade children (aged 8 and 9 years, respectively) were assigned to one of three context conditions and one of three experimental instructions conditions. Results supported the hypothesis the children adopt different oral reading speed strategies, depending on the amount of contextual information available, in order to maximize reading accuracy and, where appropriate, ongoing comprehension. When reading meaningful materials, children adopt a fluent, top-down reading strategy that is relatively resistant to modification. Although a slower, bottom-up strategy is preferred in the reading of words in isolation, children are able to modify this strategy in accordance with experimental instructions. These results are consistent with an interactive theory of reading.

The Probing of Children's Reading Strategies

The Probing of Children's Reading Strategies

SENTENCE STRUCTURE AND LEARNING TO READ

Summary. Children's reading strategies, interpretation of sentences and awareness of structure in spoken and written forms are explored to determine how far instruction and reading materials based on linguistic principles of sentence structure might be useful in early reading. It is concluded that the difficulties of attending to a sufficient span of words, and young children's functional, rather than formal, awareness of structure make it unlikely that such instruction would be helpful for children of 5–7 years of age; that when it might be possible to attempt such an approach they can already read and interpret simple sentences; and that the interpretation of sentences rests more on a grasping of semantic content and appropriateness than on a full structural analysis.