Word Reading Accuracy Research Articles

The development of a measure of orthographic knowledge in the Arabic language: A psychometric evaluation

AbstractAlthough Arabic is an official language in 27 countries, standardized measures to assess Arabic literacy are scarce. The purpose of this research was to examine the item functioning of an assessment of Arabic orthographic knowledge. Sixty novel items were piloted with 201 third grade Arabic-speaking students. Participants were asked to identify the correctly spelled word from a pair of two words. Although the assessment was designed to be unidimensional, competing models were tested to determine whether item performance was attributable to multidimensionality. No multidimensional structure fit the data significantly better than the unidimensional model. The 60 original items were evaluated through item fit statistics and comparing performance against theoretical expectations. Twenty-eight items were identified as functioning poorly and were iteratively removed from the scale, resulting in a 32-item set. A value of 0.987 was obtained for McDonald’s coefficient ω from this final scale. Participants’ scores on the measure correlated with an external word reading accuracy measure at 0.79 (p < .001), suggesting that the tool may measure skills important to word reading in Arabic. The task is simple to score and can discriminate among children with below-average orthographic knowledge. This work provides a foundation to develop Arabic literacy assessments.

Exploring sources of poor reading comprehension in English language learners.

This study examined the sources of reading comprehension difficulties in English language learners (ELLs). The characteristics of ELL poor comprehenders were compared to their English as a first language (EL1) peers. Participants included 124 ELLs who spoke Chinese as an L1 and 79 EL1 students. Using a regression technique based on age, non-verbal reasoning, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency, three types of comprehenders (poor, average, and good) were identified within each language group. The groups were then compared on measures of oral language skills (vocabulary breadth, vocabulary depth, and listening comprehension), metalinguistic skills (morphological awareness and syntactic awareness), working memory, and higher-level processing skills (inference, conjunction use, and comprehension monitoring). ELL poor comprehenders had significantly lower scores than ELL average and good comprehenders on vocabulary breadth, listening comprehension, and morphological awareness, whereas there were no significant differences between the average and good comprehender groups on these skills. Additionally, both ELL poor and average comprehenders had lower scores than ELL good comprehenders on all three higher-level skills. Finally, results showed that ELL poor comprehenders scored lower than EL1 poor comprehenders on vocabulary breadth, listening comprehension, and morphological awareness, but the two groups did not differ on higher-level skills. Theoretical and educational implications for the identification and instruction of ELL poor comprehenders are discussed.

Language/cognitive predictors of literacy skills in 12-year-old children on the autism spectrum

Aim Some school age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) struggle with literacy development, yet, the individual differences are major and not well understood. Moreover, literacy attainment is multi-faceted and literacy skills and difficulties manifest in more than one way. The aim of this study was to describe this variability and to identify language/cognitive predictors of different literacy skills. Methods We assessed different literacy skills (word reading accuracy, reading fluency, reading comprehension, and spelling), along with a set of language/cognitive predictor skills (listening comprehension, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness and nonverbal cognitive ability), in 12-year-old children with ASD without intellectual disability recruited from a longitudinal study in Sweden. Results There was great heterogeneity (from floor to ceiling levels) in literacy skills, with a statistically increased prevalence of poor reading comprehension and reading fluency compared with population norms. In regression analyses, it was shown that concurrent language/cognitive predictor skills (e.g. phonological awareness) were differentially associated with literacy subskills. Moreover, a longitudinal analysis showed that preschool language problems were associated with poor word reading accuracy and spelling in middle school. Conclusions The results confirm previous findings as well as provide new knowledge regarding profiles of literacy (difficulties) in children with ASD; interestingly, the identified predictors of literacy skills in ASD resembled those identified as important in general reading (and dyslexia) research, which might indicate that similar kinds of support and training would be beneficial.

The Role of Reading Anxiety among Struggling Readers in Fourth and Fifth Grade

Cognitive predictors of reading are well known, but less is understood about the roles of “noncognitive” factors, including emotional variables such as anxiety. While math anxiety has been a focus of study, its analogue in the reading literature is understudied. We assessed struggling fourth and fifth graders (n = 272) on reading anxiety in the context of general anxiety, cognitive predictors (working memory, verbal knowledge), and demographics. Regressions tested for unique contributions to three reading outcomes: word reading accuracy, oral reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Reading anxiety and general anxiety correlated moderately (r = .63) but were differentially related to reading. Reading anxiety predicted comprehension when all other predictors were considered, and predicted oral reading fluency until word reading accuracy was added to the model. Results offer a more nuanced understanding of the nature of reading anxiety, and its implications for struggling readers.

Investigating the Test of Premorbid Functioning (TOPF) in predicting Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence – Second edition (WASI-II) scores in an Australian sample

ABSTRACT Accurate prediction of premorbid functioning is important in neuropsychological assessment. We aimed to investigate the predictive accuracy of the TOPF and examine this word list at an item level against WASI-II scores, using Australian pronunciations. The sample of 219 healthy Australians were aged 18–82 years. Multiple regression analyses were used to replicate the TOPF and simple demographic models based on the US TOPF standardization. Rasch analyses provided a comparison of Australian, US and UK word order from the proportion of words pronounced correctly. The variance explained in WASI-II index scores ranged from R2=.12 (PRI) to .33 (FSIQ-2), which was approximately half that reported in the US standardization study. The accuracy of predicted WASI-II scores was also slightly less in our sample. Thirty-two words were out of place by five places or more compared with the US word order and 30 compared with the UK. These results add to concerns about the application the TOPF with norms developed in the US and UK in the Australian context. Clinicians are advised not to apply the five error discontinue rule when using the TOPF in the local context. Development of a more accurate word reading task for use in Australia is warranted.

Sustained Attention and Behavioral Ratings of Attention in Struggling Readers

ABSTRACT Attention is correlated with reading, but the extent to which behavioral ratings and sustained attention relate to reading skills is unclear. We assessed 245 fourth and fifth grade struggling readers (mean age = 10.3 years) on behavioral ratings of attention, sustained attention, and reading over a school year. Contributions of behavioral ratings and sustained attention were considered cross-sectionally and longitudinally in the context of other important predictors of reading. Results suggest that sustained measures and behavioral ratings assess distinct, yet overlapping, aspects of attention. Both types of attention accounted for unique variance in comprehension, but not word reading accuracy or fluency, when evaluated cross-sectionally. Results also support the role of behavioral ratings of attention in fluency and in comprehension growth. Findings suggest that multidimensional assessment of attention is useful when considering its relation to reading, and highlight the need to integrate conceptualizations of attention that arise from different theoretical approaches.

Validity Evidence of the Reading Screening Test for Portuguese First Graders

This study aims to present validity evidence for the Reading Screening Test (TRL-Teste de Rastreio de Leitura) that assesses word and pseudoword reading. Participants were 94 Portuguese first graders (49 girls and 45 boys), assessed with the TRL and criterion measures – ALEPE subscales to assess words, pseudowords reading and Rapid Automatized Naming. Results from confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a two-factor measurement model yielded a good fit to the data. Favorable estimates of internal consistency reliability were obtained. Correlation coefficient results suggested that the measure was positively and statistically associated with another measure of reading assessment. These results revealed adequate evidence based on internal structure and evidence based on the relationship to other variables for the assessment of word reading accuracy among Portuguese first graders.

Individual differences in narrative production in late childhood: Associations with age and fiction reading experience

Narrative production draws upon linguistic, cognitive and pragmatic skills, and is subject to substantial individual differences. This study aimed to characterise the development of narrative production in late childhood and to assess whether children’s cumulative experience of reading fiction is associated with individual differences in narrative language skills. One-hundred-and-twenty-five 9- to 12-year-old children told a story from a wordless picture book, and their narratives were coded for syntactic, semantic and discourse-pragmatic features. The grammatical complexity and propositional content of children’s narratives increased with age between 9 and 12 years, while narrative cohesion, coherence and use of mental state terms were stable across the age range. Measures of fiction reading experience were positively correlated with several indices of narrative production quality and predicted unique variance in narrative macrostructure after controlling for individual differences in vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy and theory of mind. These findings are discussed in terms of the continued importance of ‘book language’ as part of the language input beyond early childhood.

RAN training in dyslexia: Behavioral and brain correlates

Currently, no study has demonstrated the efficacy of RAN training with both behavioral and brain-imaging evidence. Besides, the brain basis of RAN and its contribution to reading processes are still not well understood. This study aimed to address these gaps with a RAN-objects intervention, administered to children with dyslexia, and assessed by behavioral and brain measures. Trained children (n = 18) were compared to untrained normal-reading children (n = 13) on RAN, reading, and diffusion MRI measures, before and after the intervention. Results showed significant improvements in the trained children in RAN performance and in word reading accuracy. Importantly, gains in RAN observed in the dyslexic group were correlated with increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left anterior segment of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), which is primarily known to be involved in articulation and in speech fluency. Our findings open up new perspectives for remediation of dyslexia, and suggest that RAN essentially recruits a brain pathway involved in oral language production and reading.

An Early Reading Assessment Battery for Multilingual Learners in Malaysia.

The aim of the study was to develop a new comprehensive reading assessment battery for multi-ethnic and multilingual learners in Malaysia. Using this assessment battery, we examined the reliability, validity, and dimensionality of the factors associated with reading difficulties/disabilities in the Malay language, a highly transparent alphabetic orthography. In order to further evaluate the reading assessment battery, we compared results from the assessment battery with those obtained from the Malaysian national screening instrument. In the study, 866 Grade 1 children from multi-ethnic and multilingual backgrounds from 11 government primary schools participated. The reading assessment battery comprised 13 assessments, namely, reading comprehension, spelling, listening comprehension, letter name knowledge, letter name fluency, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, oral reading fluency, expressive vocabulary, receptive vocabulary, elision, and phonological memory. High reliability and validity were found for the assessments. An exploratory factor analysis yielded three main constructs: phonological-decoding, sublexical-fluency, and vocabulary-memory. Phonological-decoding was found to be the most reliable construct that distinguished between at-risk and non-at-risk children. Identifying these underlying factors will be useful for detecting children at-risk for developing reading difficulties in the Malay language. In addition, these results highlight the importance of including a range of reading and reading-related measures for the early diagnosis of reading difficulties in this highly transparent orthography.

The Effect of Facilitative Versus Inhibitory Word Training Corpora on Word Reading Accuracy Growth in Children With Dyslexia

We modeled word reading growth in typically developing ( n = 118) and children with dyslexia ( n = 20), Grades 2–5, across multiple exposures to 30 words. We explored the facilitative versus inhibitory effects of exposures to differential mixes of words that support high- versus low-frequency vowel pronunciations. One training corpus contained a ratio of 80%–20% high- to low-frequency pronunciations (e.g., for ea; 80% ea pronounced as /i/ as in bead and 20% ea pronounced /ε/ as in dead), whereas the other consisted of a ratio of 20%–80%. We also modeled accuracy at the final exposure for a subset of 12 shared words across conditions using item-level crossed-random effects models with reading skill (i.e., typically developing vs. dyslexic), condition, word frequency, and vowel pronunciation (i.e., high- vs. low-frequency vowel pronunciation) as predictors in the model. We were particularly interested in the interaction between condition and vowel pronunciation across reading groups. Results suggest typically developing children were influenced by the interaction between condition and vowel pronunciation, suggesting both facilitation and inhibition, whereas children with dyslexia were influenced by condition and vowel pronunciation without an interaction. Results are interpreted within the overfitting model of dyslexia.

Cognitive predictors of arithmetic, reading, and spelling in Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children

We examined the contribution of a major predictor of basic literacy ability—phoneme awareness—to individual differences in two arithmetic computation tasks: a speeded task consisting of simple computation problems (arithmetic fluency) and an untimed, more complex computation task involving multi-digit operands (numerical operations). The contribution of phoneme awareness to word-reading fluency, untimed word-reading accuracy, and untimed spelling accuracy also was evaluated. Participants were 134 Brazilian Portuguese-speaking 4th and 5th grade students aged 8.67 to 11.75 years (M = 10.13 years; SD = 0.58). Individual differences in phoneme awareness accounted for significant and unique variance in performance on the arithmetic fluency task even after taking into account individual differences in grade in school, verbal ability, nonverbal ability, rapid naming, and verbal working memory. In contrast, phoneme awareness did not contribute uniquely to variance in performance on the more complex, untimed numerical operations task. In keeping with De Smedt’s (2018) argument regarding the role of phoneme awareness in arithmetic ability, our findings suggest that the contribution of phoneme awareness is primarily restricted to the ability to solve very simple arithmetic problems for which the solution is likely to be retrieved directly and automatically from long-term memory. As expected, phoneme awareness and rapid naming were the two strongest predictors of individual differences in all literacy measures.

Cognitive Correlates of Reading Fluency in Chinese School-Aged Children.

Previous studies have showed that reading fluency is strongly associated with cognitive skills, including rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, orthographical awareness, and so on. However, these studies are largely based on alphabetic languages, and it remains unclear which cognitive factors contribute to the development of reading fluency in logographic Chinese, a language in which the graphic forms map onto morphemes (meaning) rather than phonemes. In Study 1, we tested 179 Chinese children aged 6 to 9 on a set of cognitive tasks as well as for word reading accuracy and sentence reading fluency. The results showed that rapid naming, writing fluency, and phonological awareness significantly predicted reading fluency in both beginning and intermediate readers. In addition, while the contribution of rapid naming and writing fluency increased with grades, the effect of phonological awareness decreased. In Study 2, we examined the role of visual crowding in reading fluency in a subgroup of 86 children and found that visual crowding accounted for the unique variance of individual differences in reading fluency. The findings reflect both universal and language-specific cognitive correlates of reading fluency and provide important implications for potentially effective treatment for individuals suffering from Chinese reading disabilities, particularly in terms of reading fluency.

Adults with dyslexia: how can they achieve academic success despite impairments in basic reading and writing abilities? The role of text structure sensitivity as a compensatory skill

The aim of this study was to investigate (1) whether a sample of highly educated individuals with dyslexia living under optimal personal, educational, cultural, and socioeconomic conditions continues to display core deficits in reading and writing skills during adulthood (extending prior results in Dutch, English, Hebrew, and Spanish to the Portuguese writing system); (2) whether these individuals can compensate for the effects of persistent core deficits when reading complex academic texts; (3) which cognitive resources, such as reading strategies, are used as compensatory mechanisms; and (4) whether quality of life is affected in these individuals. These questions were examined in a sample of 28 adults with dyslexia (DG) and 28 control participants (CG) paired by sex, age, education, and occupation, with a mean of 15years of formal education. Participants completed measures of phonological awareness; decoding of syllables, words, and pseudowords; writing; reading comprehension (inferential and literal questions, recall, and sensitivity to the rhetorical structure of the target text); and quality of life. Results showed that (1) core deficits associated with dyslexia persisted into adulthood: participants with dyslexia performed worse than control subjects at all levels of phonological awareness, reading (except word reading accuracy), and spelling; (2) the groups did not differ on any measures of reading comprehension, suggesting a compensation of core deficits; (3) three compensatory mechanisms were identified: slower reading, use of text structure, and verbal ability; (4) participants with dyslexia required more family support and professional help throughout their educational careers, and had more depressive symptoms than control subjects.

The Overlap of Poor Reading Comprehension in English and French

This study examined overlap and correlates of poor reading comprehension in English and French for children in early French immersion. Poor comprehenders were identified in grade 3 in English and French using a regression method to predict reading comprehension scores from age, non-verbal reasoning, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency. Three groups of poor comprehenders were identified: 10 poor comprehenders in English and French, 11 poor comprehenders in English, and 10 poor comprehenders in French, and compared to 10 controls with good reading comprehension in both English and French. There was a moderate degree of overlap in comprehension difficulties in English and French among poor comprehenders with equivalent amounts of exposure to French, with a prevalence rate of 41.7% in our sample. Children who were poor comprehenders in both English and French consistently scored the lowest on English vocabulary in grade 1 and grade 3 and in French vocabulary in grade 3 suggesting that poor comprehenders’ vocabulary weaknesses in English as a primary language may contribute to comprehension difficulties in English and French.

Reading and Oral Vocabulary Development in Early Adolescence

ABSTRACT International assessments show that 20% of adolescents cannot read simple texts with understanding. Despite this, research has focused on early reading in childhood and skilled reading in adulthood, neglecting reading development during adolescence. We report a longitudinal study assessing reading and vocabulary development at 12, 13 and 14 years in a sample of 210 adolescents who were unselected for ability. Word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary were assessed using standardized assessments. Latent variable models showed consistent rank order amongst individuals (high stability), significant progress over time, and evidence that achievement gaps between the least and most able adolescents were narrowing. Oral vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension were best conceptualized as indices of a common language construct. Low levels of reading proficiency were also observed in a substantial proportion of this sample, underlining the importance of providing ongoing reading and language support during adolescence.

Bigraph-syllable blending therapy in deep dyslexia

ABSTRACT Background: The evidence-base of therapy studies for reading difficulties is notably sparse, particularly for individuals with deep dyslexia. Research using grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence approaches to remediate the non-lexical reading route in deep dyslexia have been reported but with limited therapy success. The approach of bigraph-syllable blending training has met with some success enabling individuals with deep dyslexia to read single words containing these bigraphs. Aims: This study compares the effects of the bigraph-syllable pairing training method on oral reading for mid-high and low-frequency bigraphs in training and generalization items in an individual with deep dyslexia (DT). To inform the clinical practice, we also analysed DT’s ability to engage with the therapy cues (i.e. ability to process, generate and utilize the cues) to determine the most responsive component of the cueing hierarchy. Methods & Procedures: Detailed assessment indicated that DT showed deep dyslexia with severe difficulties reading non-words, alongside imageability effects and production of semantic errors. A single-subject multiple probe across behaviour design was employed to evaluate the efficacy of bigraph-syllable pairing therapy for training and generalization of bigraph sets containing mid-high and low-frequency bigraphs. DT’s engagement with the therapy cues were tracked across each of the therapy sessions. Generalisation effects were evaluated by measuring performance on untrained bigraph stimuli and change in performance from pre- to post-therapy on single word reading subtests. Outcomes & Results: Results reveal that post-therapy DT showed improvement in reading aloud for both mid-high and low frequency trained bigraphs, albeit to a different degree. Mid-high frequency bigraphs showed greater therapy effects than the low-frequency bigraphs. DT demonstrated that writing and copying were the most beneficial cues in supporting DT’s oral reading of bigraphs. He did not show any generalization to untrained bigraphs, but illustrated a reduction in imageability effects with improved reading accuracy for low-imageability single words, and improved ability to name letters. Post-therapy, he showed a significant reduction in omission errors and a significant increase in unclassifiable errors in reading aloud. Conclusions & Implications: This study demonstrated the efficacy of bigraph-syllable pairing training for improving oral reading abilities and reducing the imageability effects in an individual with deep dyslexia. The findings from client’s responsiveness with different cues during the therapy showed that writing and coping is a useful strategy for improving reading aloud abilities.

Technology-Based Tools for English Literacy Intervention: Examining Intervention Grain Size and Individual Differences.

Technology plays an increasingly important role in educational practice, including interventions for struggling learners (Torgesen et al., 2010; de Souza et al., 2018). This study focuses on the efficacy of tablet-based applications (see Word Reading, Grapholearn, and an experimental word-level program) for the purpose of supplementing early English literacy intervention with primary grades 1 and 2 children. The children were identified for learning support programs within Singaporean schools, which follow a bilingual policy, meaning children were learning reading in English plus an additional language. One hundred forty-seven children across seven schools participated (Mean age = 6.66). Within learning support classrooms, triplets of students matched on basic reading skills were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) phoneme-level, (2) rime-level, or (3) word-level focused interventions. All groups performed reading skills activities on iPads, across two phases over a 14-week period. Assessments for word reading accuracy and fluency, pseudoword decoding accuracy and fluency, and spelling were administered at four time points, pre- and post-intervention. Additional baseline measures were taken to assess individual differences in phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, general cognitive ability, statistical learning, and bilingual vocabulary knowledge. Mixed model analysis was conducted on the pre- to post-test measures across the two phases of the intervention (focused on accuracy then fluency). All groups made gains across the different literacy measures, while the phoneme-level intervention showed an advantage over the rime-level intervention, but not the word-level intervention, for decoding. There were also moderating effects of individual differences on outcomes. The general pattern of results showed an advantage of the word-level intervention for those with poorer phonological awareness for reading fluency; and a phoneme-level intervention advantage for those with poorer statistical learning ability. Children’s bilingual group (English plus Mandarin, English plus Malay, or English plus Tamil) also showed differential effects of the type of intervention (e.g., phoneme- or word-level) on different outcome measures. These results, along with data collected from the tablets during the intervention, suggest the need to examine the interplay between different types of technology-based interventions and individual differences in learning profiles.

Modelling the relationship of accurate and fluent word recognition in primary school

This study investigated whether word-reading speed starts increasing only after German fourth graders (n = 826) have reached a basic level of word-reading accuracy. Moreover, we examined for 170 readers with lower reading abilities (below percentile rank 50 in both word reading and reading comprehension) in an experimental pre-post control-group design whether a word-reading intervention has differential effects depending on the level of accuracy a child has reached before the intervention. The results based on the full sample suggest that a specific level of word-reading accuracy seems to be required before word-reading speed starts improving. Further analyses with the trained readers showed positive treatment effects on word-reading accuracy for readers below the accuracy level, on word-reading speed regardless of their accuracy and on reading comprehension for readers above the accuracy level. The results suggest that a sufficient level of word-reading accuracy is an important precondition for the development of fluent reading as well as the effectiveness of reading interventions at the word level in German fourth graders.

Growth, stability and predictors of word reading accuracy in European Portuguese: A longitudinal study from Grade 1 to Grade 4

This study investigated the trajectories of word reading performance in European Portuguese from Grade 1 to Grade 4. First, we examined the developmental trajectories of students’ word reading performance; second, we tested the influence of students’ demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status on their word reading performance growth, as well as the existence of differences in the trajectories of typical readers and at-risk readers; and third, we analyzed the stability of word reading performance. A word reading test was administered to 269 Portuguese students at the end of each grade. The results suggested a cubic trend in word reading performance growth. Differences in word reading as a function of gender, school social action (SSA) coverage, maternal education and risk of reading failure were identified. A low stability of word reading performance across elementary school grades is also suggested. Implications for research on word reading skills and educational practices are discussed.