Tracking the effects of dyslexia in reading and spelling development: A longitudinal study of Greek readers.

In this study, we followed Greek children with and without dyslexia for 18 months, assessing them twice on a battery of phonological, reading, and spelling tasks, aiming to document the relative progress achieved and to uncover any specific effects of dyslexia in the development of reading and spelling beyond the longitudinal associations among variables that are observed in typical readers. A wide-ranging match was achieved between the dyslexic group and the younger reading-matched comparison group, enabling longitudinal comparisons on essentially identical initial performance profiles. Group differences were found in the development of tasks relying on phonological processing skill, such as phoneme deletion in pseudowords, pseudoword reading accuracy and time, as well as in graphemic spelling accuracy. The results confirm findings from cross-sectional studies of reading difficulty in the relatively transparent Greek orthography and are consistent with a phonological processing deficit underlying and reciprocally interacting with underdevelopment of reading and spelling skills in the impaired population.

Evidence for semantic involvement in regular and exception word reading in emergent readers of English.

We investigated the relationship between semantic knowledge and word reading. A sample of 27 6-year-old children read words both in isolation and in context. Lexical knowledge was assessed using general and item-specific tasks. General semantic knowledge was measured using standardized tasks in which children defined words and made judgments about the relationships between words. Item-specific knowledge of to-be-read words was assessed using auditory lexical decision (lexical phonology) and definitions (semantic) tasks. Regressions and mixed-effects models indicated a close relationship between semantic knowledge (but not lexical phonology) and both regular and exception word reading. Thus, during the early stages of learning to read, semantic knowledge may support word reading irrespective of regularity. Contextual support particularly benefitted reading of exception words. We found evidence that lexical-semantic knowledge and context make separable contributions to word reading.

Constructing fictional stories: a study of story narratives by children with autistic spectrum disorder.

Children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are reported to have difficulties with narrative language but little is known about how this affects their production of fictional stories. In this study, we aimed to establish whether fictional narratives of children with ASD differed from those of typically developing children and if performance was commensurate with levels of oral language. Fictional stories produced by 27 high functioning children with ASD, aged 11-14 yrs, were compared with those of language and age matched groups of typically developing children. Differences were found between the children with ASD and comparison groups in structural, evaluative and global features of their stories indicating specific difficulties with this form of narrative. Stories of the ASD group were shorter and contained fewer causal statements than those of both comparison groups and sentences were less grammatically complex than those of the age match but not the language match group. In global measures, the stories of the ASD group were impoverished relative to both comparison groups. The results are discussed in relation to cognitive theories of autism and language development.

Event narratives in 11-14 year olds with autistic spectrum disorder.

BACKGROUND: Children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to have difficulties in narrative language and especially with use of evaluative enrichment devices. However, little is known about their production of event narratives. AIMS: To establish if children with ASD differ from typically developing peers in their production of general and specific event narratives, and, if so, how this might be affected by levels of oral language. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Performance on general and specific event narrative tasks of 27 high-functioning children with ASD, aged 11-14 years, was compared with that of language- and age-matched groups of typically developing children. Narratives were coded for structural and evaluative language measures. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: The general and specific event narratives of the ASD group differed from those of both comparison groups in structural language measures. They were shorter, contained fewer different word roots and had shorter mean length of utterances. In evaluative measures they differed from those of the typically developing age match group but not the younger language match group in the number of causal statements made in both event conditions, and in mental state references and evaluative devices in the specific event narrative condition. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Children with ASD display specific difficulties with the use of grammar and vocabulary in event narratives which cannot be explained in terms of language levels. However, the use of evaluative devices was commensurate with oral language levels. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Supporting early oral language skills for English language learners in inner city preschool provision.

BACKGROUND: A significant number of children now enter formal education in England with reduced levels of proficiency in oral language. Children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and who are English language learners (ELL) are at risk of limited oral language skills in English which impacts on later educational achievement. AIMS: This paper reports the development of a theoretically motivated oral language intervention, Talking Time, designed to meet the needs of preschool children with poor language skills in typical preschool provision. SAMPLE: One hundred and forty-two 4-year-old children attending three inner city preschools in a disadvantaged area of London, England. METHOD: This is a quasi-experimental intervention study comparing children exposed to Talking Time with children exposed to a contrast intervention and children receiving the statutory early years curriculum. Measures were taken of both targeted and non-targeted language and cognitive skills. RESULTS: Data were analysed for the ELL. The intervention had a significant effect on vocabulary, oral comprehension, and sentence repetition but not narrative skills. As predicted, there were no effects on the skills which were not targeted. CONCLUSIONS: Regular evidence-based oral language interactions can make significant improvements in children's oral language. There is a need to examine the efficacy of more intensive interventions to raise language skills to allow learners to access the curriculum.

Children's printed word database: continuities and changes over time in children's early reading vocabulary.

In this paper we introduce a comprehensive database of the vocabulary in reading materials used by 5 - 9 year old children in the UK. The database is available on-line http://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/cpwd and allows researchers into early reading development the possibility of rigorous control over critical characteristics of experimental stimuli such as word frequency, regularity and length, frequency of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, orthographic and phonological neighbourhoods etc. The on-line database is also a resource that can be used by practitioners with interests in literacy development and literacy instruction. It can be used to obtain characteristics for a user-generated list of words, or else to generate a list of words according to constraints specified by the user. Here we present an overview of the construction of the database, the materials entered into it, the survey of schools by which we obtained information about the books that were most likely to be used by children in each age group, and the search features available on the database website. We also discuss certain characteristics of the Vocabulary itself and compare these with those reported in an earlier non-representative database reported in Stuart, Dixon, Masterson and Gray (2003). We then present a detailed analysis of the characteristics of Vocabulary in books used in the Reception year, against the background of recent recommendations for change in the early teaching of reading. Finally, we present data showing that the database is indeed already proving a useful resource for both practitioners and researchers.

An experimental comparison between rival theories of rapid automatized naming performance and its relationship to reading.

Two studies investigated the degree to which the relationship between rapid automatized naming (RAN) performance and reading development is driven by shared phonological processes. Study 1 assessed RAN, phonological awareness, and reading performance in 1010 7- to 10-year-olds. Results showed that RAN deficits occurred in the absence of phonological awareness deficits. These were accompanied by modest reading delays. In structural equation modeling, solutions where RAN was subsumed within a phonological processing factor did not provide a good fit to the data, suggesting that processes outside phonology may drive RAN performance and its association with reading. Study 2 investigated Kail's proposal that speed of processing underlies this relationship. Children with single RAN deficits showed slower speed of processing than did closely matched controls performing normally on RAN. However, regression analysis revealed that RAN made a unique contribution to reading even after accounting for processing speed. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Getting ready for reading: a follow-up study of inner city second language learners at the end of Key Stage 1.

BACKGROUND: A previous study (Stuart, 1999) showed that early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching improved reading and spelling ability in inner-city schoolchildren in Key Stage 1, most of whom were learning English as a second language. AIMS: The present study, a follow-up of these children at the end of Key Stage 1, addresses four main questions: (1) Are these improvements maintained to the end of Key Stage 1? (2) Are different patterns of cognitive process evident in the word recognition skills of phonics trained versus untrained children? (3) Do the phonics trained children now also show a significant advantage in reading comprehension? (4) Are there differences in amount of reading, in self-concept as readers and in oral vocabulary development between phonics trained and untrained children? Relationships between reading and spelling ages and Key Stage 1 SATs levels are also explored. SAMPLE: Data are reported from 101 seven-year-olds (85 of whom were second language learners) remaining from the original 112 children reported on previously. METHOD: Children were tested on four standardized tests of reading, spelling and vocabulary, and on a further six experimental tests of phoneme segmentation, grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge, regular, exception and nonword reading, author recognition and reading self-concept. RESULTS: Lasting influences of early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching on phoneme awareness, grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge, word reading and spelling were found. Part of the previously untrained group had now received structured phonics teaching, and were therefore treated as a third (late trained) group. Early and late-trained groups showed similar levels of attainment and similar cognitive processing patterns, which were different from the untrained group. However, there were no influences of training on reading comprehension, self-concept or oral vocabulary. CONCLUSIONS: Early phoneme awareness and phonics training efficiently accelerates the word recognition and spelling skills of first and second language learners alike. However, this is not sufficient to bootstrap the development of language comprehension in the second language learners. Further research is needed into the kinds of language teaching that will best develop their oral and written language comprehension.

Measurement mischief: a critique of Reynolds, Nicolson and Hambly (2003).

Reynolds, Nicolson and Hambly (2003) report an intervention study of the effects of exercise-based training on literacy development, using literacy measures from the Dyslexia Screening Test (DST), the NFER-Nelson Group Reading Test, and the Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs). Investigation of the nature and psychometric characteristics of these measures casts serious doubt on their appropriateness in a study of this nature. Consideration of the findings obtained using these measures does not support the authors' conclusion that reading was improved by the intervention. The study by Reynolds et al. does not demonstrate that exercise-based treatment improves literacy skills and the use of its purported findings as evidence that exercise-based treatment would be beneficial for children with literacy difficulties is scientifically untenable.

Children's early reading vocabulary: description and word frequency lists.

BACKGROUND: When constructing stimuli for experimental investigations of cognitive processes in early reading development, researchers have to rely on adult or American children's word frequency counts, as no such counts exist for English children. AIM: The present paper introduces a database of children's early reading vocabulary, for use by researchers and teachers. SAMPLE: Texts from 685 books from reading schemes and story books read by 5-7 year-old children were used in the construction of the database. METHOD: All words from the 685 books were typed or scanned into an Oracle database. RESULTS: The resulting up-to-date word frequency list of early print exposure in the UK is available in two forms from a website address given in this paper. This allows access to one list of the words ordered alphabetically and one list of the words ordered by frequency. We also briefly address some fundamental issues underlying early reading vocabulary (e.g., that it is heavily skewed towards low frequencies). Other characteristics of the vocabulary are then discussed. CONCLUSIONS: We hope the word frequency lists will be of use to researchers seeking to control word frequency, and to teachers interested in the vocabulary to which young children are exposed in their reading material.