Early predictors of reading success in first grade.

Reading acquisition is a complex process that can be predicted by several components which, in turn, can be affected by the orthography depth. This study aims to explore the early predictors of (un)success in reading acquisition within an intermediate transparent orthography. At the beginning of the school year, 119 European Portuguese-speaking first graders were assessed regarding (i) sociodemographic variables: mothers' education and socioeconomic status (SES); (ii) cognitive variables: phonological working memory and vocabulary; (iii) reading-related variables: letter-sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and rapid naming. Results of the three variable clusters were correlated with the final classification obtained in the Portuguese discipline. Specifically, there was a correlation between the Portuguese discipline classification with all reading and cognitive-related variables, with the highest correlations occurring with mother education and letter spelling. A regression analysis was conducted to assess the predictor impact of mother education and letter spelling (variables that correlated stronger with the Portuguese classification) on Portuguese classifications. Letter spelling was the sole significant predictor of the Portuguese classification. Based on these results, a path analysis was run to test whether letter spelling is a mediator of the relationship between the mother's education and the Portuguese classification. The results of the model test yielded a reasonable fit, indicating a relationship between the mother's education and letter spelling, which in turn, relates to the Portuguese classification. The identification of reading predictors in an intermediate-depth orthography such as European Portuguese contributes to more accurate identification of at-risk children.

Reading Fluency of Higher Education Students / Fluência Leitora de Estudantes do Ensino Superior / Fluidez Lectora de Estudiantes de Educación Superior

Abstract The literature that links career development with reading skills is scarce. This study seeks to fill this gap, for which the reading fluency of college students was analyzed, taking into account the choice of more/less desirable courses. Desirability is based on the classifications for college access. 211 students participated in the study, 132 female, attending four courses: Mechanical Engineering, Health, Psychology, and Education, in three Portuguese Public Universities. The instruments used were the sociodemographic form and the Teste de Idade de Leitura (Reading Age Test - TIL). The results indicated that students attending less desirable courses (i.e., Education and Health) are significantly less fluent and; students who score lower on reading fluency are more likely to belong to the Education course. This study stresses the importance of the distribution of students by the different areas of studies should not reflect reading fluency asymmetries.

Resumo A literatura que articula o desenvolvimento de carreira com a leitura é escassa. Este estudo teve como objetivo analisar a fluência leitora de estudantes universitários, considerando a escolha de cursos mais/menos desejados. A desejabilidade tem por base as classificações de acesso ao Ensino Superior. Participaram 211 estudantes, 132 de sexo feminino, a frequentar quatro cursos: Engenharia Mecânica, Saúde, Psicologia e Educação, em três instituições públicas de ensino superior portuguesas. Os instrumentos utilizados foram ficha sociodemográfica e Teste da Idade de Leitura- TIL. Os resultados indicaram que estudantes de cursos menos desejados (i.e., Educação e Saúde) são significativamente menos fluentes e; estudantes com menor fluência leitora são mais prováveis de pertencerem à Educação. Este estudo destaca a importância da distribuição pelas diferentes áreas de estudo não ser um espelho de assimetrias ao nível de competências leitoras.

Resumen La literatura que vincula desarrollo profesional con habilidades lectoras es escasa. Este estudio busca llenar este vacío, analizando la fluidez lectora de estudiantes universitarios en cursos más/menos deseables. La deseabilidad de los cursos se basa en las clasificaciones de acceso a la Universidad. Participaron 211 estudiantes, 132 mujeres, de cuatro cursos: Ingeniería Mecánica, Salud, Psicología y Educación, en tres universidades públicas portuguesas. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron la ficha sociodemográfica y el Test de Edad Lectora - TIL. Los resultados indican que los estudiantes de cursos menos deseables (Educación y Salud) son significativamente menos fluentes y; estudiantes con puntuación más baja en fluidez tienen más probabilidades de pertenecer al curso de Educación. Este estudio destaca la importancia de que la distribución por las diferentes áreas de estudio en la universidad no sea un espejo de asimetrías en el nivel de habilidades lectoras.

Promoting Foundation Reading Skills With At-Risk Students.

This paper presents an early reading intervention program, the PPCL (Programa de Promoção das Competências Leitoras-Promoting Reading Skills Program). PPCL focuses on the promotion of reading foundation abilities-letter-sound, phonemic awareness, decoding, and spelling-with at-risk first graders. This study assessed the impact of PPCL on the reading foundation abilities with 311 first graders (173 boys and 138 girls), divided between intervention and comparative group (respectively, 206 and 105 first graders). Results were analyzed with an inter- (intervention and comparative group) and intra- (pre-and post-test) group design. A mixed two-way Manova indicated the presence of statistically significant differences between the two assessment moments, with the intervention group presenting higher values than the comparative group in all abilities at the post-test and also above the cutoff score in all variables, which indicates that at-risk students eventually concluded the school year with satisfactory levels of reading skills. On the other hand, the comparative group scored below the cutoff score in all variables. The magnitude of the effect on the intervention group was higher than the one observed in the comparative group. Reading promotion with PPCL significantly improved at-risk students reading skills. In future studies, the authors intend to follow up on reading and writing participants' skills.

Is Redshirting Beneficial for Reading Acquisition Success?

The controversy around the effect of academic redshirting on reading acquisition continues receiving attention in the international literature. However, few studies are known with non-English speaking children. In this study we intend to understand this phenomenon with 698 Portuguese speaking first graders, 360 girls (51.6%), aged between 5 years old and 8 months and 7 years old and 6 months (M = 6.3 months, SD = 3.9 months). Reading acquisition precursors were assessed namely phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge. Results reveal that 5.9% of first graders are redshirted. Clusters analysis indicated two clusters per variable. Cluster 1 with low phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge and low socioeconomic status, cluster 2 with high phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge and medium-high socioeconomic status. The cluster results suggest a prevalence of 24.5% children at risk of having learning difficulties. The MANOVA indicated that only socioeconomic status has an effect on phonemic awareness and letter-sound knowledge, with children from medium-high level presenting higher results. It is concluded that redshirting did not bring additional advantages for reading acquisition success. Implications about the importance of education in order to lessen those differences, as well as prevent difficulties are presented.

The 1-min Screening Test for Reading Problems in College Students: Psychometric Properties of the 1-min TIL.

Reading is a central cognitive domain, but little research has been devoted to standardized tests for adults. We, thus, examined the psychometric properties of the 1-min version of Teste de Idade de Leitura (Reading Age Test; 1-min TIL), the Portuguese version of Lobrot L3 test, in three experiments with college students: typical readers in Experiment 1A and B, dyslexic readers and chronological age controls in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1A, test-retest reliability and convergent validity were evaluated in 185 students. Reliability was >.70, and phonological decoding underpinned 1-min TIL. In Experiment 1B, internal consistency was assessed by presenting two 45-s versions of the test to 19 students, and performance in these versions was significantly associated (r = .78). In Experiment 2, construct validity, criterion validity and clinical utility of 1-min TIL were investigated. A multiple regression analysis corroborated construct validity; both phonological decoding and listening comprehension were reliable predictors of 1-min TIL scores. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics analyses revealed the high accuracy of this test in distinguishing dyslexic from typical readers. Therefore, the 1-min TIL, which assesses reading comprehension and potential reading difficulties in college students, has the necessary psychometric properties to become a useful screening instrument in neuropsychological assessment and research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reading Test-Sentence Comprehension: An Adapted Version of Lobrot's Lecture 3 Test for Brazilian Portuguese.

Our aim was to analyse the linguistic structure of the Lobrot's Lecture 3 (L3) reading test and to describe the procedure for its adaptation to a Brazilian cultural-linguistic context. The resulting adapted version is called the Reading Test-Sentence Comprehension [Teste de Leitura: Compreensão de Sentenças (TELCS)] and was developed using the European Portuguese adaptation of L3 as a reference. The present study was conducted in seven steps: (1) classification of the response alternatives of L3 test; (2) adaptation of the original sentences into Brazilian Portuguese; (3) back-translation; (4) adaptation of the distractors from TELCS; (5) configuration of TELCS; (6) pilot study; and (7) validation and standardization. In comparison with L3, TELCS included new linguistic and structural variables, such as frequency of occurrence of the distractors, gender neutrality and position of the target words. The instrument can be used for a collective screening or individual clinical administration purposes to evaluate the reading ability of second-to-fifth-grade and 7-to-11-year-old students.

Phonological development in relation to native language and literacy: variations on a theme in six alphabetic orthographies.

Phonological development was assessed in six alphabetic orthographies (English, French, Greek, Icelandic, Portuguese and Spanish) at the beginning and end of the first year of reading instruction. The aim was to explore contrasting theoretical views regarding: the question of the availability of phonology at the outset of learning to read (Study 1); the influence of orthographic depth on the pace of phonological development during the transition to literacy (Study 2); and the impact of literacy instruction (Study 3). Results from 242 children did not reveal a consistent sequence of development as performance varied according to task demands and language. Phonics instruction appeared more influential than orthographic depth in the emergence of an early meta-phonological capacity to manipulate phonemes, and preliminary indications were that cross-linguistic variation was associated with speech rhythm more than factors such as syllable complexity. The implications of the outcome for current models of phonological development are discussed.