Performance in Sound-Symbol Learning Predicts Reading Performance 3 Years Later.

To master the task of reading, children need to acquire a coding system representing speech as a sequence of visual symbols. Recent research suggested that performance in the processing of artificial script that relies on the association of sound and symbol may be associated with reading skill. The current longitudinal study examined the predictive value of a preschool sound-symbol paradigm (SSP) of reading performance 3 years later. The Morse-like SSP, IQ, and letter knowledge (LK) was assessed in young preschool children. Reading outcome measures were examined 3 years later. Word reading, pseudoword reading, and reading comprehension were predicted with age, IQ, LK, and SSP. The results showed that SSP substantially predicted reading fluency and reading comprehension 3 years later. For reading fluency measures, the influence of further predictor variables was not significant and SSP served as a sole predictor. Reading comprehension was best explained by SSP and age. The amount of variance SSP explained in reading 3 years later was remarkably high, with an explained variance between 63 and 82%, depending on the outcome reading variable. SSP turned out to be a substantial predictor of later reading performance in a language with statistically reliable spelling-to-sound relations. As LK is highly dependent on educational support, we assume that children in our socioeconomically diverse sample did not have much opportunity to acquire LK in their home environment. In contrast, the SSP challenges students to acquire new spelling-to-sound relations, simulating a core aspect of natural reading acquisition. Future work will test this paradigm in less transparent languages like English and explore its potential as a future standard assessment in the study of early reading development.

Reading without words or target detection? A re-analysis and replication fMRI study of the Landolt paradigm.

The Landolt paradigm is a visual scanning task intended to evoke reading-like eye-movements in the absence of orthographic or lexical information, thus allowing the dissociation of (sub-) lexical vs. visual processing. To that end, all letters in real word sentences are exchanged for closed Landolt rings, with 0, 1, or 2 open Landolt rings as targets in each Landolt sentence. A preliminary fMRI block-design study (Hillen et al. in Front Hum Neurosci 7:1-14, 2013) demonstrated that the Landolt paradigm has a special neural signature, recruiting the right IPS and SPL as part of the endogenous attention network. However, in that analysis, the brain responses to target detection could not be separated from those involved in processing Landolt stimuli without targets. The present study presents two fMRI experiments testing the question whether targets or the Landolt stimuli per se, led to the right IPS/SPL activation. Experiment 1 was an event-related re-analysis of the Hillen et al. (Front Hum Neurosci 7:1-14, 2013) data. Experiment 2 was a replication study with a new sample and identical procedures. In both experiments, the right IPS/SPL were recruited in the Landolt condition as compared to orthographic stimuli even in the absence of any target in the stimulus, indicating that the properties of the Landolt task itself trigger this right parietal activation. These findings are discussed against the background of behavioural and neuroimaging studies of healthy reading as well as developmental and acquired dyslexia. Consequently, this neuroimaging evidence might encourage the use of the Landolt paradigm also in the context of examining reading disorders, as it taps into the orientation of visual attention during reading-like scanning of stimuli without interfering sub-lexical information.

[Development of parent's judgment of behavioral problems from kindergarten to second grade in children dependent on their reading performance: First results of a longitudinal study]. / Entwicklung elterlicher Verhaltensbeurteilung vom Kindergarten bis zum zweiten Schuljahr bei Kindern in Abhängigkeit ihrer Leseleistungen: Erste Ergebnisse einer Longitudinalstudie.

The development of reading disorders is complicated by frequently occurring comorbid behavioral disorders. Studies have shown this relation between behavior problems and learning disabilities but the causal relation is unclear so far. The present study investigates whether and in what way parents' judgment (CBCL) of behavioral problems of children change from kindergarten to the end of second grade depending on children's reading performance. Reading performance of 241 children was assessed every year from kindergarten to second grade. Parents judged children's behavioral problems on CBCL. Variance analyses showed that poor readers are judged higher on the CBCL problem score and on externalizing behavior in first grade in comparison to kindergarten. In kindergarten, those children who were later classified as poor readers did not differ in externalizing and internalizing symptoms from good readers, but they had more attention problems. In first and second grade poor readers showed overall more behavior problems than good readers. Also the proportion of children with clinical relevant behavior disorders increased in the group of weak readers during first and second grade. The results indicate that the confrontation with performance requirements in school put a high burden on the children.

[Attention and reading performance in children with ADHD, reading disorder and the combined condition]. / Aufmerksamkeit und Leseleistungen bei Kindern mit ADHS, Lese- und Rechtschreibstörung und der komorbiden Störung.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Dyslexia co-occur more often than expected by chance. Both disorders can have severe negative impact on children's development. The aim of the present study was to compare attention and reading performance in children with ADHD, dyslexia and the comorbid condition. Ninety-nine German children in 3rd and 4th grade with ADHD (n = 26), dyslexia (n = 22) and the comorbid condition (n = 24) compared to a healthy control group (n = 27) were assessed with a model oriented assessment battery for reading and attention. Additionally, comorbid problems were examined. Children with ADHD were characterized by difficulties in decoding and reading comprehension, while children with dyslexia showed impairments in their attentional performance. Psychometric data revealed that children with dyslexia showed both externalizing and internalizing symptoms, while children with the comorbid condition scored the highest on all psychopathological dimensions. The results suggest, that reading problems in children with ADHD might be an epiphenomenon of the task used dependent on time constraints inherent to the task. Impairments of attentional functions in children with dyslexia emphasize the importance of a sufficient diagnostic procedure for subclinical ADHD symptoms as possible comorbid disorder. Future studies should focus the impact of early treatment of attentional deficits on reading acquisition.

Kindergarteners' performance in a sound-symbol paradigm predicts early reading.

The current study examined the role of serial processing of newly learned sound-symbol associations in early reading acquisition. A computer-based sound-symbol paradigm (SSP) was administered to 243 children during their last year of kindergarten (T1), and their reading performance was assessed 1 year later in first grade (T2). Results showed that performance on the SSP measured before formal reading instruction was associated with later reading development. At T1, early readers performed significantly better than nonreaders in learning correspondences between sounds and symbols as well as in applying those correspondences in a serial manner. At T2, SSP performance measured at T1 was positively associated with reading performance. Importantly, serial application of newly learned correspondences at T1 explained unique variance in first-grade reading performance in nonreaders over and above other verbal predictors, including phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming. Consequently, the SSP provides a promising way to study aspects of reading in preliterate children.