Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Reading Skills (reading + skill)
Selected AbstractsFamily Risk of Dyslexia Is Continuous: Individual Differences in the Precursors of Reading SkillCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2003Margaret J. Snowling The development of 56 children at family risk of dyslexia was followed from the age of 3 years, 9 months to 8 years. In the high-risk group, 66% had reading disabilities at age 8 years compared with 13% in a control group from similar, middle-class backgrounds. However, the family risk of dyslexia was continuous, and high-risk children who did not fulfil criteria for reading impairment at 8 years performed as poorly at age 6 as did high-risk impaired children on tests of grapheme,phoneme knowledge. The findings are interpreted within an interactive model of reading development in which problems in establishing a phonological pathway in dyslexic families may be compensated early by children who have strong language skills. [source] The prevalence of reading and spelling difficulties among inmates of institutions for compulsory care of juvenile delinquentsDYSLEXIA, Issue 2 2001Idor Svensson Abstract Recent studies have focused on reading and writing disabilities among inmates in prisons and at juvenile institutions. Some studies in Sweden have demonstrated that more than half of the delinquents have serious reading difficulties, and for immigrants the situation is even worse. However, these studies have focused on small groups. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to different types of reading and writing difficulties. The main purpose of this investigation was to estimate the prevalence of reading and writing disabilities in juvenile institutions. The study analyses gender differences and differences between immigrants and Swedish pupils. The study included 163 pupils from 22 institutions and used three tests of literacy skills: word identification, spelling and reading comprehension. More than 70% showed some problems in reading and spelling. However, only 11% had serious difficulties. Moreover, the results showed that comprehension ability among immigrant boys was lower than among Swedish boys, despite the same level of word reading skill. The high prevalence of reading and writing disabilities seems primarily to be related to social and cultural factors, home backgrounds, limited school attendance and poor self-esteem rather than to constitutional problems of a dyslexic nature. The implication of this conclusion may be important for the intervention process. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Shyness as a continuous dimension and emergent literacy in young children: is there a relation?INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2009Katherine Spere Abstract The present study assessed 89 children in a short-term longitudinal study from Junior Kindergarten (age 4,5 years) through Grade 1 (age 6,7 years) using a variety of tests of emergent literacy. Children were assessed for reading skill (a composite of word recognition, decoding, and letter-sound knowledge), phonological awareness, and oral language (i.e. both receptive and expressive vocabulary as well as syntax and fluency). Shyness was treated as a continuous variable rather than contrasting extreme groups of shy and non-shy children. Shyness was modestly related to vocabulary, verbal fluency, and phonological awareness. Results suggest that among young children the association of greater shyness with compromised skill development potentially extends beyond the vocabulary domain to include emergent literacy more broadly. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Contribution of Phonological Skills and Letter Knowledge to Early Reading Development in a Multilingual PopulationLANGUAGE LEARNING, Issue 2 2001Valerie Muter Fifty-five children from multilingual backgrounds being educated in English were studied longitudinally over a two-year period, with measures taken of their phonological skill, vocabulary and letter knowledge. Phonological segmentation ability and letter knowledge proved significant predictors of both concurrent and later reading achievement a year later, irrespective of the children's native language. In contrast, rhyming measures were not significant predictors of reading skill. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical notions about the structure of phonological awareness and its impact on early reading development. [source] The Cognitive Correlates of Computational Estimation Skill Among Third-Grade StudentsLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 4 2006Pamela M. Seethaler The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of various cognitive abilities and aspects of math performance with computational estimation skill among third graders. Students (n= 315) were assessed on language, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation, processing speed, long-term memory, working memory, inattentive behavior, basic reading skill, arithmetic number combination skill, double-digit computation skill, and computational estimation ability. One-way analysis of variance indicated significant differences in estimation skill among students of low, average, and high math computation performance. The unique predictors of estimation skill were arithmetic number combination skill, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation, working memory, and inattentive behavior. [source] Convergent and concurrent validity of two measures of phonological processingPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 5 2002J. Michael Havey The purposes of this study were to determine the degree to which two measures of phonological awareness/ability (Test of Phonological Awareness; Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing) correlate with each other and with a measure of reading (Letter-Word Identification), and to determine which of the individual measures of phonological ability best predict early reading skill in kindergarten children. With one exception, all correlations among measures of phonological awareness/ability were significant. In addition, all correlations among the phonological awareness measures and the reading measure were significant. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the combination of all predictor variables accounted for approximately 51% of the variability in scores on the Woodcock Letter-Word Identification subtest. The Phonological Awareness and the Rapid Naming composites of the CTOPP were the best predictors of performance on the measures of word identification. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The impact of developmental speech and language impairments on the acquisition of literacy skillsDEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEW, Issue 3 2004C. Melanie Schuele Abstract Children with developmental speech/language impairments are at higher risk for reading disability than typical peers with no history of speech/language impairment. This article reviews the literacy outcomes of children with speech/language impairments, clarifying the differential risk for three groups of children: speech production impairments alone, oral language impairments alone, and speech production and oral language impairments. Children at greatest risk for reading and writing disabilities are children with language impairments alone and children with comorbid speech impairments and language impairments. For children with speech impairments alone, there is limited risk for literacy difficulties. However, even when reading skills are within the average range, children with speech impairments may have difficulties in spelling. Children with language impairments are likely to display reading deficits in word decoding and reading comprehension. It is not clear what role early literacy interventions play in the amelioration of reading difficulties in these populations. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. MRDD Research Reviews 2004;10:176,183. [source] Dyslexia in English as a second languageDYSLEXIA, Issue 1 2005Turid Helland Abstract This study focused on English as L2 in a group of Norwegian dyslexic 12 year olds, compared to an age and gender matched control group. Norwegian school children learn English from the first grades on. The subjects were assessed with a test battery of verbal and written tasks. First, they were given a comprehension task; second, a model sentence task; third, two pragmatic tasks, and fourth, three tasks of literacy. The verbal tasks were scored according to comprehension, morphology, syntax and semantics, while the literacy tasks were scored by spelling, translation and reading skills. It was hypothesized that the results of the control group and the dyslexia group would differ on all tasks, but that subgrouping the dyslexia group by comprehension skills would show heterogeneity within the dyslexia group. The data analyses confirmed these hypotheses. Significant differences were seen between the dyslexia group and the control group. However, the subgrouping revealed minor differences between the control group and the subgroup with good comprehension skills, and major differences between the control group and the subgroup with poor comprehension skills. Especially morphology and spelling were difficult for the dyslexia group. The results were tentatively discussed within the framework of biological and cognitive models of how to interpret L2 performance in dyslexia, underlining the importance of further research in L2 acquisition in dyslexia. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Dyslexia: nature and nurture,DYSLEXIA, Issue 3 2002Richard K. Olson Abstract This paper explores the balance of genetic and environmental influences on dyslexia in generally supportive educational environments. Evidence from family studies suggests and research with identical and fraternal twins confirms the presence of strong genetic influences on dyslexia, though the way dyslexia is defined influences the degree of genetic influence. The behavioural genetic evidence is supported with molecular genetic evidence from DNA analyses suggesting regions on several different chromosomes where genes related to dyslexia are likely to be found. The behavioural and molecular genetic analyses are also applied to different component word reading skills (orthographic coding and phonological decoding) as well as to related language skills (phoneme awareness) to better understand the genetic and cognitive pathways to dyslexia. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] From language to reading and dyslexia,DYSLEXIA, Issue 1 2001Margaret J. Snowling Abstract This paper reviews evidence in support of the phonological deficit hypothesis of dyslexia. Findings from two experimental studies suggest that the phonological deficits of dyslexic children and adults cannot be explained in terms of impairments in low-level auditory mechanisms, but reflect higher-level language weaknesses. A study of individual differences in the pattern of reading skills in dyslexic children rejects the notion of ,sub-types'. Instead, the findings suggest that the variation seen in reading processes can be accounted for by differences in the severity of individual children's phonological deficits, modified by compensatory factors including visual memory, perceptual speed and print exposure. Children at genetic risk who go on to be dyslexic come to the task of reading with poorly specified phonological representations in the context of a more general delay in oral language development. Their prognosis (and that of their unaffected siblings) depends upon the balance of strengths and difficulties they show, with better language skills being a protective factor. Taken together, these findings suggest that current challenges to the phonological deficit theory can be met. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Beyond the Literal: Deferential or Inferential Reading?ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2002Isobel Urquhart Abstract This article examines the current dilemmas around children's comprehension of written texts in the primary school. National Curriculum tests have shown that questions requiring powers of inference are by far the most difficult for children to answer. Alongside this, recent research has shown that teachers' questioning rarely engages children in inferential thinking. The article argues that, in order to develop ,higher-order' reading skills in the classroom, teachers need to go beyond a deferential approach to both texts and the discourse of the National Literacy Framework in order to promote more creative and imaginative approaches to the comprehension of texts. [source] Abilities underlying decoding differences in children with intellectual disabilityJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 4 2001F. A. Conners Abstract Researchers in recent years have made much progress towards understanding why some children struggle to learn to read. However, little of this research has involved children with intellectual disability associated with an IQ < 70 (ID, also called mental retardation). In the present analysis, the authors examined cognitive similarities and differences between stronger and weaker decoders, all of whom have ID. The 65 children with ID in the present analysis were initially referred by their teachers for a study that involved training basic phonological reading skills. The present analysis compares 21 children who were excluded from the training study because their decoding skills were already too high with 44 children whose decoding skills were low enough for the training study. The groups were compared on general intelligence, language ability, phonemic awareness and phonological memory. Initial analyses showed that the stronger decoders were significantly better than weaker decoders in language ability, phonemic awareness and rehearsal in phonological memory, but not in intelligence. They were also significantly older than weaker decoders. When age was covaried out, the groups differed significantly only in rehearsal in phonological memory, although the difference for phonemic awareness was marginally significant when the poorest performers were excluded. When intelligence is substantially limited, the ability to rehearse or refresh phonological codes in working memory plays a major role in determining children's success in learning to read. This ability appears to be more important than intelligence, language ability and phonemic awareness. It is possible that the reason the phonemic awareness measure was not as good at distinguishing the groups as the phonological rehearsal measure was because the former did not involve assembling phonological output. It is suggested that it is the combination of poor phonological representation and poor phonological output assembly that makes decoding difficult for some children with ID. [source] Maternal Cohabitation and Child Well-Being Among Kindergarten ChildrenJOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 1 2007Julie E. Artis Using data collected from 10,511 kindergarten children and their parents from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study,Kindergarten Cohort, this study examines child well-being across cohabiting 2-biological-parent families; cohabiting stepfamilies; married stepfamilies; and married 2-biological-parent families. Findings indicate no differences in child well-being for children living in cohabiting stepfamilies and cohabiting 2-biological-parent families. Multivariate models controlling for child characteristics, economic resources, maternal depressive symptoms, stability, and parenting practices show no significant differences across family types in child well-being indicators, with the exception of reading skills. Important factors in explaining the link between cohabitation and child well-being include economic resources, maternal depressive symptoms, and parenting practices. [source] The efficacy of computer-based supplementary phonics programs for advancing reading skills in at-risk elementary studentsJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 2 2006Paul Macaruso In this study we examined the benefits of computer programs designed to supplement regular reading instruction in an urban public school system. The programs provide systematic exercises for mastering word-attack strategies. Our findings indicate that first graders who participated in the programs made significant reading gains over the school year. Their post-test scores were slightly (but not significantly) greater than the post-test scores of control children who received regular reading instruction without the programs. When analyses were restricted to low-performing children eligible for Title I services, significantly higher post-test scores were obtained by the treatment group compared to the control group. At post-test Title I children in the treatment group performed at levels similar to non-Title I students. [source] Family history, self-perceptions, attitudes and cognitive abilities are associated with early adolescent reading skillsJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 1 2006Elizabeth G. Conlon This study evaluated a model of reading skills among early adolescents (N=174). Measures of family history, achievement, cognitive processes and self-perceptions of abilities were obtained. Significant relationships were found between family history and children's single-word reading skills, spelling, reading comprehension, orthographic processing and children's perceived reading competence. While children with poor reading skills were five times more likely to come from a family with a history of reading difficulties, this measure did not account for additional variance in reading performance after other variables were included. Phonological, orthographic, rapid sequencing and children's perceived reading competence made significant independent contributions towards reading and spelling outcomes. Reading comprehension was explained by orthographic processing, nonverbal ability, children's attitudes towards reading and word identification. Thus, knowledge of family history and children's attitudes and perceptions towards reading provides important additional information when evaluating reading skills among a normative sample of early adolescents. [source] Patterns of analogical reasoning among beginning readersJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 3 2004Lee Farrington-Flint Despite compelling evidence that analogy skills are available to beginning readers, few studies have actually explored the possibility of identifying individual differences in young children's analogy skills in early reading. The present study examined individual differences in children's use of orthographic and phonological relations between words as they learn to read. Specifically, the study addressed whether general analogical reasoning, short-term memory and domain-specific reading skills explain 5- to 6-year-olds' reading analogies (n=51). The findings revealed an orthographic analogy effect accompanied by high levels of phonological priming. Single-word reading and use of visual analogies predicted young children's orthographic and phonological analogies in the regression analyses. However, different findings emerged from exploring profiles based on individual differences in reasoning skill. Indeed, when individual differences in composite scores of orthographic and phonological analogy were examined, group membership was predicted by word reading and early phonological knowledge, rather than general analogical reasoning skills. The findings highlight the usefulness of exploring individual differences in children's analogy development in the early stages of learning to read. [source] The impact of a collaborative family/school reading programme on student reading rateJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 1 2002Lisa Kelly-Vance Student reading skills are below grade level in many schools and professionals are constantly searching for new ideas to enhance reading curricula. To address this problem in one elementary school, a parent/school reading programme was implemented. Parents were encouraged to increase the amount of time spent reading with their children at home and the school provided easily accessible reading materials, suggestions for encouraging reading at home, prizes and special activities. Programme participants demonstrated a higher increase in reading rate and accuracy than the matched peers. Prior to implementation and at the end of the reading programme, parents and students who chose to participate in the programme reported positive attitudes toward reading together. Implications of these results are discussed and an emphasis is placed on expanding research in the area. [source] Teachers' expectations about students' use of reading strategies, knowledge and behaviour in Grades 3, 5 and 7JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 2 2001Fatemeh Arabsolghar Although extensive basic research has been carried out on children's metacognition, little is known about teachers' views of their students' cognitive and metacognitive skills in reading. The ways in which teachers expected their children to use, or to know how to use, certain reading skills are examined in this study. A questionnaire on reading components (strategies, knowledge and behaviour) was completed by 45 teachers in Grades 3, 5 and 7. In this questionnaire teachers were asked to make judgements about whether or not students of high, average and low ability levels in their classes would be likely to show these skills. An analysis of variance (gradeŚabilityŚcomponent) revealed a significant interaction between ability and component. There was much greater variability in the three components for the low and average levels of ability. The main effect for ability was significant. The highest expectations of teachers were for high-ability students in all the three groups of items, followed by average and low-ability students. The main effect for component was also significant for knowledge. There was no significant difference between the grades. However, teachers hold equivalent performance expectations for high-ability students in each of the three components, but for average and low-ability groups, expectations were higher for knowledge than strategy and behaviour. [source] A Normativist Account of Language-Based Learning Disability1,2LEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 1 2006J. Bruce Tomblin Research on learning disabilities (LD) depends upon a conceptual framework that specifies what it should explain, what kinds of data are needed, and how these data are to be arranged in order to provide a meaningful explanation. An argument is made that LD are no different in this respect than any other form of human illness. In this article, a theory of LD based on weak normativism drawn from the philosophy of medicine is presented. This theory emphasizes that cultural values (norms) determine which aspects of human experience and function are instances of ill health. Thus, ill health is fundamentally normative. However, the experiences and behaviors themselves arise out of the natural world and therefore can be explained by a culturally neutral natural science. Data from a longitudinal study of specific language impairment are used to show that academic achievement is culturally evaluated, that low achievement is disvalued, and that therefore actions are taken to help the poor achiever. Spoken language abilities in kindergarten are associated with judgments of the adequacy of fourth grade academic achievement and are mediated by reading prior to fourth grade and also via a path that is independent of reading. It is argued that poor academic achievement may be viewed as a disvalued state consistent with an illness, whereas language and reading skills can be viewed as basic causal systems that can explain the child's learning performance. Properties of this causal system are value free, except that they can inherit disvalue by their association with poor achievement. It remains to be determined whether the notion of LD is to be equated with poor achievement and therefore serve as a type of illness or whether it is to be viewed as a particular cause of poor achievement and thus functions as a type of disease associated with poor achievement. The conceptual framework lays out the alternative meanings for LD and the choice between these alternatives will ultimately depend on how it is used in the LD research community. [source] Are the Key Stage Two Reading Tests becoming easier each year?LITERACY, Issue 1 2001Mary Hilton This article presents and discusses some new research on the National Curriculum Key Stage Two reading tests for years 1998, 1999 and 2000. The research task was to use the original categories designed and declared by the QCA in 1998 to analyse the reading tests in the two subsequent years in order to examine the reliability of the tests. The research shows that in 1999, and again in 2000 the reading tests were progressively easier for the children to answer. This was because the number of questions requiring higher-order reading skills, particularly those of inference and deduction, has decreased each year, while the number of questions requiring the lower-order skill of literal information retrieval has increased. In this way the author questions the QCA's declared ,rise in reading standards' from 1998 onwards. [source] Cattell,Horn,Carroll cognitive-achievement relations: What we have learned from the past 20 years of researchPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 7 2010Kevin S. McGrew Contemporary Cattell,Horn,Carroll (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities has evolved over the past 20 years and serves as the theoretical foundation for a number of current cognitive ability assessments. CHC theory provides a means by which we can better understand the relationships between cognitive abilities and academic achievement, an important component of learning disabilities identification and instructional planning. A research synthesis of the extant CHC cognitive-achievement (COG-ACH) research literature is reported. Systematic and operationally defined research synthesis procedures were employed to address limitations present in the only prior attempted synthesis. Nineteen studies met the criteria for inclusion, which yielded 134 analyses. The 134 analyses were organized by three age groups (6,8, 9,13, and 14,19) and by four achievement domains (basic reading skills, reading comprehension, basic math skills, and math reasoning). The results reveal a much more nuanced set of CHC COG-ACH relations than was identified in the only prior review because of (a) breadth of cognitive abilities and measures (broad vs. narrow), (b) breadth of achievement domains (e.g., basic reading skills and reading comprehension vs. broad reading), and (c) developmental (age) status. The findings argue for selective, flexible, and referral-focused intelligence testing, particularly in the context of emerging Response to Intervention (RTI) assessment models. The results suggest that narrow CHC abilities should be the primary focus of instructionally relevant intelligence testing. Furthermore, the finding that more than 90% of the available research is based on the Woodcock,Johnson Battery argues for significant caution in generalizing the findings to other batteries. CHC-based COG-ACH research with other intelligence batteries is recommended. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Comprehensive reading instruction for students with intellectual disabilities: Findings from the first three years of a longitudinal study,PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 5 2010Jill H. Allor This longitudinal experimental study investigated the reading progress of students with IQs ranging from 40 to 69 (i.e., range for students with mild or moderate mental retardation or intellectual disabilities [ID]) across at least two academic years, as well as the effectiveness of a comprehensive reading intervention for these students across the same period of time. Participants were 59 elementary students who were randomly placed into treatment and contrast groups. Students in the treatment condition received daily, comprehensive reading instruction in small groups of 1,4 students for 40,50 minutes per session across two or three academic years. Measures of phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition, comprehension, and oral language were included. Findings indicate that students with IQs in the ID range made significant progress on multiple standardized measures of reading. Furthermore, significant differences between the treatment group and contrast group were found on several measures, including progress-monitoring measures of phoneme segmentation, phonics, and oral reading fluency. Results demonstrate that, on average, students with ID, even those with IQs in the moderate range, learn basic reading skills given consistent, explicit, and comprehensive reading instruction across an extended period of time. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A preliminary investigation of the concurrent validity of reading comprehension rate: A direct, dynamic measure of reading comprehensionPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 4 2007Christine E. Neddenriep Reading comprehension rate (RCR) is a direct measure of reading skills that may be useful in formatively evaluating students reading beyond the fourth-grade level. To investigate the concurrent validity of RCR, we correlated RCR, reading comprehension level (RCL), and words correct per minute (WC/M) with the Broad Reading Cluster Scores of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH) across 88 students in 4th, 5th, and 10th grades. Results showed that aloud-RCR was significantly correlated with the WJ-III ACH scores for 4th-grade (r = .90; n = 22), 5th-grade (r = .87; n = 29), and 10th-grade (r = .65; n = 37) students. Regression analysis specified a one-predictor model for 4th-grade students (aloud-RCR), a two-predictor model for 5th-grade students (WC/M and aloud-RCR), and a one-predictor model for 10th-grade students (WC/M). Discussion focuses on directions for future research and applied issues related to RCR probe passage development. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 373,388, 2007. [source] Language preference and its relationship with reading skills in English and SpanishPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 2 2007Michele H. Brenneman A dearth of research has investigated the language preference of bilingual childhood populations and its subsequent relationship to reading skills. The current study evaluated how a sequential bilingual student's choice of language, in a particular environmental context, predicted reading ability in English and Spanish. The participants were Latino children ranging in age from 7 years, 5 months, to 11 years, 6 months, with 43% born in the United States. Results showed a relationship between a child's higher English language preference for media and for communication with others outside the family and better reading skills in English. Language preference differences predicted reading abilities better for English than for Spanish. Results suggested that sequential bilingual children's language preference may be a useful marker of English language (second language [L2]) facility and use that is related to their reading proficiency or influences the development of English reading skills in such bilingual children in the United States. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 171,181, 2007. [source] An investigation of listening and listening-while-reading accommodations on reading comprehension levels and rates in students with emotional disordersPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 1 2005Andrea D. Hale Researchers used alternating treatment designs to investigate the effects of listening-while-reading (LWR) and listening interventions on comprehension levels and rates in four middle school students with emotional disorders. During LWR, students were instructed to read passages silently along with experimenters. During the listening condition, we did not give students a printed copy of the passage but merely instructed them to listen as an experimenter read the passages aloud. The control condition consisted of students reading passages silently. After each condition, students answered 10 comprehension questions without referring back to the printed passage. Although neither intervention resulted in comprehension levels consistently superior to those of the silent reading control condition, LWR and listening resulted in higher rates of comprehension than the silent reading control condition across all four students. However, listening appeared to improve reading comprehension rates in only two students. These results suggest that LWR may be an efficient procedure for enhancing comprehension across content areas with groups of students who have heterogeneous reading skills. The discussion focuses on future applied research with students with disabilities. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 39,51, 2005. [source] Reexamining data from the national reading panel's meta-analysis: Implications for school psychologyPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 6 2003Matthew K. Burns The National Reading Panel (NRP) recently conducted a meta-analysis about reading interventions and made several recommendations from the data. However, given that reading is the academic area for which most children are referred to school psychologists, further exploration of the implications of the NRP data may be warranted. Effect size data for reading outcome measures were qualitatively interpreted, with none of the posttest effect sizes, and only one-third of all of the effect size coefficients exhibiting a large effect. Furthermore, reading outcome measures were divided into three categories: pseudowords, words in isolation, and contextual reading. The resulting recomputed mean effect sizes of .84, .92., and .37, respectively, questions the grouping of these three variables into one outcome. Other concerns about methodology were also included. This supports the need for targeted reading interventions based on assessment of reading skills. Implications for the three roles that school psychologists play in the educational research area are also discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 605,612, 2003. [source] Sources of variance in curriculum-based measures of silent readingPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 4 2003Rachel Brown-Chidsey Curriculum-Based Measurement silent reading (CBM-SR) items have been found to be reliable and valid for measuring reading comprehension skills This generalizability study reports the findings from administration of three CBM-SR passages to fifth through eighth grade students in one school district. Using Repeated Measures Analyses of Variance (RMANOVA) procedures, the statistical probability of performance on the CBM-SR task as a differential indicator of reading comprehension skill was found to be significant among students in different grade levels and between students who did and did not receive special education services. Follow-up analyses were conducted using generalizability theory to estimate the amount of variance in CBM-SR scores from individual score differences, grade levels, and special education status. The results indicated that on two of the passages, variability in CBM-SR scores came primarily from grade level differences in scores on the tasks, while on the third passage, the differences were most attributable to individual differences in scores, regardless of grade level or special education services. Implications for the use of CBM-SR items for routine assessment of students' reading skills are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 363,377, 2003. [source] Predicting curriculum and test performance at age 11 years from pupil background, baseline skills and phonological awareness at age 5 yearsTHE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 7 2007Robert Savage Background:, Phonological awareness tests are amongst the best predictors of literacy and predict outcomes of Key Stage 1 assessment of the National Curriculum in England at age 7. However, it is unknown whether their ability to predict National Curricular outcomes extends to Key Stage 2 assessments given at age 11, or also whether the predictive power of such tests is independent of letter-knowledge. We explored the unique predictive validity of phonological awareness and early literacy measures, and other pupil background measures taken at age 5 in the prediction of English, Maths, and Science performance at age 11. Method:, Three hundred and eighty-two children from 21 primary schools in one Local Educational Authority were assessed at age 5 and followed to age 11 (Key Stage 2 assessment). Teaching assistants (TAs) administered phonological awareness tasks and early literacy measures. Baseline and Key Stage 2 performance measures were collected by teachers. Results:, Phonological awareness was a significant unique predictor of all nine outcome measures after baseline assessment and pupil background measures were first controlled in regression analyses, and continued to be a significant predictor of reading, maths, and science performance, and teacher assessments after early literacy skill and letter-knowledge was controlled. Gender predicted performance in writing, the English test, and English teacher assessment, with girls outperforming boys. Conclusions:, Phonological awareness is a unique predictor of general curricular attainment independent of pupil background, early reading ability and letter-knowledge. Practically, screening of phonological awareness and basic reading skills by school staff in year 1 significantly enhances the capacity of schools to predict curricular outcomes in year 6. [source] Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades?THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 1 2004Frank R. Vellutino We summarize some of the most important findings from research evaluating the hypothesized causes of specific reading disability (,dyslexia') over the past four decades. After outlining components of reading ability, we discuss manifest causes of reading difficulties, in terms of deficiencies in component reading skills that might lead to such difficulties. The evidence suggests that inadequate facility in word identification due, in most cases, to more basic deficits in alphabetic coding is the basic cause of difficulties in learning to read. We next discuss hypothesized deficiencies in reading-related cognitive abilities as underlying causes of deficiencies in component reading skills. The evidence in these areas suggests that, in most cases, phonological skills deficiencies associated with phonological coding deficits are the probable causes of the disorder rather than visual, semantic, or syntactic deficits, although reading difficulties in some children may be associated with general language deficits. Hypothesized deficits in general learning abilities (e.g., attention, association learning, cross-modal transfer etc.) and low-level sensory deficits have weak validity as causal factors in specific reading disability. These inferences are, by and large, supported by research evaluating the biological foundations of dyslexia. Finally, evidence is presented in support of the idea that many poor readers are impaired because of inadequate instruction or other experiential factors. This does not mean that biological factors are not relevant, because the brain and environment interact to produce the neural networks that support reading acquisition. We conclude with a discussion of the clinical implications of the research findings, focusing on the need for enhanced instruction. [source] The effect of fluency training on math and reading skills in neuropsychiatric diagnosis children: a multiple baseline designBEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS, Issue 1 2005Stephanie L. Hartnedy Fluency (fast and accurate responding) has been found to facilitate the retention, maintenance, endurance, and application of learned skills. Fluency training has been employed effectively in academic, vocational, industrial, and rehabilitative settings. Using a multiple baseline design, this study expanded previous applications by targeting academic deficits of children with neurological and psychiatric diagnoses in a residential treatment facility. Total response rates were measured in 60 second timed probes. Academic tool skills increased and error rates decreased for all participants after implementation of fluency training. Implications for improving attention to task and targeting minimum competency skills are discussed, as is determining the role that practice plays in increasing fluency rate. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||