Learning to read in children: two exploratory studies

Abstract

To provide an overview of cognitive associations of reading accuracy in normal and language impaired children, two studies are reported, investigating predictors and correlates of reading accuracy for words and nonwords: (1) during normal reading acquisition in young schoolchildren who have achieved different levels of reading; and (2) in special populations of children presenting delays in reading accuracy related to either: specific reading difficulties, or adverse environmental conditions. In the first study, 78 schoolchildren aged 5 to 6 years were examined on five occasions approximately every 6 months during a two-year follow-up period. At each examination the children performed a variety of verbal and nonverbal tasks; reading accuracy for words and nonwords was assessed at the end of the follow-up period. The findings showed that: preschool vocabulary was associated with later reading success; phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory and naming speed were strong correlates of reading nonwords; a changing pattern of associations and reading strategies was observed between the first and the second (6 months later) reading assessment. In the second study (n=60), four groups of children aged 8 to 12 years, with and without special education for reading and with and without poor socio-economic condition, were compared on memory and oral and written language tasks. Errors on phonological discrimination and oral repetition characterized the children with special education for reading. These results confirm that phonological difficulties explain the strong overlap between specific language impairment and specific reading impairment, and suggest that other cognitive abilities known to be associated with reading accuracy, such as naming and naming speed, are dependent on environmental factors.