Psychosocial Functioning of Children with and without Dyslexia: A Follow-up Study from Ages Four to Nine

This longitudinal study compares developmental changes in psychosocial functioning during the transition into school of children with and without dyslexia. In addition, it examines the effects of gender and family risk for dyslexia in terms of the associations between dyslexia and psychosocial functioning. Children's psychosocial functioning (social skills, inattention and externalizing and internalizing problems) was evaluated by their parents at ages 4, 6 and 9, and diagnosis for dyslexia was made at age 8 (in grade 2). The findings indicated that children with dyslexia were already rated as having poorer social skills and being more inattentive than were typical readers before their entr…

Virtaa ja välineitä luku- ja kirjoitustaidon arviointiin

Suomalaisten lasten ja nuorten luku- ja kirjoitustaito sekä huoli niiden heikkenemisestä ovat olleet viime aikoina otsikoissa ja poliittisten päätösten kohteena. Opetushallitus on tarttunut tähän huoleen rahoittamalla luku- ja kirjoitustaitoon keskittyviä täydennyskoulutushankkeita, joista yksi on Jyväskylän yliopiston ja Niilo Mäki Instituutin yhdessä toteuttama LUKILOKIhanke. Hankkeen tavoitteena on tarjota opettajille varhaiskasvatuksesta aina toiselle asteelle saakka tutkimukseen perustuvaa tietoa ja välineitä luku- ja kirjoitustaidon tukemiseen. Arviointi on yksi hankkeen keskeisistä teemoista. Tässä kirjoituksessa pyritään valottamaan tutkimustiedon ja käytännön näkökulmista luku- ja …

Cognitive skills, self-beliefs and task interest in children with low reading and/or arithmetic fluency

This study examined the identifiability and early cognitive and motivational markers of low reading and arithmetic fluency. Comparisons of these characteristics between Finnish third graders (n = 197) with low fluency in reading, arithmetic, or both revealed, first, that the majority of third graders with low arithmetic fluency showed low arithmetic skills already at first-grade spring, whereas children with low reading fluency were identified from the second-grade fall onward. Second, all groups with low fluency showed low rapid automatized naming and counting skills across the primary school years, while in other cognitive skills these groups showed different patterns. Third, all groups w…

Rapid automatized naming and reading fluency in children with learning difficulties

Edistääkö tavuharjoittelu lukemisen sujuvuutta? : tietokonepohjainen harjoittelukokeilu tois- ja kolmasluokkalaisilla heikoilla lukijoilla

Tämä artikkeli perustuu Heikkilän, Aron, Närhin, Westerholmin ja Ahosen artikkeliin Does the training in syllable recognition improve reading speed? A computer-based trial with poor readers from second and third grade, joka julkaistiin Scientific Studies of Reading -lehden numerossa 17(6) vuonna 2013. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, voidaanko tietokonepohjaisella tavujen toistavaan tunnistamiseen perustuvalla menetelmällä vaikuttaa heikkojen lukijoiden lukemissujuvuuteen. Lisäksi selvitettiin, vaikuttavatko lukemisen alkutaso ja nopean nimeämisen taito harjoittelun tehokkuuteen. Tutkimukseen osallistui 150 tois- ja kolmasluokkalaista heikkoa lukijaa, jotka jaettiin satunnaisesti kontrolliryhmää…

Rapid automatized naming and learning disabilities: does RAN have a specific connection to reading or not?

This work is an extension of a study by Waber, Wolff, Forbes, and Weiler (2000) in which the specificity of naming speed deficits to reading disability (RD) was examined. One hundred ninety-three children (ages 8 to 11) evaluated for learning disabilities were studied. It was determined how well rapid automatized naming (RAN) discriminated between different diagnostic groups (learning impaired [LI] with and without RD) from controls and from each other. Whereas Waber et al. concluded that RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning disabilities in general, the results of the present study point to a more specific connection between RAN and RD. peerReviewed

Nopea nimeäminen ja lukemisen sujuvuus oppimisvaikeuslapsilla

Lectio Praecursoria nonPeerReviewed

Identification of Reading Difficulties by a Digital Game-Based Assessment Technology

Computerized game-based assessment (GBA) system for screening reading difficulties may provide substantial time and cost benefits over traditional paper-and-pencil assessment while providing means also to individually adapt learning content in educational games. To study the reliability and validity of a GBA system to identify struggling readers performing below a standard deviation from mean in paper-and-pencil test either in raw scores and grade-normative scores, a large-scale study with first to fourth grade students ( N = 723) was conducted, where GBA was administrated as a group test by tablet devices. Overall, the results indicated that the GBA can be successfully used to identify st…

Double-Deficit Hypothesis in a Clinical Sample : Extension Beyond Reading

This study explored the double-deficit hypothesis (DDH) in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and extended the view from reading disabilities to comorbidity of learning-related problems in math and attention. Children referred for evaluation of learning disabilities in second through sixth grade ( N = 205) were divided into four groups based on rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonological awareness (PA) according to the DDH: the double-deficit group, the naming speed deficit–only group, the phonological deficit–only group, and the no-deficit group. The results supported the DDH in that the prevalence and severity of reading disability were greatest in the double-deficit group. Despite …

Does training in syllable recognition improve reading speed? A computer-based trial with poor readers from second and third grade.

Repeated reading of infrequent syllables has been shown to increase reading speed at the word level in a transparent orthography. This study confirms these results with a computer-based training method and extends them by comparing the training effects of short syllables and long frequent and infrequent syllables, controlling for rapid automatized naming. Our results, based on a sample of 150 poor readers of Finnish, showed clear gains in reading speed regarding all trained syllables, but a transfer effect to the word level was evident only in the case of long infrequent syllables. Rapid automatized naming was associated with initial reading speed, but not with the training effect. peerRevi…

Nopea nimeäminen ja lukemisen sujuvuus oppimisvaikeuslapsilla

LUKILOKI : virtaa ja välineitä luku- ja kirjoitustaidon ohjaamiseen

“Mukavaa, kun tässä koulutuksessa tutkimus kohtaa arjen”, tiivisti LUKILOKI-koulutuksen osallistuja kokemuksiaan. Valtakunnallisen, 1600 opettajaa tavoittavan LUKILOKI-täydennyskoulutuksen tavoitteena on tarjota opetushenkilöstölle luku- ja kirjoitustaidon ohjaamiseen ja tukemiseen liittyvää tutkimustietoa ja käytännön työkaluja. Koulutuksen keskiössä ovat muun muassa lukumotivaatio, arviointi ja oppimisen tukeminen luki- ja oppimisvaikeuksien sekä S2-opetuksen ja monikielisyyden näkökulmista. Tässä artikkelissa kuvataan hankkeen tavoitteita ja tuotoksia, joita opettajat voivat hyödyntää työnsä tukena. nonPeerReviewed

Rapid automatized naming and learning disabilities : does RAN have a specific connection to reading or not : a replication

The aim of this study was to replicate the study of Waber, Wolff, Forbes, and Weiler (2000), in which the specificity of naming speed deficits (NSD) to reading disability (RD) was examined. 193 children (ages 8 to 11) referred to a child neuropsychological clinic for evaluation of learning disabilities were studied. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to determine how well rapid automatized naming (RAN) discriminated different diagnostic groups (learning impaired (LI) with and without RD) from control and from each other. The conclusion of Waber’s et al. study was that RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning disabilities in general but was not especially effec…

Cognitive Correlates of the Covariance in Reading and Arithmetic Fluency: Importance of Serial Retrieval Fluency

This study examines the core predictors of the covariance in reading and arithmetic fluency and the domain-general cognitive skills that explain the core predictors and covariance. Seven-year-old Finnish children (N = 200) were assessed on rapid automatized naming (RAN), phonological awareness, letter knowledge, verbal counting, number writing, number comparison, memory skills, and processing and articulation speed in the spring of Grade 1 and on reading and arithmetic fluency in the fall of Grade 2. RAN and verbal counting were strongly associated, and a constructed latent factor, serial retrieval fluency (SRF), was the strongest unique predictor of the shared variance. Other unique predic…