Search results for "phonological awareness"

Phoneme processing skills are reflected in children's MMN responses.

2017

Phonological awareness (PA), the core contributor in phoneme processing abilities, has a link to later reading skills in children. However, the associations between PA and neural auditory discrimination are not clear. We used event-related potential (ERP) methodology and neuropsychological testing to monitor the neurocognitive basis of phonological awareness in typically developing children. We measured 5–6-year-old children's (N=70) phoneme processing, word completion and perceptual reasoning skills and compared their test results to their brain responses to phonemic changes, separately for each test. We found that children performing better in Phoneme processing test showed larger mismatc…

2020

Background: Despite increased enrolments at primary schools in Zambia, more than half of the children in Grades 1–4 are unable to meet the required minimum standards for literacy. Aim: The study set out to examine the effects of using a phone-based mobile literacy game (Graphogame) to improve literacy skills in children and adults in rural family settings. Setting: The study was conducted in the Katete District, a rural town in the eastern province of Zambia. Methods: Participants were 73 Grade 2 learners (52% boys, mean age 9 years and 48% girls, mean age 10 years) and 37 parents (mean age 36 years). Three literacy tests, measuring letter-sound identification, phonological awareness, spell…

In Search of the Core Features of Dyslexia: Observations Concerning Dyslexia in the Highly Orthographically Regular Finnish Language

1995

A goal of many researchers in recent years has been to explore the core feature(s) of dyslexia. Three methods that could be used for this purpose are as follows. One method is to examine and specify in detail the cognitive/reading deficits still present in adulthood and thus to identify deficit(s) instead of a delay. The second method is to use crosslinguistic comparisons (see Jackson, Hu, & Ju, Vol. I, 1994; Assink & Kattenberg, Vol. I, 1994; Wolf, Pfeil, Lotz, & Biddle, Vol. I, 1994). Any real core feature of dyslexia should be present universally independent of the language and language-specific experience among those who have received adequate training in reading. The third method is to…

Developing Phonological Awareness in Blended-learning Language Courses

2013

This study is based on Second Language Acquisition through blended learning and explores the application of new educational technologies in the development of distance education. In particular, the paper focuses on ways to enhance oral, aural, and intercultural skills through learners' engagement, develop authentic social interaction and intercultural awareness in virtual environments and at the same time actively engage the students' powers of perception, communication DQGUHDVRQLQJ��$ �VSHHFKYLVXDOL) DWLRQWHFKQRORJ\ �LVLQWURGXFHG�� VSHFL?FDOO\�WDLO RUHGWR� pronunciation training. It provides relevant and comprehensible visual feedback of all three components of speech: prosody-intonation, …

Effects of the Portuguese Graphogame on reading, spelling, and phonological awareness in second graders struggling to read

2020

The interest in computer-assisted interventions to promote literacy has increased over the years. In this study, we developed the Portuguese version of the GraphoGame Fluent and tested its effects on reading, spelling, and phonological awareness. Second graders struggling to read were randomly assigned to two groups: GraphoGame Fluent group (n = 15), which received a computer-assisted remedial reading intervention, or GraphoGame Math group (n = 15), which received a computer-assisted numeracy intervention. An additional, non-playing group, composed by second graders without reading difficulties, was formed (business-as-usual group, n = 15). Results showed clear benefits of GraphoGame on spe…

GraphoGame SI: the development of a technology-enhanced literacy learning tool for Standard Indonesian

2018

Early intervention programs are generally considered the most efficient and beneficial approach to providing support to struggling beginning readers. This paper discusses the theoretical background, development, and design of, as well as the first results obtained with, GraphoGame for Standard Indonesian, a technology-enhanced learning environment that trains the basic skills of reading by high but playful exposure to grapheme-phoneme coupling. The results of the pilot study assessing the usability of the program in 69 first-graders show that the more the students with low pre-test phonological skills were exposed to the game, the better their post-test performance on reading and decoding f…

Does the Relation between Rapid Automatized Naming and Reading Depend on Age or on Reading Level? A Behavioral and ERP Study

2018

Reading predictors evolve through age: phonological awareness is the best predictor of reading abilities at the beginning of reading acquisition while Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) becomes the best reading predictor in more experienced readers (around 9–10 years old). Those developmental changes in the relationship between RAN and reading have so far been explained in term of participants' age. However, it should be noted that in the previous experiments age always co-vary with participants reading level. It is thus not clear whether RAN-reading relationship is developmental in nature or related to the reading system itself. This study investigates whether the behavioral changes in the rel…

Very early phonological and language skills: estimating individual risk of reading disability

2007

Background: Analyses from the JyvaskylaLongitudinal Study of Dyslexia project show that the key childhood predictors (phonological awareness, short-term memory, rapid naming, expressive vocabu- lary, pseudoword repetition, and letter naming) of dyslexia differentiate the group with reading disability (n ¼ 46) and the group without reading problems (n ¼ 152) at the end of the 2nd grade. These measures were employed at the ages of 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 years and information regarding the familial risk of dyslexia was used to find the most sensitive indices of an individual child's risk for reading disabil- ity. Methods: Age-specific and across-age logistic regression models were constructed to pro…

The Role of Reading Disability Risk and Environmental Protective Factors in Students' Reading Fluency in Grade 4

2013

This study examined the role of reading disability (RD) risk and environmental protective factors in reading fluency in grade 4. The sample consisted of 538 Finnish-speaking students. Kindergarten measures included the students' risk for RD based on poor achievement in phonological awareness and letter knowledge as well as information on the three control variables: nonverbal ability, level of parental education, and gender. Measures in grades 1–3 included environmental protective factors: classmate reports of peer acceptance; teacher reports of positive affect for the student; and mother, father, and teacher reports of partnership between the home and the school. The students were also tes…

Cracking the Code : The Impact of Orthographic Transparency and Morphological-Syllabic Complexity on Reading and Developmental Dyslexia

2019

Reading is an essential skill in modern societies, yet not all learners necessarily become proficient readers. Theoretical concepts (e.g., the orthographic depth hypothesis; the grain size theory) as well as empirical evidence suggest that certain orthographies are easier to learn than others. The present paper reviews the literature on orthographic transparency, morphological complexity, and syllabic complexity of alphabetic languages. These notions are elaborated to show that differences in reading acquisition reflect fundamental differences in the nature of the phonological recoding and reading strategies developing in response to the specific orthography to be learned. The present paper…