Phonological–semantic flexibility and its role in reading for Chinese kindergarten children

The present study aimed to examine the role of phonological–semantic flexibility (PSF) in learning to read Chinese. PSF refers to a specific flexibility applied to process the dual linguistic dimensions of words (i.e., sound and meaning). A correlational study (Study 1) was conducted to determine the unique contribution of PSF to three aspects of early reading abilities, including word reading accuracy, word reading fluency and reading comprehension. A total of 190 Chinese kindergarten children were tested on a PSF task and a range of cognitive, linguistic and reading tasks. Results of hierarchical regressions showed that PSF uniquely and significantly contributed to the reading abilities beyond the effects of established cognitive factors (IQ, working memory, inhibition control, and cognitive flexibility) and linguistic factors (syllable skills, morphological skill and vocabulary skill). In the second part, an intervention study (Study 2) was conducted in which two groups of kindergarten children received explicit training on PSF (27 children) and colour–shape flexibility (26 children) respectively. Children in the PSF group showed significantly more improvement in PSF and word reading fluency than the control group. Overall, the present study demonstrated the theoretical and practical importance of PSF for learning to read Chinese.     

The blocking effect of pictorial prompts on sight-word reading

This study replicates and extends previous work showing that pictorial prompts can interfere with the learning of sight words by students with moderate mental retardation. Effects of training with 6 students were assessed during five conditions using an alternating treatments design. In four conditions, words were presented either alone or with a corresponding picture. In a fifth condition, pictures were used to provide feedback. The results showed that acquisition was achieved fastest during the word-alone conditions with 5 students.     

Identity matching of consonant-vowel-consonant words by prereaders

Using an identity matching-to-sample procedure, normally developing prereaders who matched individual letters with high accuracy (e.g., m and s) did not show high accuracy in matching three-letter printed words that differed only in the first letter (e.g., mad and sad). Teachers and researchers should not assume that children who can discriminate individual letters can also discriminate minimally different words that contain those letters.     

Recombinative generalization of within-syllable units in prereading children

This study demonstrates recombinative generalization of within-syllable units in prereading children. Three kindergarten children learned to select printed consonant-vowel-consonant words upon hearing the corresponding spoken words. The words were taught in sets; there were six sets, presented consecutively. Within sets, the four words that were taught had overlapping letters, for example, sat, mat, sop, and sug. Tests for recombinative generalization determined whether the children selected novel words with the same components as the trained words (e.g., mop and mug). Two children demonstrated recombinative generalization after one training set, and the 3rd demonstrated it after two training sets. In contrast, 2 other children, who received tests but no training, showed low accuracy across six sets. The 3 experimental children then demonstrated highly accurate printed-word-to-picture matching, and named the majority of the printed words. These findings are a promising step in the development of a computerized instructional technology for reading.     

Increasing intervention implementation in general education following consultation: a comparison of two follow-up strategies

This study examined two strategies for increasing the accuracy with which general education teachers implemented a peer tutoring intervention for reading comprehension. The intervention was implemented for 5 elementary school students who had been referred for consultation services. Initial implementation of the intervention by the teachers was variable, and the data exhibited a downward trend. When consultants held brief daily meetings with the teachers to discuss the intervention, implementation improved for 2 of 5 participants. Four of the teachers implemented the intervention at levels substantially above baseline during the performance feedback condition, whereas implementation for 1 teacher increased following discussion of an upcoming follow-up meeting with the principal. Student reading comprehension scores improved markedly during the peer tutoring intervention. Three students maintained these gains 4 weeks after the intervention ended. The implications of these findings for the maintenance of accurate treatment implementation in applied settings are discussed.     

Naming Speed Performance and Stimulant Effects Indicate Effortful, Semantic Processing Deficits in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study investigated rapid automatized naming and effects of stimulant medication in school-age children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with and without concurrent reading disorder (RD). Two ADHD groups (67 ADHD only; 21 ADHD + RD) and a control group of 27 healthy age-matched peers were compared on four variables: color naming speed, letter naming speed, phonologic decoding, and arithmetic computation. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) was conducted to predict group membership. The four variables loaded onto two discriminant functions with good specificity: phonologic decoding, letter naming speed, and arithmetic defined the first function; color naming speed defined the second function. Both ADHD groups were significantly slower in color naming than controls, but did not differ from one another. DFA correctly classified 96% of the control group, 91% of ADHD + RD, and 82% of ADHD only. A subset of children in the ADHD groups participated subsequently in an acute, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial with three single doses (10, 25, 20 mg) of methylphenidate. Methylphenidate selectively improved color-naming speed but had no effect on the speed of naming letters or digits. These findings challenge the tenet that naming speed deficits are specific to RD and implicate naming speed deficits associated with effortful semantic processing in ADHD, which are improved but not normalized by stimulant medication.     

Rapid word identification in pure alexia is lexical but not semantic

Following the notion that patients with pure alexia have access to two distinct reading strategies-letter-by-letter reading and semantic reading-a training program was devised to facilitate reading via semantics in a patient with pure alexia. Training utilized brief stimulus presentations and required category judgments rather than explicit word identification. The training was successful for trained words, but generalized poorly to untrained words. Additional studies involving oral reading of nouns and of functors also resulted in improved reading of trained words. Pseudowords could not be trained to criterion. The results suggest that improved reading can be achieved in pure alexia by pairing rapidly presented words with feedback. Focusing on semantic processing is not essential to this process. It is proposed that the training strengthens connections between the output of visual processing and preexisting orthographic representations.     

预测性对快速读者和慢速读者词汇加工的影响

本研究借助眼动仪通过两个实验考察了熟练阅读中快速读者与慢速读者对语境预测性的利用是否有差异。实验1比较快速组与慢速组在中央凹加工高、低预测词的差异。实验2对比两组读者利用副中央凹预视(相同、相似假字、低预测词和不相似假字)加工高预测词的差异。实验1结果显示两组读者有相似的预测性效应：对高预测词的注视时间比低预测词更短。实验2结果显示两组读者的预视效应存在差异：慢速组在相同预视下对目标词的跳读率高于低预测预视,而快速组在这两种预视下的跳读率差异不明显但高于慢速组;慢速组在低预测和不相似预视下注视目标词的时间分别长于相同预视,而快速组的这两种效应较小。结果表明,两组读者利用预测性的差异表现在副中央凹加工阶段,即慢速读者比快速读者利用相似预视激活预测性信息的效率更低,且在低预测或无效预视下对词汇的识别和语义整合更困难,这说明慢速读者在词汇加工中更依赖语境且对无关信息的抑制更弱。这些结果支持词汇质量假说。     

An evaluation of Headsprout early reading as an online parent-mediated intervention for primary school children

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and lengthy absences from the classroom, there is a need for large-scale remedial programs to support young children to “catch-up” on literacy and numeracy skills. A stratified randomized controlled trial was used to evaluate the Headsprout Early Reading (HER) program as a parent-mediated digital literacy intervention. A between-groups design compared differences in reading-dependent outcome measures for 36 children assigned to one of three intervention groups: with support, without support, and waitlist-control. Children completed significantly more episodes when parents received implementation support from the researcher compared to the without support group. Children receiving Headsprout instructions demonstrated marginally greater gains than the waitlist-control group in posttest outcome measures; however, differences in reading outcomes were not significant between groups at posttesting. The current research provides tentative support for HER and importantly, highlights the importance of providing support for parents implementing interventions at home.