The role of phonemic awareness and naming speed in predicting response to brief training of reading skills.
Material type:
TextDescription: 119 pISBN: 0612535088Subject(s): Education, Reading | 0535Dissertation note: Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waterloo (Canada), 2000. Summary: The purpose of this research was to examine whether phonemic awareness and rapid naming skills are independent predictors of response to brief training of reading skills. In Study One, the role of these two skills in predicting response to training was studied in a sample of children with poor phonemic awareness. Results indicated that children learned to read the training words as a function of training, and when initial word recognition scores were controlled, they also showed increased ability to read other words and pseudowords in the same families as the training words. Furthermore, in addition to being poorer readers on standardized test measures, slow naming children had more difficulty learning sound analysis skills than children with faster naming skills. Slow namers were also less likely than fast namers to identify words and nonwords sharing rime patterns with words they knew, suggesting less use of orthographic pattern information. These results suggest that among children with the core weakness thought to be associated with reading disabilities, those with fast naming skills had additional resources contributing to word identification.Summary: Study Two extended these findings by examining the factors related to reading outcome within a sample of poor readers. The primary aim of the study was to investigate whether phonemic awareness and naming speed are independent predictors of training outcome both immediately after training and after a one- or two-day delay. Study Two also investigated three possible mechanisms for improvement following training: (a) increased phonemic awareness, (b) increased knowledge of whole word orthographic patterns in the training words, and (c) increased sensitivity to rime patterns within the trained words. Forty poor readers participated in a thirty-minute training program aimed at increasing their ability to identify 12 training words. Although children learned to read the training words and showed transfer of knowledge to other words in the same families, training outcome was not predicted by phonemic awareness or rapid naming skills. Instead, initial scores on a standardized test of word identification were the best predictors of growth in a number of different reading outcome measures. In terms of the mechanisms of improvement of reading skill, children showed improved phonemic sensitivity and whole word orthographic knowledge following training, but these improvements could not be predicted by initial phonemic awareness or naming speed skills. Additionally, final scores on these two mechanism tasks were unrelated to final reading performance.Summary: The results of these two studies are interpreted as providing support for the double deficit hypothesis at a descriptive level. The role of the two skills in predicting treatment outcome is less clear. It is speculated that the particular populations studied as well as the nature of the training used have implications for the results obtained.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-10, Section: A, page: 3941.
Adviser: Patricia Bowers.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waterloo (Canada), 2000.
The purpose of this research was to examine whether phonemic awareness and rapid naming skills are independent predictors of response to brief training of reading skills. In Study One, the role of these two skills in predicting response to training was studied in a sample of children with poor phonemic awareness. Results indicated that children learned to read the training words as a function of training, and when initial word recognition scores were controlled, they also showed increased ability to read other words and pseudowords in the same families as the training words. Furthermore, in addition to being poorer readers on standardized test measures, slow naming children had more difficulty learning sound analysis skills than children with faster naming skills. Slow namers were also less likely than fast namers to identify words and nonwords sharing rime patterns with words they knew, suggesting less use of orthographic pattern information. These results suggest that among children with the core weakness thought to be associated with reading disabilities, those with fast naming skills had additional resources contributing to word identification.
Study Two extended these findings by examining the factors related to reading outcome within a sample of poor readers. The primary aim of the study was to investigate whether phonemic awareness and naming speed are independent predictors of training outcome both immediately after training and after a one- or two-day delay. Study Two also investigated three possible mechanisms for improvement following training: (a) increased phonemic awareness, (b) increased knowledge of whole word orthographic patterns in the training words, and (c) increased sensitivity to rime patterns within the trained words. Forty poor readers participated in a thirty-minute training program aimed at increasing their ability to identify 12 training words. Although children learned to read the training words and showed transfer of knowledge to other words in the same families, training outcome was not predicted by phonemic awareness or rapid naming skills. Instead, initial scores on a standardized test of word identification were the best predictors of growth in a number of different reading outcome measures. In terms of the mechanisms of improvement of reading skill, children showed improved phonemic sensitivity and whole word orthographic knowledge following training, but these improvements could not be predicted by initial phonemic awareness or naming speed skills. Additionally, final scores on these two mechanism tasks were unrelated to final reading performance.
The results of these two studies are interpreted as providing support for the double deficit hypothesis at a descriptive level. The role of the two skills in predicting treatment outcome is less clear. It is speculated that the particular populations studied as well as the nature of the training used have implications for the results obtained.
School code: 1141.
There are no comments on this title.