The present meta-analysis was conducted to examine how shared book reading affects the English language and literacy skills of young children learning English as a second language. The final analysis ...included 54 studies of shared reading conducted in the United States. Features of the intervention and child characteristics were tested as potential moderators, and the impact of methodological criteria was examined using sensitivity analyses. Results revealed an overall significant, positive effect of shared reading on English learners' outcomes. Children's developmental status moderated this effect, with larger effect sizes found in studies including only typically developing participants than in studies including only participants with developmental disorders. No other significant moderators were identified. The main positive effect was robust to the application of more stringent methodological inclusion criteria. These results support shared book reading as an early educational activity for young English learners.
Although Arabic is an official language in 27 countries, standardized measures to assess Arabic literacy are scarce. The purpose of this research was to examine the item functioning of an assessment ...of Arabic orthographic knowledge. Sixty novel items were piloted with 201 third grade Arabic-speaking students. Participants were asked to identify the correctly spelled word from a pair of two words. Although the assessment was designed to be unidimensional, competing models were tested to determine whether item performance was attributable to multidimensionality. No multidimensional structure fit the data significantly better than the unidimensional model. The 60 original items were evaluated through item fit statistics and comparing performance against theoretical expectations. Twenty-eight items were identified as functioning poorly and were iteratively removed from the scale, resulting in a 32-item set. A value of 0.987 was obtained for McDonald’s coefficient ω from this final scale. Participants’ scores on the measure correlated with an external word reading accuracy measure at 0.79 (p < .001), suggesting that the tool may measure skills important to word reading in Arabic. The task is simple to score and can discriminate among children with below-average orthographic knowledge. This work provides a foundation to develop Arabic literacy assessments.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe and explain changes in severity of speech sound disorder (SSD) and token-to-token inconsistency in children with high levels of inconsistency. Method: ...Thirty-nine children (aged 4;6-7;11 years;months) with SSDs and high levels of token-to-token inconsistency were assessed every 6 months for 2 years (i.e., five assessment points). Growth modeling was used to assess relations among therapy support, receptive vocabulary, severity, and inconsistency over time. Results: Children with the most severe SSDs and highest levels of token-to-token inconsistency showed the smallest improvements in speech accuracy over time. Therapy support did not predict changes in speech accuracy or token-to-token inconsistency over time. Receptive vocabulary (measured at the outset of the study) was also a significant predictor of speech accuracy and inconsistency. Conclusions: These findings suggest that an immediate start to intervention (rather than a wait-and-see approach) is recommended for children with inconsistent speech error patterns. The results also highlight the value of developing vocabulary knowledge in addition to improving speech accuracy for some children with inconsistent speech production.
Purpose: In this study, we examine how well kindergarten letter identification and phonological awareness predict 2nd grade word reading and dyslexia in children with developmental language disorder ...(DLD) and their age- and grade-matched peers with typical language (TL). Method: We employ (a) logistic regression to determine how letter identification and phonological awareness predict dyslexia, that is, dichotomous categorization of good or poor word reading, in children with DLD and TL and (b) quantile regression to determine how letter identification and phonological awareness are associated with word reading abilities on a continuum in these groups of children. Results: Logistic regression revealed that letter identification was the only significant, unique kindergarten predictor of dyslexia in 2nd grade children with DLD, when compared to phonological awareness. In children with TL, both kindergarten letter identification and phonological awareness significantly predicted dyslexia in 2nd grade. Quantile regression revealed that kindergarten letter identification was a stronger predictor of 2nd grade word reading for average and lower achieving word readers with DLD and their peers with TL compared to higher performing readers. Phonological awareness was weakly associated with word reading across the full continuum of word reading abilities in children with DLD. Conclusion: Letter identification is a more accurate predictor of poor word reading and dyslexia than phonological awareness in kindergarten children with DLD, which has important implications for recent U.S. legislation around early identification of dyslexia in all children.
Predictors of early word reading are well established. However, it is unclear if these predictors hold for readers across a range of word reading abilities. This study used quantile regression to ...investigate predictive relationships at different points in the distribution of word reading. Quantile regression analyses used preschool and kindergarten measures of letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatised naming, sentence repetition, vocabulary and mother's education to predict first‐grade word reading. Predictors generally varied in significance across levels of word reading. Notably, rapid automatised naming was a significant unique predictor for average and good readers but not poor readers. Letter knowledge was generally a stronger unique predictor for poor and average readers than good readers. Well‐known word reading predictors varied in significance at different points along the word reading distribution. Results have implications for early identification and statistical analyses of reading‐related outcomes.
What is already known about this topic
Early predictors of word reading are well established, with letter knowledge, phonological awareness and rapid automatised naming identified as key predictors.
These relationships are primarily investigated in average readers, or in groups of good and poor readers separated by an arbitrary cut‐off score.
What this paper adds
In this study, we used quantile regression to determine significant predictors of word reading across a range of word reading abilities.
The quantile regression approach avoids the loss of power that can arise when creating subgroups and has none of the issues associated with the use of a single, arbitrary cut-off score to separate good and poor readers.
Letter knowledge and phonological awareness were significantly predictive of word reading across the distribution of word reading abilities, whereas rapid automatised naming was significant only for good readers, and sentence recall was significant only for poor readers.
Implications for theory, policy and practice
Results reinforce the usefulness of measures such as letter knowledge, phonological awareness and sentence repetition in the early identification of children at risk for reading disabilities.
Results also suggest that measures of rapid naming may add little unique information in differentiating between children who subsequently read in the below‐average range.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe and explain changes in severity of speech sound disorder (sSd) and token-to-token inconsistency in children with high levels of inconsistency. Method: ...Thirty-nine children (aged 4;6-7;11 years;months) with SSDs and high levels of token-to-token inconsistency were assessed every 6 months for 2 years (i.e., five assessment points). Growth modeling was used to assess relations among therapy support, receptive vocabulary, severity, and inconsistency over time. Results: Children with the most severe SSDs and highest levels of token-totoken inconsistency showed the smallest improvements in speech accuracy over time. Therapy support did not predict changes in speech accuracy or token-totoken inconsistency over time. Receptive vocabulary (measured at the outset of the study) was also a significant predictor of speech accuracy and inconsistency. Conclusions: These findings suggest that an immediate start to intervention (rather than a wait-and-see approach) is recommended for children with inconsistent speech error patterns. The results also highlight the value of developing vocabulary knowledge in addition to improving speech accuracy for some children with inconsistent speech production.
PDF