This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.Other uses, including reproduction and distribution, or selling or licensing copies, or posting to personal, institutional or third party websites are prohibited. b s t r a c tPhonological development was assessed in six alphabetic orthographies (English, French, Greek, Icelandic, Portuguese and Spanish) at the beginning and end of the first year of reading instruction. The aim was to explore contrasting theoretical views regarding: the question of the availability of phonology at the outset of learning to read (Study 1); the influence of orthographic depth on the pace of phonological development during the transition to literacy (Study 2); and the impact of literacy instruction (Study 3). Results from 242 children did not reveal a consistent sequence of development as performance varied according to task demands and language. Phonics instruction appeared more influential than orthographic depth in the emergence of an early meta-phonological capacity to manipulate phonemes, and preliminary indications were that cross-linguistic variation was associated with speech rhythm more than factors such as syllable complexity. The implications of the outcome for current models of phonological development are discussed.

Fifteen Portuguese children with dyslexia, aged 9-11 years, were compared with reading and chronological age controls with respect to five indicators related to the phonological deficit hypothesis: the effects of lexicality, regularity, and length, implicit and explicit phonological awareness, and rapid naming. The comparison between groups indicates that Portuguese children with dyslexia have a phonological impairment which is revealed by a developmental deficit in implicit phonological awareness and irregular word reading (where younger reading level controls performed better than dyslexics) and by a developmental delay in decoding ability and explicit phonological awareness (where dyslexics matched reading level controls). These results are discussed in relation to the idea that European Portuguese is written in an orthography of intermediate depth.

This study undertakes a cross-linguistic comparison of reading and spelling acquisition inThe present paper compares the early development of reading and spelling in three Romance languages, namely French, Portuguese and Spanish. Most cross-linguistic studies show a variation in the speed of acquisition of these

Reading is a central cognitive domain, but little research has been devoted to standardized tests for adults. We, thus, examined the psychometric properties of the 1-min version of Teste de Idade de Leitura (Reading Age Test; 1-min TIL), the Portuguese version of Lobrot L3 test, in three experiments with college students: typical readers in Experiment 1A and B, dyslexic readers and chronological age controls in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1A, test-retest reliability and convergent validity were evaluated in 185 students. Reliability was>.70, and phonological decoding underpinned 1-min TIL. In Experiment 1B, internal consistency was assessed by presenting two 45-s versions of the test to 19 students, and performance in these versions was significantly associated (r = .78). In Experiment 2, construct validity, criterion validity and clinical utility of 1-min TIL were investigated. A multiple regression analysis corroborated construct validity; both phonological decoding and listening comprehension were reliable predictors of 1-min TIL scores. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics analyses revealed the high accuracy of this test in distinguishing dyslexic from typical readers. Therefore, the 1-min TIL, which assesses reading comprehension and potential reading difficulties in college students, has the necessary psychometric properties to become a useful screening instrument in neuropsychological assessment and research. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

HighlightsMonopolar mapping is effective for cortical and subcortical language areas.250–500 Hz stimulation parameters are adequate and safe for speech testing.It may improve resection rate of infiltrating tumor areas involving the speech area.

Our aim was to analyse the linguistic structure of the Lobrot's Lecture 3 (L3) reading test and to describe the procedure for its adaptation to a Brazilian cultural-linguistic context. The resulting adapted version is called the Reading Test-Sentence Comprehension [Teste de Leitura: Compreensão de Sentenças (TELCS)] and was developed using the European Portuguese adaptation of L3 as a reference. The present study was conducted in seven steps: (1) classification of the response alternatives of L3 test; (2) adaptation of the original sentences into Brazilian Portuguese; (3) back-translation; (4) adaptation of the distractors from TELCS; (5) configuration of TELCS; (6) pilot study; and (7) validation and standardization. In comparison with L3, TELCS included new linguistic and structural variables, such as frequency of occurrence of the distractors, gender neutrality and position of the target words. The instrument can be used for a collective screening or individual clinical administration purposes to evaluate the reading ability of second-to-fifth-grade and 7-to-11-year-old students.

This paper diagnoses the reading skills at the onset of second grade after one (final) trimester of first grade, with online schooling as a result of COVID-19. It also describes and assesses the impact of a Reading Skills Consolidating Program conducted with second graders during the first weeks of the school year. This intervention program focuses on the promotion of letter-sound, phonemic awareness, decoding and spelling. The intervention was implemented with 446-second graders (224 boys and 208 girls), preceded and followed by a reading assessment. Results were analyzed with an intra (pre- and post-test) group design. A paired sample t-test indicated the presence of statistically significant differences between the two assessment moments, with higher values at the post-test. At the pre-test, there was a significantly higher than the normally expected percentage of students with a reading level on or below the 10th percentile along with a significantly worse performance among low Socioeconomic Status (SES) students. The post-test revealed a positive impact of the training program, as indicated by (i) a decrease to about half of the number of students at or below the 10th percentile, (ii) an increase of 20% of students with reading skills at or above the 30th percentile and (iii) the difference decrease in reading skills in a result of SES.

Exceto onde especificado diferentemente, a matéria publicada neste periódico é licenciada sob forma de uma licença Creative Commons -Atribuição 4. RESUMO: Neste estudo avaliou-se o impacto de um software de apoio às dificuldades de aprendizagem da leitura -o Graphogame -ao nível das relações letra-som, consciência fonémica, leitura de palavras e leitura de pseudopalavras. Os participantes eram 57 crianças, a frequentar o 1º ano de escolaridade, falantes nativos do português europeu, identificadas como em risco de virem a apresentar dificuldades de aprendizagem da leitura. As crianças foram divididas em três grupos: (a) intervenção com recurso a software -treino com software Graphogame, (b) intervenção mistatreino com recurso ao software Graphogame e a sessões de competências pré-leitoras e leitoras orientadas por técnico de educação e (c) ausência de intervenção para lá daquela prevista no sistema regular de ensino. Os resultados revelam efeitos positivos de ambos os tipos de intervenção em relação ao grupo controlo. Revelam ainda um efeito mais pronunciado para o grupo de intervenção mista do que para o grupo de intervenção com recurso exclusivo ao software.Palavras-chave: Aprendizagem da leitura; Software de apoio à leitura; Dificuldades de aprendizagem; Graphogame.ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the impact of a reading intervention software -the Graphogame -on letter-sound relationship, phonemic awareness, word reading and nonword reading. Participants were 57 1st graders, native speakers of European Portuguese, identified as at risk for developing difficulties in reading acquisition. Children were divided into three groups: (a) intervention using the software -training with Graphogame software, (b) combined intervention -training using the Graphogame software and sessions for pre-reading and reading competence supervised by an education technician (c) no intervention beyond that provided for in the mainstream school system. The results show beneficial effects of both types of intervention compared to the control group. Results also reveal a more positive effect for the combined intervention group than for the group that used exclusively the software.