Phonological Processing and Word Reading in Typically Developing and Reading Disabled Children: Severity Matters

Abstract

In this study word reading (WR) fluency was used to dichotomously classify 1,598 Dutch children at different cutoffs, indicating (very) poor or (very) good reading performance. Analysis of variance and receiver operating characteristics were used to investigate the effects of rapid automatized naming (RAN) and phonemic awareness (PA) in predicting group membership. The highest predictive values were found for the combination of RAN and PA, particularly for the poorest readers. Furthermore, results indicate that with the severity of impairment, WR is more dominated by deficient PA, which is interpreted as an enduring problem with sublexical processing. Another main result is that with the increase of reading skill, the contribution of PA diminishes, whereas the contribution of RAN remains fairly constant for the whole reading fluency continuum. These results warrant the conclusion that whereas PA hallmarks reading disability, RAN appears to be the default predictor for above-average or excellent reading proficiency.

Predicting word reading ability: a quantile regression study

“…There was some evidence in the individual quantile regressions that phonological awareness was more strongly related to reading at the lower quantiles (Figures and ); however, the multiple quantile regressions for kindergarten showed a more consistent pattern across quantiles (Figure ). The pattern of collinearity with the other predictors may have contributed to this and makes direct comparison with other studies more difficult, especially those that did not include measures of letter knowledge (de Groot et al, ; Torgesen et al, ).…”

“…In addition, estimates of predictive relationships will be most representative of readers with average scores within a subgroup, while readers close to the cut-off score will not be well represented. One recent study that addressed the issue of a single cut point among children with varying levels of word reading ability was conducted by de Groot et al (2015). The researchers examined the predictive relationships of phonological awareness and RAN to word reading, using data from a large sample of Dutch children ages 7-14 years.…”

“…This issue has typically been addressed by dividing a sample into subgroups of average readers and poor readers. Relationships can then be estimated within the subgroups independently, or by comparing effect sizes, correlations or regression coefficients between reader groups (de Groot, van den Bos, Minnaert, & van der Meulen, ; Katzir, Kim, Wolf, Kennedy, Lovett, & Morris, ; Scarborough, ; Torgesen, Wagner, Rashotte, Burgess, & Hecht, ). However, the creation of subgroups necessitates the use of an arbitrary cut‐off score, and the particular cut‐off score that is used to divide the sample and define the group of poor readers often varies between studies, making comparisons across studies difficult.…”

“…One recent study that addressed the issue of a single cut point among children with varying levels of word reading ability was conducted by de Groot et al (). The researchers examined the predictive relationships of phonological awareness and RAN to word reading, using data from a large sample of Dutch children ages 7–14 years.…”

Eye-Movement Control in RAN and Reading

“…Moreover, this predictive relationship appears to remain through adulthood, with correlations as high as r = .53 for adults aged 36–65 (Van den Bos, Zijlstra & lutje Spelberg, 2002). In addition, studies have suggested that 60% to 75% of individuals with reading disabilities exhibit RAN deficits (de Groot, van den Bos, Minnaert, & van der Meulen, 2015; Katzir, Kim, Wolf, Morris & Lovett, 2008; Waber, Forbes, Wolf & Weiler, 2004; Wolf et al, 2002). These strong relationships, which hold across languages (Georgiou et al, 2008; Georgiou, Aro, Liao, & Parrila, 2015; Moll, Ramus, Bartling, Bruder, Kunze et al, 2014; Tan et al, 2005), together with the clinical efficiency of the task itself, which takes less than 5 minutes to administer, make understanding the causal underpinnings of the RAN-reading association a significant goal.…”