Predicting delayed letter knowledge development and its relation to Grade 1 reading achievement among children with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

Abstract

The authors examined the developmental trajectories of children's early letter knowledge in relation to measures spanning and encompassing their prior language-related and cognitive measures and environmental factors and their subsequent Grade 1 reading achievement. Letter knowledge was assessed longitudinally at ages 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, and 6.5 years; earlier language skills and environmental factors were assessed at ages 3.5 and 4.5 years; and reading achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of Grade 1. The analyses were conducted on a longitudinal data set involving children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Emerging from the trajectory analysis of letter knowledge were 3 separate clusters: delayed (n = 63), linearly growing (n = 73), and precocious (n = 51). The members of the delayed cluster were predominantly children with familial risk for dyslexia, and the members of the precocious cluster were predominantly control group children. Phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, and rapid naming skills predicted delayed letter knowledge. Environmental predictors included level of maternal education and the amount of letter name teaching. Familial risk for dyslexia made a significant contribution to the predictive relations. Membership in the delayed cluster predicted poor reading performance at Grade 1.

Development of Phonological Awareness and Letter Knowledge in Bosnian Preschool Children

“…In this study, there is significant association between letter knowledge and all phonological measures, and all variables of phonological awareness were good predictors of letter knowledge. Authors Torppa, Pokkeus, Laakso, Eklund, & Lyytinen (2006) found for English that phonological sensitivity predicted delayed letter knowledge and Shah (2002) found that letter-sound knowledge is a critical skill in attaining a better phonological awareness. In Finnish, language with regular orthography (like in Bosnian) practically every phoneme corresponds to one letter.…”

The Sooner, the Better

“…For instance, in a study conducted by Flax, Realpe-Bonilla, Roesler, Choudhury, and Benasich (2009), children's language comprehension at three years of age predicted various language and reading measures at seven years of age. Furthermore, children with stronger early linguistic skills tend to outperform children with weak early linguistic skills on assessments of literacy abilities in school, and this gap appears to widen over time (Bast & Reitsma, 1998;Torppa, Poikkeus, Laakso, Eklund, & Lyytinen, 2006). Parents who support their children's language and later emergent literacy learning intensively by providing a high-quality HLE facilitate children's vocabulary acquisition (Mol, Bus, de Jong, & Smeets, 2008;.…”

“Shall We Play a Game?”: Improving Reading Through Action Video Games in Developmental Dyslexia

“…Children with SLI and DD [136] show difficulties in perceiving speech when it is presented in background noise [51, [137][138][139]. Atypical auditory processing characterizes children at risk for DD (e.g.…”