Reciprocal Effects of Self‐Regulation, Semantic Knowledge, and Reading Comprehension in Early Elementary School

Abstract

Many assume that cognitive and linguistic processes, such as semantic knowledge (SK) and self-regulation (SR) subserve learned skills like reading. However, complex models of interacting and bootstrapping effects of SK, SR, instruction, and reading hypothesize reciprocal effects. Testing this “lattice” model with children (n = 852) followed from 1st–2nd grade (5.9–10.4 years-of-age), revealed reciprocal effects for reading and SR, and reading and SK, but not SR and SK. More effective literacy instruction reduced reading stability over time. Findings elucidate the synergistic and reciprocal effects of learning to read on other important linguistic, self-regulatory, and cognitive processes, the value of using complex models of development to inform intervention design, and how learned skills may influence development during middle childhood.

A Lattice Model of the Development of Reading Comprehension

“…Although these two components may be distinct statistically, they are related. Additionally, academic knowledge is apparently an integral part of linguistic processes, likely as part of the semantic system (2). In the lattice model, we conceptualize language and knowledge as a system of linguistic processes rather than as discrete components.…”

“…To test the lattice model, we examined the predicted simultaneous reciprocal effects in the context of instruction from first through second grade (2). Specifically, in a longitudinal study, we examined reciprocal effects of text-specific processes (word reading and reading comprehension), linguistic processes (vocabulary and academic knowledge), and social-cognitive processes (self-regulation, attention, working memory, and task inhibition-switching).…”

“…Weaker language and social-cognitive development, as well as ineffective instruction, are almost always associated with weaker development of literacy. My colleagues and I have suggested that a more dynamic model of reading comprehension might help explain how children learn to understand what they read, and inform more effective instructional programs, particularly for children in poverty (1, 2). We have conceptualized reading comprehension as a

complex activity that requires the reader … to call on the coordination of cognitive, regulatory, linguistic, and text-specific processes, including decoding [and encoding] of text, which are developing over time and that have reciprocal and interacting bootstrapping effects on one another.

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“…These processes are malleable but respond to environmental influences to differing degrees and may be more malleable earlier in childhood than later (e.g., language). Within this model, instruction—at school and at home—directly and indirectly affects the processes and children’s ability to learn how to comprehend when reading (2). Following dynamic systems models (3), the lattice model is part of a larger system, with systems within systems that affect one another.…”

Enacted Reading Comprehension: Using Bodily Movement to Aid the Comprehension of Abstract Text Content

“…Implicit in this approach is the idea that there are no single “magic bullet” interventions that will be effective for all students who show signs of comprehension difficulties. Investigators from this team have outlined a "lattice model" of reading development [7] that highlights the extent to which the acquisition of literacy skills is driven by a dynamic interplay of multiple developmental factors. For example, there are reciprocal effects in the development of self-regulation and reading comprehension, such that self-regulation is associated with better comprehension performance, and improved comprehension performance appears to drive subsequent improvements in self-regulation [7].…”