Phonological processing and oral language abilities in fourth-grade poor readers

This study investigated the contribution of phonological processing and oral language skills to reading abilities (word attack, word recognition, and comprehension) in 17 fourth graders identified as poor readers. Participants were assessed in the areas of phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and rapid naming, in addition to oral language abilities as predictors of poor reading skills. Results indicated that the strongest predictors of word attack skills were phonological awareness and grammaticality judgment. The combination of phonological awareness, grammaticality judgment, phoneme manipulation, and rapid naming of digits accounted for more than half of the variance in word recognition. Furthermore, the amount of discrepancy between IQ scores and reading achievement did not distinguish groups of poor readers. The results support the importance of metalinguistic skills to support reading ability. Phonological processing and oral language abilities may vary in children with poor reading skills as processing demands change with age and task.

As a result of this activity, the reader will be able to: (1) identify phonological processing and oral language skills that are most predictive of specific reading skills in poor readers; (2) describe further evidence of the lack of utility of the discrepancy model to define reading disorders in children.