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The relationship of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and verbal memory to severe reading and spelling disability
1Psychology Department, IWK Children's Hospital, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Insights
This study reveals that while verbal comprehension is key, phonological awareness, naming speed, and memory also significantly impact reading skills in children with severe reading disabilities.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Severe reading disabilities affect numerous children, impacting academic achievement.
- Understanding the cognitive underpinnings of reading is crucial for effective intervention.
- Previous research highlights various factors contributing to reading difficulties.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between phonological awareness, naming speed, verbal memory, and academic reading skills.
- To identify the best predictors of reading and spelling abilities in children with severe reading disabilities.
- To determine the unique contributions of cognitive factors after controlling for demographic and behavioral variables.
Main Methods:
- A cohort of 54 children with severe reading disabilities (mean age 9 years, 7 months) was assessed.
- Multiple regression analyses were used to examine relationships between cognitive measures and academic test scores.
- Key cognitive factors assessed included phonological awareness, rapid naming, verbal memory, and verbal comprehension.
Main Results:
- Verbal comprehension was the strongest predictor of overall academic achievement.
- Phonological awareness significantly predicted word attack, spelling, and reading comprehension.
- Rapid letter naming predicted word identification and reading speed/accuracy; verbal memory predicted word recognition.
Conclusions:
- Reading proficiency in children with severe reading disabilities results from an interaction of multiple cognitive processes.
- Phonological awareness, naming speed, and verbal memory play distinct, significant roles alongside verbal comprehension.
- These findings underscore the complexity of reading disabilities and inform targeted educational strategies.
Abstract:
The present study examined the relationship of phonological awareness, naming speed, and verbal memory to the scores obtained from five tests assessing word attack, word identification, reading comprehension, and spelling skills in 54 children with severe reading disabilities (48 boys and 6 girls; M age = 9 years, 7 months). Multiple regression analyses indicated that the best predictor of achievement across the five academic tests was the Verbal Comprehension factor from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Age, socioeconomic status (SES), and externalizing behavior problems were also significant predictors of achievement, depending on the academic measure. After controlling for age, SES, behavior problems, and intelligence, the phonological awareness task added significantly to the prediction of word attack, spelling, and reading comprehension scores; rapid letter naming added significantly to the prediction of word identification and prose passage speed and accuracy scores; and a word-list memory task added significantly to the prediction of word recognition scores. These results suggest that several independent processes interact to determine the extent and severity of reading problems.