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Updated: May 29, 2026
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Using Cholesky Decomposition to Explore Individual Differences in Longitudinal Relations between Reading Skills
Published on: September 17, 2019
Effects of a randomised reading intervention study: an application of structural equation modelling
1Department of Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. ulrika.wolff@ped.gu.se
Dyslexia (Chichester, England)
|September 29, 2011
Summary
This study shows that intensive phonics intervention improved reading skills in Swedish children with reading difficulties. These gains in phonics, reading comprehension, and reading speed persisted one year later.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Reading difficulties affect a significant portion of the student population.
- Remediating reading speed has been a persistent challenge in intervention studies.
- Swedish transparent orthography presents unique characteristics for reading acquisition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive phonics-based intervention on reading skills in children with reading difficulties.
- To determine if the intervention improves reading speed, spelling, reading comprehension, and phoneme awareness.
- To assess the long-term effects of the intervention one year post-training.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial involving 112 nine-year-old Swedish pupils.
- An intensive, 12-week, one-to-one phonics intervention tailored to Swedish orthography.
- Assessment of spelling, reading comprehension, reading speed, and phoneme awareness immediately post-intervention and one year later.
Main Results:
- The intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in spelling, reading comprehension, reading speed, and phoneme awareness immediately after the program.
- Long-term follow-up revealed significant indirect effects of the intervention on all measured variables one year later.
- Reading comprehension and phoneme awareness at post-test were significant predictors of later spelling and reading comprehension.
Conclusions:
- A multi-component intervention combining phonics, comprehension strategies, and fluency training is effective for improving reading skills, even in transparent orthographies.
- Early gains in phoneme awareness and reading comprehension are crucial for sustained reading improvement.
- Phonics-based interventions can effectively address reading difficulties, including challenges with reading speed.
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