Genetic Covariance Structure of Reading, Intelligence and Memory in Children

This study investigates the genetic relationship among reading performance, IQ, verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) in a sample of 112, 9-year-old twin pairs and their older siblings. The relationship between reading performance and the other traits was explained by a common genetic factor for reading performance, IQ, WM and STM and a genetic factor that only influenced reading performance and verbal memory. Genetic variation explained 83% of the variation in reading performance; most of this genetic variance was explained by variation in IQ and memory performance. We hypothesize, based on these results, that children with reading problems possibly can be divided into three groups: (1) children low in IQ and with reading problems; (2) children with average IQ but a STM deficit and with reading problems; (3) children with low IQ and STM deficits; this group may experience more reading problems than the other two

Assessing direct contributions of morphological awareness and prosodic sensitivity to children’s word reading and reading comprehension

We examined the independent contributions of prosodic sensitivity and morphological awareness to word reading, text reading accuracy, and reading comprehension. We did so in a longitudinal study of English-speaking children (N = 70). At 5 to 7 years of age, children completed the metalinguistic measures along with control measures of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Children completed the reading measures two years later. Morphological awareness, but not prosodic sensitivity made a significant independent contribution to word reading, text reading accuracy and reading comprehension. The effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension remained after controls for word reading. These results suggest that morphological awareness needs to be considered seriously in models of reading development and that prosodic sensitivity might have primarily indirect relations to reading outcomes. Keywords: Morphological Awareness; Prosody; Word Reading; Reading Comprehension

The Effect of Visual Aid and Games on Reading Performance of Down Syndrome Children

Children with Down syndrome might demonstrate slow progress in reading. In fad some of the children might be able to read but did not understand the concept o reading. They might not remember what they had read, especially when the reading method gave emphasis to alphabet memorization and spelling. However, Down Syndrome children might learn to read better using visual stimuli to compensate their fewer memory channels (Oelwein, 1995). They also learned best using a hands on approach with activities that are meaningful to them (Dunaway,2005). A specific reading program then was designed to help the children acquiring better reading performance. This program was intended to modify the previous reading program tho emphasized on spelling method. it employed the playful approach including the use visual aid, such as specially designed pictorial books and cards, and games such as matching cards, word play, role-play and sports. The subjects of the program were three Down Syndrome children within age range of 8- 10 years old, and IQ range between 50-65. The intervention process of this program, and its varied effects on children reading performance (including matching, selecting and naming) will be explained. The obstacles and suggestions will be further discussed

Vocabulary is important for some, but not all reading skills

Although there is evidence for a close link between the development of oral vocabulary and reading comprehension, less clear is whether oral vocabulary skills relate to the development of word-level reading skills. This study investigated vocabulary and literacy in 81 children of 8-10 years. In regression analyses, vocabulary accounted for unique variance in exception word reading and reading comprehension, but not text reading accuracy, decoding and regular word reading. Consistent with these data, children with poor reading comprehension exhibited oral vocabulary weaknesses and read fewer exception words correctly. These findings demonstrate that oral vocabulary is associated with some, but not all reading skills. Results are discussed in terms of current models of reading development

The Effects Of Parental Reading Socialisation On The Reading Skill Performance Of Rural Primary School Students In Sarawak

Extant research on home literacy practices such as parental reading socialisation have demonstrated positive impacts on children in terms of academic performance. A particular aspect that sparks pedagogic importance is the scaffolding potential of reading at home to the learning of English language in non-native English Language contexts. This study aimed to examine the effects of mother’s involvement in home- reading sessions on students’ English reading skill performance in Bau, Sarawak. Prior to carrying out the intervention of reading at home with their children, 31 mothers of Bidayuh ethnicity voluntarily attended a one-day workshop to orient them to the intervention and the use of logbooks to record details of their shared readings. However, only 18 mothers conducted reading sessions with their children and submitted a total of 21 logbooks detailing the frequency and material selection for reading. Their children, consisting of primary 1 to 4 students were required to sit for a pre-test and a post-test that measure their English language reading proficiency. The test scores were analysed using the paired-sample T-test. There was a significant increase in the students’ post-test scores following the reading intervention. The results revealed that despite the low frequency of mother-child shared reading sessions, the sessions positively affected the students’ reading performance. This finding suggests that parental reading socialisation can facilitate students’ literacy development. However, the use of materials in Bidayuh as a native language as opposed to Malay or English may increase the rural parents’ participation in home-literacy activities, and encourage early literacy in children

Learning to read in regular and special schools: a follow up study of students with Down Syndrome

In 2006, a questionnaire was sent to 160 parents of children with Down syndrome in Dutch primary education (special and regular) with a response rate of 76%. Questions were related to the child's gender, age and school history, academic and non-academic skills, IQ, parental educational level, and the extent to which parents worked on academics with their child. In a 2010-follow-up, out of these 121 parents, 115 (95%) filled in a questionnaire on reading and school placement of 16 of these children, IQ was unknown. These children were excluded from the analysis. Controlling for reading scores at time 1 (2006) and the other 2006-variables, ANCOVA's showed that reading scores at time 2 (2010) were higher for children the more years they had been in a regular school between time 1 (t1) and time 2 (t2). This was true for the total group and particularly for the younger children(< 9 years), whether all children or only children still in regular education in 2006 were included. Predicting change scores confirmed this advantage of regular placement, but only in the younger children. Particularly during the first years of primary school, reading development of children with Down syndrome appears to be stimulated by regular school placement

Early predictors of phonological and morphological awareness and the link with reading : evidence from children with different patterns of early deficit

This study examines the contribution of early phonological processing (PP) and language skills on later phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA), as well as the links among PA, MA, and reading. Children 4–6 years of age with poor PP at the start of school showed weaker PA and MA 3 years later (age 7–9), regardless of their language skills. PA and phonological and morphological strategies predict reading accuracy, whereas MA predicts reading comprehension. Our findings suggest that children with poor early PP are more at risk of developing deficits in MA and PA than children with poor language. They also suggest that there is a direct link between PA and reading accuracy and between MA and reading comprehension that cannot be accounted for by strategy use at the word level

Clock reading: an underestimated topic in children with mathematics difficulties

Recent studies have shown that children with mathematics difficulties (MD) have weaknesses in multiple areas of mathematics. Andersson (2008), for example, recently found that children with MD perform significantly worse than other children on clock reading tasks. The present study builds on this recent finding and aims at a more profound understanding of the difficulties that children with MD experience with telling time. Therefore, clock reading abilities of 154 children with MD were compared to the ability of 571 average achieving children and a qualitative error analysis was performed. The results of this study confirm the earlier finding of Andersson (2008) that children with MD perform worse on clock reading than average achieving children, and additionally shows that children with MD are especially struggling the combination of procedural and retrieval strategies that are needed to read complex five minute and one minute clock times. Children with MD make more errors that reflect immature counting strategies and deficits in memory retrieval. This finding is in line with Geary’s (2005) theory of subtypes in MD, that argues that children with MD have problems with mathematical procedures and semantic memory retrieval

Reading comprehension: nature, assessment and teaching.

The goal of reading is understanding. In order to understand print, a child must be able to decode the words on the page and to extract meaning. A large body of research focuses on how children learn to decode text and how best to foster children’s decoding skills. In contrast, we know much less about the process of reading comprehension in children. In this booklet we first consider what is required in order to ‘read for meaning’. We then move on to discuss children who have difficulties with reading comprehension. Our aim is to enable teachers to assess individual differences in reading and to foster the comprehension strategies that characterize fluent reading

Phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word reading in children who use cochlear implants: does age of implantation explain individual variability in performance outcomes and growth?

The phonological awareness (PA), vocabulary, and word reading abilities of 19 children with cochlear implants (CI) were assessed. Nine children had an implant early (between 2 and 3.6 years) and 10 had an implant later (between 5 and 7 years). Participants were tested twice over a 12-month period on syllable, rhyme, and phoneme awareness (see James et al., 2005). Performance of Cl users was compared against younger hearing children matched for reading level. Two standardized assessments of vocabulary and single word reading were administered. As a group, the children fitted early had better performance outcomes on PA, vocabulary, and reading compared to hearing benchmark groups. The early group had significant growth on rhyme awareness, whereas the late group showed no significant gains in PA over time. There was wide individual variation in performance and growth in the Cl users. Two participants with the best overall development were both fitted with an implant late in childhoo