Search

This research paper explores the connection between phonological skills and reading proficiency among Arabic-speaking male students at Haql College. Using a qualitative thematic analysis approach. This study investigates the level of phonological awareness and how the phonological awareness relates to reading proficiency among Saudi University students. The participants were 20 first-year students from the Languages and Translation department at Haql College. Semi-structured group interviews were conducted to examine participants' perceptions of phonological skills and their impact on reading ability. The findings reveal a strong connection between phonological skills and reading proficiency through different factors or themes that develop reading proficiency among the students, such as awareness of phonological sounds, reading habits and practices, and perceptions of phonological skills in reading. Based on the findings, recommendations were provided for educators and policymakers to integrate phonological awareness activities into language instruction. It is important to introduce professional development programs to provide educators with the essential skills to integrate phonological awareness education into the curriculum. It is advisable to conduct longitudinal studies to evaluate the lasting impact of phonological awareness interventions on reading achievement in Arabic-speaking university students. In summary, educational institutions may empower students to become proficient readers and lifelong learners by prioritizing phonological instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading acquisition is a prolonged learning process relying on language development starting in utero. Behavioral longitudinal studies reveal prospective associations between infant language abilities and preschool/kindergarten phonological development that relates to subsequent reading performance. While recent pediatric neuroimaging work has begun to characterize the neural network underlying language development in infants, how this neural network scaffolds long-term language and reading acquisition remains unknown. We addressed this question in a 7-year longitudinal study from infancy to school-age. Seventy-six infants completed resting-state fMRI scanning, and underwent standardized language assessments in kindergarten. Of this larger cohort, forty-one were further assessed on their emergent word reading abilities after receiving formal reading instructions. Hierarchical clustering analyses identified a modular infant language network in which functional connectivity (FC) of the inferior frontal module prospectively correlated with kindergarten-age phonological skills and emergent word reading abilities. These correlations were obtained when controlling for infant age at scan, nonverbal IQ and parental education. Furthermore, kindergarten-age phonological skills mediated the relationship between infant FC and school-age reading abilities, implying a critical mid-way milestone for long-term reading development from infancy. Overall, our findings illuminate the neurobiological mechanisms by which infant language capacities could scaffold long-term reading acquisition.

Dyslexia and L2 appropriation have been extensively documented separately; however, few studies have brought them together. Our research sheds linguistic light on dyslexia in Arabic-speaking bilingual children. The aim is to study phonology, reading and spelling in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children learning French as a second language to better distinguish between what a reading disorder is and what typical appropriation is, with possible transient difficulties related to L2 development. The general hypothesis is that there are specific markers of dyslexia in Arabic-speaking children learning French as a second language. A multiple-case study was conducted. It consisted of four dyads of children aged 8-10 years: two bilingual dyslexic children, two bilingual non-dyslexic children, two monolingual dyslexic children and two monolingual non-dyslexic children. The bilingual children were Arabic speakers who had arrived in France at the age of six. In a diachronic and synchronic approach, spontaneous and experimental data were collected over a period of nine months. The experiment was based on the Phonoludos, Odedys 2, ELFE and ELDP2 tools. Parental questionnaires were also administered to parents. A synthesis of the most important results is presented. A phonological deficit is manifested in all dyslexic subjects by difficulties in speech perception/production, weaknesses in phonemic unit manipulation and decoding. In reading and spelling, atypical phonemic and phonetic errors are found in large numbers, whereas they are absent in non-dyslexics. This study is a first step in understanding how to identify dyslexia in bilingual children. It is now important to extend the study to a larger number of subjects, with a view to adapting tools that will facilitate the identification and assessment of children who speak several languages.

Sensitivity to auditory rhythmic structures in music and language is evident as early as infancy, but performance on beat perception tasks is often well below adult levels and improves gradually with age. While some research has suggested the ability to perceive musical beat develops early, even in infancy, it remains unclear whether adult-like perception of musical beat is present in children. The capacity to sustain an internal sense of the beat is critical for various rhythmic musical behaviors, yet very little is known about the development of this ability. In this study, 223 participants ranging in age from 4 to 23 years from the Las Vegas, Nevada, community completed a musical beat discrimination task, during which they first listened to a strongly metrical musical excerpt and then attempted to sustain their perception of the musical beat while listening to a repeated, beat-ambiguous rhythm for up to 14.4 s. They then indicated whether a drum probe matched or did not match the beat. Results suggested that the ability to identify the matching probe improved throughout middle childhood (8–9 years) and did not reach adult-like levels until adolescence (12–14 years). Furthermore, scores on the beat perception task were positively related to phonological processing, after accounting for age, short-term memory, and music and dance training. This study lends further support to the notion that children's capacity for beat perception is not fully developed until adolescence and suggests we should reconsider assumptions of musical beat mastery by infants and young children. Public Significance Statement: This study suggests that the ability to perceive and feel the beat in music develops during middle childhood and continues to improve through adolescence. These findings contrast with prior work claiming that this capacity is achieved by infancy or young childhood and suggest that important aspects of musical beat skills develop quite slowly and are not adult-like until adolescence. We also report that this ability is related to developing language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the quality of home literacy environment and practices (HLE&P) in the earliest years on children’s reading and writing development is recognized in the literature. However, whether and to what extent this relationship between preschoolers’ HLE&P on their later reading and writing skills in primary school is mediated by emergent literacy competence remains to be clarified. It may be that preschool constitutes a significant opportunity for children to develop notational awareness and phonological awareness which are emergent literacy skills that are fundamental for later reading and writing skills. Children who experience literacypoor HLE&P with fewer opportunities to practice more complex language skills and diverse vocabulary might develop adequate reading and writing skills when their emergent literacy skills in preschool are high (notational and phonological awareness). This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the mediational role of preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills in preschool (notational and phonological awareness) in the relationship between HLE&P and reading and writing skills shown by the same children in primary school using a large-scale dataset. A total of 115 children (mean-age at last year of preschool = 4.88 ± 0.36) took part in the research. In preschool, children performed emergent literacy tasks and their parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Later, in primary school, children completed standardized assessments of spelling (orthographic accuracy and fluency in a dictation task) and reading decoding (accuracy and speed in a text reading task) skills. The results of mediational analyses showed that notational awareness totally mediates the relationship between HLE&P and reading speed (𝛽= − 0.17, p < 0.05) and writing accuracy (𝛽=0.10, p < 0.05), but not for reading accuracy in primary school. The mediational model with phonological awareness as mediator was not significant. The results are discussed in the light of the effect of preschool in contributing to filling children’s home literacy gaps and disadvantages. In preschool, emergent literacy programs are essential to counterbalance the needs of preschoolers to develop adequate reading and writing skills when the family cannot provide enriched HLE&P from the early years of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the longitudinal relationship between children's domain-general cognitive constraints underlying phonological and sentence processing development in a big sample of typically developing children. 104 children were tested on non-linguistic processing speed, phonological skills (phonological short term memory, phonological knowledge, phonological working memory), and sentence processing abilities (sentence repetition and receptive grammar) in 1st grade (aged 6 to 6.5) and one year later. A cross-lagged structural equation model showed that non-linguistic processing speed was a concurrent predictor of phonological skills, and that phonology had a powerful effect on the child's sentence processing abilities concurrently and longitudinally, providing clear evidence for the role of domain-general processes in the developmental pathway of language. These findings support a cascaded cognitive view of language development and pose important challenges for evaluation and intervention strategies in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the quality of home literacy environment and practices (HLE&P) in the earliest years on children’s reading and writing development is recognized in the literature. However, whether and to what extent this relationship between preschoolers’ HLE&P on their later reading and writing skills in primary school is mediated by emergent literacy competence remains to be clarified. It may be that preschool constitutes a significant opportunity for children to develop notational awareness and phonological awareness which are emergent literacy skills that are fundamental for later reading and writing skills. Children who experience literacy-poor HLE&P with fewer opportunities to practice more complex language skills and diverse vocabulary might develop adequate reading and writing skills when their emergent literacy skills in preschool are high (notational and phonological awareness). This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the mediational role of preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills in preschool (notational and phonological awareness) in the relationship between HLE&P and reading and writing skills shown by the same children in primary school using a large-scale dataset. A total of 115 children (mean-age at last year of preschool = 4.88 ± 0.36) took part in the research. In preschool, children performed emergent literacy tasks and their parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Later, in primary school, children completed standardized assessments of spelling (orthographic accuracy and fluency in a dictation task) and reading decoding (accuracy and speed in a text reading task) skills. The results of mediational analyses showed that notational awareness totally mediates the relationship between HLE&P and reading speed (𝛽= − 0.17, p

Copyright of Revista de Psicología (1669-2438) is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This scientific investigation delves into the pivotal role of phonemes in language acquisition among children aged 8 to 11 with Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities. The study uncovers significant disparities between these groups, emphasizing the need for tailored educational strategies. Findings reveal fluctuations in rhyme, syllable, and phoneme recognition, underscoring the complexity of linguistic development. Noteworthy is the positive correlation between higher intelligence and enhanced phonological performance in both groups. The study suggests the importance of early interventions for children with Down syndrome and advocates for personalized educational programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the cognitive, language, and instructional factors associated with reading ability in Williams syndrome (WS). Seventy 9-year-olds with WS completed standardized measures of real-word reading, pseudoword decoding, reading comprehension, phonological skills, listening comprehension, nonverbal reasoning, visual-spatial ability, verbal working memory, rapid naming, and vocabulary. Reading instruction method was determined from school records and interviews with parents and teachers. Similar to prior findings for individuals with WS, reading ability varied widely, ranging from inability to read any words to reading comprehension at age level. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the primary concurrent predictor of word reading ability was reading instruction method, with a systematic phonics approach associated with considerably better performance than other reading instruction approaches. Phonological processing skills—as assessed by a composite of phonological awareness and verbal short-term memory—also contributed significant unique variance to word reading ability, as did visual-spatial ability. The concurrent predictors of reading comprehension were single-word reading and listening comprehension. These findings indicate that the factors that predict concurrent early word reading and reading comprehension abilities for children with WS are consistent with previous findings for typically developing children and that the Simple View of Reading applies to children with WS. Children with WS benefit strongly from systematic phonics instruction regardless of IQ. Instruction focused on improving listening comprehension is likely to improve reading comprehension, especially as word reading skills increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading acquisition is a prolonged learning process relying on language development starting in utero. Behavioral longitudinal studies reveal prospective associations between infant language abilities and preschool/kindergarten phonological development that relates to subsequent reading performance. While recent pediatric neuroimaging work has begun to characterize the neural network underlying language development in infants, how this neural network scaffolds long-term language and reading acquisition remains unknown. We addressed this question in a 7-year longitudinal study from infancy to school-age. Seventy-six infants completed resting-state fMRI scanning, and underwent standardized language assessments in kindergarten. Of this larger cohort, forty-one were further assessed on their emergent word reading abilities after receiving formal reading instructions. Hierarchical clustering analyses identified a modular infant language network in which functional connectivity (FC) of the inferior frontal module prospectively correlated with kindergarten-age phonological skills and emergent word reading abilities. These correlations were obtained when controlling for infant age at scan, nonverbal IQ and parental education. Furthermore, kindergarten-age phonological skills mediated the relationship between infant FC and school-age reading abilities, implying a critical mid-way milestone for long-term reading development from infancy. Overall, our findings illuminate the neurobiological mechanisms by which infant language capacities could scaffold long-term reading acquisition. • Clustering analyses revealed a modular language network in the infant brain. • Infant language network characteristics associate with school-age reading outcomes. • These longitudinal associations are mediated by kindergarten-age phonological skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading acquisition is a prolonged learning process relying on language development starting in utero. Behavioral longitudinal studies reveal prospective associations between infant language abilities and preschool/kindergarten phonological development that relates to subsequent reading performance. While recent pediatric neuroimaging work has begun to characterize the neural network underlying language development in infants, how this neural network scaffolds long-term language and reading acquisition remains unknown. We addressed this question in a 7-year longitudinal study from infancy to school-age. Seventy-six infants completed resting-state fMRI scanning, and underwent standardized language assessments in kindergarten. Of this larger cohort, forty-one were further assessed on their emergent word reading abilities after receiving formal reading instructions. Hierarchical clustering analyses identified a modular infant language network in which functional connectivity (FC) of the inferior frontal module prospectively correlated with kindergarten-age phonological skills and emergent word reading abilities. These correlations were obtained when controlling for infant age at scan, nonverbal IQ and parental education. Furthermore, kindergarten-age phonological skills mediated the relationship between infant FC and school-age reading abilities, implying a critical mid-way milestone for long-term reading development from infancy. Overall, our findings illuminate the neurobiological mechanisms by which infant language capacities could scaffold long-term reading acquisition., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

In a large-scale study conducted in 4- to 5-year-old French-speaking preschoolers (N = 12,162), early literacy skills were assessed with four short tasks designed to investigate three domains related to learning to read: letter knowledge, phonological skills, and vocabulary. This tool was developed in response to the lack of available literacy screening tools for this population. Item response theory (IRT) analyses were used to examine the discrimination and difficulty parameters of each item. Then, a structural model confirmed that all the scores contributed to a latent ability, namely, early literacy. Three variables, namely, sociodemographic zone, age, and gender, are related to performance on literacy skills. Finally, an IRT with these variables as covariates confirms that all of them explained the difference in the scores in each domain except for zone in the case of letter-name knowledge (without significant link). This initial tool for French-speaking preschoolers could be used to identify children with early difficulties and help promote early language interventions to combat subsequent difficulties in learning to read. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aimed at the detailed insight into the phonological ability of Serbian-speaking children of preschool age, with and without language impairment, the ability of rapid naming was examined. Method: Operationalization of the set goal was carried out by using the Test for evaluating reading and writing pre-skills. In describing and analyzing the obtained data, methods of descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The sample included 120 subjects of both gender, 40 children diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI), age from 5,11 to 7 years, and 80 children with typical language development (TLD), age between 5,11 and 7 years, with no statistically significant differences in relation to age and gender of the participants. Results: Summing up the overall results and achievements of children with SLI and children with TLD, we concluded that there are statistically significant differences in the rapid naming between children with specific language impairment and children with typical language development. Conclusions: As it is a global trend to work on preventing disorders and obstructions, and phonological skills in this age are a timely indicator of the development of reading and writing skills, the examined children with SLI are at risk for the occurrence of obstructions and disorders in the area of reading and writing abilities.

It is widely believed that intensive music training can boost cognitive and visuo-motor skills. However, this evidence is primarily based on retrospective studies; this makes it difficult to determine whether a cognitive advantage is caused by the intensive music training, or it is instead a factor influencing the choice of starting a music curriculum. To address these issues in a highly ecological setting, we tested longitudinally 128 students of a Middle School in Milan, at the beginning of the first class and, 1 year later, at the beginning of the second class. 72 students belonged to a Music curriculum (30 with previous music experience and 42 without) and 56 belonged to a Standard curriculum (44 with prior music experience and 12 without). Using a Principal Component Analysis, all the cognitive measures were grouped in four high-order factors, reflecting (a) General Cognitive Abilities, (b) Speed of Linguistic Elaboration, (c) Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests, and (d) Visuospatial and numerical skills. The longitudinal comparison of the four groups of students revealed that students from the Music curriculum had better performance in tests tackling General Cognitive Abilities, Visuospatial skills, and Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests. However, there were no significant curriculum-by-time interactions. Finally, the decision to have a musical experience before entering middle school was more likely to occur when the cultural background of the families was a high one. We conclude that a combination of family-related variables, early music experience, and pre-existent cognitive make-up is a likely explanation for the decision to enter a music curriculum at middle school.

It is widely believed that intensive music training can boost cognitive and visuo-motor skills. However, this evidence is primarily based on retrospective studies; this makes it difficult to determine whether a cognitive advantage is caused by the intensive music training, or it is instead a factor influencing the choice of starting a music curriculum. To address these issues in a highly ecological setting, we tested longitudinally 128 students of a Middle School in Milan, at the beginning of the first class and, 1 year later, at the beginning of the second class. 72 students belonged to a Music curriculum (30 with previous music experience and 42 without) and 56 belonged to a Standard curriculum (44 with prior music experience and 12 without). Using a Principal Component Analysis, all the cognitive measures were grouped in four high-order factors, reflecting (a) General Cognitive Abilities, (b) Speed of Linguistic Elaboration, (c) Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests, and (d) Visuospatial and numerical skills. The longitudinal comparison of the four groups of students revealed that students from the Music curriculum had better performance in tests tackling General Cognitive Abilities, Visuospatial skills, and Accuracy in Reading and Memory tests. However, there were no significant curriculum-by-time interactions. Finally, the decision to have a musical experience before entering middle school was more likely to occur when the cultural background of the families was a high one. We conclude that a combination of family-related variables, early music experience, and pre-existent cognitive make-up is a likely explanation for the decision to enter a music curriculum at middle school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Individuals with lower phonological skills show higher subphonemic sensitivity. • Higher subphonemic sensitivity indicates finer-grained phonological representations. • Overspecified phonological representations may indicate reading difficulties. Many studies have established a link between phonological abilities (indexed by phonological awareness and phonological memory tasks) and typical and atypical reading development. Individuals who perform poorly on phonological assessments have been mostly assumed to have underspecified (or "fuzzy") phonological representations, with typical phonemic categories, but with greater category overlap due to imprecise encoding. An alternative posits that poor readers have overspecified phonological representations, with speech sounds perceived allophonically (phonetically distinct variants of a single phonemic category). On both accounts, mismatch between phonological categories and orthography leads to reading difficulty. Here, we consider the implications of these accounts for online speech processing. We used eye tracking and an individual differences approach to assess sensitivity to subphonemic detail in a community sample of young adults with a wide range of reading-related skills. Subphonemic sensitivity inversely correlated with meta-phonological task performance, consistent with overspecification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boys' relatively poor progress in writing development is of particular concern in education with both cognitive and social factors proposed as possible accounts of this discrepancy. This study examined whether differences in cognitive skills such as handwriting and spelling or phonological processing abilities could explain gender differences in early writing. An opportunity sample of 116 children (52 male) ranging in age from 5:0 to 6:7 years were recruited from six UK schools. Tasks assessing vocabulary and letter knowledge, phonological awareness and phonological short-term memory skills were presented to children who were also asked to complete a number of transcription, spelling and writing tasks. Boys tended to produce shorter written compositions containing fewer correctly spelled words which were judged to be of a lower quality than texts produced by girls. However, no significant advantage for girls was identified in their vocabulary, letter knowledge or phonological processing skills, proposed as cognitive underpinnings of writing. Some relationships between phonological skills and aspects of writing differed between boys and girls and these were explored further in multiple regression analyses with gender and these phonological skills included as interaction terms. Gender predicted significant unique variance, independently of cognitive skills, in alphabet transcription and writing quality, although not dictated spelling skills. No associations between phonological skills and writing were moderated by gender. The possible role for environmental, motivational or attitudinal factors in explaining gender differences in early writing abilities should therefore perhaps be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated the direct and indirect relations between basic linguistic skills (i.e., phonological skills and grammatical ability) and advanced linguistic skills (i.e., academic vocabulary and verbal reasoning), on the one hand, and fifth-grade mathematics (i.e., arithmetic, geometry, and fractions), on the other, taking working memory and general intelligence into account and controlling for socioeconomic status, age, and gender. The results showed the basic linguistic representations of 167 fifth graders to be indirectly related to their geometric and fraction skills via arithmetic. Furthermore, advanced linguistic skills were found to be directly related to geometry and fractions after controlling for arithmetic. It can be concluded that linguistic skills directly and indirectly relate to mathematical ability in the upper grades of primary education, which highlights the importance of paying attention to such skills in the school curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyslexia refers to the impairment of reading ability. Different forms of dyslexia have been reported in the literature. A classic type of dyslexia in which children exhibit poor reading of non-words compared to true words is known as phonological dyslexia. From the perspectives of the prevailing models of reading aloud, this deficit is attributed to an impaired ‘sub-lexical’ route. However, phonological dyslexia is presumed to be rare in semisyllabic scripts (e.g., Indian scripts) due to the inherent transparency of the written symbols of this orthography. However, the existence of this type of dyslexia has not been empirically tested in this orthography till date. In this context, we aimed to investigate the existence of the equivalent of phonological dyslexia (i.e., sub-lexical dyslexia) in Kannada language. We administered a battery of word and non-word reading tests in a group of children studying in Kannada medium schools from I to VII Grades. Our results are suggestive of the existence of sub-lexical dyslexia in semisyllabic orthography.

This research investigates the effect of individual voice training on pre-service Turkish language teachers' speaking skills. The main claim in this research is that teachers' most significant teaching instrument is their voice and it needs to be trained. The research was based on the convergent parallel mixed method. The quantitative part was carried out according to the changing criterion model, which is a single subject design. In the qualitative part, the data were obtained from semi-structured interviews conducted before and after the intervention phase and the diaries kept throughout the process. Three pre-service Turkish language teachers, voluntarily participated in the study. First, the baseline level of the participants was determined, then the intervention phase was implemented accordingly (a five-week individual voice training). Each participant received one-hour individual voice training weekly, and three case evaluation sessions were conducted at intervals after each training session. At the end of five weeks, more than 90% improvement was recorded in all participants. Data analysis also revealed that their perceptions of self-efficacy increased and anxiety levels decreased in terms of public speaking. Finally, it is suggested that voice training need to be integrated into Turkish language teacher education program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a portion of the results obtained in the first phase of a longitudinal study of the development of children’s literacy. The aim of the research was to study the level of development of phonological skills in preschool children. The development of phonological skills, as part of metalinguistic skills, was studied by the assessment of voice analysis and synthesis in words and recognising rhyme. The sample included preschool children. The obtained results have pointed to an average development of children’s phonological skills in the domain of the ability of voice synthesis and analysis in words, as well as to the difficulties in solving items that contained more complex demands of manipulating phonemes within words. It was also determined that there were difficulties in recognising rhyme in words where phonological similarity was more prominent on the level of the whole word. Since there are very few research studies in our country that deal with the development of phonological skills in preschool children, which are an important predictor for the acquisition of reading and writing skills, the findings of this research can provide an insight into the development of this aspect of children’s speech and language, while in the long run they would enable us to observe the influence of this predictor on the success in initial reading and writing. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 179034: Od podsticanja inicijative, saradnje, stvaralaštva u obrazovanju do novih uloga i identiteta u društvu i br. 47008: Unapređivanje kvaliteta i dostupnosti obrazovanja u procesima modernizacije Srbije]

Objectives: A large number of congenitally deaf children are born annually. If not treated, this will have destructive effects on their language and speech development, educational achievements and future occupation. In this study it has been tried to determine the level of language skills in children with Cochlear Implants (CI) in comparison with Normal Hearing (NH) age-mates. Methods: Test of Language Development was administered to 30 pre-lingual, severe-to-profound CI children between the ages of 5 to 8. The obtained scores were compared to a Persian database from scores of normally hearing children with the same age range. Results: Results indicated that in spite of great advancements in different areas of language after hearing gain, CI children still lag behind their hearing age-mates in almost all aspects of language skills. Discussion: Based on the results, it is suggested that children with average or above average cognitive skills who use CI have the potential to produce and understand language comparable to their normally hearing peers.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the phonological skills among children with reading disabilities of the Bosnian/Croatian/ Serbian language, where each phoneme is represented by a grapheme following a certain phonemic principle. The sample consists of 15 children with reading disabilities and 15 children without reading disabilities, where "The diagnostic set for examination of the speech, language, reading and writing abilities among children" was used for examination of their phonological capacity. Phonological skills in children are very important for reading and writing acquisition. The results of the study showed that children with reading disabilities achieved poorer results in all tasks examining the phonological skills, compared to children without reading difficulties. The results of our study comply with results of studies conducted for other languages. The study highlights the importance of the mentioned skills for acquiring reading skills in the Bosnian/ Croatian/Serbian language and the significance of deficient phonological abilities for the etiology of reading disabilities. Based on the conducted study, it can be concluded that phonological skills are very important for acquiring reading and writing abilities.

Objective: To investigate working memory, phonological skills, lexical skills, and reading comprehension in adults with Usher syndrome type 2 (USH2).Design: The participants performed tests of phonological processing, lexical access, working memory and reading comprehension. The design of the test situation and tests was specifically considered for use with persons with low vision in combination with hearing impairment. The performance of the group with USH2 on the different cognitive measures was compared to that of a matched control group with normal hearing and vision (NVH).Study Sample: Thirteen participants with USH2 aged 21–60 years and a control group of ten individuals with NVH, matched on age and level of education.Results: The group with USH2 displayed significantly lower performance on tests of phonological processing, and on measures requiring both fast visual judgment and phonological processing. There was a larger variation in performance among the individuals with USH2 than in the matched control group.Conclusions: The performance of the group with USH2 indicated similar problems with phonological processing skills and phonological working memory as in individuals with long-term hearing loss. The group with USH2 also had significantly longer reaction times, indicating that processing of visual stimuli is difficult due to the visual impairment. These findings point toward the difficulties in accessing information that persons with USH2 experience, and could be part of the explanation of why individuals with USH2 report high levels of fatigue and feelings of stress (Wahlqvist et al., 2013).

Development typically leads to optimized and adaptive neural mechanisms for the processing of voice and speech. In this fMRI study we investigated how this adaptive processing reaches its mature efficiency by examining the effects of task, age and phonological skills on cortical responses to voice and speech in children (8–9 years), adolescents (14–15 years) and adults. Participants listened to vowels (/a/, /i/, /u/) spoken by different speakers (boy, girl, man) and performed delayed-match-to-sample tasks on vowel and speaker identity. Across age groups, similar behavioral accuracy and comparable sound evoked auditory cortical fMRI responses were observed. Analysis of task-related modulations indicated a developmental enhancement of responses in the (right) superior temporal cortex during the processing of speaker information. This effect was most evident through an analysis based on individually determined voice sensitive regions. Analysis of age effects indicated that the recruitment of regions in the temporal–parietal cortex and posterior cingulate/cingulate gyrus decreased with development. Beyond age-related changes, the strength of speech-evoked activity in left posterior and right middle superior temporal regions significantly scaled with individual differences in phonological skills. Together, these findings suggest a prolonged development of the cortical functional network for speech and voice processing. This development includes a progressive refinement of the neural mechanisms for the selection and analysis of auditory information relevant to the ongoing behavioral task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonological skills are enhanced by music training, but the mechanisms enabling this cross-domain enhancement remain unknown. To explain this cross-domain transfer, we propose a precise auditory timing hypothesis (PATH) whereby entrainment practice is the core mechanism underlying enhanced phonological abilities in musicians. Both rhythmic synchronization and language skills such as consonant discrimination, detection of word and phrase boundaries, and conversational turn-taking rely on the perception of extremely fine-grained timing details in sound. Auditory-motor timing is an acoustic feature which meets all five of the pre-conditions necessary for cross-domain enhancement to occur (Patel 2011, 2012, 2014). There is overlap between the neural networks that process timing in the context of both music and language. Entrainment to music demands more precise timing sensitivity than does language processing. Moreover, auditory-motor timing integration captures the emotion of the trainee, is repeatedly practiced, and demands focused attention. The precise auditory timing hypothesis predicts that musical training emphasizing entrainment will be particularly effective in enhancing phonological skills.

The development of reading skills is underpinned by oral language abilities: Phonological skills appear to have a causal influence on the development of early word-level literacy skills, and reading-comprehension ability depends, in addition to word-level literacy skills, on broader (semantic and syntactic) language skills. Here, we report a longitudinal study of children at familial risk of dyslexia, children with preschool language difficulties, and typically developing control children. Preschool measures of oral language predicted phoneme awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge just before school entry, which in turn predicted word-level literacy skills shortly after school entry. Reading comprehension at 8½ years was predicted by word-level literacy skills at 5½ years and by language skills at 3½ years. These patterns of predictive relationships were similar in both typically developing children and those at risk of literacy difficulties. Our findings underline the importance of oral language skills for the development of both word-level literacy and reading comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reviews some of the most relevant cognitive skills related to literacy acquisition in Spanish. Beyond the well-known influence of phonological segmental skills, it highlights the growing importance of other cognitive skills needed for acquisition, whether explicit or implicit in nature, to which too little attention has been devoted, including suprasegmental or prosodic skills, morphological skills and the implicit learning of linguistic regularities. It appears that all these skills constitute relevant factors that should be taken into account in order to understand typical as well as atypical literacy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies investigated whether the greater Stroop interference reported in children with reading difficulties compared to typical readers of the same age represents a generalized deficit in interference control or a consequence of their reading problems. In Study 1, a color-word Stroop task and a nonverbal task involving responses to locations associated with pictures were administered to 23 children with single word reading difficulties and 22 typically developing children matched for age and nonverbal ability. Children with reading difficulties showed disproportionate interference effects in the color-word Stroop but not the nonverbal task. In Study 2, groups of poor and typical readers completed a spatial Stroop task with printed input that did not require a verbal response and a nonverbal analogue. Both groups showed comparable interference in these two tasks. Thus, the reported problems in the color-word Stroop task in children with reading difficulties do not appear to entail general impairments in interference control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although reading skills are critical for the success of individuals with intellectual disabilities, literacy has received little attention in fragile X syndrome (FXS). This study examined the literacy profile of FXS. Boys with FXS ( n = 51; mean age 10.2 years) and mental age-matched boys with typical development ( n = 35) participated in standardized assessments of reading and phonological skills. Phonological skills were impaired in FXS, while reading was on-par with that of controls. Phonological awareness predicted reading ability and ASD severity predicted poorer phonological abilities in FXS. Boys with FXS are capable of attaining reading skills that are commensurate with developmental level and phonological awareness skills may play a critical role in reading achievement in FXS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study set out to develop and test a pathway model of the relations between general cognitive skills, specifically visual-spatial and spoken and written language skills, and competence in three forms of arithmetic that vary in modes of number representation. A total of 88 Chinese 4-year-olds participated and were tested first in kindergarten second grade (K2) and then in kindergarten third grade (K3). Language skills, including phonological, morphological, and visual-orthographic skills, and visual-spatial skills were measured at K2, and arithmetic outcomes, including written arithmetic, word problems, and nonsymbolic arithmetic, at K3. The results generally supported our model. Specifically, visual-spatial skills contributed to the prediction of all three types of arithmetic outcomes. Morphological skills predicted word problems, whereas phonological skills predicted written arithmetic. Finally, visual-orthographic skills contributed to both written and nonsymbolic arithmetic. These findings underscore the importance of delineating the specificity of cognitive processes in learning diverse forms of arithmetic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on examining the effects of early literacy intervention on the emergence and development of at-risk kindergartners' spelling. Spelling data were selected from Scanlon et al.'s () study which demonstrated the efficacy of reading intervention in reducing the incidence of at-risk children who show reading difficulties in first grade. In that study kindergartners who entered school with low scores on the letter identification were identified as being at-risk for reading difficulties and randomly assigned to either the intervention or the comparison group. Spelling was assessed on a five-word developmental spelling test and analyzed using a fine-grained scoring system to take account of pre-alphabetic characteristics and phonetic and orthographic features. Results indicated that the group receiving an 8-month period of Scanlon et al.'s Interactive Strategies Approach intervention outperformed the comparison group in the quantity and quality of their spelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phonological skills are enhanced by music training, but the mechanisms enabling this cross-domain enhancement remain unknown. To explain this cross-domain transfer, we propose a precise auditory timing hypothesis (PATH) whereby entrainment practice is the core mechanism underlying enhanced phonological abilities in musicians. Both rhythmic synchronization and language skills such as consonant discrimination, detection of word and phrase boundaries, and conversational turn-taking rely on the perception of extremely fine-grained timing details in sound. Auditory-motor timing is an acoustic feature which meets all five of the pre-conditions necessary for cross-domain enhancement to occur (Patel, 2011, 2012, 2014). There is overlap between the neural networks that process timing in the context of both music and language. Entrainment to music demands more precise timing sensitivity than does language processing. Moreover, auditory-motor timing integration captures the emotion of the trainee, is repeatedly practiced, and demands focused attention. The PATH predicts that musical training emphasizing entrainment will be particularly effective in enhancing phonological skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present 4-year longitudinal study examined preschool predictors of Grade 1 dyslexia status in a Chinese population in Hong Kong where children started learning to read at the age of three. Seventy-five and 39 Chinese children with high and low familial risk respectively were tested on Chinese word reading, oral language skills, morphological awareness, phonological skills, rapid naming, and print-related skills from age 4 to 6 and a standardized dyslexia test at age 7. Results showed that children of the high risk group performed significantly worse than the low risk group in Chinese literacy, phonological awareness, and orthographic skills at age 7. All the children with dyslexia had word reading difficulties in at least one preschool year. Results of the logistic regression showed that preschool verbal production, syllable deletion, and letter naming were the best predictors of dyslexia outcome at age 7. As in alphabetic languages, preschool oral language skills like verbal production, phonological skills, and print-related skills are the most significant predictors of children's later reading difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present experiment investigated the effect of a music training program on phonological awareness in preschoolers. In particular, the effects of a music training program and a phonological skills training program on phonological awareness were compared. If language and music share basic processing mechanisms, the effect of both programs on enhancing phonological awareness should be similar. Forty-one preschoolers (22 boys) were randomly assigned to a phonological skills training program, a music training program, and a control group that received sports training (from which no effect was expected). Preschoolers were trained for 10 minutes on a daily basis over a period of 20 weeks. In a pretest, no differences were found between the three groups in regard to age, gender, intelligence, socioeconomic status, and phonological awareness. Children in the phonological skills group and the music group showed significant increases in phonological awareness from pre- to post-test. The children in the sports training group did not show a significant increase from pre- to post-test. The enhancement of phonological awareness was basically driven by positive effects of the music program and the phonological skills program on phonological awareness for large phonological units. The data suggests that phonological awareness can be trained with a phonological skills training program as well as a music training program. These results can be interpreted as evidence of a shared sound category learning mechanism for language and music at preschool age.

Annotation: This article is focusing on the issue of foreign language acquisition of pupils with special learning disabilities (LD). According to studies from abroad, specific learning disabilities do not manifest only in the reading problem but they affect also the phonological, syntactic and semantic component of the foreign language. The aim of the research, introduced in this article, was to describe the process of the foreign language acquisition and to compare the main difficulties of the pupils with LD and their classmates by using the Prognostic- diagnostic test of foreign language abilities (M. Malíková, 1989). We tested 26 pupils with LD and 26 classmates from six fourth grade classes from three elementary schools in Prague. Analysis of overall performance and performances in particular subtests revealed significant group differences, especially in tasks requiring processing of auditory stimulus. According to obtained data intervention possibilities for pupils with LD are mentioned in the end of the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined syntactic comprehension in French children with dyslexia in both listening and reading. In the first syntactic comprehension task, a partial version of the Epreuve de Compréhension syntaxico-sémantique (ECOSSE test; French adaptation of Bishop’s test for receptive grammar test) children with dyslexia performed at a lower level in the written but not in the spoken modality, compared to reading age–matched children, suggesting a difficulty in handling syntax while reading. In the second task, syntactic processing was further explored through a test of relative clause processing, in which inflectional markers could aid in attributing roles to the elements in a complex syntactic structure. Children with dyslexia were insensitive to inflectional markers in both reading and listening, as was the reading age control group, while only the older normal reader group appeared to make use of the inflectional markers. Overall, the results support the hypothesis that difficulties in comprehension in dyslexia are strongly related to poor reading skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]