Katelyn Tijerina
Birkan Guldenoglu, Tevhide Kargin, Reşat Alatlı, & Nur, B. (2024). The Role of Phonological Decoding on the Reading Skills of Beginning Readers With Reading Disabilities in a Highly Transparent Orthography. Learning Disability Quarterly, 47(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/07319487241264551
The goal of this study was to examine the role of phonological decoding on the reading skills of Turkish beginning readers with reading disabilities. Eighty second graders with and without reading disorders were chosen from general education classrooms in Ankara, Turkey. Phonological decoding is defined as, “converting the written forms of words into their phonological forms”. The goals of this study were to determine if there was a difference between the phonological decoding and reading fluency scores of students and what the relationship between phonological decoding and reading skills is. The results showed that Typically Developing (TD) had an accuracy of 97% for shorter words and 89% for longer words, while Reading Disabled (RD) students had 66% and 39%. The TD students read three times more correct words per minute. Participants’ reading fluency was affected by their phonological decoding abilities in a positive transfer.The study found that phonological decoding is one of the most important indicators of language development.
In this study they tested the children on phonological decoding and reading fluency. The students were asked to read aloud text and answer questions. To test phonological decoding skills, they used a pseudoword decoding paradigm. This test included forty-two pseudowords. Students were asked to read the words aloud and if they did not in five seconds, the computer passed.
From this study I learned that both TD and RD students may have difficulties with phonological decoding but that RD students have more of a difficulty. Students with RD may be RD because of their phonological decoding issues. Teachers should focus on phonological decoding instead of relying on the transparency of read orthography.
Guerin, J. M., Droder, S., Lynley Turkelson, & Mano, Q. R. (2024). Mediators of working memory and reading in a sample of children with reading difficulty: The roles of phonemic awareness and rapid automatized naming. Dyslexia, 30(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1774
This study aimed to measure the combined effect of working memory (WM), phonemic awareness (PA), and rapid automatized naming (RAN) on reading outcomes. WM has many facets like decoding and word recognition. They looked at how WM interacted with PA and RAN. Phonemic awareness is, “the ability to isolate and manipulate individual sounds”. This is important for constructing and decoding words. Rapid Automatized Naming is defined as, “ the ability to quickly and accurately identify and name alphanumeric stimuli”. Lastly Working Memory is, “ the goal-directed storage, manipulation and integration of information over a relatively short period of time”. The goal of the study was to investigate the correlation between PA and WM and also the importance of RAN. One- hundred and seventeen children were chosen from midwestern schools. All the children’s first language was English, they scored above or equal to 70 on the WISC-V Verbal Comprehension Index, and were neurologically healthy. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children was used to measure WM. The results were that WM has a direct effect on reading. WM had an indirect effect on untimed PA tests and an indirect effect on reading fluency through RAN. Extra time for children with read difficulties should be allowed, aiding with higher-order cognitive and linguistic skills. This also proves that intervention for PA and RAN are necessary and imperative.
The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement was used to measure PA, RAN, Basic reading skills, and reading fluency. The WISC-V Digit Span psychometric intelligence and includes summary measures of verbal comprehension, visual spatial skills, fluid reasoning, working memory and processing speed. PA was measured using the Phonological Processing subtest which requires children to manipulate speech sounds according to examiner instructions. RAN was measured using the Letter Naming Facility subtest which requires children to rapidly name aloud letters presented on multiple rows, continuing until all letters have been named.To evaluate speeded reading skills, a Reading Fluency composite was created using an average summary score of performance on the Decoding Fluency subtest (which requires participants to rapidly and accurately read aloud from a list of pronounceable nonwords that increase in length and difficulty) and Word Recognition Fluency subtest (requires participants to quickly and accurately read aloud from a list of real words that increase in length and difficulty).
I learned that Working Memory and Rapid Automatized Naming is important for reading comprehension and fluency. I also learned that children with reading difficulties use skills such as WM, problem solving, and executive functioning for compensation. Children are better able to utilize WM when there are no time constraints. While we know that PA affects reading, the findings of this study may suggest where specific difficulties lie. Individuals with poor PA may be even more disadvantaged because of its interaction with WM.
Kirby, J. R., Deacon, S. H., Georgiou, G., Geier, K., Chan, J., & Rauno Parrila. (2025). Effects of morphological awareness, naming speed, and phonological awareness on reading skills from Grade 3 to Grade 5. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 253(253), 106188–106188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106188
This study took one-hundred and twenty-six English-speaking students from Canada. This included sixty boys and sixty girls. The goal of this study was to determine if reading skills are set or malleable. Common predictors of reading are phonological awareness, naming speed, and morphological awareness. Naming speed is the speed of pronouncing sets of familiar stimuli, such as letters, numbers, objects, or colors. Morphological awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate morphemes, the smallest meaningful units in words. The measures of this study were for verbal ability; The results were that phonological awareness, naming speed, and morphological awareness were positive predictors of reading ability. Naming speed was a positive predictor of timed measures, word reading speed, and text reading speed. Morphological awareness was a positive predictor of reading comprehension. Phonological awareness predicted changes in word reading accuracy and multi-morphemic word reading. Naming speed predicted timed measures, word, and text reading speed. Lastly, Morphological awareness predicted reading comprehension. These findings show that the development of the reading-supporting structures is not entirely established at Grade three, but rather is linked to abilities in subsequent years.
The Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, nonverbal ability: The Block Design subtest of the WASI, phonological awareness: Phoneme Elision subtest of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, and for naming speed: Rapid Digit Naming and Rapid Letter Naming subtests of the CTOPP.
From this paper, I learned that morphological awareness, naming speed, and phonological awareness are significant predictors of reading ability. While it is not set at third grade, it is a strong predictor. The transition between third and fifth grade is the beginning of learning to read to reading to learn. Students who are predicted to fall behind need significant attention in these areas or they may start to struggle in other areas of schooling. Underlying word identification merits attention and instruction as students age in school.
Kyle, F. E., & Trickey, N. (2024). Speechreading, Phonological Skills, and Word Reading Ability in Children: Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 55(3), 756–766. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_LSHSS-23-00129
This study aims to explore the connections among speech reading proficiency, phonological capabilities, and word reading skills in children who are developing typically. Studies have shown that children with better phonological awareness read at a higher level than their peers. Phonological awareness and reading skills are supported by the sound structure of words stored in long-term memory. Speech reading is a skill that is most often studied in deaf children, though it can be equally important in hearing children. Speech reading can be defined as the ability to perceive the visual component of speech and has been a predictor of phonological awareness in deaf children. This study included sixty-six children from Southeast England whose first language was English. All of these children were six to seven years old, with thirty-six being boys and thirty being girls. The results were that speech reading showed a moderate correlation with alliteration awareness, rhyme awareness, and nonword reading and a negative correlation with RAN. There was a significant correlation between speechreading ability and the phonological error rate. Children who were better speech readers made more phonological errors. Speechreading ability showed a medium correlation with reading ability. The correlations between speech reading and word reading and speech reading and nonword reading were identical. This is likely to have a phonological basis because nonwords are not lexical items and require decoding and access. Skilled speech readers had better phonological skills on some but not all phonological tasks. The conclusions were that speechreading and phonological skills in typically developing children were positively related.
To measure their phonological skills, work reading, and speech reading skills, students were asked to perform six tasks measuring word reading, speech reading, alliteration awareness, rhyme awareness, nonword reading, and rapid automatized naming (RAN).
I learned that children may benefit from learning through speech reading, which could help strengthen their phonological awareness. By emphasizing the visual component of speech, children could disambiguate sounds, increasing their phonological awareness. When teaching language, teachers can combine phonemes and how they look on lips.
Maïonchi-Pino, N., & Runge, É. (2024). A gradient-based preference for sonority markedness constraints in reading: evidence for intact phonological grammar in developmental dyslexia. Applied Psycholinguistics, 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0142716424000353
This study looked at twenty-seven dyslexic (DYS) children and sixty-six typically developing children. The goal of this study was to determine whether DYS children have preserved abilities to use phonological syllable segmentation strategies. They tested this through a lexical decision task. Based on previous theories of DYS, children should be unable to use phonological syllable representations to segment and access words. The results found that DYS children are slower but not less accurate. They are able to recognize words when segmentation matches the syllable boundary. This suggests the poor readers (those who lack phonological awareness) have a different challenge than those who are DYS (children with phonological awareness). The DYS children had close-to-perfect accuracy when recognizing words. If DYS children had challenges with orthographic or phonological subtextual relationships they would have appeared in the study. The results were that DYS children have the same phonological awareness as their peers, despite being diagnosed with DYS.
In the study, the children had to determine whether a printed word was a real word. They were submitted to an individual 20-min standardized age-based word-reading. TIMÉ 3 enables the inspection of the children’s reading level by assessing the accuracy of the lexical representation level via the use of direct orthographic representations or indirect phonological representations. They designed 35 six-letter long disyllabic pseudowords based on the original material in Maïonchi-Pino. The children were then asked to read the pseudoword aloud.
From this study I learned that DYS children have the same ability for phonological awareness as their peers though they need more time to express it. Giving DYS children extra time while reading in classrooms may help with their accuracy. Additionally being patient with DYS readers.
