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The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection:
Implications for Teaching Practice
The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection:
Implications for Teaching PracticeDr Valerie Muter
Great Ormond St Hospital for ChildrenMay 2009
The Language, Phonology-Reading
Connection• Muter, V., Hulme, C., Snowling, M.,
Stevenson, J. (2004). Phonemes, Rimes, Vocabulary & Grammatical Skills – Evidence from a Longitudinal Study. Dev. Psych. 5, 665-81
• Implications for screening, prevention, assessment & teaching
The Phonology-Reading Connection
• Phonological Awareness - sensitivity to speech sound structure of words
• Measuring phonological awareness - blending sounds, rhyming, segmenting syllables and phonemes, manipulating phonemes
• Phonological awareness tasks are stable & robust predictors of later reading skill
The Vocabulary-Phonology-Reading Connection
• Segmentation & rhyming are separate abilities in phonological domain
• Segmentation skills are better predictors of early reading than rhyming
• Rhyming ability may influence later stages of learning to read and the use of orthographic analogies - f-ight, l-ight
• Phonological awareness is driven by early vocabulary growth
Age 4/5 Age 6
Vocabulary
Rhyming
Segmentation
Reading
Vocabulary, Phonology and Reading
Letter Knowledge and Reading
• Ease of learning the individual letters is strongest single predictor of early reading
• Letter knowledge acquisition interacts with segmentation skill to promote reading - “phonological linkage”
• Acquiring the Alphabetic Principle requires segmentation skill, knowledge of the alphabet and “linkage”
Age 4/5 Age 6
Letter Knowledge
Segmentation
Letter KnowledgeX
Segmentation
Reading/Decoding
Acquiring the Alphabetic Principle
Phonology-Reading Connection- A Case Study• N. participated in a longitudinal study
of reading - seen at ages 4, 5, 6 & 10y• At 4, his scores on phonological &
letter knowledge tests were same as his peers
• At 5: Phoneme Deletion 1/10 (3), Letter Knowledge 5/26 (12)
• At 6: Phoneme Deletion 0/10 (5), Letter Knowledge 5/26 (19)
N. at Age 10
N. Peers
PhonemeDeletion /24
4 17
Speech RateWords/sec
3.4 4.8
NonwordReading /20
2 14.6
Screening for Reading Failure
• What is the best way to screen for early reading failure?
• Important to highlight role of teacher in early identification of reading failure
• Combining teacher input with known predictor measures of early reading skill to improve screening reliability
Teachers and Early Screening
• Advantages of involving teachers• Problems of subjectivity and “global
impressions”• Improving reliability with skill based
teacher rating scales• Flynn (2000) - using rating scales can
increase accuracy of prediction by 34%
Standardised Measures, Prediction &
Screening• Two phonological segmentation tests, and
letter knowledge from PAT given at age 5 will predict with 90% accuracy children reading skills one year later.
• Identifying at risk children can result in prevention (or reduction) of reading failure & associated behavioural problems
Preventing Reading Failure
• Screening allows “targeting” of children who have poor phonological skills
• Borderline children may be monitored and kept on “review”
• Children with significant phonological deficits benefit from receiving explicit phonological training
Note: not all children need explicit phonological training
Assessing Poor Readers • Phonology-reading connection has
influenced assessment practice • Tests of phonological processing
are now readily available e.g. CTOPP, PhAB
• Tests of nonword reading (eg TOWRE) allow assessment of decoding skills
Teaching Poor Readers• Phonological awareness training is
important in literacy support teaching
• Need to “link” phonological skill to print - phonological training in conjunction with letter acquisition
• Explicit training in phoneme-grapheme relations
• Synthetic vs analytic phonics?
Phonology, Grammar and Reading
• Phoneme awareness, but not grammatical awareness, predicts reading accuracy skill during the first two years of learning to read
• Grammatical awareness, but not phoneme awareness, predicts reading comprehension ability at age 6
Age 4/5 Age 6
Phoneme Awareness
PhonemeAwareness
ReadingAccuracy
Reading Accuracy
GrammaticalAwareness
Reading Accuracy
GrammaticalAwareness
ReadingComprehension
Reading, Phonology & Language in High-Risk Poor
Readers• Snowling, M., Muter, V. & Carroll, J.
(2007), Children at Family Risk of Dyslexia: A Follow-Up in Early Adolescence, JCPP, 48, 609-18
• Muter, V. & Snowling, M. (2009). Children at Familial Risk of Dyslexia: Implications from an At-risk Study, CAMH, 14, 37-41
High risk prospective study
Snowling & Frith• Began in 1992• Recruited 74 children at genetic risk
of dyslexia before their 4th birthday• 37 controls of similar SES• 4 Phases of study - 3y9m, 6y, 8y, 12-
13y• Children given wide range of
cognitive, inc. language and educational, measures.
Incidence of Reading Problems
• In general population, significant reading underachievement has incidence of 5-10% depending on age and cut-off points.
• Phase 2 - half the children in at-risk group scored 1SD below the control mean in reading.
• Phase 3 - 66% in at-risk group scored 1SD below control mean
• Phase 4 -Prevalence rate was 42%.
Findings from Phases 1 and 2
• At age 3y9m, the children in at-risk sample scored significantly below controls on tests of vocabulary, expressive language & grammar
• At age 6y, children in the at-risk group still mildly delayed in language skills
• At age 6y, the best predictor of early reading progress was letter knowledge
• At age 6y, the children in the at-risk group had difficulty with phonological tasks
Practical Implications from Phases 1 and 2
• Reading problems run in families – do other family members have literacy problems?
• Children with language delay are at risk of literacy problems - need close monitoring and some may need speech therapy
• Phonological and letter knowledge tasks given at age 5 predict later reading skill - used for screening & early identification
»Parents & nursery teachers can help to develop literacy precursors
Findings from Phase 3• Family risk is continuous - reading
unimpaired children in at-risk group showed weaknesses in spelling, nonword reading , STVM & phonology
• At-risk unimpaired readers more verbally able than at-risk impaired readers - verbal strength is as a compensatory/protective factor
• Expression of difficulty depends on interplay between severity of
phonological deficit & availability of compensatory resources
Findings from Phase 4• At-risk poor readers continued to
score below at-risk unimpaired readers on literacy, verbal and phonological tasks
• At-risk unimpaired readers nonetheless showed problems in reading fluency and spelling.
• Stability noted in performance on literacy tasks between Phases 3 & 4
• 70% of at-risk poor readers showed co-occurring problems in attention, nonverbal skill, language or maths
Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment
cognitive
behavioural
phonological difficulties
short term verbal memory difficulties
reading & spellingdifficulties
vocabulary & grammardifficulties
dyslexia SLI
Practical Implications – Phases 3 & 4 - Assessment
• Literacy assessment is multi-dimensional - single word reading, prose reading, comprehension, phonic decoding, speed & fluency and spelling
• Assess phonological deficit and its severity through tests of phonological processing & STVM, & capacity for compensation through language tasks
•Assess for co-occurring difficulties - attention, NVLD, arithmetic, SLI
Practical Implications Phases 3 & 4 - Management
• Reading skills change little after 8y - for maximum effectiveness, intervention needs to be delivered shortly after school entry
• Literacy programmes need to target deficient phonological and decoding skills
• Co-occurring difficulties may need to be addressed in their own right – language programs for children with additional SLI
–Verbally able poor readers can be taught to use semantic strategies
The Rose Report 2009Linking Language &
Literacy• 1 of 6 core areas of primary curriculum is
‘understanding, communication & languages’• Highlights interconnection of these important
processes• Research strongly supports the view that
literacy is a skill embedded in language & communication
• Assessment and teaching needs to recognise & promote this important connection