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Morphological awareness is the metalinguistic realization that words consist of meaningful roots and affixes that can be isolated and manipulated. Learners at different proficiency levels use various forms of background knowledge such as cultural knowledge, technical knowledge, religious knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and contextual visuals. The purpose of this research was to see whether morphological awareness and background knowledge affected the fluency and accuracy of Turkish EFL learners. The participants consisted of 80 Turkish EFL students. At first, participants were homogenized to select samples and eliminate outliers, then a pretest was used to assess participants' writing fluency and accuracy prior to treatment. During the treatment phase, materials were presented to participants, and at the end, a posttest was used to assess the effect of treatment on participants' writing fluency and accuracy. According to the result of the data analysis, there was a significant difference in morphological awareness of EFL learners' writing performance in terms of accuracy from the pre- to posttests. Furthermore, the findings revealed a similar amount of progress in participants' writing fluency.

Foreign language was recently added to Japan's national primary school curriculum. Phoneme-Grapheme Recognition (PGR) skills are a critical step in both L1 and L2 development. Due to its simplistic approach and the lack of new investment in teacher training, research regarding the impact on PGR skills are important. This study tested the relative differences and growth of primary school students' (grades 3, 4, 5, 6) PGR skills across two semesters. Semester-1 (July) and Semester-3 (March) students (n = 256, female n = 130) completed the same PGR test during regular class time. ANOVA and follow-up pairwise tests assessed achievement differences between grades and across the two-semester gap. Difference testing between grades indicated substantial (R[superscript 2] = 0.32 & 0.19) and statistically significant (p < 0.001) differences at both time points. Pairwise follow-up tests pointed to two steps in statistically different ability (grades 3-4/5-6). Longitudinal tests suggested that the current Japanese national elementary school curriculum supports phoneme-grapheme skill development; However, the twostep ability grouping indicated that the current national curriculum is not sufficiently detailed and/or rigorous to ensure annual student improvement in PGR skills.

Morphological knowledge refers to an individual's understanding of the structure and meaning of words based on their familiarity with morphemes (i.e., word parts, including prefixes, suffixes, and bases). This knowledge is crucial to developing various aspects of language and literacy to successfully function in 21st century education and workplace settings, including vocabulary, spelling, phonological awareness, word reading, and reading comprehension. This research digest provides a brief review on why morphological knowledge is important to literacy for adult education leaners. Next, we briefly describe the literature on adult morphological and etymological instruction and provide examples for how to integrate them in the classroom with adult education learners. We conclude with future directions and resources for research and educational practice.

Many kindergarten educators grapple with how best to teach reading in play-based kindergarten classrooms. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to ascertain the instructional strengths and needs of kindergarten educators as they teach reading in play-based programs. Fifteen kindergarten teachers participated in an online questionnaire and focus group conversations that explored their concepts of self-efficacy and professional content knowledge to gain an understanding of the tensions these educators expressed, and to compare and confirm these with existing literature. Educators felt quite confident that they were effectively weaving foundational reading skills with learning opportunities into authentic experiences throughout the day. They indicated that balancing competing priorities within their programs was a challenge, and that supporting multilinguals and deepening their understanding of how to effectively build oral language and phonological awareness in their students were areas where they wanted to build their professional content knowledge.

This study examines the effects of digital game-based and different educational programs on the phonological awareness skills of 60-72-month-old children. The study group of the research consists of 60-72-month-old children studying in kindergartens affiliated with primary schools. The study group was divided into three experimental groups and one control group. There were 22 children in experimental group 1, 16 in experimental group 2, 17 in experimental group 3, and 17 in the control group, totaling 72 children. In the study, a phonological awareness education program was applied to experimental group 1, a digital game-supported phonological awareness education program was applied to experimental group 2, a digital game-based phonological awareness education program was applied to experimental group 3, and no intervention was applied to the control group. A quasiexperimental design was used as the research model. The Study used the Early Literacy Skills Assessment Tool (ELSA) and the Early Literacy Test for Preschoolers (ELTKC) as data collection tools. A pre-test was administered to the study and control groups, and after the pre-test, educational programs were applied to the experimental groups for ten weeks. After the educational programs were implemented, a post-test was administered to the experimental and control groups, and a retention test was administered to the experimental groups. According to the results of the study, it was determined that there was a significant difference between the experimental groups and between the experimental groups and the control group.

Background: Recent research showed that cross-notation magnitude knowledge of fractions and decimals was related to better performance in fraction arithmetic, but it remains unclear whether it made an independent contribution to fraction arithmetic longitudinally when other cognitive variables are considered. Aims: To examine the extent to which children's earlier knowledge of cross-notation magnitude predicted subsequent performance in fraction addition and subtraction as well as fraction multiplication and division longitudinally. Sample: Three hundred and fifty-four Chinese children (Mage = 112.1 months). Methods: During the first wave of assessment, a range of cognitive abilities of children were measured, including within-notation fraction and decimal magnitude comparisons, whole-number arithmetic fluency, non-verbal intelligence, attentive behaviours, counting recall, word-level reading, and phonological awareness. Twelve months later, the same children were assessed again with two tasks of fraction arithmetic: fraction addition and subtraction as well as fraction multiplication and division. Results and Conclusions: Multiple linear regressions showed that within-notation fraction and decimal magnitude knowledge predicted fraction addition and subtraction longitudinally, after the effects of working memory, nonverbal intelligence, language skills, attentive behaviour, and whole-number arithmetic were controlled. Cross-notation magnitude knowledge made independent contributions to fraction addition and subtraction longitudinally beyond the influence of within-notation fraction and decimal magnitude knowledge and other covariates. However, within-notation fraction and decimal magnitude knowledge were not associated with fraction multiplication and division, whereas cross-notation magnitude knowledge remained a unique predictor. These findings suggest that it may be useful to incorporate cross-notation knowledge in the assessments of children's mathematics abilities and teaching.

Purpose: Children with speech sound disorder (SSD) are at known risk for literacy deficits. The purpose of this study was to review the available literature for intervention approaches that simultaneously target the development of literacy and speech sound production skills in children with SSD. Method: In this review, we examined the available evidence for intervention frameworks that support literacy skill development, specifically within the context of SSD intervention. A total of 13 articles met inclusion criteria, reporting both speech sound production and literacy outcomes for children with SSD receiving speech sound therapy that incorporated literacy skills to support literacy development. Results: The most common literacy focus for children receiving SSD intervention centered on the development of phonological awareness skills. Findings revealed that, on average, SSD intervention embedded into phonological awareness intervention improved both speech sound production accuracy and literacy skills in children with SSD. Children who received speech sound therapy only had reduced literacy skills as compared to their peers. Follow-up studies showed that children with SSD who had received phonological intervention exhibited literacy skills on par with their typically developing peers, well after treatment ended. Conclusions: Speech-language pathologists have the opportunity to support both literacy skill and speech sound production development in children with SSD. The majority of reviewed research included preschool-aged and early elementary-aged children. Future research is needed to investigate how to support literacy development in older children with SSD.

It is well established that children's reading comprehension is driven, at least in part, by their awareness of morphemes, or the smallest units of meaning in language. The question of how it does so is largely open; this mechanistic knowledge would specify theories of reading comprehension and guide effective classroom instruction. We report here on a longitudinal study designed to test two candidate mechanisms by which morphological awareness might support the development of reading comprehension: use of morphemes to read words and to understand words, known as morphological decoding and analysis, respectively. We tracked the development of 221 children on key measures from Grades 3 to 5. These three-wave longitudinal data enabled us to test morphological decoding and analysis as mediators connecting morphological awareness to gains in reading comprehension over time. Structural equation modeling showed that morphological awareness contributed to gains in both morphological decoding and analysis. Critically, only morphological analysis mediated the contribution of morphological awareness to gains in reading comprehension between Grades 3 and 5. These findings elaborate predictions of the morphological pathways framework. Specifically, longitudinal modeling shows how morphological awareness supports children's developing reading comprehension: by enabling the use of morphemes to read and understand words, with effects on the understanding of words supporting children's growing skill in understanding texts. Evidence supporting these two specific mechanisms inspires the design of targeted teaching on morphemes toward the development of strong reading comprehension.

Understanding the early literacy abilities of children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is essential for designing and testing methods of reading intervention focused on printed orthography. School-based professionals need assessments that measure word reading skills of students with heterogenous speech and physical abilities. This scoping review describes the assessment and administration procedures in research studies that have been used to measure the print knowledge of students who use aided AAC. This review included 27 studies that described print knowledge assessments targeting awareness of print concepts, letter identification, letter-sound correspondence, print-based phonological awareness, decoding, or sight word recognition that was administered to at least one student who uses aided AAC. Participant characteristics, measures of print knowledge, as well as contexts and features of assessment format and administration were coded. Our review identified 27 studies in which 155 students who used aided AAC participated in assessments of print knowledge. Most assessments measured students' decoding and sight word recognition skills with little attention toward awareness of print concepts and print-based phonological awareness. A range of procedures were identified across studies. More than 40% of assessments included a format or response method to participate that was not comparable to participants' typical communication method. Research should continue to develop and test assessments that are accessible for students with physical and communication support needs that require AAC. In doing so, these tools may be used with all students, regardless of speech ability, to understand early literacy skills that inform individualized reading instruction.

Data on attaining indicators of early speech, language, and literacy development, notably phonological awareness, among children with visual impairments (VI) are limited. This U.S. study utilized the "National Survey of Children's Health" (NSCH), 2016-2020, to observe the distinctive population of children with VI and speech, language, and literacy needs. Chi-square bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses established differences between children ages 3 to 5 years with VI (n = 186) and without VI (n = 25,354). Significant differences included lower parental education and higher rates of family poverty for children with VI. Significantly fewer children with VI had attained early phonological awareness (identifying initial sounds in words and word rhyming). Nearly three times more children with VI had been diagnosed with a speech or language disorder. Findings affirm that interventions address speech, language, and literacy development among children with VI, including explicit phonological awareness. Communication disorders research based on population health databases can inform evidence-based practice.

Purpose: This study aims at investigating the phonological development of the six guttural consonants of Jordanian Arabic, /[chi]/, /[voiced uvular fricative]/, /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/, /[voiced pharyngeal fricative]/, /[glottal stop]/, and /h/. Method: An articulation test is designed to involve two tasks: picture naming and repetition. The test includes 54 words for picture naming and 18 words for repetition, representing all possible positions of the targeted guttural sounds. Samples are collected from 40 typically developing Ammani-Jordanian Arabic-speaking monolingual children, living in Amman, Jordan. Respondents are equally divided into eight age-related trajectories: 2-2;6, 2;6-3, 3-3;6, 3;6-4, 4-4;6, 4;6-5, 5-5;6, and 5;6-6 (years;months). No child with a history of hearing, speech, or vision disorders is included. The data are analyzed using "production accuracy," where the three developmental trajectories of production (customary, acquisition, and mastery) are determined for each guttural, and "error analysis," addressed based on perceptual judgments, providing details of every mispronounced or deleted guttural. Results: The results show that /[chi]/, /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/, /[voiced pharyngeal fricative]/, and /[glottal stop]/ are acquired before the age of 6 years, while /[voiced uvular fricative]/ and /h/ are still not acquired by this age. Respondents use relatively variant alternatives for the mispronounced cognates, including guttural, nonguttural sounds, and vowel substitution. The /[voiced uvular fricative]/ is the guttural with the highest number of alternatives, while /[glottal stop]/ gets the least. The analysis also reveals patterns of guttural deletion, with variations across different guttural sounds and positions. Despite errors/deviations made, respondents score accuracy percentages that gradually increase in correlation with age. The guttural /[voiced uvular fricative]/ starts with the lowest accuracy percentages, while /[glottal stop]/ and /[voiceless pharyngeal fricative]/ start with the highest. Conclusions: These findings illuminate on the developmental trajectory of guttural acquisition and enrich our understanding of children's evolving perception and production abilities. They offer valuable insights into the patterns of guttural sound production in Jordanian Arabic-speaking children, laying the groundwork for further research and the development of targeted assessment and intervention strategies to support phonological development in this population.

This article provides a review of previous studies that have examined the effects of orthography on establishing contrastive phonological representations in second language acquisition and presents results from an original study on Mandarin speakers' production of English stops investigating how the presence of orthography affects the production of phonological categories that involve allophony. English voiceless stops are canonically represented as aspirated [p[superscript h], t[superscript h], k[superscript h]] in word-initial/stressed onset positions but are realized as unaspirated [p, t, k] following /s/ and in unstressed, non-initial onset positions. The results of our imitation experiment showed that Mandarin speakers failed to correctly imitate the unaspirated allophones when presented with written input, and this orthographic effect was stronger with nonwords than with real words. These results are best explained by an orthography effect mediated by phonological awareness and prior linguistic experience.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between speechreading ability, phonological skills, and word reading ability in typically developing children. Method: Sixty-six typically developing children (6-7 years old) completed tasks measuring word reading, speechreading (words, sentences, and short stories), alliteration awareness, rhyme awareness, nonword reading, and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Results: Speechreading ability was significantly correlated with rhyme and alliteration awareness, phonological error rate, nonword reading, and reading ability (medium effect sizes) and RAN (small effect size). Multiple regression analyses showed that speechreading was not a unique predictor of word reading ability beyond the contribution of phonological skills. A speechreading error analysis revealed that children tended to use a phonological strategy when speechreading, and in particular, this strategy was used by skilled speechreaders. Conclusions: The current study provides converging evidence that speechreading and phonological skills are positively related in typically developing children. These skills are likely to have a reciprocal relationship, and children may benefit from having their attention drawn to visual information available on the lips while learning letter sounds or learning to read, as this could augment and strengthen underlying phonological representations.

We examined the relation between home literacy environment (HLE), parents' reading skills, and children's emergent literacy skills (pinyin letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and vocabulary) and reading (word reading and reading comprehension) in a sample of 168 Chinese children (M[subscript age] = 74.26 months) followed from kindergarten to Grade 1. Results of structural equation modeling showed that code-related HLE activities and access to literacy resources continued to predict children's emergent literacy skills after controlling for the effects of family's socioeconomic status and both parents' reading skills. Parents' reading skills also exerted a direct effect on children's reading comprehension. These findings suggest that HLE exerts a true environmental effect on children's reading skills that is not due to a genetic confound.

The unique orthographic complexities of Japanese, which utilizes multiple types of scripts (morphographic kanji and syllabic hiragana and katakana) for the same spoken language, place unique demands on early learners. Much research has centered on the average ability of Japanese readers, but given the varying challenges of these scripts, attention may need to be oriented towards the outer bounds of ability, specifically those who both deeply struggle (including dyslexia) and excel at reading. In this article, we provide a review of past research on Japanese literacy along with a pre-registered analysis using quantile generalized additive models that tested two theories in cross-language literacy research, the orthographic depth and breadth hypotheses. Our results confirmed that the relationships between cognitive skills (phonological awareness and morphological awareness) and reading outcomes differed by script (hiragana vs. kanji). However, their relationships varied in curvilinearity and associations seemed to change based on reading ability. These findings provide supporting evidence for the general scope of the orthographic depth and breadth hypotheses, but may ultimately question the uniformity of these theories.

This cohort-sequential study explored the working memory (WM) structures that underlie growth in mathematical word problem solving (WPS) performance in elementary school emergent bilingual children whose first language (L1) is Spanish. To this end, children (N = 429) in Grades 1, 2, and 3 in southwest U.S. school districts at Wave 1 were administered a battery of cognitive (short-term memory [STM], WM, rapid naming, inhibition), domain-general nonmath (reading, vocabulary, and fluid intelligence) and domain-specific math measures (arithmetic computation, estimation, and magnitude judgment) in both Spanish (L1) and English (L2). These same measures were administered 1 and 2 years later. Four important findings emerged: (a) A three-factor structure (phonological STM, visual-spatial WM, and executive WM) captured the data across three testing waves within and across both language systems; (b) growth in phonological STM and executive WM uniquely predicted WPS growth, but these two WM structures interacted within the English language system; (c) Spanish verbal WM (phonological STM, executive WM) enhanced the magnitude of predictions of English verbal WM on English WPS; and (d) growth in language-specific phonological STM and executive WM predicted cross-sectional and within-child changes in WPS independent of growth in other domain-specific and domain-general academic areas. Taken together, the results suggest that language-specific age-related phonological STM growth and executive WM growth rates underlie Spanish and English math word problem-solving performance. The results extend the contribution of development models as a function of WM structures across two language systems as they apply to complex math performance.

Prominent theories of reading development have separately emphasized the relevance of children's skill in learning (Share, 2008) and lexical representations (Perfetti & Hart, 2002). Integrating these ideas, we examined whether skill in learning lexical representations is a mechanism that might explain children's reading development. To do so we conducted a longitudinal study, following 139 children from Grades 3 to 5. In Grade 3, children completed measures of word reading and reading comprehension and again at Grade 5. In Grade 4, children read short stories containing novel words; they were later tested on their memory for the spellings and meanings of these new words, capturing orthographic and semantic learning, respectively. Using multiple-mediation path analysis, we tested whether children's skill in learning orthographic and semantic dimensions of new words was a mediator of individual differences in each of word reading and reading comprehension. In models controlling for nonverbal ability, working memory, vocabulary, and phonological awareness, we found two clear effects: individual differences in orthographic learning at Grade 4 mediated the gains that children made in word reading between Grades 3 and 5 and individual differences in semantic learning at Grade 4 mediated gains in reading comprehension over the same time period. These findings suggest that children's ability to learn lexical representations is a mechanism in reading development, with orthographic effects on word reading and semantic effects on reading comprehension. These findings show the power and the specificity of children's capacity to learn in determining their progress in learning to read.

This study investigated the impact of home literacy environment (HLE) on the acquisition of English as a second language (L2) and reading skills in Chinese-speaking kindergarten children. The sample was 354 kindergarten children (mean age: 60.37 months, SD = 7.25; 186 boys, 52.5%) in Hong Kong, China. Mothers completed a questionnaire measuring family socioeconomic status (SES), parent-directed HLE, and child-initiated HLE in learning English. Children were assessed on their English language and reading skills: phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, word reading, and rapid naming. After the role of family SES was controlled, child-initiated HLE instead of parent-directed HLE was found to uniquely predict phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming, which jointly contributed to English word reading. Family SES was also a significant correlate of cognitive-linguistic skills and English language skills. The findings highlighted the importance of child-initiated HLE in promoting children's English language learning as L2.

This paper presents a unique advanced statistical approach based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to examine factors affective on phonological awareness and print awareness of preschool children. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were created and correlations between the independent and dependent (outcome) variables were analyzed. The ANN models were trained using the data for phonological awareness and print awareness of children. According to the findings, the created ANN model had an excellent fit to the actual data (R[superscript 2] = 0.934 and 0.940). Furthermore, the ANN model results were tested with a traditional analysis technique, Pearson correlation analysis. The ANN models yielded similar results to the Pearson correlation analysis but with more detail as expected. The ANN models were run for user-generated synthetic datasets and the relationships between the dependent and independent variables were discussed using model results. Demographic variables, namely, children's age, mother's age, mother's education, and family income were found to be not effective on children's print and phonological awareness skills. On the other hand, home literacy environment-related variables were found to be very effective. In conclusion, this paper introduces a methodology for implementing ANN modeling in educational data. A novel and powerful approach is provided to assess and estimate essential components of early literacy skills. The study has important implications for advancing our understanding of potential benefits of employing an AI-based modeling techniques in the field of education. The utilization of machine learning methods in educational research, as presented in this paper, has the potential to fundamentally reshape our approaches in categorizing and analyzing educational data.

Purpose: Nonword repetition (NWR) has been described as a clinical marker of developmental language disorder (DLD), as NWR tasks consistently discriminate between DLD and typical development (TD) cross-linguistically, with Cantonese as the only reported exception. This study reexamines whether NWR is able to generate TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children by reporting on a novel set of NWR stimuli that take into account factors known to affect NWR performance and group differentiation, including lexicality, sublexicality, length, and syllable complexity. Method: Sixteen Cantonese-speaking children with DLD and 16 age-matched children with TD repeated two sets of high-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are morphemic in Cantonese but meaningless when combined, and one set of low-lexicality nonwords, where all constituent syllables are nonmorphemic. Low-lexicality nonwords were further classified on sublexicality in terms of consonant-vowel (CV) combination attestedness (whether or not CV combinations in nonword syllables occur in real Cantonese words). Results: Children with DLD scored significantly below their peers with TD. Effect sizes showed that high-lexicality nonwords and nonword syllables with attested CV combinations offered the greatest TD/DLD group differentiation. Nonword length and syllable complexity did not affect TD/DLD group differentiation. Conclusions: NWR can capture TD/DLD group differences in Cantonese-speaking children. Lexicality and sublexicality effects must be considered in designing NWR stimuli for TD/DLD group differentiation. Future studies should replicate the present study on a larger sample size and a younger population as well as examine the diagnostic accuracy of this NWR test.

Purpose: Verbal working memory is poorer for children with hearing loss than for peers with normal hearing (NH), even with cochlear implantation and early intervention. Poor verbal working memory can affect academic performance, especially in higher grades, making this deficit a significant problem. This study examined the stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, tested working memory in adolescents with NH or cochlear implants (CIs), explored whether signal enhancement can improve verbal working memory, and tested two hypotheses proposed to explain the poor verbal working memory of children with hearing loss: (a) Diminished auditory experience directly affects executive functions, including working memory; (b) degraded auditory inputs inhibit children's abilities to recover the phonological structure needed for encoding verbal material into storage. Design: Fourteen-year-olds served as subjects: 55 with NH; 52 with CIs. Immediate serial recall tasks were used to assess working memory. Stimuli consisted of nonverbal, spatial stimuli and four kinds of verbal, acoustic stimuli: nonrhyming and rhyming words, and nonrhyming words with two kinds of signal enhancement: audiovisual and indexical. Analyses examined (a) stability of verbal working memory across middle childhood, (b) differences in verbal and nonverbal working memory, (c) effects of signal enhancement on recall, (d) phonological processing abilities, and (e) source of the diminished verbal working memory in adolescents with cochlear implants. Results: Verbal working memory remained stable across middle childhood. Adolescents across groups performed similarly for nonverbal stimuli, but those with CIs displayed poorer recall accuracy for verbal stimuli; signal enhancement did not improve recall. Poor phonological sensitivity largely accounted for the group effect. Conclusions: The central executive for working memory is not affected by hearing loss or cochlear implantation. Instead, the phonological deficit faced by adolescents with CIs denigrates the representation in storage and augmenting the signal does not help.

Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the predictive potential of language environment and vocal development status measures obtained through integrated analysis of Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recordings during the prelinguistic stage for subsequent speech and language development in Korean-acquiring children. Specifically, this study explored whether measures from both LENA-automated analysis and human coding at 6-8 months and 12-14 months of age predict vocabulary and phonological development at 18-20 months. Method: One-day home recordings from 20 children were collected using a LENA recorder at 6-8 months, 12-14 months, and 18-20 months. Both LENA-automated measures and measures from human coding were obtained from recordings at 6-8 months and 12-14 months. The number of different words, consonant inventory, and utterance structure inventory were identified from recordings of 18-20 months. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to investigate whether measures related to early language environment and child vocalization at 6-8 months and 12-14 months were predictive of vocabulary and phonological measures at 18-20 months. Results: The results showed that the two main LENA-automated measures, conversational turn count (CTC) and child vocalization count, were positively correlated with all vocabulary and phonological measures at 18-20 months. Multiple regression analysis revealed that CTC during the prelinguistic stages was the most significant predictor of a number of different words, consonant inventory, and utterance structure inventory at 18-20 months. Also, adult word count in LENA-automated measures, child-directed speech ratio, and canonical babbling ratio measured by human coding significantly predicted some vocabulary and phonological measures at 18-20 months. Conclusion: This study highlights the multifaceted nature of language acquisition and collectively emphasizes the value of considering both quantitative and qualitative aspects of language input to understand early language development in children.

Purpose: Shared reading provides preschool-age children with the opportunity to learn novel, low-frequency words. Abundant empirical evidence demonstrates that children can learn the meanings of such words during shared reading, referred to as "semantic learning." However, less is known about whether children learn the spellings of words during shared reading, referred to as "orthographic learning," and whether this learning is related to early word reading. The present study tested relations between individual differences in 4- to 6-year-old children's semantic and, critically, orthographic learning during shared reading and their early word reading skill. Method: In an adaptation of the self-teaching paradigm, children listened to a storybook about novel inventions referred to with nonword names. Children then completed orthographic and semantic choice tests, as well as standardized measures of early word reading and phonological awareness. Results: Individual differences in orthographic, but not semantic, learning during shared reading were related to early word reading, after controls for age and phonological awareness. Conclusions: This study provides a novel test of learning during shared reading, helping to specify the relation between orthographic and semantic learning and early word reading skill. These findings hold implications for theoretical perspectives on relations between learning during shared reading and early word reading, as well as implications for educational practice.

Background: Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children may experience difficulties in word decoding development. Aims: We aimed to compare and predict the incremental word decoding development in first grade in Dutch DHH and hearing children, as a function of kindergarten reading precursors. Methods and procedures: In this study, 25 DHH, and 41 hearing children participated. Kindergarten measures were phonological awareness (PA), letter knowledge (LK), rapid naming (RAN), and verbal short-term memory (VSTM). Word decoding (WD) was assessed at three consecutive time points (WD1, 2, 3) during reading instruction in first grade. Outcomes and results: The hearing children scored higher than the DHH children on PA and VSTM only, although the distribution of WD scores differed between the groups. At WD1, PA and RAN predicted WD efficiency in both groups; but PA was a stronger predictor for hearing children. At WD2, LK, RAN, and the autoregressor were predictors for both groups. While at WD3, only the autoregressor was a significant predictor. Conclusions and implications: WD development in DHH children on average shows similar levels as in hearing children, though within the DHH group more variation was observed. WD development in DHH children is not as much driven by PA; they may use other skills to compensate.

The goal of this study was to examine the relation of morphological skills with reading fluency in 2nd grade Greek-speaking children and if phonological awareness and vocabulary mediate their relation. The sample consisted of 105 2nd grade Greek-speaking students (46 males; Mage = 7.83 years, SD = 3.31). Morphological awareness was assessed with four tasks, examining inflectional and derivational morphology both at an epilinguistic and metalinguistic level. Reading fluency was assessed with oral and silent measures. Results of path analyses indicated that inflectional and derivational morphology contributed to reading fluency through multiple pathways, controlling for the effect of Rapid Automatized Naming. Phonological awareness fully mediated the relation of inflectional and derivational morphology with text reading fluency. Vocabulary partially mediated the relation of inflectional and derivational morphology with silent reading fluency. Furthermore, derivational morphology directly affected silent reading fluency. Overall, the relation of morphological awareness with reading fluency appeared to be dynamic and varied depending on the morphological awareness skill and measure of reading fluency. Regarding the mediating role of phonological awareness and vocabulary, the results showed that children in lower elementary grades in a transparent orthography with a rich morphological system used morphological skills as activators to existing phonological and semantic skills in supporting reading fluency processes.

Phonological awareness plays a key role in learning to read; therefore, its assessment has received a lot of attention. Research in the domain of phonological awareness has been characterized by attempts to develop reliable and valid assessment tools for diverse populations. Over the past few decades, phonological awareness assessment has gone through a significant evolution. Computer-delivered tests have led to new opportunities. Integrating the new medium into the testing process offers multiple benefits compared to traditional face-to-face and paper-and-pencil methods. Studies on the feasibility, structure and results of online assessments are scarce. The aim of the present study is to explore the possibilities for a technology-based assessment of phonological awareness of Hungarian first language learners (N = 5838) and to develop a reliable and valid online instrument. Results suggest that we have managed to develop a valid, reliable and easy-to-use online phonological awareness test that can be used easily in elementary school classroom settings. The unique results about the multi-dimensional nature of the construct can help rethinking and reconceptualizing phonological assessment in a wide range of languages. Since Hungarian is a language with a high level of orthographic transparency, the results could be generalized to other languages with similar qualities.

This study investigated the effects of assisted oral reading on EFL learners' oral reading rates and took into account repetition times, passage features (length and type), and language proficiency. Forty-nine students from a university of technology took part in a 27-week oral reading program. Teaching assistants were assigned to assist individual students' oral reading and offered immediate feedback for their performance. Students read a total of 27 texts, one per week. The texts involved 9 short- and 9 long-conversational texts, and 9 monologic texts. Each text was read six times and the time for each oral reading was recorded. The collected data were analyzed with HLM. The dependent variable was students' oral reading rates, and three fixed factors were repetition times, text features, and students' language proficiency. The results showed that students' oral reading rates significantly improved with times of repetition increased. Text length (shorter or longer) did not affect students' oral reading rates but text types (conversational vs. monologic) did. Higher-level students read significantly more fluently than those in the lower-level. Implication of the study results was discussed.

Researchers have reported that English language learners (ELLs) may be at risk of reading difficulties in the postsecondary setting. Although some students may only require explicit content-related vocabulary instruction and support with comprehension strategies in order to enhance comprehension, others may benefit from targeted shortterm intervention in foundational reading skills. In this study, we examined whether a phonologically based reading intervention for undergraduate ELLs at-risk of reading difficulties would result in significant between-group differences for the proximal variables of decoding and sight word recognition and the distal variable of reading comprehension. This pilot quasi-experimental group design study involved 9 participants (treatment = 6/control = 3) from various L1 backgrounds, including Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. Effect sizes were calculated for the proximal variables using measures of word attack and letter-word identification, and the distal variable based on a measure of passage comprehension. Although a small and small-medium effect were calculated for the measures of word attack and letterword identification, respectively, no effect was found for the measure of passage comprehension. Implications related to intervention dosage and additional intervention components are discussed.

Background: Despite extensive research on the specific learning disorder (developmental dyslexia) -- SLD (DD), many fallacies still cause confusion amongst professionals worldwide. These myths involve the characteristics, diagnoses and treatment of SLD (DD) and should be eradicated. Aim: The authors aimed to determine the knowledge, needs and perspectives of South African professionals working with children with SLD (DD). Setting: A mixed-methods research design was implemented. Methods: A survey study was carried out and a sample of 108 respondents was obtained. The respondents include speech-language therapists (SLTs), occupational therapists (OTs) and psychologists. Results: Speech-language therapists and psychologists displayed better knowledge about the facts of SLD (DD), compared to OTs. Their knowledge levels were, however, not significantly affected by existing misconceptions surrounding the condition. The fallacy that SLD (DD) is caused by a visual impairment is still believed. An investigation into the professionals' perspectives regarding the identification of SLD (DD) suggested that South African psychologists were the most confident of their ability to identify characteristics. Nonetheless, all professionals reported not being convinced of their ability to provide a differential diagnosis of the disorder. Statements regarding management highlighted the uncertainties about the importance of addressing phonological awareness skills in treatment. Additional training needs were also identified as SLTs, OTs and psychologists generally feel unprepared to assess and treat SLD (DD). Conclusion: The differences identified amongst professional groups were related to the knowledge of the facts and characteristics of SLD (DD) and the ability to identify and manage the condition. Additional training needs should be addressed. Contribution: The authors would like to acknowledge and thank the NRF for partially funding the publication of this article.

Dyslexia is a learning disability mostly evident in inaccurately recognizing a word, mainly because of the deficit of the phonological components of a language. This research aimed to investigate the phonological abilities of Jordanian Arabic (JA) speaking children with and without dyslexia using whole-word measures. Data from Jordanian dyslexic children were compared between three reading groups (poor readers, typical readers, and advanced readers) through three tests: (i) phonological mean length of utterance (pMLU), (ii) the Percentage of Consonant Correct (PCC) and (iii) the Proportion of Whole-Word Proximity (PWP). Findings show that the typical and the advanced readers had a relative score in pMLU, PWP and PCC, which were significantly higher than those registered by dyslexic and poor readers. Additionally, three phonological processes were found in Jordanian dyslexic children's readings: omission, substitution, and metathesis. Omission was the most frequent process employed by Jordanian dyslexics, particularly in diand polysyllabic nonsense words. The study concludes that whole-word measures can reflect the phonological abilities of children using both real and nonsense words.

The phonics dimension is essential for early literacy development and is a fundamental aspect of cognitive expansion. For this reason, phonological awareness has become a topic of great importance in education due to its significant impact on the development of reading and writing, basic learning skills. This study offers a theoretical review of a corpus of recent studies that reveal the contribution of technological resources to the development of phonological awareness in pre-school, with the intention of pointing out trends and research possibilities in this field. From a sample of 137 articles published in the last 15 years, and after a critical and systemic analysis carried out in different phases, 22 articles have been selected whose content focuses on pre-school and first year primary school children, in which ICT has been applied. The holistic analysis demonstrates the positive effect of these technologies on the development of phonological awareness. It is concluded that there is a direct relationship between phonological awareness and literacy in pre-school education, as well as the need for more rigorous research to obtain more precise results.

The purpose of this follow-up study was to determine the specific contribution of phonological processing abilities, including phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN) and verbal short-term memory (VSTM), as well as visual perception (VP), in word reading accuracy. A sample of 62 native Arabic speaking children from Grade 1 participated in study, were subdivided into typical readers (n= 42) and poor readers (n=20). Along with a diagrammatic representations test to assess visual perception, phonological processing tasks included syllable deletion, RAN objects, and pseudo-word repetition, in addition to word and pseudo-word reading tests. Participants were tested in grade 1 using the phonological and VP tasks and one year later in grade 2 using the same tasks in addition to the reading test. The main research hypotheses stipulated that typical and poor readers differ significantly in all the phonological and VP measures. It was also hypothesized that phonological and VP processing abilities contribute independently to the prediction of word reading accuracy for the entire sample. The results showed that the two groups differ significantly in PA and VSTM which were assessed in Grade 1, and in PA and VP assessed in grade 2. More importantly, hierarchical regression analyses showed that among the three phonological processing skills, PA as assessed in both grade 1 and grade 2 was the unique predictor of word reading accuracy after controlling for age and the Raven's matrices for nonverbal abstract reasoning. Visual perception also contributed significantly to the prediction of reading but only when assessed in grade 2. The findings demonstrate the key role of both PA and VP for the early development of word reading accuracy in Arabic.

This study examined knowledge of the Arabic language in special and general education teachers, using a knowledge survey, Knowledge of Arabic Morphology and Phonology (KAMP). The KAMP was administered to 180 teachers teaching students with reading disabilities to examine their knowledge and determine whether it was influenced by differences in their specialization, teaching years, and highest educational level. The findings indicated that special and general education teachers have poor phonological and morphological knowledge. Also, there were no significant mean differences between teachers on their knowledge attributed to the differences in their specialization, teaching experiences, or highest education. The study concluded by discussing the findings and suggestions for researchers and policymakers.

This paper examines how kaiako (teachers) view professional learning and development training (PLD) in structured literacy (SL) in a Maori-medium immersion context. Through interviews with kaiako in a kura kaupapa Maori (Maori-medium educational setting) who teach students in Years 1-6, and images of the literacy environment to capture some of the literacy practices in classrooms, participants share their perspectives on their PLD training. The findings revealed some of the difficulties kaiako face, such as limited resources and working within a standardisded curriculum, whilst attempting to implement changes based on their PLD training. The findings highlight the need for support from all stakeholders (including policy makers and the school leadership team) to successfully implement SL in Maori-medium settings. The need for further resources in Maori-medium settings and the challenge of making changes to a standardised curriculum also emerged from the study. Finally, the findings indicate some of the potential benefits of PLD in SL for Maori-medium educators and akonga (students), such as an understanding of how the brain learns to read, some of the key elements of reading success, and instructional principles for effective literacy instruction.

Purpose: Reading fluency establishes the basis for the strong literacy skills needed for academic success. We aim to trace how reading fluency develops from childhood to adulthood and identify factors that influence this development. Method: In this study, 200 families were followed. All participating children (N = 200, 47% female) were ethnic Finns and spoke Finnish as their native language. The dataset included children's reading fluency assessments (in Grades 2, 3, and 8 and at age 23), their self-reports, and parental questionnaires. For data analysis, growth curve models that included cognitive, motivational, and parental predictors were constructed. Results: Significant variations in both developmental rates and adult outcomes of reading fluency were found. The developmental rate was predicted by rapid automatized naming (RAN), letter knowledge, the formal home literacy environment (HLE) (measured in kindergarten) and reading motivation (measured in elementary school). Adult outcome (fluency at age 23) was predicted by RAN, letter knowledge, formal HLE, and parental dyslexia. Further, those who had parents with resolving reading difficulties were more likely to follow a resolving trajectory themselves compared with those whose parents had persistent reading difficulties. Conclusion: Our findings offer novel insights into how reading fluency develops into adulthood and identify key areas for future research to better understand the mechanisms behind reading fluency development.

This article details findings from an exploratory case study that examined the efficacy of a phonological awareness and vocabulary programme with children educated in a bilingual immersion context of English and te reo Maori (Maori language) in Aotearoa New Zealand. The current paper discusses changes in the development of early literacy skills in English and te reo Maori in two groups of children aged from 5 years 0 months to 7 years 5 months. Twenty-six children from two bilingual classrooms in a rural school participated in a programme implemented by teachers over 15 weeks. The programme included explicit instruction in phonological awareness and vocabulary. One classroom was from Level 1 te reo Maori immersion, and one was from Level 3 te reo Maori/English. Results were analysed at cohort and class levels. Analyses indicated that both groups of children significantly improved in phonological awareness skills, non-word reading, and expressive vocabulary. Correlational analyses indicated that growth in te reo Maori skills was positively associated with growth in English skills. These findings suggest that further investigation into how the explicit teaching of te reo Maori can benefit the development of phonological awareness and print-related skills in English.

English word spelling attempts originate from spellers' linguistic and metalinguistic processing. Our study examines the concerted impact of English metalinguistic skills- morphological, phonological, and orthographic processing- on English-as-a-foreign language spelling of a group of young English learners. Structural equation modeling confirmed a three-factor confirmatory factor model, validating phonological awareness on spelling with highest factor loading with degrees of morphology and orthography contribution to spelling. The qualitative spelling analyses also validated phonologically-oriented spelling errors as the most pervasive followed by unique contribution of orthography and morphology. Results, converging with existing literature, emphasize the metalinguistic skills impacts on early EFL literacy development.

The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of face-to-face and virtual phonological awareness training in the reading performance of students with dyslexia during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, 90 students with dyslexia were selected by convenience sampling and assigned to two experimental (face-to-face and virtual) groups and a control one. The reading and dyslexia test and Wechsler Intelligence Scale were used for data collection, and the data were analyzed using ANCOVA. The results revealed a significant difference in the reading performance of the experimental and control groups. Phonological awareness training significantly influenced the reading performance of students with dyslexia.

The study examined the relationship between children's explicit knowledge and awareness of diglossia (EKAD) and learning Arabic in school. Additionally, this study addresses the interrelationships between EKAD and oral comprehension, lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic awareness upon the transition to reading to learn. Thirty typicaly developing Arabic speaking fifth and sixth graders were randomly recruited (n = 18 males). The Arabic diglossic Knowledge and Awareness test (ADAT) was administered to examine the interrelationships between diglossic awareness and children's Arabic reading and mathematical abilities. Results showed that children depicted varying diglossic knowledge and awareness with no significant effect of gender, age, or academic grade. Children's EKAD scores significantly predicted their scores on Arabic reading and writing test but not their math scores. The contribution of EKAD was beyond that of phonological awareness. Significant corelation was also found between EKAD and phonological awareness. These results indicate that children's academic success at advanced stages of Arabic learning is related to explicit knowledge and awareness of diglossia. In turn, this provides support for the role of diglossic/bidialectal awareness as an independent emergent skill during literacy acquisition in diglossic communities and the need to incorporate it into the educational and clinical assessment of emergent literacy among diglossic communities.

Phonological awareness is recognized as a precursor to reading success. Choosing material to assess children's phonological awareness is a major challenge. The literature highlights factors that can influence children's phonological skills, such as the frequency of words, their lexical status, and their linguistic parameters. To date, no study has looked at the potential effect of the emotional parameters of words on phonological skills. The emotional polarity of words (valence: pleasant, unpleasant) has effects on cognitive skills related to phonological awareness, i.e., executive functions, and working memory. The aim of this research is to measure the influence of emotional (positive, negative) and non-emotional (neutral, nonwords) words on the phonological awareness of children aged 4-6 years. Our results show a differential effect of emotional valence words on phonological skills. More specifically, the emotional valence of words facilitates the performance of epiphonological tasks, whereas negative valence disrupts the performance of metaphonological tasks. These results are discussed in relation to current models of interaction between emotion and cognition.

More and more students with learning disabilities and other diverse learners are placed for instruction in general education classrooms, which often leaves teachers grappling to design successful peer interactions and literacy activities to meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms. As the shift is made to align literacy instruction to the Science of Reading (SoR), it is vital for teachers to provide relevant and engaging learning opportunities for all students. In this article, several strategies are offered for intentionally pairing diverse learners and their typically developing peers to provide successful structured peer tutoring experiences during literacy activities in inclusion classrooms.

Literacy instruction has an important role in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) because spelling and writing support precise communication. Unfortunately, few students with extensive support needs and complex communication needs (ESN/CCN) develop literacy skills at or above the first grade reading-level. Given that learning to read and write begins with extensive emergent literacy learning opportunities, limited skills may result from insufficient opportunity to learn (OTL) emergent literacy skills. This study examined the instruction provided in early U.S. childhood classrooms to students with ESN/CCN to understand OTL during this critical period. This study used a concurrent embedded mixed methods design integrating a survey of teachers of students with ESN/CCN (n = 26) with a qualitative multiple case study (n = 2). Results suggest the time teachers are devoting to instruction is not translating into increased OTL for individual students. Solutions that may increase learning opportunities and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to identify kindergarteners at risk for language and reading disorders and to determine predictors. A representative sample of 311 kindergarteners in general education classrooms in the U.S. Midwest were assessed with the Well Screening in fall, winter, and spring. Groups were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) on measures of memory, phonological awareness, retrieval speed, social communication, and letter knowledge. Children at risk for reading disorders performed most poorly on phonological awareness, whereas children at risk for language disorders struggled most with social communication. Retrieval speed alone was not a reliable predictor of reading risk in kindergarten. High performers scored best on working memory. The high-performing reading group outscored the high-performing language group on letter knowledge. Phonological awareness distinguished the high-performing reading group but not the high-performing language group from their non-high-performing classmates. Early identification of these relevant subgroups allows for early targeted interventions and monitoring of growth.