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All dominant models of reading development ascribe a central role to learning about the orthography in reading acquisition, particularly as children transition to fluent word reading (e.g., Ehri, 2014; Share, 1995). And yet, we know far less about the contributions to word reading development of children's learning about the orthographic form of language than about its phonological dimensions. Through a focused review, we put forward a new conceptualization about the role of learning about the orthography in reading development. This new theoretical framework defines a broader conceptual and developmental scope of print learning, and it predicts bidirectional relations between print learning and word reading development. This theoretical framework both encompasses and expands traditional views on the role of learning about the orthography in reading development. We hope that this framework will both unify and guide theoretical conceptualizing and empirical research.

Skilled reading requires fast and accurate access to previously encountered words stored in memory. Yet, little research addresses skills that support such lexical access. Based on theoretical predictions, one skill that may support lexical access is orthographic knowledge. Thus, our goal was to investigate the relation between lexical access and orthographic knowledge. We addressed this research question in a sample of 104 English-speaking fourth grade children. We assessed lexical access with an experimenter-created measure of timed word recognition; word reading efficiency with the TOWRE Sight Word Efficiency subtest; and lexical and sublexical orthographic knowledge with real and nonword orthographic choice tasks, respectively. We controlled for other reading related skills, including nonverbal ability and phonological awareness. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that lexical access and word reading efficiency are separate constructs. A subsequent linear regression revealed a concurrent relation between sublexical orthographic knowledge and lexical access beyond controls. Results highlight a unique place for lexical access in reading development theory and help us better understand the specific skills required to read quickly and accurately.

Educators and researchers agree that oral language is fundamental to students' reading acquisition. It is not clear how best to conceptualise oral language within models of reading -- as one's overall understanding of spoken language, or as individual skills, each with unique contributions to children's reading comprehension. In our longitudinal study of children in Grades 2 and 3, we examined the unique contributions of three oral language skills -- vocabulary, syntactic awareness, and morphological awareness -- to gains in reading comprehension assessed later that academic year (N = 116) and in the spring of the following academic year (N = 87). In our most conservative analyses, we controlled for children's listening comprehension in addition to prior reading achievement. Each language skill predicted variance in later reading comprehension beyond that accounted for by initial word reading and reading comprehension. In analyses with listening comprehension also controlled, each of syntactic awareness and morphological awareness retained their predictive power. Morphological awareness emerged as the most robust predictor and was associated with greater increases in reading comprehension for students in third versus second grade. Results support theoretical models that identify and differentiate contributions from individual oral language skills to reading comprehension. Our findings suggest that increasing each of these oral language skills within the elementary classroom may lead to advances in children's reading comprehension.

Skilled reading involves rapid and automatic word recognition. Through a self-teaching process, phonological decoding during reading is thought to establish the word-specific representations in memory that support efficient word reading. Much is known about orthographic learning during reading; less is understood about this process during spelling. Here, we compared the degree of orthographic learning that occurs during reading and spelling. Forty-eight children in Grade 2 practised reading or spelling nonwords within stories. Orthographic learning was measured using spelling recognition, spelling production and word naming tasks. Both readers and spellers showed evidence of orthographic learning; however, spellers outperformed readers on all tasks. Overall, results suggest that spelling sets up a higher quality representation in memory and highlight the importance of spelling in the development of word reading efficiency.

Previous research has established that a relationship exists between the personality trait of conscientiousness and academic achievement. The current study extends prior research by using a path analysis model to explore various proximal traits that may mediate this relationship in a sample of two hundred and twenty three undergraduate university students. Consistent with previous research, a strong positive relationship was found between conscientiousness and academic performance as measured by final grades. Of greater importance, two factors were found to mediate this relationship: Academic Self-Efficacy and Test Anxiety. The current study illustrates the complex nature of the relation between personality traits and academic achievement and indicates that personality likely has a distal effect on academic performance through more proximal characteristics.

Prominent models of word reading concur that the development of efficient word reading depends on the establishment of lexical orthographic representations in memory. In turn, word reading skills are conceptualised as supporting the development of these orthographic representations. As such, models of word reading development make clear predictions of bidirectional relations between lexical orthographic knowledge and word reading skill. We test these predictions in a longitudinal study of 112 English-speaking children in Grades 2 and 3. At two time points, we assessed lexical orthographic knowledge and three aspects of word reading skill: word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, and phonological decoding. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we found that earlier word reading accuracy, word reading efficiency, and phonological decoding predicted gains in lexical orthographic knowledge. Contrary to theoretical predictions, lexical orthographic knowledge did not predict gains in any of our measured word reading skills.

Orthographic knowledge is one of several contributors to developing literacy skills. However, our understanding of how orthographic knowledge contributes to both spelling and reading is incomplete due to a lack of consistency in defining and measuring orthographic knowledge. The goal of the present study was to empirically test whether or not orthographic knowledge could be construed as a multi-dimensional construct that contributes to reading and spelling skill in school-aged children. Using regression analyses, the current study supports the conceptualization of orthographic knowledge as a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of both word specific and general orthographic knowledge. For school-aged children, both types of orthographic knowledge make separate and unique contributions to both reading and spelling, over and above the contributions of phonological skills. Results illustrate the importance of orthographic knowledge to developing literacy skills.

To apply several principles of memory covered in a first-year university memory course, I developed a series of one-page self-reflection papers on memory that require students to engage with the material in a meaningful way. These short papers cover topics related to memory, and the assignment itself applies these same principles, reinforcing students' understanding of levels of processing theory and the distribution of practice effect. Exam grades and analysis of a specific question related to the topic covered in one reflection paper support the use of this assignment to enhance student learning and retention. (Contains 1 table.)

Although research has established that performance on a rapid automatized naming (RAN) task is related to reading, the nature of this relationship is unclear. Bowers (2001) proposed that processes underlying performance on the RAN task and orthographic knowledge make independent and additive contributions to reading performance. We examined the benefits of training orthographic pattern recognition and speeded letter recognition for children in Grades 1 and 2 with slow naming speed. Children first received training in either orthographic pattern recognition or speeded letter recognition, and then switched to the other type of training. Results indicated that speeded letter recognition can improve through training, but only when preceded by training in orthographic pattern recognition. Orthographic pattern recognition training improved the accuracy and speed of reading training words, whether training occurred alone or following letter training. Letter training prior to the orthographic training provided no additional benefit. Together, these results argue for the importance of orthographic training for children with slow naming speed.

This study compares the effects of practice spelling and reading specific words on the orthographic representations in memory involved in reading both practiced words and new, unfamiliar words. Typically developing readers in Grade 2 (mean age = 7 years, 7 months) participated in a training study examining whether transfer can occur between reading and spelling following a series of reading and spelling practice sessions. Practice consisted of either repeated reading or repeated spelling of words with shared orthographic rime patterns. A series of mixed analyses of variance was used to examine generalization within skill and transfer across skill. Following practice, word-specific transfer across skill was found. Specifically, children were better able to spell words they had practiced reading and to read words they had practiced spelling. In addition, generalization to new words with practiced rime units was found both within a skill and across skills. However, transfer from spelling to reading was greater than transfer from reading to spelling. Results indicate that the orthographic representations established through practice can be used for both reading and spelling. Subsequently, reading and spelling curricula should be coordinated to benefit children maximally.

The ability to recognize letter patterns within words as a single unit is important for fluent reading. This skill is based on previously established memory representations of common letter patterns. The ability to form these memory representations may be impaired in some poor readers, particularly readers with naming speed deficits (NSD). This study explored factors that influence letter processing and the subsequent formation of memory representations of letter strings in children with and without a NSD. Children were presented with a letter string, followed by a probe unit that was either a single letter, a two-letter cluster, or a repetition of the whole string. Children indicated whether or not the probe had been present in the preceding string. Two factors were manipulated: (a) amount of time to process the initial letter string, and (b) level of orthographic structure present in the letter string. Results indicated that overall, children with NSD performed less accurately than children without NSD. However, children with NSD showed no differential benefit in performance as a result of longer time to process a letter string. In addition, all readers were able to make use of the orthographic structure in a letter string to aid performance. Implications of results for establishing memory representations of letter strings are discussed.