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Background: The need to examine teachers' learning activities in reading literacy instruction arises from concerns about reading proficiency levels in the Namibian Junior Primary phase, where reading literacy is a fundamental skill crucial for academic success. Aim: The study examined the learning activities used for reading literacy instruction in selected Namibian Junior Primary (JP) schools focused on Grade 3 teachers. Setting: The study was conducted in selected Oshana region JP schools focused in three diverse classroom settings. Methods: The study used secondary qualitative data that were collected by the Oshana Regional Directorate of Education through interviews and classroom observations to examine the teaching practices Grade 3 teachers were using for reading literacy instruction. The study explores the reading literacy practices of teachers that they have adapted from continuous professional development programs and ministerial policies. Results: The findings indicate that the participants in this study were utilising a variety of learning activities to enhance reading literacy skills. These activities are phonological activities (phonics, phonological awareness activities, and the Jolly Phonics programme) and interactive activities (shared reading and reading corner activities) for reading literacy instruction. Conclusion: In conclusion, participants employed a range of methods to enhance reading instruction. They utilised phonological strategies like phonics and the Jolly Phonics programme to develop language skills, alongside interactive practices such as shared reading to improve fluency and foster a love for reading. Contribution: The findings can inform educational policies, curriculum development, and initial teacher education programmes, ultimately improving reading literacy outcomes for learners in Namibia and beyond.

Early diagnosis of children with reading disorders is essential for intervention and academic success. Many children with reading difficulties have a deficit in phonemic awareness. A web-based, group-administered screening vehicle, the Risk Factor Screen for Reading (RiFS-Reading), was developed to quickly identify students who are "At Risk" for reading difficulties by assessing knowledge of phonemic awareness. The goal was to establish the validity of the RiFS-Reading measure. Results supported construct validity through factor analysis and criterion validity by comparisons with performance on well-established measures of phonemic awareness and reading. Phonemic awareness on the RiFS-Reading was independent of other language skills.

A 7-year longitudinal study was conducted as part of the French national cohort ELFE (N = 1095). The aim was to identify how and why early language skills at 2 years might predict later literacy skills assessed successively at 5, 7, and 9 years (LitSk5y; 7y; 9y). Using one and the same model, we also examined the relations between literacy skills in the three sessions and the potential impact of three environmental variables: the home learning environment (HLE) and two variables related to socioeconomic status (SES), namely, parental education level (PEL) and household income (HInc). The main findings reveal that expressive vocabulary at 2 years is a significant predictor of LitSk5y. No significant link was found for HLE. The other significant links reveal that PEL is associated with LitSk5y and LitSk7y, and HInc with LitSk5y and LitSk9y. The differential impact of these two SES variables is discussed. Moreover, the restructuring lexical model is proposed to explain how the development of early expressive vocabulary is linked to the development of literacy skills via an implicit stimulation of phonemic awareness during the acquisition of new words.

This study examined the response of two students in the Southwestern United States with autism spectrum disorder and IQ in the intellectual disability range to a comprehensive, text-based reading intervention. The intervention, "Friends on the Block," includes multiple strands of literacy providing explicit instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, high-frequency irregular or temporarily irregular words, decoding, vocabulary, oral language, and comprehension. Multiple supports for students with intensive needs are embedded within the intervention, such as specially designed multi-criteria books, extensive scaffolding, and intensive cumulative review. Teachers customize the program to address the varying needs of students. We used single-case multiple baselines across levels of instruction design to assess growth on a measure of reading (words read correctly). Results indicated a positive, functional relation between reading intervention and word reading. Both students also demonstrated modest growth on measures of phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and word identification from pre- to post-intervention.

Phoneme discrimination is the ability to detect subtle similarities and differences between phonemes. Phoneme discrimination is a strong predictor of reading development and poor phoneme discrimination may predict reading disabilities (Lyytinen et al., 2004). The ability to discriminate phonemes may be an even more critical skill for Emergent Bilinguals (EBs, also known as English Learners) and EBs with reading disabilities because they need to enhance their perception of phoneme boundaries to enhance their word reading ability. As EB populations in schools increase, addressing phoneme discrimination gaps becomes increasingly important. Classroom instruction should include repeated exposure to differentiating phonemes with known high frequency words and minimal pairs to develop a strong foundation for discerning phonetic features.

The goals of LETRS are to build teachers' knowledge of language structure and the processes involved in learning to read words, spell, and comprehend, and then to help teachers apply these understandings in their classrooms. The LETRS courses, which are designed for teachers in grades K-3, are to be implemented over two years. In the first year of LETRS, teachers learn how to teach phoneme awareness, beginning and advanced decoding, word recognition, and spelling. In the second year, participants shift their focus to oral language, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing in response to reading. Several theoretical frameworks for understanding reading and writing in grades K-3 provide conceptual cohesion and are woven throughout the eight units. Each unit, however, allows teachers to focus on one important aspect of teaching at a time. The courses build knowledge in a progressive sequence in which one topic supports and is connected to the next--a feature that distinguishes LETRS from professional development offered as a patchwork of various options that teachers can self-select. In this article, Louisa C. Moats explains the origin and development of LETRS and the rationale for the course content.

Previous studies have found that phonological processing and vocabulary predict word reading. However, their predictive powers may vary according to reading experience and across scripts with different levels of transparency. In this study, the relationship between phonological processing, decoding, vocabulary and word reading was explored in two different alphabetic languages: Persian (a non-Latin script) and Swedish (a Latin script). Standardised tests in both languages were used. Participants comprised 26 Persian-Swedish bilingual (biscriptal) children in school grades 4-9. Rapid automatic naming (RAN), phonological and semantic fluency, non-word reading and vocabulary were all significantly associated with word reading in Persian, whereas phonemic awareness, RAN, phonological fluency and non-word reading were significantly associated with word reading in Swedish. The findings have been compared with previous research and the educational implications are discussed.

This article reviews literature published between 2010 and 2022 on the integration of tablets in phonological awareness and phonics instruction in kindergarten and the elementary grades. Studies involving phonological awareness skills compared traditional methods with tablet instruction and investigated tablet integration with teacher guidance, while those targeting phonics skills focused on self-paced learning with game elements and one-on-one learning. Results across 14 studies indicated mixed learning outcomes. The literature indicated that tablet-assisted instruction can be as effective as traditional instruction and helps students gain a learning advantage with teachers' guidance. In several studies, students' independent learning with game-element apps or one-on-one learning with apps customized by teachers positively affected students' learning performance. The role of tablets in phonological awareness and phonics instruction, the need for teacher guidance and an evaluation rubric, and critical issues to consider for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of an 18-day summer tutoring program in which graduate student tutors delivered 15 minutes of differentiated reading instruction (DRI) and a 30-minute interactive read-aloud (IRA) lesson each day. Students in grades K-5 (N = 179) attending a summer program at one urban elementary school completed a lesson-specific combination of pretest and posttest measures of letter-sound knowledge, decoding skills, oral reading fluency, and academic reading attitudes. Students were assigned to groups targeting phonemic awareness and word recognition (PAWR), word recognition and fluency (WRAF), fluency and comprehension (FAC), or vocabulary and comprehension (VAC) based on skill profiles. Paired-samples statistical tests were used to analyze pretest and posttest measures, and tutors were observed with a checklist to document implementation fidelity. Results indicated significant gains on specific subskill mastery measures of letter-sound knowledge for students in PAWR groups and decoding skills for students in PAWR and WRAF groups. Results were not significant for a curriculum-based measure of oral reading fluency for students in FAC groups and were significantly negative for students in VAC groups. There were no significant differences in gains based on instructional group size. There was no evidence of summer learning loss on academic reading attitudes. Tutors were able to implement DRI and IRA lessons with acceptable fidelity. These findings suggest that a summer tutoring program delivered by graduate students can improve targeted reading skills without negatively impacting reading attitudes.

The contribution of linguistic skills to reading has been reported in different languages; however, this contribution varies according to the specific features of each language. Arabic is characterized by diglossia, i.e. the existence of two distinct varieties: Spoken Arabic (SpA) and Standard Arabic (StA). This study examined the extent to which linguistic components (phonemic awareness, vocabulary, morphological and syntactic knowledge) and orthographic knowledge of kindergartners (N = 261) predict future reading skills, i.e. word reading accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension in the first year of elementary school (first grade). In addition, the relevant contributions of SpA and StA to reading skills were tested. The results revealed that while phonemic awareness, syntactic and orthographic knowledge significantly predicted almost all reading skills, morphological knowledge and vocabulary predicted only reading comprehension. In addition, hierarchical regression showed that the general index of StA linguistic measures predicted all reading measures, after controlling for orthographic knowledge and SpA linguistic measures. The results are discussed in relation to the critical role of StA in reading acquisition despite the difficulties of Arabic-speaking kindergartners in processing language in StA compared to SpA. The study emphasizes the influence of oral and written linguistic skills on reading acquisition in Arabic.

Due to the diglossic nature of the Arabic language, Arabic-speaking children enter their first year of school with immaturity in literary language and word representations in their mental lexicon. This study examined the effects of interactive story reading in kindergarten on future reading skills and whether this effect can be generalized to reading skills of infrequent words. 102 Arabic-speaking kindergarten children were divided into two groups: (1) the intervention group was based on a first-grade textbook; (2) the control group was based on classic stories from the kindergarten library. The program was implemented for three months during the kindergarten year. The findings show that the intervention group's scores were higher than the control group in measures of represented/practiced and unfamiliar items. Additionally, the gain of the intervention group in reading unfamiliar items provide evidence for a generalization effect of the intervention program. We conclude that the negative impact of diglossia on reading acquisition in Arabic can be reduced during kindergarten.

The aim of this study is to examine which predictor variables are related to literacy attainment in Irish (Gaelic)-English bilinguals. The participants were in their second (n = 115) and third (n = 125) year of schooling in Ireland and were drawn from both native speaker and new speaker backgrounds. The constructs of phonemic awareness, verbal fluency (RAN) and verbal short-term memory were investigated as predictors of Irish word reading accuracy and spelling. The results indicate that the predictors of Irish and English literacy attainment differ, though phonemic awareness is the most effective predictor of literacy attainment in each language. Notably, the Irish predictor tasks were significant predictors of English literacy attainment, while the English predictor tasks were not significant predictors of Irish literacy attainment, supporting the unidirectional transfer of skills from Irish to English in this cohort. The implications of this study highlight the importance of developing bilingual screening and diagnostic assessments for literacy in the Irish-English context, something which is currently lacking.

Purpose: Research on how much early phonemic awareness (PA) instruction is optimal has produced inconclusive answers. We conducted a nonlinear meta-analysis to estimate the optimal cumulative dosage of early PA instruction on PA outcomes with an associated maximum effect size in preschool through first-grade students. Method: Sixteen experimental and quasi-experimental primary studies (35 effect sizes) on PA instruction effectiveness that reported cumulative dosage data were included. There were 613 students in treatment and 542 students in control conditions (Mage= 5.20 years; SDage = 0.87). Results: The cumulative dosage response model took a concave parabolic form (an upside-down U shape). Specifically, PA instruction effects improved with increasing dosage up to 10.20 hours of instruction (dmax = 0.74), after which the effects declined. Moderator analyses revealed these results held for students at-risk for reading disabilities and basic PA skills instruction. Furthermore, moderator analyses showed that the dosage response curves exhibited a convex parabolic form (a U shape) in PA instruction with letters, with effects continually increasing after 16 hours of PA instruction. Discussion: Overall, our findings highlight the importance of planning the optimal cumulative dosage of early PA instruction in preschool through first-grade settings so that students acquire the PA and phonological-orthographic associations taught and show progress in learning to read.

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.

This study examined the nature of young children's literacy interest, the predictability of literacy interest for early literacy skills, and gender differences in literacy interest using a sample of Head Start children (N = 263). Literacy interest was compared across parent-, teacher-, and child-reported measures of literacy activity participation and enjoyment. Results showed parents rated their children's literacy interest higher than teachers and preschoolers. Multilevel regression analyses found that teacher and parent reports, especially teacher-reported literacy participation and parent-reported literacy enjoyment, significantly predicted early literacy skills in the fall and spring of a school year. Further analysis demonstrated gender differences in literacy interest and gender by literacy interest interaction effects. Girls scored higher in literacy interest than boys, and teacher-reported literacy participation predicted children's fall literacy skills more for boys. However, spring literacy skills were predicted more strongly for girls by teacher-reported literacy participation, parent-reported literacy enjoyment, and child-reported literacy enjoyment.

Framed by Bakhtinian theories of authoritative discourse and heteroglossia, this study examines perceptions of a Science-of-Reading-based state reading initiative five years into implementation. Using interview transcripts, researchers engaged in polyphonic analysis to bring the voices of teachers, reading interventionists, parents, administrators, and state department of education officials into created dialogue. Findings from this qualitative study suggest there were contrasting perspectives about reading and the SRI, that many participants felt the initiative narrowed reading instruction and constrained teachers' agency, and that, overall, there have been limited opportunities for dialogue about the initiative. Findings demonstrate that a narrow view of reading research may silence and delegitimize some stakeholder voices. This state's goal of sharpening the focus of reading instruction led to instruction that was perceived by some stakeholders as narrow, boring, and meaningless, unlikely to create the statewide culture of reading that was targeted. Implications for this and future state reading initiatives point to the value of dialogue among varied stakeholders, which might allow for the idiosyncrasies of the teaching and learning of reading and writing to be addressed.

Background: Despite evidence that synthetic phonics teaching has increased reading attainments, a sizable minority of children struggle to acquire phonics skills and teachers lack clear principles for deciding what types of "additional" support are most beneficial. Synthetic phonics teaches children to read using a decoding strategy to translate letters into sounds and blend them (e.g., c-a-t = "k - ae -- t" = "cat"). To use a decoding strategy, children require letter-sound knowledge (LSK) and the ability to blend sound units (phonological awareness; PA). Training on PA has been shown to benefit struggling beginning readers. However, teachers in English primary schools do not routinely check PA. Instead, struggling beginner readers usually receive additional LSK support. Aims: Until now, there has been no systematic comparison of the effectiveness of training on each component of the decoding process. Should additional support for struggling readers focus on improving PA, or on supplementary LSK and/or decoding instruction? We aim to increase understanding of the roles of LSK and PA in children's acquisition of phonics skills and uncover which types of additional training are most likely to be effective for struggling beginner readers. Sample and Method: We will compare training on each of these components, using a carefully controlled experimental design. We will identify reception-age children at risk of reading difficulties (target n = 225) and randomly allocate them to either PA, LSK or decoding (DEC) training. We will test whether training type influences post-test performance on word reading and whether any effects depend on participants' pre-test PA and/or LSK. Results and Conclusions: Two hundred and twenty-two participants completed the training. Planned analyses showed no effects of condition on word reading. However, exploratory analyses indicated that the advantage of trained over untrained words was significantly greater for the PA and DEC conditions. There was also a significantly greater improvement in PA for the DEC condition. Overall, our findings suggest a potential advantage of training that includes blending skills, particularly when decoding words that had been included in training. Future research is needed to develop a programme of training on blending skills combined with direct vocabulary instruction for struggling beginner readers.

Children's ability to correctly name letters is a key predictor of later reading abilities and skills, but research on letter naming from Scandinavian orthographies is scarce. The aim of this study is to explore how child- and letter-related factors (i.e., gender, child name, phonemic awareness, letter position in the alphabet and frequency, and speech sound development) are associated with Norwegian children's letter-name knowledge over time. The sample comprises 185 Norwegian children with an average age of 51.59 months (SD = 2.12) who completed a letter-naming task on three separate occasions one year apart. Results from mixed-effects models show that children were more likely to name the first letter of their own name, however, this effect diminished over time. Further, letter frequency significantly predicted letter naming, and the letter frequency and letter position in alphabet effects were larger in older children. This study contributes important and relevant information for teachers and educators.

Recently, the science of reading has garnered much attention in elementary schools across the U.S. The science of reading is a body of research on learning to read that has been accumulated through systematic inquiry. Seth A. Parsons and Joy Dangora Erickson argue that the way the science of reading is being implemented is missing a key ingredient: motivation. There is an expansive research base on the importance of motivation for learning. Using practical guidelines, they advocate infusing the science of reading with research on reading motivation to design instruction that optimally supports young learners.

The annual "What's Hot in Literacy" survey uncovers the current focal points within literacy education. A panel of twenty-five literacy leaders participated and engaged in interviews to identify the most and least emphasized literacy topics, as well as those deserving more attention. The findings for 2023 spotlight several topics categorized as "very hot," including dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities, early literacy, phonics/phonemic awareness, and social justice/equity/anti-racism in literacy. The topics of the science of reading and structured literacy emerged as "extremely hot," and the sole topic ranked as "should not be hot" for the 2023 survey cycle. Assessing these outcomes and their potential impacts on literacy education holds importance for educators across all levels.

The current study compared the reading growth of (a) students who received targeted interventions, (b) students who received typical school interventions, and (c) students who were proficient readers at the study's onset. The participants were 1,513 students in first through fifth grades who attended one of three treatment schools or one of three control schools. Students who received a targeted intervention had higher adjusted mean growth scores from fall to winter than students who received the typical school intervention, after controlling for grade and free or reduced-price lunch status, but had relatively equal mean growth score as the proficient readers. The data supported previous research but found positive effects for interventions that were selected and implemented by school personnel in an applied setting.

Phonemic awareness is a key building block for later reading and spelling development. Students at risk for reading difficulties may have difficulties with phonemic awareness and need additional instruction or intervention to develop these skills. This column discusses evidence-based phonemic awareness instruction and the implementation of supplemental intervention using computer programs and parents for students at risk for reading difficulties.

In this preregistered study, we used latent change score models to address two research aims: (1) whether preschool-aged children's language gains, over a year of early childhood education, were associated with later performance on state-mandated, literacy-focused kindergarten readiness and Grade 3 reading achievement assessments; and (2) whether gains in language, a more complex skill, predicted these outcomes after controlling for more basic emergent literacy skills. There were 724 participating children (mean = 57 months; 51% male; 76% White, 12% Black, 6% multiple races, and 5% Hispanic or Latino). We found that language gains significantly predicted kindergarten readiness when estimated in isolation (effect = 0.24 SDs, p < .001), but not when gains in letter knowledge and phonological awareness were also included.

We report on a school-based randomized control trial study comparing two morphological interventions with untaught controls: one focusing on direct instruction targeting print morphological decoding (direct decoding condition) and the other on inquiry-focused pedagogy using oral morphological analysis (inquiry-analysis condition). We identified 63 Grade 3 children with below-average morphological awareness following screening (from N = 163). This sub-sample showed average pseudoword decoding but poor language and word reading abilities. Following a 13-week supplemental intervention randomized within the 63 children, results showed a statistically significant main effect of intervention on standardized reading vocabulary measures at immediate post-test in the direct decoding condition. Pre-test morphological awareness moderated reading vocabulary effects for the untaught control group. Statistically significant moderation of growth in sentence comprehension at post- by pre-test morphological awareness was also evident in the inquiry-analysis condition. Universal screening for below-average morphological awareness followed by inquiry-based or direct instruction interventions focusing on the meaning dimensions of morphemes may be modestly efficacious for supporting reading vocabulary and sentence comprehension in such at risk learners, potentially aiding school-wide literacy improvement.

In our first article, we outlined some of the reasons for reading failure at the Early Childhood level and beyond, discussed common challenges students face, and explored essential components for quality reading instruction. We'll revisit the students you met in the first article to provide a window into how the Science of Reading can be incorporated into the Early Childhood classroom. We'll introduce new strategies and materials that integrate best practices through a Montessori lens for all learners. We'll show how these same strategies and materials can become interventions when used with increased intensity, frequency, and differentiation. Core Montessori principles, such as independence, multisensory instruction, and isolation of difficulty, remain central elements of the lesson.

Action video-games (AVGs) could improve reading efficiency, enhancing not only visual attention but also phonological processing. Here we tested the AVG effects upon three consolidated language-based predictors of reading development in a sample of 79 pre-readers at-risk and 41 non-at-risk for developmental dyslexia. At-risk children were impaired in either phonemic awareness (i.e., phoneme discrimination task), phonological working memory (i.e., pseudoword repetition task) or rapid automatized naming (i.e., RAN of colours task). At-risk children were assigned to different groups by using an unequal allocation randomization: (1) AVG (n = 43), (2) Serious Non-Action Video Game (n = 11), (3) treatment-as-usual (i.e., speech therapy, n = 11), and (4) waiting list (n = 14). Pre- and post-training comparisons show that only phonemic awareness has a significantly higher improvement in the AVG group compared to the waiting list, the non-AVG, and the treatment-as-usual groups, as well as the combined active groups (n = 22). This cross-modal plastic change: (i) leads to a recovery in phonemic awareness when compared to the not-at-risk pre-readers; (ii) is present in more than 80% of AVG at-risk pre-readers, and; (iii) is maintained at a 6-months follow-up. The present findings indicate that this specific multisensory attentional training positively affects how phonemic awareness develops in pre-readers at risk for developmental dyslexia, paving the way for innovative prevention programs.

The present study aimed to investigate whether and how Chinese single character reading and 2-character word reading can reflect somewhat different processes. Tasks of Chinese rapid automatized naming (RAN), morphological awareness, phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, along with vocabulary knowledge and nonverbal intelligence tasks, were administered to 283 Hong Kong Chinese kindergarteners ("Mean age" = 66.08 months, SD = 5.15), who were followed up one year later at grade one. Results demonstrated that, concurrently, morphological awareness and RAN explained unique variance in Chinese word reading at kindergarten when character reading was statistically controlled; character reading had no unique cognitive-linguistic correlates when word reading was statistically controlled. Longitudinally, word reading at grade one was predicted by character reading at kindergarten. In contrast, character reading at grade one could not be predicted by word reading at kindergarten. These findings suggest that Chinese children's processing of 2-character words and single characters should be treated differently in Chinese reading acquisition.

This qualitative multi-case research study explored the experiences of pre-service teachers learning phonics and phonemic awareness (PPA) in a literacy methods course. Data were collected from pre- and post-test scores, literacy life maps, semi-structured interviews, and course questionnaires. Findings suggest pre-service teachers with limited prior knowledge struggled with learning PPA but were able to overcome the challenges. Participants perceived their preparedness and confidence in teaching PPA had grown through the course. Participants noted the benefits of hands-on practice with PPA.

The present article summarizes various aspects of teaching foreign languages to learners with dyslexia. In particular, although it is a matter examined broadly around the world, in Greece there are few references and limited research in this field. Furthermore, the lack of foreign language teachers' training in the field of specific learning difficulties in Greece is also examined. In this article, we refer to first language and foreign language(s) acquisition and focus on the situation in Greece, where the first foreign language taught in schools is English and the second foreign language is either German or French. Furthermore, we examine the mechanisms of (second) foreign language acquisition as well as the factors that influence this process. Additionally, we consider the appropriate time to start learning a foreign language, as well as various reading and spelling difficulties that the learners with dyslexia face during this process. A very dominant factor that influences learners with dyslexia and causes difficulties in reading and spelling is the phonological awareness (phonemic awareness and syllable awareness). Due to the cross-linguistic transfer of this skill, we mention ways to improve phonological awareness skills in the first language and in the foreign language(s).

Phonological awareness (PA) is a word that has recently gained currency in the field of early literacy instruction. There is a large corpus of research on how to teach PA to young language learners. In spite of these relevant data, there is a dearth of literacy information on PA in Arabic, especially targeting Saudi students. The focus of this discussion is to describe how to introduce phonological awareness activities into the curriculum to benefit kindergarten-aged Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia. In addition, this research review describes PA abilities and the significance of rhymes, rhythms, and syllables. Finally, this paper will also provide examples illustrating how Saudi teachers may use the holistic language theory (i.e., whole language approach) to implement PA through the use of games, songs, and storyboards comprised of rhymes, rhythms, and syllables. The implications suggest PA is essential for young Saudi learners' mastery of reading, speaking, and learning Arabic.

Many out-of-school time (OST) sites are incorporating literacy time in their programming to capitalize on the benefits associated with literacy instruction. Afterschool is a perfect opportunity to foster a love of reading in children. Expanded learning in afterschool programs can make a difference in both short-term and long-term academic outcomes. In schools, coaches have been used to improve nonacademic practices such as classroom management. Coaching has been linked to improved teaching practices, student learning, teacher collaboration, teacher attitudes, skill transfer, feelings of effectiveness, and student achievement. Professional development for coaches enables them to improve their ability to create a productive learning environment, which they can then pass on to frontline educators. This article outlines the creation and content of a professional development program in early literacy that was delivered to coaches who work with OST staff. The training content focused on meeting the literacy needs of diverse learners, grades K to 3, in Philadelphia's OST programs. To design the training, the authors consulted with the coaches who would be trained to learn about their own needs and the needs of the program staff they would be supporting.

Dyslexia is a neuro-sensory issue that makes reading challenging. However, Dyslexic Phonemic R[subscript 3] is a novel approach that improved the phonological development and resolved the reading challenges of dyslexia. The primary goal of the study was (1) to evaluate the current state of the phonemic and auditory symptoms of children with dyslexia and (2) To study the effects of the Dyslexic Phonemic R[subscript 3] Approach on the reading development of children with dyslexia. The Dyslexic Phonemic R[subscript 3] Approach was the only experimental group in the case study, which examined the prevalence of dyslexia among the participants. There was no control group. 45 students with dyslexia were the participants chosen from thirty schools in the Indian town of Silchar. These adolescents were chosen from a population of 12-13-year-olds with auditory and phonemic deficiencies after getting the consents of their parents. The Dyslexic Phonemic R3 Approach significantly improved the reading, and spelling habit of student with dyslexia. The dyslexic phonemic R3 approach was developed in Assam University, Silchar, India by Dr. Ananta Kumar Jena. Vowels in this context are phonemic patterns that are primarily divided into two types: long and short vowels, and syllables (closed and open). In many situations, short vowels are most frequently utilised. The Dyslexia-Phonemic R3 technique uses these three procedures to diagnose dyslexia.

Arabs often mispronounce many sounds of English due to a lack of exposure to English as a foreign language. This research article focuses on pronunciation problems encountered by Arab undergraduate EFL learners. It uses questionnaires, recorded speech samples, and pronunciation tests as part of its methodology to analyze learners' performance orally through repetition drills to help participants articulate the sounds of English through Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Learning Management System. This research emphasizes the main question on the common problems encountered by EFL undergraduates with pronunciation skills. The study aims to train the students with pronunciation tests and phonemic inventory by repetition and imitation to overcome pronunciation miscues and fossilized miscues to enhance their pronunciation. This study is significant because it proposes feasible pedagogical techniques for imparting English sounds and initiating the learners to produce and acquire sounds more accurately, which will help Arab undergraduate EFL learners with their pronunciation problems. To achieve this goal, it proposes feasible pedagogical techniques to impart sounds of English and initiate the learners to produce and acquire sounds more accurately. One of the main findings of this research revealed that our EFL undergraduates have improved in their pronunciation through constant motivation and willingness to participate in the designed tests through Blackboard. Recommendations for further research would be on phonological awareness as an aid in learning EFL.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to create and evaluate online learning modules designed to teach speech-language pathologists (SLPs) dialogic reading strategies and phonemic awareness skills. Method: School-based SLPs (n = 28) were assigned to complete one of two online learning modules. One module taught dialogic reading strategies, and the other taught phonemic awareness. Participants in the dialogic reading group served as controls for the phonemic awareness group and vice versa. Participants completed a pretest that assessed phonemic awareness skill and knowledge of dialogic reading strategies to control for prior knowledge and skill, completed their assigned module, and then completed a posttest that assessed phonemic awareness skill and knowledge of dialogic reading strategies. Results: Data were analyzed using multiple regression. The independent variables were pretest score, group, and the pretest score by group interaction. The dependent variable in the first model was posttest score on the dialogic reading measure. The dependent variable in the second model was posttest score on the phonemic awareness measure. There was a statistically significant group by posttest score interaction in the dialogic reading model, indicating that the dialogic reading module was effective for improving knowledge of dialogic reading strategies. There was not a statistically significant group by posttest score interaction in the phonemic awareness module, indicating that the phonemic awareness module was not effective for improving phoneme segmentation skill and phoneme manipulation skill. Conclusions: Online learning modules may be effective for establishing knowledge needed for evidence-based practice in speech-language pathology. Additional research is warranted to determine whether online learning modules can be used to change clinician intervention behavior.

Word segmentation is a crucial step in children's vocabulary learning. While computational models of word segmentation can capture infants' performance in small-scale artificial tasks, the examination of early word segmentation in naturalistic settings has been limited by the lack of measures that can relate models' performance to developmental data. Here, we extended CLASSIC (Chunking Lexical and Sublexical Sequences in Children; Jones et al., 2021), a corpus-trained chunking model that can simulate several memory and phonological and vocabulary learning phenomena to allow it to perform word segmentation using utterance boundary information, and we have named this extended version CLASSIC utterance boundary (CLASSIC-UB). Further, we compared our model to the performance of children on a wide range of new measures, capitalizing on the link between word segmentation and vocabulary learning abilities. We showed that the combination of chunking and utterance-boundary information used by CLASSIC utterance boundary allowed a better prediction of English-learning children's output vocabulary than did other models.

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether morphological awareness measured before children are taught to read (Kindergarten in Israel) predicts reading accuracy and fluency in the middle of first grade, at the very beginning of the process of learning to read pointed Hebrew -- a highly transparent orthography, and whether this contribution remains after controlling for phonemic awareness. In a longitudinal design, 680 Hebrew-speaking children were administered morphological and phonemic awareness measures at the end of the preschool year (before they were taught to read) then followed up into first grade when reading was tested in mid-year. The results indicated that even at this early point in learning to read a transparent orthography, preschool morphological awareness contributes significantly to both reading accuracy and reading fluency, even after partialling out age, non-verbal general ability, and phonemic awareness. The current results extend the Functional Opacity argument (Share, 2008) which proposes that at the initial stages of reading acquisition, when children still have incomplete mastery of some aspects of the spelling-sound system, non-phonological sources of information about word identity such as morphology can assist in the decoding process. The practical implications of these results with regard to early reading instruction are discussed.

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to reflect on and process the sounds of spoken language and to conduct mental operations on the units that represent them, that is, phonemes. This study intended to examine the descriptive and psychometric properties of the phonemic awareness of schoolers test assessment (PASTA), a new tool that assesses one dimension of phonological awareness, namely the ability to blend pseudowords. A sample of 627 Italian 3rd-5th graders, 314 females and 313 males (M[subscript age] = 9.3 years, SD = 10.2 months, age range = 7.8-11.4 years) took part in the study. Participants completed a battery of tests assessing verbal intelligence and working memory, reading, writing, word, and pseudoword-blending skills. A satisfactory internal consistency of PASTA (Kudar-Richardson 20 = 0.81) was documented. Moreover, a series of Pearson's correlations revealed adequate concurrent validity of the new test. In addition, an ANOVA showed the positive main effect of education in the PASTA condition (F[2,621) = 11.083, p < 0.0001, [eta][superscript 2]p = 0.03). As expected, 3rd-grade pupils were outperformed by children attending the 4th- and 5th grades. In conclusion, the PASTA is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of phonological processing in Italian 3rd to 5th graders of primary school.

This study had three goals: to examine the stability of deficits in the phonological and lexical routes in dyslexia (group study), to determine the prevalence of dyslexia profiles (multiple-case study), and to identify the prediction of phonemic segmentation and discrimination skills before reading acquisition on future reading level. Among a group of 373 non-readers seen at age 5, 38 students were subsequently diagnosed as either consistent dyslexic readers (18 DYS) or consistent typical readers (20 TR). Their phonological and lexical reading skills were assessed at ages 10 and 17 and their phonemic segmentation and discrimination skills at age 5. In comparison with TR of the same chronological age (CA-TR), individuals with dyslexia demonstrated an impairment of the two reading routes, especially of the phonological reading route. In the comparison with younger TR (age 10) of the same reading level (RL-TR), only a deficit of the phonological route is observed. In the multiple-case study, the comparisons with CA-TR showed a prevalence of mixed profiles and very few dissociated profiles, whereas the comparison with RL-TR resulted mostly in two profiles depending on the measure: a phonological profile when accuracy was used and a delayed profile when speed was used. In addition, the correlations between early phonemic segmentation and discrimination skills (age 5) and later reading skills (age 17) were significant, and in the group of individuals with dyslexia, early phonemic segmentation skills significantly predicted these later reading skills. Phonological reading deficits are persistent and mainly caused by early phonemic impairments.

In many U.S. states, legislation seeks to define effective instruction for beginning readers, creating an urgent need to turn to scholars who are knowledgeable about ongoing reading research. This mixed-methods study considers the extent to which recognized literacy experts agreed with recommendations about instruction that were included on a state's reading initiative website. Our purpose was to guide implementation and inform policy-makers. In alignment with the initiative, experts agreed reading aloud, comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, phonological awareness, and phonics all deserve a place in early literacy instruction. Additionally, they agreed some components not included on the website warranted attention, such as motivation, oral language, reading volume, writing, and needs-based instruction. Further, experts cautioned against extremes in describing aspects of early reading instruction. Findings suggest that experts' knowledge of the vast body of ongoing research about reading can be a helpful guide to policy formation and implementation.