Ana Sucena

Phonological Development in Relation to Native Language and Literacy: Variations on a Theme in Six Alphabetic Orthographies.

Phonological development was assessed in six alphabetic orthographies (English, French, Greek, Icelandic, Portuguese and Spanish) at the beginning and end of the first year of reading instruction. The aim was to explore contrasting theoretical views regarding: the question of the availability of phonology at the outset of learning to read (Study 1); the influence of orthographic depth on the pace of phonological development during the transition to literacy (Study 2); and the impact of literacy instruction (Study 3). Results from 242 children did not reveal a consistent sequence of development as performance varied according to task demands and language. Phonics instruction appeared more influential than orthographic depth in the emergence of an early meta-phonological capacity to manipulate phonemes, and preliminary indications were that cross-linguistic variation was associated with speech rhythm more than factors such as syllable complexity. The implications of the outcome for current models of phonological development are discussed.

Reading Test Sentence Comprehension: an adapted Version of Lobrot's Lecture 3 Test for Brazilian Portuguese

Our aim was to analyse the linguistic structure of the Lobrots Lecture 3 (L3) reading test and to describe the procedure for its adaptation to a Brazilian cultural-linguistic context. The resulting adapted version is called the Reading Test-Sentence Comprehension [Teste de Leitura: Compreensão de Sentenças (TELCS)] and was developed using the European Portuguese adaptation of L3 as a reference. The present study was conducted in seven steps: (1) classification of the response alternatives of L3 test; (2) adaptation of the original sentences into Brazilian Portuguese; (3) back-translation; (4) adaptation of the distractors from TELCS; (5) configuration of TELCS; (6) pilot study; and (7) validation and standardization. In comparison with L3, TELCS included new linguistic and structural variables, such as frequency of occurrence of the distractors, gender neutrality and position of the target words. The instrument can be used for a collective screening or individual clinical administration purposes to evaluate the reading ability of second-to-fifth-grade and 7-to-11-year-old students.

The 1-min Screening Test for Reading Problems in College Students: Psychometric Properties of the 1-min TIL: Psychometric Properties of the 1-min TIL

Reading is a central cognitive domain, but little research has been devoted to standardized tests for adults. We, thus, examined the psychometric properties of the 1-min version of Teste de Idade de Leitura (Reading Age Test; 1-min TIL), the Portuguese version of Lobrot L3 test, in three experiments with college students: typical readers in Experiment 1A and B, dyslexic readers and chronological age controls in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1A, test-retest reliability and convergent validity were evaluated in 185 students. Reliability was >.70, and phonological decoding underpinned 1-min TIL. In Experiment 1B, internal consistency was assessed by presenting two 45-s versions of the test to 19 students, and performance in these versions was significantly associated (r = .78). In Experiment 2, construct validity, criterion validity and clinical utility of 1-min TIL were investigated. A multiple regression analysis corroborated construct validity; both phonological decoding and listening comprehension were reliable predictors of 1-min TIL scores. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics analyses revealed the high accuracy of this test in distinguishing dyslexic from typical readers. Therefore, the 1-min TIL, which assesses reading comprehension and potential reading difficulties in college students, has the necessary psychometric properties to become a useful screening instrument in neuropsychological assessment and research. Copyright

The relationship between phonological awareness time and reading abilities: an assessment using self-organizing maps

Abstract Background: Classically, the assessment of reading disabilities is based on the accuracy for word and nonword reading, as well as on the accuracy or sensibility measures (such as d′) for phonological awareness tasks. Recent studies indicate that in terms of phonological awareness results, the response time is a more accurate indicator than sensibility measures (such as d′), thus providing an important measure explaining some of the differences between good and poor readers. This article explores the discriminative capability of phonological awareness task time (PATT) in reading disability assessment. Methods: One hundred and eighty-six children were tested using conventional tasks, specifically word reading, nonword reading, and phonological awareness tasks. The word and nonword accuracy and PATT were used to train self-organizing maps (SOM) to classify children into three distinct groups. Results: Phonological awareness response time provides a powerful discriminative measure. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the PATT constitutes a useful selective measure, particularly in the third and fourth grades when classical variables such as word and nonword reading accuracy lose their discriminative capabilities. Also, the use of SOM to classify children’s reading abilities can successfully categorize children and capture meaningful measures such as the lexicality effect.

Serious Games for Reading Acquisition: A Tentative Prototype

In this paper preliminary results obtained with a prototype game developed for spelling training are presented. The game is played using an Android tablet and a joystick connected with it via Bluetooth, allowing the user to directly interact. Although in an early stage, the authors believe this approach to have a high motivational potential due to its interactivity with the child undergoing the training. The prototype was tested with second graders. All the children were highly motivated to play the game and the joystick use clearly increased their level of interest. The development of this serious game seems to be a promising approach to early intervention on spelling and reading acquisition difficulties.