Jason L. Anthony

Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study.

Although research has identified oral language, print knowledge, and phonological sensitivity as important emergent literacy skills for the development of reading, few studies have examined the relations between these aspects of emergent literacy or between these skills during preschool and during later reading. This study examined the joint and unique predictive significance of emergent literacy skills for both later emergent literacy skills and reading in two samples of preschoolers. Ninety-six children (mean age = 41 months, SD = 9.41) were followed from early to late preschool, and 97 children (mean age = 60 months, SD = 5.41) were followed from late preschool to kindergarten or first grade. Structural equation modeling revealed significant developmental continuity of these skills, particularly for letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity from late preschool to early grade school, both of which were the only unique predictors of decoding.

Development of Phonological Sensitivity in 2- to 5-Year-Old Children

This study examined phonological sensitivity in 238 children from middle- to upper-income families and 118 children from lower-income families across different levels of linguistic complexity. Children ranged in age from 2 to 5 years. Overall, the results indicated that as children increased in age, phonological sensitivity both increased in absolute terms and became more stable. Significant social class differences in growth of phonological sensitivity were also obtained. Phonological sensitivity at different levels of linguistic complexity (e.g., syllables, phonemes) was substantially interrelated at each age and predicted word reading ability in older children independently of language skills and letter knowledge. These results indicate that phonological sensitivity can be assessed in young preschool children and that lower levels of phonological sensitivity may serve as developmental precursors to higher levels of phonological sensitivity. The development of phonological processing is an important precursor to the acquisition of early reading skills (e.g., Adams, 1990; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Phonological processing refers to the use of phonological information (i.e., the sounds of ones language) in processing written and oral language. A growing body of research indicates that individual differences in one form of phonological processing, phonological sensitivity, are causally related to the normal acquisition of beginning reading (e.g., Bryant, MacLean, Bradley, & Crossland, 1990; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987; Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994). Children who are better at detecting and manipulating syllables, rhymes, or phonemes are quicker to learn to read, and this relation is present even after variability in reading skill due to factors such as IQ, receptive vocabulary, memory skills, and social class is partialed out (Bryant et al., 1990; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987; Wagner et al., 1994). The majority of evidence linking phonological sensitivity in prereaders with the development of reading has come from studies that have assessed childrens phonological sensitivity at the point of school entry but prior to formal reading instruction. For example, Share, Jorm, MacLean, and Mathews (1984) found that childrens phonological sensitivity, measured at the beginning of kindergarten with a phoneme segmentation task, was the single best predictor of

Development of Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read in alphabetic languages like English. This report summarizes normal development of phonological awareness as it has been revealed through recent multidisciplinary and cross-cultural research. We argue that a consensus on the definition of phonological awareness has emerged, that research has identified a general sequence of phonological awareness development that is universal across languages, and that certain characteristics of spoken and written languages influence the rate of normal development and levels of phonological awareness that are normally achieved.

The Nature of Phonological Awareness: Converging Evidence From Four Studies of Preschool and Early Grade School Children

Significant controversy exists about the nature of phonological awareness, a causal variable in reading acquisition. In 4 studies that included 202 5- to 6-year-old children studied longitudinally for 3 years, 123 2- to 5-year-old children, 38 4-year-old children studied longitudinally for 2 years, and 826 4- to 7-year-old children, the authors examined the relation of sensitivity to rhyme with other forms of phonological awareness. Rhyme sensitivity was indistinguishable from phonemic awareness, segmental awareness, and global phonological sensitivity in younger children. Rhyme sensitivity was distinguishable, although highly correlated, with these phonological skills in older children. Rhyme sensitivity was highly predictive of these other phonological skills. Children’s sensitivity to different linguistic units seems best conceptualized as a single underlying ability.

Phonological Sensitivity: A Quasi-Parallel Progression of Word Structure Units and Cognitive Operations.

This study investigated the order of acquisition of phonological sensitivity skills among preschool and kindergarten children. Phonological sensitivity was examined in terms of four levels of linguistic complexity (words, syllables, onsets and rimes, phonemes) across four levels of task complexity (blending detection, elision detection, blending, and elision). Participants were 947 two- to five-year-old children from diverse backgrounds. Hierarchical loglinear analyses evidenced a quasi-parallel pattern of development that corresponded to a hierarchical model of word structure and a working memory model of task complexity. Findings support a developmental conceptualization of phonological sensitivity. Findings are discussed in relation to their implications for improving assessment, early literacy instruction, and prevention of reading difficulties.

An Evaluation of Intensive Intervention for Students with Persistent Reading Difficulties

To evaluate the effects of an intensive tertiary reading intervention, 27 students with severe reading difficulties and disabilities, 14 of whom had demonstrated an inadequate response to 1—2 tiers of prior reading instruction, received a 16-week intervention package involving decoding and fluency skills. The decoding intervention was provided for 2 hours per day for 8 weeks and was based on the Phono-Graphix program. The fluency intervention followed the decoding intervention and involved 1 hour of daily instruction for 8 weeks based on the Read Naturally program. The 16-week intervention resulted in significant improvement in reading decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Although individual responses to the intervention were variable, 12 of the 27 students showed a significant response to these interventions. Students who had participated in previous Tier 1 plus Tier 2 interventions but remained impaired had a stronger response to intervention in the current study than students who had previously participated only in Tier 1 intervention and students who had not received prior intervention outside of special education.

Relations Among Emergent Literacy Skills, Behavior Problems, and Social Competence in Preschool Children From Low- and Middle-Income Backgrounds

Research has indicated a substantial overlap between reading disability (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, few studies concerning this overlap have been conducted with preschool children. This study examined the overlap between behaviors associated with ADHD and emergent literacy skills in preschool children. One group of 44 children (mean age = 48 months, SD = 11.3) was from middle-income families, and one group of 41 children (mean age = 53 months, SD = 8.1) attended Head Start. Results demonstrated that attention problems were substantially, consistently, and uniquely associated with emergent literacy skills in both groups; however, the effect was strongest for the middle-income group. These findings indicate that the association between reading skills and behaviors associated with ADHD is present in preschool children and that emergent literacy skills may mediate the link between ADHD and RD found in older children.

Effects of Two Shared-Reading Interventions on Emergent Literacy Skills of At-Risk Preschoolers

The effects of 2 preschool-based shared-reading interventions were evaluated with 95 children, ages 2- to 5-years, from low-income families. Language skills of the children were below age-level as measured by standardized tests. Children were pretested and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) no-treatment control, (b) typical shared-reading condition, and (c) dialogic (interactive) shared-reading condition. For both intervention conditions, undergraduate volunteers read to children in small groups. Following the 6-week intervention, children were posttested on measures of oral language, listening comprehension, and phonological sensitivity. Both interventions produced positive effects. Results favoring dialogic reading were found on a measure of descriptive use of language, whereas results favoring typical shared-reading were found on measures of listening comprehension and alliteration detection.

Effects of Two Tutoring Programs on the English Reading Development of Spanish-English Bilingual Students

Spanish-dominant bilingual students in grades 2-5 were tutored 3 times per week for 40 minutes over 10 weeks, using 2 English reading interventions. Tutoring took place from February through April of 1 school year. One, Read Well, combined systematic phonics instruction with practice in decodable text, and the other, a revised version of Read Naturally, consisted of repeated reading, with contextualized vocabulary and comprehension instruction. The progress of tutored students (n = 51) was compared to that of nontutored classmates (n = 42) using subtests of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised. Students who received systematic phonics instruction made significant progress in word identification but not in word attack or passage comprehension. There were no significant effects for students in the repeated reading condition.

An affect-based, hierarchical model of temperament and its relations with internalizing symptomatology.

Examined the tripartite model of personality, which emphasizes negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) as central organizing dimensions of personality that are useful for discriminating psychopathologies. Conceptualizations of youth temperament also include second-order, organizing factors of negative emotionality/neuroticism and positive emotionality/extroversion that may differentially predict psychopathologies. A community sample of 290 10- to 17-year-old youth completed the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS), Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule, and measures of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Factor analysis replicated the 5-factor structure of the EAS and revealed 2 independent second-order factors, negative temperament (NT) and positive temperament (PT). NT and PT demonstrated convergent and discriminant relations with NA and PA. Consistent with the tripartite model, NT was associated with both anxiety and depression scores, but PT was related to depression scores only.