Leena Holopainen

Predicting Delay in Reading Achievement in a Highly Transparent Language

A random sample of 91 preschool children was assessed prior to receiving formal reading instruction. Verbal and nonverbal measures were used as predictors for the time of instruction required to accurately decode pseudowords in the highly orthographically regular Finnish language. After 2 years, participants were divided into four groups depending on the duration of instruction they had required to reach 90 % accuracy in their reading of pseudowords. Participants were classified as precocious decoders (PD), who could read at school entry; early decoders (ED), who learned to read within the first 4 months of Grade 1; ordinary decoders (OD), who learned to read within 9 months; and late decoders (LD), who failed to reach the criterion after 18 months of reading instruction at Grade 2. Phonological awareness played a significant role only in differentiating PD from ED and OD. However, phonological awareness failed to predict the delayed learning process of LD. LD differed from all other groups in visual analogical reasoning in an analysis not containing phonological awareness measures. Letter knowledge and visual analogical reasoning explained above 90% of the PD-LD difference. Preschool composite (objects, colors, and digits) naming speed measures best predicted reading fluency at the end of Grade 2. The supportive role of orthographic knowledge in phonological awareness, the role of visual analogical reasoning, and the inability of phonological measures to discriminate late decoders are discussed.

Two Alternative Ways to Model the Relation between Reading Accuracy and Phonological Awareness at Preschool Age.

In this study, 91 Finnish-speaking preschoolers (ranging in age from 6.4 to 7.4 years) were tested by using 2 structural equation models. None of the participants had entered school at the time of the study because the age of school entry in Finland is 7 years. The structural equation models were built particularly to examine the connections between childrens reading abilities and their phonological skills. The main results of this study show that, in a very transparent language such as Finnish, the model that emphasized sensitivity to the phonological structure of the word as the prerequisite for learning to read fit our data well. The other model, which was likewise theoretically and statistically quite accessible, implied, by contrast, the reciprocity between learning to read and the emergence of phonemic awareness. The results of this study suggest that skills related to reading at preschool age are in many respects the same and have the same relations in a transparent language such as Finnish as they do in English. However, there also seem to be differences, especially in the relations between phonemic awareness skills and reading that may be language specific and require further investigation.

The Role of Reading by Analogy in First Grade Finnish Readers.

Computer-based assessment of the use of beginning and end analogies based on clue syllables of five different syllable structures was developed to examine the role of analogy in beginning reading of a orthographically regular language, Finnish. Forty-seven Grade 1 children with a mean age of 7.5 years participated in the study. Unlike English, the most clear-cut result is that for all the syllable structures the use of clue syllables produced no significant differences in reading speed and accuracy of the following same beginning or same end syllables. The findings also show that the benefit to the readers varied according to the size of the syllables. No benefit was found in two letter syllables but some benefit was observed in three and four letter syllables for reading accuracy. Vowels and consonants have no clear effect on the use of analogy, probably in part because in Finnish all letters are sounded irrespective of their placement in a syllable. It is argued that the improvement from pre-test to test is due to phonological and orthographic similarities between the shared condition and clue syllables at the phoneme/letter level. Reading is based on single phoneme/letter analogies instead of the effect found in English where children benefit significantly from analogy based on larger units.

The Role of Social Competence in the Psychological Well-being of Adolescents in Secondary Education

This study examines the relationship between social competence and psychological well-being of adolescents. The role of academic learning disabilities with social competence and psychological well-being was also studied. The sample (n = 412; 207 girls and 205 boys), one complete age group (mean age 15.5 years), was followed from last year of comprehensive school to their first, second and third year of secondary education in a Finnish city. Psychological well-being is related to increased cooperation skills and decreased levels of impulsivity and disruptiveness. Furthermore, cooperation skills predict the third year psychological well-being, when the strong influence of psychological well-being in the first year was controlled for. Academic learning disabilities (reading and mathematical difficulties) were related neither with psychological well-being nor social competence.

Students With Reading and Spelling Disabilities Peer Groups and Educational Attainment in Secondary Education

The present study investigated whether the members of adolescents’ peer groups are similar in reading and spelling disabilities and whether this similarity contributes to subsequent school achievement and educational attainment. The sample consisted of 375 Finnish adolescents whose reading and spelling disabilities were assessed at age 16 with the Finnish dyslexia screening test. The students also completed a sociometric nomination measure that was used to identify their peer groups. Register information on participants’ school grades also was available, and educational attainment in secondary education was recorded 5 years after completion of the 9 years of basic education. The results revealed that the members of adolescent peer groups resembled each other in reading disabilities but not in those of spelling. Reading disabilities and academic achievement shared within the peer group also contributed to educational attainment in secondary education. Finally, reading disabilities played a larger role in educational attainment among males than among females.

A Five-Year Follow-Up on the Role of Educational Support in Preventing Dropout From Upper Secondary Education in Finland

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the role of word reading and mathematical difficulties measured in 9th grade as factors for receiving educational support for learning in upper secondary education in Grades 10 to 12 (from ages 16 to 19) and furthermore as predictors of dropout from upper secondary education within 5 years after compulsory education. In addition, we studied the role of school achievement in Grades 9 and 11 in this prediction. The participants of this study were members of one age group of 16-year-old ninth graders (N = 595, females 302, males 293) in a midsized Finnish city, who were followed for 5 years after completing compulsory education. The path model results, where the effects of gender, educational track, and SES were controlled, showed, first, that students with academic learning difficulties received educational support for learning particularly in the 11th grade. Second, academic learning difficulties directly affected school achievement in the 9th grade, but no longer in the 11th grade. Third, mathematical difficulties directly predicted dropout from upper secondary education, and difficulties in both word reading and mathematics had an indirect effect through school achievement in Grades 9 and 11 on dropout.

Boosting Reading Fluency: An intervention case study at subword level

This study is an intervention case study of fluency in Finnish‐speaking children with dyslexia. Two 7‐year‐old children, a girl and a boy, were selected from the Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. The intervention emphasised syllables as reading units, and proceeded from reading syllables to reading words and text. Letter knowledge, reading skills (syllables, words, pseudowords, and text reading), and syllable segmentation of words were measured before, immediately after, and three months after the intervention. The results showed that the intervention mainly affected fluency at the syllable level. The girl also showed some improvements in fluency (accuracy, speed) at the word and text reading level, too, while the boy improved in reading accuracy. Children with reading difficulties appear to benefit from fluency intervention; this should initially be based on emphasising syllables as a sublexical reading unit. However, the intervention should be sufficiently long‐lasting, progressing piecemeal toward bigger reading units.

Quality of teacher–child interactions and its relations to children’s classroom engagement and disaffection in Vietnamese kindergartens

ABSTRACT This study investigated the quality of teacher–child interaction and its effects on children’s classroom engagement and disaffection in Vietnamese kindergartens. The quality of teacher–child interaction was measured using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Children’s classroom engagement and disaffection were assessed by Engagement versus Disaffection in Learning. There were 1474 kindergarten children and 60 teachers from 12 kindergartens in three cities in Vietnam participating in the study. The results indicated that classrooms in Vietnam kindergartens had a moderate quality of teacher–child interaction. Compared to the results from other countries published previously, teacher sensitivity and regard for student perspectives of Vietnamese samples were lower than those of Finland, Germany, the United States, and China. Productivity and the instructional learning format in Vietnamese kindergarten classrooms were higher than those of all the other countries except Finland. The results of fixed-effects and random-effects modelling suggested that children in better organised classrooms were more engaged in learning. Emotional support had a negative effect on children’s classroom engagement. Children’s classroom disaffection was not significantly affected by the quality of the teacher–child interaction.

Literacy Development Among Language Minority Background and Dyslexic Children in Finnish Orthography Context

This study examines the development of reading and writing from first to second grade in transparent orthography (Finnish) among three groups: language minority children (n = 49), Finnish children at risk of reading difficulties (n = 347), and Finnish speaking children (n = 1747). Findings indicated that reading and writing skills in the language minority group and the Finnish classmates’ group developed at the same level by the end of second grade, but the development of children at risk of reading difficulties was slower across time. This finding indicates that the transparency of written language has an effect on success in literacy development with language minority children.

The role of part-time special education supporting students with reading and spelling difficulties from grade 1 to grade 2 in Finland

Abstract Previous studies show that many students with reading and spelling problems have a lack of progress in reading and spelling skills after years of special education services. The aim of the study is to evaluate the reading and spelling skills of Finnish children in grades 1 and 2 receiving part-time special education from special education teachers for reading and spelling difficulties (RSD) and for RSD with other learning difficulties. In this study, the focus is in the roles of the form and the amount of part-time special education in reading and spelling skills development. Of 152 children involved in the study, 98 received part-time special education for RSD, and 54 did not have RSD and did not receive special education. The results showed that the reading and spelling skills of students with RSD lagged behind age level and that students with overlapping difficulties exhibited even slower development. Small group education and a moderate amount of part-time special education (approximately 38 h per year) predicted faster skill development, whereas individual and a large amount of special education (more than 48 h per year) were related to slower skill development and broader difficulties.