Timothy C. Papadopoulos

Predictors of Word Decoding and Reading Fluency Across Languages Varying in Orthographic Consistency

Very few studies have directly compared reading acquisition across different orthographies. The authors examined the concurrent and longitudinal predictors of word decoding and reading fluency in children learning to read in an orthographically inconsistent language (English) and in an orthographically consistent language (Greek). One hundred ten English-speaking children and 70 Greek-speaking children attending Grade 1 were examined in measures of phonological awareness, phonological memory, rapid naming speed, orthographic processing, word decoding, and reading fluency. The same children were reassessed on word decoding and reading fluency measures when they were in Grade 2. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that both phonological and orthographic processing contributed uniquely to reading ability in Grades 1 and 2. However, the importance of these predictors was different in the two languages, particularly with respect to their effect on word decoding. The authors argue that the orthography that children are learning to read is an important factor that needs to be taken into account when models of reading development are being generalized across languages.

Investigating the Double-Deficit Hypothesis in Greek Findings From a Longitudinal Study

This study examined longitudinally the double-deficit hypothesis in Greek, an orthographically consistent language, following a group of children from kindergarten to Grade 2. Four groups were formed on the basis of two composite scores of phonological and naming-speed criterion measures: a double-deficit group (DD; n = 17), a phonological deficit group (PD; n = 33), a naming deficit group (ND; n = 33), and a control group exhibiting no deficits (CnD; n = 159). The four groups were identified in Grade 1, and they were compared retrospectively in kindergarten only on the criterion measures, and in Grades 1 and 2 on measures of word-reading fluency and accuracy, orthographic processing, and passage comprehension. The effects of verbal and nonverbal ability, age, gender, and parental education were controlled among the groups. Results showed that the DD group exhibited greater dysfunction in reading and orthographic processing compared to the single-deficit and CnD groups. Also, although the three deficit groups were not easily differentiated in kindergarten, their differences were maximized in Grade 1 and retained in Grade 2. The type and severity of reading deficits found in the ND group were mostly associated with naming speed at both the word- and text-reading levels, deficits that persisted across development. The PD group showed mostly deficient orthographic and poor decoding skills that improved across development. Implications of the findings for the double-deficit hypothesis in languages with transparent orthographies are discussed.

Why is rapid automatized naming related to reading

The objective of this study was to examine why rapid automatized naming (RAN) is related to reading by manipulating processes involved at the input, processing, and output stages of its production. In total, 65 children in Grade 2 and 65 in Grade 6 were assessed on serial and discrete RAN (Digits and Objects), Cancellation, RAN Yes/No, and oral and silent reading fluency. The results of regression analyses indicated that RAN is related to reading because both involve serial processing and oral production of the names of the stimuli.

Rapid naming speed components and reading development in a consistent orthography.

We examined how rapid automatized naming (RAN) components-articulation time and pause time-predict word and text reading fluency in a consistent orthography (Greek). In total, 68 children were followed from Grade 2 to Grade 6 and were assessed three times on RAN (Digits and Objects), phonological awareness, orthographic processing, speed of processing, and reading fluency. Both RAN components were strongly related to reading fluency and, with few exceptions, accounted for unique variance over and above the contribution of speed of processing, phonological awareness, and orthographic processing. The amount of predictive variance shared between the components and the cognitive processing skills varied across time. The implications of these findings for the RAN-reading relationship are discussed.

Phonological and cognitive correlates of word-reading acquisition under two different instructional approaches in Greek

This study examined whether phonological and cognitive tasks correlate with beginning reading acquisition in Hellenic populations under two different instructional approaches: a whole language approach supplemented by implicit coding instruction through incidental learning, as used in Cyprus, versus the syllable-splitting approach characterised by explicit decoding instruction, as used in Greece. Planning, attention, simultaneous, and successive processing tasks together with three phonological coding tasks (Oddity task, Phoneme Elision, and Sound Isolation) were administered to 50 Greek and 50 Cypriot Grade 1 students. Word Attack and Word Identification were also administered to measure early reading competency. The main findings of the study were as follows: (a) significant group differences were revealed in word-decoding accuracy but not in realword reading accuracy, an expected finding in a system characterised by high grapheme-phoneme consistency; (b) successive processing and phonological coding consisted of the fundamental abilities that differentiated the Greek from the Cypriot first-graders; and (c) the Greek group exhibited a higher linguistic ability than the Cypriot group. This was facilitated by the use of the distal cognitive processes to reading, that is, successive and simultaneous processing. The discussion focuses on the need to reconsider the nature of early reading instruction in languages such as Greek with high grapheme-phoneme consistency.RésuméCette enquête examine phonologiquement et cognitivement les méthodes nécessaires pour le début de l’acquisition de la lecture dans la population Hellénique, en deux différents types d’instruction: toute la langue d’un approche supplémentaire, sous-entendu, d’une instruction codée d’un enseignement symptomatique, comme il est utilisé en Chypre, contre l’approche division de la syllabe, caractérise de l’instruction explicite du décodage, utilisé en Grèce. Le plan, l’attention, la simultanéité, les méthodes successives du processus, avec les trois taches phonologiques (la tâche de la singularité, l’élision du phonème et l’isolation du son) étaient donnes aux 50 étudiants Grecs, et 50 étudiants Chypriotes de premier degré. L’attaque du mot et son identification étaient aussi utilisées pour tester la première compétence de la lecture. Les résultats de l’enquête étaient: (a) des différences significatives étaient révéles à la précision du décodage du mot, mais ce n’était pas le cas à la précision de la lecture du vrai-mot, un résultat normal dans un système caractérisé d’une haute consistance du graphème-phonéme; (b) un progrès successif et décodage phonologique qui différencient les étudiants du premier degré entre la Grèce et le Chypre et (c) le groupe grec a démontré une habileté linguistique plus élevée que le groupe chypriote. C’était facilite de l’usage d’un processus cognitif double, qui est un processus successif et simultané. La discussion est centralisée sur la nécessité de reconsidérer la nature de la première instruction de la lecture, quand aux langues comme le Grec avec une haute consistance du graphème-phonème.

Kindergarten cognitive intervention for reading difficulties: The PREP remediation in Greek

This study reports two different experiments, as a part of a longitudinal study, that evaluated a cognitive intervention (PREP: PASS Reading Enhancement Program) to enhance early phonological processing skills, such as odd-word-out, segmenting, and blending, to kindergarten children at-rish for reading difficulties, in order to support the development of subsequent word reading skills. As part of the first experiment, thirty children aged 5.1, matched on the basis of age, gender, parental education levels, Non-verbal and Verbal IQ, were assigned to an experimental and a control group (15 in each group) and compared before and after the four-week intervention on a set of phonological and cognitive (successive and simultaneous processing) measures. The two groups of participants were screened to be significantly different at pre-test on the outcome measures. The results of the first experiment indicated that the experimental group performed equally well with the control group on all the measures of phonological and cognitive processing skills. Subsequent analysis focusing on aptitude-treatment interaction indicated that the PREP program appeared to be optimally successful in improving phonological skills in cases where the cognitive profile of the 5-year-olds matched the emphasis on successive information integration. The follow-up experiment examined the long-term effects of PREP remediation. Results showed that both the experimental and control groups performed equally well on word reading tasks and, more importantly, on the bridging PREP tasks, requiring knowledge of the alphabet and of letter-sound correspondences, despite that neither of the groups had been previously trained on the latter. Discussion concludes that intervention including inductive training on the distal cognitive processes, namely successive and simultaneous processing, appears to be effective for enhancing early word-reading skills to kindergarten children at-risk for reading difficulties, even in the absence of direct training of these skills in kindergarten.RésuméCette étude presente deux différentes expérimentations comme résultat d’une longue étude qui a évalué une intervation cognitive (PREP: PASS Reading Enhancement Program) pour augmenter la capacité développe telle que «odd-word-out», «segmenting» et «blending», comme objectif la surveillance d’enfants en danger de difficultés de lecture, pour supporter le développement de capacités de lecture. Comme résultat de la première expérimentation trente élèves ages 5.1, combines en ce qui concerne leur age, leur genre, l’éducation de leurs parents, non-verbal et verbal-IQ, etainent assignés à un groupe expérimental et un groupe de contrôle (15 à chaque groupe) et comparés avant et après l’intervention de quatre semaines, a un «set» de mesures phonologiques et cognitives (d’un processus successif et simultané). Les deux groupes étaient delibérement assez différents en ce qui concerne les mesures avant et après les tests. Les résultats de la première expérimentation ont indiqué que le groupe expérimental avait perfomé aussi bien que le groupe de contrôle à tous les mesures phonologiques et cognitives du processus de capacités. Les analyses suivantes centrées sur l’aptitude du traitement d’interaction ont indiqué que le programme PREP apparaît favorablement réussi a l’amélioration de capacités phonologiques quand le profil cognitif de 5 ans ages, s’accordait avec l’emphase d’integration sur l’information successive. L’expérimentation suivante examinait les «long-term» effets de la remediation PREP. Les résultats ont montré que tous les deux groupes — expérimental et contrôle — ont perfomé aussi bien en ce qui concerne la lecture, et encore plus important en ce qui concerne les PREP travaux de combination qui demandent la connaissance de l’alphabet et la correspondance du «ton» de la lettre, bien que tous les deux groupes soient entraînes en ce qui concerne le dernier. La conclusion de la discussion, qui comprend l’intervention inductive sur le traitement du processus distal, nomme processus successif et simultané, parait d’être effective pour le développement, très tôt, de la capacité de lecture, en ce qui concerne les enfants à l’école maternelle, risquant des difficultés en ce qui concerne la lecture, même si il y a l’absence d’enraciner, en ce qui concerne ces capacités à l’école maternelle.

Are Auditory and Visual Processing Deficits Related to Developmental Dyslexia

The purpose of this study was to examine if children with dyslexia learning to read a consistent orthography (Greek) experience auditory and visual processing deficits and if these deficits are associated with phonological awareness, rapid naming speed and orthographic processing. We administered measures of general cognitive ability, phonological awareness, orthographic processing, short-term memory, rapid automatized naming, auditory and visual processing, and reading fluency to 21 Grade 6 children with dyslexia, 21 chronological age-matched controls and 20 Grade 3 reading age-matched controls. The results indicated that the children with dyslexia did not experience auditory processing deficits, but about half of them showed visual processing deficits. Both orthographic processing and rapid automatized naming deficits were associated with dyslexia in our sample, but it is less clear that they were associated with visual processing deficits.

Children at Risk for Developing Reading Difficulties: A Remediation Study.

This article reports two different experiments as part of a longitudinal study. The first experiment examines the long-term efficacy of two brief remedial procedures (a Meaning-Based procedure versus a cognitive remediation program, the PASS Reading Enhancement Program [PREP]) focusing on the differences in phonological and cognitive test performance of 40 children who needed remediation for poor word decoding in Grade 1. The second study reports the outcomes of an intensified version of the PREP program that emphasizes strengthening the cognitive processes underlying reading in a remaining group of 24 difficult-to-remediate Grade 2 students. Follow-up data are also reported for this group. The results of the first study indicated that the PREP group improved significantly more in pseudo-word reading compared to the meaning-based group right after remediation in Grade 1. These differences, however, were somewhat reduced when re-testing occurred in Grade 2 and may be due to the influence of classroom instruction. Indeed, when both groups were compared to the norming sample, they appeared to continue to develop at an accelerated rate. As for the results of the second study, which focused on the longitudinal development of those 24 children who exhibited a history of chronic low reading performance, it was shown that PREP remediation kept producing significant gains, especially in word-decoding, a finding consistent with the theoretical framework of PREP.

The Dimensionality of Phonological Abilities in Greek

A BSTRA C T The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to examine the unidimensionality of phonological abilities in Greek, a language with a transparent orthography, and (b) to compute the reliabilities and test the construct validity of a comprehensive phonological battery that was developed to operationally measure and conceptualize phonological abilities in Greek. A secondary focus was to examine gender differences in phonological abilities. The dimensionality of phonological abilities in Greek was examined longitudinally among 280 Greek-Cypriot school children (141 boys and 139 girls) from kindergarten to grade 1. A scale of 10 tasks composed of 140 items tapping phonological skills at syllabic and phonemic levels was used to measure phonological skills. Both exploratory factor analysis at the item level and Rasch modeling (WINSTEPS; Linacre & Wright, 2003) were used to examine the dimensionality of the phonological scale. The results of both analyses indicated that performance on these tasks was represented by a single latent construct. The infit and outfit indices demonstrated the scale’s good fit with a 1-parameter item response Rasch model. The separation index for both person and items was higher than 0.95, indicating that the separability of the scale was also very good. Reliability analysis yielded the same results. Further, the results of the present study did not provide any support for gender differences in phonological abilities in the first years of schooling. Overall, this study provides converging evidence for the underlying developmental view of phonological sensitivity as a single ability, especially in a language with a transparent orthography.

Efficacy of a Cognitive Reading Remediation Program For At-Risk Children in Grade 1

Fifty-eight Grade 1 children experiencing reading difficulties were divided into two matched remediation groups: PREP (PASS Reading Enhancement Program) (see Das & Kendrick, 1997) and Meaning-Based Reading intervention. Both groups received remediation twice a week for 20 min over a 9-week period. Participants’ reading level was assessed pre- and post-intervention using Word Identification (WI) and Word Attack (WA) tests. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed a significant main effect of Testing Time for both WI and WA. For WA, the Testing Time by Remediation Group interaction was also significant; the PREP group gained more than the meaning-based group in terms of decoding skills. Next, the performance of High-Gainers and No-Gainers in both groups was compared on several cognitive processing tasks. Results indicated that High-Gainers in the PREP group were characterized by a somewhat higher level of successive processing, phonological processing, and word recognition skills at the beginning of the program. In contrast, High-Gainers in the meaning-based program were characterized by a higher level of planning, phonological processing, and visual memory. Implications for education and future directions for research on remediation are also presented.