Yvonne Broom

Developmental phonological dyslexia: A case study of the efficacy of a remediation programme

A remediation programme was devised and implemented in a case study of a developmental phonological dyslexic. Psycholinguistic assessment determined the developmental stage at which the subjects acquisition of reading skills had arrested. This was determined to be at the logographic stage of reading (Frith, 1985) so his pattern of performance resembled that of phonological dyslexics. Remediation focused on development of an alphabetic or phonological strategy for reading. The efficacy of remediation was investigated employing a single-subject case study incorporating a crossover design with multiple baseline and repeated pre- and post-therapy measures. The results of therapy indicated significant improvement in phonological reading skills as a consequence of the treatment. In addition, these effects generalised to untreated items and were accompanied by changes in reading strategy. Theoretical explanations and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Developmental surface dyslexia: a case study of the efficacy of a remediation programme

Abstract A remedial training programme was devised and implemented in a single case of developmental dyslexia. Extensive pre-therapy psycholinguistic assessment determined the developmental stage at which the acquisition of reading skills had arrested. Subject DF had failed to develop orthographic skills; his pattern of performance resembled that of surface dyslexics. Remediation focused on development of the strategy DF had failed to acquire. The efficacy of remediation was investigated employing a single subject case study incorporating a crossover design with multiple baseline and repeated pre- and post-therapy measures. DF indicated significant positive effects of therapy, which could only be ascribed to the treatment. Theoretical explanations and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Performance of South African adolescents on two versions of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test

In South Africa the multicultural and multilinguistic nature of society has impacted on the cultural appropriateness of psychological tests. In the assessment of memory and learning, tasks such as the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) are widely used although they may not be standardised for the South African context. We investigated how South African learners performed on the RAVLT as well as on an adapted version of this test, the South African List Learning Test (SALLT). The impact of language differences on performance was also noted. Subjects were 54 first (L1) and second language (L2) English speaking secondary school learners. Results indicated that South African learners achieved a higher level of recall on the SALLT than on the Euro-American RAVLT. Findings confirmed the impact of language experience on performance and highlight the necessity for the development and standardisation of culturally relevant psychological tests in South Africa.

Assessing cognitive-linguistic abilities in South African adults living with HIV: the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test

HIV can cross the blood-brain barrier to enter the central nervous system. This results in cognitive deficits in the majority of patients. The assessment of these deficits and management of these patients poses challenges for healthcare workers in South Africa. This study investigates the effectiveness of the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT) in identifying the cognitive and linguistic abilities of adults with HIV or AIDS. Sixteen participants were recruited from an outpatient clinic in Johannesburg. The CLQT was utilised to assess the cognitive/linguistic abilities of the participants. The overall scores revealed that 87.5% of the participants presented with some form of cognitive deficit, 81% exhibited deficits in memory and executive functioning, 75% showed deficits in attention and visual perception, and 50% exhibited language deficits. Thus, this instrument may be usefully employed with patients who exhibit neurological disorders, including those caused by HIV infection. We conclude that the CLQT can be used as an alternative to more expensive, elaborate and time-consuming neuropsychometric evaluations to identify deficits in memory, attention and executive functions as experienced by adults with HIV or AIDS in South Africa.

The Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test : assessing English reading comprehension and vocabulary in South Africa

This study evaluated the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test (SDRT) as a measure of vocabulary and reading comprehension for South African Grade Eight learners. Two subtests, Auditory Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension, of the Brown level of the SDRT were administered to three consecutive years of Grade Eight learners attending a former Model C school in Gauteng. All of the 631 subjects had received at least five years of English medium education. The sample included 279 English First Language (EFL) learners and 352 English Additional Language (EAL) learners with 316 males and 315 females. The EAL learners performed significantly below the EFL learners on both the Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension subtests of the SDRT. There was a significant difference in performance between male and female learners on the Comprehension subtest but not on the Vocabulary subtest. Both subtests demonstrated internal consistency although their validity may be compromised by items that demonstrated bias against EAL learners. The suitability and utility of this test in the multilingual South African context is discussed.

Phonological awareness and learning to read in Afrikaans

In this study, the issue of whether phonological awareness is a precursor to learning to read in Afrikaans or a consequence of literacy was explored. It appears that, for children learning to read in Afrikaans, certain aspects of phonological awareness such as onset and rime detection and syllable manipulation are acquired before they are able to read, while other aspects, such as phoneme manipulation are related to the process of learning to read. The development of phonological awareness and its relationship to learning to read was also investigated. It was proposed that children who were learning to read and write in Afrikaans, which has a systematic phonological and orthographic structure, would show a different developmental pattern to children who were learning to read and write in English, which has an opaque orthography with many irregular letter-sound correspondences. The findings indicate that the order of phonological development is similar in both languages, although it is possible that there may be differences in the rate of acquisition of phonological awareness skills. The phonological awareness tests used in this study could be used to detect children who may be at risk for later reading difficulties.

Learning to read in English: Phonological and reading abilities of monolingual English and bilingual Zulu (L1) speaking children

Abstract Bilingual Zulu-English speaking children in South Africa have spoken, but neither written proficiency nor formal literacy support in Zulu (L1), and yet are required to acquire L2 English reading skills through English-only literacy instruction. Little research exists on how the presence of a spoken-only Zulu (L1) could influence the English (L2) reading acquisition process. This study investigated the reading skill of 100 monolingual English (EL1) and 100 bilingual Zulu-English (EL2) Grade 3 learners by measuring their phonological, word reading, and reading comprehension abilities in English. Phonological tasks were correlated with reading measures in English, but significant differences were found on all of the measures between the EL1 and EL2 groups. This supports the use of phonological measures to determine reading success in monolingual English and Zulu-English bilinguals. However, different phonological awareness skills were found to predict reading ability in the EL1 and EL2 groups. These...

The development of phonological awareness in children at an English-medium school: a cross-sectional study

The importance of phonological awareness in learning to read has been the focus of much research. Poor phonological awareness has been related to poor reading, and thus also has implications for the childs general knowledge and vocabulary. The purpose of this study was to investigate the developmental sequence of phonological awareness in children attending an English-medium school. It was hypothesised that phonological awareness would develop in a fixed order, starting with syllable awareness, progressing to onset and rime awareness and finally to phoneme awareness. The results suggest that the introduction of reading training influences the development of phonological awareness. It seems that certain aspects of phonological awareness such as syllable manipulation and onset and rime detection may be acquired spontaneously, but the manipulation of phonemic units is linked to the acquisition of literacy.

Developmental Dyslexia: Contrasting Patterns of Performance on a Diagnostic Psycholinguistic Assessment

Models of the stages by which the acquisition of reading skills normally proceeds have been proposed by Frith (1985) and Seymour (1987). Based on these developmental models, a battery of psycholinguistic tests appropriate for English-speaking South African children was devised to identify the processing strategies which a child has and has not acquired. The procedure yields both qualitative and quantitative information and allows comparison of dyslexic children with average readers of similar Reading Age. Two cases of developmental dyslexia are discussed to illustrate different patterns of performance on the assessment. These patterns of performance are interpreted in the context of current models of the development of reading skills.