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The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection: Implications for Teaching Practice

The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection: Implications for Teaching Practice. Dr Valerie Muter Great Ormond St Hospital for Children May 2009. The Language, Phonology-Reading Connection.

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The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection: Implications for Teaching Practice

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  1. The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection:Implications for Teaching Practice Dr Valerie Muter Great Ormond St Hospital for Children May 2009

  2. The Language, Phonology-Reading Connection • Muter, V., Hulme, C., Snowling, M., Stevenson, J. (2004). Phonemes, Rimes, Vocabulary & Grammatical Skills – Evidence from a Longitudinal Study. Dev. Psych.5, 665-81 • Implications for screening, prevention, assessment & teaching

  3. The Phonology-Reading Connection • Phonological Awareness - sensitivity to speech sound structure of words • Measuring phonological awareness - blending sounds, rhyming, segmenting syllables and phonemes, manipulating phonemes • Phonological awareness tasks are stable & robust predictors of later reading skill

  4. The Vocabulary-Phonology-Reading Connection • Segmentation & rhyming are separate abilities in phonological domain • Segmentation skills are better predictors of early reading than rhyming • Rhyming ability may influence later stages of learning to read and the use of orthographic analogies - f-ight, l-ight • Phonological awareness is driven by early vocabulary growth

  5. Vocabulary, Phonology and Reading Age 4/5 Age 6 Vocabulary Rhyming Reading Segmentation

  6. Letter Knowledge and Reading • Ease of learning the individual letters is strongest single predictor of early reading • Letter knowledge acquisition interacts with segmentation skill to promote reading - “phonological linkage” • Acquiring the Alphabetic Principle requires segmentation skill, knowledge of the alphabet and “linkage”

  7. Acquiring the Alphabetic Principle Age 4/5 Age 6 Letter Knowledge Reading/Decoding Segmentation Letter Knowledge X Segmentation

  8. Phonology-Reading Connection- A Case Study • N. participated in a longitudinal study of reading - seen at ages 4, 5, 6 & 10y • At 4, his scores on phonological & letter knowledge tests were same as his peers • At 5: Phoneme Deletion 1/10 (3), Letter Knowledge 5/26 (12) • At 6: Phoneme Deletion 0/10 (5), Letter Knowledge 5/26 (19)

  9. N. at Age 10

  10. Screening for Reading Failure • What is the best way to screen for early reading failure? • Important to highlight role of teacher in early identification of reading failure • Combining teacher input with known predictor measures of early reading skill to improve screening reliability

  11. Teachers and Early Screening • Advantages of involving teachers • Problems of subjectivity and “global impressions” • Improving reliability with skill based teacher rating scales • Flynn (2000) - using rating scales can increase accuracy of prediction by 34%

  12. Standardised Measures, Prediction & Screening • Two phonological segmentation tests, and letter knowledge from PAT given at age 5 will predict with 90% accuracy children reading skills one year later. • Identifying at risk children can result in prevention (or reduction) of reading failure & associated behavioural problems

  13. Preventing Reading Failure • Screening allows “targeting” of children who have poor phonological skills • Borderline children may be monitored and kept on “review” • Children with significant phonological deficits benefit from receiving explicit phonological training Note: not all children need explicit phonological training

  14. Assessing Poor Readers • Phonology-reading connection has influenced assessment practice • Tests of phonological processing are now readily available e.g. CTOPP, PhAB • Tests of nonword reading (eg TOWRE) allow assessment of decoding skills

  15. Teaching Poor Readers • Phonological awareness training is important in literacy support teaching • Need to “link” phonological skill to print - phonological training in conjunction with letter acquisition • Explicit training in phoneme-grapheme relations • Synthetic vs analytic phonics?

  16. Phonology, Grammar and Reading • Phoneme awareness, but not grammatical awareness, predicts reading accuracy skill during the first two years of learning to read • Grammatical awareness, but not phoneme awareness, predicts reading comprehension ability at age 6

  17. Age 4/5 Age 6 Phoneme Awareness Reading Accuracy Grammatical Awareness Reading Accuracy Reading Accuracy Grammatical Awareness Reading Comprehension Phoneme Awareness

  18. Reading, Phonology & Language in High-Risk Poor Readers • Snowling, M., Muter, V. & Carroll, J. (2007), Children at Family Risk of Dyslexia: A Follow-Up in Early Adolescence, JCPP, 48, 609-18 • Muter, V. & Snowling, M. (2009). Children at Familial Risk of Dyslexia: Implications from an At-risk Study, CAMH, 14, 37-41

  19. High risk prospective study Snowling & Frith • Began in 1992 • Recruited 74 children at genetic risk of dyslexia before their 4th birthday • 37 controls of similar SES • 4 Phases of study - 3y9m, 6y, 8y, 12-13y • Children given wide range of cognitive, inc. language and educational, measures.

  20. Incidence of Reading Problems • In general population, significant reading underachievement has incidence of 5-10% depending on age and cut-off points. • Phase 2 - half the children in at-risk group scored 1SD below the control mean in reading. • Phase 3 - 66% in at-risk group scored 1SD below control mean • Phase 4 -Prevalence rate was 42%.

  21. Findings from Phases 1 and 2 • At age 3y9m, the children in at-risk sample scored significantly below controls on tests of vocabulary, expressive language & grammar • At age 6y, children in the at-risk group still mildly delayed in language skills • At age 6y, the best predictor of early reading progress was letter knowledge • At age 6y, the children in the at-risk group had difficulty with phonological tasks

  22. Practical Implications from Phases 1 and 2 • Reading problems run in families – do other family members have literacy problems? • Children with language delay are at risk of literacy problems - need close monitoring and some may need speech therapy • Phonological and letter knowledge tasks given at age 5 predict later reading skill - used for screening & early identification • Parents & nursery teachers can help to develop literacy precursors

  23. Findings from Phase 3 • Family risk is continuous - reading unimpaired children in at-risk group showed weaknesses in spelling, nonword reading , STVM & phonology • At-risk unimpaired readers more verbally able than at-risk impaired readers - verbal strength is as a compensatory/protective factor • Expression of difficulty depends on interplay between severity of phonological deficit & availability of compensatory resources

  24. Findings from Phase 4 • At-risk poor readers continued to score below at-risk unimpaired readers on literacy, verbal and phonological tasks • At-risk unimpaired readers nonetheless showed problems in reading fluency and spelling. • Stability noted in performance on literacy tasks between Phases 3 & 4 • 70% of at-risk poor readers showed co-occurring problems in attention, nonverbal skill, language or maths

  25. Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment phonological difficulties short term verbal memory difficulties cognitive dyslexia SLI behavioural reading & spelling difficulties vocabulary & grammar difficulties

  26. Practical Implications – Phases 3 & 4 - Assessment • Literacy assessment is multi-dimensional - single word reading, prose reading, comprehension, phonic decoding, speed & fluency and spelling • Assess phonological deficit and its severity through tests of phonological processing & STVM, & capacity for compensation through language tasks • Assess for co-occurring difficulties - attention, NVLD, arithmetic, SLI

  27. Practical Implications Phases 3 & 4 - Management • Reading skills change little after 8y - for maximum effectiveness, intervention needs to be delivered shortly after school entry • Literacy programmes need to target deficient phonological and decoding skills • Co-occurring difficulties may need to be addressed in their own right – language programs for children with additional SLI • Verbally able poor readers can be taught to use semantic strategies

  28. The Rose Report 2009Linking Language & Literacy • 1 of 6 core areas of primary curriculum is ‘understanding, communication & languages’ • Highlights interconnection of these important processes • Research strongly supports the view that literacy is a skill embedded in language & communication • Assessment and teaching needs to recognise & promote this important connection

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