Dynamic relationships between phonological memory and reading: A five year longitudinal study from age 4 to 9.

We reconcile competing theories of the role of phonological memory in reading development, by uncovering their dynamic relationship during the first 5 years of school. Phonological memory, reading and phoneme awareness were assessed in 780 phonics-educated children at age 4, 5, 6 and 9. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that phonological memory loaded onto two factors: verbal short-term memory (verbal STM; phonological tasks that loaded primarily on serial order memory) and nonword repetition. Using longitudinal structural equation models, we found that verbal STM directly predicted early word-level reading from age 4 to 6, reflecting the importance of serial-order memory for letter-by-letter decoding. In contrast, reading had no reciprocal influence on the development of verbal STM. The relationship between nonword repetition and reading was bidirectional across the 5 years of study: nonword repetition and reading predicted each other both directly and indirectly (via phoneme awareness). Indirect effects from nonword repetition (and verbal STM) to reading support the view that phonological memory stimulates phonemically detailed representations through repeated encoding of complex verbal stimuli. Similarly, the indirect influence of reading on nonword repetition suggests that improved reading ability promotes the phoneme-level specificity of phonological representations. Finally, the direct influence from reading to nonword repetition suggests that better readers use orthographic cues to help them remember and repeat new words accurately. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70LZfTR0BjE.

The roles of family history of dyslexia, language, speech production and phonological processing in predicting literacy progress.

It is well established that speech, language and phonological skills are closely associated with literacy, and that children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) tend to show deficits in each of these areas in the preschool years. This paper examines what the relationships are between FRD and these skills, and whether deficits in speech, language and phonological processing fully account for the increased risk of dyslexia in children with FRD. One hundred and fifty-three 4-6-year-old children, 44 of whom had FRD, completed a battery of speech, language, phonology and literacy tasks. Word reading and spelling were retested 6 months later, and text reading accuracy and reading comprehension were tested 3 years later. The children with FRD were at increased risk of developing difficulties in reading accuracy, but not reading comprehension. Four groups were compared: good and poor readers with and without FRD. In most cases good readers outperformed poor readers regardless of family history, but there was an effect of family history on naming and nonword repetition regardless of literacy outcome, suggesting a role for speech production skills as an endophenotype of dyslexia. Phonological processing predicted spelling, while language predicted text reading accuracy and comprehension. FRD was a significant additional predictor of reading and spelling after controlling for speech production, language and phonological processing, suggesting that children with FRD show additional difficulties in literacy that cannot be fully explained in terms of their language and phonological skills.

Actual and perceived motor competence mediate the relationship between physical fitness and technical skill performance in young soccer players.

This study examined the role of fundamental movement skills (FMS) and perceived competence in the relationship between physical fitness and technical soccer skills in children. Seventy boys aged 7-12 years of age (Mean ± SD = 9 ± 2 years) who were regularly engaged in grassroots soccer participated in the present study. The Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (Ulrich, 2001. Test of gross motor development (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED) was used to assess FMS and the Perceived Physical Ability Scale for Children (Colella, Morano, Bortoli, & Robazza, 2008. A physical self-efficacy scale for children. Social Behavior and Personality: an International Journal, 36, 841-848) was used to assess perceived competence. Technical skill was determined from three tests reflecting dribbling, passing and shooting. Z-scores of each measure were summed, creating a composite measure of technical skill. Three measures of physical fitness were employed; 15m sprint time, standing long jump, and seated medicine ball (1kg) throw. Z-scores for each measure were summed creating a composite measure of physical fitness. The relationship between technical skill and FMS, fitness, perceived competence and age was examined via path analysis. Results indicated two significant mediated pathways: from physical fitness to technical skills via FMS, and from physical fitness to technical skills via perceived competence. Once these mediators had been accounted for, there was no direct link from physical fitness to technical skills. Coaches should therefore seek to avoid one-sided delivery of practice by not solely focusing on football type drills, and focusing on a range of activities which enhance a broad foundation of FMS and promote strategies to positively influence a child's perception of their own competence.HighlightsFundamental movement skills (FMS) are considered the foundation for physical activity and sport performance yet they tend to be overlooked, in favour of physical fitness, in the development of soccer talent.We examined mediating effects of FMS and perceived competence in the relationship between physical fitness and technical soccer skills in 70, 7-12 year old grassroots soccer players.We suggests there is no direct effect of physical fitness on technical skills in soccer but both FMS and perceived competence act as mediators of the physical fitness-technical skill relationship in children aged 7-12 years old.Coaches should therefore look to develop a broad base of FMS and a higher perception of competence to improve children's technical soccer skills.

Decoding and comprehension skills mediate the link between a small-group reading programme and English national literacy assessments.

BACKGROUND: Despite the fact that literacy instruction is a main focus of primary education, many children struggle to meet nationally set standards. AIMS: We aimed to test which components of a comprehensive reading programme (ABRACADABRA: https://eur03.safelinks.protection. OUTLOOK: com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1186%2FISRCTN18254678&data=04%7C01%7Cjanet.vousden%40ntu.ac.uk%7C880280e0b00749df855308d94068a0bb%7C8acbc2c5c8ed42c78169ba438a0dbe2f%7C1%7C0%7C637611640381216902%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2B4U9sGfofkyCPEY7lWz8n3TPoMOAeJMXyFwdhW6EpUw%3D&reserved=0) mediated the effect of the programme on nationally assessed literacy outcomes. SAMPLE: Following blind allocation, 516 Year 1 pupils from 40 schools were randomized to the programme group, and 908 Year 1 pupils, to a control condition. METHODS: Pupils in the programme completed 20 weeks of instruction in grapheme/phoneme knowledge, decoding, and comprehension. Control children received regular classroom instruction. RESULTS: Children in the programme group were significantly better at these taught skills after the programme finished (effect sizes: grapheme/phoneme knowledge, ß = .33, 95% CI [0.09-0.57]; decoding, ß = .26, 95% CI [0.09-0.43]; and comprehension, ß = .26, 95% CI [0.05-0.47]). Improvements in the programme group's decoding and comprehension skills fully mediated the improvements in national literacy assessments serving as a delayed post-test 12 months after the programme. Programme group pupils were 2.3 (95% CI [1.4-4.1]) times more likely to achieve/exceed the expected standard in reading, and 1.8 (95% CI [1.2-2.6]) times more likely to achieve/exceed the expected standard in writing due to an increase in the trained skills. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide strong evidence that a programme that incorporates decoding and comprehension instruction for typically developing beginning readers improves distal educational outcomes in reading and writing through increasing proficiencies targeted by the reading programme.

The development of early literacy in Steiner- and standard-educated children.

BACKGROUND. There is evidence that children who are taught to read later in childhood (age 6-7) make faster progress in early literacy than those who are taught at a younger age (4-5 years), as is current practice in the UK. AIMS. Steiner-educated children begin learning how to read at age 7, and have better reading-related skills at the onset of instruction. Therefore, it is hypothesized that older Steiner-educated children will make faster progress in early literacy than younger standard-educated controls. SAMPLES. A total of 30 Steiner-educated children (age 7-9) were compared to a matched group of 31 standard-educated controls (age 4-6). METHOD. Children were tested for reading, spelling, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge at three time points during their first year of formal reading instruction and again at the end of the second year. RESULTS. There were no significant differences between groups in word reading at the end of the first and second year or reading comprehension at the end of the second year; however, the standard group outperformed the Steiner group on spelling at the end of both years. The Steiner group maintained an overall lead in phonological skills while letter knowledge was similar in both groups. CONCLUSIONS. The younger children showed similar, and in some cases, better progress in literacy than the older children; this was attributed to more consistent and high-quality synthetic phonics instruction as is administered in standard schools. Consequently, concerns that 4- to 5-year-olds are 'too young' to begin formal reading instruction may be unfounded.

Deconstructing phonological tasks: The contribution of stimulus and response type to the prediction of early decoding skills.

Phonological tasks are highly predictive of reading development but their complexity obscures the underlying mechanisms driving this association. There are three key components hypothesised to drive the relationship between phonological tasks and reading; (a) the linguistic nature of the stimuli, (b) the phonological complexity of the stimuli, and (c) the production of a verbal response. We isolated the contribution of the stimulus and response components separately through the creation of latent variables to represent specially designed tasks that were matched for procedure. These tasks were administered to 570 6 to 7-year-old children along with standardised tests of regular word and non-word reading. A structural equation model, where tasks were grouped according to stimulus, revealed that the linguistic nature and the phonological complexity of the stimulus predicted unique variance in decoding, over and above matched comparison tasks without these components. An alternative model, grouped according to response mode, showed that the production of a verbal response was a unique predictor of decoding beyond matched tasks without a verbal response. In summary, we found that multiple factors contributed to reading development, supporting multivariate models over those that prioritize single factors. More broadly, we demonstrate the value of combining matched task designs with latent variable modelling to deconstruct the components of complex tasks.