Cut-off point, sensitivity and specificity for screening the reading fluency in children. / Pontos de corte, sensibilidade e especificidade para rastreamento da fluência leitora em crianças.

PURPOSE: to establish cut-off point for reading speed and accuracy, to obtain minimum values for comprehending texts, and allow classifying students from 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school according to good or poor reading performance. METHODS: 147 assessment protocols for oral reading and text comprehension of students from 3rd to 5th grade of Elementary School with and without reading difficulties were analyzed. The oral text reading rate and accuracy values were analyzed. ROC curves were constructed, and sensitivity and specificity calculated for each reading fluency parameter, and each school grade. RESULTS: Sensitivity and specificity for measures of rate and accuracy in text reading were calculated for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Rate and precision under the ROC curve did not differ statistically. The values for the 2nd grade were mathematically estimated. CONCLUSION: The cutoff values expected for students from 2nd to 3rd grade were identified, with recommendations for using the oral text reading rate for reading comprehension screening procedures.

OBJETIVO: estabelecer pontos de corte para valores de velocidade e acurácia de leitura, a fim de obter valores mínimos para compreensão de textos, e permitir classificar alunos de 2º a 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental, de acordo com bom ou pobre desempenho em leitura. MÉTODO: foram analisados ​​147 protocolos de avaliação de leitura oral e compreensão textual de escolares de 3º a 5º ano com e sem dificuldades de leitura. A taxa de leitura oral de texto e os valores de acurácia foram analisados. Curvas ROC foram construídas e a sensibilidade e a especificidade, calculadas para cada parâmetro de fluência de leitura por ano escolar. RESULTADOS: A sensibilidade e a especificidade para medidas de taxa e acurácia na leitura de texto foram calculadas para o 3º, 4º e 5º anos. A taxa e a precisão sob a curva ROC não diferiram estatisticamente. Os valores do 2º ano foram estimados matematicamente. CONCLUSÃO: Foram identificados os valores de corte esperados para escolares do 2º ao 5º ano, com recomendações de utilização da taxa de leitura de texto oral para procedimentos de rastreamento da compreensão leitora.

Bilingualism and Rapid Automatized Naming: effects of language switching on lexical access and reading speed. / Bilinguismo e Nomeação Automática Rápida: efeitos da alternância de línguas sobre o acesso lexical e a velocidade de leitura.

PURPOSE: To assess whether bilingualism, on a language switching experiment, is associated with higher or lower accuracy and speed of the rapid automatized naming of objects and investigate the influence of language switching on reading speed. METHODS: The performance of 50 Brazilian bilingual children in the Rapid Automatized Naming Task, whose L1 was Brazilian Portuguese and who were exposed to English daily at school, was assessed. Forty-seven monolingual (Brazilian Portuguese) children were grouped according to age. RESULTS: Language switching interfered with the performance of the bilingual children in the Rapid Automatized Naming Task in terms of speed and accuracy. No correlations were found between the performance in the RAN task and Reading Speed. CONCLUSION: Brazilian bilingual students showed poor performance in the rapid naming task on the switch trial when compared to monolingual students, showing higher rates of mistakes, especially hesitations. Only the performance of bilingual students in the rapid naming task in L2 correlated with L1 reading speed.

OBJETIVO: Verificar se o bilinguismo, na condição de alternância de línguas, associa-se à maior ou menor velocidade e precisão na nomeação rápida de objetos e se essa condição se relaciona com a velocidade de leitura de texto. MÉTODO: Analisou-se o desempenho de 50 crianças bilíngues sequenciais brasileiras, cuja língua materna era o Português Brasileiro, expostas ao Inglês diariamente no ambiente escolar. O grupo monolíngue, composto por 47 crianças, foi agrupado de acordo com a faixa etária. Foram analisados desempenhos em tarefa de Nomeação Automática Rápida (RAN) e velocidade (palavras lidas por minuto) em prova de leitura oral de texto. RESULTADOS: Os resultados revelaram que a alternância de línguas se associou ao desempenho dos escolares bilíngues na prova de Nomeação Rápida no que diz respeito à velocidade e à precisão. Em condição de alternância de línguas, os escolares bilíngues despenderam mais tempo para nomear e cometeram mais erros. Somente se observou correlação entre o desempenho dos escolares bilíngues na prova de nomeação rápida em L2 e a taxa de leitura em L1. CONCLUSÃO: Escolares brasileiros bilíngues apresentaram pior desempenho em tarefa de nomeação rápida na situação de alternância de línguas quando comparados a escolares monolíngues, com maior número de erros, especialmente hesitações.

Reading comprehension assessment: effect of order of task application.

PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of order of reading tasks application on the reading comprehension performance by students with and without reading difficulties. METHODS: 40 students (4th and 5th grade) were classified according to the presence (Research Group-RG) or absence (Control Group-CG) of reading difficulties. RG-r and CG-r - 20 students (10 for each group) who retold the read text and responded to open-ended questions; RG-q and CG-q - 20 students (10 for each group) who responded to open-ended questions and then retold the read text. The analysis quantified the main idea, details and inferences retold, causal links and retelling reference standard (3-0) was also established from the best to the worst performance. Open-ended questions received one point for each correct answer. RESULTS: Open-ended questions influenced only the retelling performance of good readers. A better performance of CG-q was noted for the number of second level links retold (U=50.50, p=0.155), total of links retold (U=23,00, p=0.038) and retelling reference standard (U=24.50, p=0.039). Reading-monitoring strategies are laborious and tend to be less used by students with reading difficulties. This is because these compete directly with low-level skills (decoding and microstructure processing), losing efficiency or being abandoned in the very course of reading. CONCLUSION: There was improvement on the retelling performance of students without reading difficulties when this task was preceded by the open-ended questions, possibly because of the use of monitoring strategies that allowed a better understanding of the link between the retained ideas, improving links and retelling reference standard.

Speech perception task with pseudowords. / Tarefa de discriminação de fala com pseudopalavras.

Purpose Prepare a list of pseudowords in Brazilian Portuguese to assess the auditory discrimination ability of schoolchildren and investigate the internal consistency of test items and the effect of school grade on discrimination performance. Methods Study participants were 60 schoolchildren (60% female) enrolled in the 3rd (n=14), 4th (n=24) and 5th (n=22) grades of an elementary school in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, aged between eight years and two months and 11 years and eight months (99 to 136 months; mean=120.05; SD=10.26), with average school performance score of 7.21 (minimum 5.0; maximum 10; SD=1.23). Forty-eight minimal pairs of Brazilian Portuguese pseudowords distinguished by a single phoneme were prepared. The participants' responses (whether the elements of the pairs were the same or different) were noted and analyzed. The data were analyzed using the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient, Spearman's Correlation Coefficient, and Bonferroni Post-hoc Test at significance level of 0.05. Results Internal consistency analysis indicated the deletion of 20 pairs. The 28 items with results showed good internal consistency (α=0.84). The maximum and minimum scores of correct discrimination responses were 34 and 16, respectively (mean=30.79; SD=3.68). No correlation was observed between age, school performance, and discrimination performance, and no difference between school grades was found. Conclusion Most of the items proposed for assessing the auditory discrimination of speech sounds showed good internal consistency in relation to the task. Age and school grade did not improve the auditory discrimination of speech sounds.

Noun phrase dictation as a writing assessment instrument: a psychometric analysis. / Ditado de sintagmas nominais para avaliação da escrita: análise psicométrica.

Purpose Prepare a list of noun phrases able to characterize the writing performance of schoolchildren according to school year. Methods A list of 25 noun phrases intended for dictation was prepared and applied to 275 Elementary School students (2nd to 5thgrades). The unidimensionality underlying the proposed items was analyzed using Item Response Theory. Results The list enabled differentiation between the performance of schoolchildren attending the 2nd and 3rd years and that of students attending the 4 th and 5th years. Items on the list presented moderate difficulty level and medium discrimination capacity. Conclusion The model showed good fit and was able to differentiate the performance of 2nd to 3rd grade students from that of 4th to 5thgrade students. The list of noun phrases assessed writing in 4th to 5th grade students more accurately.

Pontos de corte, sensibilidade e especificidade para rastreamento da fluência leitora em crianças / Cut-off point, sensitivity and specificity for screening the reading fluency in children

RESUMO Objetivo estabelecer pontos de corte para valores de velocidade e acurácia de leitura, a fim de obter valores mínimos para compreensão de textos, e permitir classificar alunos de 2º a 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental, de acordo com bom ou pobre desempenho em leitura. Método foram analisados ​​147 protocolos de avaliação de leitura oral e compreensão textual de escolares de 3º a 5º ano com e sem dificuldades de leitura. A taxa de leitura oral de texto e os valores de acurácia foram analisados. Curvas ROC foram construídas e a sensibilidade e a especificidade, calculadas para cada parâmetro de fluência de leitura por ano escolar. Resultados A sensibilidade e a especificidade para medidas de taxa e acurácia na leitura de texto foram calculadas para o 3º, 4º e 5º anos. A taxa e a precisão sob a curva ROC não diferiram estatisticamente. Os valores do 2º ano foram estimados matematicamente. Conclusão Foram identificados os valores de corte esperados para escolares do 2º ao 5º ano, com recomendações de utilização da taxa de leitura de texto oral para procedimentos de rastreamento da compreensão leitora.

ABSTRACT Purpose to establish cut-off point for reading speed and accuracy, to obtain minimum values for comprehending texts, and allow classifying students from 2nd to 5th grade of elementary school according to good or poor reading performance. Methods 147 assessment protocols for oral reading and text comprehension of students from 3rd to 5th grade of Elementary School with and without reading difficulties were analyzed. The oral text reading rate and accuracy values were analyzed. ROC curves were constructed, and sensitivity and specificity calculated for each reading fluency parameter, and each school grade. Results Sensitivity and specificity for measures of rate and accuracy in text reading were calculated for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Rate and precision under the ROC curve did not differ statistically. The values for the 2nd grade were mathematically estimated. Conclusion The cutoff values expected for students from 2nd to 3rd grade were identified, with recommendations for using the oral text reading rate for reading comprehension screening procedures

Creation of a list of homonyms in Brazilian Portuguese for linguistic processing tasks. / Elaboração de lista de homônimos do Português Brasileiro para tarefas de processamento linguístico.

Purpose This paper presents procedures and steps to create a list of homonyms, their meanings and representative images. Methods One hundred and three homonyms in Brazilian Portuguese were secluded through searches in text books and dictionaries and the meanings were verified. The homonyms were analyzed and selected according pre-established criteria. Twenty-six homonyms with two meanings were selected and one image was used to represent each meaning. To test the instrument, twenty elementary school children in 4th (n = 10) and 5ht (n = 10) grades were selected from a private school in São Paulo. To identify the meanings of major and minor occurrence, the students gave their understanding of the words presented to them orally. The students were also asked to name the fifty-two images to determine the degree of recognition. Percentages of accuracy were calculated. Results Among the 26 homonyms, two were excluded because the students were unable to name them. Two images were little recognized and, therefore, replaced with others that better represented the homonyms. Conclusion A list of 24 homonyms and 48 images (one for each meaning) was developed. The results of the presentation of these items to elementary school children in the 4th and 5th grades proved the adequacy of the list. The material is seen as efficient for use in recognition tasks and can be applied in semantic priming tasks.

Capacity for self-monitoring reading comprehension in Elementary School. / Capacidade de automonitoramento da compreensão leitora no Ensino Fundamental.

PURPOSE: To investigate the capacity for self-monitoring reading comprehension in Brazilian Elementary School students. METHODS: Fifty-three Elementary students in the 5th and 9th grades from two Public Schools in the city of São Paulo were assessed. They were selected based on their oral reading rate and grouped according to their performance in reading comprehension in the following categories: Group with best comprehension: students with adequate rate and accuracy, without difficulties in reading comprehension; Group with worst comprehension: students with adequate rate and accuracy but with difficulties in reading comprehension. Two narrative texts followed by eight questions to assess reading comprehension were presented. Two sentences and two words were replaced by ungrammatical elements and pseudo-words. Under the condition of spontaneous monitoring, students read the text aloud and answered the questions. The analysis considered the calculation of hesitation, self-correction, repetitions and mistakes. Under the condition of directed monitoring, students were instructed to read the text, either aloud or silently, after being told that certain parts of the text could not make sense, and they were oriented to underline such parts. The analysis was carried out by counting of underlined items. The comparisons were made with the Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: A difference was observed between the groups only at the sentence level among the 9th grade schoolchildren under the spontaneous monitoring and among the 5th grade schoolchildren under directed monitoring. CONCLUSION: Students with worst comprehension had a poorer performance to monitor the presence of ungrammatical sentences than their peers with best comprehension.

Programa de estimulação no ambiente educacional para aprimoramento de habilidades subjacentes à leitura / Stimulation program in an educational setting for improvement of skills underlying reading

RESUMO Objetivo elaborar e investigar o efeito de um programa de estimulação de habilidades cognitivo-linguísticas preditoras da decodificação leitora, orientado para a melhora das habilidades subjacentes à leitura. Métodos pesquisa prospectiva, de análise quantitativa. Participaram 124 crianças de 1º a 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental I de uma escola pública de São Paulo, distribuídas em: Grupo Pesquisa - 62 escolares que passaram por intervenção; Grupo Controle: 62 escolares que não receberam estimulação. Avaliaram-se individualmente (pré e pós-intervenção) parâmetros de fluência leitora (taxa e acurácia) em tarefa com palavras isoladas. O programa contou com tarefas destinadas a estimular a discriminação auditiva, conhecimento morfossintático, acesso fonológico ao léxico mental, consciência fonológica, conhecimento do código escrito, fluência leitora e o vocabulário visual de palavras e foi construído para aprimorar, em dez sessões de estimulação coletiva, a decodificação e reconhecimento automático de palavras. Resultados o Grupo Pesquisa apresentou maiores diferenças de acurácia e escore na leitura de palavras, quando comparados os resultados das avaliações pré e pós-intervenção com os do Grupo Controle. Conclusão: o programa promoveu a fluência leitora de escolares do 1º e 2º anos do Ensino Fundamental I. Incrementos significativos foram observados para a discriminação auditiva, consciência fonológica e automaticidade leitora, com variações em função do ano escolar.

ABSTRACT Purpose To develop and investigate the effect of a program that stimulates cognitive-linguistic skills predictive of phonological decoding skills aimed at improving of skills underlying reading. Methods The research design was a prospective cohort study with quantitative analysis. A total of 124 1st - 3rd grade children from a public Ensino Fundamental I school in São Paulo, participated in the study, divided into: Research Group - 62 students who underwent intervention; Control Group: 62 students who did not receive stimulation. Reading fluency parameters (rate and accuracy) were individually evaluated (pre- and post-intervention) in a task with isolated words. The program had tasks designed to stimulate auditory discrimination, morphosyntactic knowledge, phonological access to the mental lexicon, phonological awareness, knowledge of the written code, reading fluency and the visual vocabulary of words. It was built to improve decoding and automatic word recognition skills in ten sessions of collective stimulation. Results The Research Group showed greater differences in accuracy and score in word reading, when comparing the results of pre- and post-intervention assessments, than the Control Group. Conclusion The program promoted the reading fluency of 1st and 2nd grade students. Significant increments were observed for auditory discrimination, phonological awareness and reading automaticity with variations depending on the grade.

Bilinguismo e Nomeação Automática Rápida: efeitos da alternância de línguas sobre o acesso lexical e a velocidade de leitura / Bilingualism and Rapid Automatized Naming: effects of language switching on lexical access and reading speed

RESUMO Objetivo Verificar se o bilinguismo, na condição de alternância de línguas, associa-se à maior ou menor velocidade e precisão na nomeação rápida de objetos e se essa condição se relaciona com a velocidade de leitura de texto. Método Analisou-se o desempenho de 50 crianças bilíngues sequenciais brasileiras, cuja língua materna era o Português Brasileiro, expostas ao Inglês diariamente no ambiente escolar. O grupo monolíngue, composto por 47 crianças, foi agrupado de acordo com a faixa etária. Foram analisados desempenhos em tarefa de Nomeação Automática Rápida (RAN) e velocidade (palavras lidas por minuto) em prova de leitura oral de texto. Resultados Os resultados revelaram que a alternância de línguas se associou ao desempenho dos escolares bilíngues na prova de Nomeação Rápida no que diz respeito à velocidade e à precisão. Em condição de alternância de línguas, os escolares bilíngues despenderam mais tempo para nomear e cometeram mais erros. Somente se observou correlação entre o desempenho dos escolares bilíngues na prova de nomeação rápida em L2 e a taxa de leitura em L1. Conclusão Escolares brasileiros bilíngues apresentaram pior desempenho em tarefa de nomeação rápida na situação de alternância de línguas quando comparados a escolares monolíngues, com maior número de erros, especialmente hesitações.

ABSTRACT Purpose To assess whether bilingualism, on a language switching experiment, is associated with higher or lower accuracy and speed of the rapid automatized naming of objects and investigate the influence of language switching on reading speed. Methods The performance of 50 Brazilian bilingual children in the Rapid Automatized Naming Task, whose L1 was Brazilian Portuguese and who were exposed to English daily at school, was assessed. Forty-seven monolingual (Brazilian Portuguese) children were grouped according to age. Results Language switching interfered with the performance of the bilingual children in the Rapid Automatized Naming Task in terms of speed and accuracy. No correlations were found between the performance in the RAN task and Reading Speed. Conclusion Brazilian bilingual students showed poor performance in the rapid naming task on the switch trial when compared to monolingual students, showing higher rates of mistakes, especially hesitations. Only the performance of bilingual students in the rapid naming task in L2 correlated with L1 reading speed.

Rapid naming, phonological memory and reading fluency in Brazilian bilingual students.

PURPOSE: To characterize the performance of Brazilian students exposed to two languages in reading fluency, phonological memory, and rapid naming, according to grade level, and to investigate correlations between these variables. METHODS: Sixty students took part in this study (50% female), enrolled in the third to the fifth grades of two elementary schools of the city of São Paulo. They constituted two groups - bilingual group: 30 Brazilian children whose mother tongue and language spoken at home was Brazilian Portuguese and who were daily exposed to English at school for a period not shorter than three years; monolingual group: 30 students, from a monolingual Brazilian elementary school, who were paired by gender, age, and grade level with the bilingual students. Foreign children, children with complaint or indication of speech and language disorder, or who had been retained were excluded. A rapid automatized naming, pseudoword repetition, and oral reading tests were administered. The bilingual children were assessed in both languages and their performances were compared among themselves and with the monolingual group, which was only assessed in Brazilian Portuguese. RESULTS: The bilingual group showed better performance in English, rapid naming, and pseudoword repetition tasks, whereas Brazilian Portuguese, in reading fluency. A higher number of correlations were found in Brazilian Portuguese. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the acquisition of a second language may positively influence the abilities of rapid naming, reading rate, and accuracy. Brazilian bilingual students performed better in tasks of phonological memory in English and Brazilian Portuguese performed better in reading fluency. Different correlation patterns were found between the rapid naming, accuracy, and reading rate, in the bilingual group analysis, in both languages.

Syntactic markers in the oral retelling of dyslexic students.

PURPOSES: To investigate, in the oral retelling after reading process, the syntactic markers capable of characterizing different clinical groups of developmental reading disabilities. METHODS: Thirty-two Brazilian students were evaluated: dyslexic group (DG) - 16 individuals were diagnosed with developmental dyslexia; control group (CG) - 16 individuals did not present reading difficulties when compared with the DG by age, gender, and educational level. They all read one narrative and one expository text and orally retold what was read. The retellings were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed via Coh-Metrix-Port . The performances were statistically analyzed using productivity indexes, lexical diversity, grammar skills, and complexity. RESULTS: DG showed a lower average of correct sentences in the narrative and expository retellings, fewer words per sentence, and a lower incidence of content words in the expository retelling. CONCLUSION: The analysis of the microstructure of retellings differentiated the groups' performances. Dyslexic students presented lower grammar skills for narrative and expository text retellings. Fewer words per sentence and a lower incidence of content words characterized the retellings of expository texts by dyslexic students, possibly a consequence of a higher cognitive demand to the reading comprehension of this type of text.

Psychometric equivalence of the Brazilian version of the Test of Pragmatic Language 2 ­ TOPL-2.

INTRODUCTION: Considering the relevance of the investigation about the pragmatic function for language disorders diagnosis, as well as the relevance of validity evidence for test interpretation, this paper aimed to explore the psychometric equivalence between the American and Brazilian versions of the Test of Pragmatic Language, Second Edition (TOPL-2). METHODS: A total of 81 students from the third to seventh year from public elementary schools of São Paulo (63% girls; average age=9.42 years, SD=0.93) with no complaints or indicators of low school performance were selected. Students answered the verbal application of the TOPL-2 Brazilian-Portuguese version. Some of the psychometric inquiries reported in the original version of the test were reproduced focusing on the analyses of difficulty, internal consistency, discrimination, and differential item functioning. RESULTS: Most of the items (86%) presented similar difficulties to the American version. The internal consistency index had acceptable values (0.70). Few items (26%) showed adequate discrimination, but 49% were close to the desirable cutoffs. Eight items showed differential functioning; of which, five were favorable to boys. CONCLUSION: Despite sample limitations related to size and variability, almost half of the items showed psychometric equivalence to the American version.

Influence of bilingualism in usual word designation in naming tasks: a study with Brazilian preschoolers.

AIM: To verify if children enrolled in bilingual preschools are influenced by a second language. METHOD: 60 children were assessed, 30 enrolled in a bilingual preschool (Group I) and 30 in a regular Brazilian school (Group II), with ages ranging from 4 to 5 years and 11 months. To assess their lexical competence the ABFW Vocabulary test (Befi-Lopes, 2000) was used. RESULTS: When comparing the results obtained in the inter-group study, no significant difference was observed in the groups' performance, in most of the semantic fields. In the intra-group study a superior performance was observed for Group I in the Portuguese language. CONCLUSION: Learning a second language may influence the lexical competence of children, although these preschoolers are still proficient only in the Portuguese language.

Reading comprehension on the last grades of cicles I and II of elementary school.

PURPOSE: To characterize students' performance in Cycle I and II of the Elementary School (EF), in decoding, reading comprehension and underlying skills of reading, and investigate correlations between these variables, in the absence and presence of reading comprehension deficits, identified by their teachers. METHODS: 125 students from ES were grouped according to Cycle and presence or absence of reading comprehension impairments. Two Control (good readers from both Cycles) and two Research groups (poor readers from both Cycles) were established. Assessment involved: fluency and reading comprehension; oral comprehension; working and short-term phonological memory; grammar closure. It was compared (Mann-Whitney test): in intragroup study, both Control and Research groups; in intergroup study, Control and Research from different cycles, and Control I and Research II. Spearman coefficient investigated correlations. RESULTS: Analyzing reading comprehension, we observed better performance of Control Groups in all tasks in comparison to the respective Research Groups, and better performance of Control II in comparison to Control I. Research Groups had similar results in most tests. Positive correlations have been observed between most of the variables. CONCLUSION: Students without reading comprehension impairments showed better performance in reading in both Cycles. Working memory and oral comprehension did not differentiate students with and without complaints in Cycle I, differently from what was observed in Cycle II. Research II presented similar or better performance than Research I and similar or worse performance than Control I. Underlying skills showed different profiles of correlation with reading comprehension capacity, according to the group.

Consistência interna e fatores latentes na variabilidade da competência sintática no ensino fundamental I / Internal consistency and latent factors in the variability of syntactic competence in elementary school students

RESUMO Objetivo Apresentar o estudo de consistência interna e de fatores latentes responsáveis pela variabilidade de respostas a uma tarefa de avaliação de competências sintáticas, aplicada em crianças escolares do 2º ciclo do ensino fundamental I. Métodos Elaborou-se uma prova de complementação oral de sentenças, a partir de 30 orações subordinadas adverbiais. Participaram 113 escolares típicos (55,7% sexo feminino), entre 9 anos e 11 anos e 1 mês (média de idade = 9,5; desvio padrão = 0,6), matriculados no 4º (59,3%) e 5º (40,7%) anos do ensino fundamental da rede pública. Foram avaliados quanto à discriminação e processamento auditivo, memória fonológica, vocabulário expressivo e complementação oral de sentenças. Três juízes (dois fonoaudiólogos e um linguista) avaliaram 3390 respostas. Analisou-se por coeficiente Kappa de Fleiss (α=0,6), coeficiente de Alpha de Cronbach (α=0,4) e realizou-se análise fatorial com coeficiente Phi (α=0,7), com método de componentes principais. Resultados A concordância entre os três juízes mostrou k=0,61<x>1 para 6 itens. A análise dos dois fonoaudiólogos mostrou concordância perfeita para 2 itens e k=0,69<x>0,89 para 23 itens. Na análise da consistência interna, as categorias condicional e final mostraram α=0,43 e α=0,47, respectivamente. As demais categorias não mostraram consistência. Dos 13 fatores latentes identificados, apenas 1 mostrou ser responsável (12%) pela variância total de respostas. Conclusão A concordância entre juízes fonoaudiólogos foi substancial, os itens de teste não se mostraram correlacionados dentro da mesma categoria gramatical. O uso do modo subjuntivo na resposta complementar à oração principal parece ser um fator latente, condutor da variabilidade de resposta dos escolares.

ABSTRACT Purpose Present a study on the internal consistency and latent factors that promote response variability in an assessment task of syntactic competence applied to Elementary School students. Methods An oral sentence complementation task containing 30 main adverbial subordinate clauses was prepared. Participants were 113 students with typical development (55.7% girls), aged 9 years to 11 years and 1 month (M=9.5; SD=0.6), regularly enrolled in the 4th (59.3%) and 5th (40.7%) grades of a public Elementary School. The schoolchildren were evaluated with respect to auditory discrimination and processing (simplified assessment), phonological short-term and working memory, expressive vocabulary, and oral sentence complementation. Data were analyzed using the Fleiss' Kappa (α=0.6) and Cronbach's Alpha (α=0.4) coefficients. Phi coefficient (α=0.7) factor analysis with the principal components method was also performed. Results Inter-rater concordance between the three judges was α=0.61<x>1 for six clauses. Concordance between the two speech-language pathologists was perfect for two clauses and k=0.69<x>0.89 for 23 clauses. In the internal consistency analysis, the condition and purpose subordinate clause categories showed α=0.43 and α=0.47, respectively. Of the 13 latent factors identified, only one (12%) promoted total response variance. Conclusion Inter-rater concordance between the speech-language pathologists was significant, task items were not correlated within the same grammatical category, and the use of the subjunctive mood in the complementation response to the main clause seems to be a latent factor promoting the response variability of students.

Reading comprehension assessment: effect of order of task application / Avaliação da compreensão leitora: efeito da ordem de aplicação das tarefas

ABSTRACT Purpose To investigate the influence of order of reading tasks application on the reading comprehension performance by students with and without reading difficulties. Methods 40 students (4th and 5th grade) were classified according to the presence (Research Group-RG) or absence (Control Group-CG) of reading difficulties. RG-r and CG-r - 20 students (10 for each group) who retold the read text and responded to open-ended questions; RG-q and CG-q - 20 students (10 for each group) who responded to open-ended questions and then retold the read text. The analysis quantified the main idea, details and inferences retold, causal links and retelling reference standard (3-0) was also established from the best to the worst performance. Open-ended questions received one point for each correct answer. Results Open-ended questions influenced only the retelling performance of good readers. A better performance of CG-q was noted for the number of second level links retold (U=50.50, p=0.155), total of links retold (U=23,00, p=0.038) and retelling reference standard (U=24.50, p=0.039). Reading-monitoring strategies are laborious and tend to be less used by students with reading difficulties. This is because these compete directly with low-level skills (decoding and microstructure processing), losing efficiency or being abandoned in the very course of reading. Conclusion There was improvement on the retelling performance of students without reading difficulties when this task was preceded by the open-ended questions, possibly because of the use of monitoring strategies that allowed a better understanding of the link between the retained ideas, improving links and retelling reference standard.

RESUMO Objetivo Estudar a influência da resposta a questões sobre o desempenho na tarefa de reconto após leitura realizada por escolares com e sem dificuldades de leitura. Método Foram agrupados 40 escolares do 4º e 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental segundo a presença (Grupo Pesquisa-GP) ou ausência (Grupo Controle-GC) de alteração na compreensão leitora: GP-r e GC-r - 20 escolares (10 de cada grupo) que responderam a questões abertas e depois recontaram oralmente o texto lido. A análise quantificou no reconto: total de ideias centrais, detalhe e inferências; enlaces e classificou o padrão de compreensão leitora (3-0) do melhor para o pior desempenho. As questões abertas computaram um ponto para cada acerto. Resultados Questões abertas favoreceram apenas o desempenho de bons leitores no reconto. Melhor desempenho foi identificado para GC-r quando considerados os enlaces de segundo nível (U=50.50, p=0.155); total de enlaces (U=23.00, p=0.038) e de padrão do reconto (U=24.50, p=0.039). Estratégias de monitoramento de leitura são laboriosas e tendem a ser menos utilizadas por escolares com dificuldades de leitura. Isso porque essas estratégias competem diretamente com as habilidades de baixa ordem na leitura (decodificação e processamento da microestrutura). Conclusão O desempenho de escolares sem queixas em tarefa de reconto após leitura melhorou quando precedida por respostas a questões abertas, possivelmente por causa das estratégias de automonitoramento da compreensão, que permitiram melhor entendimento das relações entre as ideias retidas.

Efeito da simplificação sintática sobre a compreensão de leitura de crianças do ensino fundamental / Effects of syntactic simplification on reading comprehension of Elementary School students

RESUMO Objetivo Investigar o efeito da estratégia de simplificação sintática de textos sobre o desempenho em compreensão leitora de escolares de 20 a 40 ano do ensino fundamental. Métodos Estudo transversal, analítico, caso controle. Participaram 112 escolares do ensino público, do 20 ao 40 ano escolar. Os participantes foram distribuídos em Grupo TO - expostos ao texto expositivo original e Grupo TS - expostos ao texto simplificado. Os grupos foram pareados segundo acurácia e não diferiram quanto à capacidade de compreensão leitora. O texto original foi submetido às seguintes modificações sintáticas: divisão de sentenças complexas, simplificação de marcadores discursivos, supressão de voz ativa e anáforas, inversão na ordem de cláusulas, com deslocamento da sentença principal para o início e utilização exclusiva da ordenação sujeito-verbo-objeto. Para atestar a simplificação, utilizou-se a ferramenta computadorizada CohMetrix-Port. A análise da compreensão por meio dos recontos dos textos lidos computou o total de ideias (centrais, detalhes) e de enlaces recontados. Resultados A análise comparativa dos grupos identificou diferenças quanto ao total de ideias centrais (U=1029,5, p=0,001), de detalhe (U=599,5, p=0,000) e total de ideias recontadas (U=1247,5, p=0,041), com melhor desempenho para o Grupo TS. A análise da escolaridade mostrou que o 30 e o 40 ano mais se beneficiaram da simplificação sintática. Conclusão A simplificação dos textos, atestada pelos parâmetros do CohMetrix-Port, produziu efeitos de facilitação sobre o processamento microestrutural do texto de escolares do 30 e 40 anos do ensino fundamental, promovendo maior retenção das ideias.

ABSTRACT Purpose To investigate the effects of Syntactic text simplification on the reading comprehension performance of Elementary School students. Methods Cross-sectional, analytical, case-control study. Study participants were 112 students regularly enrolled in the 2nd-4th grades of public Elementary Schools. Participants were divided into two groups: Group OT - students exposed to the original expository text and Group ST - students exposed to the simplified expository text. The groups were matched for accuracy and did not differ with respect to reading comprehension capacity. The simplified text was obtained by submitting the original text to the following syntactic modifications: separation of complex sentences, simplification of discursive markers, suppression of active voice and anaphora, inversion of clause order with displacement of the main clause to the beginning of the sentence, and exclusive use of the subject-verb-object order. Text simplification was verified using the Coh-Metrix-Port computational tool. Comprehension analysis through retell of the texts read determined the total of ideas (central and detailed) and retold links. Results Comparative analysis of the groups identified differences between the total of central, detailed and retold ideas, with the best performance observed in the Group ST. Students from 3rd and 4th grades benefitted the most from syntactic simplification. Conclusion Text syntactic simplification, verified by the Coh-Metrix-Port parameters, facilitated the micro-structural text processing of 3rd and 4th grade students, promoting greater retention of ideas.

Performance of students with and without reading difficulties on decoding tasks.

PURPOSE: To characterize the performance of students with and without reading difficulties in reading decoding tasks to investigate parameters that can facilitate reading assessment. METHODS: Forty-eight school children, from 7 to 10 years old, who attended 2nd to 4th of Elementary Schoolgrades were studied. Based on their teacher's information, the children were divided into two groups: without reading difficulty (WRDG) and with reading difficulty (RDG). Thirty-six linguistic items were selected (words and pseudowords) and presented whole or segmented (letters and syllables) to assess the children's reading. The data were compared and statistically analyzed by Mann-Whitney and Friedman Tests. The hits, as well as sensitivity and specificity, were calculated. RESULTS: WRDG had a better performance than RDG in all the tasks except whole pseudowords recognition. WRDG performed similarly in all the tasks. The RDG had more difficulty in reading pseudowords, particularly when presented syllable-by-syllable and letter-by-letter. Thirty-two point five proved to be a sensitive turning point: most of the children who decoded and read at least 32 items had been considered adequate by their teachers whereas most of those who did not had been classified by their teachers as having academic difficulty. CONCLUSION: The WRDG performance in decoding reading was homogeneous and better than that of the RDG. The RDG performed worse on reading segmented items, particulary on pseudowords.

Tarefa de discriminação de fala com pseudopalavras / Speech perception task with pseudowords

RESUMO Objetivo Elaborar uma lista de pseudopalavras em Português Brasileiro para avaliação da habilidade de discriminação auditiva de sons da fala e investigar a consistência interna dos itens de teste e o efeito do ano escolar sobre o desempenho na discriminação. Método Participaram 60 escolares de 3º (N=14), 4º (N=24) e 5º anos (N=22) do Ensino Fundamental (60% meninas) entre 8 anos e 2 meses e 11 anos e 8 meses (99 a 136 meses; M=120,05; DP=10,26), com média de rendimento escolar=7,21 pontos (DP=1,23; mínimo 5,0; máximo 10). Elaboraram-se 48 pares mínimos de pseudopalavras, com estrutura do Português Brasileiro e oponência de apenas um fonema. As repostas dos participantes (se os elementos dos pares eram iguais ou diferentes) foram anotadas e analisadas. Calculou-se o Coeficiente Alfa de Cronbach, o Coeficiente de Correlação de Spearman e o Teste de Bonferroni, com nível de significância de 0,05. Resultados A análise da consistência interna indicou a retirada de 20 pares. Vinte e oito resultantes mostraram boa consistência interna (α=0,84). O máximo de respostas corretas de discriminação dos estudantes foi 34, o mínimo = 16, a média = 30,79 (DP = 3,68). Não foram observadas correlações entre a idade, a nota e o desempenho em discriminação; tampouco foram apontadas diferenças de desempenho entre os anos escolares. Conclusão Grande parte dos itens propostos para avaliação da discriminação auditiva dos sons da fala mostrou boa consistência interna em relação à tarefa. Não foi observada melhora da capacidade de discriminação auditiva dos sons da fala quanto mais velha a criança ou mais adiantado o ano escolar.

ABSTRACT Purpose Prepare a list of pseudowords in Brazilian Portuguese to assess the auditory discrimination ability of schoolchildren and investigate the internal consistency of test items and the effect of school grade on discrimination performance. Methods Study participants were 60 schoolchildren (60% female) enrolled in the 3rd (n=14), 4th (n=24) and 5th (n=22) grades of an elementary school in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, aged between eight years and two months and 11 years and eight months (99 to 136 months; mean=120.05; SD=10.26), with average school performance score of 7.21 (minimum 5.0; maximum 10; SD=1.23). Forty-eight minimal pairs of Brazilian Portuguese pseudowords distinguished by a single phoneme were prepared. The participants' responses (whether the elements of the pairs were the same or different) were noted and analyzed. The data were analyzed using the Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient, Spearman's Correlation Coefficient, and Bonferroni Post-hoc Test at significance level of 0.05. Results Internal consistency analysis indicated the deletion of 20 pairs. The 28 items with results showed good internal consistency (α=0.84). The maximum and minimum scores of correct discrimination responses were 34 and 16, respectively (mean=30.79; SD=3.68). No correlation was observed between age, school performance, and discrimination performance, and no difference between school grades was found. Conclusion Most of the items proposed for assessing the auditory discrimination of speech sounds showed good internal consistency in relation to the task. Age and school grade did not improve the auditory discrimination of speech sounds.