Phonological Awareness Tasks: Accuracy in Predicting Reading and Writing Difficulties
Main Article Content
Abstract
This study evaluated the accuracy of the at-risk/not-at-risk classifications of reading and writing difficulties of different measures of Phonological Awareness (PA). A total of 213 Brazilian children performed six PA tasks (varying in phonological unit and cognitive demand) when they were in kindergarten. One year later, 176 of those children performed a writing task and 174 performed a reading task. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were constructed based on the scores of the reading and writing tasks. The results indicated that the full set of PA tasks presented the best area under the curve. However, two PA measures with fewer items, supra-phonemic awareness and phonemic awareness, also presented adequate sensitivity and specificity values for screening purposes. These results are encouraging since those measures could be used to detect children at risk of reading and writing difficulties in kindergarten (about one year before formal reading and writing instruction in Brazil).
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright to articles published in The Journal Of Psychology: Theory and Practice belongs to the authors, who grant Mackenzie Presbyterian University the not exclusive rights to publish the content.
References
Andrade, O. V., Andrade, P. E., & Capellini, S. A. (2013). Identificação precoce do risco para transtornos da atenção e da leitura em sala de sula. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 29(2), 167–176.
Catts, H., Petscher, Y., Schatschneider, C., Sittner, P., Bridges, M., & Mendoza, K. (2009). Floor effects associated with universal screening and their impact on the early identification of reading disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42, 163-176.
Clemens, N. H., Shapiro, E. S., & Thoemmes, F. (2011). Improving the efficacy of first grade reading screening: an investigation of word identification fluency with other early literacy indicators. School Psychology Quarterly, 26(3), 231–244.
Coker, D. L. Jr., & Ritchey, K. D. (2013). Universal screening for writing risk in kindergarten. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 39(4), 1–12.
Compton, D. L., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., & Bryant, J. D. (2006). Selecting at-risk readers in first grade for early intervention: a two-year longitudinal study of decision rules and procedures. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(2), 394–409.
Germano, G., César, A., & Capellini, S. (2017). Screening Protocol for Early Identification of Brazilian Children at Risk for Dyslexia. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, article 1763. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01763.
Good RH, Kaminski RA, Smith S, Laimon D, Dill S. Dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills. 5th ed. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon; 2001.
Goswami, U., & Bryant, P.E. (1990). Phonological skills and learning to read. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Jenkins, J. R., Hudson, R. F., & Johnson, E. S. (2007). Screening for at-risk readers in a response to intervention framework. School Psychology Review, 36(4), 582–600.
Johnson, E. S., Jenkins, J. R., & Petscher, Y. (2010). Improving the accuracy of a direct route screening process. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 35(3), 131–140.
Melby-Lervåg, M., Lyster, S., & Hume, C. (2012). Phonological skills and their role in learning to read: a meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 322–352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026744
Nelson, J. M. (2008). Beyond Correlational Analysis of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS): A Classification Validity Study. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(4), 542–552.
Ozernov-Palchik, O., & Graab, N. (2016). Tackling the ‘dyslexia paradox’: Reading brain and behavior for early markers of developmental dyslexia. Wyley Interdisciplynary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 7, 156-176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1383
Pinheiro, A. (1996). Contagem de frequência de ocorrência e análise psicolinguística de palavras expostas a crianças na faixa pré-escolar e séries iniciais do 1o grau. São Paulo: Associação Brasileira de Dislexia.
Richardson, U., & Nieminen, L. (2017). The contributions and limits of phonological awareness in learning to read. In N. Kucirkova, C. E. Snow, V. Grøver, & C. McBride (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Early Literacy Education: A Contemporary Guide to Literacy Teaching and Interventions in a Global Context (pp. 264-272). London: Routledge.
Ritchey, K. D., & Speece, D. L. (2004). Early identification of reading disabilities: current status and new directions. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 29(13), 13–24.
Roazzi, A., Roazzi, M. M., Justi, C., & Justi, F. (2013). A relação entre a habilidade de leitura e a consciência fonológica: estudo longitudinal em crianças pré-escolares. Estudos e Pesquisas em Psicologia, 13(2), 420-445. Retrived from http://www.revispsi.uerj.br/v13n2/artigos/html/v13n2a03.html
Speece, D. L., Mills, C., Ritchey, K. D., & Hillman, E. (2003). Initial evidence that letter fluency tasks are valid indicators of early reading skill. Journal of Special Education, 36(4), 223–233.
Stein, L. (1994). TDE: Teste de Desempenho Escolar: manual para aplicação e interpretação. São Paulo: Casa do Psicólogo.
Ziegler, J., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading Acquisition, Developmental Dyslexia, and Skilled Reading Across Languages: A Psycholinguistic Grain Size Theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 3–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.3