Typical & Atypical Development - Week 1 - Reading

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Week 1 - Simple View of Reading

Reading a complex process

Spoken language - map symbols to sounds - identify words - read sentences/paragraphs - read for meaning

Simple view of Reading - (Gough & Tumner 1986)

Two versions of model:

- Reading comprehension = listening comprehension + decoding (additive model)

- Reading comprehension = Listening Comprehension x Decoding

(multiplicative model)

You can be good at one corner and not another. For example, good decoding but poor comprehension....

Both decoding and listening comprehension are necessary, but neither is sufficient. Lacking either will lead to poor reading ability

For children, decoding is more important to begin with, then comprehension kicks in

However, SVR is too simple and doesn't account for complexities found in English, e.g. irregular words, grain size etc

N.B. SVof R was taken up by the 'Rose Report' and is basis of National Curriculum

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Dual Route Models

(Max

Coltheart is

major name associated with DRM )

Adult static model - based on adult deficits

Used to subtype: 'surface' & 'phonological' dyslexia

But can't really use a model based on adults with acquired dyslexia to describe the development of reading skill in children - dynamic process...

DRM: Two sets of processes recruited to read words (acquired during learning to read)

1. Lexical - semantic processes

2. Phonological processes

(See below)

Developing readers tend to use the 'sub lexical route' (right hand side of the model). e.g. 'sounding it out'

Skilled readers use the 'lexical route' (left hand side of model) reading by whole words

Regular words can be read using either route / side of the model - the idea is that they begin in parallel and

the fastest route wins

However, generally the lexical route is used to read regular words and familiar irregular words

For new words and pseudo-words only the sub lexical route is sufficient, because these words are not pre-stored

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Triangle Models - Seidenberg & McClelland (1989)

Based on connectionist / PDP theories (Parallel distributed processing)

Explain both skilled reading and reading development

Route to semantics is not mutually exclusive in triangle models - unlike Dual Route Models

Experience plays role in the route taken

Early on, we might use orthography - phonology - semantics route

As we become more expert, we might use the orthography direct to semantics route

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Phonological Awareness

'Explicit conscious understanding of

sounds of words and the ability to manipulate them'

P.A. is a core skill for reading

P.A. has a correlational relationship with reading - until we start learning to read we don't have PA and vice versa and therefore probably a reciprocal relationship with orthographic knowledge

•Roberts

& McDougall (2003): PA measures correlated significantly with reading

ability in 5yo

•Muter

et al. (1997): rhyming & phonemic segmentation correlated with reading, and

at 1-year follow-up

•Bryant

& Bradley (1987): rhyming at 2 predicts later reading ability

See also Ehri & Wilce (1985) Experiment on phonological awareness - showed younger children used visual cues to decode, older readers phonetic cues

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Alphabetic languages

Graphemes map phonemes

Phoneme = smallest unit that can change meaning

e.g. /bed/

and/fed/ are transparent, regular words when written - one letter for

each phoneme

The speed at which children lean to read depends on the transparency of a language

English is slower than some European langs because less transparent (Seymour, Aro & Erskine, 2003)

Diagraphs = two letters make one sound

English 24 letters make 44+ sounds

Alphabetic

system is not regular or consistent

It is not always pos to go from the surface of a word

to its pronunciation

Granularity / Transparency Hypothesis put forward by Wydell & Butterworth

(1999) - after study into Japanese bilingual boy whose reading difficulties were confined solely to English

Languages that are 'coarse' and 'transparent' are easier to decode than those which are 'fine' and 'opaque'

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Stage Models of Reading Development

Ehri's (1995) 4 phase theory of literacy development:

1. Pre-alphabetic phase - children use visual cues, not nec. letters. (e.g. golden arches of MacDonald's)

2. Partial alphabetic phase - some, but not all, letters are linked to sounds they represent, (often word initial and word final correct)

3. Full alphabetic phase - complete connections between graphemes and the phonemes they represent - children can now read unfamiliar words (Irregular

words may initially be regularised)

4. Consolodated alphabetic - children represent larger segments of words, e.g. mopheme patterns (-ed, -ing, -er, -est) or rime spelling patterns (e.g. –int, -ine, -tion)

At stage 4 children are skilled readers, e.g. 8 years of age in English. (German – year one)

Treiman & Cassar (1997) Say stage theories too simplistic - young children learning to spell use whatever knowledge have available