The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection:

Implications for Teaching Practice

The Language, Phonology and Reading Connection:

Implications for Teaching PracticeDr Valerie Muter

Great Ormond St Hospital for ChildrenMay 2009

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

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

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

Age 4/5 Age 6

Vocabulary

Rhyming

Segmentation

Reading

Vocabulary, Phonology and Reading

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”

Age 4/5 Age 6

Letter Knowledge

Segmentation

Letter KnowledgeX

Segmentation

Reading/Decoding

Acquiring the Alphabetic Principle

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)

N. at Age 10

N. Peers

PhonemeDeletion /24

4 17

Speech RateWords/sec

3.4 4.8

NonwordReading /20

2 14.6

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

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%

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

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

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

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?

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

Age 4/5 Age 6

Phoneme Awareness

PhonemeAwareness

ReadingAccuracy

Reading Accuracy

GrammaticalAwareness

Reading Accuracy

GrammaticalAwareness

ReadingComprehension

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

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.

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%.

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

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

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

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

Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment

cognitive

behavioural

phonological difficulties

short term verbal memory difficulties

reading & spellingdifficulties

vocabulary & grammardifficulties

dyslexia SLI

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

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

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