Alphabetism in reading science

The Role of Neural and Genetic Processes in Learning to Read and Specific Reading Disabilities: Implications for Instruction

To learn to read, the brain must repurpose neural systems for oral language and visual processing to mediate written language. We begin with a description of computational models for how alphabetic written language is processed. Next, we explain the roles of a dorsal sublexical system in the brain that relates print and speech, a ventral lexical system that develops the visual expertise for rapid orthographic processing at the word level, and the role of cognitive control networks that regulate attentional processes as children read. We then use studies of children, adult illiterates learning to read, and studies of poor readers involved in intervention, to demonstrate the plasticity of these neural networks in development and in relation to instruction. We provide a brief overview of the rapid increase in the field's understanding and technology for assessing genetic influence on reading. Family studies of twins have shown that reading skills are heritable, and molecular genetic studies have identified numerous regions of the genome that may harbor candidate genes for the heritability of reading. In selected families, reading impairment has been associated with major genetic effects, despite individual gene contributions across the broader population that appear to be small. Neural and genetic studies do not prescribe how children should be taught to read, but these studies have underscored the critical role of early intervention and ongoing support. These studies also have highlighted how structured instruction that facilitates access to the sublexical components of words is a critical part of training the brain to read.

The multiple-level framework of developmental dyslexia: the long trace from a neurodevelopmental deficit to an impaired cultural technique

Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by an unexpected impairment in literacy acquisition leading to specific poor academic achievement and possible secondary symptoms. The multi-level framework of developmental dyslexia considers five levels of a causal pathway on which a given genotype is expressed and hierarchically transmitted from one level to the next under the increasing influence of individual learning-relevant traits and environmental factors moderated by cultural conditions. These levels are the neurobiological, the information processing and the skill level (prerequisites and acquisition of literacy skills), the academic achievement level and the level of secondary effects. Various risk factors are present at each level within the assumed causal pathway and can increase the likelihood of exhibiting developmental dyslexia. Transition from one level to the next is neither unidirectional nor inevitable. This fact has direct implications for prevention and intervention which can mitigate transitions from one level to the next. In this paper, various evidence-based theories and findings regarding deficits at different levels are placed in the proposed framework. In addition, the moderating effect of cultural impact at and between information processing and skill levels are further elaborated based on a review of findings regarding influences of different writing systems and orthographies. These differences impose culture-specific demands for literacy-specific cognitive procedures, influencing both literacy acquisition and the manifestation of developmental dyslexia.

Expanding horizons of cross-linguistic research on reading: The Multilingual Eye-movement Corpus (MECO)

Scientific studies of language behavior need to grapple with a large diversity of languages in the world and, for reading, a further variability in writing systems. Yet, the ability to form meaningful theories of reading is contingent on the availability of cross-linguistic behavioral data. This paper offers new insights into aspects of reading behavior that are shared and those that vary systematically across languages through an investigation of eye-tracking data from 13 languages recorded during text reading. We begin with reporting a bibliometric analysis of eye-tracking studies showing that the current empirical base is insufficient for cross-linguistic comparisons. We respond to this empirical lacuna by presenting the Multilingual Eye-Movement Corpus (MECO), the product of an international multi-lab collaboration. We examine which behavioral indices differentiate between reading in written languages, and which measures are stable across languages. One of the findings is that readers of different languages vary considerably in their skipping rate (i.e., the likelihood of not fixating on a word even once) and that this variability is explained by cross-linguistic differences in word length distributions. In contrast, if readers do not skip a word, they tend to spend a similar average time viewing it. We outline the implications of these findings for theories of reading. We also describe prospective uses of the publicly available MECO data, and its further development plans.

The Role of Phonological Awareness, Pinyin Letter Knowledge, and Visual Perception Skills in Kindergarteners’ Chinese Character Reading

Word identification models assume that words are identified by at least two sources of information and analysis; one is phonological, and the other is visual. The present study investigated the influence of phonological awareness, Pinyin letter knowledge, and visual perception skills on Chinese character recognition after controlling for vocabulary, rapid naming, and verbal short-term memory in 80 Mandarin-speaking kindergarten children. Children were tested on phonological awareness (syllable awareness, onset-end rhyme awareness, and tone awareness), Pinyin letter naming, and visual perception (visual discrimination and visual-spatial relationships). The results showed that variance in Chinese character recognition could be explained by syllable awareness and tone awareness, but not by visual perception skills or Pinyin letter knowledge. Analyses further indicated that Pinyin letter knowledge moderated the relationship between tone awareness and Chinese character recognition. A focus on tone awareness and syllable awareness in the kindergarten may help Chinese children to accomplish the transition from phonological awareness to early literacy, while Pinyin letter knowledge can help children to make the connection between Chinese speech and writing.

Literacy instruction for autistic children who speak languages other than English

LAY ABSTRACT

Many autistic children across the globe speak languages other than English. However, much of the research about teaching children with autism to read and write is derived from studies including people who speak English and no other languages. Here, we review the research on teaching children with autism to read and write in languages other than English. We did this because the world's languages, and the ways they are represented in written form, vary greatly. A broader overview that encompasses languages other than English can help us better understand how learning to read and write can be supported for autistic children around the world. The studies included in our review highlight some potential differences in effective literacy teaching for autistic children learning to read and write using different writing systems. The studies we reviewed tended to include relatively small samples of autistic children, among other limitations. We hope that our review will increase awareness and research efforts in the area of autism and global literacy.

Order among chaos: Cross-linguistic differences and developmental trajectories in pseudoword reading aloud using pronunciation Entropy

In this work we propose the use of Entropy to measure variability in pronunciations in pseudowords reading aloud: pseudowords where participants give many different pronunciations receive higher Entropy values. Monolingual adults, monolingual children, and bilingual children proficient in different European languages varying in orthographic depth were tested. We predicted that Entropy values will increase with increasing orthographic depth. Moreover, higher Entropy was expected for younger than older children, as reading experience improves the knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). We also tested if interference from a second language would lead to higher Entropy. Results show that orthographic depth affects Entropy, but only when the items are not strictly matched across languages. We also found that Entropy decreases across age, suggesting that GPC knowledge becomes refined throughout grades 2-4. We found no differences between bilingual and monolingual children. Our results indicate that item characteristics play a fundamental role in pseudoword pronunciation variability, that reading experience is associated with reduced variability in responses, and that in bilinguals' knowledge of a second orthography does not seem to interfere with pseudoword reading aloud.

Enhanced learning to improve letter knowledge in children with Down syndrome and severe intellectual disability: A case report

Children with Down syndrome and severe intellectual disability have difficulties in learning a language. Enhanced learning procedure, including mora segmentation is beneficial to understand letter-sound correspondence in such children.

Exploring the effects of knowledge of writing on reading Chinese characters in skilled readers

Knowledge about how characters are written has been argued to play a particularly important role in how children learn to read Chinese. In the current study, we investigate the role that knowledge about writing characters plays in visual word processing in skilled adult readers. While there is clear neuropsychological evidence against the strong version of the hypothesis that reading depends on writing in Chinese even once literacy is acquired, it is still possible that writing could have a modulatory influence on how visually presented Chinese characters are processed in literate readers. The present study addressed this hypothesis using a visual same/different judgment task on pairs of characters that vary in how similar the 2 characters are visually and how similar they are in terms of motor plan, using 24 expert readers and writers of Chinese and 24 naïve participants with no prior experience with written Chinese as subjects. The results of linear mixed-effects modeling indicate that the speed of same/different judgments is influenced by visual similarity, but not by how similar they are written, even in the group of skilled readers. These results suggest that knowledge of how Chinese characters are written does not influence visual character processing in skilled readers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

German and English Bodies: No Evidence for Cross-Linguistic Differences in Preferred Orthographic Grain Size

Previous studies have found that words and nonwords with many body neighbours (i.e., words with the same orthographic body, e.g., cat, brat, at) are read faster than items with fewer body neighbours. This body-N effect has been explored in the context of cross-linguistic differences in reading where it has been reported that the size of the effect differs as a function of orthographic depth: readers of English, a deep orthography, show stronger facilitation than readers of German, a shallow orthography. Such findings support the psycholinguistic grain size theory, which proposes that readers of English rely on large orthographic units to reduce ambiguity of print-to-speech correspondences in their orthography. Here we re-examine the evidence for this pattern and find that there is no reliable evidence for such a cross-linguistic difference. Re-analysis of a key study (Ziegler et al., 2001), analysis of data from the English Lexicon Project (Balota et al., 2007), and a large-scale analysis of nine new experiments all support this conclusion. Using Bayesian analysis techniques, we find little evidence of the body-N effect in most tasks and conditions. Where we do find evidence for a body-N effect (lexical decision for nonwords), we find evidence against an interaction with language.