Title: Predicting Literacy: Correlating Working Memory, Phonological Awareness,
1Predicting Literacy Correlating Working
Memory, Phonological Awareness, Early Decoding.
Preliminary Data.
- Cynthia W. Core, PhD, CCC-SLP
- Florida Atlantic University
- Elena Zaretsky, PhD, CCC-SLP
- University of Massachusetts Amherst
2Agenda
- Overview of specific skills required for literacy
- Current study
- Premises
- Research Questions
- Methodology
- Results
- Discussion
- Future direction
3Specific Skills Required for Literacy
Phonological Awareness as a Predictor for Reading
Acquisition
- The relationship between phonological awareness
(PA) and subsequent reading acquisition has been
a focus of research since 1980. - PA, or sound segmentation skills, refers to the
ability of consciously thinking about spoken word
in terms of its components syllables, onsets and
rimes, and individual phonemes, as well as
manipulating these elements in a range of tasks. - Empirical evidence suggests that
- PA is a significant predictor of success in early
reading (Blackman, 1991), - there is a relationship between acquisition of
alphabetical literacy and the development of PA
(Catts, 1989). - preschoolers who show good sound segmentation
skills tend to become good readers, - children who show poor skills in this area are
likely to become less proficient readers (Goswami
Bryant, 1990 Wimmer, Landerl, Linortner
Hummer, 1992).
4Learning to Read in Alphabetical System
- Learning to read and write in the alphabetic
orthography requires young learners to understand
how the components of spoken language are
represented by the orthographic system in the
language of exposure. - PA by itself may not be enough to acquire
spelling skills - Requires alphabetic principle, i.e.,
phoneme/grapheme conversion
5Bidirectional Relationship Between PA and
Learning to Read
- Evidence from studies in the area of reading
acquisition also suggests that the relationship
between the sound segmentation skill and reading
abilities in alphabetic orthography is
bi-directional - PA will be enhanced by the exposure to print
while influencing reading proficiency. - If formal reading instruction may be the
triggering events in developing PA (Wesseling
Reitsma, 1998), it is of interest to see the
readiness level of children in the classroom
before they start formal reading instruction.
6Factors that Predict Reading Difficulties (Known
and Unknown)
- Already known factors
- PA (Share Stanovich, 1995)
- naming skills (Wolf, 1991 Swan Goswami,
1997b). - vocabulary (Gathercole, Willis, Emslie
Baddeley, 1992). - The question still remains as to what underlying
processes allow some children to acquire such an
important skill as PA with ease, and why some
other children have difficulties even at the
earliest stages of reading acquisition.
7Possible Underlying Processes
- One possible explanation - good phonological
representation of lexicon (vocabulary) children
already have (Elbro, Nielsen, Peterson, 1994,
Metsala, 1999). - Children who have difficulties performing PA
tasks may have less refined, imprecise system of
phonological representations (Elbro, 1996
Wesseling Retsma, 2001). - Children who are poor readers may have somewhat
weaker receptive vocabularies (Gathercole,
Willis, Emslie Baddeley, 1992).
8Can we explain the underlying processes?
- Correlation between vocabulary and phonological
representations suggests a possible mechanism
making this connection possible - infants may process the initial phonological
information encoded in the words as a whole - segmentation of lexical items for accurate
representation of words presented auditorily is a
later developmental process (Fowler,1991) - The quality of phonological representations may
be directly related to how much phonological
information one may hold to represent variety of
lexical items.
9Verbal Working Memory (VWM) as Possible
Explanation for Deficits
- One way to assess the relationship between early
whole words representations and the more
refined ability to segment words that appears
later may be through the application of the
Baddeleys model VWM. - This model proposes that the phonological loop,
also known as phonological memory (PM), is
essential for establishing phonological
representations that consequently will promote
vocabulary acquisition. - PM is assessed through the nonsense word
repetition task (NWR). - Baddeley (2005) argues for the validity of
nonsense word repetition as it closely resembles
the natural situation facing any language leaner.
10VWM and Vocabulary Acquisition
- Research has demonstrated, that young children
who have better ability to repeat nonsense words
turn out to be better learners of new vocabulary
and vice versa, thus establishing the connection
between phonological representation and good
vocabulary skills (Gathercole Baddeley, 1990b).
- The ability to repeat nonsense words turned out
to be a distinguishing factor between the typical
language developing population and subgroups of
children with specific language impairment (SLI)
(Mongomery, 1995 Gathercole Baddeley, 1990a,
Conti-Ramsden, 2003).
11Other Views on the Interaction Between
Vocabulary, PA and Ability to Repeat Nonwords
- Chiat (2006) argues that children come to the
nonsense word repetition with already established
underlying phonological representations. - This interconnectivity has been established by
previous research (Snowling, Chait, Hulme,
1991). - Metsala (1999) found that children with larger
vocabularies were more likely to perform better
on nonsense word repetition tasks. - There is no clear consensus to what degree
nonsense word repetition influences PA skills. - Baddeley (2005) suggested that nonword repetition
and PA skills are predictors for future reading
performance - Strongly argued in favor of PM rather than
phonological processing abilities (Snowling et
al.,1991), as a better specified hypothesis for
the acquisition of phonological skills.
12Other Factors that May Influence Establishment of
Phonological Representations WM Capacity
- Baddeleys model of VWM suggests that complex
language processing (reading is considered to be
such a process) not only relies on PM, but
requires the support of capacity based central
executive component (WM capacity). - The central executive component allows one to
store some information while integrating new
information to achieve full comprehension of
complex linguistic material - larger capacity allows for better comprehension.
- WM capacity is assessed by a complex memory span
(CMS) paradigm storing some information while
being engaged in concurrent processing activity
Competing Language Processing Task (CLPT). - CLPT requires a subject to make a semantic
judgment on a sequence of individual sentence and
then recall the last word of each sentence within
the sequence.
13How WM Capacity May Relate to NWR, Language and
Reading?
- Gathercole (2006) suggested that NWR, as a
measure of PM, may not be sufficient enough to
account for future deficits in language abilities
and may depend on WM capacity. - There is evidence, that poor performance by
children with SLI on NWR is related to
significantly diminished WM capacity (Zaretsky,
2003). - Current research is actively studying
- the inter-relationship between the PM, WM
capacity, and the ensuing performance on language
tasks by different groups of children (Swanson,
1993 Marton Schwartz, 2003). - Relationship between NWR and measure of WM
capacity in typically developing children as a
possible predictor for PA and subsequent reading
acquisition is an important area of research.
14The Significance for Identifying the Interaction
Between WM capacity, PM, PA and Vocabulary for
Reading
- Based on the reviewed previous research, there is
a need to investigate the linguistic and
cognitive mechanisms that relate to the
acquisition of the PA, (Gathercole Baddeley,
1989), as well as the role of PM and WM capacity
in the process of reading acquisition. - This research was designed to answer specific
questions that may predict success in reading
acquisition based on the performance of typically
developing kindergarteners on the tasks that
measure PA, PM and WM capacity, vocabulary and
early literacy skills.
15Research Questions
- Our specific questions are as follows
- a) Is there a correlation between PM, WM capacity
and vocabulary? - b) Is there a correlation between PM, WM capacity
and PA? - c) Is there a correlation between PM, WM capacity
and early literacy skills? - d) To what degree do PM and/or WM capacity
predict PA skills? - e) To what degree do PM and/or WM capacity
predict early reading (decoding) and spelling
skills prior to the start of formal reading
instructions?
16Current Study
- Participants
- 21 kindergarten students between 51 and 61
years of age (M55, SD.32) - Typically developing language abilities
- All children passed school language screening
- Monolingual speakers of English
17 Methods Tests administered
- PPVT, receptive vocabulary
- The Phonological Awareness Test, phonological
awareness - Segmenting, blending, rhyming, substitution (with
manipulatives) - Competing Language Processing Test, working
memory capacity - 50 item Nonword Repetition Task, Phonological
Memory - Early Reading Screening Inventory
- Alphabet Knowledge (upper case and lower case
recognition, production) - Invented Spelling
- Basal Word Reading
- Decoding, CVC Words
18Correlation of Phonological Memory, Working
Memory Capacity, and PPVT
r.695, plt.001
r.415, p.06
19Correlation of PM and WM Capacity
r.598, p.004
20Results Correlations of PM and PA
- Correlations of PAT Subtest Scores
and NWR - PAT Total Rhyme
- r.609, p.003
- PAT Rhyme Discrimination
- r.617, p.004
- PAT Phoneme Deletion
- r.471, p.03
- PAT Segmentation r.604, p.004
- PAT Blending Phonemes
- r.449, p.04
- PAT Substitution w/ Manipulatives
- r.456, p.03
r.52, p.01
21Correlation of WM Capacity and PA
- Correlations of PAT Subtests with WM Capacity
- PAT Total Rhyme
- r.730, plt.001
- Rhyme Discrimination r.465, p.039
- Rhyme Production r.567, p.005
- Phoneme Segmentation r.668, p.001
r.52, p.01
22Correlation of PM, WM Capacity and Early Literacy
Skills
- PM and WM Capacity did not correlate with early
literacy skills - PM did not correlate with any of the reading and
spelling skills - WM capacity did not correlate with any of the
reading and spelling skills
23Do PM and WM predict phonological awareness?
- Linear regression was conducted with PA Composite
as dependent variable - PPVT, WM Capacity and PM were independent
variables - R2.414, df 3, F4.005, p.025
- NWR accounted for 32.6 of the variances
- PPVT accounted for 38.1 of the variances
- WM Capacity accounted for 6.1 of the variances
24Do PM and WM Capacity predict early literacy
skills?
- Our results showed no correlation between PM or
WM and early literacy skills - Alphabet recognition (Upper and lower case)
- Alphabet production (writing)
- Invented spelling
- Basal word reading
- Decoding
25Discussion
- Only WM Capacity correlated with vocabulary
- PM (as measured by NWR) - did not
- Both PM and WM Capacity strongly correlated with
Composite Phonological Awareness Scores - Specific PAT subtests correlated with PM and WM
Capacity - rhyming, deletion, blending, segmentation,
substitution with manipulatives
26PM and WM Capacity relationship to early literacy
skills
- Neither PM nor WM Capacity correlated with early
literacy skills - Literacy involves skill of phoneme-grapheme
conversion - Phoneme-grapheme correspondences strengthen with
exposure to reading and spelling instruction
27Memory and Vocabulary Contributions to PA and
Early Literacy Skills
- PM, WM Capacity and PPVT accounted for variance
in Composite PA Scores - PM and PPVT contributed the most to the variance
in Composite PA Scores - 32.6 and 38.1 respectively
- WM Capacity added little to the variance in PA
scores, 6 - WM Capacity and PM did not contribute to measures
of early literacy skills
28Conclusions
- PA skills strongly rely on PM and WM Capacity
- The PA subtests that most correlated with memory
tasks were rhyme, phoneme deletion, phoneme
blending, and phoneme substitution - PA also strongly relies on vocabulary skills
- Although this was not our original research
question, we found that PPVT scores correlated
with PAT rhyming (r.634, p.002) and blending
(r.470, p.03) - The role of vocabulary in PA should be further
investigated - PM and WM Capacity were strongly correlated
- This supports the view that NWR requires more
cognitive resources than previously thought - Memory skills did not play a role in early
literacy skills - These children were not readers and lacked
critical skill to convert phonemes to graphemes
29Future Directions
- Follow children longitudinally to the end of
kindergarten or beginning of first grade to see
if Memory and PA abilities predicted success in
acquisition of early literacy skills - Investigate the role of vocabulary in
phonological awareness skills - Investigate memory and PA skills in early
literacy skills of bilingual children and
children with language impairment
30Acknowledgements
- AD Henderson University School, Florida Atlantic
University - Pelham Elementary School, Pelham, MA
- Department of Communication Sciences and
Disorders at FAU - Department of Communication Disorders, UMass
Amherst - Research Assistants at FAU and UMass Amherst