Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T16:54:35.202Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Examining the growth trajectories and cognitive predictors of reading in a consistent orthography: Evidence from a 10-year longitudinal study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2021

George K. Georgiou*
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Tomohiro Inoue
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Timothy C. Papadopoulos
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Rauno Parrila
Affiliation:
School of Educational Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: georgiou@ualberta.ca

Abstract

We examined the growth trajectories of reading in a consistent orthography (Greek) in two developmental periods (from Grade 1 to Grade 4 and from Grade 4 to Grade 10) and what cognitive skills predict the growth patterns. Seventy-five Greek-speaking children were assessed in Grades 1, 2, 4, 6, and 10 on word-, nonword-, and text-reading fluency. In Grades 1 and 4, they were also assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, phonological memory, orthographic knowledge, and articulation rate. Results of growth curve modeling showed that during the first developmental period, there was a rapid initial growth from Grade 1 to Grade 2 followed by a less rapid growth from Grade 2 to Grade 4. In the second developmental period, the slow growth continued. In both developmental periods, rapid naming and orthographic knowledge predicted the initial status of all reading outcomes and phonological memory predicted the initial status of nonword-reading fluency. Phonological awareness predicted the initial status of nonword-reading fluency in the first developmental period and the initial status of word- and text-reading fluency in the second developmental period. None of the cognitive skills predicted the growth rate in reading skills. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Altani, A., Protopapas, A., Katopodi, K., & Georgiou, G. (2020). From individual word recognition to word list and text reading fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112, 2239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Araújo, S., Reis, A., Petersson, K. M., & Faísca, M. (2015). Rapid automatized naming and reading performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107, 868883. doi: 10.1037/edu0000006 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aunola, K., Leskinen, E., Onatsu-Arvilommi, T., & Nurmi, J. (2002). Three methods for studying developmental change: A case of reading skills and self-concept. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 72, 343364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barker, T. A., Torgesen, J. K., & Wagner, R. K. (1992). The role of orthographic processing skills on five different reading tasks. Reading Research Quarterly, 27, 335345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67, 148. doi: 10.18637/jss.v067.i01.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biesanz, J. C., Deeb-Sossa, N., Papadakis, A. A., Bollen, K. A., & Curran, P. J. (2004). The role of coding time in estimating and interpreting growth curve models. Psychological Methods, 9, 3052. doi: 10.1037/1082–989X.9.1.30 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowers, P. G., & Wolf, M. (1993). Theoretical links among naming speed, precise timing mechanisms and orthographic skill in dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 5, 6985. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01026919 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burani, C., Marcolini, S., & Stella, G. (2002). How early does morpho-lexical reading develop in readers of a shallow orthography? Brain & Language, 81, 568586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calet, N., Gutierrez-Palma, N., & Defior, S. (2013). A cross-sectional study of fluency and reading comprehension in Spanish primary school children. Journal of Research in Reading, 38, 272285. doi: 10.1111/1467-9817.12019 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caravolas, M. (2018). Growth of word and pseudoword reading efficiency in alphabetic orthographies: Impact of consistency. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 51, 422433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219417718197 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caravolas, M., Lervåg, A., Defior, S., Malkova, G. S., & Hulme, C. (2013). Different patterns, but equivalent predictors, of growth in reading in consistent and inconsistent orthographies. Psychological Science, 24, 13981407. doi: 10.1177/0956797612473122 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caravolas, M. (2005). The nature and causes of dyslexia in different languages. In Snowling, M. J. & Hulme, C. (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 336356). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caravolas, M., Vólin, J., & Hulme, C. (2005). Phoneme awareness is a key component of alphabetic literacy skills in consistent and inconsistent orthographies: Evidence from Czech and English children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 92, 107139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carroll, N. (2008). Application of segmented regression analysis to the Kaiser Permanente Colorado critical drug interaction program. Paper presented in the Western Users of SAS Software 2008 Annual Conference. Retrieved from http://denversug.org/presentations/2008CODay/ANL-Carroll.pdf Google Scholar
Clayton, F. J., West, G., Sears, C., Hulme, C., & Lervåg, A. (2020). A longitudinal study of early reading development: Letter-sound knowledge, phoneme awareness and RAN, but not letter-sound integration, predict variations in reading development. Scientific Studies of Reading, 24, 91107. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2019.1622546 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coltheart, M. (2005). Modeling reading: The dual-route approach. In Snowling, M. J. & Hulme, C. (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 623). Blackwell Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470757642.ch1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compton, D. L. (2000). Modelling the growth of decoding skills in first-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 219259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuetos, F., & Suárez-Coalla, P. (2009). From grapheme to word in reading acquisition in Spanish. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 583601. doi: 10.1017/S0142716409990038 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, R., Rodríguez-Ferreiro, J., Suárez, P., & Cuetos, F. (2013). Lexical and sub-lexical effects on accuracy, reaction time and response duration: impaired and typical word and pseudoword reading in a transparent orthography. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26, 721738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 167189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eklund, K., Torppa, M., Aro, M., Leppänen, P. H. T., & Lyytinen, H. (2015). Literacy skill development of children with familial risk for dyslexia through grades 2, 3, and 8. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 126140. doi: 10.1037/a0037121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eklund, K., Torppa, M., Sulkunen, S., Niemi, P., & Ahonen, T. (2018). Early cognitive predictors of PISA reading in children with and without family risk for dyslexia. Learning and Individual Differences, 64, 94103. doi: 10.1016/j.lindif.2018.04.012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francis, D. J., Shaywitz, S. E., Stuebing, K. K., Shaywitz, B. A., & Fletcher, J. M. (1996). Developmental lag versus deficit models of reading disability: A longitudinal, individual growth curves analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hamlett, C. L., Walz, L., & Germann, G. (1993). Formative evaluation of academic progress: How much growth can we expect? School Psychology Review, 22, 2748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, L. S., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M. K., & Jenkins, J. R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5, 239256. doi: 10.1207/S1532799XSSR0503_3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgas, D. D., Paraskevopoulos, I. N., Bezevegis, I. G., & Giannitsas, N. D. (1997). ϵλληνıκó WISC–III: Wechsler κλíµακϵς νοηµοσύνης γıα παıδıά [Greek WISC–III: Wechsler intelligence scales for children]. Athens, Greece: Ellinika Grammata.Google Scholar
Georgiou, G., Aro, M., Liao, C.-H., & Parrila, R. (2016). Modeling the relationship between rapid automatized naming and literacy skills across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 143, 4864.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Georgiou, G., Parrila, R., & Papadopoulos, T. C. (2016). The anatomy of the RAN-reading relationship. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 29, 17931815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Georgiou, G. K., Parrila, R., & Papadopoulos, T. C. (2008). Predictors of word decoding and reading fluency across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 566580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goswami, U., Porpodas, C., & Wheelwright, S. (1997). Children’s orthographic representations in English and Greek. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 648664.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Havelka, J., & Rastle, K. (2005). The assembly of phonology from print is serial and subject to strategic control: Evidence from Serbian. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31, 148158.Google ScholarPubMed
Houlis, K., Hogben, J. H., Visser, T., Ohan, J. L., Anderson, M., & Heath, S. M. (2019). Zooming in” on orthographic knowledge to clarify the relationship between rapid automatised naming (RAN) and word reading. Learning and Individual Differences, 74, 101756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hudson, R. F., Pullen, P. C., Lane, H. B., & Torgesen, J. K. (2009). The complex nature of reading fluency: A multidimensional view. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25, 432. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10573560802491208 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, J. R., Fuchs, L. S., van den Broek, P., Espin, C., & Deno, S. L. (2003). Sources of individual differences in reading comprehension and reading fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 719729. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.4.719 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y.-S., & Pallante, D. (2012). Predictors of reading skills for kindergartners and first graders in Spanish: A longitudinal study. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y.-S., Petscher, Y., Schatschneider, C., & Foorman, B. (2010). Does growth rate in oral reading fluency matter in predicting reading comprehension achievement? Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 652667. doi: 10.1037/a0019643 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirby, J. R., Parrila, R., & Pfeiffer, S. L. (2003). Naming speed and phonological awareness as predictors of reading development. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437447.Google Scholar
Kline, R. B. (2015). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (4th ed.). Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Landerl, K., & Wimmer, H. (2008). Development of word reading fluency and spelling in a consistent orthography: An 8-year follow-up. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 150161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landerl, K. H., Freudenthaler, H., Heene, M., De Jong, P. F., Desrochers, A., Manolitsis, G., Parrila, R, Georgiou, G. K. (2019). Phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming as longitudinal predictors of reading in five alphabetic orthographies with varying degrees of consistency. Scientific Studies of Reading, 23, 220234. doi: 10.1080/10888438.2018.1510936 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leppänen, U., Niemi, P., Aunola, K., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2004). Development of reading skills among preschool and primary school pupils. Reading Research Quarterly, 39, 7293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lervåg, A., & Hulme, C. (2009). Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) taps a mechanism that places constraints on the development of early reading fluency. Psychological Science, 20, 10401048. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02405.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marinelli, V. C., Zoccolotti, P., & Romani, C. (2020). The ability to learn new written words is modulated by language orthographic consistency. PloS One, 15, e0228129. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228129 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, K., & Brady, S. (2001). Correlates of early reading performance in a transparent orthography. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 14, 757799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naglieri, J. A., & Das, J. P. (1997). Cognitive Assessment System. Itasca, IL: Riverside.Google Scholar
Olson, R., Wise, B., Conners, F., Rack, J., & Fulker, D. (1989). Specific deficits in component reading and language skills Genetic and environmental influences. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 339348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olson, R. K., Forsberg, H., Wise, B., & Rack, J. (1994). Measurement of word recognition, orthographic, and phonological skills. In Lyon, G. R. (Ed.), Frames of reference for the assessment of learning disabilities: New views on measurement issues (pp. 243277). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Orsolini, M., Fanari, R., Tosi, V., de Nigris, B., & Carreri, R. (2006). From phonological recoding to lexical reading: A longitudinal study on reading development in Italian. Language and Cognitive Processes, 21, 576607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pagliuca, G., Arduino, L. S., Barca, L. & Burani, C. (2008). Fully transparent orthography, yet, lexical reading aloud: The lexicality effect in Italian. Language and Cognitive Processes, 23, 422433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papadopoulos, T. C., Georgiou, G., & Kendeou, P. (2009a). Investigating the double-deficit hypothesis in Greek: Findings from a longitudinal study. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42, 542547.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Papadopoulos, T. C., Georgiou, R. K., Kendeou, P., & Spanoudis, G. (2009b). Das-Naglieri cognitive assessment system (D-N CAS): Standardization in Greek. Department of Psychology & Centre for Applied Neuroscience, the University of Cyprus (original version by Naglieri, J. A. & Das, J. P., 1997, published by Pro-Ed).Google Scholar
Papadopoulos, T. C., Kendeou, P., & Spanoudis, G. (2012). Investigating the factor structure and measurement invariance of phonological abilities in a sufficiently transparent language. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104, 321336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parrila, R., Aunola, K., Leskinen, E., Nurmi, J., & Kirby, J. (2005). Development of individual differences in reading: Results from longitudinal studies in English and Finnish. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 299319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
P arrila, R., Kirby, J. R., & McQuarrie, L. (2004). Articulation rate, naming speed, verbal short-termmemory, and phonological awareness: Longitudinal predictors of early reading development. Scientific Studies of Reading, 8, 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, P., Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L. S., Elleman, A. M., Kearns, D. M., Gilbert, J. K., Compton, D. L., Cho, E., & PattonIII, S. et al. (2019). A longitudinal analysis of the trajectories and predictors of word reading and reading comprehension development among at-risk readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219418809080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfost, M., Hattie, J., Dorfler, T., & Artelt, C. (2014). Individual differences in reading development: A review of 25 years of empirical research on Matthew effects in reading. Review of Educational Research, 84, 203244. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654313509492 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porpodas, C. (1999). Patterns of phonological and memory processing in beginning readers and spellers of Greek. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 32, 406416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Protopapas, A., Katopodi, K., Altani, A., & Georgiou, G. K. (2018). Word reading fluency as a serial naming task. Scientific Studies of Reading, 22, 248263. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2018.1430804 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Protopapas, A., Mouzaki, A., Sideridis, G. D., Kotsolakou, A., & Simos, P. G. (2013). The role of vocabulary in the context of the simple view of reading. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 29, 168202. doi: 10.1080/10573569.2013.758569 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Protopapas, A., & Vlahou, E. L. (2009). A comparative quantitative analysis of Greek orthographic transparency. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 9911008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rakhlin, N. V., Mourgues, C., Cardoso-Martins, C., Kornev, A. N., & Grigorenko, E. L. (2019). Orthographic processing is a key predictor of reading fluency in good and poor readers in a transparent orthography. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 56, 250261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.12.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasinski, T. V., Reutzel, D. R., Chard, D., & Linan-Thompson, S. (2012). Reading fluency. In Kamil, M. L., Pearson, P. D., Birr Moje, E., & Afflerbach, P. (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. IV, pp. 286319). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
R Core Team (2017). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/ Google Scholar
Schmalz, X., Marinus, E., Coltheart, M., & Castles, A. (2015). Getting to the bottom of orthographic depth. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 22, 16141629.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seymour, P. H., Aro, M., & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Share, D. L. (2008). On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an “outlier” orthography. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 584615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skibbe, L. E., Grimm, K. E., Bowles, R. P., & Morrison, F. J. (2012). Literacy growth in the academic year versus summer from preschool through second grade: Differential effects of schooling across four skills. Scientific Studies of Reading, 16, 141165. doi: 10.1080/10888438.2010.543446 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Speece, D., & Ritchey, K. D. (2005). A longitudinal study of the development of oral reading fluency in young children at risk for reading failure. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38, 387399.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2012). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.Google Scholar
Tafa, E., & Manolitsis, G. (2012). The literacy profile of Greek precocious readers: a follow-up study. Journal of Research in Reading, 35, 337352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobia, V., & Marzocchi, G. M. (2014). Predictors of reading fluency in Italian orthography: Evidence from a cross-sectional study of primary school students. Child Neuropsychology, 20, 449469.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., Rashotte, C. A., Burgess, S. R., & Hecht, S. A. (1997). Contributions of phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming ability to the growth of word-reading skills in second- to fifth-grade children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1, 161185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torppa, M., Eklund, K., van Bergen, E., & Lyytinen, H. (2015). Late-emerging and resolving dyslexia: A follow-up study from kindergarten to Grade 8. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43(7), 13891401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0003-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torppa, M., Niemi, P., Vasalampi, K., Poikkeus, A.-M., & Lerkkanen, M.-K. (2020). Leisure reading (but not any kind) and reading comprehension support each other—A longitudinal study across Grades 1 and 9. Child Development, 91, 876900. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vaessen, A., & Blomert, L. (2010). Long-term cognitive dynamics of fluent reading development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 105, 213231. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2009.11.005 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhoeven, L., & van Leeuwe, J. (2009). Modeling the growth of word decoding skills: Evidence from Dutch. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13, 205223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, A. K., Soumerai, S. B., Zhang, F., & Ross-Degnan, D. (2002). Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series studies in medication use research. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 27, 299309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia and skilled reading across languages: A psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zoccolotti, P., De Luca, M., Di Filippo, G., Judica, A., & Martelli, M. (2009). Reading development in an orthographically regular language: Effects of length, frequency, lexicality and global processing ability. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22, 10531079. doi: 10.1007/s11145-008-9144-8 CrossRefGoogle Scholar