Prova de Nomeação Rápida de Figuras para Crianças: Evidências de Validade e Normas Intragrupo

Early predictors of reading success in first grade

Reading acquisition is a complex process that can be predicted by several components which, in turn, can be affected by the orthography depth. This study aims to explore the early predictors of (un)success in reading acquisition within an intermediate transparent orthography. At the beginning of the school year, 119 European Portuguese-speaking first graders were assessed regarding (i) sociodemographic variables: mothers' education and socioeconomic status (SES); (ii) cognitive variables: phonological working memory and vocabulary; (iii) reading-related variables: letter-sound knowledge, phonemic awareness, and rapid naming. Results of the three variable clusters were correlated with the final classification obtained in the Portuguese discipline. Specifically, there was a correlation between the Portuguese discipline classification with all reading and cognitive-related variables, with the highest correlations occurring with mother education and letter spelling. A regression analysis was conducted to assess the predictor impact of mother education and letter spelling (variables that correlated stronger with the Portuguese classification) on Portuguese classifications. Letter spelling was the sole significant predictor of the Portuguese classification. Based on these results, a path analysis was run to test whether letter spelling is a mediator of the relationship between the mother's education and the Portuguese classification. The results of the model test yielded a reasonable fit, indicating a relationship between the mother's education and letter spelling, which in turn, relates to the Portuguese classification. The identification of reading predictors in an intermediate-depth orthography such as European Portuguese contributes to more accurate identification of at-risk children.

Bilingualism and Rapid Automatized Naming: effects of language switching on lexical access and reading speed

PURPOSE

To assess whether bilingualism, on a language switching experiment, is associated with higher or lower accuracy and speed of the rapid automatized naming of objects and investigate the influence of language switching on reading speed.

METHODS

The performance of 50 Brazilian bilingual children in the Rapid Automatized Naming Task, whose L1 was Brazilian Portuguese and who were exposed to English daily at school, was assessed. Forty-seven monolingual (Brazilian Portuguese) children were grouped according to age.

RESULTS

Language switching interfered with the performance of the bilingual children in the Rapid Automatized Naming Task in terms of speed and accuracy. No correlations were found between the performance in the RAN task and Reading Speed.

CONCLUSION

Brazilian bilingual students showed poor performance in the rapid naming task on the switch trial when compared to monolingual students, showing higher rates of mistakes, especially hesitations. Only the performance of bilingual students in the rapid naming task in L2 correlated with L1 reading speed.

Does self-correction in the Rapid Naming Test reflect cognitive and language performance in teens?

ABSTRACT Objective: to describe the occurrence of self-correction among adolescents in the rapid automatic naming test and the influence of schooling, type of visual stimulation and cognitive and language skills. Methods: 83 typical adolescents from 11 to 16 years old, enrolled from 6th to 9th grade of two public schools in Belo Horizonte participated in the study. The following tests were applied: rapid automatic naming, NEUPSILIN Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Instrument and Boston Naming. During rapid naming, substitutions and self-correction were accounted for. The variation in the number of errors, with and without self-correction, was related to schooling, functions and skills evaluated. Appropriate statistical tests were applied, adopting a significance level lower than 0.05. Results: individuals who made no mistakes had a better performance in attention, executive functions, memory, and vocabulary than those who made. Adolescents who performed self-correction were better at attention than those who did not correct themselves. Non-alphanumeric stimuli presented a higher occurrence of self-correction. Non-alphanumeric and alphanumeric tasks differed in terms of number of errors, both with and without self-correction. Adolescents from the early and late years of middle school differed regarding self-correction in the task of naming letters. Conclusion: self-correction was frequent in the evaluated sample and differentiated the group of adolescents who self-corrected or not, regarding attention, executive functions and vocabulary.