Phonological short-term memory and phonological awareness in students from the Elementary School

Reading-related abilities underlying phonological awareness: a cross-sectional study in children with and without dyslexia

PURPOSE

The present cross-sectional study examined the individual role of rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term memory (VSTM), and phonological verbal fluency (PVF) along with word reading performance in predicting phonological awareness (PA).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 225 Arabic speaking children from grades 2, 3, 4 and 5 took part in this study, divided into two groups of readers: typical developing readers and dyslexic readers. The participants were tested on word and pseudoword reading, phonological awareness, rapid naming, verbal short-term memory and phonological verbal fluency.

RESULTS

There are different predictive patterns between the two groups. Whereas Raven and Grade contributed directly in predicting PA in typical readers, VSTM and PVF directly predicted PA in children with dyslexia. However, word reading played a dual role in the both groups as direct predictors of PA, mediating the predictive relationships between PA and the other variables.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest the potential existence of an underlying phonological representation processing ability shared between PA, phonological access (RAN and PVF), VSTM, and word reading ability.

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the Roteiro de Avaliação da Consciência Fonológica, a phonological awareness test

Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate the evidence of construct validity of a phonological awareness instrument. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out on data collected from 510 elementary and middle school students in 2nd and 6th grades attending two different public schools in the city of São Paulo, Brazil; most were males with mean age of 8.4 years. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out on data collected from 427 students from other four Brazilian states in the same grades; most were females with mean age of 9.3 years. The instrument used was the Roteiro de Avaliação da Consciência Fonológica, a phonological awareness test. The exploratory factor analysis showed a three-factor solution. As for the confirmatory factor analysis, of the two models tested, the one that indicated better model fit indices was composed of three factors. The model found is adequate for the task carried out in this study. However, more studies should be carried out to further refine the instrument.

Working memory and phonological awareness in children with rolandic epilepsy

This study investigated how the difficulties in language in children with Rolandic Epilepsy (RE) could be related to alterations in their development of phonological awareness and/or working memory. We evaluated fourty-two children aged 6 to 13 years old. From these, twenty-one children were diagnosed with RE and formed the experimental group; and twenty-one children without RE, paired with the experimental group by sex, age, education and socioeconomic status, formed the control group. The results showed significant differences in the performances of children with RE and healthy children in the tests that evaluated working memory and phonological awareness. Also, positive and high significant correlations were found between working memory and phonological awareness in the RE clinical subgroup. Generally, the results suggest that compromises in both cognitive functions might be associated to loss of language capabilities in children with RE, and also point that the development of working memory and phonological awareness are interconnected.