Title: Effects of Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming on Early Reading and Spelling in Brazilian Children: A longitudinal study
Abstract: Introduction. The development of strong literacy skills requires foundational skills, and literacy difficulties may arise if these skills are insufficiently developed. Among the significant predictors of early literacy skills are phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN). The predictive impact of these factors is modulated by variables like grade level, instructional methods, and the orthographic and linguistic characteristics of the language used for literacy education. Objectives. This study investigates the influence of PA and RAN on the literacy development of children in the process of learning to read and write in the Portuguese language. Methods. Eighty-three children (47% girls) were selected as participants from two private primary schools in Brazil, and they were monitored over a span of three consecutive school years. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine the stability of the RAN internal structure at each grade level and to identify potential measurement bias. Longitudinal path analysis was employed to explore the developmental relationships between PA, RAN and reading and spelling skills in Portuguese. Results. The findings showed that PA was a strong predictor of word-level reading, sentence-level reading, and spelling. Phonemic awareness emerged as the most reliable predictor of all three literacy abilities. RAN predicted word- and sentence-level reading: Both alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric components were found to be predictors of the literacy process, with the alphanumeric component exhibiting a more pronounced effect on word reading with advanced schooling. Conclusion. This study showed that both PA and RAN made important contributions to literacy development in Portuguese, with the alphanumeric of RAN component exhibiting a more pronounced effect on word reading with advancing schooling deferentially from the PA. However, the predictive power of these abilities varied depending on the grade level and specific literacy domain assessed.
Publication Year: 2024
Publication Date: 2024-02-23
Language: en
Type: preprint
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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