There is a growing body of evidence linking poor working memory skills, particularly central executive functioning, with lower levels of cognitive attainment throughout the school years. Although the role of the phonological loop in reading development has been well established, there is less agreement as to the role of the central executive. Research suggests that the central executive develops through the early school years as children learn to read, and that this is crucial to the development of fluent word reading. It is also suggested that central executive skills may fail to develop effectively in dyslexic children. The longitudinal study reported here examines the development of working memory and central executive skills in relation to cognitive attainment in the early years of schooling. Children were screened in their Reception year at four/five years old using a dyslexia screening test and a phonological abilities test, and were allocated to one of three groups according to their risk of reading difficulties (At Risk, Middle, Not At Risk). The groups were matched for age. Assessment in school Years 1, 2 and 3 included measures of reading, spelling and mathematics, working memory and central executive functioning. Results indicate that those children showing the greatest number of indicators for dyslexia are falling behind in their cognitive attainment by the age of five to six, and that the At Risk group score significantly lower than the other groups on measures of central executive fbnctioning, especially inhibition. These differences remain significant when non-verbal intelligence, memory capacity and processing speed are controlled for. Further results using standardized working memory tests and experimental data support these conclusions. Examination of teacher ADHD ratings suggests that working memory deficits are identified as attentional problems. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and educational practice.

The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine the contribution of phonological, morphological and dialect awareness to the prediction of reading and spelling in a Greek bi-dialectal setting. The target group (N=404) consisted of children, aged 6 to 9 years at the start of the project, who learn literacy in Cyprus, where a dialect is spoken in certain contexts but where Standard Modern Greek is also widely used. At present there are few studies with Greek Cypriot children on how phonological, morphological and dialect awareness relates to reading and spelling. Because there are no standardised measures of phonological, morphological and dialect awareness with Greek Cypriot children, measures of these factors were developed during the pilot study and their internal consistency was assessed. With the larger sample the measures were validated by examining their construct validity. The first wave of data collection showed that morphological and dialect awareness make unique contribution to the prediction of reading and spelling in Greek. The second wave of data collection showed that the measures of morphological and dialect awareness predicted performance in reading and spelling eight months later, even partialling out grade level, estimation of verbal intelligence and initial scores in reading and spelling. A model with dialect awareness as a mediator between phonological and morphological awareness and reading and spelling fitted the data better than a model with phonological or morphological awareness as mediators, and hence, phonological awareness and morphological awareness help children to become aware of the differences between their dialect and the standard variety, and dialect awareness in turn facilitates reading and spelling. Cross-lagged correlations showed that the more experience children have with reading and spelling, the more likely they are to develop morphological and dialect awareness. This study makes theoretical, empirical and practical educational contributions. The established mediational model contributes to the theoretical knowledge of the connection between dialect awareness and phonological and morphological awareness and reading and spelling while the longitudinal study contributes to theory the long term relation of morphological and dialect awareness with reading and spelling in Greek. Empirically, the study established the plausibility of a causal link between morphological and dialect awareness and reading and spelling, which must be tested in further research using intervention methods. In practice, this study contributes valid measures for assessing morphological and dialect awareness in the Greek Cypriot setting.