This research consisted of two studies. The purpose of the first study was to examine the presence and quality of fidelity of implementation as reported in recent early reading intervention research. A comprehensive search of kindergarten through third-grade reading interventions published between the years 2005 and 2011 was conducted. Articles that met the inclusion search criteria were analyzed according to fidelity dimensions. Findings from the first study indicated an increase in fidelity reporting from 2001 to 2005. Few articles, however, analyzed the relationship between fidelity of implementation and student outcomes. While there has been an increase of early reading intervention studies reporting fidelity, there is a lack of studies reporting fidelity in relation to student outcomes. Many studies are reporting multiple dimensions of fidelity, but few studies assess the program differentiation dimension. The second study was an exploratory study focused on the fidelity dimension of program differentiation as applied to two early reading interventions from an experimental study. A fidelity observation instrument was created using evidence-based reading practices. The fidelity observation instrument was then used to evaluate instructional practices, teacher responsiveness, and student engagement of an experimental and comparison reading intervention at three time points to examine program differentiation. Latent constructs were created using exploratory factor analysis and were then used to compute an effect size called the achieved relative strength index, which is the difference between two experimental conditions. Findings from the exploratory factor analysis in the second study indicated items loaded onto three latent constructs: (a) instructional practices, (b) teacher responsiveness, and (c) student engagement. The instructional practice achieved relative strength index effect size was large for the experimental group. The achieved relative strength index effect size for both teacher responsiveness and student engagement was small, indicating little difference between the two conditions. The second study in this research endeavor addressed that gap by applying the achieved relative strength index effect size to an early reading intervention study and demonstrating one way to capture program differentiation. Finally, implications for future research were addressed as part of the study.

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The purpose of the present research was to examine the predictive validity of curriculum-embedded mastery-check measures (CEMs) for kindergarten students in Tier 2 intervention. Two studies examined the predictive validity, parsimony, and changing role of CEMs using a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Study 1 examined the ability of CEMs gathered throughout the kindergarten year to predict end-of-kindergarten latent reading outcomes. Study 2 examined the ability of kindergarten CEMs to predict end-of-first and end-of-second grade latent reading outcomes. Study 1 used SEM with two latent outcomes (i.e., phonemic and decoding) composed of diverse measures of early reading skills gathered at the end of kindergarten. Findings indicated moderate to large effects, as measured by variance explained, for CEMs on predicting phonemic and decoding outcomes. For CEMs gathered at four time points throughout the kindergarten year, a parsimonious set of subtests emerged. In addition, the role of CEMs changed throughout the year as predictors reaching statistical significance were increasingly difficult. Findings indicated that an increased amount of variance could be explained on the outcomes measures as the year progressed. Study 2 used one latent reading outcome factor gathered at the end of first and second grades. Findings for the end of first grade indicated that parsimonious sets of predictors from CEMs administered at three times during the kindergarten year predicted end-of-first grade outcomes. Additionally, the role of indicators changed during the year and the amount of variance explained increased from the first to third CEM. Results for the end of second grade indicated the variance explained on the outcome measure increased from the first CEM to the third CEM. When considering near-significant results, a pattern emerged demonstrating parsimonious subsets of indicators that changed during the kindergarten year. Findings from both studies provided support for the predictive validity of CEMs gathered during kindergarten for students in Tier 2 intervention. Results from both studies demonstrated statistically significant subsets of predictors that emerged and changed during the kindergarten year congruent with reading development, which can be useful for informing educational decisions.

Thesis (PhD (Education))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Given that schooling is compulsory and that the quality of literacy instruction that children receive in the primary years lays the foundation for the rest of formal learning, management and teachers are under strong pressure to ensure the improvement of literacy in schools. This study reports on a literacy intervention directed at improving literacy instruction for seventytwo English Additional Language (EAL) learners in grades one to four. The intervention aimed to help teachers maximise teaching time through a theoretically sound approach that balanced language experience, shared and guided reading and writing, and embedded phonics and word level instruction within the context of reading and writing. In doing so, the approach breaks with the traditional position still held by many teachers that learners must first be taught to sound out letters and read words before they can be taught to read and write. Daily features of the literacy programme included whole class shared reading and small group guided reading and writing. Whereas shared reading engaged learners in lively literacy experiences on challenging texts, small group guided reading enabled teachers to match instruction and texts more closely to individual learners' needs. During shared and guided reading sessions, teachers modelled behaviours and strategies on interesting texts, interacted with learners and provided direct instruction in phonics and word level work. Once a week, planned outings and practical activities created opportunities for developing the learners' language and extending their conceptual understandings.

The development of reading competency is one of the most significant pedagogical achievements during the first few years of schooling. Although most children learn to read successfully when exposed to reading instruction, up to 18% of children experience significant reading difficulty (Shaywitz, 1998). As a group, young children with speech impairment are at risk of reading impairment, with approximately 50% of these children demonstrating poor acquisition of early reading skills (Nathan, Stackhouse, Goulandris, & Snowling, 2004; Larivee & Catts, 1999). A number of variables contribute to reading outcomes for children with speech impairment including co-occurring language impairment, the nature and severity of their speech impairment as well as social and cultural influences. An area of research that has received increasing attention is understanding how access to the underlying sound structure or phonological representations of spoken words stored in long-term memory account for reading difficulties observed in children (Elbro, 1996; Fowler, 1991). Researchers have hypothesised that children with speech impairment may be at increased risk of reading disability due to deficits at the level of phonological representations (Bird, Bishop, & Freeman, 1995). Phonological representation deficits can manifest in poor performance on tasks that require children to think about the sound structure of words. Knowledge about the phonological components of words is commonly referred to as phonological awareness. Identifying and manipulating phonemes within words are examples of phonological awareness skills. Some children with speech impairment perform poorly on phonological awareness measures compared to children without speech difficulties (Bird et al., 1995; Carroll & Snowling, 2004; Rvachew, Ohberg, Grawburg, & Heyding, 2003). As performance on phonological awareness tasks is a strong predictor of early reading ability (Hogan, Catts, & Little, 2005), there is an important need to determine if children with speech impairment who demonstrate poor phonological awareness, have deficits at the level of phonological representations. This thesis reports a series of studies that investigated the relationship between phonological representations, phonological awareness, and word decoding ability in children with moderate to severe speech impairment. A child with complex communication needs (CCN) who used Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) was also examined to determine how the absence of effective articulation skills influences the development of phonological representations. The study employed a longitudinal design to compare the performance of nine children (aged 3:09-5:03 at initial assessment) with moderate to severe speech impairment and 17 children with typical speech development on novel assessment measures designed to determine characteristics of children's phonological representations. The tasks required children to judge the accuracy of spoken multisyllable words and newly learned nonwords. The relationships between performance on these tasks and measures of speech, phonological awareness and early print decoding were also examined. Four assessment trials were implemented at six-monthly intervals over an 18-month period. The first assessment trial was administered approximately 6 to12 months before children commenced school. The fourth trial was administered after children had completed 6 to 12 months of formal education. The child with CCN completed three assessment trials over a period of 16 months. Data analyses revealed that the children with speech impairment had significantly greater difficulty (p<0.01) judging mispronounced multisyllable words compared to their peers with typical speech development. As a group, children with speech impairment also demonstrated inferior performance on the judgment of mispronounced forms of newly learned nonwords (p<0.05). No group differences were observed on the judgment of correctly pronounced real and nonword stimuli. Significant group differences on speech production and phoneme segmentation tasks were identified at each assessment trial. Moderate to high correlations (i.e., r = 0.40 to 0.70) were also observed between performance on the phonological representation tasks and performance on phonological awareness and speech production measures at each trial across the study. Although no significant group differences were observed on the nonword decoding task, 4 of the 9 children with speech impairment could not decode any letters in nonwords (compared to only 1 child without speech impairment) at the final assessment trial when children were 6-years-old. Two children with speech impairment showed superior nonword decoding ability at trial 3 and 4. The within-group variability observed on the nonword decoding task highlighted the heterogeneity of children with speech impairment. The performances of four children with speech impairment with differing types of speech error patterns were analysed to investigate the role of phonological representations in their speech and phonological awareness development. The child with delayed speech development and excellent phonological awareness at trial 1, demonstrated superior phonological awareness and word decoding skills at age 6 years, although his performance on phonological representation tasks was inconsistent across trials. In contrast, a child with delayed development and poor early phonological awareness demonstrated weak performance on phonological representation, phonological awareness, and decoding at each successive assessment trial. The child with a high percentage of inconsistent speech error patterns generally demonstrated poor performance on phonological representation, phonological awareness and decoding measures at each of the 4 assessment trials. The child with consistent and unusual speech error patterns showed increasingly stronger performance on the phonological representation tasks and average performance on phonological awareness but limited word decoding ability at age 6. The 11-year-old girl with CCN, whose speech attempts were limited and unintelligible, demonstrated below average performance on phonological representation tasks, suggesting that an absence of articulatory feedback may negatively influence the development of well-specified phonological representations. This thesis provides evidence for the use of receptive tasks to identify differences in the phonological representations of children with and without speech impairment. The findings also provide support for the link between the representation of phonological information in long-term memory and children's speech production accuracy, phonological awareness and print decoding ability. The variable performance of some children with speech impairment and the child with cerebral palsy demonstrate the need to consider individual characteristics to develop an understanding of how children store and access speech sound information to assist their acquisition of early reading skills.

<p>My essay is about how teachers work with pupils who already are able to read and write when they start first grade. I have focused on the different ways teachers use, and if there are any differences in their teaching concerning those pupils who already know how to read and write. I discuss current research about which methods and different ways the teachers use. I have interviewed teachers in different schools about how their methods and their way of working are different when it comes to handling those pupils. My conclusion is that there is a big difference in the way teachers work when it comes to putting letters together for those who are able to read and write. Although, all teachers agreed on the necessity of letting all pupils, even those who know how to read and write, practice on writing letters.</p> / <p>Min uppsats behandlar hur lärarna arbetar med de barn som redan kan läsa och skriva när de kommer till första klass. Det jag har fokuserat på är vilka sätt som lärarna använder sig av vid undervisningen för de elever som redan kan läsa och skriva. Jag lyfter fram aktuell forskning om vilka metoder och arbetssätt lärare arbetar på. Jag har intervjuat lärare på olika skolor för att se om deras arbetssätt och metoder skiljer sig. I mitt resultat kom jag fram till att det är väldigt stor skillnad på lärarnas arbetssätt vid sammanljudningen då de lär de elever som redan kan läsa. Alla lärare anser dock samtidigt att elever ska träna på att skriva bokstäver även om de kan skriva.</p>

My essay is about how teachers work with pupils who already are able to read and write when they start first grade. I have focused on the different ways teachers use, and if there are any differences in their teaching concerning those pupils who already know how to read and write. I discuss current research about which methods and different ways the teachers use. I have interviewed teachers in different schools about how their methods and their way of working are different when it comes to handling those pupils. My conclusion is that there is a big difference in the way teachers work when it comes to putting letters together for those who are able to read and write. Although, all teachers agreed on the necessity of letting all pupils, even those who know how to read and write, practice on writing letters. / Min uppsats behandlar hur lärarna arbetar med de barn som redan kan läsa och skriva när de kommer till första klass. Det jag har fokuserat på är vilka sätt som lärarna använder sig av vid undervisningen för de elever som redan kan läsa och skriva. Jag lyfter fram aktuell forskning om vilka metoder och arbetssätt lärare arbetar på. Jag har intervjuat lärare på olika skolor för att se om deras arbetssätt och metoder skiljer sig. I mitt resultat kom jag fram till att det är väldigt stor skillnad på lärarnas arbetssätt vid sammanljudningen då de lär de elever som redan kan läsa. Alla lärare anser dock samtidigt att elever ska träna på att skriva bokstäver även om de kan skriva.

Sound-field amplification systems (SFA) have proven effective in overcoming classroom listening difficulties associated with noise, distance and reverberation. However, whether improving the classroom listening environment is sufficient to enhance young children’s learning in areas critical to early reading acquisition, such as awareness of the sound structure of spoken words (phonological awareness: PA), is unclear. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of an enhanced listening environment combined with PA intervention which aimed to specifically increase children’s PA compared to an enhanced listening environment alone. Participants were 38 children aged 5-6 years from two classes at a low-decile primary school. All children were hearing screened at baseline, pre- and post-intervention. PA, letter-sound knowledge, real and non-word decoding were measured three times over 10 weeks (Term 1) prior to SFA installation in both classrooms, as well as pre- and post-intervention. In Term 2, children in class 1 were randomly assigned to receive SFA and an eight-week class-based teacher-administered PA programme. Class 2 received SFA only. A significant learning effect for all children occurred during the first phase of the monitoring period. Yet, a plateau was reached for most children between assessment times two and three prior to intervention. Following intervention, class 1 demonstrated a significant difference compared to class 2 in one PA assessment. Other measures failed to show any differences between classes. Visual data analyses revealed particular (non-significant) improvements for poor readers in class 1. These children outperformed poor readers in class 2 on all measures. Teacher questionnaires indicated that children’s listening skills improved with SFA. The significant difference observed in one measure of PA between classes demonstrated that the combination of enhanced classroom acoustic environment and PA intervention actively improved PA development. The results of this study have implications for: (a) facilitating attention to sound structure, (b) optimal intervention for early PA development, (c) early reading acquisition in New Zealand classrooms, and, (d) the use of typical models of professional teacher development.

The development of reading competency is one of the most significant pedagogical achievements during the first few years of schooling. Although most children learn to read successfully when exposed to reading instruction, up to 18% of children experience significant reading difficulty (Shaywitz, 1998). As a group, young children with speech impairment are at risk of reading impairment, with approximately 50% of these children demonstrating poor acquisition of early reading skills (Nathan, Stackhouse, Goulandris, & Snowling, 2004; Larivee & Catts, 1999). A number of variables contribute to reading outcomes for children with speech impairment including co-occurring language impairment, the nature and severity of their speech impairment as well as social and cultural influences. An area of research that has received increasing attention is understanding how access to the underlying sound structure or phonological representations of spoken words stored in long-term memory account for reading difficulties observed in children (Elbro, 1996; Fowler, 1991). Researchers have hypothesised that children with speech impairment may be at increased risk of reading disability due to deficits at the level of phonological representations (Bird, Bishop, & Freeman, 1995). Phonological representation deficits can manifest in poor performance on tasks that require children to think about the sound structure of words. Knowledge about the phonological components of words is commonly referred to as phonological awareness. Identifying and manipulating phonemes within words are examples of phonological awareness skills. Some children with speech impairment perform poorly on phonological awareness measures compared to children without speech difficulties (Bird et al., 1995; Carroll & Snowling, 2004; Rvachew, Ohberg, Grawburg, & Heyding, 2003). As performance on phonological awareness tasks is a strong predictor of early reading ability (Hogan, Catts, & Little, 2005), there is an important need to determine if children with speech impairment who demonstrate poor phonological awareness, have deficits at the level of phonological representations. This thesis reports a series of studies that investigated the relationship between phonological representations, phonological awareness, and word decoding ability in children with moderate to severe speech impairment. A child with complex communication needs (CCN) who used Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) was also examined to determine how the absence of effective articulation skills influences the development of phonological representations. The study employed a longitudinal design to compare the performance of nine children (aged 3:09-5:03 at initial assessment) with moderate to severe speech impairment and 17 children with typical speech development on novel assessment measures designed to determine characteristics of children's phonological representations. The tasks required children to judge the accuracy of spoken multisyllable words and newly learned nonwords. The relationships between performance on these tasks and measures of speech, phonological awareness and early print decoding were also examined. Four assessment trials were implemented at six-monthly intervals over an 18-month period. The first assessment trial was administered approximately 6 to12 months before children commenced school. The fourth trial was administered after children had completed 6 to 12 months of formal education. The child with CCN completed three assessment trials over a period of 16 months. Data analyses revealed that the children with speech impairment had significantly greater difficulty (p<0.01) judging mispronounced multisyllable words compared to their peers with typical speech development. As a group, children with speech impairment also demonstrated inferior performance on the judgment of mispronounced forms of newly learned nonwords (p<0.05). No group differences were observed on the judgment of correctly pronounced real and nonword stimuli. Significant group differences on speech production and phoneme segmentation tasks were identified at each assessment trial. Moderate to high correlations (i.e., r = 0.40 to 0.70) were also observed between performance on the phonological representation tasks and performance on phonological awareness and speech production measures at each trial across the study. Although no significant group differences were observed on the nonword decoding task, 4 of the 9 children with speech impairment could not decode any letters in nonwords (compared to only 1 child without speech impairment) at the final assessment trial when children were 6-years-old. Two children with speech impairment showed superior nonword decoding ability at trial 3 and 4. The within-group variability observed on the nonword decoding task highlighted the heterogeneity of children with speech impairment. The performances of four children with speech impairment with differing types of speech error patterns were analysed to investigate the role of phonological representations in their speech and phonological awareness development. The child with delayed speech development and excellent phonological awareness at trial 1, demonstrated superior phonological awareness and word decoding skills at age 6 years, although his performance on phonological representation tasks was inconsistent across trials. In contrast, a child with delayed development and poor early phonological awareness demonstrated weak performance on phonological representation, phonological awareness, and decoding at each successive assessment trial. The child with a high percentage of inconsistent speech error patterns generally demonstrated poor performance on phonological representation, phonological awareness and decoding measures at each of the 4 assessment trials. The child with consistent and unusual speech error patterns showed increasingly stronger performance on the phonological representation tasks and average performance on phonological awareness but limited word decoding ability at age 6. The 11-year-old girl with CCN, whose speech attempts were limited and unintelligible, demonstrated below average performance on phonological representation tasks, suggesting that an absence of articulatory feedback may negatively influence the development of well-specified phonological representations. This thesis provides evidence for the use of receptive tasks to identify differences in the phonological representations of children with and without speech impairment. The findings also provide support for the link between the representation of phonological information in long-term memory and children's speech production accuracy, phonological awareness and print decoding ability. The variable performance of some children with speech impairment and the child with cerebral palsy demonstrate the need to consider individual characteristics to develop an understanding of how children store and access speech sound information to assist their acquisition of early reading skills.

High correlations exist for students who struggle with reading and math, and as a consequence, students who are poor readers tend to do poorly in mathematics. A few studies have investigated the longitudinal growth of the correlation between reading and mathematics. This dissertation outlines the investigation of the relation between reading foundational skills and growth in mathematics achievement for students at risk for reading difficulty and not at risk. This study used extant data from a second grade interim-benchmark reading assessment and a mathematics interim-benchmark for students in third through fifth grade. This study employed a staged approach for the latent growth curve model and discovered estimated differences of students with and without reading difficulties in relation to mathematics achievement. In addition, specific foundational skills were predictive of growth in mathematics for students with and without reading difficulties. The dissertation study developed a theory based on empirical research that early reading skills may lay the foundation for later mathematics achievement.