Background: There is a need for more well-controlled research on the relationship between vision and hearing limitations and emergent literacy to inform early literacy intervention. Two highly prevalent difficulties of early childhood, poor distance visual acuity and otitis media with effusion (OME), have been shown to be associated with literacy achievement. There is little research, however, on the relationship between these conditions and emergent literacy. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the relationships between (1) distance visual acuity and emergent letter name knowledge, and (2) OME status and emergent letter name knowledge in children at school entry. Method: A prospective cohort of children (N=298) was recruited at school entry. Participants were aged 5, did not require special education for high needs and spoke a nationally recognized language of New Zealand. Distance vision and tympanometry testing was performed and a parent report of OME was obtained. The Wechsler Individual Test of Letter Name Knowledge and the Vocabulary and Block Design sub-tests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were administered. Covariates of reading achievement were also measured. Results: Twenty three percent of children knew fewer than 4 letters at school entry, 31.9% had marginal distance visual acuity of 6/9 in one or both eyes and 37.2% had a history of ear infections and/or a B tympanometry test at school entry. Logistic regression tests demonstrated that both 6/9 vision (OR= 2.069, CI0.95=0.999-4.227) and OME status 10 (OR=1.846, CI0.95=1.034-3.297) were significantly associated with low letter name knowledge at school entry, controlling for covariates of emergent literacy. Another analysis showed that children with 6/9 vision and/or OME at school entry were also at greater risk for low letter knowledge (OR=2.187, CI0.95=1.067 – 4.484) than children with 6/6 vision and no OME at school entry. Conclusions: The results of the current study indicate that 6/9 distance vision and OME are risk factors for low letter name knowledge at school entry. These factors warrant greater consideration with regard to early literacy intervention, classroom teaching practices and future research.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-03-24T18:01:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 nataliacunha.pdf: 1318562 bytes, checksum: b9344d8571398b648a4fd99d8dbb9571 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-03-27T17:42:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 nataliacunha.pdf: 1318562 bytes, checksum: b9344d8571398b648a4fd99d8dbb9571 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-27T17:42:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 nataliacunha.pdf: 1318562 bytes, checksum: b9344d8571398b648a4fd99d8dbb9571 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-25 / Estudos realizados ao longo dos anos evidenciam a superioridade da abordagem preventiva, comparada à abordagem remediativa, para a promoção do desenvolvimento da leitura. Dentro desse cenário, o rastreamento da presença de risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura assume um papel preponderante. O presente estudo teve como objetivos principais avaliar a fidedignidade e a precisão de classificação do risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura de medidas que, consistentemente, se destacam como preditoras do desenvolvimento dessa habilidade: conhecimento do nome das letras (CNL) e nomeação seriada rápida (NSR). Foi objetivo do presente estudo, também, verificar se uma versão reduzida da tarefa de CNL teria uma precisão de classificação do risco de dificuldade de leitura similar à da versão completa. Para tanto, o estudo foi realizado com 213 crianças. As crianças realizaram as tarefas de NSR e de CNL quando se encontravam no último ano da educação infantil e a de leitura quando se encontravam no 1º ano do ensino fundamental. De uma forma geral, os resultados atestaram a boa fidedignidade das medidas (CNL 26 = 0,95; CNL 15 = 0,93; NSR de objetos: r = 0,71, p < 0,001; NSR de cores: r = 0,88, p < 0,001; NSR de números: r = 0,89, p < 0,001; NSR de letras: r = 0,82, p < 0,001), bem como evidenciaram que as mesmas podem ser usadas para rastrear a presença de risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura. / Studies conducted over the years have shown the superiority of the preventive approach, compared to the remediative approach, for the promotion of reading development. In this scenario, screening at risk / no risk reading difficulty assumes a leading role. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability and the classification accuracy of the risk / no risk for reading measures that consistently stand out as predictors of the development of this ability: letter name knowledge (LNK) and rapid automatized naming (RAN). Another aim of this study was to check whether a reduced version of the LNK measure could have a similar accuracy rather than a full version in a classification of reading difficulty risk. Therefore, this study tested 213 children. They performed the RAN and LNK measures during the last year of kindergarten and the reading task in the first grade of elementary school. In general, the results confirmed a good reliability of the measures (LNK 26 = 0,95; LNK 15 = 0,93; RAN objects: r = 0,71, p < 0,001; RAN colors: r = 0,88, p < 0,001; RAN numbers: r = 0,89, p < 0,001; RAN letters: r = 0,82, p < 0,001) and showed that they can be used for screening at risk / no risk reading difficulty.

The study examined the typical development of early literacy in a group of typically developing preschool Sepedi first language children residing in Atteridgeville, by determining their performance on a protocol of early literacy tasks. The following aspects were included: written language awareness, narrative abilities, phonological awareness, letter name knowledge, grapheme-phoneme correspondence and literacy motivation. The performance of the participants on the various tasks was used to describe the early literacy development of the target population and to identify relevant risk criteria that may indicate delayed early literacy development in the target population. The performance of participants on these tasks differed from those of other participants in local and international studies, which underscores the necessity of culturally sensitive procedures for identifying delays in the early literacy development of children. The influence of factors such as the mother’s level of education, gender, participants’ level of engagement in literacy activities and participants' current academic performance on the development of early literacy skills were also investigated. Based on the results as well as other indications from the literature, possible risk factors for delayed early literacy development for this group are listed. / Dissertation (M (Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

Cette thèse présente un ensemble d’études examinant l’influence de la connaissance du nom des lettres sur l’apprentissage et la connaissance du son des lettres. Deux études sont consacrées à la place de la connaissance de la forme des lettres dans la relation entre nom et son des lettres. Les études ont été menées auprès de prélecteurs francophones âgés de 3 à 6 ans et scolarisés en école maternelle. L’objectif de la première étude (Etude 1) était de décrire la connaissance du nom des lettres avec l’âge et d’identifier des facteurs d’apprentissage. Les résultats ont révélé une influence de la fréquence, du prénom, de l’ordre alphabétique, du type et de la structure du nom des lettres. Le nom des lettres de type èC ou VC (e.g., F, L…) ou non acrophonique était mieux connu que le nom des lettres de type Cé .ou CV (e.g., B, D…) ou de type MR (C, G…). L’étude 2 examine l’influence de la structure du nom des lettres sur la connaissance du nom et du son des lettres. Les résultats ont montré la même influence de la structure du nom des lettres sur la connaissance du nom que dans l’étude 1. L’influence de la structure du nom des lettres sur la connaissance du son des lettres est différente : le son des lettres de type Cé ou CV ou acrophoniques était mieux connu que le son des lettres èC ou VC et MR. Ces résultats suggèrent que le meilleur apprentissage du son des lettres de type Cé n’est pas dû à une familiarité générale. Le chapitre 3 de la thèse présente une étude qui examine l’effet de facilitation nom-son. Le son des lettres a été enseigné systématiquement à des enfants qui se distinguaient par leur connaissance du nom des lettres. Les enfants connaisseurs du nom des lettres apprenaient plus facilement le son des lettres que les enfants non connaisseurs du nom. Un effet de la structure du nom des lettres chez les enfants connaisseur du nom montrait que le son des lettres dont le nom contient le son de la lettre (CV et VC) était mieux appris que le son des lettres dont le nom ne contient pas le son de la lettre (MR). La connaissance du nom des lettres et la conscience phonologique contribuaient à une part de variance spécifique de l’apprentissage du son des lettres, avec une contribution supérieure de la connaissance du nom des lettres. Les études du chapitre 4 examinent le développement de la sensibilité au son des lettres à partir de la connaissance du nom des lettres dans des tâches d’identification de syllabes (Etude 4), de lettres (Etude 5) et de phonèmes (Etude 6). Les enfants identifiaient au-delà du hasard les syllabes, lettres et phonèmes. Un effet de la structure du nom des lettres est apparu : les lettres dont le son est relié au nom (CV et VC) étaient mieux identifiées que les lettres dont le son n’est pas ou pas clairement relié au nom (MR). Le chapitre 5 (Etude 7) explore les liens entre connaissance du nom des lettres et connaissance de la forme des lettres à partir de tâches de catégorisation de lettres, de discrimination de la forme des lettres et de reconnaissance immédiate des lettres. Les enfants connaisseurs du nom des lettres étaient également de meilleurs connaisseurs de la forme des lettres. Ils catégorisaient, discriminaient et reconnaissaient mieux et plus vite les formes de lettre que les enfants non connaisseurs du nom. Enfin, le dernier chapitre présente une étude expérimentale (Etude 8) qui examine l’influence de la connaissance préalable de la forme des lettres sur l’apprentissage du nom et du son des lettres. L’étude n’a pas révélé d’influence de la connaissance préalable de la forme des lettres sur l’apprentissage des associations forme-nom et forme-son. L’ensemble des études apporte des informations originales sur l’effet de facilitation nom-son et sur l’influence de la connaissance de la forme des lettres au sein de cette relation. / This thesis introduces studies which examined the influence of letter-name knowledge to letter-sound knowledge and learning. Two studies were designed to examine the role of letter-shape knowledge in the relation between letter-name and letter-sound. These studies were conducted with French prereaders aged from 3 to 6 years old. The aim of the first study (Study 1) was to describe letter-name knowledge and to identify learning factors. Results revealed an influence of letter frequency, of first name, of alphabetical order and of letter-name structure. Letter names of èC or VC (e.g., F, L…) which correspond to non-acrophonic letter-name structure, were better known than letter-name of Cé or CV (e.g., B, D) or MR (C, G…). Study 2 examined the influence of letter-name structure to letter-name and letter-sound knowledge. Results showed the same influence of letter-name structure on letter-name knowledge as in Study 1. The influence of letter-name structure was different on letter-sound knowledge: The sounds of Cé or CV, or acrophonic letter-name structure, were better known than the sounds of èC or VC and MR letter-name structure. These results suggest that the learning of Cé sounds is not due to general familiarity. Chapter 3 introduces a study that examined the name-to-sound facilitation effect. Children differing in their letter-name knowledge were systematically taught letter-sound. Children with letter-name knowledge learned more easily letter sounds than did children with no letter-name knowledge. A letter-name structure effect was found for children with letter-name knowledge , indicating that the sound of CV and VC letter-name structure was better learned than the sound of MR letter-name structure. Letter-name knowledge and phonological awareness contributed to a specific part of variance in letter-sound learning, with a higher contribution of letter-name knowledge. The studies of chapter 4 examined the development of letter-sound sensitivity from letter-name knowledge using syllable identification (Study 4), letter identification (Study 5) and phoneme identification tasks (Study 6). Syllables, letters and phonemes were identified beyond chance level by children. A letter-name structure effect appeared: CV and VC letters were better identified than MR letters. Chapter 5 (Study 7) explored the links between letter-name knowledge and letter-shape knowledge using letter categorization tasks, letter-shape discrimination tasks and letter immediate recognition tasks. Children with letter-name knowledge had the best letter-shape knowledge. They categorized, discriminated and recognized shapes more exactly and more rapidly than did children with no letter-name knowledge. Finally, the last chapter introduced an experimental study (Study 8) designed to examine the influence of prior letter-shape knowledge on both letter-name and letter-sound learning. This study revealed no influence of prior letter-shape knowledge on either letter-name learning or letter-sound learning. As a whole, these studies provide new information concerning the name-to-sound facilitation effect and the influence of letter-shape knowledge in this relation.