Embora o papel da consciência fonológica na aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita em línguas alfabéticas já esteja bem estabelecido por uma grande quantidade de estudos, as relações entre as demais habilidades envolvidas no processamento fonológico (memória de trabalho fonológica e nomeação automatizada rápida) e o desempenho em leitura e escrita têm sido menos estudadas, havendo controvérsias sobre a contribuição específica e independente da memória de trabalho fonológica para o desempenho em leitura e escrita. Por outro lado, apesar de o desempenho em tarefas de nomeação automatizada rápida ter se mostrado relacionado às habilidades de leitura e escrita, encontram-se na literatura dúvidas sobre se essa relação estaria baseada no processamento de estímulos fonológicos ou no processamento de padrões visuais. Dessa maneira, o presente trabalho investigou a contribuição das habilidades de consciência fonológica, memória de trabalho fonológica, nomeação automatizada rápida e processamento visual para o desempenho em leitura e escrita de crianças em processo de alfabetização, analisando ainda a possível interação entre essas habilidades. Participaram desta pesquisa 50 crianças, de ambos os sexos, alunos de três classes de 3º Ano (2ª série) do Ensino Fundamental, de uma escola da rede pública de educação, localizada no interior do estado de São Paulo. Foram utilizados instrumentos padronizados para a avaliação das habilidades de leitura, escrita, consciência fonológica, memória de trabalho fonológica, nomeação automatizada rápida e processamento visual. Os dados foram analisados através de técnicas correlacionais e de análise de regressão, visando identificar a relação entre as variáveis estudadas e a contribuição das variáveis consideradas preditoras (consciência fonológica, memória de trabalho fonológica, nomeação automatizada rápida e processamento visual) sobre as habilidades de leitura e escrita da amostra estudada. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que, dentre as habilidades avaliadas, a consciência fonológica e a memória de trabalho fonológica são as que mais contribuem para o desempenho inicial em leitura e em escrita. Por outro lado, dentre as habilidades de nomeação automatizada rápida, apenas a nomeação de letras demonstrou correlação significativa com a leitura e a escrita. Por fim, não houve correlação das habilidades de leitura e escrita com o processamento visual. Resultados de uma análise fatorial exploratória sugerem ainda o agrupamento das variáveis preditoras em três fatores, relativamente independentes, sendo o primeiro formado pelas habilidades de memória fonológica e consciência fonológica, o segundo pelas habilidades de nomeação automatizada rápida e o terceiro pelo processamento visual, corroborando assim com os resultados de pesquisas que consideram a nomeação automatizada rápida como uma habilidade relativamente independente do processamento fonológico. Os resultados obtidos contribuem para a compreensão dos processos psicológicos envolvidos na aprendizagem da leitura e escrita, podendo oferecer subsídios para a elaboração de metodologias de alfabetização mais eficientes, tanto no que se refere ao âmbito do ensino, quanto à prevenção e remediação das dificuldades de aprendizagem. Suscitam também a necessidade de novas pesquisas para esclarecer melhor as relações entre os processos psicológicos envolvidos na nomeação seriada rápida e no processamento visual e as habilidades iniciais de leitura e escrita. / Although the role of phonological awareness in reading and writing learning in alphabetic languages is already well established by a lot of studies, the relationship among the other skills involved in phonological processing (phonological working memory and rapid automatized naming) and reading and writing performance have been less studied. There are controversies about the specific and independent contribution of phonological working memory for reading and writing performance. Moreover, although the performance in rapid naming tasks have been shown to be related to reading and writing skills, there are in the literature doubts about if this type of processing is mainly based on phonological stimuli processing or visual patterns processing. Thus, this study intended to investigate the contribution of phonological awareness, phonological working memory, rapid automatized naming and visual processing to the performance in reading and writing of children in the literacy process, still analyzing the possible interaction between those skills. Participated in this study 50 children of both sexes, students from three classes of 3rd Year (2nd series) of a public elementary school, located in the state of São Paulo. Standardized instruments were used for the assessment of reading, writing, phonological awareness, phonological working memory, rapid automatized naming and visual processing skills. Data were analyzed quantitatively through correlational techniques and regression analysis, to identify the relationship between the studied variables and the contribution of the variables considered predictors (phonological awareness, phonological working memory, rapid automatized naming and visual processing) on reading and writing skills of the sample. The results suggest that among the evaluated skills, phonological awareness and phonological working memory are those that contribute most to the initial performance in reading and writing. On the other hand, among the skills of rapid automatized naming, only the naming of letters showed significant correlation with reading and writing. Finally, there wasn´t correlation between reading or writing skills and visual processing. Results of an exploratory factor analysis also suggest the grouping of predictor variables on three factors, relatively independent, the first being formed by phonological working memory and phonological awareness skills, the second by rapid automatized naming skills and the third by the visual processing, supporting well the results of surveys that consider the rapid automatized naming as a relatively independent ability of phonological processing. The results contribute to the understanding of the psychological processes involved in reading and writing learning and can offer subsidies for the development of more efficient literacy methodologies, both with regard to teaching, as well the prevention and remediation of learning disabilities. They also raise the need of further research to clarify the relationship between the psychological processes involved in the rapid automatized naming and in the visual processing with regard to the initial skills of reading and writing.

A análise da literatura científica evidencia intenso esforço para se obter melhor entendimento de como ocorre a aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita e como é possível colaborar para essa aprendizagem, a partir da identificação das habilidades cognitivas e linguísticas subjacentes a ela. A perspectiva do letramento emergente considera a importância de um conjunto de habilidades linguísticas e de conhecimentos sobre a língua escrita, adquiridos pela criança no período compreendido entre o nascimento e o início do processo formal de alfabetização, os quais seriam precursores da aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita, destacando o papel da Educação Infantil no desenvolvimento destas habilidades e conhecimentos. Diante disto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo principal investigar se e quais habilidades de letramento emergente, apresentadas pelas crianças ao final da Ed. Infantil, contribuem significativamente e de modo independente para a aquisição da leitura e escrita durante o primeiro ano escolar. A metodologia utilizada seguiu um delineamento correlacional de caráter longitudinal. Para tanto, na primeira etapa da pesquisa, foram avaliadas as habilidades de letramento emergente de uma amostra de 41 crianças de duas turmas do último ano da Ed. Infantil (idade média de 5,84 anos). Os instrumentos utilizados foram testes padronizados de consciência fonológica, nomeação (vocabulário) e compreensão oral, além de uma prova de conhecimento de letras. Ao final do primeiro ano do Ensino Fundamental, foram reavaliadas 34 crianças da amostra anterior (idade média de 6,68 anos), através de testes padronizados de leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras, escrita de palavras e compreensão em leitura. Os dados foram analisados através de técnicas correlacionais e de análise de regressão, visando identificar a relação entre as variáveis estudadas e a contribuição das habilidades de letramento emergente para as habilidades de leitura, escrita e compreensão da amostra estudada. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que todas as habilidades de letramento emergente (consciência fonológica, conhecimento de letras, nomeação e compreensão oral) estavam correlacionadas e que estas também estavam correlacionadas com as variáveis dependentes (escrita, leitura de palavras e compreensão em leitura). As análises de regressão mostraram maior contribuição da consciência fonológica e conhecimento de letras para o desempenho em escrita e da consciência fonológica para o desempenho em leitura de palavras e para a compreensão em leitura. Conclui-se que os resultados obtidos permitem dar suporte à hipótese da importância do desenvolvimento das habilidades de letramento emergente na Ed. Infantil, a fim de favorecer a aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita no Ensino Fundamental. / The analysis of the scientific literature shows intense effort to obtain a better understanding of how reading and writing learning occurs and how it is possible to collaborate for this learning by identification of the cognitive and linguistic abilities underlying it. The emergent literacy perspective considers the importance of a set of linguistic skills and knowledges about press acquired by the child in the period between birth and the beginning of the formal literacy process, whose could promote literacy, highlighting the role of Early Childhood Education in the development of these skills and knowledges. In view of this, the main objective of this study was to investigate whether and what emergent literacy skills presented by the children at the end of the kindergarten contribute significantly and independently to the acquisition of reading and writing during the 1st grade of elementary school. The methodology used followed a correlational design of longitudinal features. To do so, in the first stage of the research, the emergent literacy skills were evaluated in a sample of 41 kindergarteners (mean age 5.84 years). The instruments used were standardized tests of phonological awareness, naming (vocabulary) and oral comprehension, as well as a proof of letter knowledge. At the end of the first year of elementary school, 34 children from the previous sample (mean age 6.68 years) were reassessed, through standardized tests of reading of words and pseudowords, writing of words and comprehension in reading. Data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis techniques to identify the relationship between the variables studied and the contribution of emergent literacy skills to the reading, writing and comprehension performance of the sample studied. The results indicated that all emergent literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, naming and oral comprehension) were correlated and that these were also correlated with the dependent variables (writing, reading of words and comprehension in reading). The results of the regression analysis showed a greater contribution of phonological awareness and letter knowledge to the performance of writing. Phonological awareness was also the most important predictor for the performance of reading words and reading comprehension. The obtained results allow us to support the hypothesis of the importance of the development of emergent literacy skills in kindergarten, in order to benefit the reading and writing learning in 1st grade of Elementary School.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2018-09-12T18:04:15Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017 - Helena Horvat de Farias Cesar.pdf: 3471223 bytes, checksum: 6d889a95cc8d6ac041268303f53a56f0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-12T18:04:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017 - Helena Horvat de Farias Cesar.pdf: 3471223 bytes, checksum: 6d889a95cc8d6ac041268303f53a56f0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-27 / CAPES / This study investigates a specific case of overcorrection in the writing of students in the final years of elementary school: the improper addition of the grapheme <r> in the position of a syllable coda, based on present study as ?erregrafismo?. Records were found in different grammatical classes, such as "you", "boy", "to be", among others. Overcorrection is an excessive search for correction, as the term itself indicates. The phenomenon is produced when the individual interprets as incorrect a correct form of the language, consequently ends up exchanging in another form that considers cultured. This is due to linguistic insecurity, since the rules of the standard have not been internalized yet. Therefore, the present research has as general aim to minimize the cases of hypercorrection of the so-called ?erregrafismo? in the position of a syllabic coda in the writing of students of a class of 9th grade elementary school, through a proposal of pedagogical intervention that assists in due representation orthographic in regular morphological-grammatical relations. In line with this main objective, the following specific objectives have been identified: 1) to identify the contexts in which so-called ?erregrafismo? occurs most frequently; 2) develop adequate strategies to minimize the phenomenon of hypercorrection studied in the proposed research, in the different contexts in which it manifests itself. The hypothesis that guides this work is that questions of phonological and morphological awareness addressed in the intervention proposal formulated for this research, contribute to the proper application of the grapheme <r> in final position of the word, thus minimizing cases of hypercorrection in writing of students of elementary school. The methodology used is anchored to action research according to Thiollent's (2011) thinking. From the analysis of data, it was concluded that some students, due to the lack of syllabic tone perception and word segmentation in syllables, initially had difficulties in performing some proposed exercises. However, in the course of the intervention, it was found that the activities of comparison of words, seeking to perceive the similarities and / or differences between them, allowed the learners to consolidate correspondences between sound units (phonemes) and graphic units (graphemes) Thus, in the learning of morphological-grammatical phonemic-grapheme regularities. Another relevant finding was that activities involving pseudowords showed that although they did not know some invented words, the students used morphological knowledge to write such words, thus showing the importance of morphological awareness in spelling. / Este estudo investiga um caso espec?fico de hipercorre??o na escrita de estudantes dos anos finais do ensino fundamental: o acr?scimo indevido do grafema <r> em posi??o de coda sil?bica, cunhado no presente estudo como erregrafismo. Foram encontrados registros em diferentes classes gramaticais, como, por exemplo, ?voc?r? (voc?), ?meninor? (menino), ?estar? (est?), entre outros. A hipercorre??o ? uma busca excessiva de corre??o, como o termo por si s? indica. O fen?meno ? produzido quando o indiv?duo interpreta como incorreta uma forma correta da l?ngua, consequentemente acaba trocando por uma outra forma que considera culta. Isso ocorre por inseguran?a lingu?stica, uma vez que as regras da norma-padr?o ainda n?o foram interiorizadas. Sendo assim, a presente pesquisa tem como objetivo geral minimizar os casos de hipercorre??o do chamado erregrafismo em posi??o de coda sil?bica na escrita de alunos de uma turma de 9? ano do Ensino Fundamental, por meio de uma proposta de interven??o pedag?gica que auxilie na devida representa??o ortogr?fica em rela??es regulares morfol?gico-gramaticais. Em conson?ncia com esse objetivo principal, t?m-se os seguintes objetivos espec?ficos: 1) identificar os contextos nos quais o chamado erregrafismo ocorre com mais frequ?ncia; 2) desenvolver estrat?gias adequadas ? minimiza??o do fen?meno de hipercorre??o estudado na pesquisa proposta, nos diferentes contextos nos quais ele se manifesta. A hip?tese que norteia este trabalho ? que quest?es de consci?ncias fonol?gica e morfol?gica abordadas na proposta de interven??o formuladas para esta pesquisa contribuem para a devida aplica??o do grafema <r> em posi??o final de voc?bulo, minimizando, dessa forma, casos de hipercorre??o na escrita de estudantes do EF. A metodologia utilizada est? ancorada ? pesquisa-a??o, segundo o pensamento de Thiollent (2011). Da an?lise de dados, concluiu-se que alguns alunos, por apresentarem lacunas na percep??o da tonicidade sil?bica e na segmenta??o da palavra em s?labas, inicialmente tiveram dificuldades em realizar alguns exerc?cios propostos. Entretanto, no decorrer da interven??o, constatou-se que atividades de compara??o de palavras, buscando perceber as semelhan?as e/ou diferen?as entre elas, fizeram com que os aprendizes consolidassem correspond?ncias entre unidades sonoras (fonemas) e unidades gr?ficas (grafemas1), auxiliando, assim na aprendizagem das regularidades fon?mico-graf?micas morfol?gico-gramaticais. Outra constata??o relevante foi que atividades envolvendo pseudopalavras mostraram que apesar de desconhecerem algumas palavras inventadas, os alunos lan?aram m?o de conhecimentos morfol?gicos para escreverem tais voc?bulos, mostrando dessa forma a import?ncia da consci?ncia morfol?gica na ortografia.

Le paradigme actuel de pleine participation sociale place la lecture en compétence fondamentale. Dans ce contexte, notre thèse cherche à comprendre le développement de la lecture dans la déficience intellectuelle et d’approcher des interrelations possibles entre les différents domaines cognitifs et la lecture. Notre étude longitudinale suit le développement de la lecture d’une trentaine d’enfants non-lecteurs bénéficiant d’un dispositif Ulis Ecole dans l’Académie de Rouen. Le protocole expérimental évalue la lecture et des compétences générales et spécifiques impliquées en lecture durant trois années scolaires. Pour comparaison, une trentaine d’enfants non-lecteurs ne présentant pas de déficience intellectuelle est évaluée avec le même protocole de la grande section au CE1.Les séquences développementales de la lecture observées mettent en évidence l’importance de la connaissance du nom et du son des lettres dans le développement de la lecture dans la déficience intellectuelle, tandis que les compétences phonologiques se développeraient en appui sur ces connaissances de la langue écrite. Toutefois, ces enfants peuvent présenter des profils de lecteurs en développement identiques à ceux d’enfants au développement typique. Ces résultats questionnent la définition et le développement de la conscience phonologique, ses interrelations avec la mémoire phonologique et son impact sur le niveau de lecture ultérieur. Les retombées sociales de notre recherche visent un changement de représentation du potentiel de développement de la lecture dans la déficience intellectuelle pour une école inclusive où les besoins doivent guider la réponse à l’intervention et non le diagnostic. / Today, full social participation paradigm places reading in fundamental competence. In this context, our thesis seeks to understand reading development in intellectual disability and to approach possible interrelations between different cognitive domains and reading. Our longitudinal study follows reading development of thirty non-reading children in Ulis School in Rouen Academy. The experimental protocol measures reading skills and general and specific skills involved to read during three school years. For comparison, 30 non-readers children without intellectual disability are evaluated with the same protocol from preschool third year to primary school second year. The developmental sequences of reading observed further highlight the importance of knowledge of the name and sound of letters in the development of reading in intellectual disability, while phonological skills would develop due to this written language knowledge. However, these children may have similar developing reader profiles to those of typically developing children. These results question the definition and development of phonological awareness, its interrelations with phonological memory and its impact on the future level of reading. The social benefits of our research aim to change the representation of the reading developmental potential in intellectual disability for an inclusive school where needs must guide the response to the intervention and not the diagnosis.

The Hispanic population within the United States has grown to a considerable amount. The state of Florida’s population is 25% Hispanic, with projected estimates of this population continuing to grow in the coming years (Ortman & Shin, 2011). Statistics show that 28.3% of the state’s population, over the age of five, speak a language other than English at home. With this considerable number of Spanish-speakers comes the responsibility to adjust certain educational practices to best meet their needs. Literacy is an essential part of learning, and therefore assessing early literacy is an essential part to any child’s academic development. Phonological awareness is the ability to manipulate and identify the phonological segments of a word (Blachman, Tangel, Ball, Black & Mcgraw, 1999). It is a strong predictor for early literacy abilities (Bradley & Bryant, 1983, Kozminsky & Kozminsky, 1995, Vandervelden & Siegel 1997). This relationship between phonological awareness and early literacy exists within the English language, and also within many other alphabetic languages such as Spanish (Anthony, Williams, McDonald, Corbitt-Shindler, Carlson, & Francis, 2006). Therefore, phonological awareness shares an important relationship to early literacy abilities for both English and Spanish speakers. There are many morphological, phonological, syntactical, and lexical subtleties that exist between varied dialects of the Spanish language. Vocabulary and lexicon use has been shown to positively influence phonological awareness skills in young children. Dialectical classifications of the participants were determined through use of different dialect specific vocabulary word list in the Linguistic and Cultural Background Survey. This study sought to evaluate whether dialectical differences among young Spanish-English bilinguals were associated with performance on measures of phonological awareness and reading. Twelve participants (children ages 3.17 years to 7.5 years and their parents participated in the study. Children completed a short form of the dynamic assessment of phonological awareness in Spanish (Loreti, 2015), the Letter-Word Identification of the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-Revised (WMLS-R; Woodcock et al., 2005), the Elision, Rapid Automatic Naming, and Letter Name/Letter Sound subtests from the Test of Phonological Sensitivity in Spanish (TOPSS; Brea et al., 2003) and the Preschool Language Scales, Fifth Edition Spanish Screening Test (PLS-5; Zimmerman et al., 2011). Parents completed a Linguistic and Cultural Background Survey designed to identify potential dialectical differences among the children. Results from the Linguistic and Cultural Background Survey indicated that all participants used the dialect consistent with Central America, and six additionally used lexical features of dialects outside of Central America. Consequently, children were categorized into either a Central group or a Central Plus group. The Central group indicated the use of words specific to the Central American dialect of Spanish. The Central Plus group indicated use of Central American dialect specific words, as well as words specific to Standard and Caribbean dialects of Spanish. These two groups were compared on the assessments of phonological awareness and early literacy. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences on any of the assessments between the dialect groups. Although the comparisons on the measures of Letter Word Identification Subtest and Letter Name Letter Sound subtest demonstrated medium effect sizes in favor of the Central plus another dialect group, and Rapid Automatic Naming demonstrated a medium effect in favor of the Central only group. Further investigation is needed to demonstrate these medium effects to a greater extent.

<p>I denna studie analyseras skriftspråksutvecklingen hos sex elever i riskzonen för läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Syftet med studien är att klarlägga vilken roll specialpedagogiska insatser spelar för elevers skrift-språkliga utveckling. Har innehållet i stödet någon betydelse för elevernas utveckling och vad händer när stödet uteblir? Studien fokuserar på tidig kontra sen identifiering av elevernas läs- och skrivsvårigheter samt påföljande insatser. I detta sammanhang analyseras också hur dessa insatser påverkar elevernas självförtroende och motivation för skolarbetet. Resultatet tyder på att det inte främst är tidpunkten för insatserna som är det mest betydelsefulla för en positiv utveckling, utan snarare innehållet i stödet. Det är det språkliga stödet, anpassat till elevernas specifika svårigheter och utvecklingsnivå, som är den avgörande faktorn. Detta stöd bygger på träning i fonologisk medvetenhet, korrela-tionen mellan fonem och grafem, uppbygg-nad av ordförrådet och utvecklande av effektiva lässtrategier. Tidpunkten för insatserna är inte generaliserbar utan beroende av problemets art och det enskilda barnets förutsättningar. Det framkommer i studien att det skedde en positiv utveckling av läs- och skrivförmågan i samtliga fall, oavsett om de var tidiga eller sena. Det skedde även en positiv social utveckling. De tre barnen som fick sena insatser fick emellertid genomgå en period med flera negativa följdverk-ningar, men så snart de språkliga insatserna kom till stånd vändes den negativa trenden och arbetsglädjen byggdes successivt upp. Specialundervisning, där språket inte spelar någon central roll, visade sig i denna studie inte ge någon större effekt. Resultaten från studien visar på ett övertygande sätt att det är av yttersta vikt att de barn som ligger i riskzonen för läs- och skrivsvårigheter får en omsorgsfull språklig utredning gjord till exempel av logoped. Elevens problem bör utredas i grunden så att rätt hjälp kan anvisas till varje enskild elev. Det måste också finnas en koppling mellan utredningen och de pedagogiska insatserna. Studien visar även att det är viktigt att det finns tillgång till pedagoger med ändamålsenlig kompetens för att uppnå önskvärt resultat. Mycket i denna studie tyder på att tidsmarginalerna är små i barnets tidiga utveckling. Man måste därför studera tidpunkten för insatserna mera specifikt i förhållande till barnets utvecklingsnivå och problemets art för att barnet ska få hjälp på rätt nivå så att läsinlärningen blir framgångsrik. Studien understryker betydelsen av meningsfullhet, god självbild, motivation och sammanhang för eleverna.</p><p>This study investigates the development of the reading and writing ability of six pupils in danger of developing reading and writing disabilities. The purpose is to investigate the effects of remedial teaching on their reading and writing abilities. How much does the contents of the teaching matter, and what happens when remedial teaching is not forthcoming? The focus is on comparing the consequences of early vs. late discovery of the disability, and of the ensuing measures taken. The self confidence and motivation of the pupils are also analysed in this context. My results imply that the content of the remedial teaching is of greater importance to a favourable development than an early discovery. The crucial factor is the adaptation of the linguistic support to the specific problems and developmental level of each individual pupil. The support consists in developing phonological awareness, phonem-graphem correlation, vocabulary and efficient reading strategies. As for the timing, no generalised conclusions can be made. The outcome is dependent on the nature of the problem, and of the preconditions and capacities of the individual child. The study shows that there was a positive development of the reading and writing ability in all six cases, regardless of whether the discovery of the disability was early or late. There was also a positive social development. In the three cases where the remedial teaching came late, the children went through a period that had several adverse consequences, but as soon as the supportive measures were initiated the negative trend was broken, and the joy of learning developed gradually. Remedial teaching where the focus was not primarily on linguistic development did, however, seem to have little effect. This study demonstrates clearly how vital it is that children in danger of developing reading and writing disabilities are carefully examined by, e.g., a speech therapist. Their individual problems must be thoroughly investigated, so that the supportive measures can be tailored to suit their needs. Hence, the examination must be closely linked to the pedagogical efforts. The study also shows that access to pedagogues with an adequate competence is crucial to the achievement of a favourable result. There are strong indications in this study that the time windows are quite narrow in the early development of a child. The timing of the remedial teaching must be more specifically studied, and related to the developmental level and specific problems of each individual child, in order to achieve an optimal reading development. This study emphasises the importance to the pupils of relevance, a positive self image, motivation and coherence.</p>

<p>The general aim of this thesis was to investigate phonological processing skills in dyslexic children and adults and their relation to speech perception. Dyslexia can be studied at various levels: at a biological, cognitive and an environmental level. This thesis mainly looks at environmental and cognitive factors. It is a commonly held view that dyslexia is related to problems with phonological processing, that is, dyslexics have problems dealing with the sound structure of language. The problem is for example seen in tasks where the individual has to manipulate sound segments in the spoken language, read non-words, rapidly name pictures and digits, keep verbal material in short-term memory, and categorize and discriminate sound contrasts in speech perception. To fully understand the dyslexic’s problems we have to investigate both children and adults since the problems might change during the lifespan as a result of changes in the language system and compensatory mechanisms in the poor reader. Research indicates that adult dyslexics can reach functional reading proficiency but still perform poorly on tasks of phonological processing. Even though they can manage many everyday reading situations problems often arise when adult dyslexics enter higher education. The phonological problems of dyslexics are believed to be related to the underlying phonological representations of the language. The phonological representations have been hypothesized to be weakly specified or indistinct and/or not enough segmented. Deviant phonological representations are believed to cause problems when the mapping of written language is to be made to the phonological representations of spoken language during reading acquisition. In Paper 1 adults’ phonological processing and reading habits were investigated in order to increase our understanding of how the reading problems develop into adulthood and what the social consequences are. The results showed that adult dyslexics remained impaired in their phonological processing and that they differed substantially from controls in their choices regarding higher education and also regarding reading habits. Paper 2 reviews research that has used the sine wave speech paradigm in studies of speech perception. The paper also gives a detailed description of how sine wave speech is made and how it can be characterized. Sine wave speech is a course grained description of natural speech lacking phonetic detail. In Paper 3 sine wave speech varying with regard to how much suprasegmental information it contains is employed. Results showed that dyslexics were poorer at identifying monosyllabic words but not disyllabic words and a sentence, plausibly because the dyslexics had problems identifying the phonetic information in monosyllabic words. Paper 4 tested dyslexics’ categorization performance of fricative-vowel syllables and the results showed that dyslexics were less consistent than controls in their categorization indicating poorer sensitivity to phonetic detail. In all the results of the thesis are in line with the phonological deficit hypothesis as revealed by adult data and the performance on task of speech perception. It is concluded that dyslexic children and adults seem to have less well specified phonological representations. </p>

<p>Phonological awareness is the ability to recognise, identify and manipulate components in words. Phonological awareness is an important part of the early literacy learning, although researchers disagree on how the connection arises. In the United Kingdom, synthetic phonics is a recommended way to teach literacy and the Jolly Phonics is a common approach within this method. In Sweden, mostly synthetic but also analytic methods are used for literacy teaching. The PhonicStick is developed as a communication device for impaired people and is based on the Jolly Phonics. In this study, the PhonicStick was being tested on children aged 5 and 6 years in mainstream pre-school classes to evaluate the use of it and its use for improvement of phonological awareness. The participating children were randomly divided into a test and a control group. All children were pre- and post-tested to analyse the possible improvement of parts of the phonological awareness. The test group went through three PhonicStick sessions, including different games and tests. The results from the pre- and post-tests of phonological awareness showed no significant differences between the test and control group. However, four out of five PhonicStick tests showed a significant improvement between session 1 and session 3. This shows that the children in the study were able to handle the PhonicStick after only three sessions, including remembering phonics the without visual information and producing words including two or three phonics.</p> / <p>Fonologisk medvetenhet är förmågan att känna igen, identifiera och manipulera komponenter i ord. Fonologisk medvetenhet är en viktig del av den tidiga läsinlärningen även om forskarna är oeniga om hur sambandet uppstår. I Storbritannien är Synthetic Phonics en rekommenderad metod vid läs- och skrivinlärning och Jolly Phonics är en vanlig strategi inom denna metod. I Sverige används framför allt syntetiska men även analytiska metoder vid läs- och skrivundervisning. The PhonicStick är utvecklad som ett kommunikationshjälpmedel för personer med funktionsnedsättning och baseras på Jolly Phonics. I den här studien testades the PhonicStick på 5- och 6-åriga barn i vanliga förskoleklasser för att utvärdera användningen av den och dess användning för förbättring av den fonologiska medvetenheten. De deltagande barnen delades slumpmässigt in i en test- och en kontrollgrupp. Alla barn pre- och posttestades för analys av eventuella förbättringar i delar av den fonologiska medvetenheten. Testgruppen genomgick tre PhonicStick-tillfällen som inkluderade olika lekar och tester. Resultaten från pre- och posttesten av fonologisk medvetenhet visade inte några signifikanta skillnader mellan test- och kontrollgruppen. Fyra av fem PhonicStick-tester visade dock en signifikant förbättring mellan tillfälle 1 och tillfälle 3. Detta visar att barnen i studien kunde hantera the PhonicStick efter bara tre tillfällen, genom att komma ihåg fonem utan visuell information och att producera ord med två eller tre fonem.</p>

The general aim of this thesis was to investigate phonological processing skills in dyslexic children and adults and their relation to speech perception. Dyslexia can be studied at various levels: at a biological, cognitive and an environmental level. This thesis mainly looks at environmental and cognitive factors. It is a commonly held view that dyslexia is related to problems with phonological processing, that is, dyslexics have problems dealing with the sound structure of language. The problem is for example seen in tasks where the individual has to manipulate sound segments in the spoken language, read non-words, rapidly name pictures and digits, keep verbal material in short-term memory, and categorize and discriminate sound contrasts in speech perception. To fully understand the dyslexic’s problems we have to investigate both children and adults since the problems might change during the lifespan as a result of changes in the language system and compensatory mechanisms in the poor reader. Research indicates that adult dyslexics can reach functional reading proficiency but still perform poorly on tasks of phonological processing. Even though they can manage many everyday reading situations problems often arise when adult dyslexics enter higher education. The phonological problems of dyslexics are believed to be related to the underlying phonological representations of the language. The phonological representations have been hypothesized to be weakly specified or indistinct and/or not enough segmented. Deviant phonological representations are believed to cause problems when the mapping of written language is to be made to the phonological representations of spoken language during reading acquisition. In Paper 1 adults’ phonological processing and reading habits were investigated in order to increase our understanding of how the reading problems develop into adulthood and what the social consequences are. The results showed that adult dyslexics remained impaired in their phonological processing and that they differed substantially from controls in their choices regarding higher education and also regarding reading habits. Paper 2 reviews research that has used the sine wave speech paradigm in studies of speech perception. The paper also gives a detailed description of how sine wave speech is made and how it can be characterized. Sine wave speech is a course grained description of natural speech lacking phonetic detail. In Paper 3 sine wave speech varying with regard to how much suprasegmental information it contains is employed. Results showed that dyslexics were poorer at identifying monosyllabic words but not disyllabic words and a sentence, plausibly because the dyslexics had problems identifying the phonetic information in monosyllabic words. Paper 4 tested dyslexics’ categorization performance of fricative-vowel syllables and the results showed that dyslexics were less consistent than controls in their categorization indicating poorer sensitivity to phonetic detail. In all the results of the thesis are in line with the phonological deficit hypothesis as revealed by adult data and the performance on task of speech perception. It is concluded that dyslexic children and adults seem to have less well specified phonological representations.

I denna studie analyseras skriftspråksutvecklingen hos sex elever i riskzonen för läs- och skrivsvårigheter. Syftet med studien är att klarlägga vilken roll specialpedagogiska insatser spelar för elevers skrift-språkliga utveckling. Har innehållet i stödet någon betydelse för elevernas utveckling och vad händer när stödet uteblir? Studien fokuserar på tidig kontra sen identifiering av elevernas läs- och skrivsvårigheter samt påföljande insatser. I detta sammanhang analyseras också hur dessa insatser påverkar elevernas självförtroende och motivation för skolarbetet. Resultatet tyder på att det inte främst är tidpunkten för insatserna som är det mest betydelsefulla för en positiv utveckling, utan snarare innehållet i stödet. Det är det språkliga stödet, anpassat till elevernas specifika svårigheter och utvecklingsnivå, som är den avgörande faktorn. Detta stöd bygger på träning i fonologisk medvetenhet, korrela-tionen mellan fonem och grafem, uppbygg-nad av ordförrådet och utvecklande av effektiva lässtrategier. Tidpunkten för insatserna är inte generaliserbar utan beroende av problemets art och det enskilda barnets förutsättningar. Det framkommer i studien att det skedde en positiv utveckling av läs- och skrivförmågan i samtliga fall, oavsett om de var tidiga eller sena. Det skedde även en positiv social utveckling. De tre barnen som fick sena insatser fick emellertid genomgå en period med flera negativa följdverk-ningar, men så snart de språkliga insatserna kom till stånd vändes den negativa trenden och arbetsglädjen byggdes successivt upp. Specialundervisning, där språket inte spelar någon central roll, visade sig i denna studie inte ge någon större effekt. Resultaten från studien visar på ett övertygande sätt att det är av yttersta vikt att de barn som ligger i riskzonen för läs- och skrivsvårigheter får en omsorgsfull språklig utredning gjord till exempel av logoped. Elevens problem bör utredas i grunden så att rätt hjälp kan anvisas till varje enskild elev. Det måste också finnas en koppling mellan utredningen och de pedagogiska insatserna. Studien visar även att det är viktigt att det finns tillgång till pedagoger med ändamålsenlig kompetens för att uppnå önskvärt resultat. Mycket i denna studie tyder på att tidsmarginalerna är små i barnets tidiga utveckling. Man måste därför studera tidpunkten för insatserna mera specifikt i förhållande till barnets utvecklingsnivå och problemets art för att barnet ska få hjälp på rätt nivå så att läsinlärningen blir framgångsrik. Studien understryker betydelsen av meningsfullhet, god självbild, motivation och sammanhang för eleverna. This study investigates the development of the reading and writing ability of six pupils in danger of developing reading and writing disabilities. The purpose is to investigate the effects of remedial teaching on their reading and writing abilities. How much does the contents of the teaching matter, and what happens when remedial teaching is not forthcoming? The focus is on comparing the consequences of early vs. late discovery of the disability, and of the ensuing measures taken. The self confidence and motivation of the pupils are also analysed in this context. My results imply that the content of the remedial teaching is of greater importance to a favourable development than an early discovery. The crucial factor is the adaptation of the linguistic support to the specific problems and developmental level of each individual pupil. The support consists in developing phonological awareness, phonem-graphem correlation, vocabulary and efficient reading strategies. As for the timing, no generalised conclusions can be made. The outcome is dependent on the nature of the problem, and of the preconditions and capacities of the individual child. The study shows that there was a positive development of the reading and writing ability in all six cases, regardless of whether the discovery of the disability was early or late. There was also a positive social development. In the three cases where the remedial teaching came late, the children went through a period that had several adverse consequences, but as soon as the supportive measures were initiated the negative trend was broken, and the joy of learning developed gradually. Remedial teaching where the focus was not primarily on linguistic development did, however, seem to have little effect. This study demonstrates clearly how vital it is that children in danger of developing reading and writing disabilities are carefully examined by, e.g., a speech therapist. Their individual problems must be thoroughly investigated, so that the supportive measures can be tailored to suit their needs. Hence, the examination must be closely linked to the pedagogical efforts. The study also shows that access to pedagogues with an adequate competence is crucial to the achievement of a favourable result. There are strong indications in this study that the time windows are quite narrow in the early development of a child. The timing of the remedial teaching must be more specifically studied, and related to the developmental level and specific problems of each individual child, in order to achieve an optimal reading development. This study emphasises the importance to the pupils of relevance, a positive self image, motivation and coherence.