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<p>Complex Word Processing in Teenage Poor Readers- Does Morphological Knowledge Help or Hinder?</p> <p>Abstract</p> <p>This longitudinal study addressed development of morphological awareness in fourteen-to-seventeen-year-olds reading disabled (RD) high school students enrolled in the Wilson Reading Program (Wilson, 1989). Our lexical decision experiment and reading fluency assessment took place in the first (session 1) and last months (session 2) of the school year that included training with morphologically complex English words. The lexical decision stimuli were composed of derived (<em>critical</em>), compound (<em>bathtub</em>) and pseudo-complex (<em>postpone</em>) words from the training program (trained words), matched complex words not in the training program (untrained words), and nonwords. Accuracy and response times were compared between sessions, and with a comparison group of age-matched typical readers. The RD group did not demonstrate large post-training gains in reading fluency, but, there were significant improvements in accuracy and speed in visual lexical decision. These improvements did not extend to auditory lexical decision, suggesting that the observed improvements in visual word recognition were a result of the training, and not a practice effect due to multiple testing sessions. Additionally, there was post-training improvement in both trained and untrained words implying that the RD students were able to generalize their acquired knowledge of grapheme-phoneme mappings and morphological processing to novel words. Both the RD and comparison group demonstrated the same hierarchy of accuracy and response time patterns for complex words suggest a processing advantage for visually presented derived and compound words that is not skill dependent.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers levels of training, perceptions of competence, and past and present practices regarding reading assessment for student with emotional and/or behavioural disorders (EBD). For the purpose of the study, EBD was defined as, a disability characterized by behavioural or emotional responses in school programs so different from appropriate age, cultural, or ethnic norms that they adversely affect educational performance, including academic, social, vocational or personal skills (Forness & Knitzer, 1992, p. 13). An adapted version of the survey entitled, A National Survey of the Training and Practice of School Psychologists in Reading Assessment and Intervention (Machek & Nelson, 2007) was distributed to approximately 200 teachers employed by a large urban school division in Western Canada. One hundred and seventy-five educators responded to a 24-question survey designed to explore teachers perceptions of reading instruction, intervention, and assessment for typically achieving students and students with EBD.<p> Descriptive analyses and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to examine the mean responses of teachers levels or training, perceptions of competence, and past and present reading assessment practices. Teachers with varied levels of teaching experience and specialized training were found to have received little training (university and professional development) in the area of reading instruction and reading assessment for students with EBD. Furthermore, educators believed they have a low level of expertise and confidence in the area of reading assessment and instruction, and believed they would benefit from additional training.

Phonological awareness (PA) can be defined as the ability to recognize that orthographic patterns represent specific phonemic elements of speech (Nitrouer, 1999). Alternatively, some view PA as a purely linguistic skill that involves the ability to recognize and manipulate specific speech sounds (e.g., Catts, 1991). A large body of research indicates the primary problem for children who do not learn to read is a deficit in PA (e.g., Morris et al., 1998; Stanovich, 1988). Far less work has examined what drives the development of PA (Metsala & Walley, 1998). Recently, it has been suggested that oral language skills influence the acquisition of PA (e.g., Dickinson, McCabe, Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg, & Poe, 2003; Olofsson & Niedersoe 1999). The primary purpose of this study was to examine the development of PA skills in children classified with a reading disability who evidenced either typical or below-average oral language skills based on measures of receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and listening comprehensions skills. In addition, this study examined whether differing conceptualizations of PA resulted in differential findings concerning the relationship between oral language skills and PA. Finally, this study examined the relationships that exist between different domains of language and different aspects of reading achievement. Elementary school age students participated in the study with 211 students receiving 70 hours of small group reading intervention. Sixty-eight students served as a control group. Children’s PA was assessed at three time points throughout the school year. Repeated measures ANCOVA and HLM analyses were conducted with letter sound knowledge and phonological processing skills as dependent variables. Students with below-average oral language skills evidenced significantly (p < .05) lower scores on both measures compared to students with typical oral language skills. Children with below-average oral language skills did not acquire PA skills at a significantly slower rate than children with typical oral language skills. Analyses also indicated that the relationship between oral language skills and PA skills remains consistent across different conceptualizations of PA. SEM analyses showed that receptive vocabulary and expressive vocabulary knowledge independently contributed to PA skills. Only expressive vocabulary knowledge entered into a relationship with word identification skills.

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers levels of training, perceptions of competence, and past and present practices regarding reading assessment for student with emotional and/or behavioural disorders (EBD). For the purpose of the study, EBD was defined as, a disability characterized by behavioural or emotional responses in school programs so different from appropriate age, cultural, or ethnic norms that they adversely affect educational performance, including academic, social, vocational or personal skills (Forness & Knitzer, 1992, p. 13). An adapted version of the survey entitled, A National Survey of the Training and Practice of School Psychologists in Reading Assessment and Intervention (Machek & Nelson, 2007) was distributed to approximately 200 teachers employed by a large urban school division in Western Canada. One hundred and seventy-five educators responded to a 24-question survey designed to explore teachers perceptions of reading instruction, intervention, and assessment for typically achieving students and students with EBD.<p> Descriptive analyses and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to examine the mean responses of teachers levels or training, perceptions of competence, and past and present reading assessment practices. Teachers with varied levels of teaching experience and specialized training were found to have received little training (university and professional development) in the area of reading instruction and reading assessment for students with EBD. Furthermore, educators believed they have a low level of expertise and confidence in the area of reading assessment and instruction, and believed they would benefit from additional training.

A computer-assisted language intervention program called Fast ForWord(R) (Scientific Learning Corporation, 1998) has received a great deal of attention over the past few years. The Scientific Learning Corporation claims that the use of Fast ForWord will improve students' language, reading and learning skills, leading to improved communication skills and increased self-esteem in and out of the classroom. Researchers have explored the effects of Fast ForWord training on reading and spoken language. However, little research has examined the effects on student's reading level and FFW scores when a reinforcement system is used in conjunction with FFW. This study was conducted in an effort to evaluate the effectiveness of a reinforcement system on increasing daily scores of students participating in the Fast ForWord Language Computer Program. An ABABAB reversal design was used to examine the effects of a reinforcement systems with six participants participating in the Fast Forword Language Program. Across the skills examined with the six participants, the results did not clearly demonstrate an effect for the reinforcement system. Implications for future research are discussed.

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