Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur lärare och speciallärare i årskurserna 1–3 upplever att elever med lässvårigheters attityder och motivation till läsning påverkar deras läsutveckling. De forskningsfrågor som besvaras är: Vad upplever informanterna att elevernas attityder och motivation påverkas av?, Hur hanterar informanterna elevernas attityder och motivation till läsning? och på vilket sätt undervisar informanterna eleverna för att utveckla deras attityder och motivation till läsning? Den teoretiska utgångspunkten som studien intog var teorier om läsutveckling baserat på forskning. Studien utgick från Lundberg och Herrlins (2005) definition av de fem olika dimensionerna som eleverna behöver behärska för att anses som goda läsare. Forskningsmetoden som använts i studien utgick från teorin, teorier om det subjektiva, som är grunden för en fenomenografisk teoribildning. Materialet utgjordes av semistrukturerade intervjuer och de informanter som studien hade var strategiskt utvalda. Intervjuerna utgick från en intervjuguide och efter avslutad intervju transkriberades dem. Dessa transkriberingar analyserades med en tematisk analys. Det resultat som framkom utifrån intervjuerna är att samtliga informanter stött på olika grupper av läsattityder. En grupp utgör elever som anser att läsning är lustfyllt och därmed har positiva attityder till läsning och en grupp utgör de elever som anser läsning är mindre lustfyllt och därmed har negativa läsattityder. Informanterna anser också att föräldrarnas attityder till läsning påverkar elevernas läsattityder. Lärarna och speciallärarna hanterar elevernas läsattityder på olika sätt men samtliga informanter anser att det är viktigt att stötta eleverna i deras läsutveckling, för att minska risken att eleverna skapar negativa läsattityder. De har olika tillvägagångssätt i sin undervisning för att ta hänsyn till elevernas läsattityder. Samtliga informanter är däremot eniga om att elevernas läsattityder påverkar deras läsutveckling. / The purpose of the study is to study active teachers and special teachers 'experiences of how pupils with reading difficulties' read attitudes and motivation affects their reading development. The research questions that will be answered in the study are: What do the teachers describe that the involved pupils reading attitudes and motivation are influenced by and how do they mean that the pupils' attitudes affect their reading development? How do the teachers describe the way in which they handle the pupils’ reading attitudes? In what way do the teachers describe that they are teaching to affect pupils' attitudes for reading? The study is based on general theories of pupils’ reading development. This study will be based on Lundberg and Herrlins (2005) definition of the five different dimensions that pupils need to master in order to be considered as good readers. Theories on the subjective, in this respect phenomenological theory, provide the methodology of the study.  The material comprise of semi structured interviews and the candidates in the study were strategically selected. The interviews were based on an interview guide and after the interview, they were transcribed. These transcripts were analyzed by a thematic analysis. The results show that all candidates encounter diverse groups of attitudes to reading. One group constitutes pupils who think reading is fun and thus have a positive attitude to reading and one group constitutes those pupils who consider reading are less fun and thus have a negative attitude to reading. The candidates also consider that the attitudes of parents to reading influence the readings of pupils. Teachers and special teachers handle student readings in diverse ways, but all candidates consider it important to support pupils in their reading development, to reduce the risk of pupils creating negative readings. They also make different in their teachings to consider the pupils' readings. All candidates, on the other hand, agree that pupils' reading positions affect their reading development.

With over 765,000 English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students studying in the United States, a greater understanding of the academic requirements and demands these students face while studying in the US is needed. Some of the biggest challenges they face include the amount of reading required and the various tasks employed with academic reading. University reading tasks require more than an understanding of the text. These tasks place a strong emphasis on text comprehension, summary, synthesis, and critical analysis. This is problematic as students, especially ESL learners, lack experience with academic tasks, and many additionally struggle with low metacognitive awareness, limited or low reading fluency, limited vocabulary, and difficulty understanding text organization. This article will present a research-informed website, A Teacher's Guide to Academic Reading, designed for teachers preparing ESL learners for the demands and difficulties of university reading. A Teacher's Guide to Academic Reading specifically informs teachers of academic reading demands and provides resources to help their learners develop fluent reading skills, critical reading skills, and general academic skills.

Learning to read is a complex and demanding skill which is vital in order for children to be able to access a broad curriculum of learning within the school environment. Reading requires the integration of many different processes, it is possible that difficulties with one or more of these processes has the possibility to interfere with reading ability. The research aimed to investigate the presence and co-occurrence of difficulties across many factors thought to be involved in the reading process. Data were collected from 126 schoolchildren, aged 8-10 years on performance measures associated with reading; reading ability, visual sensory and oculomotor function, visual perception, attention, memory, phonological awareness and rapid naming. Differences in mean performance between different reading ability groups (ANOVA), and correlations between the variables studied, were used to investigate the presence and magnitude of any relationships. Many of the variables studied were found to be significantly different between reading ability groups and significantly correlated with reading ability to varying degrees. The analysis of multiple single-case studies determined that each child has a unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses and that many children including ‘average/above average’ readers, show below average performance on several measures included in the study, with affected skills rarely existing in isolation. Thus, it is recommended that an individualised multi-factorial approach is taken to the assessment of children struggling to read. This will require communication by a multi-professional team to ensure all possible contributing factors are explored to enable each child to achieve their potential. / College of Optometrist / Some material in this thesis is unavailable for copyright reasons.

Syftet med studien är att fördjupa kunskapen om hur lärare arbetar i sin matematikundervisning för att tillgodose olika varianter av lässvårigheter. En kvalitativ metod med hjälp av intervjuer har använts för att kunna presentera ett resultat. Forskningsfrågorna besvaras med hjälp av några huvudbegrepp från det sociokulturella perspektivet. De begrepp som huvudsakligen har benämnts i denna studie är mediering, proximal utvecklingszon och appropriering. I resultatet framkommer det hur lärare kan upptäcka lässvårigheter i matematik. Flerspråkighet, otillräcklig begreppsförståelse och bristande strategier är några av anledningarna till att eleverna är i lässvårigheter, vilket lärare oftast uppmärksammar vid textuppgifter i matematik. I resultatet redovisas även hur lärare arbetar med elever i lässvårigheter. Det gör de bland annat genom digitala verktyg och konkret material, exempelvis pengar, klossar och pizza. Slutsatsen av studien är att läraren behöver besitta kunskap om hur de kulturella verktygen ska användas för att ge eleverna möjlighet till att utvecklas inom textuppgifter i matematik. / The purpose of the study is to deepen the knowledge of how teachers work in their mathematics teaching to meet different variants of reading difficulties. A qualitative method with the help of interviews has been used to be able to present a result. The research questions are answered with the help of some main concepts from the sociocultural perspective. The concepts that have been mainly mentioned in this study are mediation, Zone of Proximal Development, and appropriation. The result shows how teachers can detect reading difficulties in mathematics. Multilingualism, insufficient conceptual understanding, and lack of strategies are some of the reasons why pupils have reading difficulties, which teachers often pay attention to when writing text assignments in mathematics. The results also report how teachers work with pupils with reading difficulties. They do this through digital tools and concrete materials, such as money, bricks, and, pizza. The conclusion of the study is that the teacher needs to possess knowledge of how the cultural tools should be used to give pupils the opportunity to develop in text assignments in mathematics.

No description available.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of an intervention that focuses on phonics, decoding, reading speed and phonological awareness for 8-9 year old children in reading difficulties. Participants were selected on the basis of screening test results in grade one (decoding and reading comprehension). The participants were divided into two groups, an intervention group (A1, n=10 children) and a control group (A2, n=10). A1 received 30 minutes of intense reading instruction every day for six weeks from special educational needs teachers on top of their usual classroom based reading instruction. The control group received only their usual classroom-based reading instruction. Both groups completed a pre-intervention test and a post-intervention test to determine the effect of the intervention. Both groups were tested for decoding, phonological awareness, letter/sound connection, RAN and reading speed. The results show that both groups increased their reading ability with A1 showing the bigger gain. The intervention had significant effect after six weeks training on decoding words and non-words, and a tendency to significance for reading speed. The findings highlight the importance of early structural phonological training to accomplish and strengthen children’s reading speed and decoding ability, especially for children in reading difficulties.

The thesis reports a follow-up study from eight years of age to adulthood for a group of students with dyslexic problems compared to a matched group of students without such problems. The empirical basis of the thesis is provided by the research project, Reading Development in Kronoberg, which has been supplemented by data from adulthood in the form of questionnaires, test results and interviews. The thesis comprises three studies. In Study I, the aim is to examine how reading and writing disabilities emerge during the first school years. The Simple View of Reading, was used to classify the poor readers into various subgroups. In Study II, the reading development of students with reading disability was examined at group and individual levels. The theme of Study III is a comparison of the living conditions of adults in a group of dyslexics compared to a group without difficulties, and to investigate how the participants in the study have tackled their problems. The results reveal a development pattern among dyslexic students, with early phonological problems persisting into adulthood in spite of substantial special education measures, in school Baseline performance at eight years of age is by far the best predictor of adult skills. No clearly discernible subgroups were found among the dyslexic students. The result profiles indicate a great variation among the participants, both regarding function and degree of impairment. Nevertheless, a number of students in the dyslexic groups have achieved surprisingly good word decoding abilities. In addition to the degree of impairment, factors such as reading development, the teaching of reading demands for reading and writing in adult life, and individual coping ability affect the outcome of the perceived difficulties. It is of the utmost importance that special needs education in the future be guided by a thorough assessment and follow-up program where manifest reading and writing skills as well as underlying cognitive functions are profiled. Moreover, intervention should follow evidence-based methods in order to prevent educational failure and social maladjustment among pupils. The thesis demonstrates that reading and writing disabilities have major consequences for educational achievement and working life outcomes, in addition to many other aspects of adult livelihood.

Olika språk har olika ortografiskt djup och svenska språket anses som ett mer ortografiskt ytligt (regelbundet) språk än engelska språket som anses vara mer ortografiskt djupt (oregelbundet). I Sverige studerar elever det främmande språket engelska från lågstadiet. Flertalet forskare menar att det kan finnas tvärspråkliga överföringar mellan en förmåga i modersmålet och samma förmåga i det främmande språket. Föreliggande studie syftade till att undersöka avkodning (ordläsning) på svenska och engelska hos elever med lässvårigheter och typiska läsare i årskurs fyra. I studien inkluderades 48 elever uppdelat på två grupper; 19 elever med lässvårigheter och 29 typiska läsare. Samtliga elever hade svenska som modersmål och eleverna med lässvårigheter hade specialundervisning för sina lässvårigheter. Eleverna genomförde sex avkodningstest, två av avkodningstesten var på engelska och hade en svensk motsvarighet. Eleverna fick även genomföra ett test för fonologisk medvetenhet samt fylla i en enkät om läsning. Resultaten visade att eleverna med lässvårigheter presterade signifikant sämre på samtliga test än de typiska läsarna. Enkäten om läsning visade en skillnad mellan hur grupperna skattat sig och eleverna med lässvårigheter hade även en viss insikt i sina svårigheter. Elever med lässvårigheter som hade avkodningssvårigheter på svensk ordläsning visade sig även ha avkodningssvårigheter på engelsk ordläsning och de elever som presterade bra på svensk avkodning presterade också bra på engelsk avkodning. Sammantaget tyder detta på att det finns vissa tvärspråkliga överföringar. / Different languages have different orthographic depth. The Swedish language is more shallow (regular) compared to the English language which is more orthographically deep (irregular). Swedish students start studying the foreign language English from primary school. Several researchers have found cross-linguistic transfers between an ability in the native language and the same ability in the foreign language. The present study aimed to investigate how pupils in fourth grade with reading difficulties and typical readers decode (word reading) in Swedish and English. 48 pupils were included in the study, divided into two groups: 19 pupils with reading difficulties and 29 typical readers. All of the students had Swedish as their native language and the students with reading difficulties had special education for their reading problems. The pupils conducted six tests of decoding, two of the tests were in English and had a Swedish counterpart. The pupils also conducted a test of phonological awareness and filled out a questionnaire about reading. The results showed that students with reading difficulties performed significantly poorer on all of the tests than the typical readers. The questionnaire about reading showed a difference between the groups and the questionnaire also showed that pupils with reading difficulties had insight in their reading problems. The pupils with reading difficulties who had decoding problems on word reading in Swedish also had decoding problems on word reading in the foreign language and those students who performed well on Swedish decoding also performed well on English decoding. Overall this means that there are some signs of cross-linguistic transfers.

I skolverkets rapporter framkommer att ca 15-20 % av eleverna inte klarar nationella proven i grundskolan. Varje år går även alltför många elever ut grundskolan utan behörighet till något av de nationella gymnasieprogrammen. Det finns ett behov av mer kunskap om vilka elever som riskerar att inte nå målen för att underlätta tidig identifiering. Läsförmåga och språkförståelse är några av de faktorer som i tidigare studier visat sig påverka utfallet i skolresultat. I den här studien undersöks hur lässvårigheter i tidiga skolår relaterar till språkförståelse, samt hur lässvårigheter och variationer i språkförståelsen påverkar skolresultaten i nationella proven i åk 3. I studien deltog 44 elever med positivt utfall i en screening av läsförståelse, avkodning och stavning i åk 2. Svag läsförståelse i åk 2 innebar en större risk för språkförståelsesvårigheter i åk 3. Elever med enbart avkodnings- eller stavningssvårigheter i åk 2 hade däremot en god språkförståelse i åk 3. Språkförståelsen visade i sin tur signifikanta samband med utfallet i läsförståelse i ämnesprovet i svenska och med 5 av 6 delprov i matematik i nationella proven i åk 3. En viktig implikation blir att inkludera även språkförståelse i arbetet med elever som har läsförståelsesvårigheter. Studiens resultat indikerar att det inte räcker med en bättre avkodningsförmåga för att uppnå en god läsförståelse. Det krävs även insatser för att främja ordförråd, grammatisk kompetens och förståelsestrategier på diskursnivå. En hög andel av eleverna som inte fick godkänt i delproven i svenska respektive matematik i åk 3 var identifierade i screeningen redan i åk 2. Det här indikerar att det är möjligt att använda en screening av läsförmågan i åk 2 för att identifiera vilka elever som riskerar att inte klara läroplanens mål. Samtidigt var det många elever med svag läs- och stavningsförmåga i åk 2 som ändå klarade nationella proven. Den här studiens resultat indikerar att det framförallt är eleverna med läsförståelsesvårigheter som riskerar att inte klara nationella proven, medan eleverna med enbart avkodnings- eller stavningssvårigheter klarar nationella proven betydligt bättre. Det behövs däremot fortsatta longitudinella studier för att klargöra i vilken mån de elever som klarade de nationella proven i åk 3 trots lässvårigheter även kommer att klara nationella prov och läroplanens mål på längre sikt. / Every year about 20% of the students in primary and secondary school do not reach the goals of the Swedish National Curriculum. A greater understanding of how reading difficulties relate to oral language skills, and how both reading and oral language skills contribute to educational outcome in the Swedish context is needed to improve early identification and intervention for students at risk of not achieving the goals of the Swedish national curriculum. This dissertation investigates how reading difficulties and oral language comprehension affect educational outcome in the year 3 Swedish national tests, and how reading difficulties in early primary school relate to phonological processing skills and oral language comprehension. The Simple View of Reading model was used to describe the participants’ reading difficulties. All year 2 students (N = 214) in two municipalities participated in an examination of reading comprehension, word-decoding and spelling. Sixty-six students with reading comprehension (z < –0.83), word-decoding skills (z < –0.71) and/or spelling skills (z < –0.58) in the lower end of the normal distribution were identified. Forty-four students agreed to participate in the study. Oral language skills, phonological processing, verbal memory, word-decoding, reading comprehension and non-verbal ability were examined in year 3. Forty-six to 66 per cent of the students with reading comprehension difficulties in year 2 were identified with difficulties in oral language comprehension (z ≤ –1.0) in year 3. None of the students with specific word-decoding difficulties had difficulties in oral language comprehension. Oral language comprehension was significantly correlated to the results in the year 3 Swedish national tests for the two tasks in reading comprehension (p < .01) in Swedish, and with five of six tasks in Mathematics (p < .01 in four tasks and p < .05 in one task). Rapid naming of visual objects also correlated significantly with four out of six tasks in Mathematics (p < .01). Non-verbal ability, word-decoding and reading comprehension in year 3 showed no significant relationship with outcome in the Swedish national tests. This dissertation shows the centrality of oral language comprehension skills for both reading comprehension and outcome in the Swedish national tests, and the importance of considering oral language comprehension both in assessment and in intervention when students show poor reading comprehension skills in early primary school.

Denna studie handlar om lässvårigheter och hur lärare arbetar i klassrummet för att upptäcka lässvårigheter samt åtgärda och förebygga problematiken. I en PISA-undersökning som gjordes 2012 framkommer att elever i Sverige förbättrat resultatet inom läsförståelse avsevärt sedan undersökningar som genomfördes mellan 2000-2012. Det är i första hand lågpresterande elever som står för resultatförbättringen. Också Lärarnas Riksförbund (2014) genomförde en undersökning gällande läsförmåga i grundskolan. I denna undersökning framkommer att 40% av lärarna i högstadiet upplever att eleverna inte har tillräcklig läsförmåga. För att kunna ge eleverna möjlighet att lyckas med läsinlärningen är det viktigt att lärare är medvetna om sitt arbetssätt för att eventuellt kunna förändra och förbättra sin undervisning för ett bättre resultat hos eleverna, samt vara uppmärksam på eventuella svårigheter. Studien bygger på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer av behöriga verksamma lärare som kontinuerligt undervisar i ämnet svenska och läsinlärning. Resultatet visar att respondenterna är relativt eniga i sina svar om hur de arbetar för att främja en gynnsam läsutveckling och arbetar för att upptäcka och förebygga lässvårigheter. Vidare att de anser högläsning vara gynnsamt för elevernas utveckling läsförståelse och ordförråd. Det är dock inte självklart att man tillräckligt snabbt får de hjälpmedel man som lärare anser sig behöva för att kunna stötta eleverna i deras läsutveckling. / This study is about reading difficulties and how teachers work in the classroom to detect reading difficulties and how to prevent and work pre-emptively with the problems. In a PISA survey done in 2012 it is evident that the results for Swedish students have greatly improved in reading comprehension since the survey was first done between the years 2000-2012. It is mainly low achieving students who show an improvement. Also, Lärarnas Riksförbund (2014) did a survey regarding reading comprehension in Primary and Secondary School. In this survey it says that 40% of teachers in Secondary School believe students do not have sufficient reading abilities. To give the students the opportunity to succeed, in learning how to read; it is important that the teachers are aware of how they teach to make changes and improve their techniques to achieve better results with the students, and in addition be mindful of any difficulties. The study is built upon six semi-structured interviews of competent professional teachers who continuously teach the subject Swedish as well as learning how to read. The result shows that the respondents are relatively unanimous in their responses on how they work to encourage a positive development in reading comprehension and how to detect and pre-emptively deal with reading difficulties. Furthermore, they think reading out loud is positive for the development of the students reading comprehension skills and for vocabulary. However, it is not certain that one will promptly receive the tools which as a teacher they deem necessary to support the students in their reading development.