EARLY READING DEVELOPMENT

May  M.K. AWAIDA

This thesis consists of two studies: In the first study, 236 children, from 3 age groups 4,5 and 6, were tested for ability on 23 variables which measured ability in reading, spelling, vocabulary, short‑term memory, visual discrimination, fluency, phonological awareness, and performance on the Raven's Colored Matrices. Multiple regression was undertaken on these three groups to elucidate the variables determining reading performance in the second year of the study.

Results  showed  that  for  the '4‑5' group, ( tested at  4 years and then one year later )  per-formance on a visual discrimination and an alliteration test predicted later reading success. For the '5‑6' group, reading quotient at age 5, alliteraion, short‑term memory, SES, nonword reading and the initial sound test predicted reading success at age 6. Finally, for the '6‑7' group, reading quotient at age 6, nonword reading, fluency, gender and alliteration predicted reading success at age 7.

The second study investigated qualitative differences in normal readers relative to poor readers of the same reading age. Forty normal readers and 38 poor 9-year‑old readers were given tests similar to those used in the first study. The principal finding was that the poor readers were worse at reading pseudowords compared with the controls.

The results suggest that although there are no differences with reading­age controls in phonological processing, poor readers have worse grapheme‑phoneme conversion skills.

The results of both studies are mainly discussed in terms of the development of primary and secondary routes for reading.