Pernilla Soderberg Juhlander (Linnaeus University)Ake Olofsson - Gavle University and Umea University - Spelling development during the first year of school. Purpose: To provide a detailed description of the development of spelling during the first year of schooling, and a comparison of the development of decoding and spelling. Method: One year longitudinal study of the first year of reading development in 35 seven year old Swedish children. Word decoding and letter knowledge was assessed with a computer based procedure and spelling was measured with paper and pencil tasks. The word material consisted of; (a) very familiar (content and functor) mono syllable simple words; (b) complex words which occur with high frequency in the early stages of children's reading schemes; (c) simple one-syllable pseudowords and (d) two-syllable pseudowords. Assessment of letter knowledge and phonological awareness was done prior to school entry. Results: The children had problems spelling words containing orthographic complexities, bi-syllabic nonwords were a bit easier to spell. The best result was found for simple words and for mono syllabic nonwords. Simple words and mono syllabic nonwords were relatively easier to spell than to read. On the contrary, complex words and bi-syllabic words were easier to read than to spell. Conclusions: When learning to read and spell, in the Swedish orthography, the beginning readers frequently encounter simple and short (mono syllabic) words. This may give the impression that spelling is easier than reading. This impression is reinforced by the phenomenon that it is often easier to interpret a misspelled word than a misread one. The pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

In many European countries the number of dyslexic students entering higher education is increasing. The present study focuses on how university institutions and teachers are affected by students with dyslexia, the type of support offered by the higher education institutions and the strategies used by the students with these problems. Results from interviews and self-reports of 30 university students and 25 lecturers from 3 Swedish universities showed that the students use both compensation methods offered by the institutions and personal strategies. The results indicated that there are significant knowledge gaps in the educational institutions regarding students who have dyslexia.

Purpose. To provide a detailed description of the development of word recognition during the first year of schooling, with respect to processing speed and decoding accuracy. Method. One year longitudinal study of the first year of reading development in 35 seven year old Swedish children. The study used a computer based measurement procedure with four waves of repeated measurement of reading aloud of single words. The accuracy of word decoding was recorded and analyzed with respect to errors and decoding strategies. Reaction and process times were recorded for reading as well as for rapid naming and letter knowledge. The word material consisted of; (a) very familiar (content and functor) mono syllable simple words; (b) complex words which occur with high frequency in the early stages of children's reading schemes; (c) simple one-syllable pseudowords and (d) two-syllable pseudowords. Also a short spelling task was used. Assessment of letter knowledge and phonological awareness was done prior to school entry. Results. The results show a rapid reading development for practically all children and clear evidence for code oriented and phonologically based decoding strategies. At the first three timepoints monosyllable pseudo words were read more correct than simple words. The development of decoding speed was preceded by an increase in accuracy. Conclusions. When learning to read, in the Swedish orthography, the beginning readers rely on phonological skills and letter knowledge rather than using any holistic strategy. The results give no support to the claim of an initial logographic strategy in reading acquisition.

Begreppet fonologisk medvetenhet har sedan 1970-talet varit centralt inom så gott som alla läsforskningens områden. Detta kapitel ger en beskrivning av begreppets bakgrund och innebörd med avseende på både teori och praktik. Begreppet har en relativt modern historia och ett nära släktskap med lingvistik och kognitionspsykologi. Först redogörs för begreppets lingvistiska sida och därefter för dess relation till barns tänkande (kognitiv utveckling). Sedan beskrivs hur begreppet omsätts i praktiken, i form av språklekar och övningar med barn, och hur det hänger ihop med skrift och barns läsutveckling.

The present paper reports some observations on pre-school children’s spontaneous as well as adult-supported spelling behaviour and makes comparisons between aspects of these early literacy activities and some features of spellings from mostly twelfth- to fourteenth-century Norwegian runic inscriptions. The runic inscriptions originate from a post-Viking time period where formal schooling was rare and exclusively based on the Latin alphabet. It is argued that runic literacy was serving several important functions in the society and that runic literacy skill was learned in an everyday sociocultural context and that this learning process in a critical way was supported by one major artefact – the runic alphabet itself. It is concluded that there are fundamental similarities between the learning activities among the children of today and the thirteenth-century self-supported print explorer. The basic commonality is alphabetical knowledge and it is concluded that primary knowledge of the actual alphabet is, and has always been, essential for the initial stage of reading acquisition.

The present longitudinal study investigated the relationship between pre-school semantic skills (vocabulary, comprehension and sentence construction), phonological awareness and later word decoding and reading comprehension skills. More than 200 Danish children were followed from a speech therapist screening at the age of three, through a phonological group screening at six, word decoding tests in Grade 2, sentence reading tests in Grades 3, 4, and 6, and to a text reading test in Grade 9 (age 16). The predictor variables consisted of both standardized test results, professional ratings, and a factor of interest in books.The results showed that both the semantic variables and interest in books at the age of three and the phonological variables at the age of six predicted reading development significantly at the age of 16. In addition the results demonstrated changing main effect from semantic and phonological variables on reading development. Phonological awareness at the age of 6 seemed to have the greatest influence on reading at the beginning of Grade 2 compared to the semantic variables at the age of three. On all other measures in time, the semantic variables had the greatest influence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

In this study, we show that the benefits of phonological training upon reading skills, aptly demonstrated by Lundberg, Frost, and Petersen (Reading Res. Q., 23 (1988) 263), can be obtained even in less favourable conditions featuring a smaller dose of training in a kindergarten culture impregnated by knowledge of phonological awareness and reading. As a consequence, the control group in the present study demonstrated vastly better pre-school reading skills than the one in Lundberg et al. (1988). One experimental group received a training dose of only 60% of that administered by Lundberg et al. (1988). The results replicated those of Lundberg et al. (1988) even for the group with a 60% training dose. A significant gain in word reading was maintained until the end of grade 2 both for mainstream pupils and children-at-risk. A spelling gain was observed only for children-at-risk in grade 2. It is suggested that training must be strictly systematic in order to be effective. The results are discussed in terms of metacognitive insights into reading that are gained through training in phonological awareness.