Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4940012 | Learning and Individual Differences | 2017 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
A major goal in the early years of elementary school is learning to read, a process in which children show substantial individual differences. To shed light on the underlying processes of early literacy, this study investigates the interrelations among four known precursors to literacy: phonological short-term memory, vocabulary size, rhyme awareness, and trainability in the phonological specificity of lexical representations, by means of structural equation modelling, in a group of 101 4-year-old children. Trainability in lexical specificity was assessed by teaching children pairs of new phonologically-similar words. Standardized tests of receptive vocabulary, short-term memory, and rhyme awareness were used. The best-fitting model showed that trainability in lexical specificity partially mediated between short-term memory and both vocabulary size and rhyme awareness. These results demonstrate that individual differences in the ability to learn phonologically-similar new words are related to individual differences in vocabulary size and rhyme awareness.
Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities
Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Authors
Merel M. van Goch, Ludo Verhoeven, James M. McQueen,