The aim of this study was to establish the extent to which rapid automatized naming (RAN) and non-word repetition (NWR) tasks predict reading fluency and reading accuracy in Urdu. One hundred sixty (8–9 years) children attending two types of schools (Urdu and English medium schools) were distributed into two groups, a control and a reading disability group on the basis of teacher’s report. The results confirmed the role of RAN in predicting reading fluency in both groups. The role of NWR as a predictor of accuracy was also confirmed, although the strength of the relationship was modulated by RAN in the reading disability group. There are no tests available to identify children with reading problems in Urdu. Our study supports the validity of NWR and RAN tasks for the purposes of screening for reading deficits. The performance results also confirm the original grouping based on teacher reports. The study further highlights the importance of medium of instruction and increased oral language input in learning to read. © 2014 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Key MessagesReliability of teacher reports in screening for reading difficulties in the classroom.Appropriateness of non-word repetition and rapid automatized naming tasks for establishing reading problems in Urdu.School type and exposure to instruction influences reading skills.

Phonological awareness can predict reading skills in typical readers (Bradly & Bryant, 1983; Stahl & Murray, 1994) and can distinguish between typical reading and reading deficit in alphabetic languages (Snowling, 1981; Stanovich & Siegel, 1994; Bryant et al., 1990). Yet the nature of phonological awareness and the causal link between phonological awareness and reading skill are subject to debate (Harm & Seidenberg, 1999; Castles & Coltheart, 2004; Blomert & Willems, 2010). Phonological awareness is often defined as sensitivity to the phonological structure of language and the ability to segment, isolate and manipulate the sounds of a specific language. We report the results of a study whose aim was to determine the sensitivity of phonological awareness tests in distinguishing between typical readers and deficit readers in Urdu. Urdu has a deep orthography, which however, presents readers with challenges different from the type offered by a language, such as English (Farukh & Vulchanova, 2014). The tasks included in the battery were typical phonological awareness tasks, such as phoneme manipulation, rhyme oddity, rhyming, and syllabification. Our results show that none of the phonological awareness tasks successfully predict concurrent poor reading skills. Most notably, one task, syllabification, predicts reading accuracy in the Control group only, but not in the Reading Deficit group. We discuss these results in light of the grain-size hypothesis and the orthographic depth hypothesis of reading, and from the point of view of stages in literacy acquisition.

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