The present study addresses word recognition automaticity in Spanish-speaking adults who are neoliterate by assessing the event-related potential N170 for word stimuli. Participants engaged in two reading conditions that vary the degree of attention required for linguistic components of reading: (a) an implicit reading task, in which they detected immediate repetitions of words and symbols (one-back paradigm); (b) an explicit reading task, in which they determined if pairs of visual-auditory words matched (reading verification task). Results were compared to those of a group of people who learned to read in childhood. N170 amplitudes on left and right occipito-temporal regions were registered for each condition. A left-lateralization of N170 for word stimuli was considered as an index of word reading automaticity. No left-lateralized N170 was found for the neoliterate group in either condition. In addition, N170 amplitude for words was larger on the right than the left occipito-temporal region for the reading verification task. Participants from the comparison group showed left-lateralized N170 amplitude for words in both conditions. Findings suggest that the neoliterate group investigated here had not yet acquired automaticity of word recognition, but could be showing evidence of word familiarization.
The association between sociodemographic factors—poverty, lack of maternal schooling, being male at birth—, childhood developmental delay, and poor educational outcomes has been established in the Dominican Republic (DR). However, family moderating factors present or introduced to buffer sociodemographic factors effects on early childhood development (ECD) are still unknown. We conducted a secondary analysis of the DR’s 2014 and 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. We had four study aims: 1) confirm the relationship between socioeconomic position (SP), parenting practices, and ECD; 2) determine if a sociodemographic model predicted ECD; 3) determine if a psychosocial model (family childrearing practices, discipline, and early childhood stimulation) predicted ECD above and beyond the sociodemographic model; 4) explore mothers’ beliefs about physical punishment and its relationship with ECD and psychosocial variables. We found that both models predicted ECD significantly, but the psychosocial model explained more variance than the sociodemographic model (6.3% in 2014 and 4.4% in 2019). The most relevant sociodemographic predictors were SP (explaining 21.6% of ECD variance in 2014 and 18.6% in 2019) and mother’s education (explaining 13.9% in 2014 and 14.1% in 2019). The most salient ECD psychosocial predictors were: negative discipline, number of children’s books at home, stimulating activities at home, and attendance to an early childhood education program. The predicting weights of the independent variables were similar for both years. These results have multiple implications for social programs that aim to improve children’s potential in contexts of poverty. Although the results show a protective effect of psychosocial factors, sustainable and large-scale interventions should not be limited to just buffering effects, but to solve the underlying problem, which is that poverty prevents children from reaching their developmental potential and exposes them to life-long greater risk for chronic disease. Addressing delays early in life can therefore contribute to achieving health equity.
El proyecto USAID Leer es una intervención de lectura y escritura en escuelas públicas de la República Dominicana en respuesta a sus bajos niveles de comprensión lectora. el objetivo del estudio fue determinar la eficacia del proyecto USAID Leer a través de dos estudios transversales (al iniciar el proyecto y en la mitad). Se realizó un estudio experimental con aleatorización de grupos (experimental vs. control) y una estimación del contrafactual basada en la evaluación de línea base. Participaron 2,399 alumnos de segundo grado para línea base, y 2,359 alumnos de cuarto grado para línea media. Se evaluaron comprensión lectora, habilidades precursoras a la misma (comprensión oral, conciencia fonológica, conocimiento de letras, lectura de palabras por minuto, lectura de pseudopalabras por minuto y fluidez), y habilidades cognitivas generales (memoria de trabajo de palabras y memoria de trabajo de pseudopalabras). Dentro de los resultados se destaca que no hubo diferencias entre los grupos durante la línea base. En la línea media, el grupo experimental obtuvo mejores puntuaciones que el grupo control en comprensión oral, conciencia fonológica, conocimiento de letras, lectura de palabras y pseudopalabras por minuto y memoria de trabajo de pseudopalabras. No hubo diferencias entre los grupos en fluidez ni en comprensión lectora. Se concluyó que la intervención fue efectiva, pero aún no ha alcanzado el umbral necesario para que sus efectos se reflejen más allá de las habilidades precursoras de la comprensión lectora. Los resultados se interpretan desde la teoría de la automatización lectora y la necesidad de mayor práctica lectora de los alumnos en proceso de alfabetización.
The Simple View of Reading (SVR) proposes that reading comprehension depends on two general processes –language comprehension and word recognition– and that the contribution of these known processes to reading comprehension varies in time. Specifically, the contribution of word recognition decreases, and the contribution of language comprehension increases with student progress. The purpose of this study was to test the SVR in a large sample of 4,750 Dominican public-school students from second (n = 2,399) and fourth grade (2,351) and determine the contribution of phonological awareness within the SVR. The study found that word recognition and language comprehension explained 80% of the variance in reading comprehension regardless of grade. A quantile regression showed that, as reading comprehension progresses, language comprehension’s predictive power increases, and word recognition’s predictive power decreases. A structural equation model conducted on each grade separately showed that the contribution of word recognition toward reading comprehension remained stable between second and fourth grade. This means that, although the dynamism of the SVR components follows the same pattern reported in the literature, the students evaluated here might reach reading automaticity later than expected. Therefore, more attentional resources need to be allocated toward decoding. The study found that the contribution of phonological awareness toward word recognition increases from second to fourth grade, confirming that students are taking longer than expected to obtain reading automaticity and still going through an overt effortful decoding stage rather than a covert phonological recoding stage, making reading more effortful.
Background This study initiated the validation process of a translated and adapted version of the Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT) for children in the Dominican Republic (DR). Like Malawi before the development of the MDAT, the DR did not have early childhood development (ECD) tools explicitly designed for low-resource areas that are also valid assessments of child development. We chose MDAT because it underwent a rigorous validation process and retained measurements of test items that were culturally adaptable from the Denver Developmental Screening Test II. We aimed to test the internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of the MDAT in children under the age of two years living in low-income neighborhoods in Santo Domingo in 2017. Methods and findings Forty-two children from 2 to 24 months of age (mean = 11.26, SD = 6.37, boys = 22, girls = 20) and their corresponding caregiver participated in the study. We conducted a cross-sectional, pre-experimental study. The primary outcome measure was an index of ECD, as assessed by the Dominican adaptation of the MDAT. The tool evaluates children in four domains: social, fine motor, language, and gross motor. To determine internal consistency, we obtained Spearman-Brown split-half reliability for each sub-scale. The results showed a good consistency (>.6) for social, fine motor, and gross motor, and an acceptable consistency (>.5) for language. Second, to test the inter-rater reliability, we conducted a Kendall’s Taub test of independence for both the general scale and each sub-scale. Significant r τ scores ranged from .923 to .966, indicating appropriate inter-rater reliability. Third, we correlated the age variable with each subscale to determine if the development scale followed a progression of abilities that are expected to increase with maturation. The age variable correlated positively with all the subscales (social r = .887, p < .001; fine motor r = .799, p < .001; language r = .834, p < .001; gross motor r = .805, p < .001), indicating that the older the child, the better scores in the development measurements, as expected. There were no adverse events. This study, however, has multiple limitations. We did not gather information about socioeconomic position, which is an important variable when assessing child development; however, all participants lived in a low-income neighborhood. Given that this is the first ECD tool specific to the Dominican Republic, norm-referenced scores for the Dominican population do not yet exist. This study sample size is insufficient to make inferences about the national population. Conclusions This study represents the first attempt to obtain a valid tool to screen for development milestones in children living in poverty in the DR. More research is needed to refine the instrument. The availability of the tool will enable impact evaluations of ECD intervention programs and the development of evidence-based public po...
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