Lexical restructuring in preliterate children: Evidence from novel measures of phonological representation

Ainsworth, Stephanie; Welbourne, Stephen; Hesketh, Anne

doi:10.1017/s0142716415000338

Cited by 33 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Similarly, these results suggest that when discussing changes in the importance of a predictor variable, vocabulary size is a better indicator of development than age (e.g. Ainsworth, Welbourne, & Hesketh, 2016). High phonological neighbourhood density, for instance, becomes a less important predictor of word production when expressive vocabulary size rather than age per se increases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Neighborhood Density and Word Production in Delayed and Advanced Learners

Jones

Brandt

2019

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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This study reexamines the claim that difficulty forming memories of words comprising uncommon sound sequences (i.e. low phonological neighbourhood density words) is a determinant of delayed expressive vocabulary development (e.g. Stokes, 2014). Method: We modelled communicative development inventory data from N=442, 18month old children, with expressive lexicon sizes between zero and 517 words (median=84). We fitted a Bayesian regression model in which the production of each communicative inventory word (N=680) by each child was predicted by interactions between that child's expressive lexicon size and the word's (i) phonological neighbourhood density, (ii) frequency in child-directed speech, (iii) length, (iv) babiness, and (v) concreteness. Results: Children with larger expressive lexicons were more likely to produce words comprising uncommon sound sequences than age-matched children with smaller lexicons. However, the magnitude of the interaction between expressive lexicon size and phonological neighbourhood density was modest relative to interactions between expressive lexicon size and word frequency, length, babiness, and concreteness. Conclusion: Emphasis on a difficulty with the memorisation of low neighbourhood density words as a determinant of slow vocabulary growth may be unwarranted, and the current evidence base in this direction is not robust enough to strongly support the development of possible interventions for late talkers (e.g. Stokes, 2014).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Neighborhood Density and Word Production in Delayed and Advanced Learners

Jones

Brandt

2019

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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“…Although the term phonological representations -i.e. representations of phonological units, encompassing phonemes -has been much used, it is difficult to find measures probing phonological representations independently of other cognitive skills (Ainsworth, Welbourne, & Hesketh, 2016;Boada & Pennington, 2006) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transfer of sensorimotor learning reveals phoneme representations in preliterate children

et al. 2019

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Reading acquisition is strongly intertwined with phoneme awareness that relies on implicit phoneme representations. We asked whether phoneme representations emerge before literacy. We recruited two groups of children, 4 to 5-year-old preschoolers (N=29) and 7 to 8year-old schoolchildren (N=24), whose phonological awareness was evaluated, and one adult control group (N=17). We altered speakers' auditory feedback in real time to elicit persisting pronunciation changes, referred to as auditory-motor adaptation or learning. Assessing the transfer of learning at phoneme level enabled us to investigate the developmental time-course of phoneme representations. Significant transfer at phoneme level occurred in preschoolers, as well as schoolchildren and adults. In addition, we found a relationship between auditorymotor adaptation and phonological awareness in both groups of children. Overall, these results suggest that phoneme representations emerge before literacy acquisition, and that these sensorimotor representations may set the ground for phonological awareness.

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“…Therefore, our longitudinal study provided the first evidence that it is possible to detect neurophysiological differences in the LPC between children with dyslexia and control children in both preliterate and very early stages of reading acquisition. The post-hoc analysis showed that differences in the access to the phonological lexicon between the control and dyslexia group already exist in kindergarten, where previous studies support the existence of a phonological lexicon before literacy acquisition ( Ainsworth et al, 2016 , Yeh et al, 2015 ). Thus, LPC attenuation in young children might be understood as an early candidate predictor of later reading problems, before the start of formal reading instruction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Does the late positive component reflect successful reading acquisition? A longitudinal ERP study

Wachinger

Volkmer

Bublath

et al. 2018

NeuroImage: Clinical

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Developmental dyslexia is a reading disorder that is associated with deficits in phonological processing, where the exact neural basis for those processing deficits remains unclear. In particular, disagreement exists whether degraded phonological representations or an impaired access to the phonological representations causes these deficits. To investigate this question and to trace changes in neurophysiology during the process of reading acquisition, we designed a longitudinal study with event related potentials (ERPs) in children between kindergarten and second grade. We used an explicit word processing task to elicit the late positive component (LPC), which has been shown to reflect phonological processing. A brain-wide analysis of the LPC with an electrode-wise application of mixed effects models showed significantly attenuated amplitudes in the left temporo-parietal region in dyslexic children. Since these differences were only present in the word and not in the picture (i.e. control) condition, the attenuated amplitudes might reflect impaired access to the phonological representations of words. This was further confirmed by the longitudinal development, which showed a rapid increase in amplitude at the beginning of reading instruction and a decrease with continuing automatization, possibly pointing to a progression from grapheme-phoneme parsing to whole word reading. Our longitudinal study provides the first evidence that it is possible to detect neurophysiological differences in the LPC between children with dyslexia and control children in both preliterate and very early stages of reading acquisition, providing new insights about the neurophysiological development and a potential marker of later reading problems.

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Lexical restructuring in preliterate children: Evidence from novel measures of phonological representation

Cited by 33 publications

References 61 publications

Neighborhood Density and Word Production in Delayed and Advanced Learners

Neighborhood Density and Word Production in Delayed and Advanced Learners

Transfer of sensorimotor learning reveals phoneme representations in preliterate children

Does the late positive component reflect successful reading acquisition? A longitudinal ERP study

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