Abstract Studies have provided evidence that morphological awareness contributes to word reading in opaque languages such as English. However, this relationship is not yet established for Brazilian Portuguese, a much less opaque language. The present study performed a longitudinal investigation of the relationship between morphological awareness and word reading in 162 children from 2nd to 5th grades of elementary school. The children were evaluated in the final quarter of the respective school year (time 1) and 1 year later (time 2). Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for intelligence, phonological awareness, and phonological working memory were conducted. The hierarchical regression analyses were followed up by cross-lagged panel correlations, and both results converged to word reading measured in the 2nd and 3rd grades contributing to morphological awareness 1 year later. In addition, morphological awareness measured in the 4th grade contributed to word reading 1 year later. The greater transparency of Brazilian Portuguese may make morphological awareness less important for word reading in the early grades; however, in older children, morphological awareness is important for word reading performance.

Abstract Phonological awareness is one of the most important predictors of reading. However, there is still controversy concerning its dimensionality. This study evaluated the dimensionality of phonological awareness among Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children. A total of 212 children performed six phonological awareness tasks in the last year of kindergarten. Of those children, 177 performed the same tasks when they were in the first grade. The phonological awareness measures differed in both their cognitive demand (detection, blending, segmentation, and elision) and the phonological unit involved (rhyme, syllable, and phoneme). Confirmatory factor analyzes were employed to test several models of phonological awareness dimensionality. The results indicated that the best model was an oblique model of phonological units with two correlated latent factors: phonemic awareness and supraphonemic awareness. This model presented the best fit to the data both in kindergarten and in the first grade. In addition, supraphonemic awareness in the kindergarten predicted phoneme awareness in the first grade; however, phonemic awareness in the kindergarten did not predict supraphonemic awareness in the first grade. These results are compatible with phonological awareness developing from larger phonological units (e.g., syllables) to small phonological units (e.g., phonemes) and the reciprocal relationship between phonological awareness and reading. From a theoretical point of view, these results also suggest that phonological awareness is a one-dimensional construct that can be evaluated by tests employing different phonological units (e.g., syllables, rhymes, phonemes).

Resumo Este estudo avaliou a precisão de classificação do risco de dificuldade de leitura e escrita, a partir do conhecimento do nome das letras. Foram aplicadas duas versões da tarefa de reconhecimento das letras, a primeira com todas as 26 letras do alfabeto, e a outra com apenas 15. A tarefa foi aplicada a 213 crianças brasileiras, matriculadas no último ano da Educação Infantil, sendo que, no primeiro ano do Ensino Fundamental, 176 delas realizaram a tarefa de escrita, e 174 a de leitura. Utilizaram-se a Teoria da Resposta ao Item e a simulação de rede neural para a escolha das 15 letras da versão reduzida da tarefa, e a análise da curva de Características Operacionais do Recebedor para avaliar a precisão de classificação das duas versões da tarefa. Os resultados indicaram que ambas as versões podem ser utilizadas para rastrear crianças com dificuldades de leitura e de escrita, áreas sob curvas de 0,83 e 0,80.

Abstract This study evaluated the precision of a Letter-Name Knowledge task in predicting children at risk/non-risk of reading and writing difficulties in Brazil. A second goal was to compare the precision of classification of two versions of this task: a 26 letter-task and a 15 letter-task. A total of 213 Brazilian children performed the 26 letter-task when they were in kindergarten. Of those children, 176 performed a writing task and 174 performed a reading task in 1st grade Elementary School. The choice of letters for the 15 letter-task was based on the Item Response Theory and on neural network simulation. The results based on the Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis, showed that both tasks could be used for screening children with reading and writing difficulties (areas under the curve of 0.83 and 0.80).

RESUMO Este estudo analisou a precisão de medidas de nomeação seriada rápida (NSR) em identificar os estudantes em risco/sem risco de dificuldade de leitura. Tarefas de NSR requerem a nomeação rápida de diferentes estímulos visuais apresentados em um cartão. Duzentas e treze crianças realizaram as tarefas de NSR quando estavam na Educação Infantil e, dessas, 174 realizaram uma tarefa de leitura quando estavam no 1º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Análises da curva ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) indicaram que as medidas de NSR (objetos, cores, números e letras) são razoáveis em identificar o risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura (área sob a curva ≥ 0,70), sendo a NSR de números a medida com melhores índices de sensibilidade (88%) e especificidade (50%).

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to analyze the rapid automatized naming (RAN)'s accuracy for identifying students at risk/not at risk for reading difficulty. Two hundred and thirteen children performed the RAN tasks when they were in the last year of Kindergarten and 174 among them, accomplished the reading task when they were in the first grade of Elementary School. Analyses based on the ROC curve (Receiver Operating Characteristic) indicated that all the RAN measures (objects, colors, numbers, and letters) had a fair accuracy for identifying students at risk/not at risk for reading difficulty (AUC ≥ 0.70). RAN numbers had the best classification accuracy presenting sensitivity and specificity indexes of 88% and 50%, respectively.

O presente estudo investigou a natureza das tarefas de nomeação seriada rápida, considerando três hipóteses sobre o que elas representariam: (1) medidas da recuperação de códigos fonológicos da memória de longo prazo; (2) medidas da velocidade de processamento geral; e (3) medidas de processos relacionados ao reconhecimento de padrões visuais. Participaram da pesquisa 174 crianças brasileiras cursando o 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental em escolas particulares. Análises fatoriais confirmatórias indicaram que nenhuma das três hipóteses se mostrou consistente com os dados. Porém, em um modelo de regressão estrutural construído para avaliar a contribuição desses fatores para a nomeação seriada rápida, o único que contribuiu significativamente foi o fator 'velocidade de processamento geral'.

The present study aimed to investigate the nature of rapid automatized naming tasks, considering three hypotheses about what they represent: (1) measures of retrieval of phonological codes from a long-term store; (2) measures of general processing speed; and (3) measures of visual pattern recognition processes. The participants were 174 children from the 5th grade of Brazilian private schools. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that none of the hypotheses were consistent with the data. However, in a structural regression model the factor 'general processing speed' was the only one that contributed significantly to rapid automatized naming.

O presente estudo avaliou, por meio da modelagem de equação estrutural, a estrutura fatorial subjacente às medidas de consciência fonológica, memória de trabalho fonológica e nomeação seriada rápida, tendo em vista o conflito na literatura no que se refere à natureza das tarefas de nomeação seriada rápida. Foram comparados modelos compatíveis com a proposta de que as tarefas de consciência fonológica, memória fonológica e nomeação seriada rápida avaliam o processamento fonológico e modelos compatíveis com a proposta de que tarefas de nomeação seriada rápida não avaliam o processamento fonológico. Os resultados desse estudo oferecem suporte à hipótese de que a nomeação seriada rápida não é uma medida do processamento fonológico.

Considering a conflict in literature regarding the nature of rapid automatized naming tasks, this study evaluated the factor structure underlying the measures of phonological awareness, phonological working memory and rapid automatized naming tasks using the method of structural equation modeling (SEM). Models compatible with the proposal that the tasks of phonological awareness, phonological working memory and rapid automatized naming assess phonological processing, and models compatible with the proposal that rapid automatized naming tasks do not assess phonological processing were compared. The results of this study support the hypothesis that rapid automatized naming tasks are not measures of phonological processing.

Dois experimentos foram realizados visando investigar o efeito do número de vizinhos ortográficos (N) e do número de vizinhos ortográficos de maior frequência de ocorrência (NF) em tarefas de leitura em voz alta (TLVA). Os estímulos experimentais consistiram em 64 palavras correspondentes a uma manipulação fatorial 2 x 2 de N e NF. No primeiro experimento, uma TLVA do tipo Go/NoGo, observou-se um efeito inibidor de NF quando as palavras tinham muitos vizinhos ortográficos. No segundo experimento, uma TLVA na qual tanto as palavras quantos as pseudopalavras deviam ser pronunciadas em uma mesma sessão, observou-se um efeito facilitador de N. Os efeitos de N e NF foram atribuídos a diferenças de ênfase entre as tarefas no processo de acesso lexical.

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the orthographic neighborhood density (N) and neighborhood frequency effects (NF) in reading aloud tasks. The experimental stimuli consisted of 64 words corresponding to a 2x2 factorial manipulation of N and NF. In the first experiment, during a Go/NoGo reading aloud task, an inhibitory NF effect was observed when the words had a high number of neighbors. In the second experiment, a reading aloud task in which the subjects had to pronounce words and pseudowords mixed in the same session, a facilitative N effect was observed. N and NF effects were attributed to different task demands on the process of lexical access.

O presente estudo investigou se as variáveis 'processamento fonológico' (memória de trabalho fonológica e consciência fonológica), 'nomeação seriada rápida' e 'consciência morfológica' contribuem de forma independente umas das outras para a leitura e a escrita no português brasileiro, após o controle da idade e da inteligência não verbal. Participaram da pesquisa 94 crianças matriculadas na 3ª série (quarto ano) do ensino fundamental de três escolas particulares. Os resultados de análises de regressão hierárquica indicaram que o processamento fonológico, a nomeação seriada rápida e a consciência morfológica apresentaram contribuições independentes para a habilidade de escrita. Porém, no que diz respeito à precisão e à fluência de leitura, apenas o processamento fonológico e a nomeação seriada rápida contribuíram para essas habilidades.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the independent contribution of phonological processing (phonological awareness and phonological working memory), rapid naming and morphological awareness to reading and writing skills in Brazilian Portuguese. Ninety-four third-graders of three private Brazilian schools took part in this study. Hierarchical regression analyses were carried out on measures of reading (accuracy and fluency) and writing skills controlling for age and intelligence. The results showed an independent contribution of phonological processing, rapid naming and morphological awareness for writing skill. However, the results for measures of reading accuracy and reading fluency indicated that only phonological processing and rapid naming made independent contributions for such skills.

Os efeitos de lexicalidade, freqüência, regularidade e a interação entre esses últimos foram investigados por meio de uma tarefa de leitura administrada em crianças brasileiras que cursavam o correspondente a 3ª e 4ª séries do ensino fundamental. Computou-se o TR e a porcentagem de erros na leitura em voz alta de palavras e de pseudopalavras isoladas. Observou-se o efeito de freqüência e de lexicalidade, mas não o de regularidade e nem a interação entre freqüência e regularidade. Com base nesses resultados e nos resultados de outros estudos, hipotetizou-se que o efeito de regularidade, no português brasileiro, se restringe às séries iniciais. Além disso, questionou-se também a adequação de uma classificação categórica de regularidade em contraposição a uma classificação contínua.

This study investigated the effects of lexicality, frequency, regularity, and the interaction of the two latter ones on a reading aloud task conducted with Portuguese-speaking children from 3rd and 4th grades. The reaction time (RT) and error percentage scores on reading aloud isolated words and pseudowords were computed. The data analysis revealed the effects of frequency and lexicality on reading aloud, but not the effect of regularity nor the frequency vs. regularity interaction effect. Based on these results and on results of other studies, it was hypothesized that the regularity effect exists only at first grades for Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children. In addition, it was questioned the adequacy of a categorical classification of regularity in the light of a continuum classification.