Executive Function and Reading
Early intervention to develop reading skills include word identification, rereading familiar books, phonological awareness activities, letter identification, letter-sound decoding, word families, high frequency sight words, fluency training and writing.
- Phonemic awareness and alphabet knowledge are good predictors of early reading ability
- Phonological short term memory may play a role in learning letter-sound correspondence and in storing generated phonological sequences prior to blending and output during phonological recording
- The cognitive abilities that are prerequisites to reading are visual discrimination, phonological coding, name encoding and retrieval, visual-verbal association learning, comprehension
Blair and Razza (2007) demonstrated that measures of EF ability with a task that makes demands on the ability to maintain rule-based information while inhibiting a prepotent response, the peg tapping task, was a good predictor of both phonological awareness and letter knowledge in Kindergarten. In this study and other studies, Blair and Razza found that executive function was a better predictor of phonemic awareness than were measures of receptive vocabulary and general intelligence.
There is a role for executive function in the process of acquiring automaticity in letter identification and phonemic awareness. Children who had little letter knowledge, had general problems with self-regulation in the sample.
Executive functions predict early literacy development as assessed by measures of letter-word knowledge, story recall and reading efficiency at the end of Pre K and Kindergarten. Development in working memory and attention control during the preschool period might be an important contributor to later academic achievement in reading and math.
Between K and Grade 2, children with low levels of learning-related skills fell increasingly behind children with higher levels of learning-related skills on math and reading (McClelland et al., 2006). In general, ratings of kindergarten learning-related skills significantly predicted reading and math scores between kindergarten and sixth grade and growth in reading and math between kindergarten and second grade.
Math knowledge, letter knowledge and phonemic awareness, measured in Kindergarten, were positively associated with executive function ability measured in Pre Kindergarten and Kindergarten. Children who performed least well on EF measures were reported to be poorly adjusted to the classroom by their teachers and were also characterized by a higher level of baseline cortisal. Motivation and emotion foster and complement the Executive Function process that contributes to self directed learning. Children who have poor EF have problems paying attention in class, completing assignments and inhibiting impulsive behaviour. School is less fun for them because they find compliance with school demands so difficult and because their teachers often get annoyed and frustrated with them. They develop a more negative self perception. Children who begin with poor EF may become increasingly resistant to school and schoolwork, put less self investment and effort into school and drop out at higher rates.
Children enter school with differing levels of social and self-regulation competence. Children need to be actively engaged in learning experiences where fundamental literacy skills are acquired. We need to support growth in working memory and attention control during the preschool and kindergarten years. It is important to explicitly teach children planning, shifting, memory and attention strategies as early as we can. Children with difficulties in rapid and automatic processing of phonological information and word and letter knowledge may rely more heavily on Executive Function in reading. We need to provide differentiated instruction in well organized settings, looking at student strengths and needs. Early readers need to be taught that reading makes sense. Some ways to achieve reading comprehension goals are to activate prior knowledge, take a picture walk, predict, set a purpose for reading, monitor decoding and comprehension, change strategies and self- check. We need to teach students to monitor and be mindful of the strategies they use to decode words; teach a variety of word reading strategies; click and clunks strategies, and using post-it notes in response to texts. Developing and growing self regulation and social competence supports the growth of literacy and numeracy skills. There is a strong need to include self-regulation and social competence in early intervention programs.
References
Alloway, T. P., Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C., & Adams, A. (2004). A structural analysis of working memory and related cognitive skills in young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 87(2), 85-106.
Blair, C., Protzko, J., & Ursache, A. (2010), Self Regulation and Early Literacy, in Neuman, S. B., & Dickinson, D. K. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of early literacy research, volume 3. 20 – 36, New York: Guilford Publications.
Blair, C., & Razza, R. P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78(2), 647-663
Gaskins, I. W., & Pressley, M. (2007). Teaching metacognitive strategies that address executive function processes within a schoolwide curriculum. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education: From theory to practice. (pp. 261-286). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
McClelland, M. M., Acock, A. C., & Morrison, F. J. (2006). The impact of kindergarten learning-related skills on academic trajectories at the end of elementary school. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 21(4), 471-490.
McClelland, M. M., Cameron, C. E., Connor, C. M., Farris, C. L., Jewkes, A. M., & Morrison, F. J. (2007). Links between behavioral regulation and preschoolers' literacy, vocabulary, and math skills. Developmental Psychology, 43(4), 947-959.
Meltzer, Lynn, Promoting Executive Function in the Classroom (What Works for Special-Needs Learners) (2007), New York, NY:The Guilford Press.
Neuman, S. B., & Dickinson, D. K. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of early literacy research, volume 3. New York: Guilford Publications.
Excellent websites to promote reading development:
www.fcrr.org - This website provides instructional reading materials for teachers of K-5 students. Materials are based on current research.
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/JKLC.html This Balanced Literacy Diet website was created by Dr. Dale Willows in conjunction with the Melissa Institute. It provides teachers with many examples, virtual tours and 'recipes' for teaching reading.
www.setbc.org This website provides a learning centre and a variety of lessons for educators.