Breadmore, H. & Carroll, J.
Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour & Achievement, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK
There is extensive evidence about the relationship between phonological awareness and reading in the early school years, but much less about the middle school years and whether these associations differ across groups with different literacy and phonological impairments. At time point 1 (aged 8-10 years old) 36 children with dyslexia and 29 children with a history of fluctuating hearing levels due to otitis media (OM: repeated ear infections) and their chronological-age matched and reading-age matched controls completed phonological, morphological and literacy tasks. At time point 2, 18 months later, they were retested on word reading, comprehension and phonological awareness. Both risk groups had phonological awareness below the level of age matched controls. The dyslexic group showed particular difficulties in tasks involving phonological manipulation, while the OM group showed particular difficulties in tasks involving segmenting and blending phonemes. This indicates some differences in the nature of the phonological awareness deficit across groups. Across the dyslexic, OM and control groups, reading at time 1 predicted growth in phonological awareness over time. Phonological awareness also predicted growth in text reading accuracy over time. In the middle school years, reading skills predict growth in phonological awareness across children with different phonological impairments.