Learning to read words: Individual differences in developmental sequences

Abstract

Developmental sequences provide a valuable tool for analyzing individual differences in how children develop various cognitive skills, including the early reading of words. With methods adapted from the study of cognitive development, a set of school-based tasks were designed to test developmental sequences in phonological and visual-graphic domains for single words. The methods allowed detection of individual differences in developmental sequences. A total of 120 first-, second-, and third-grade children (30 of whom were low readres) were assessed on six tasks for each of 16 words. The profiles of task performances were used to detect developmental sequences by means of statistics based on Guttman scaling, called partially ordered scaling and pattern analysis, as well as by more traditional statistics. The results showed three developmental sequences. Most common was a “normal” sequence, which was consistent with a traditional model of reading acquisition involving the integration of visual-graphic and phonological domains. The other two sequences, which were associated with reading problems, involved a lack of integration of these domains. One sequence showed two independent branches—one for reading skills and one for rhyming—which occurred in both low and normal readers. The other showed three branches—reading, letter identification, and rhyming—and occurred primarily in low readers. The findings suggest not only an analysis of developmental pathways in reading, but a way of analyzing diversity in developmental pathways more generally.