CONTEMPORARY CHILDHOOD:

WHAT HAPPENS EARLY REALLY MATTERS

G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

2

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How do children develop language abilities?

• How do children develop social competencies?

• How can we foster children’s emotional health?

• How do children learn to read?

• Why do some children have difficulties learning to read?

• How can we prevent reading difficulties?

• How can we remediate reading difficulties?

3

NICHD Reading Research Program

NICHD Sites

Univ of Arkansas – Med CtrDykman

Univ of MissouriGeary

Colorado LDRCDefries

Loyola Univ – ChicagoMorrison

TorontoLovett

Southern Illinois UnivMoltese

Mayo ClinicKalusic

Boy’s TownSmith

Univ of HoustonFrancis

SUNY AlbanyVellutino

Univ of California – San Diego,

Salk InstituteBellugi

Univ of Texas – Med CtrFoorman/Fletcher

Yale MethodologyFletcher

Emerson CollegeAram

TuftsWolf

Syracuse UnivBlachman

Univ of Massachusetts

Rayner

Beth IsraelGalaburda

Children’s Hospital/Harvard LDRCWaber

Florida StateTorgesen/Wagner

University of WashingtonBerninger

San Luis EbispoLindamood/Bell

Univ of Southern CaliforniaManis/Seidenberg

Univ of California – IrvineFilipek

Bowman GrayWood

Georgetown UnivEden

D.C./HoustonForman/Moats

Johns HopkinsDenckla

Haskins LabsFowler/Liberman

Ya leShaywitz

Univ of GeorgiaHynd

Univ of FloridaAlexander/Conway

Georgia StateR. Morris

4

OUR YOUNGEST CITIZENS WILL SURPRISE US

• Infants, Toddlers, and preschoolers can learn more than we ever thought possible

• From birth to age 3 the brains of children are rapidly forming connections between neural cells

• The quality and degree of connections between neural cells are established through the the quality of interactions the child has

with adults, other children, and the environment

• Infants before the age of 6 months can perceive and express all sounds of all languages spoken on the planet

5

OUR YOUNGEST CITIZENS WILL SURPRISE US

• Depending on the environment, vocabulary development accelerates rapidly during the second year of life.

• Under the right circumstances, most 18 month olds (on average) learn 9 new words a day, every day, throughout the preschool years

• By 3 years of age the child can speak in full sentences

6

The Role of the Environment and Early Experience on Language Development

• Language development requires an interplay between genes, biology, and environmental factors

• Poverty and disadvantage reduce the quantity and quality of interactions with language

• Limited language interactions in the home environment place children at severe risk for school failure, particularly in reading

• Cultural influences every aspect of human development and must be considered in the design and implementation of any program

7

Environmental Influences

• By kindergarten a child from disadvantage typically has twice the vocabulary as a youngster born into

poverty

• The typical 5-year-old from an urban environment and disadvantaged home enters kindergarten at the 5th

percentile in vocabulary

• By age 16 advantaged children have four times the vocabulary as children born into poverty

Major Sources of Reading Failure

• Socioeconomic Factors – Poverty

• Biological Factors – Genetics and Neurobiology

• Instructional Factors – Predominate

How Do Children Learn to Read?:The Influence of Early Language and

Literacy Experiences

Differences in exposure to words over one year can predict substantial difficulties in oral language and

reading development:

• Children in Professional Families – 11 million

• Children in Working-class Families – 6 million

• Children in Welfare Families – 3 million

Welfare

Working-class

18

26

42

WelfareWorking

-class

29 28.533

Professional

0

10

20

30

40

50

Mean Number of Interactions Initiated

per Hour

0

10

20

30

40

50

Mean Number of Minutes per Interaction

per Hour

Professional

Hart and Risley, 1995

Cumulative Language Experiences

Cumulative Words Spoken to Child (in millions)

0

10

20

30

40

50

0 12 24 36 48

Age of Child (in months)

Professional

Working-class

Welfare

48

30

1212

7.5

3

Hart and Risley, 1995

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

Reading Age Level

Chronological Age

Low Oral Language in Kindergarten

High Oral Language in Kindergarten

Hirsch, 1996

The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language on Reading Growth

5.2 years difference

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1000

PoorPoor

Non-poorNon-poor

60

26

Percent of 4th Grade Students Performing Below Basic Level - 37%

HispanicHispanic 58

BlackBlack 63

WhiteWhite 27

National Center for Educational Statistics, 2003

Percent Performing Below the Basic Reading Level

14

WHAT DO KIDS NEED TO KNOW TO

READ?

A HECK OF A LOT

WHAT DO KIDS NEED TO KNOW TO WHAT DO KIDS NEED TO KNOW TO READ FOR MEANING?READ FOR MEANING?

Accurate and fluent word reading skillsAccurate and fluent word reading skills

Oral language skills (vocabulary, linguistic comprehension)Oral language skills (vocabulary, linguistic comprehension)

Extent of conceptual and factual knowledgeExtent of conceptual and factual knowledge

Knowledge and skill in use of cognitive strategies to Knowledge and skill in use of cognitive strategies to improve comprehension or repair it when it breaks down.improve comprehension or repair it when it breaks down.

Reasoning and inferential skillsReasoning and inferential skills

Motivation to understand and interest in task and Motivation to understand and interest in task and materialsmaterials

16

VIDEO

Reading Comprehension

Knowledge Fluency

Metacognition

Language

Prosody

Automaticity / Rate

Accuracy

Decoding

Phonemic Awareness

Oral Language Skills

Knowledge of Language Structures

Vocabulary

Cultural Influences

Life Experience

Content Knowledge

Activation of Prior Knowledge

Knowledge about Texts

Motivation & Engagement

Active Reading Strategies

Monitoring Strategies

Fix-Up Strategies

18

Early Intervention is Possible

• Risk characteristics present in Preschool, Kindergarten and G1

• Print awareness, Letter knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, phonological awareness, oral language development, vocabulary, background knowledge

• Assess all children and INTERVENE

Early Intervention is Clearly Early Intervention is Clearly EffectiveEffective

Prevention studies commonly show that 70- 90% of at risk children (bottom 20%) in K- 2 can learn to read in average range

75

86

96

89

70

80

100

90

Word Attack

Text ReadingAccuracy

Reading Comprehension

Text Reading

Rate

68

7473 71

30%

83

91

Outcomes from 67.5 Hours of Intensive LiPSTM Intervention

Torgesen, 2003

Standard Score

31.8

20.4

Proportion falling below the 25th

percentile in word reading ability at the end of 1st grade 10

20

30

1995 1996

Screening at beginning of 1st grade, with extra instruction for those in bottom 30-40%

40

Hartsfield Elementary School Progress Over Five Years

Torgesen, Alexander et al., 2001

Proportion falling below the 25th

percentile in word reading ability at the end of first grade 10

20

3031.8

20.4

10.96.7

3.7

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Average Percentile 48.9 55.2 61.4 73.5 81.7for entire grade (n=105)

Screening at beginning of first grade, with extra instruction for those in bottom 30-40%

40

Hartsfield Elementary ProgressOver Five Years

King & Torgesen (in press)

• Provide systematicsystematic and explicitexplicit instruction on whatever component skills are deficient: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension strategies

• Provide a significant increase in intensityintensity of instruction

• Provide ample opportunities for guided practice of new skills

• Provide appropriate levels of scaffolding as children learn to apply new skills

Instructional interactions and Interventions are more effective when they:

The consensus view of most important instructional features for interventions

Reading stimulates general Reading stimulates general

cognitive growth — cognitive growth —

particularly verbal skillsparticularly verbal skills

Meanwhile, Back in the BrainMeanwhile, Back in the Brain

Why Do Some Children Have Difficulties Learning to Read?

S#1: At risk

S#31: Not at risk

Left Hemisphere Right HemisphereKindergarten

150-300 300-1000 msTime after Stimulus

Onset

Kindergarten

S#1: At risk

S#31: Not at risk

150-300 300-1000 msTime after Stimulus

Onset

Left Hemisphere Right Hemisphere

Kindergarten

1st Grade

At Risk Reader

Left Hemisphere Right Hemisphere

29

LEARNING, LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF THE LEARNING, LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA: SOME SUGGESTIONSMEDIA: SOME SUGGESTIONS

• Base everything you do on converging scientific evidence on how children learn, why some children have a tough time, and what can

be done about that

• Avoid at all costs the development of media for children on the basis of untested philosophies, assumptions, anecdotes, and lousy

research

•Try to avoid getting caught up in “either-or” debates – they are stupid and not productive

• Make sure you evaluate the effectiveness of any products through the application of the appropriate research methods and designs

A CHILD’S LIFE: LEARNING, LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF

THE MEDIA:

G. Reid Lyon, Ph.D.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development