The connection between children's knowledge and use of grapho-phonic and morphemic units in written text and their learning at school

• Published in: British journal of educational psychology Vol. 84; no. 2; pp. 211 - 225
• Main Authors: Bryant, Peter, Nunes, Terezinha, Barros, Rossana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Leicester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2014; Wiley-Blackwell; British Psychological Society
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Achievement; Adolescent; Age Differences; Age Factors; Aptitude; Assessment; Avon; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Children; Children & youth; Data Display; Educational Measurement - methods; Educational Measurement - statistics & numerical data; Educational psychology; Elementary School Students; England; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Graphemes; grapho-phonic units; Humans; Knowledge; Language; Language Arts; Learning; Learning Processes; Literacy Education; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Mathematics; Mathematics - statistics & numerical data; Mathematics Achievement; Morphemes; morphemic units; Phonetics; Predictor Variables; Principal Component Analysis; Psychologists; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure; Reading; Reading Ability; Reading Achievement; Reading Instruction; Reading Processes; Reading Skills; Regression (Statistics); Regression Analysis; school achievement; Science - statistics & numerical data; Science Achievement; Secondary School Students; spelling; Success; Writing; Writing Processes; Writing Skills; England; Human; Academic achievement; Morpheme; Mathematics; Knowledge; English; Language; Grapheme; Sciences; Primary school; Predictive factor; Phoneme; Child; grapho-phonic units; morphemic units; reading; school achievement; spelling
• ISSN: 0007-0998; 2044-8279
• DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12030

Background Most psychologists who study children's reading assume that their hypotheses are relevant to children's success at school. This assumption is rarely tested. Aims The study's aims were to see whether two successful measures of the processes underlying children's learning to read and write are related to their success in English, science, and mathematics as measured by school assessments. Sample Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were available for between 2,500 and 5,900 children (in different analyses) on their use of graphophonic and morphemic units in reading and writing and on their achievement in Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 assessments. Method Hierarchical multiple regressions assessed the relationship between children's use of grapho‐phonic and morphemic units at 8‐ and 9‐years and their performance in the Key Stage 2 (11‐years) and Key Stage 3 (14‐years) assessments in English, mathematics, and science. Results The children's grapho‐phonic and morphemic skills predicted their achievement in all three subjects at Key Stage 2, 3 years later, and at Key Stage 3, 5 years later, even after stringent controls for differences in age and IQ. The connection between the two types of orthographic skills and the children's educational success was largely mediated by their reading ability as measured by standardised tests. Conclusions Children's knowledge and use of grapho‐phonic and morphemic rules has a lasting effect on the progress that they make at school. This knowledge has an impact on their reading ability which in turn affects their success in learning about English, mathematics and science.