Modeling the Growth of Decoding Skills in First-Grade Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the usefulness of combining curriculum-based measurement and hierarchical linear modeling procedures to identify the characteristics of first-grade children that predict growth rates in the acquisition of decoding skills (as assessed through measures of isolated word and nonword reading). This study examined the relative importance of both static (initial levels of performance) and dynamic (rate of growth) measures of cognitive-processing abilities (i.e., phonemic awareness and rapid naming speed) and emergent print knowledge (i.e., letter name, letter sound, more advanced graphophoneme knowledge, and orthographic awareness) as predictors of decoding growth in a sample of 75 first-grade children. Over the course of an academic year, a set of parallel word and nonword reading tasks, constructed using curriculum-base measurement techniques and administered on a monthly basis, were capable of demonstrating individual change in decoding skill. Furthermore, results indicate that growth in cognitive-processing abilities and general knowledge about print could likewise be measured and adequately modeled. In this sample of children, rate of growth in word and nonword reading was predicted by a different combination of static and dynamic variables representing both cognitive-processing abilities and print knowledge. Results suggest that in the very earliest stages of word reading development there may be a strong association between the rate of growth in cognitive processing, print knowledge, and decoding skills.