The cognitive foundations of reading and arithmetic skills in 7- to 10-year-olds.
A range of possible predictors of arithmetic and reading were assessed in a large sample (N=162) of children between ages 7 years 5 months and 10 years 4 months. A confirmatory factor analysis of the predictors revealed a good fit to a model consisting of four latent variables (verbal ability, nonverbal ability, search speed, and phonological memory) and two manifest variables (digit comparison and phoneme deletion). A path analysis showed that digit comparison and verbal ability were unique predictors of variations in arithmetic skills, whereas phoneme deletion and verbal ability were unique predictors of variations in reading skills. These results confirm earlier findings that phoneme deletion ability appears to be a critical foundation for learning to read (decode). In addition, variations in the speed of accessing numerical quantity information appear to be a critical foundation for the development of arithmetic skills.
Durand
Marianne
M
Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York Y010 5DD, UK.
Hulme
Charles
C
Larkin
Rebecca
R
Snowling
Margaret
M
D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014825:Vocabulary