Metaphonological skills and working memory in the first grade Polish students
Submitted by:
Grażyna M. Krasowicz - Kupis
Abstract:
The poster presents relation between metaphonological skills (mainly phoneme and syllable deletion) and working memory on the early stage of literacy acquisition. The theoretical base is the Oberauer’s model of working memory (Oberauer 2000, 2003) and Krasowicz-Kupis’s model of phonological skills structure (Krasowicz-Kupis, Wiejak, Bogdanowicz 2015). The model of phonological skills includes subsyllable, syllable and phoneme simple skills as well as phonological awareness. Oberauer pointed out tree functional factors in the context of processing - simultanieous storage and processing, coordination and supervision.
The presented study involved 494 first grade students aged 6;6 – 8;5. Phonology was assed by the one part (Metalingusitic Scale) of the Phonological Test Battery (in Polish: Bateria Testów Fonologicznych IBE) (Krasowicz-Kupis i in. 2015), which detailed scores for individual assessed skills and score for whole metalinguistic scale. Interactive Working Memory Test (In Polish: Test Pamięci Roboczej TPR) (Sędek et al. 2016) consists of 3 tasks solved by the child on the touch screen (tablet): (1)counting span, (2) set switching, (3) spatial short term memory. Counting span is the measure of processing in Oberauer’s model, set switching of coordination and spatial short term memory is the measure of supervision.
All test were administered during individual sessions with children in standardised sequence.
The presented study results confirmed relationship between EFs measures concerning working memory and metaphonological test results, but they are moderate and weak. The strongest relations was observed for counting span and set switching and the weakest one for spatial short term memory. It means that in phonological processing the simultaneous storage and processing as well as supervision factors are more important that coordination one. Gender and age are significant moderators of the observed relationship. The differences also appear when taking into account the type of phonological elements (phonemes or syllables).
The results can be used in the therapy and special reading instruction planning. They can indicate the type of phonological elements and operations which have to be develop during therapy. For reading instruction the assessment results will suggest the most effective strategies of reading and the individual limitations.
References:
1.Oberauer, K., Süß, H. M., Wilhelm, O., Wittman, W. W. (2003). The multiple faces of working memory: storage, processing, supervision, and coordination. Intelligence, 31(2), 167–193.
2. Krasowicz-Kupis G., Wiejak K. , Bogdanowicz K.M., (2015). Bateria Testów Fonologicznych BTF IBE. Podręcznik. Warszawa: IBE.
3. Sędek, G., Krejtz, I., Rydzewska, K., Kaczan, R., Rycielski, P. (2016). Three functional aspects of working memory as strong predictors of early school achievements: The review and illustrative evidence. Polish Psychological Bulletin, 47(1), 103-111, https://doi.org/10.1515/ppb-2016-0011.