The Role of Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming in the Prediction of Reading Difficulties in Portuguese

This study investigated the contribution of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) to the persistence of beginning reading difficulties in Portuguese. The study was longitudinal and involved 13 children who had shown little progress in learning to read during their 1st school year, and 13 children with typical reading development. At the beginning of the study, when participants were, on average, six years and nine months of age, their ability to read and spell words, and their PA and RAN skills were assessed. One year later, the children who had shown difficulties in learning to read were divided into two groups, based on their progress in learning to read during the course of the study: a group with persistent reading difficulties and a group whose difficulties had been overcome. Results showed that both groups performed equally poorly and below controls on the PA tasks at the beginning of the study. In contrast, only the children with persistent reading difficulties performed more poorly than controls on the RAN tasks at that time.