The Role of Speed of Processing, Rapid Naming, and Phonological Awareness in Reading Achievement

TLDR

The study examined how speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness influence reading achievement. The authors assessed response times across motor, visual, lexical, grammatical, and phonological tasks in 279 third‑grade children, and measured rapid object naming, phonological awareness, and reading achievement in second and fourth grades. Poor readers were consistently slower than good readers, and speed of processing accounted for unique variance in reading achievement, suggesting it may be an extraphonological factor in some reading disabilities.

Abstract

This study investigated the role of speed of processing, rapid naming, and phonological awareness in reading achievement. Measures of response time in motor, visual, lexical, grammatical, and phonological tasks were administered to 279 children in third grade. Measures of rapid object naming, phonological awareness, and reading achievement were given in second and fourth grades. Reading group comparisons indicated that poor readers were proportionally slower than good readers across response time measures and on the rapid object naming task. These results suggest that some poor readers have a general deficit in speed of processing and that their problems in rapid object naming are in part a reflection of this deficit. Hierarchical regression analyses further showed that when considered along with IQ and phonological awareness, speed of processing explained unique variance in reading achievement. This finding suggests that a speed of processing deficit may be an “extraphonological” factor in some reading disabilities.