Becoming a skilled reader: Orthographic and semantic processing during reading

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Skilled reading involves the automatic activation of detailed representations of a word's sounds, letters and meaning (Adams, 1990; Ehri, 1992). There is abundant evidence that children's ability to analyse the sound structure of words and to apply this to reading has a causal role in reading acquisition (i.e., phonological awareness and decoding; e.g., National Reading Panel, 2000). Yet these skills do not account for all variance in reading development (e.g., Juel et al., 1986; Tunmer & Nesdale, 1985). To explain children's transition to skilled reading, we need to capture skill in two other dimensions, orthographic and semantic. We also need to evaluate children's ability to acquire representations, or their fluid processing skill. Our comprehensive program of research tests the hypothesis that fluid orthographic and semantic processing during reading determines growth in children's word reading and reading comprehension, respectively. We do so with an innovative combination of experimental and longitudinal research with sophisticated data analytic techniques. Our research program offers high-quality training in transferable skills to a new generation of developmental researchers, who are prepared with skills for both scientific and practical careers. Our program of research will fill a core gap in our knowledge of children's reading acquisition: how do children move from letter-sound decoding to detailed, automatic activation of the sounds, letters and meanings of words? The majority of models of reading development focus on the early stages of learning to read, and so it would be a substantial contribution to specify the mechanisms by which children become skilled readers. Doing so will set the stage for a new theory of reading development in which we expect that children's skill in acquiring orthographic and semantic knowledge during their reading will drive their acquisition of word reading and reading comprehension, respectively.