Week 2: Learning to Read and Spell

Question 1

What is Alphabet knowledge?

Answer 1

Alphabet knowledge is the knowledge of individual letter names, sounds, and shapes.

The alphabetic principle is the idea that letters and groups of letters represent the sounds of spoken language.

Question 2

What is Phonology?

Answer 2

Phonology is the sounds of language.

Question 3

What are Graphemes?

Answer 3

A grapheme is a letter or a group of letters that make up a single sound.

Question 4

What is Orthography?

Answer 4

The spelling, or the way language is written is referred to as ‘orthography’.

Question 5

What is Orthographic Regularity?

Answer 5

Orthographic Regularity refers to the way in which a language associates letters to sounds.

Question 6

What is Orthographic Knowledge?

Answer 6

Orthographic knowledge includes an awareness of common letters patterns that are consistent across words and this awareness requires an understanding of prefixes, root-words and spelling rules.

Question 7

What is Reading?

Answer 7

Reading is translating the written form (spelling) into the spoken form (sound).

Question 8

What is Frith (1985) Three-phase theory of how children learn to read?

Answer 8

Frith’s theory discusses three stages explaining how children learn to read.

The three stages include:

o Logographic Stage
o Alphabetic Stage
o Orthographic Stage

Question 9

What is the Logographic Stage?

Answer 9

The logographic stage is recognising whole words.

Question 10

What is the Alphabetic Stage?

Answer 10

The alphabetic stage is recognising individual letters.

Question 11

What is the Orthographic Stage?

Answer 11

The orthographic stage is recognising groups of letters.

Question 12

What regions in the brain are involved when reading?

Answer 12

o Frontal lobe
o Parietal lobe (Dorsal)
o Temporal lobe (Ventral)

Question 13

What is the Frontal lobe?

Answer 13

The frontal lobes are important for voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions.

Question 14

What is the Parietal lobe (Dorsal)?

Answer 14

The parietal lobe processes information about temperature, taste, touch and movement.

Question 15

What is the Temporal lobe (Ventral)?

Answer 15

The temporal lobe is responsible for phonological awareness and decoding/discriminating sounds.

Question 16

What is the Dorsal temporal parietal circuit?

Answer 16

The dorsal temporo-parietal circuit involved in the processing of information in terms of the ability of an individual to orient attention to new stimuli.

Question 17

What is the Posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG)?

Answer 17

Posterior superior temporal gyrus is the site of auditory processing and plays some role in spoken word recognition.

Question 18

What is Supramarginal?

Answer 18

Supramarginal plays a role in phonological processing (spoken and written language) and emotional responses.

Question 19

What is Angular Gyri (ANG)?

Answer 19

Angular Gyri plays a role in complex language functions such as number processing, reading, writing and interpretation of what is written.

Question 20

What is Ventral occipital-temporal (OT) circuit?

Answer 20

The ventral system is linked to memory-based visual-orthographic word recognition.

Question 21

What is Fusiform?

Answer 21

Fusiform plays a role in higher processing of visual information, memory and visual recognition of written words.

Question 22

What is Inferior Temporal Regions (ITR)?

Answer 22

Inferior Temporal regions are responsible for phonological awareness and discriminating sounds.

Question 23

What is the Inferior frontal (IFG)?

Answer 23

The inferior frontal gyrus has a number of functions including the processing of speech and language.

Question 24

How many phonemes does the English language have?

Answer 24

44 phonemes - Over 1120 combinations

Question 25

What is Developmental Dyslexia?

Answer 25

Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder defined by poor word-reading ability.

Question 26

How many people does Developmental Dyslexia affect?

Answer 26

Affects approximately 5-17% of children.

Question 27

What is considered to be the nominal insight?

Answer 27

Infants realisation that things have names.

Question 28

20-month-old Sarah’s vocabulary consists mostly of words like “ball”, “car”, “milk”, “shoe”, and “dog”. She would be considered to be?

Answer 28

A referential talker.

Question 29

When do mothers use rising pitch in child-directed speech?

Answer 29

When trying to engage their child’s attention.

Question 30

What is the prototypical gesture of an infant during the first year of life?

Answer 30

Pointing

Question 31

What type of pre-speech vocalisation are 7-10 months old infants likely to engage in?

Answer 31

Canonical babbling

Question 32

What is Canonical babbling?

Answer 32

Canonical babbling consists of repeated syllables consisting of consonant and a vowel such as “da da da da” or “ma ma ma ma”.

Question 33

What types of words constitute most of the infant’s early lexicon?

Answer 33

Nouns

Question 34

In adults, which part of the brain is typically associated with speech production?

Answer 34

Broca’s area, a region in the left frontal lobe.

Question 35

The smallest unit of speech sound is called what?

Answer 35

Phoneme

Question 36

What is the speech sound that is made when a person utters a word is called?

Answer 36

Morpheme

Question 37

What is Babbling?

Answer 37

A combination of vowels and consonants.

Question 38

Orthographic is a term used to describe what?

Answer 38

Associating sounds with letters.

Question 39

What is the strongest predictor of reading ability across many languages?

Answer 39

Phonemic awareness

Question 40

What does the dual-route cascade model assume?

Answer 40

That reading words and non-words take different routes.

Question 41

Is Developmental Dyslexia heritable?

Answer 41

Yes

Question 42

According to Rack et al. (1992) the best predictor of developmental dyslexia is?

Answer 42

Poor phonological awareness