Efficient language processing necessitates some level of systematic mapping between word forms and meanings (Kirby et al., 2008; Dautriche et al., 2017). When words look similar but have unrelated meanings (e.g., ‘leopard’ vs. ‘leotard’), this inconsistent form-meaning mapping could interfere with word recognition (Forster & Hector, 2002; Bowers et al., 2005). For example, the activation of ‘leopard’ when seeing ‘leotard’ interferes with judging whether ‘leotard’ is an animal (Rodd, 2004). Little is known about whether similar interference occurs at the early stages of word learning.

In this study, I propose the form-meaning consistency (FMC) model, which offers a fine-grained analysis of the semantic relationships between words with similar forms. For example, ‘leopard-leotard’ exhibits low FMC due to similar forms but unrelated meanings, whereas ‘snort-snore’ shows high FMC with closely related forms and meanings.

This study examined the effect of form-meaning consistency on word learning (e.g., Does prior knowledge of ‘leopard’ interfere with learning ‘leotard’?). I designed and conducted a novel experiment where 50 adult native English speakers read short passages to learn 12 pseudowords that differ in their form-meaning consistency with known words. For example, I investigated whether the activation of ‘bucket’ interfered with learning the meaning of ‘burket,’ a fictional animal, in the early stages of acquisition. Learning was measured by semantic relatedness rating tasks.

The findings indicate that lower FMC interfered with the semantic learning of novel words. Specifically, the activation of semantically less related orthographic neighbors led to longer response time and biased ratings in semantic tasks. This interference effect was most salient in delayed semantic tasks and was mitigated in immediate tasks. The analysis reveals various mechanisms through which FMC influences the retrieval of word meaning and decision on semantic relatedness.

This study contributes to the understanding of how the brain's semantic network processes and integrates novel linguistic information, highlighting the significance of form-meaning mappings in efficient language learning and usage. By extending the current understanding of the role of form-meaning mapping in word recognition to the realm of word learning, this research provides insights into the mechanisms and cognitive processes underlying vocabulary learning from reading. It also has significant implications on more effective language teaching strategies, particularly in designing learning materials that minimize interference and optimize learning.

Orthographic depth, the degree of spelling-to-sound consistency in each language, has been hypothesized to affect the ease and effectiveness with which children learn to read (Frost, Katz, & Bentin, 1987). This linguistic factor has been found to have such a powerful effect on the beginning reading process that readers of English (the deepest alphabetic orthography) are estimated to take two and a half years longer to master basic decoding and word recognition skills than the majority of readers of other alphabetic orthographies (Seymour, Aro, & Erskine, 2003). Although the link between orthographic depth and reading acquisition has been well established, there is little to no research examining this relationship beyond the third grade. As a result, it is widely assumed that by fourth grade, reading is the same in all languages. However, because another body of research has established the ongoing and mutually supportive relationship between word reading and reading comprehension throughout development (e.g., Kintsch, 1998; Perfetti, 2007), the current study sought to challenge this assumption by investigating the long-term role of orthographic depth in reading comprehension performance. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was employed to examine subsets of data that include representative samples of typically developing fourth-grade and 15-year-old readers of alphabetic languages from the 2006 Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the 2009 Program for International Study Assessment (PISA). Findings provide tentative indication that by fourth grade, the role of orthographic depth is diminished for competent and skilled readers. However, the poorest 10 to 25% of readers appear to be continually challenged throughout development when there is a greater degree of ambiguity in their script. In contrast, even when students are below average in their ability, they may enjoy the long-term benefits of reading in a shallow orthography. The implications of this study are wide-ranging and include: accounting for orthographic differences in models of reading comprehension, providing more resources for the lowest performing readers of deep orthographies throughout schooling, and acknowledging that reading comprehension instruction and assessment may not be comparable across languages.

Many words in English resemble each other in multiple ways. When these words have similar spelling, they are referred to as orthographic neighbors. The purpose of this within-subject experimental study was to examine the effect of orthographic neighbors on the acquisition of spelling, more specifically constructing orthographic representations of words. Five questions will be addressed in the study: (1) Is there an effect of orthographic neighbors on the acquisition of orthographic representations? (2 Is there an effect of phoneme-to-grapheme consistency on spelling acquisition? (3) Is there an effect of delay on spelling acquisition? (4) Can participants’ ability to learn spelling improve without specific instruction? (5) Are there interactions between the effects of orthographic processing ability and the effects of rime, substitution, and transposition neighbors on participants’ spelling acquisition?

Seventy-one second grade students in northern California participated in the study. Following assessment of participants’ cognitive ability, five sessions of a computer-based experiment were conducted. In each session, the participants were shown two base words and attempted to learn seven new words. The seven new words included control words (without orthographic neighbors: no connection with the corresponding base word) and target words (representing various types of connections with the corresponding base word). Each new word was presented three times for five seconds in random order. Orthographic choice and spelling tasks were used to assess orthographic learning via the orthographic choice and spelling tasks. Each task was administered twice: immediately after the experiment and two days after the experiment.

Three-level logistics regression with random effects for sessions and participants were used to analyze the data. The model allows between-student variation in learning outcomes due to the individual differences among participants and contextual effects at the session level. The outcome variable was participants’ performance on the orthographic choice and spelling tasks. Level 1 included the words’ characteristics, Level 2 the sessions’ characteristics, and Level 3 the participants’ characteristics. In addition, random coefficients of effects of neighbors (Rime, Substitution, Transposition) and the cross-level interaction between orthographic neighbors and the participants’ orthographic processing ability were considered.

The effect of rime neighbors on participants’ performance were found in both the orthographic choice and the spelling tasks. The effects of substitution and transposition neighbors existed only for participants’ performance on the orthographic choice tasks. The facilitative effect of phoneme-to-grapheme consistency was found in the orthographic choice tasks, but not in the spelling tasks. The effect of delay was found both in the orthographic choice tasks and the spelling tasks. Orthographic processing was as a significant predictor for participants’ performance on all four posttests. A significant interaction between orthographic processing and rime neighbors was observed in both spelling tasks. The findings demonstrate that second-grade students can use orthographic analogies to facilitate their orthographic learning and that orthographic processing is an important cognitive ability for spelling acquisition.

Early care and education quality is a complex, multi-faceted construct consisting of multiple dimensions, such as: 1) emotional climate, 2) instructional supports, 3) learning formats, 4) assessment practices, and 5) support for families (e.g., Bulotsky-Shearer, Wen, Faria, Hahs-Vaughn, & Korfmacher, 2012; Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; LoCasale-Crouch, et al., 2007). Each of these dimensions represents separate but interrelated aspects of classroom quality that exist as part of an ecological system. Individual teachers may vary widely in the levels of support they provide across domains (Curby, Rimm-Kaufman, & Ponitz, 2009). The present study used profile analysis to identify distinct patterns of quality across multiple dimensions in a national sample of early care and education settings (N = 283 classrooms). Five distinct profiles emerged, which were differentially related to teacher/program background characteristics such as teacher education, beliefs, self-efficacy, salary, and program type. Profile membership was also predictive of child outcomes (N = 2,604) at the end of the preschool and kindergarten year. For academic outcomes, the most optimal gains were seen in the profile with high levels of quality overall, particularly in the area of instructional supports. For social-emotional outcomes, this profile was statistically similar to other profiles with above average levels of quality in emotional climate and support for families. These findings are discussed within the context of implications for policy and practice.

Many children in the United States suffer from mental health issues, and an even larger number have milder social-emotional difficulties that require support (Blanchard, Gurka, & Blackman, 2006; Child Mind Institute, 2011; Knopf, Park, & Mulye, 2008). Although school-based interventions to address these issues can be effective (Mills et al., 2006), the systems used to identify and treat children are lacking. Current research and trends in education, such as the Response to Intervention (RTI) model, support the use of broad screeners that are efficient and accessible, and that solicit young children's own reports of their well-being. In the current study, a self-survey of social-emotional problems, the How Am I Feeling Survey (HAIFS) was constructed, piloted, analyzed, and revised, with many promising results. The HAIFS was administered to students (N = 392) in Grades 1 through 3, across 31 classrooms in 5 schools. Student responses on the HAIFS demonstrated high levels of internal consistency, structural integrity, and concurrent validity. Parent and teacher reports of child functioning had small positive correlations with child reports and small to moderate correlations with one another. Child self-reports on the HAIFS did not predict performance on standardized tests, which can be explained by a number of factors. Implications of these findings for practice and policy and areas for further research are also explored.

The Pathways to Literacy reading program (Lee, Mims, & Browder, 2011) has been demonstrated to be effective at increasing both engagement and comprehension during shared storybook reading for students with exceptional needs. To date, research on Pathways to Literacy has been limited to students in early elementary school rather than preschool, which is when shared reading is usually emphasized as part of the general education curriculum. In these investigations, the reading program has been administered in one-on-one instructional settings, often in special education classrooms. No existing research has examined the ability of participating students to generalize newly learned skills to novel adapted books. The current study seeks to add to the literature by investigating the use of the Pathways to Literacy reading program in inclusive preschool settings. Three questions were addressed. First, using a multiple baseline design across three students, the question of whether or not the reading program remained effective for the target student when introduced in this new setting was asked. Second, whether or not the target students were able to generalize their skills in the areas of engagement, listening comprehension, and communication was addressed via the introduction of novel adapted books. Finally, teachers' perceptions of the reading program were explored. Of particular interest were questions related to what changes they would recommend so that the reading program can be used in this new setting. Results suggest that the Pathways to Literacy reading program was effective in increasing both engagement and listening comprehension and communication for the targeted preschool students and these skills generalized to novel adapted books. Pre- and post-intervention interviews suggest that the teachers found the goals, procedures, and outcomes of the Pathways to Literacy reading program were generally appropriate for preschool students.

While the study of family literacy in Latino communities has grown in the U.S. since the 1990s, this is a nascent research area in Latin America, with Chile being no exception. Limited information is available about the impact of parents’ literacy practice on child literacy outcomes at different developmental stages, the shared reading practices implemented by Chilean caregivers with their young children, and the distribution of said practices by family members. To address this gap, this dissertation seeks to explore the situated literacy activities conducted by Chilean parents with their pre-reading children.

Using a mix-method approach, this dissertation explores family literacy practices from three different dimensions, each represented by a study. In the first study, using a nationally representative longitudinal database from Chile, it is explored how mothers and fathers share the responsibility of conducting practices that support child language and cognitive development. Random effects at the child level and fixed effects at the time level were used to identify the causal impact of mother-child and father-child activities on child development. In the second study, utilizing the same database and a similar methodology, it is analyzed how the frequency of parents' literacy practices change across early childhood and how changes in these practices are associated with child language and literacy outcomes. Finally, in the last study, caregivers' behaviors during a shared reading event with their toddlers using a video data set from 120 Chilean families are examined. The goal of this dissertation is to highlight the assets and possible needs of Chilean parents when supporting their young children's literacy acquisition process.

This study was conducted to expand the field's understanding of how various preschool teacher practices can foster emergent literacy growth as needed to prevent widespread reading difficulties and how teachers' educational backgrounds can influence the use of such practices. Utilizing a national dataset from the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research project, hierarchical linear modeling was employed to examine the relationship between 259 teachers' practices and 1,723 students' oral language, phonological awareness, and print knowledge growth from fall to spring of the preschool year. Data was collected at 18 geographical sites across the country. A number of statistically significant relationships were observed between children's development in critical emergent literacy domains and teachers' language and literacy instructional practices (i.e., book reading practices, oral language use, phonological awareness instruction, and print and letter knowledge instruction), differentiated instruction planning, and teacher-child social interactions. The effects of teachers' practices were specific to each emergent literacy outcome, and a few findings suggest that the quality, rather than the quantity, of instruction may be more important for certain child outcomes. Some significant Child X Instruction effects were also found. Optimal book reading practices were found to be exceptionally beneficial for children who start the year with far below average (below the 5th percentile) oral language skills, and children with below average (below the 10th percentile) print knowledge skills at preschool entry benefitted more considerably when their teachers adeptly planned differentiated instruction. Furthermore, differentiated instruction planning and less permissiveness were both observed to moderate the effect that book reading practices had on children's print knowledge gains. Despite the evidence that a comprehensive repertoire of teacher practices is needed to alter children's emergent literacy developmental trajectories toward greater reading success, average national teacher practices were less than ideal. Although teachers' educational backgrounds were generally found to have no substantial relationship with teachers' practices, a positive relationship between specific coursework in early childhood education and aspects of teachers' language and literacy instruction was observed. Possible reasons for teachers' current implementation of practices are explored, and implications for future research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Although inequities are rooted across the educational ecosystem, access to high-quality learning represents a salient inroad for improving marginalized students’ educational experiences. However, preparing teachers to enact equity-centered pedagogy—that which renders high-quality learning accessible to all students—remains a multidimensional problem with a dearth of empirically supported solutions. Given special educators’ central role in supporting marginalized students’ learning, ensuring that special educator preparation supports the development of an equity-centered practice is of particular importance.

Therefore, this study examines Teacher Study Groups (TSGs) as a model for building preservice special educators’ practice and, in doing so, examines the underlying processes of preservice learning that result in instructional improvements. My conceptual framework articulated communities of practice theory with empirical research on teacher learning and the conception of critically inclusive pedagogy, which cross-pollinates access- (i.e., Universal Design for Learning) and asset-based (e.g., culturally sustaining pedagogy) paradigms.

To understand the underlying processes that preservice teachers’ traverse as they build capacity in critically inclusive practices, I studied preservice teachers’ participation in a course-embedded TSG. Through a convergent mixed methods design, I examined 60 preservice teachers’ instructional quality prior to and following participation, along with their knowledge, attitudes, and knowledge calibration, as well as teaching artifacts and reflections shared during weekly sessions. In alignment with a convergent approach, I first analyzed quantitative and qualitative data separately, and I then integrated data through a joint display analysis to generate meta-inferences. Results indicated that participants significantly improved practice and foregrounded salient participatory experiences that hindered and facilitated participants’ professional growth. I conclude with a discussion of implications for equity-centered teacher preparation.

Theories of English literacy development assume that both phonological awareness and morphological awareness are metalinguistic skills involved in word identification. While there is robust empirical evidence supporting the key role of phonological awareness in reading, there is a smaller – though growing - body of empirical evidence suggesting morphological awareness makes a unique contribution to word identification. Much of the morphological awareness research has focused on its contribution to decoding in general; analysis of its specific role in the identification of different word types (i.e., morphologically complex words compared to non-morphologically complex words; real words compared to pseudowords) is inconsistent and limited. This study aims to fill this gap by examining Grade 2 students’ accuracy reading a variety of word types, controlling for morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and verbal cognitive ability. Results suggest that morphological awareness contributes to the recognition of morphologically complex and non-morphologically complex real words, but not to pseudowords. Also crucial to the field of morphological awareness research is a more developed understanding of the reader. Latent profile analysis was used to empirically determine unique student profiles of phonological and morphological awareness ability. Reading outcomes (e.g., decoding accuracy and reading comprehension) were analyzed longitudinally for each profile, across Grades 2-4, a critical developmental period when learning to read. Students in the morphologically dominant group and the phonologically dominant group performed similarly across time on all outcome measures. Students with commensurate development of these skills outperformed the other two groups on all measures at all time points, suggesting both skills are needed for higher levels of reading achievement during elementary school grade levels. Because many students struggle learning to read, this finding is useful in identifying the different skill profiles that are more or less at-risk for future reading outcomes.