The effect of age and sex on second grade children’s reading performance: A neurodevelopmental approach Vlachos Filippos, Papadimitriou Artemis

University of Thessaly Department of Special Education

email: [email protected], [email protected]

Introduction

Learning to read is one of the most important goals of the first school years (Moats, 2000). There is a strong body of empirical evidence which attests to a `birth-date effect' in education. That is, scholastic attainment varies with the month of birth (Bell & Daniels, 1990; Russell & Startup, 1986), such that in any age cohort the older pupils tend to outperform the younger. Gender is another factor that is often reported to affect reading development. Additionally, a significant body of research claims more boys than girls are classified as poor readers.

Method

Participants

Study participants were 287 second grades students (chronological age-CA M=7.6 year, S.D=0.37) 146 boys and 141 girls. Pupils were grouped into two age cohorts. The first cohort was from 85 months to 91 months and the second was from 92 months to 98 months.

Materials



Reading accuracy. Subtests 5 and 6, of the Test of Reading Performance (TORP, Padeliadou & Sideridis, 2000)



Reading fluency. Reading fluency were assessed by measuring sight word and pseudo word reading efficiency (Mouzaki, Sideridis, Protopapas & Simos, 2007).



Reading comprehension. Subtest 13 of the Test of Reading Performance (TORP, Padeliadou & Sideridis, 2000)

Aim & Hypotheses

The aim of the present study were to assess the effect of age and sex onsecond grade children’s reading performance.

Based on the aforementioned studies, as well as on recent neurobiological evidence of functional brain development, it was predicted that reading performance is improved with age

(Hypothesis 1)

and that girls precede boys in reading performance

(Hypothesis 2).

Results

Analysis revealed a significant main effect of age for total reading performance, F(1,285) = 9.457, p < 0.01, reading fluency F(1,285), p<0.001 and reading comprehension F(1,285), p<0.05, indicating that reading performance improve with age.

There were no significant differences in total reading performance and its components (accuracy, fluency, comprehension) according to sex, which mean that the two sexes did not differ in their reading performance.

Additionally, the interaction between age and sex was not statistically significant indicating that the effect of age did no differ between sexes.

Table 1. Reading performance (Mean &

Standard

Deviations) scores by age group.

Age Reading tasks 85-91 months 92-98 months Μ S.D.

Μ S.D.

Reading accuracy 93.50

18.23

96.40

11.61

Reading fluency Reading comprehension Total Reading Performance 61.94** 6.80* 217.72** 26.89

2.80

48.52

74.45 ** 7.47 * 236.27** 30.24

2.51

41.73

*p<.05, **p<.01, Discussion

The age differences we found in this study could be attributed on the on the continuous maturation of the visual and auditory temporal processing – capacities necessary for a successful reading – during school age years, as indicated by a very resent study (Dawes & Bishop, 2008).

The second hypothesis, which essentially investigated gender’s reading performance was not supported from our results. Our results are generally in line with previous research, (Hyde & Linn's, 1988; Trapp, 1995; Nancollis et al., 2005) which found no female superiority in reading. This finding reflects a continuation of the trend reported by Borg and Falzon (1995) and Borg et al. (1996) that during the primary years there are no consistent sex differences. The above findings supports the claim that clear and consistent sex differences tend to emerge after age 11 (Shackleton & Fletcher, 1984).

Table 2. Reading performance (Mean & Standard Deviations) scores by gender Sex Reading Tasks Boys Girls M.

S.D.

Μ S.D.

Reading Accuracy Reading Fluency Reading comprehension Total reading performance 95.97

74.54

7.03

234.93

13.61

30.58

2.53

46.50

95.40

68.14

7.58

228.44

13.52

28.93

2.63

41.42

References

•

Bell, J. F., and Daniels, S. (1990). `Are summer-born children disadvantaged? The birth

•

date effect in education', Oxford Review of Education 16 (1), 67-80.

Borg, Mark & Falzon, Joseph (1995). “Birth Date and Sex Effects on the Scholastic Attainment of Primary Schoolchildren: a cross-sectional study”. In: British Educational

Research Journal, 21, (1) 61-74

•

Hyde, Janet & Linn, Marcia (1988). “Gender Differences in Verbal Ability: a Meta Analysis”. In: Psychological Bulletin, 104, 53-69.

•

Moats, L.C., & Foorman, B. R. (2003). Measuring teachers’ content knowledge of language and reading. Annals of Dyslexia, 53, 23-45.

•

Nancollis, Alex, Lawrie, Barbara-Anne & Dodd, Barbara (2005). “Phonological Awareness Intervention and the Acquisition of Literacy Skills in Children From Deprived Social Background”. In: Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools (36), 325-335

•

Padeliadu, Susana & Sideridis, Giorgios (2000). “Discriminant validation of the Test of Reading Performance (TORP) for identification of children with reading difficulties”. In:

European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 16, 139-146.

•

Russell, R. J. H., and Startup, M. J. (1986). `Month of birth and academic achievement', Personality and Individual Differences 7 (2), 839-46.

•

Trapp, C. (1995). The effect of school Achievement scores of second Grade Students. Master’s Thesis-Kean.

•

Shackleton, V., and Fletcher, C. (1984). Individual Differences: Theories and Applications, London: Methuen.