The Simple View of Reading in Children Acquiring a Regular Orthography (Italian): A Network Analysis Approach

Abstract

In the present study, we explored the unique contribution of reading accuracy, reading fluency and linguistic comprehension within the frame of Simple View of Reading (SVR). The experimental sample included 118 3rd to 5th grade children learning Italian, a language with a highly regular orthography. We adopted a flexible method of analysis, i.e., the Network Analysis (NA), particularly suited for exploring relations among different domains and where the direct relations between a set of intercorrelated variables is the main interest. Results indicated an independent and unique contribution of syntactic comprehension skills as well as reading fluency and reading accuracy in the comprehension of a written text. The decoding measures were not directly associated with non-verbal reasoning and the latter was not directly associated with reading comprehension but was strongly related to oral syntactic comprehension. Overall, the pattern of findings is broadly consistent with the predictions of SVR and underscores how, in an orthographically regular language, reading fluency and reading accuracy as well as oral comprehension skills directly influence reading comprehension. Data are discussed in a cross-linguistic perspective. Implications for education and rehabilitation are also presented.

Keywords: linguistic comprehension; reading accuracy; reading comprehension; reading fluency; transparent orthography.

FIGURE 1

The edges represent regularized partial correlations. Green lines show positive associations. Red lines would have indicated negative ones (none observed). The nodes indicate the variables as it follows: (1) Text Comprehension, (2) Reading fluency, (3) Reading accuracy, (4) Syntactic comprehension, and (5) Non-verbal intelligence.

FIGURE 2

Red dots indicate the edge value of the estimated network. Black dots indicate the average edge value over 1,000 bootstrap resampling. The gray shadow represents the 95% confidence intervals estimated with the bootstrap resampling. Edges are ordered by the estimated strength.