Children's Reading Development: Influencing Factors and Training Programs

The highly complex process of reading relies on a variety of factors that influence reading development. Initially, reading acquisition requires the understanding of the relationship between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes). If grapheme-phoneme correspondences are successfully established, the process of reading can be accelerated and automatized. The manifestation of phonological awareness is thereby considered to be the central cognitive component for successful reading acquisition and the best predictor of later reading performance. Furthermore, other cognitive skills, such as processing speed, phonological working memory, visual and auditory processing, as well as orthographic knowledge are assumed to also substantially affect reading development. Besides these (internal) cognitive preconditions, other (external) factors are additionally influential for the successful - or problematic - acquisition of reading expertise. The goal of this narrative summary is to give an overview of relevant meta-analytic results and insights from recent reviews considering the identification of significant family-and environment-based variables as well as information about effective German prevention and intervention approaches on the individual level. Relating to the influence of family conditions, the socioeconomic status and the home learning environment are outlined to be of specific relevance. More precisely, low socioeconomic status and an uninspiring learning environment have been associated with poor reading achievement. Further influential environment-based factors are related to the school setting and noise exposure. For example, the quality of instruction, the teacher's competency, as well as the pupil-teacher interaction are closely related to learning and reading success. Further, chronic exposure to urban noise reportedly results in lower reading performance for children, as their cognitive skills are generally still in the process of automatization and more prone to disturbances. To prevent school and reading failure, meta-analytic results suggest early fostering of (internal) cognitive skills, especially if the external preconditions are detrimental. A number of prevention programs have therefore focused on improving the central reading-related cognitive components (i.e., phonological awareness). Furthermore, reviews recommend engaging in intervention programs, which focus on symptom-related problems (e.g., reading training at phoneme or syllable level) to reduce any existing reading deficiencies. Fostering general reading competence (e.g., grapheme-phoneme correspondences) is emphasized to support children at risk as well as normal achievers.