Phoneme Awareness, Visual-Verbal Paired-Associate Learning, and Rapid Automatized Naming as Predictors of Individual Differences in Reading Ability

This study examines the concurrent relationships between phoneme awareness, visual-verbal paired-associate learning, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and reading skills in 7- to 11-year-old children. Path analyses showed that visual-verbal paired-associate learning and RAN, but not phoneme awareness, were unique predictors of word recognition, whereas visual-verbal paired-associate learning, RAN, and phoneme awareness were predictors of nonword reading. These results suggest that visual-verbal paired-associate learning, RAN, and phoneme awareness tap related but far-from-identical processes and are important predictors of different aspects of reading skills in children.