The impact of memory development on adolescent emergent reading: insights from Côte d'Ivoire
Date
2024
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Relative to other skills, learning to read requires time and consistent instructional support to master. Reading is a complex skill that relies on multiple cognitive and linguistic abilities including the cognitive ability that underlies all learning, memory. The landscape of memory changes throughout childhood; specifically, procedural learning (which supports sequence and pattern learning) reaches maturity near age 10, while declarative learning (which supports the arbitrary mapping of form and meaning) continues to develop into adulthood. Most reading research takes place in high-income countries where children typically begin learning to read in early childhood, when procedural learning plays a relatively larger role in skill learning. This research, however, does not reflect the experience of many children around the world who learn to read later in childhood or in adolescence when procedural learning is adult-like and the role of declarative learning for skill learning, particularly language related skills, increases. This dissertation presents three studies of procedural and declarative learning's contribution to reading among adolescents in rural Côte d'Ivoire. The first study demonstrates that procedural learning's contribution to emergent reading is through its support of phonological awareness, and this is true for children ages 8-15. The second study evaluated the cultural validity of two measures of declarative learning among children in rural Côte d'Ivoire. This study found that the most reliable measures of declarative learning are those which are based on behaviors children naturally use in their daily life. The final study examined the potential competition between procedural and declarative learning among emergent readers aged 10-16. This study found that declarative learning interferes with the development of early reading skills. Overall, these studies suggest that procedural learning is important for early reading and, among adolescent emergent readers, declarative learning competes with the role of procedural learning.
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Keywords
Adolescents, Declarative learning, Literacy, Memory development, Procedural learning