Phonemes, rhymes, and intelligence as predictors of children's responsiveness to remedial reading instruction: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention study

We present an analysis of data from a longitudinal intervention study with 7-year-old poor readers (Hatcher, Hulme, & Ellis, 1994). A battery of cogni tive and phonological tasks administered before the intervention began reve aled five separate factors: Phoneme Manipulation, Rhyme, Verbal Ability, No nverbal Ability and Phonological Memory. We assessed the extent to which th ese factors were predictive of children's responsiveness to the teaching in terventions they received. For reading accuracy, Verbal Ability, Nonverbal Ability, Phonological Memory, and Rhyme made no significant contribution to predicting responsiveness to teaching, while Phoneme Manipulation was a ve ry strong predictor. However for reading comprehension, Verbal ability (but not nonverbal ability) made an additional unique contribution to predictin g responsiveness to teaching. The results are discussed in the context of c urrent theories of the role of intelligence and phonological skills in lear ning to read. (C) 1999 Academic Press.