A central objective of schooling processes at the international level is reading skills development. Unfortunately, many students in the European Union underperform at this, and these low performances can be more pronounced in countries with lower Human Development Index (HDI) values. This study analysed the contextual effect of school…

The gender difference in reading achievement in favor of adolescent girls is a robust finding in the literature, but the evidence is mixed when considering younger children. The present study followed the development of reading skills among Finnish children (N = 1867) from kindergarten age (6 years) to 18 years of age to determine the onset of…

In this longitudinal study, we examined what kind of profiles of reading fluency and spelling skills could be identified among pupils (N = 467) and how stable these profiles were during the first three years of school. We also investigated how monolingual (Swedish) and simultaneously bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) pupils and gender were distributed…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between reading literacy and age in an adult population aged 25 to 65 in Nordic countries using PIAAC 2012 data. More specifically, the study examined to what extent variations in the literacy proficiency of adults are explained by age and the recentness of qualifications when…

We investigated the predictive power of cognitive skills and background variables of 769 first and second grade children learning to read two orthographically different languages Finnish and German in three countries Finland, Germany and Italy. Main results from stepwise regression models showed that in all countries word reading at first grade…

Previous studies show that many students with reading and spelling problems have a lack of progress in reading and spelling skills after years of special education services. The aim of the study is to evaluate the reading and spelling skills of Finnish children in grades 1 and 2 receiving part-time special education from special education teachers…

PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is the fourth assessment in the current trend series, following PIRLS 2001, 2006, and 2011. There were 61 participants in PIRLS 2016, including 50 countries and 11 benchmarking entities (e.g., regions of countries as well as additional grades or language groups from the participating…

The present study analyzed data from the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia to investigate the factors to which mothers of children with and without familial risk for dyslexia attribute the causes of their first-grade children's reading achievement. Mothers' causal attributions were assessed three times during their children's first school…

Examines the development of reading skill during the first school year using preschool motivational orientation, coping tendencies, knowledge of alphabet, and phonemic awareness as predictors. Finds that preschool phonemic awareness and task orientation are associated with enhanced word-reading fluency. (DSK)

This study investigated the prospective relationships between reading performance and reading habits among Finnish children during the first and second grades of primary school. One hundred and ninety-five children were examined twice during their first primary school year and once during the spring term of Grade 2. The results showed, first, that…

Reports on a longitudinal study of Finnish student development in literacy skills, especially reading skills. Notes that children from the rural northern areas gained most in test-intelligence and literacy skills, catching up with their coevals from the southern and urban areas. (RL)

This study investigates prospective relationships between phonemic awareness and reading performance during the first year of Finnish primary school. Pedagogical interest lay in finding out whether systematic use of phonics in reading instruction supported children's reading performance even if children can already decode. A total of 85 children…