Phonological processing, word recognition, and reading comprehension: factor and growth curve analyses with beginning readers

In this paper, we first report on exploratory factor analyses that examined the independence of five phonological processing constructs identified from the literature, rapid naming, phonological memory, rhyming, phonological synthesis, and phonological analysis. The second part of the paper utilises the factor scores from these analyses and hierarchical linear modelling to predict (a) word recognition performance in Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3, and (b) individual differences in the growth of word recognition skills. The third part uses reading comprehension performance and growth rate as dependent variables and word recognition and phonological processing as predictors.