The dynamics of RAN and cognitive-linguistic skills in vowelized and unvowelized Hebrew word reading among children with reading difficulties

This study investigated predictors of vowelized and unvowelized word reading efficiency among third-grade Hebrew-speaking students with reading difficulties (RD). First, it examined the contribution of rapid automatization naming (RAN), working memory (WM), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA), and orthographic processing (OP) in explaining vowelized and unvowelized word reading efficiency among third-grade students with RD. It further explored how RAN interacts with WM, PA, MA, and OP in explaining word reading efficiency in the two scripts, and whether the contribution of RAN differs in strength between vowelized and unvowelized word reading. 270 children were assessed on the abovementioned explanatory variables as well as word reading efficiency. While RAN, WM, PA, and OP explained both vowelized and unvowelized word reading, MA contributed only to unvowelized word reading. Moreover, a significant interaction between RAN and PA was found for vowelized word reading, indicating a skill-enhancement (protective) pattern, whereby the association between RAN and reading efficiency varied as a function of phonological awareness. For unvowelized words, RAN and WM showed a significant interaction indicating a skill-enhancement pattern, in which stronger abilities in both lead to better word reading efficiency. Finally, RAN was found to play a more pronounced role in word reading efficiency of unvowelized words. These findings provide evidence that in a dual-script language, the dynamics of RAN and other cognitive-linguistic reading predictors can vary across scripts, highlighting the need for script-dependent targeted support for children with RD.