We examined the dimensionality of oral discourse skills (comprehension and retell of texts) and the relations of language and cognitive skills to the identified dimensions. Data were from 529 English-speaking second graders (M[subscript age] = 7.42; 46% female; 52.6% Whites, 33.8% African Americans, 4.9% Hispanics, 4.7% two or more races, 0.8%…

Purpose: Children's ability to adjust one's language according to discourse context is important for success in academic settings. This study examined whether second graders vary in linguistic and discourse features depending on discourse contexts, that is, when describing pictures in contextualized (describing the picture to an examiner while…

Reading and writing involve print-related and meaning-making processes, which draw on numerous skills and knowledge. The contributing skills and knowledge, and reading and writing have: a) hierarchical relations where lower order skills support higher order skills in a systematic and cascaded way; b) interactive relations where reading and writing…

In this study, we examined burst length and its relation with working memory, attentional control, transcription skills, discourse oral language, and writing quality, using data from English-speaking children in Grade 2 (N = 177; M[subscript age] = 7.19). Results from structural equation modeling showed that burst length was related to writing…

This article presents the application of the interactive dynamic literacy (IDL) model (Kim, 2020a) toward understanding difficulties in learning to read and write. According to the IDL model, reading and writing are part of communicative acts that draw on largely shared processes and skills as well as unique processes and skills. As such, reading…

We investigated the effect of writing interventions on written composition for students in primary grades (K-G3) with a focus on whether effects vary as a function of different dimensions of composition outcomes (i.e., quality, productivity, fluency, and other), instructional focus (e.g., transcription, self-regulation strategies such as…

We examined the relations of inference, vocabulary, decoding, short-term memory, and attentional control to reading comprehension and mathematics performance for first-grade students in the US (N = 83). The students were composed of 75% Hispanics, 15% Whites, and 6% Asian Americans. Students' performance on mathematics and reading comprehension…

We investigated the dimensionality and relations between L1 (a speaker's first language) and L2 (a speaker's second language) writing skills in narrative and informational genres and higher order cognitive skills--inference, perspective taking, and comprehension monitoring--for Spanish-English dual language learners in primary grades. Dimensions…

Text reading fluency refers to the ability to read connected texts with accuracy, speed, and expression (prosody), and has garnered substantial attention as an important skill for reading comprehension. However, two fundamental questions remain--the dimensionality of text reading fluency including text reading efficiency (accuracy and speed) and…

We investigated the relations among theory of mind (ToM), mental state talk, and discourse comprehension. Specifically, we examined the frequency of mental state talk in children's oral recall of narrative texts and informational texts as well as relations among ToM, mental state talk (inclusion of mental state words in the recall of narrative and…

We investigated the effect of writing interventions on written composition for students in primary grades (K-G3) with a focus on whether effects vary as a function of different dimensions of composition outcomes (i.e., quality, productivity, fluency, and other), instructional focus (e.g., transcription, self-regulation strategies such as…

Retell is used widely as a measure of reading comprehension. In this meta-analysis, we evaluated the relation between retell and other measures of reading comprehension among students in Grades 1-12. Data from 23 studies (82 effect sizes; N = 4705 participants) showed a moderate relation between retell and other measures of reading comprehension,…

Perspective taking, one's knowledge of their own mental and emotional states and inferences about others' mental and emotional states, is an important skill for writing development. In the present study, we examined how perspective taking is expressed in writing and how it is related to overall writing quality. We analyzed seventh graders'…

We examined the relation between reading prosody and reading comprehension, using a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the strength of the relation and to understand whether the strength of the relation varies by prosody feature (adult-like contour, F0 sentence-final declination, grammatical pauses, ungrammatical pauses, prosody…

We examined the relations between working memory, emergent literacy skills (e.g., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, rapid automatized naming), word reading, and listening comprehension to online reading processes (eye movements), and their relations to reading comprehension. A total of 292 students were assessed on working memory and…