The article, Does Speech Rhythm Sensitivity Predict Children’s Reading Ability 1 Year Later? By Andrew Holliman, Clare Wood, and Kieron Sheehy, question whether speech rhythm sensitivity predicts the different components of reading over time. The study examined 69 five to eight year old English speaking children. The yearlong study started off by giving the children a speech rhythm assessment, along with a cognitive assessment and a variety of reading assessments, and ended exactly one year later by doing the same assessments for the children. After completing both of the assessments over the year long span, the researchers found that when controlling for individual differences in age, vocabulary, and phonological awareness, speech rhythm sensitivity was able to predict unique variances in word reading and the phrasing component of the reading fluency measure one year later. With that being said, the type of data needed to answer this research question would be organizational data because the researchers are looking for changes in reading ability. Subsequently, the data-gathering method would be surveys, but more so in a test-like form. Then, the method of data analysis would be ordinal since the children’s abilities would be rank ordered. I found this to be a very interesting research question and results. Something I believe others may find interesting is the conclusions this research brought. The researchers found that speech rhythm sensitivity should now be included in current models of children’s reading development.

Holliman, Andrew J., Wood, Clare, and Sheehy, Kieron. (2010). Does Speech Rhythm Sensitivity Predict Children’s Reading Ability 1 Year Later? Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 257-530.