Leaps and Bounds: From Reading Words to Understanding Texts
Complex words and sentences are common in written texts. Awareness of these aspects of language is likely key in supporting children’s reading comprehension. The goal of this project is to gain a deeper understanding of how children’s oral language skills support their reading development across the elementary grade. We will use this information to inform teaching strategies that will support strong reading outcomes for all children.
Why is reading comprehension important?
Reading comprehension is the ability to understand written text. It is one of the most important skills that children learn in elementary school and is necessary to fully participate in many aspects of society as an adult. On average, just over half of Canadians are at or above the minimum literacy needed to participate in society (Statistics Canada 2012 Data). This means that almost 50% of Canadians do not have the literacy levels needed, affecting their ability to participate in the economy, education and lifelong learning, democracy, and managing their personal health. The World Literacy Foundation (2015) estimates that illiteracy costs the world economy 1 trillion dollars annually.
In 2018, Dr. Hélène Deacon received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to support a large-scale project investigating the development of children’s reading comprehension. Eighteen schools and over 300 students in the Halifax and South Shore Regional Centres for Education signed up to take part in yearly activities between Grade 1 and 6 to help us learn more about the skills that are important in children’s understanding of complex texts.
What have we learned so far?
In this study, we focus on capturing oral language across a range of more precise skills to determine which skills are most important, at which points in time, to ensure the development of strong literacy skills for all children. We found that children’s awareness of (1) individual sounds, (2) roots and affixes, (3) sentence structure, and (4) the rhythm of language are all important to early reading. We found that children’s awareness of each of roots and affix structures of words, of sentence structure and of sound structure are significant predictors of both their word reading and reading comprehension in Grade 1. By illuminating the importance of these distinct oral language skills, researchers and educators can now turn toward developing instruction that targets these precise skills.
Along with George Frempong, Director of Research at our community partner the Delmore ‘Buddy’ Daye Learning Institute, and financial support from IURN (Inter-University Research Network), we also aim to address the achievement gap in Nova Scotia and employ intersectional analysis to explore the extent to which learners’ racial and socioeconomic identity impact their language skills and opportunity to learn. Thus far, our research shows that students of African descent and African Nova Scotian students have lower scores on Grade 1 word reading and awareness of individual sounds, roots and affixes, and sentence structure compared to a sample of all other Nova Scotian students, suggesting unique learning challenges for this group.
You can read more about our research in the following report: "Addressing the achievement and opportunity gap in Nova Scotia: Identifying the language skills that enable children to succeed in learning to read", prepared in 2025 for the Nova Scotia Department of Education.
Thank you to our partners and funders!
Thank you to all the students, parents, teachers, and administrators who continue to make our work possible!
Dalhousie University | HRCE | Nova Scotia Education | SSHRC |
Delmore "Buddy" Daye Learning Institute | SSRCE