Abstract

In this research, the effects of word frequency, imageability and age of acquisition, on Italian children's reading aloud, are investigated. Two groups of children in the 3rd and 5th grades performed the task of single-word reading aloud. Children in both groups were faster when reading aloud high-frequency words and early-acquired words. They were also more accurate in reading aloud high-frequency words. Children in the 3rd grade were influenced more by age of acquisition than children in the 5th grade. Children in both grades were also faster at reading aloud highly imageable words, but only when they had low-frequency. These results confirm that lexical reading aloud is successfully used by young readers of a shallow orthography. Lexical-semantic variables have a smaller but significant role.