Rapid automatized naming

Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is a task that measures how quickly individuals can name aloud objects, pictures, colors, orsymbols (letters or digits). Variations in rapid automatized naming time in children provide a strong predictor of their later ability to read, and is independent from other predictors such as phonological awareness, verbal IQ, and existing reading skills. Importantly, rapid automatized naming of pictures and letters can predict later reading abilities for pre-literate children. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is a task that measures how quickly individuals can name aloud objects, pictures, colors, orsymbols (letters or digits). Variations in rapid automatized naming time in children provide a strong predictor of their later ability to read, and is independent from other predictors such as phonological awareness, verbal IQ, and existing reading skills. Importantly, rapid automatized naming of pictures and letters can predict later reading abilities for pre-literate children. The concept of rapid automatized naming began with a study by Geshwind and Fusillo in 1966. They found some adults who suffered from a stroke were later unable to name colors despite being able to color match and having no evidence of color blindness. These individuals however were able to spell and write, indicating that their brain structures were intact and that they could generate the pathway from spoken words to visual and kinaesthetic representations. This visual-verbal disconnection led to a search for individuals who could not read and may be unable to name colors, primarily grade one students. It was found that in grade one students who could not read, color naming was possible but took much longer than color naming in children who could read. The first color naming task was located in Ruesch and Wells Mental Examiner’s Handbook (1972). It consisted of 50 squares of 5 primary colors repeated in random order 10 times. The test was originally administered as a timed continuous test at the bedside of individuals recovering from head injury. Rapid automatized naming was first identified in 1974 as predicting reading abilities in young English readers between 5–11 years of age by Martha Denckla and Rita Rudel of Columbia University. Faster times in RAN trials have been found to be a good indicator of reading competence, not only in alphabetic writing systems, but in writing systems such as Chinese logographs and Japanese kanji and hiragana. RAN testing has been shown to be effective in testing reader’s fluency in languages with orthographically transparent alphabetic scripts such as German and Dutch. Timed reading tests of poor readers of transparent orthographies show very few reading errors; their main reading problem is slow, laborious decoding for words that are automatically read by their peers. This was also found for other readers in languages with consistent orthographies such as Spanish, Italian and Dutch. English is an inconsistent orthography because it has poor letter sound correspondences. English orthography and French orthography are also inconsistent because of their use of silent letters. It has been found that continuous rapid naming of a list, compared to naming of single items, is easier for nondyslexic readers than it is for dyslexic ones. Despite this, Wimmer, Mayringer and Landerl (2000) suggest that the diagnosis of dyslexia in English readers often overlooks naming-speed deficit and that most studies rely on poor word recognition to diagnose reading disability. Rapid automatized naming can be used in many different ways. One of its strengths is flexibility in what types of stimuli categories it uses. Different categories consist of colors, digits, objects and letters. Researchers use RAN to test orthographic interpretation and phonological awareness. Two RAN tests are the CTOPP and TOWRE. Two formats of RAN testing are used, discrete and serial testing. Using a serial testing method, participants are shown a row or column of symbols and must name the symbols sequentially as fast as possible. An assumption made of serial RAN testing is that it consists of two components: articulation time (the mean time it takes to articulate the symbol), and pause time (the mean length of time between naming two adjacent symbols). When referring to pause time, this can include saccadic eye movements, disengagement from previously named symbols and focusing on upcoming symbols. Using the discrete testing method, participants are shown symbols individually usually on a computer screen. In discrete RAN testing each individual symbols' naming latency is measured. The naming latency consists of the mean time from presentation to articulation of symbol. It is scored using the mean naming latency of all symbols. Some theorists believe that discrete RAN testing reflects the retrieval of phonological code from memory which can also be referred to as lexical access speed.