Decoding intervention for young students with mild intellectual disabilities: A single-subject design study.

Students with intellectual disabilities need more time and explicit instruction to develop word decoding. Most previous research on interventions among these students is performed in English. Therefore, the current study examined the impact of a word-decoding intervention in Swedish on individual students with intellectual disabilities. A single-subject-design study was conducted with five students with mild intellectual disability in the fourth grade. They needed to enhance decoding, and Swedish was their first language. Their word and non-word decoding was measured during the baseline and intervention phases. The intervention with the Wolff Intensive Program was delivered by special education teachers supporting phonemic decoding and reading fluency training during 25 sessions. All five students developed their decoding as they decoded more words in a given time (NAP=0.84-1.00) and decreased their decoding errors in both word and nonword decoding (NAP=0.72-1.00). The results are promising but need to be confirmed in additional studies.

The Effect of Reading Interventions among Poor Readers at a Forensic Psychiatric Clinic.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a short period, 15 sessions, of reading interventions in a sample of adult forensic psychiatric patients: 61 patients with decoding difficulties - 44 in the experimental group and 17 in the comparison group - with an average age of 31.6 participated. Of these, 36% were female, and 29% had an immigrant background. The participants carried out a battery of reading tests. The results in the experimental group showed a medium effect size (d = .36 to .76) on all reading tests between pre- and post-test. The comparison group, however, showed no gain at all between the test occasions. The results indicate that a proportionally low reading intervention effort produces improvement in reading. This study discusses the importance of including reading assessment and offering remediation in order to reach optimal future social adjustment for patients in forensic clinics.

Money and Mental Illness: A Study of the Relationship Between Poverty and Serious Psychological Problems.

UNLABELLED: Several studies have indicated a co-occurrence between mental problems, a bad economy, and social isolation. Medical treatments focus on reducing the extent of psychiatric problems. Recent research, however, has highlighted the possible effects of social initiatives. The aim of this study was to examine the relation between severe mental illness, economic status, and social relations. METHOD: a financial contribution per month was granted to 100 individuals with severe mental illnesses for a 9-month period. Assessments of the subjects were made before the start of the intervention and after 7 months' duration. A comparison group including treatment as usual only was followed using the same instruments. Significant improvements were found for depression and anxiety, social networks, and sense of self. No differences in functional level were found. Social initiatives may have treatment and other beneficial effects and should be integrated into working contextually with persons with severe mental illnesses.

Mutation in CEP63 co-segregating with developmental dyslexia in a Swedish family.

Developmental dyslexia is the most common learning disorder in children. Problems in reading and writing are likely due to a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors, resulting in reduced power of studies of the genetic factors underlying developmental dyslexia. Our approach in the current study was to perform exome sequencing of affected and unaffected individuals within an extended pedigree with a familial form of developmental dyslexia. We identified a two-base mutation, causing a p.R229L amino acid substitution in the centrosomal protein 63 kDa (CEP63), co-segregating with developmental dyslexia in this pedigree. This mutation is novel, and predicted to be highly damaging for the function of the protein. 3D modelling suggested a distinct conformational change caused by the mutation. CEP63 is localised to the centrosome in eukaryotic cells and is required for maintaining normal centriole duplication and control of cell cycle progression. We found that a common polymorphism in the CEP63 gene had a significant association with brain white matter volume. The brain regions were partly overlapping with the previously reported region influenced by polymorphisms in the dyslexia susceptibility genes DYX1C1 and KIAA0319. We hypothesise that CEP63 is particularly important for brain development and might control the proliferation and migration of cells when those two events need to be highly coordinated.

Speech-to-text intervention to support text production among students with writing difficulties: a single-case study in nordic countries.

Studies report that speech-to-text applications (STT) may support students with writing difficulties in text production. However, existing research is sparse, shows mixed results, and lacks information on STT interventions and their applicability in schools. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether a systematic and intensive assistive technology intervention focusing on STT can improve text production. A modified multiple-baseline across-subject design was used involving eight middle school students, four Norwegian and four Swedish. Their STT-produced narrative texts were collected during and after the intervention and the productivity, accuracy, and text quality were analysed. Keyboarding was the baseline control condition. The results demonstrated that seven of the eight students increased text productivity and that the proportion of word-level accuracy was maintained or improved. The use of punctuation progressed in participants with poor baseline skills. Most students' STT-produced texts had at least a similar ratio of meaningfulness and text quality as keyboarding. However, the magnitude of the changes and development patterns varied, with three students showing the most notable impacts. In conclusion, this study's intervention seemed beneficial in initially instructing STT, and the progress monitoring guided individually adapted future interventions such as balancing productivity and formal language aspects. Removing the spelling barrier with STT provided an opportunity for students to improve their higher-order skills, such as vocabulary diversity and overall text quality. Furthermore, visible progress, such as the ability to produce longer texts, might motivate continued STT usage. However, such development may not always be immediate.

Speech-to-text (STT) may be an effective tool for developing text production in students with severe reading and writing difficulties. For example, enhanced text length can provide teachers with more material for feedback, guiding students towards improved text production.Text-to-speech may further enhance the usefulness of STT in text production by facilitating the revision process through listening to produced sentences and texts.By continuously monitoring students' STT usage and text production, teachers can tailor the content for further interventions to address individual needs such as sentence construction and text planning.Early STT intervention seems beneficial, allowing more time to practise advanced skills in text production when bypassing spelling.

Computer-assisted interventions targeting reading skills of children with reading disabilities - a longitudinal study.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of three computerized interventions on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2. This longitudinal intervention study included five test sessions over 1 year. Two test points occur before the intervention, and three afterwards. The last follow-up was conducted 1 year after the first measurement. One hundred thirty children in Grade 2 participated in the study. Three groups of children with reading difficulties received computerized training programmes: one aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second focused on word and sentence levels and the third was a combination of these two training programmes. A fourth group received ordinary special instruction. In addition, there was one comparison group with age-matched typical readers. All groups improved their reading skills. The group that received combined training showed greater improvement than the one with ordinary special instruction and the group of typical readers at two follow-ups. The longitudinal results indicate additional positive results for the group that received the combined training, the majority of students from that group being no longer judged to be needing special education 1 year after the intervention.

Dyslexic students' experiences in using assistive technology to support written language skills: a five-year follow-up.

PURPOSE: This study presents several accounts of user experiences with assistive technology (AT). Although previous studies on dyslexic students reported promising results from using audiobooks, text-to-speech (TTS), and speech-to-text (STT), qualitative research is relatively sparse and short-term, and little is known about adolescents' long-term experiences of using AT in schools. Therefore, this five-year follow-up study aimed to describe dyslexic students' experiences of AT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Nine students with dyslexia were interviewed using a semi-structured framework and a descriptive pattern-based thematic analysis. The students had previously participated in an AT intervention in Sweden. RESULTS: Three main themes are reported: Contextual factors: facilitators or barriers; Emotional responses in the learning environment; Developing meaningful strategies. The results align with previous research findings that audiobooks are beneficial throughout the school years, while STT is of mixed utility. TTS was mainly used in learning to decode texts. Continued AT use is discussed thematically, concretising experiences connected to schools' multilevel support. CONCLUSIONS: This study can contribute to the development of AT academic practices enriched by users' views. The findings reveal factors enabling or hindering students' continued AT usage. Contextual factors in schools concern organisational elements rather than AT accessibility. Students' emotional responses (using AT in the classroom) are influenced by dyslexia self-acceptance and AT attitudes. Students' understanding of how and why to use AT may limit the development of meaningful strategies. Implications and suggested further research are provided to improve dyslexic students' AT experiences and success in school.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONUnderstanding the organizational factors that enable or hinder continuous assistive technology (AT) use can help teachers support dyslexic students' development in text-based learning throughout schooling.Ongoing attention to the emotional aspects of AT use in the classroom may be a valuable support in conjunction with systematic AT training.Listening and text production strategies with AT may need ongoing support to develop both lower-order and higher-order skills.

Familial dyslexia in a large Swedish family: a whole genome linkage scan.

There is a compelling body of evidence that developmental dyslexia runs in families and seems to be highly inheritable. Several investigations during the last two decades have shown possible locations of genes that might be involved in dyslexia, including regions of chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 6, 11, 13, 15 and 18. In addition, six candidate genes (KIAA0319, DYX1C1, DCDC2, ROBO1, MRPL19 and C2ORF3) seem to be related to dyslexia. The present study carried out a whole genome scan in a six-generation pedigree. In addition to literacy skills the assessment included cognitive skills and records concerning the history of reading and writing ability. Thirty-five percent were regarded as dyslexic in the family. A linkage analysis using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach has been performed. No evidence was obtained to support the hypothesis that the transmission of dyslexia in this pedigree is due to a highly penetrant major gene, and previous linkage findings were not replicated; however, power in this small study was not adequate to confirm linkage of genes with small to moderate effects. The results were discussed in relation to diagnostic procedures and sample characteristics.

Depressive symptoms, parental stress, and attachment style in mothers and fathers two and a half years after childbirth: Are fathers as affected as mothers?

The study aimed to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms and whether parental stress and attachment style affected depression in mothers and fathers two and a half years after the birth of a child. The parents completed several questionnaires including the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire and the Relationship Questionnaire. The prevalence rate of depressive symptoms in mothers was 14.9%, while for fathers it was 11.5%. Differences between the parents identified as depressed and those without depressive symptoms were also analysed. There were no significant differences between depressed and non-depressed parents on the secure, avoidant and fearful attachment styles. However, there was a significant difference between groups on the preoccupied subscale. The final aim was to calculate if attachment style contributed to the level of depression while accounting for the impact of parental stress. Parental stress (incompetence, social isolation and spouse relationship problems) was the best predictor for mothers' depressive symptoms, while parental stress (social isolation and health) and the preoccupied attachment style were the best predictors for such symptoms in fathers. The findings indicated that parental stress and depressive symptoms are closely related and can explain the difficulties parents face.

Effects of assistive technology for students with reading and writing disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Assistive technology has been used to mitigate reading disabilities for almost three decades, and tablets with text-to-speech and speech-to-text apps have been introduced in recent years to scaffold reading and writing. Few scientifically rigorous studies, however, have investigated the benefits of this technology. PURPOSE: The aim was to explore the effects of assistive technology for students with severe reading disabilities. METHOD: This study included 149 participants. The intervention group received 24 sessions of assistive technology training, and the control group received treatment as usual. RESULTS: Both the intervention and control groups improved as much in 1 year as the normed population did. However, gains did not differ between the groups directly after the intervention or at 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The use of assistive technology seems to have transfer effects on reading ability and to be supportive, especially for students with the most severe difficulties. In addition, it increases motivation for overall schoolwork. Our experience also highlights the obstacles involved in measuring the ability to assimilate and communicate text.Implications for rehabilitationsAssistive technology (AT) can be useful for children with reading disabilities to assimilating text as well as boosting their reading.Children with reading disability using AT increased reading performance as much as a norm group, i.e. the students enhanced their reading ability despite no training in traditional reading remediation.Children's and adolescents' motivation for schoolwork can be boosted when using AT as a complement for those with reading and writing disabilities.

An exploration of group-based compassion-focused therapy for adolescents and their parents.

BACKGROUND: The long-term negative consequences of mental health problems during adolescence highlight the need for effective treatments. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) aims to help individuals to enhance their ability to support and care for themselves and to alleviate shame and self-stigmatization. OBJECTIVE: This non-randomized controlled trial examined the effectiveness of group-based CFT on perceived stress and the extent of self-compassion in a clinical sample of adolescents receiving psychiatric care for complex mental health difficulties and their parents. METHOD: The participants were 43 adolescents (ages 14-17; 83.7 % female) under treatment at a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinic in Sweden and their parents (n = 77; 61 % female). The adolescents volunteered for group-based CFT (n = 19); if they did not want to participate, they were asked to join the control group receiving treatment as usual (TAU, n = 24). The CFT parents were given the same treatment as their children in parallel parent groups. The participants completed questionnaires measuring self-compassion and perceived stress before and after treatment. Paired samples t-tests and independent samples t-tests assessed the within-group and between-group differences via change scores. RESULTS: The fathers scored highest on self-compassion and had less perceived stress at both times than the adolescents or mothers. There were no significant differences between the CFT and TAU groups in self-compassion or perceived stress at either time, and the effect sizes were small (g ≤ 0.25). The TAU mother group was the only group with a significantly changed mean self-compassion score post-treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Some patients seem to benefit from group-based CFT in ways similar to the benefits of specialized therapeutic approaches. Further research into the utility of CFT for adolescents with MH problems and their parents, as well as the long-term clinical effects of CFT for this group is needed.

Mothers' and fathers' lived experiences of postpartum depression and parental stress after childbirth: a qualitative study.

Purpose: The study aims are to explore the lived experiences of mothers and fathers of postpartum depression and parental stress after childbirth.Methods: Qualitative interviews conducted, and analysed from an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) perspective.Results: Both mothers and fathers described experiences of inadequacy, although fathers described external requirements, and mothers described internal requirements as the most stressful. Experiences of problems during pregnancy or a traumatic delivery contributed to postpartum depression and anxiety in mothers and affected fathers' well-being. Thus, identifying postpartum depression with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, mothers described varying experiences of child health care support. Postpartum depression seemed to affect the spouses' relationships, and both mothers and fathers experienced loneliness and spouse relationship problems. Experiences of emotional problems and troubled upbringing in the parents' family of origin may contribute to vulnerability from previous trauma and to long-term depressive symptoms for mothers.Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrate the significant impact of postpartum depression and parental stress has in parents' everyday lives and on the spouse relationship. These results support a change from an individual parental focus to couples' transition to parenthood in child health care.

Gaining the courage to see and accept oneself: Group-based compassion-focussed therapy as experienced by adolescent girls.

Shame and self-stigmatisation are common in adolescents with mental health problems, and can hinder their recovery. Compassion-focussed therapy (CFT) help people address challenging experiences and emotions with courage, wisdom, and care. However, no previous studies have examined whether CFT is helpful for adolescents with mental health problems. The present study aimed to describe lived experiences regarding group-based CFT based on the perspectives of a sample of adolescent girls who were recruited from a child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient clinic in Sweden. In-depth interviews were conducted with six girls, aged 15 to 17, using a reflective lifeworld research approach. The results showed that participating in group-based CFT means gaining the courage to see and accept oneself through meeting with peers who are experiencing similar difficulties. When sharing experiences in a group, new perspectives and an acknowledgement that mental and emotional struggle are normal arise, and a sense of inner peace and belonging emerges. Instead of hiding from society, it is possible to participate in everyday life, ask for help, and asserting oneself. CFT can provide a promising method for empowering young people with mental health problems, helping them feel connected with others, and fostering in them the strength to show their true personalities.

Finding confidence and inner trust as a parent: experiences of group-based compassion-focused therapy for the parents of adolescents with mental health problems.

Purpose: Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) can alleviate the stress and challenges faced by the parents of adolescents with mental health (MH) problems. Although CFT interventions have shown promising results, few studies have examined its effectiveness in adolescent psychiatric settings. Therefore, this study examined the participant experiences of group-based CFT for the parents of adolescents with MH problems.Methods: The reflective lifeworld research (RLR) approach was used to conduct in-depth interviews with eleven parents, focusing on participant experiences of group-based CFT. Meaning-oriented data analysis was undertaken.Results: The essential meaning of the phenomenon of participating in group-based CFT was understood as finding confidence and inner trust as a parent, characterized by an understanding of one's own needs, which provided parents with the confidence to support their children. The phenomenon is further explicated with its three constituents: (a) taking care of oneself and one's child; (b) being open and sharing experiences; and (c) acceptance and hope for the future.Conclusions: The CFT intervention enabled parents to find their agency and strengthened their relationships with their children. The findings underscore the need to acknowledge the supportive role parents play in the recovery of children who receive psychiatric care.

Assistive technology applications for students with reading difficulties: special education teachers' experiences and perceptions.

Purpose: Reading and writing applications (with text-to-speech, TTS and speech-to-text, STT functions), used as assistive technology (AT) for students with reading difficulties are increasingly used in education, however, research has not sufficiently enough evaluated its potential. The purpose of this study was to explore how assistive reading and writing applications were perceived to function with regard to students' possibilities to assimilate (i.e., "read") and communicate (i.e., "write") text.Methods: Following a six-week app intervention, this follow-up survey contained 54 special education teachers' perceptions of how the use of apps impacted student motivation, learning, and its usability in special education. A total of 59 students with reading difficulties from Grade 4, Grade 8 and from high school, were assessed. Analyses included quantitative and qualitative analyses of teachers' responses and written material.Results: The results showed individual differences in how teachers perceived app usage for text-interaction purposes, including how app usage affected student motivation and autonomy for text-based learning. Eighty-two per cent of the younger and forty-seven per cent of older students continued to use the technology after the intervention, but in various degrees.Conclusions: Based on these findings, students with reading difficulties seem to be able to use AT in order to assimilate text (i.e., to read) and to communicate text (i.e., to write), and, thus, AT has the potential to promote participation in regular education. Future research should focus on how to customize assistive technology support in order to better utilize the potential.Implication for rehabilitationThis study found that students with reading difficulties could use reading and writing apps (with text-to-speech, TTS and speech-to-text, STT) in portable tables to be able to gain access to, and to produce text in an applied school setting.To use TTS and STT as assistive technology efficiently may require relative extensive support and training, but even with this support, not all students in this study benefited from the potential use of the technology, as the processes of being able to gain access to and to produce text with assistive technology seem to be a difficult process for some of the students.It is proposed that in order to enable all students with reading difficulties possibilities to use assistive technology efficiently, its uses need to be customized even further than was done in this extensive intervention.

Depressive symptoms and parental stress in mothers and fathers 25 months after birth.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of depressive symptoms, feelings of incompetence and spouse relationship problems and their mutual relations. Data from a Swedish parent-infant population-based cohort 25 months after childbirth was used. A questionnaire containing Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and a modified Swedish Parental Stress Questionnaire (SPSQ) regarding depression and parental stress was answered by 646 fathers and 700 mothers. Parents with depressive symptoms experienced more feelings of incompetence and spouse relationship problems than parents without depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depressive symptoms (EPDS ≥ 12) was more than11% for mothers and nearly 5% for fathers in the sample, 25 months after childbirth. The result indicated that feelings of incompetence and spouse relationship problems could be important constructs for understanding parental stress and depressive symptoms in the parents of young children. In conclusion, it is important that Child Health Care is attentive to both mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms and parental stress after the first year.

Assistive technology as reading interventions for children with reading impairments with a one-year follow-up.

PURPOSE: This pilot study investigated the possible transfer effect on reading ability in children with reading difficulties after a systematic intervention to train and compensate for reading deficiencies by using applications in smartphones and tablets. The effects of using assistive technology (AT) one year after the interventions were completely studied. School related motivation, independent learning and family relations were also considered. METHOD: 35 pupils aged 10-12 years participated. They were assessed five times with reading tests. The participants, their parents and teachers were surveyed with questionnaires regarding their experience of using AT. The data from the assessments were analyzed with paired t-tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. The data from the questionnaires were analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: The paper shows that using AT can create transfer effects on reading ability one year after the interventions were finished. This means that reading impaired children may develop at the same rate as non-impaired readers. Also, increased school motivation and an increase in independent learning and family effects have been shown. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides implications in how to facilitate reading impaired pupils' learning process and realizes the need to challenge the concept of reading to change to fit modern means of gaining information. Implications for rehabilitation Children with reading impairment could benefit from assistive technology in regards of their reading development process and increase their chances of not falling behind peers. Assistive technology as applications in smartphones and tablets may aid children with reading impairment to have an equal platform for learning in school as their peers without reading difficulties. Assistive technology could facilitate the information gaining process and subsequently increase motivation to learn and increase interest in reading activities. Assistive technology had wider effects on its users: stigmatizing situations when leaving the classroom for special education were avoided and positive effects on family life were noted.

Effects of three interventions on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in grade 2.

In a longitudinal intervention study, the effects of three intervention strategies on the reading skills of children with reading disabilities in Grade 2 were analyzed. The interventions consisted of computerized training programs: One bottom-up intervention aimed at improving word decoding skills and phonological abilities, the second intervention focused on top-down processing on the word and sentence levels, and the third was a combination of these two training programs (n = 25 in each group). In addition, there were two comparison groups, 25 children with reading disabilities who received ordinary special instruction and 30 age-matched typical readers. All reading disabled participants completed 25 training sessions with special education teachers. All groups improved their reading skills. The group who received combined training showed higher improvements than the ordinary special instruction group and the typical readers. Different cognitive variables were related to treatment gains for different groups. Thus, a treatment combining bottom-up and top-down aspects of reading was the most effective in general, but individual differences among children need to be considered.

How persistent are phonological difficulties? A longitudinal study of reading retarded children.

The present study examined the persistency of phonological deficiencies over time. The participants were 40 pupils in grade 2 with documented reading and writing difficulties and a comparison group of 30 pupils. The participants were followed over a 10-year period by word- and non-word-reading tests and tests of cognitive ability. The persistence of phonological deficits was indicated by a high correlation between non-word-reading tests in grades 3 and 12 in the reading-disabled group. A dyslexia cut-off definition based on phonological ability was the most consistent definition over time compared to a word-decoding definition or multiple cut-off definition based on IQ. Phonological decoding abilities were remarkably stable over time, and non-word-reading was found to be a valid instrument in diagnosing and discerning dyslexia both in children and adults.