The use of a computer-based program focused on the syllabic method to support early literacy in children with cochlear implants.

BACKGROUND: Children with cochlear implants (CIs) often lag behind children with normal hearing (NH) in early literacy skills. Furthermore, the development of language skills associated with their emergent literacy skills seems to depend on good auditory access. Supporting language acquisition and early literacy in children with CIs may prevent difficulties in primary school. The use of technology may facilitate auditory and speech recovery in children with CIs, but evidence on computer-based early literacy programs is limited. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates (a) the effects of a computer-based program focusing on the syllabic method on the literacy skills of children with CIs (CIs group), comparing them with the literacy skills of a group of age-matched NH (normal hearing) peers (NHs group); (b) the associations between language and early literacy skills in the NHs group and between language, auditory and early literacy skills in the CIs group. METHOD: Nine prelingually deaf children with CIs (M = 61.11, SD = 6.90) with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and nine age-matched NH children participated in the program. Categories of Auditory Performance (CAP) as measures of children's auditory skills were collected. All participants were tested on phonological, morphosyntax (grammatical comprehension and repetition), and early literacy skills (syllable blending and segmentation, syllable and word reading) (T1). Next, all children participated in the computer-based program for 12 weeks. After the program was completed (T2), only early literacy tests were administered to the children. RESULTS: Although, on average, both groups obtained higher scores in all literacy tasks at T2, the CIs group scored lower than the NHs group. In the CIs group, at T2 we found significant improvements in syllable segmentation (p = 0.042) and word reading (p = 0.035). In the NHs group, at T2 we found significant improvements in syllable segmentation (p = 0.034), syllable blending (p = 0.022), syllable reading (p = 0.008), and word reading (p = 0.009). We also found significant associations in both groups between measures of morphosyntax at T1 and measures of early literacy at T2. In addition, for the CIs group, we found significant associations between children's auditory performance at T1 and measures of morphosyntax at T1 and early literacy at T2. CONCLUSION: a computer-based program focused on the syllabic method could support children with CIs in acquiring emergent literacy abilities. The auditory performance of children with CIs seems to influence their morphosyntax and later early literacy skills.

Narrative skills and language comprehension in preschool children with cochlear implants: A comparison with children with Developmental Language Disorder or typical development.

INTRODUCTION: The narrative skills of children with cochlear implants (CIs) are fragile, but the factors at play and whether these difficulties could be similar to those detected in language impairment are not clear. The present study aims to assess, at the microstructural level, narrative skills, comparing children with CIs with children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) or Typical Development (TD). Furthermore, the relationship between verbal (lexical and morphosyntactic) comprehension and narrative skills across groups is investigated. METHODS: The narratives of 19 children with CIs (Mage = 62.42 months, SD = 6.83), 13 children with DLD (Mage = 65.38 months, SD = 4.27), and 18 preschool children with TD (Mage = 63.67 months, SD = 4.31) were assessed in a standardized task. Articles, prepositions, pronouns, gender and number agreement, accuracy in the use of verbs, and number of arguments in each sentence were analysed. Lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension were also assessed. Performance was compared across groups using ANOVAs or Kruskal-Wallis tests. The role of lexical and morphosyntactic comprehension in predicting each morphological and syntactic element in the narrative task was examined using linear regressions. RESULTS: Data analysis showed that both children with CIs and DLD had fragilities in narration, both in the morphological and syntactic components. Although some differences between children with CIs and those with DLD emerged in descriptive analyses, these were not statistically significant. Regressions showed that morphosyntactic comprehension predicted the number of pronouns produced only in the TD group. CONCLUSIONS: The scarce differences between CI and DLD groups and the absence of an effect of morphosyntactic comprehension on pronoun production may be due to their low production of these elements in the narrative task and/or to a difficulty in managing pronouns in an expressive task regardless of their ability to comprehend them. Potential implications of these results are discussed.

I-MovE. An intervention to promote movement at childcare centers: Benefits for motor cognitive and socio-emotional development.

The present contribution aimed to analyze the effects of a motor program intervention (i.e., I-MovE intervention) implemented indoors and outdoors at nursery school, on children's motor, socio-emotional, and cognitive skills. The study uses a non-randomized pre-post test design. Participants were children attending twenty nursery schools in the North of Italy. The intervention activities were adapted to age: Level 1 activities were addressed to children between 6 and 12 months, and Level 2 activities were addressed to children between 13 and 43 months. Within each level, one group of children developed the intervention indoors (IN-group; Level 1: n = 10; Level 2: n = 104) and another group developed the intervention outdoors (OUT-Group; Level 1: n = 12; Level 2: n = 66). Finally, one additional group was involved as the control group (CONT-Group; Level 1: n = 15; Level 2: n = 98). Children's motor, cognitive, and socio-emotional skills were assessed before and after the intervention by nursery school teachers. The main results showed that the motor intervention promoted children's motor skills development in both groups (i.e., groups implementing Levels 1 and 2 activities) and the cognitive and socio-emotional skills in the older group (i.e., group implementing Level 2 activities), especially the group that performed the intervention outdoors.

Control and value appraisals and online multiple-text comprehension in primary school: The mediating role of boredom and the moderating role of word-reading fluency.

BACKGROUND: Online multiple-text comprehension is a key skill of the 21st Century, yet the study of its relations with boredom in young students has been disregarded. Boredom is an achievement emotion expected to be predicted negatively by antecedents like control and value appraisals and to be associated to a negative performance. Notwithstanding its documented domain-specificity, scarce attention has been paid to investigating these relations with primary-school students in the reading domain, and specifically for online multiple-text comprehension, and to how such relations are moderated by basic cognitive abilities. AIMS: Considering separately two settings (homework, test), we studied the mediation of boredom in the relation between control-value appraisals and online multiple-text comprehension in primary-school students, focusing on the moderating role of word-reading fluency. SAMPLE: Participants were 334 fourth and fifth graders. METHODS: We evaluated students' reading-related self-efficacy and task-value, reading-related boredom for homework and tests, word-reading fluency, and online multiple-text comprehension. RESULTS: Path analyses revealed negative relations between control-value appraisals and boredom for homework and tests, and between boredom and online multiple-text comprehension for tests only. For the latter, word-reading fluency moderated the relation between appraisals, boredom, and comprehension: Boredom negatively related to comprehension only for students with high word-reading fluency. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are discussed focusing on antecedents of online multiple-text comprehension as a literacy skill critical in the 21st Century. We underlined their implications for learning in general and specifically for the current educational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Home Language Activities and Expressive Vocabulary of Toddlers from Low-SES Monolingual Families and Bilingual Immigrant Families.

Children from low-SES (socioeconomic status) and minority language immigrant families are at risk of vocabulary difficulties due to the less varied and complex language in the home environment. Children are less likely to be involved in home language activities (HLA) in interaction with adults in low-SES than in higher-SES families. However, few studies have investigated the HLA variability among low-SES, minority language bilingual immigrant families. This longitudinal study analyzes the frequency and duration of HLA and their predictive roles for expressive vocabulary acquisition in 70 equivalent low-SES monolingual and bilingual toddlers from minority contexts. HLA and vocabulary were assessed at 24 and 30 months in the majority language (Italian) and in total (majority+minority language) using parent and teacher reports. The frequency and duration of HLA in interaction with adults in total, but not in the majority language, at 24 months were similar for the two groups. These activities uniquely accounted for expressive vocabulary at 30 months, after accounting for total vocabulary at 24 months, in both groups. In conclusion, a minority-majority language context is not an additional risk factor for vocabulary acquisition if HLA is considered in interaction with adults in both languages. HLA are proximal environmental protective factors for vocabulary acquisition.

Fostering Broad Oral Language Skills in Preschoolers from Low SES Background.

Socioeconomic disparities increase the probability that children will enter school behind their more advantaged peers. Early intervention on language skills may enhance language and literacy outcomes, reduce the gap and, eventually, promote school readiness of low-SES (Socioeconomic Status) children. This study aimed to analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of a brief narrative-based intervention (treatment vs. control group) aimed to foster broad oral language skills in preschoolers (N = 69; Mean age = 5.5, SD = 4 months) coming from low-SES families. Moreover, it was analyzed whether children's initial vocabulary mediates the intervention's responsiveness. Results have shown that children in treatment group obtained greater gains than children in control group in almost all intervention-based measures. There is also some evidence for the generalizability of the intervention to other skills not directly trained during the intervention. Moreover, it was found that children's initial vocabulary mediates the intervention's responsiveness showing that children with high vocabulary made greater gains in higher-level components of language comprehension, whereas children with low vocabulary made higher gains in vocabulary. Taken together, our findings suggest that a relatively brief, but quite intensive narrative-based intervention, may produce improvements on broad oral language skills in preschoolers from low-SES backgrounds.

Factors Promoting Learning With a Web Application on Earthquake-Related Emotional Preparedness in Primary School.

Little is known about interventions aimed at building children's emotional resilience to combat the psychological trauma associated with future earthquakes. However, natural disasters have potentially a highly traumatic impact on children's psychological functioning. Therefore, within the Emotional Prevention and Earthquakes in a primary school project, we developed a web application promoting earthquake-related emotional preparedness called HEMOT® (Helmet for EMOTions). We studied the role of achievement emotions as factors associated to learning using the web application, coherently with the assumptions of the control-value theory. We also took into account class level and gender. We involved 64 second and fourth graders who used a nine-level web application focused on earthquake-related knowledge, emotions, and emotion regulation. We assessed children's digital self-concept, learning at the web application (operationalized as digital text comprehension), application-related achievement emotions, and text comprehension. We analyzed the data through linear and generalized linear models, and path analyses. First, our findings documented class differences in some of the examined constructs: Pride was higher for younger compared to older children, while the digital performance was higher for older compared to younger students. Second, digital self-concept was positively linked to application-related pride and relaxation. In turn, pride, relaxation, and sadness, and also text comprehension, were linked to the digital performance. With some exceptions, these relations were in line with the assumptions of the control-value theory, extending it to a context disregarded within the current literature. This knowledge is a first step to develop further interventions fostering children's resources to promote learning related to emotional preparedness.

Advanced theory of mind uniquely contributes to children's multiple-text comprehension.

This study examined the contribution of advanced theory of mind (AToM), operationalized as second- or higher-order recursive mentalistic reasoning, to multiple-text comprehension in fourth and fifth graders (N = 184). The role of AToM was analyzed by taking into account children's individual characteristics (i.e., age, gender, prior topic knowledge, word reading fluency, vocabulary knowledge, and single-text comprehension) and task features (i.e., contrast between positions on the topic of two sets of texts). Mixed models analysis revealed that AToM uniquely contributed to comprehension of multiple texts over and above the individual and task variables. In addition, the contribution of AToM to the comprehension of multiple texts did not significantly differ for the two tasks despite differences in contrast between positions on the topic. Results indicate that children's ability to consider different perspectives and mental states is a relevant unique predictor of multiple-text comprehension.

Going beyond children's single-text comprehension: The role of fundamental and higher-level skills in 4th graders' multiple-document comprehension.

BACKGROUND: Children's comprehension of single texts relies on both foundational and higher-level skills. These are also assumed to support multiple-document comprehension, but their relative importance has not been examined, to date. Multiple-document comprehension additionally requires the identification and use of information about each document's source. AIMS: This study examined multiple-document comprehension in primary school-aged children. It sought to determine the relative importance of skills proposed to be common to both single-text and multiple-document comprehension (word reading fluency, verbal working memory, comprehension monitoring) and specific to the latter (source use). Single-text comprehension and prior topic knowledge were considered as moderator and control. SAMPLE: Participants were 94 children in the fourth year (mean age = 9; 7 years; 52% females). METHODS: Children read three documents on each of two topics (chocolate and video games). Multiple-document comprehension and source use were assessed through short essays. Independent measures of the fundamental and higher-level skills were used. RESULTS: There was a significant direct and indirect influence of word reading fluency on comprehension of multiple documents on videogames and also an indirect influence of comprehension monitoring. Indirect influences of word reading fluency and comprehension monitoring on multiple-document comprehension for both topics were also apparent. Verbal working memory was not a unique predictor. When source information was identified, it was included to support the argument in the composition. CONCLUSIONS: Efficient word reading, comprehension monitoring, and single-text comprehension are important for multiple-document comprehension in young readers. Implications of these findings and differences between the two document sets are discussed.

Impacts of a shared book-reading intervention for Italian-speaking children with developmental language disorder.

BACKGROUND: The regular practice of shared book reading (SBR) at home may play a key role in fostering the linguistic development of children with developmental language disorder (DLD). However, more evidence is needed of the benefits of home-based SBR interventions on the parents' conversational strategies and on the communicative and linguistic production of children with DLD. AIMS: To examine the impacts of a parent-based SBR intervention on the parent's use of conversational strategies, and on the engagement, conversational participation and linguistic production of Italian-speaking children with DLD. The mothers trained in the use of SBR strategies were expected to increase their use of these strategies. The children were expected to show gains in their level of engagement and conversational participation during SBR; in turn, moderate increments of the indices of language production were expected. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Thirty-two preschool children with DLD participated in the study; all were receiving speech language therapy. Using a non-randomized pre-post-test control trial, 20 mother-child dyads implemented an 8-week SBR programme (the SBR intervention group), while 12 dyads acted as a comparison group. Based on the 'dialogic reading' method, eight verbal and non-verbal SBR strategies were employed during individual and small-group parent training sessions. Speech-language therapists were involved in the individual parent training sessions to provide suggestions focused on the specific characteristics of each mother-child dyad. Measures of parents' intervention strategies, children's engagement, conversational participation and oral language were included. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: At post-test, mothers in the SBR intervention group used three of the eight SBR strategies-Shared Book Handling, Captivating Talking, and Utterances with a familiar topic-significantly more than the comparison group. Children whose mothers implemented the intervention showed significant gains in terms of time spent in engagement and amount of verbal production during shared reading. No effects were found for the children's communicative initiatives and answers, or for indices of language complexity and diversity. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The present parent-based SBR intervention for Italian-speaking preschoolers with DLD showed effects, albeit modest, on both maternal and child communicative behaviours. The results suggest that extralinguistic strategies may be implemented successfully by parents and may be effective in enhancing children's engagement and language production in the short term. Further investigations are needed that provide a longer intervention period and examine the joint impact of therapist- and parent-based intervention for children with DLD.

The role of cardiac vagal tone and inhibitory control in pre-schoolers' listening comprehension.

This study investigated the role of basal cardiac activity and inhibitory control at the beginning of the school year in predicting oral comprehension at the end of the year in pre-schoolers. Forty-three, 4-year-olds participated in the study. At the beginning of the school year children's electrocardiogram at rest was registered followed by the assessment of inhibitory control as well as verbal working memory and verbal ability. At the end of the year all children were administered a listening comprehension ability measure. A stepwise regression showed a significant effect of basal cardiac vagal tone in predicting listening comprehension together with inhibitory control and verbal ability. These results are among the first to show the predictive role of basal cardiac vagal tone and inhibitory control in pre-schoolers' oral text comprehension, and offer new insight into the association between autonomic regulation of the heart, inhibitory control, and cognitive activity at a young age.

Gesture and speech during shared book reading with preschoolers with specific language impairment.

This study examined (a) the relationship between gesture and speech produced by children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing (TD) children, and their mothers, during shared book-reading, and (b) the potential effectiveness of gestures accompanying maternal speech on the conversational responsiveness of children. Fifteen preschoolers with expressive SLI were compared with fifteen age-matched and fifteen language-matched TD children. Child and maternal utterances were coded for modality, gesture type, gesture-speech informational relationship, and communicative function. Relative to TD peers, children with SLI used more bimodal utterances and gestures adding unique information to co-occurring speech. Some differences were mirrored in maternal communication. Sequential analysis revealed that only in the SLI group maternal reading accompanied by gestures was significantly followed by child's initiatives, and when maternal non-informative repairs were accompanied by gestures, they were more likely to elicit adequate answers from children. These findings support the 'gesture advantage' hypothesis in children with SLI, and have implications for educational and clinical practice.

The role of linguistic context in deriving word meanings in individuals with Down Syndrome.

Deriving the meaning of unknown words from context and its relationship to text comprehension was investigated in 24 individuals with Down syndrome and in 24 typically developing children matched for the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) score. The study consisted of three phases. Unknown words were identified during the first phase (PPVT). Those words were presented embedded in brief linguistic contexts during the second phase. Recognition (maintenance) of word meanings was verified in the third and final phase. Both groups of participants recognized the meanings of a noteworthy number of words in contexts and a high percentage of these was maintained when they were presented at a later date without the support of context. Over and above group differences and basic linguistic skills, text comprehension seems to predict the ability to use context. Context provides the semantic information necessary to extract word meaning by activating relevant world knowledge.

The advantage of reading over listening text comprehension in Down syndrome: what is the role of verbal memory?

The current study was designed to investigate the role played by verbal memory in the advantage shown by individuals with Down syndrome in reading over listening text comprehension (Roch & Levorato, 2009). Two different aspects of verbal memory were analyzed: processing load and coding modality. Participants were 20 individuals with Down syndrome, aged between 11 and 26 years who were matched for reading comprehension with a group of 20 typically developing children aged between 6;3 and 7;3 years. The two groups were presented with a listening comprehension test and four verbal memory tasks in which the degree of processing load and the coding modality were manipulated. The results of the study confirmed the advantage of reading over listening comprehension for individuals with Down syndrome. Furthermore, it emerged that different aspects of verbal memory were related respectively to reading and to listening comprehension: visual memory with low processing load was related to the former and oral memory with high processing load to the latter. Finally, it was demonstrated that verbal memory contributed to explain the advantage of reading over listening comprehension in Down syndrome. The results are discussed in light of their theoretical relevance and practical implications.

Role of verbal memory in reading text comprehension of individuals with Down syndrome.

This study analyzed the relationship between verbal memory and reading text comprehension in individuals with Down syndrome. The hypothesis that verbal memory provides unique contribution to reading text comprehension after controlling for verbal skills was tested. Twenty-three individuals with Down syndrome (ages 11 years, 2 months-18 years, 1 month) were matched on reading text comprehension, which was the primary variable of interest, with 23 typically developing children (ages 6 years, 2 months-7 years, 1 month). The two groups were compared on verbal skills and verbal memory. The results showed that working memory (concurrent storage and processing functions), but not short-term memory, predicted unique variance in reading text comprehension, after the verbal skills were controlled for. No group differences emerged in the relationship between verbal memory and reading text comprehension.

Follow-up study on reading comprehension in Down's syndrome: the role of reading skills and listening comprehension.

BACKGROUND: According to the 'Simple View of Reading', reading comprehension requires some abilities such as reading skill and listening comprehension. Individuals with Down's syndrome show relative strengths in reading skills, mainly in word recognition, where they attain a reading age of about 7-8 years. Compared with word recognition, their reading comprehension is usually delayed by at least 6 months. Poor reading comprehension is paralleled by weak listening comprehension. It is claimed that poor listening comprehension might constrain the development of reading comprehension and, therefore, be a cause for the asynchrony between reading skills and reading comprehension. AIMS: A follow-up study was carried out in order to analyse the improvements in reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension, and to support the hypothesis of a causal relationship between listening and reading comprehension. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Ten children and adolescents with Down's syndrome, aged between 11 years 3 months and 19 years 10 months, were assessed twice over a one-year period as to their reading skills, listening and reading text comprehension. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Three main findings emerged: (1) reading skills, on the one hand, and comprehension (both listening and reading), on the other hand, are independent; (2) reading comprehension development is determined mainly by listening comprehension, which in the present study proved to be very poor; and (3) an improvement after a one-year period, even though limited, occurred for all examined abilities except for listening comprehension. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The results are discussed in the light of the theoretical framework of the 'Simple View of Reading' and of their relevance for practical and educational issues.

Listening comprehension in preschoolers: the role of memory.

The current study analyzed the relationship between text comprehension and memory skills in preschoolers. We were interested in verifying the hypothesis that memory is a specific contributor to listening comprehension in preschool children after controlling for verbal abilities. We were also interested in analyzing the developmental path of the relationship between memory skills and listening comprehension in the age range considered. Forty-four, 4-year-olds (mean age = 4 years and 6 months, SD = 4 months) and 40, 5-year-olds (mean age = 5 years and 4 months, SD = 5 months) participated in the study. The children were administered measures to evaluate listening comprehension ability (story comprehension), short-term and working memory skills (forward and backward word span), verbal intelligence and receptive vocabulary. Results showed that both short-term and working memory predicted unique and independent variance in listening comprehension after controlling for verbal abilities, with working memory explaining additional variance over and above short-term memory. The predictive power of memory skills was stable in the age range considered. Results also confirm a strong relation between verbal abilities and listening comprehension in 4- and 5-year-old children.