Segregación escolar del alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales en Educación Infantil en el contexto local / School segregation of students with special educational needs in Early Childhood Education in the local context

Esta investigación busca profundizar en la segregación escolar del alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales del segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil estimando su magnitud, determinando la incidencia de la titularidad del centro y de su adscripción al Programa Bilingüe y describiendo su evolución. Para ello, se realiza un estudio ex post facto con datos de los 10.182 estudiantes del segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil matriculados en alguno de los 77 centros ordinarios públicos y privados-concertados situados en dos ciudades de tamaño medio-grande de la Comunidad de Madrid. Los resultados indican que la magnitud de la segregación escolar está en torno al 0.20 (ISG); que la incidencia de la titularidad es baja (4.6 %), pero es alta la del Programa Bilingüe (17.2 % de promedio); y que la segregación ha descendido ligeramente en los últimos años, pero las diferencias entre centros atendiendo a su titularidad y adscripción al Programa Bilingüe han crecido. Con ello, se concluye que hay que prestar atención a la segregación en Educación Infantil y tomar medidas para combatirla. También se destaca la necesidad de replantear el Programa Bilingüe por su incidencia en la segregación escolar. (AU)

This research aims to explore the school segregation of students with special educational needs in the second cycle of Early Childhood Education by estimating its magnitude, determining the incidence of school ownership and affiliation to the Bilingual Program, and describing its evolution. To achieve this, we conduct an ex post facto study with data from the 10,182 students enrolled in one of the 77 public and private-subsidised schools in the Community of Madrid. The results indicate that the magnitude of school segregation is around 0.20 (ISG); that the incidence of school ownership is low (4.6 %), while the incidence of the Bilingual Program is high (17.2 % on average); and that segregation has slightly decreased in recent years, however the differences between schools based on ownership and affiliation to the Bilingual Program have increased. Therefore, we conclude that it is necessary to address segregation in Early Childhood Education and that measures need to be taken to combat it. We also highlight the importance of reconsidering the Bilingual Program due to its impact on school segregation. (AU)

Segregación escolar del alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales en Educación Infantil en el contexto local / School segregation of students with special educational needs in Early Childhood Education in the local context

Esta investigación busca profundizar en la segregación escolar del alumnado con necesidades educativas especiales del segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil estimando su magnitud, determinando la incidencia de la titularidad del centro y de su adscripción al Programa Bilingüe y describiendo su evolución. Para ello, se realiza un estudio ex post facto con datos de los 10.182 estudiantes del segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil matriculados en alguno de los 77 centros ordinarios públicos y privados-concertados situados en dos ciudades de tamaño medio-grande de la Comunidad de Madrid. Los resultados indican que la magnitud de la segregación escolar está en torno al 0.20 (ISG); que la incidencia de la titularidad es baja (4.6 %), pero es alta la del Programa Bilingüe (17.2 % de promedio); y que la segregación ha descendido ligeramente en los últimos años, pero las diferencias entre centros atendiendo a su titularidad y adscripción al Programa Bilingüe han crecido. Con ello, se concluye que hay que prestar atención a la segregación en Educación Infantil y tomar medidas para combatirla. También se destaca la necesidad de replantear el Programa Bilingüe por su incidencia en la segregación escolar. (AU)

This research aims to explore the school segregation of students with special educational needs in the second cycle of Early Childhood Education by estimating its magnitude, determining the incidence of school ownership and affiliation to the Bilingual Program, and describing its evolution. To achieve this, we conduct an ex post facto study with data from the 10,182 students enrolled in one of the 77 public and private-subsidised schools in the Community of Madrid. The results indicate that the magnitude of school segregation is around 0.20 (ISG); that the incidence of school ownership is low (4.6 %), while the incidence of the Bilingual Program is high (17.2 % on average); and that segregation has slightly decreased in recent years, however the differences between schools based on ownership and affiliation to the Bilingual Program have increased. Therefore, we conclude that it is necessary to address segregation in Early Childhood Education and that measures need to be taken to combat it. We also highlight the importance of reconsidering the Bilingual Program due to its impact on school segregation. (AU)

Using semantic verbal fluency to estimate the relative and absolute vocabulary size of bilinguals: An exploratory study of children and adolescents.

INTRODUCTION: The full assessment of bilingual children often involves at least one language for which formal vocabulary tests are lacking and which the examiner does not speak. We examined, in a sample of children with typical development (TD), whether a semantic verbal fluency task, typically used in research as a measure of executive function, could be used in the place of a formal vocabulary test to estimate vocabulary knowledge when formal tests are not available. METHOD: 113 TD monolingual French speakers and TD bilinguals and with varying degrees of exposure to French, age 6 to 17 years, completed tests of vocabulary knowledge and semantic verbal fluency. A subset of 64 participants spoke French and English and were tested in both languages. Verbal fluency measures calculated using a traditional method which uses specific rules for superordinate categories and for animals of different sex and age and a simplified scoring method which simply counts all words produced, included the total number of words produced in each language, Total Vocabulary and Conceptual Vocabulary measures combining both languages, as well as analyses of lexical composition and word frequency within the study sample. RESULTS: Linear regressions revealed that the number of words produced predicted vocabulary size in a language-specific way, with slightly stronger predictions made by the simplified scoring method. As expected, bilinguals produced more words and more unique words in their language of greater exposure, while different exposure groups were equivalent in measures combining both languages, including their Total vocabulary and Conceptual vocabulary. Producing unusual words (infrequently produced in the study sample) indicated higher vocabulary scores. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the use of the verbal fluency task as a quick and simple tool to obtain a rough estimate of vocabulary size in TD monolinguals and bilinguals. This tool shows promise as well in clinical work with other populations, subject to further verification.

"¿Cómo qué, cómo qué? cómo qué?" Single-language echolalia in a bilingual female with progressive supranuclear palsy: a case report.

The case study explores bilingualism and neurodegenerative disorders, specifically progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) with speech and language disorder (PSP-SL). It features a 78-year-old Mexican American woman who exhibits echolalia only in response to Spanish. This selective impairment suggests unevenly affected language control mechanisms despite her proficiency in both languages. Cognitive function is evaluated with neuropsychological tests; she's diagnosed with PSP-SL, depression, and anxiety. Echolalia in response to one language implies complex phonological retrieval mechanisms. Such observations prompt further inquiry into bilingual language control and processing mechanisms. The case supports evidence that bilingualism may attenuate neurodegeneration effects, suggesting better inhibitory control over disinhibited speech through enhanced executive functioning benefits.

Domain-general cognitive control processes in bilingual switching: Evidence from midfrontal theta oscillations.

Language control in bilingual speakers is thought to be implicated in effectively switching between languages, inhibiting the non-intended language, and continuously monitoring what to say and what has been said. It has been a matter of controversy concerning whether language control operates in a comparable manner to cognitive control processes in non-linguistic domains (domain-general) or if it is exclusive to language processing (domain-specific). As midfrontal theta oscillations have been considered as an index of cognitive control, examining whether a midfrontal theta effect is evident in tasks requiring bilingual control could bring new insights to the ongoing debate. To this end, we reanalysed the EEG data from two previous bilingual production studies where Dutch-English bilinguals named pictures based on colour cues. Specifically, we focused on three fundamental control processes in bilingual production: switching between languages, inhibition of the nontarget language, and monitoring of speech errors. Theta power increase was observed in switch trials compared to repeat trials, with a midfrontal scalp distribution. However, no theta power difference was observed in switch trials following a shorter sequence of same-language trials compared to a longer sequence, suggesting a missing modulation of inhibitory control. Similarly, increased midfrontal theta power was observed when participants failed to switch to the intended language compared to correct responses. Altogether, these findings tentatively support the involvement of domain-general cognitive control mechanisms in bilingual switching.

Beyond Language Scores: How Language Exposure Informs Assessment of Nonword Repetition, Vocabulary and Narrative Macrostructure in Bilingual Turkish/Swedish Children with and without Developmental Language Disorder.

As in many other countries, baseline data concerning the linguistic development of bilingual children in Sweden are lacking, and suitable methods for identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilinguals are lacking as well. This study presents reference data from 108 typically developing (TD) Turkish/Swedish-speaking children aged 4;0-8;1, for a range of language tasks developed specifically for the assessment of bilinguals (LITMUS test battery, COST Action IS0804). We report on different types of nonword repetition (NWR) tasks (language-specific and language-independent), receptive and expressive vocabulary (Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks, CLTs), and narrative macrostructure comprehension and production (Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives, MAIN) in Turkish, the children's home language, and in Swedish, the language of schooling and society. Performance was investigated in relation to age, language exposure, type of task, and (for NWR and narratives) vocabulary size. There was a positive development with age for all tasks, but effects of language exposure and vocabulary size differed between tasks. Six bilingual Turkish/Swedish children with DLD were individually compared to the TD children. TD/DLD performance overlapped substantially, particularly for NWR, and more so for the production than the comprehension tasks. Surprisingly, the discriminatory potential was poor for both language-specific and language-independent NWR. DLD case studies underscored the importance of interpreting language scores in relation to exposure history, and the need for an increased emphasis on functional language skills as reported by parents and teachers when assessing and diagnosing DLD in bilinguals.

Early skills that predict English reading ability: A longitudinal study of bilingual children from 5 to 10 years.

Despite substantial research, the contribution of oral language skills acquired in Spanish to Spanish-English bilingual children's acquisition of English reading skill is unclear. The current study addressed this question with data on the oral language and pre-literacy skills of 101 Spanish-English bilingual learners at 5 years of age and their English word reading (i.e., decoding) and reading comprehension skills at 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 years. Separate multilevel models using English language, Spanish language, and pre-literacy skills as predictors of these outcomes identified English phonological awareness, Spanish phonological awareness, and concepts of print knowledge as positive predictors of word reading. A final model including all these significant predictors found only Spanish phonological awareness and concept of print to be significant predictors. Significant predictors of reading comprehension in separate models were English vocabulary, Spanish phonological awareness, and concepts about print. In the final model, only English vocabulary and Spanish phonological awareness predicted English reading comprehension. These findings provide evidence that phonological awareness is a language-general skill that supports reading across languages, consistent with the common underlying proficiency model of bilingual reading development. The finding that only English vocabulary predicts English reading comprehension suggests that vocabulary knowledge is not part of a common underlying proficiency but is language specific in its value to reading ability.

The influence of language on the formation of number concepts: Evidence from preschool children who are bilingual in English and Arabic.

We asked whether grammatical number marking has specific influence on the formation of early number concepts. In particular, does comprehension of dual case marking support young children's understanding of cardinality? We assessed number knowledge in 77 3-year-old Arabic-English bilingual children using the Give-a-Number task in both languages. Given recent concerns around the administration and scoring of the Give-a-Number task, we used two complementary approaches: one based on conceptual levels and the other based on overall test scores. We also tested comprehension of dual case marking in Arabic and number sequence knowledge in both languages. Regression analyses showed that dual case comprehension exerts a strong influence on cardinality tested in Arabic independent of age, general language skills, and number sequence knowledge. No such influence was found for cardinality tested in English, indicating a language-specific effect. Further analyses tested for transfer of cardinality knowledge between languages. These revealed, in addition to the findings outlined above, a powerful cross-linguistic transfer effect. Our findings are consistent with a model in which the direct effect of dual case marking is language specific, but concepts, once acquired, may be represented abstractly and transferred between languages.

CSAMDT: Conditional Self Attention Memory-Driven Transformers for Radiology Report Generation from Chest X-Ray.

A radiology report plays a crucial role in guiding patient treatment, but writing these reports is a time-consuming task that demands a radiologist's expertise. In response to this challenge, researchers in the subfields of artificial intelligence for healthcare have explored techniques for automatically interpreting radiographic images and generating free-text reports, while much of the research on medical report creation has focused on image captioning methods without adequately addressing particular report aspects. This study introduces a Conditional Self Attention Memory-Driven Transformer model for generating radiological reports. The model operates in two phases: initially, a multi-label classification model, utilizing ResNet152 v2 as an encoder, is employed for feature extraction and multiple disease diagnosis. In the second phase, the Conditional Self Attention Memory-Driven Transformer serves as a decoder, utilizing self-attention memory-driven transformers to generate text reports. Comprehensive experimentation was conducted to compare existing and proposed techniques based on Bilingual Evaluation Understudy (BLEU) scores ranging from 1 to 4. The model outperforms the other state-of-the-art techniques by increasing the BLEU 1 (0.475), BLEU 2 (0.358), BLEU 3 (0.229), and BLEU 4 (0.165) respectively. This study's findings can alleviate radiologists' workloads and enhance clinical workflows by introducing an autonomous radiological report generation system.

Tracking Components of Bilingual Language Control in Speech Production: An fMRI Study Using Functional Localizers.

When bilingual speakers switch back to speaking in their native language (L1) after having used their second language (L2), they often experience difficulty in retrieving words in their L1. This phenomenon is referred to as the L2 after-effect. We used the L2 after-effect as a lens to explore the neural bases of bilingual language control mechanisms. Our goal was twofold: first, to explore whether bilingual language control draws on domain-general or language-specific mechanisms; second, to investigate the precise mechanism(s) that drive the L2 after-effect. We used a precision fMRI approach based on functional localizers to measure the extent to which the brain activity that reflects the L2 after-effect overlaps with the language network (Fedorenko et al., 2010) and the domain-general multiple demand network (Duncan, 2010), as well as three task-specific networks that tap into interference resolution, lexical retrieval, and articulation. Forty-two Polish-English bilinguals participated in the study. Our results show that the L2 after-effect reflects increased engagement of domain-general but not language-specific resources. Furthermore, contrary to previously proposed interpretations, we did not find evidence that the effect reflects increased difficulty related to lexical access, articulation, and the resolution of lexical interference. We propose that difficulty of speech production in the picture naming paradigm-manifested as the L2 after-effect-reflects interference at a nonlinguistic level of task schemas or a general increase of cognitive control engagement during speech production in L1 after L2.

A one-man bilingual cocktail party: linguistic and non-linguistic effects on bilinguals' speech recognition in Mandarin and English.

Multilingual speakers can find speech recognition in everyday environments like restaurants and open-plan offices particularly challenging. In a world where speaking multiple languages is increasingly common, effective clinical and educational interventions will require a better understanding of how factors like multilingual contexts and listeners' language proficiency interact with adverse listening environments. For example, word and phrase recognition is facilitated when competing voices speak different languages. Is this due to a "release from masking" from lower-level acoustic differences between languages and talkers, or higher-level cognitive and linguistic factors? To address this question, we created a "one-man bilingual cocktail party" selective attention task using English and Mandarin speech from one bilingual talker to reduce low-level acoustic cues. In Experiment 1, 58 listeners more accurately recognized English targets when distracting speech was Mandarin compared to English. Bilingual Mandarin-English listeners experienced significantly more interference and intrusions from the Mandarin distractor than did English listeners, exacerbated by challenging target-to-masker ratios. In Experiment 2, 29 Mandarin-English bilingual listeners exhibited linguistic release from masking in both languages. Bilinguals experienced greater release from masking when attending to English, confirming an influence of linguistic knowledge on the "cocktail party" paradigm that is separate from primarily energetic masking effects. Effects of higher-order language processing and expertise emerge only in the most demanding target-to-masker contexts. The "one-man bilingual cocktail party" establishes a useful tool for future investigations and characterization of communication challenges in the large and growing worldwide community of Mandarin-English bilinguals.

Naming in a multilingual context: Norms for the ICMR-Manipal colour picture corpus in Kannada from the Indian context.

There have been many published picture corpora. However, more than half of the world's population speaks more than one language and, as language and culture are intertwined, some of the items from a picture corpus designed for a given language in a particular culture may not fit another culture (with the same or different language). There is also an awareness that language research can gain from the study of bi-/multilingual individuals who are immersed in multilingual contexts that foster inter-language interactions. Consequently, we developed a relatively large corpus of pictures (663 nouns, 96 verbs) and collected normative data from multilingual speakers of Kannada (a southern Indian language) on two picture-related measures (name agreement, image agreement) and three word-related measures (familiarity, subjective frequency, age of acquisition), and report objective visual complexity and syllable count of the words. Naming labels were classified into words from the target language (i.e., Kannada), cognates (borrowed from/shared with another language), translation equivalents, and elaborations. The picture corpus had > 85% mean concept agreement with multiple acceptable names (1-7 naming labels) for each concept. The mean percentage name agreement for the modal name was > 70%, with H-statistics of 0.89 for nouns and 0.52 for verbs. We also analyse the variability of responses highlighting the influence of bi-/multilingualism on (picture) naming. The picture corpus is freely accessible to researchers and clinicians. It may be used for future standardization with other languages of similar cultural contexts, and relevant items can be used in languages from different cultures, following suitable standardization.

Lexical pathway from L2 to L1 activation in intermediate proficient bilinguals: behavioral and ERP evidence.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that second language (L2) comprehension is often accompanied by activations in the first language (L1). Using both behavioral measurement and event-related potential (ERP), this study conducted two experiments to investigate whether a direct activation pathway exists from L2 lexical representation to L1 lexical representation (the lexical pathway) in intermediate proficient bilinguals. In Experiment 1, we designed a vowel letter search task on English word pairs, which enables bilinguals to prevent semantic priming in the first 300 ms processing stage after the words' onset. In Experiment 2, Mandarin-English bilinguals were recruited to complete this task on English word pairs with occasional first character repetition between the Chinese counterparts of a word pair. Results showed a significant main effect within both the P200 and N400 time windows, indicating the activation of bilinguals' L1 lexical representation during these intervals. However, the main effect of semantic relatedness was only significant in the N400 time window. These results suggest that bilinguals can activate their L1 lexical representation directly before engaging in conceptual representation. This finding supported a lexical pathway of activation from L2 lexical representation to L1 lexical representation during visual-word recognition in intermediate proficient bilinguals.

How Mandarin-English bilinguals interpret qián/forward: impact of language proficiencies on retrieval of temporal concepts.

Mandarin qián and English forward are semantically equivalent in the domain of Space, but could be semantically opposite in the domain of Time. In other words, equivalent spatial lexical items could convey opposite temporal concepts. What temporal concepts conveyed by qián and forward would be retrieved by Mandarin-English (M-E) bilinguals with different language proficiencies? Drawing a sample from college students in Mainland China, this study examines how L1 and L2 proficiencies would affect M-E bilinguals' retrieval of temporal concepts by examining their interpretation of the Mandarin temporal metaphor of qián and the English temporal metaphors of forward. The results show that L1 temporal concepts would be retrieved more frequently than L2 temporal concepts regardless of the testing languages, that L1 and L2 proficiencies were not predictors for the way of interpretation, and that the higher L2 proficiency group could retrieve temporal concepts in line with the testing languages with higher accuracy than the lower L2 proficiency group. The findings suggest that bilinguals with higher L2 proficiency may be able to represent temporal concepts with language tags or may have an attentional and/or inhibitory control advantage.

Is adaptation involved in bilingual language production? A fresh look at the assumptions motivating potential bilingual-monolingual differences in adaptive control.

One of the hottest debates in psychology-whether bilingual-monolingual differences exist in cognitive control-is at a stalemate. Here we propose that the stalemate could be broken by shifting the research focus from whether those differences emerge to why they should. We offer an example of this approach by testing the assumption of current theories of language-control associations that adaptive control is involved in bilingualism, specifically language production. Unbalanced Italian-English bilinguals living in the Milan area completed a Stroop task in their L1 and a picture-naming task in their L2. Both tasks involved a manipulation of the proportion of the type of stimuli that are assumed to require control, i.e., incongruent stimuli in the Stroop task (e.g., the word RED written in blue) and pictures with noncognate names in the picture-naming task (e.g., the picture of a horse, whose Italian name, "cavallo," has a very different pronunciation). Both confirmatory and exploratory analyses showed a clear dissociation between the two tasks, with the Stroop task producing an interactive pattern indicative of adaptive-control involvement and the picture-naming task failing to produce a similar one. These results suggest that adaptive control may not be involved in bilingual language production and, therefore, may not produce bilingual-monolingual differences in cognitive control. It is hoped that this research will inspire a change in the study of language-control associations, pushing future research efforts towards grounding the assumptions for those associations in empirical evidence.

Development of derivational morphological knowledge in monolingual and bilingual children: Effects of modality and lexicality.

This study mapped the trajectory of developing derivational morphological knowledge in Hebrew monolingual and Russian-Hebrew bilingual children. We investigated 2nd and 4th graders, using a two-by-two structure along the dimensions of modality (comprehension, production) and type of word (real-word, pseudo-word). Performance in the morphological analogies comprehension tasks improved with grade, and monolingual and bilingual children performed equally well. A different pattern was evident in production tasks. In real-word production, monolingual children were more accurate than bilingual children, but this group difference narrowed with age. In pseudo-word production, monolingual children used more morphological elements than bilingual children, and there was also a tendency towards group differences narrowing with age. Detailed error analyses across all tasks revealed that monolingual children recruited more morphological elements than bilingual children. We present implications for assessment of morphological knowledge, and suggest that morphological intervention is a promising avenue for promoting bilingual children's success.

Emergent bilingual children during the silent period: A scoping review of their communication strategies and classroom environments.

This scoping review aimed to investigate the communication strategies utilized by children who acquire a minority language (L1) and subsequently learn a community language (L2) during what is commonly referred to as the "silent period." Electronic database searches were conducted using keywords such as "silent period" and "bilingual children," resulting in the inclusion of 40 studies in the review. The findings revealed that emergent bilingual children utilize various communication strategies, including nonverbal communication, private speech, and their L1, to communicate within classroom environments. The findings shed light on the adaptability of emergent bilingual children during early stage of L2 acquisition. Furthermore, our review provides information about the classroom contexts such as teacher support and peer interactions where children develop their L2 skills. From a clinical perspective, recognizing these strategies and classroom contexts could significantly enhance the screening process for emergent bilingual children.

Multilevel factors predict treatment response following semantic feature-based intervention in bilingual aphasia.

Semantic feature-based treatments (SFTs) are effective rehabilitation strategies for word retrieval deficits in bilinguals with aphasia (BWA). However, few studies have prospectively evaluated the effects of key parameters of these interventions on treatment outcomes. This study examined the influence of intervention-level (i.e., treatment language and treatment sessions), individual-level (baseline naming severity and age), and stimulus-level (i.e., lexical frequency, phonological length, and phonological neighborhood density) factors on naming improvement in a treated and untreated language for 34 Spanish-English BWA who completed 40 hours of SFT. Results revealed significant improvement over time in both languages. In the treated language, individuals who received therapy in their L1 improved more. Additionally, higher pre-treatment naming scores predicted greater response to treatment. Finally, a frequency effect on baseline naming accuracy and phonological effects on accuracy over time were associated with differential treatment gains. These findings indicate that multilevel factors are influential predictors of bilingual treatment outcomes.

Implementing machine learning techniques for continuous emotion prediction from uniformly segmented voice recordings.

Introduction: Emotional recognition from audio recordings is a rapidly advancing field, with significant implications for artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction. This study introduces a novel method for detecting emotions from short, 1.5 s audio samples, aiming to improve accuracy and efficiency in emotion recognition technologies. Methods: We utilized 1,510 unique audio samples from two databases in German and English to train our models. We extracted various features for emotion prediction, employing Deep Neural Networks (DNN) for general feature analysis, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for spectrogram analysis, and a hybrid model combining both approaches (C-DNN). The study addressed challenges associated with dataset heterogeneity, language differences, and the complexities of audio sample trimming. Results: Our models demonstrated accuracy significantly surpassing random guessing, aligning closely with human evaluative benchmarks. This indicates the effectiveness of our approach in recognizing emotional states from brief audio clips. Discussion: Despite the challenges of integrating diverse datasets and managing short audio samples, our findings suggest considerable potential for this methodology in real-time emotion detection from continuous speech. This could contribute to improving the emotional intelligence of AI and its applications in various areas.