Speechreading in hearing children can be improved by training.

Visual information conveyed by a speaking face aids speech perception. In addition, children's ability to comprehend visual-only speech (speechreading ability) is related to phonological awareness and reading skills in both deaf and hearing children. We tested whether training speechreading would improve speechreading, phoneme blending, and reading ability in hearing children. Ninety-two hearing 4- to 5-year-old children were randomised into two groups: business-as-usual controls, and an intervention group, who completed three weeks of computerised speechreading training. The intervention group showed greater improvements in speechreading than the control group at post-test both immediately after training and 3 months later. This was the case for both trained and untrained words. There were no group effects on the phonological awareness or single-word reading tasks, although those with the lowest phoneme blending scores did show greater improvements in blending as a result of training. The improvement in speechreading in hearing children following brief training is encouraging. The results are also important in suggesting a hypothesis for future investigation: that a focus on visual speech information may contribute to phonological skills, not only in deaf children but also in hearing children who are at risk of reading difficulties. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBdpliGkbkY.

The reliability of Hebb repetition learning and its association with language and reading in adolescents with intellectual disabilities.

Hebb repetition learning (HRL) refers to neurodevelopmental processes characterised by repeated stimulus exposure without feedback, which result in changes in behaviour and/or responses, e.g., long-term learning of serial order. Here, we investigate effects of HRL on serial order memory. The present research aimed to assess the reliability of new HRL measures and investigate their relationships with language and reading skills (vocabulary, grammar, word reading) in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID). A comparison group of children of similar mental age with typical development (TD) was also assessed. ID and TD groups were tested on HRL tasks, evaluating test-retest and split-half reliability. The relationship between HRL and language and reading was analysed after accounting for the influence of mental age and verbal short-term memory. The HRL tasks displayed moderate test-retest (and split-half) reliability, HRL tasks with different stimuli (verbal, visual) were related, and we identified issues with one method of HRL scoring. The planned regression analyses failed to show relationships between HRL and language/reading skills in both groups when mental age, a very strong predictor, was included. However, further exploratory regression analyses without mental age revealed HRL's predictive capabilities for vocabulary in the ID group and reading in the TD group, results which need further investigation and replication. HRL displays promise as a moderately reliable metric and exhibits varied and interpretable predictive capabilities for language and reading skills across groups.

Hebb repetition learning in adolescents with intellectual disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Hebb repetition learning is a form of long-term serial order learning that can occur when sequences of items in an immediate serial recall task are repeated. Repetition improves performance because of the gradual integration of serial order information from short-term memory into a more stable long-term memory trace. AIMS: The current study assessed whether adolescents with non-specific intellectual disabilities showed Hebb repetition effects, and if their magnitude was equivalent to those of children with typical development, matched for mental age. METHODS: Two immediate serial recall Hebb repetition learning tasks using verbal and visuospatial materials were presented to 47 adolescents with intellectual disabilities (11-15 years) and 47 individually mental age-matched children with typical development (4-10 years). RESULTS: Both groups showed Hebb repetition learning effects of similar magnitude, albeit with some reservations. Evidence for Hebb repetition learning was found for both verbal and visuospatial materials; for our measure of Hebb learning the effects were larger for verbal than visuospatial materials. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggested that adolescents with intellectual disabilities may show implicit long-term serial-order learning broadly commensurate with mental age level. The benefits of using repetition in educational contexts for adolescents with intellectual disabilities are considered.