Graphic Comprehension and Interpretation Skills of Preservice Teachers with Different Learning Approaches in a Technology-Aided Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çelik, Harun; Pektas, Hüseyin Miraç

2017-01-01

A one-group quasi-experimental design and survey methodology were used to investigate the effect of virtual laboratory practices on preservice teachers' (N = 29) graphic comprehension and interpretation skills with different learning approaches. Pretest and posttest data were collected with the Test of Understanding Kinematic Graphs. The Learning…

Selected Factors in Reading Comprehension for Deaf and Hearing Adults: Phonological Skills and Metacognition.

PubMed

Wang, Ye; Silvestri, Julia A; Jahromi, Laudan B

2018-01-01

The purpose of the study was to identify factors related to reading comprehension, and to compare similarities and differences in the reading processes of deaf and hearing adults. The sample included four groups, each consisting of 15 adults. The groups were identified as (a) deaf high-achieving readers, (b) deaf low-achieving readers, (c) hearing high-achieving readers, and (d) hearing low-achieving readers. Measurement instruments included a demographic form along with assessments of reading comprehension, phonological skills, and metacognition, the latter of which contained both a making-inferences measure and a think-aloud discussion with a reading strategies checklist. Results indicated that deaf high-achieving readers performed similarly to hearing high-achieving readers, except for phonological skills, and that for all participants, phonological skills and metacognition were related to reading comprehension skills.

Assessing children's inference generation: what do tests of reading comprehension measure?

PubMed

Bowyer-Crane, Claudine; Snowling, Margaret J

2005-06-01

Previous research suggests that children with specific comprehension difficulties have problems with the generation of inferences. This raises important questions as to whether poor comprehenders have poor comprehension skills generally, or whether their problems are confined to specific inference types. The main aims of the study were (a) using two commonly used tests of reading comprehension to classify the questions requiring the generation of inferences, and (b) to investigate the relative performance of skilled and less-skilled comprehenders on questions tapping different inference types. The performance of 10 poor comprehenders (mean age 110.06 months) was compared with the performance of 10 normal readers (mean age 112.78 months) on two tests of reading comprehension. A qualitative analysis of the NARA II (form 1) and the WORD comprehension subtest was carried out. Participants were then administered the NARA II, WORD comprehension subtest and a test of non-word reading. The NARA II was heavily reliant on the generation of knowledge-based inferences, while the WORD comprehension subtest was biased towards the retention of literal information. Children identified by the NARA II as having comprehension difficulties performed in the normal range on the WORD comprehension subtests. Further, children with comprehension difficulties performed poorly on questions requiring the generation of knowledge-based and elaborative inferences. However, they were able to answer questions requiring attention to literal information or use of cohesive devices at a level comparable to normal readers. Different reading tests tap different types of inferencing skills. Lessskilled comprehenders have particular difficulty applying real-world knowledge to a text during reading, and this has implications for the formulation of effective intervention strategies.

A predictive study of reading comprehension in third-grade Spanish students.

PubMed

López-Escribano, Carmen; Elosúa de Juan, María Rosa; Gómez-Veiga, Isabel; García-Madruga, Juan Antonio

2013-01-01

The study of the contribution of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension is an important goal of current reading research. However, reading comprehension is not easily assessed by a single instrument, as different comprehension tests vary in the type of tasks used and in the cognitive demands required. This study examines the contribution of basic language and cognitive skills (decoding, word recognition, reading speed, verbal and nonverbal intelligence and working memory) to reading comprehension, assessed by two tests utilizing various tasks that require different skill sets in third-grade Spanish-speaking students. Linguistic and cognitive abilities predicted reading comprehension. A measure of reading speed (the reading time of pseudo-words) was the best predictor of reading comprehension when assessed by the PROLEC-R test. However, measures of word recognition (the orthographic choice task) and verbal working memory were the best predictors of reading comprehension when assessed by means of the DARC test. These results show, on the one hand, that reading speed and word recognition are better predictors of Spanish language comprehension than reading accuracy. On the other, the reading comprehension test applied here serves as a critical variable when analyzing and interpreting results regarding this topic.

An Internal Construct Validation Study of the "Iowa Tests of Basic Skills" (Level 12, Form G) Reading Comprehension Test Items.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perkins, Kyle; Duncan, Ann

An assessment analysis was performed to determine whether sets of items designed to measure three different subskills of reading comprehension of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBSs) did, in fact, distinguish among these subskills. The three major skills objectives were: (1) facts; (2) generalizations; and (3) inferences. Data from…

Cognitive Difficulties in Struggling Comprehenders and their Relation to Reading Comprehension: A Comparison of Group Selection and Regression-Based Models

PubMed Central

Barnes, Marcia A.; Stuebing, Karla; Fletcher, Jack M.; Barth, Amy; Francis, David

2016-01-01

Difficulties suppressing previously encountered, but currently irrelevant information from working memory characterize less skilled comprehenders in studies in which they are matched to skilled comprehenders on word decoding and nonverbal IQ. These “extreme” group designs are associated with several methodological issues. When sample size permits, regression approaches permit a more accurate estimation of effects. Using data for students in grades 6 to 12 (n = 766), regression techniques assessed the significance and size of the relation of suppression to reading comprehension across the distribution of comprehension skill. After accounting for decoding efficiency and nonverbal IQ, suppression, measured by performance on a verbal proactive interference task, accounted for a small amount of significant unique variance in comprehension (less than 1%). A comparison of suppression in less skilled comprehenders matched to more skilled comprehenders (48 per group) on age, word reading efficiency and nonverbal IQ did not show significant group differences in suppression. The implications of the findings for theories of reading comprehension and for informing comprehension assessment and intervention are discussed. PMID:27175222

The Relationship among Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension, Pre-Reading Skills, Word Identification Skills, and Reading Comprehension by Children with Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wise, Justin C.; Sevcik, Rose A.; Morris, Robin D.; Lovett, Maureen W.; Wolf, Maryanne

2007-01-01

Purpose: Some researchers (F. R. Vellutino, F. M. Scanlon, & M. S. Tanzman, 1994) have argued that the different domains comprising language (e.g., phonology, semantics, and grammar) may influence reading development in a differential manner and at different developmental periods. The purpose of this study was to examine proposed causal…

Reading comprehension and immersion schooling: evidence from component skills.

PubMed

Hansen, Laura Birke; Morales, Julia; Macizo, Pedro; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni; Saldaña, David; Carreiras, Manuel; Fuentes, Luis J; Bajo, M Teresa

2017-01-01

The present research aims to assess literacy acquisition in children becoming bilingual via second language immersion in school. We adopt a cognitive components approach, assessing text-level reading comprehension, a complex literacy skill, as well as underlying cognitive and linguistic components in 144 children aged 7 to 14 (72 immersion bilinguals, 72 controls). Using principal component analysis, a nuanced pattern of results was observed: although emergent bilinguals lag behind their monolingual counterparts on measures of linguistic processing, they showed enhanced performance on a memory and reasoning component. For reading comprehension, no between-group differences were evident, suggesting that selective benefits compensate costs at the level of underlying cognitive components. Overall, the results seem to indicate that literacy skills may be modulated by emerging bilingualism even when no between-group differences are evident at the level of complex skill, and the detection of such differences may depend on the focus and selectivity of the task battery used. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Figurative language comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analytic review

PubMed Central

Kalandadze, Tamar; Norbury, Courtenay; Nærland, Terje; Næss, Kari-Anne B

2016-01-01

We present a meta-analysis of studies that compare figurative language comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and in typically developing controls who were matched based on chronological age or/and language ability. A total of 41 studies and 45 independent effect sizes were included based on predetermined inclusion criteria. Group matching strategy, age, types of figurative language, and cross-linguistic differences were examined as predictors that might explain heterogeneity in effect sizes. Overall, individuals with autism spectrum disorder showed poorer comprehension of figurative language than their typically developing peers (Hedges’ g = –0.57). A meta-regression analysis showed that group matching strategy and types of figurative language were significantly related to differences in effect sizes, whereas chronological age and cross-linguistic differences were not. Differences between the autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups were small and nonsignificant when the groups were matched based on the language ability. Metaphors were more difficult to comprehend for individuals with autism spectrum disorder compared with typically developing controls than were irony and sarcasm. Our findings highlight the critical role of core language skills in figurative language comprehension. Interventions and educational programmes designed to improve social communication skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorder may beneficially target core language skills in addition to social skills. PMID:27899711

On the importance of listening comprehension

PubMed Central

Hogan, Tiffany P.; Adlof, Suzanne M.; Alonzo, Crystle

2015-01-01

The simple view of reading highlights the importance of two primary components which account for individual differences in reading comprehension across development: word recognition (i.e., decoding) and listening comprehension. While assessments and interventions for decoding have been the focus of pedagogy in the past several decades, the importance of listening comprehension has received less attention. This paper reviews evidence showing that listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension starting even in the elementary grades. It also highlights a growing number of children who fail to develop adequate reading comprehension skills, primarily due to deficient listening comprehension skills: poor comprehenders. Finally it discusses key language influences on listening comprehension for consideration during assessment and treatment of reading disabilities. PMID:24833426

On the importance of listening comprehension.

PubMed

Hogan, Tiffany P; Adlof, Suzanne M; Alonzo, Crystle N

2014-06-01

The simple view of reading highlights the importance of two primary components which account for individual differences in reading comprehension across development: word recognition (i.e., decoding) and listening comprehension. While assessments and interventions for decoding have been the focus of pedagogy in the past several decades, the importance of listening comprehension has received less attention. This paper reviews evidence showing that listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension starting even in the elementary grades. It also highlights a growing number of children who fail to develop adequate reading comprehension skills, primarily due to deficient listening comprehension skills (i.e., poor comprehenders). Finally we discuss key language influences on listening comprehension for consideration during assessment and treatment of reading disabilities.

L'Apport des Faits Phonetiques au Developpement de la Comprehension Auditive en Langue Seconde (The Influence of Phonetic Skills on the Development of Listening Comprehension in a Second Language).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Champagne-Muzar, Cecile

1996-01-01

Ascertains the influence of the development of receptive phonetic skills on the level of listening comprehension of adults learning French as a second language in a formal setting. Test results indicate substantial gains in phonetics by the experimental group and a significant difference between the performance of experimental and control groups.…

Inferences and metaphoric comprehension in unilaterally implanted children with adequate formal oral language performance.

PubMed

Nicastri, Maria; Filipo, Roberto; Ruoppolo, Giovanni; Viccaro, Marika; Dincer, Hilal; Guerzoni, Letizia; Cuda, Domenico; Bosco, Ersilia; Prosperini, Luca; Mancini, Patrizia

2014-05-01

To assess skills in inferences during conversations and in metaphors comprehension of unilaterally cochlear implanted children with adequate abilities at the formal language tests, comparing them with well-matched hearing peers; to verify the influence of age of implantation on overall skills. The study was designed as a matched case-control study. 31 deaf children, unilateral cochlear implant users, with normal linguistic competence at formal language tests were compared with 31 normal hearing matched peers. Inferences and metaphor comprehension skills were assessed through the Implicit Meaning Comprehension, Situations and Metaphors subtests of the Italian Standardized Battery of "Pragmatic Language Skills MEDEA". Differences between patient and control groups were tested by the Mann-Whitney U test. Correlations between age at implantation and time of implant use with each subtest were investigated by the Spearman rank correlation coefficient. No significant differences between the two groups were found in inferencing skills (p=0.24 and p=0.011 respectively for Situations and Implicit Meaning Comprehension). Regarding figurative language, unilaterally cochlear implanted children performed significantly below their normal hearing peers in Verbal Metaphor comprehension (p=0.001). Performances were related to age at implantation, but not with time of implant use. Unilaterally cochlear implanted children with normal language level showed responses similar to NH children in discourse inferences, but not in figurative language comprehension. Metaphors still remains a challenge for unilateral implant users and above all when they have not any reference, as demonstrated by the significant difference in verbal rather than figurative metaphors comprehension. Older age at implantation was related to worse performance for all items. These aspects, until now less investigated, had to receive more attention to deeply understand specific mechanisms involved and possible effects of different levels of figurative language complexity (presence or absence of contextual input, degree of transparency and syntactic frozenness). New insight is needed to orient programs in early intervention settings in considering and adequately responding to all these complex communicative need of children with hearing loss. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is Oral/Text Reading Fluency a “Bridge” to Reading Comprehension?

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Park, Chea Hyeong; Wagner, Richard K.

2015-01-01

In the present study we investigated developmental relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, and text reading fluency to reading comprehension in a relatively transparent language, Korean. A total of 98 kindergartners and 170 first graders in Korea were assessed on a series of tasks involving listening comprehension, word reading fluency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Results from multigroup structural equation models showed that text reading fluency was a dissociable construct for both kindergartners and first graders. In addition, a developmental pattern emerged: listening comprehension was not uniquely related to text reading fluency for first graders, but not for kindergartners, over and above word reading fluency. In addition, text reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension for kindergartners, but not for first graders, after accounting for word reading fluency and listening comprehension. For first graders, listening comprehension dominated the relations. There were no differences in the pattern of relations for skilled and less skilled readers in first grade. Results are discussed from a developmental perspective for reading comprehension component skills including text reading fluency. PMID:25653474

A Longitudinal Study of Idiom and Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levorato, M. Chiara; Roch, Maja; Nesi, Barbara

2007-01-01

The relation between text and idiom comprehension in children with poor text comprehension skills was investigated longitudinally. In the first phase of the study, six-year-old first graders with different levels of text comprehension were compared in an idiom and sentence comprehension task. Text comprehension was shown to be more closely related…

Speed of Language Comprehension at 18 Months Old Predicts School-Relevant Outcomes at 54 Months Old in Children Born Preterm.

PubMed

Marchman, Virginia A; Loi, Elizabeth C; Adams, Katherine A; Ashland, Melanie; Fernald, Anne; Feldman, Heidi M

2018-04-01

Identifying which preterm (PT) children are at increased risk of language and learning differences increases opportunities for participation in interventions that improve outcomes. Speed in spoken language comprehension at early stages of language development requires information processing skills that may form the foundation for later language and school-relevant skills. In children born full-term, speed of comprehending words in an eye-tracking task at 2 years old predicted language and nonverbal cognition at 8 years old. Here, we explore the extent to which speed of language comprehension at 1.5 years old predicts both verbal and nonverbal outcomes at 4.5 years old in children born PT. Participants were children born PT (n = 47; ≤32 weeks gestation). Children were tested in the "looking-while-listening" task at 18 months old, adjusted for prematurity, to generate a measure of speed of language comprehension. Parent report and direct assessments of language were also administered. Children were later retested on a test battery of school-relevant skills at 4.5 years old. Speed of language comprehension at 18 months old predicted significant unique variance (12%-31%) in receptive vocabulary, global language abilities, and nonverbal intelligence quotient (IQ) at 4.5 years, controlling for socioeconomic status, gestational age, and medical complications of PT birth. Speed of language comprehension remained uniquely predictive (5%-12%) when also controlling for children's language skills at 18 months old. Individual differences in speed of spoken language comprehension may serve as a marker for neuropsychological processes that are critical for the development of school-relevant linguistic skills and nonverbal IQ in children born PT.

Cross-Language Transfer of Syntactic Skills and Reading Comprehension among Young Cantonese-English Bilingual Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Siu, Carrey Tik-Sze; Ho, Connie Suk-Han

2015-01-01

The present study examined the roles of different dimensions of syntactic skills in predicting reading comprehension within and across two languages with contrasting structural properties: Chinese and English. A total of 413 young Cantonese-English bilingual students in Hong Kong (202 first graders and 211 third graders) were tested on word order…

Neurobiological bases of reading comprehension: Insights from neuroimaging studies of word level and text level processing in skilled and impaired readers

PubMed Central

Landi, Nicole; Frost, Stephen J.; Menc, W. Einar; Sandak, Rebecca; Pugh, Kenneth R.

2012-01-01

For accurate reading comprehension, readers must first learn to map letters to their corresponding speech sounds and meaning and then they must string the meanings of many words together to form a representation of the text. Furthermore, readers must master the complexities involved in parsing the relevant syntactic and pragmatic information necessary for accurate interpretation. Failure in this process can occur at multiple levels and cognitive neuroscience has been helpful in identifying the underlying causes of success and failure in reading single words and in reading comprehension. In general, neurobiological studies of skilled reading comprehension indicate a highly overlapping language circuit for single word reading, reading comprehension and listening comprehension with largely quantitative differences in a number of reading and language related areas. This paper reviews relevant research from studies employing neuroimaging techniques to study reading with a focus on the relationship between reading skill, single word reading, and text comprehension. PMID:23662034

Reader-Text Interactions: How Differential Text and Question Types Influence Cognitive Skills Needed for Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Eason, Sarah H.; Goldberg, Lindsay F.; Young, Katherine M.; Geist, Megan C.; Cutting, Laurie E.

2015-01-01

Current research has shown that comprehension can vary based on text and question types, and that readers’ word recognition and background knowledge may account for these differences. Other reader characteristics such as semantic and syntactic awareness, inferencing, planning/organizing have also all been linked to reading comprehension, but have not been examined with regard to specific text and question types. The aim of this study was to explore the relationships between reader characteristics, text types, and question types, in children aged 10–14. We sought to compare children’s performance when comprehending narrative, expository, and functional text, as well as to explore differences between children’s performance on comprehension questions that assess their literal or inferential comprehension of a passage. To examine such differences, we analyzed the degree to which distinct cognitive skills (semantic and syntactic awareness, inferencing, planning/organizing) contribute to performance on varying types of texts and questions. This study found main effects of text and question types, as well as an interaction in which relations between question types varied between text types. Analyses indicated that higher order cognitive skills, including the ability to make inferences and to plan and organize information, contribute to comprehension of more complex text (e.g., expository vs. narrative) and question types (e.g., inferential vs. literal), and therefore are important components of reading for later elementary and middle school students. These findings suggest that developing these skills in early elementary school may better equip students for comprehending the texts they will encounter in higher grades. PMID:26566295

University Students With Poor Reading Comprehension: The Hidden Cognitive Processing Deficit.

PubMed

Georgiou, George K; Das, J P

2015-01-01

The present study aimed to examine the nature of the working memory and general cognitive ability deficits experienced by university students with a specific reading comprehension deficit. A total of 32 university students with poor reading comprehension but average word-reading skills and 60 age-matched controls with no comprehension difficulties participated in the study. The participants were assessed on three verbal working memory tasks that varied in terms of their processing demands and on the Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assessment System, which was used to operationalize intelligence. The results indicated first that the differences between poor and skilled comprehenders on working memory were amplified as the processing demands of the tasks increased. In addition, although poor comprehenders as a group had average intelligence, they experienced significant difficulties in simultaneous and successive processing. Considering that working memory and general cognitive ability are highly correlated processes, these findings suggest that the observed differences between poor and skilled comprehenders are likely a result of a deficient information processing system. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Evaluation of Manpower Development and Training Skills Centers. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olympus Research Corp., Salt Lake City, UT.

Skills centers represent a fairly new and different component of national manpower policy. The 70 Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) Skills Centers are designed to provide comprehensive manpower services for the disadvantaged, including training, basic education, communication skills, counseling, placement, and follow-up. Based on visits…

Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills to a Child with Autism Using Behaviour Skills Training.

PubMed

Singh, Binita D; Moore, Dennis W; Furlonger, Brett E; Anderson, Angelika; Busacca, Margherita L; English, Derek L

2017-10-01

A multiple probe design across skills was used to examine the effects of behaviour skills training (BST) on teaching four reading comprehension skills (predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing) to a 7th grade student with autism. Following baseline, the student received 12 sessions of BST during which each skill was taught to criterion. At each session, data was also collected on the accuracy of oral responses to 10 comprehension questions. BST was associated with clear gains in the participant's performance on each comprehension skill, along with concomitant gains in reading comprehension both on the daily probes and a standardized measure. Skills maintained at follow-up support the conclusion that BST was effective in improving the comprehension skills of a child with autism.

The Effect of Experiences with Animals on the Reading Comprehension Skills of Students in the Seventh Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Annie

2008-01-01

The Problem: The study examined the difference that animal interactions had on the reading comprehension growth skills of students in the seventh grade. Method: A quasiexperimental study was conducted with two seventh-grade classes at William Howard Taft Middle School. One class received daily 20-minute animal interaction experiences for 5 days.…

The Impact of Task-Based Language Teaching on the Development of Iranian EFL Learners' ESP Reading Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setayesh, Mahnam; Marzban, Amin

2017-01-01

The present study primarily aimed at investigating the effect of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) on development of the Iranian EFL learners' ESP Reading Comprehension Skills. Moreover, it was aimed at investigating the probable difference between the TBLT-instructed students of Law and Mechanical Engineering with respect to their ESP reading…

Reading Comprehension and Phonics Research: Review of Correlational Analyses with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students.

PubMed

Luft, Pamela

2018-04-01

This manuscript reviews 28 studies of reading research on deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students published since 2000 that used correlational analyses. The examination focused on assessment issues affecting measurement and analysis of relationships between early phonological or orthographic skills and reading comprehension. Mixed outcomes complicate efforts to determine evidence-based practices, and to develop an accurate model of reading. Across the 28 studies, DHH participants represented a wide age range with potential floor and ceiling effects that reduce score variability for valid correlations. Many studies assessed readers beyond the optimal ages during which early skills develop and are most useful for reading. Reading skills also were assessed using a diverse array of measures and skill definitions. Particularly for reading comprehension, word-level and text-level abilities appear to be different constructs. Suggestions include more consistent skill definitions and differential timing for early- versus later-developing skill assessments to ensure more robust correlational relationships.

Progress Report for Student Research: Fire Safety Skills for Mentally Retarded Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayden, Mary F.; Lefcowitz, M. Jack

A comprehensive fire safety skills program was evaluated with 32 moderately to mildly retarded adolescents. The program used a fire safety program manual and lessons in basic preventive fire skills, fire safety procedures, and fire escape skills. Across-group comparisons indicated differences in performance between males and females. Fire safety…

Developing Reading Comprehension Modules to Facilitate Reading Comprehension among Malaysian Secondary School ESL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Javed, Muhammad; Eng, Lin Siew; Mohamed, Abdul Rashid

2015-01-01

The study aims to develop a set of 6 Reading Comprehension Modules (RCMs) for Malaysian ESL teachers to facilitate different reading abilities of ESL students effectively. Different skill categories were selected for developing the RCMs. This article describes how and why diverse texts of varying length were adopted and adapted from various…

Determinants of Success in Native and Non-Native Listening Comprehension: An Individual Differences Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andringa, Sible; Olsthoorn, Nomi; van Beuningen, Catherine; Schoonen, Rob; Hulstijn, Jan

2012-01-01

The goal of this study was to explain individual differences in both native and non-native listening comprehension; 121 native and 113 non-native speakers of Dutch were tested on various linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive skills thought to underlie listening comprehension. Structural equation modeling was used to identify the predictors of…

Sex Differences in Item Functioning in the Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills-II Vocabulary Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

French, Brian F.; Gotch, Chad M.

2013-01-01

The Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills-II (CIBS-II) is a diagnostic battery intended for children in grades 1st through 6th. The aim of this study was to test for item invariance, or differential item functioning (DIF), of the CIBS-II across sex in the standardization sample through the use of item response theory DIF detection…

Movie subtitles reading skills of elementary school children.

PubMed

Minucci, Michele Viana; Cárnio, Maria Silvia

2010-01-01

the abilities of school children for reading static texts have been widely discussed, however little is known about how well they can read dynamic texts and what skills are required for this kind of reading. to evaluate the skills involved in reading movie subtitles of 2nd and 4th graders of students at the a public school. analysis of the level and skills needed for movie subtitles reading, through the retelling of a section of a movie watched individually by 60 students, 30 2nd graders and 30 4th graders matched for age and gender, with no sound and with subtitles. there were no significant differences in the level of school literacy between students of the different school grades. Considering the skills and the subtitles reading level, 4th graders presented a significant better performance when compared to the 2nd graders. Fourth graders presented skills related to the levels of literal comprehension and independent comprehension, whereas 2nd graders where mostly at the decoding level. 2nd graders are at the textual decoding level of movie subtitles, while 4th graders are at the literal comprehension level of movie subtitles. This indicates that schooling has an influence on the reading of movie subtitles. However, the school literacy literacy was not a significant factor for movie subtitles reading.

Language and cognitive predictors of text comprehension: evidence from multivariate analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Young-Suk

2015-01-01

Using data from children in South Korea (N = 145, Mage = 6.08), it was determined how low-level language and cognitive skills (vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and working memory) and high-level cognitive skills (comprehension monitoring and theory of mind [ToM]) are related to listening comprehension and whether listening comprehension and word reading mediate the relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension. Low-level skills predicted comprehension monitoring and ToM, which in turn predicted listening comprehension. Vocabulary and syntactic knowledge were also directly related to listening comprehension, whereas working memory was indirectly related via comprehension monitoring and ToM. Listening comprehension and word reading completely mediated the relations of language and cognitive skills to reading comprehension. © 2014 The Author. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Age, Ageing and Skills: Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 132

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paccagnella, Marco

2016-01-01

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the link between age and proficiency in information-processing skills, based on information drawn from the Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). The data reveal significant age-related differences in proficiencies, strongly suggesting that proficiency tends to "naturally" decline with age. Age…

Adolescent reading skill and engagement with digital and traditional literacies as predictors of reading comprehension.

PubMed

Duncan, Lynne G; McGeown, Sarah P; Griffiths, Yvonne M; Stothard, Susan E; Dobai, Anna

2016-05-01

This study investigates the concurrent predictors of adolescent reading comprehension (literal, inferential) for fiction and non-fiction texts. Predictors were examined from the cognitive (word identification, reading fluency), psychological (gender), and ecological (print exposure) domains. Print exposure to traditional and digital texts was surveyed using a diary method of reading habits. A cross-sectional sample of 312 students in early (11-13 years) or middle adolescence (14-15 years) participated from a range of SES backgrounds. Word identification emerged as a strong predictor of reading comprehension across adolescence and text genres. Gender effects favouring female students were evident for reading frequency but not for reading skill itself. Reading habits also differed, and comprehension advantages were observed among females for fiction and males for non-fiction. Age effects emerged for reading frequency, which was lower in middle adolescence. Although more time was spent on digital than on traditional texts, traditional extended text reading was the only reading habit to predict inference-making in comprehension and to distinguish skilled from less skilled comprehenders. The theoretical and educational implications of these results are discussed. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Basic Language Skills and Young Children's Understanding of Causal Connections during Storytelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Danielle D.; Lile, Jacquelyn; Burns, Barbara M.

2011-01-01

The current study examined the role of basic language skills for individual differences in preschoolers' understanding of causal connections. Assessments of basic language skills, expressive vocabulary, phonological processing, and receptive language comprehension were examined in relation to the production of causal connections in a storytelling…

Classrooms that Work: Teaching and Learning Generic Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stasz, Cathleen

1994-01-01

Eight vocational and academic classes taught by four different teachers at three comprehensive high schools were studied to identify classroom practices that facilitate teaching and learning generic skills. The teachers studied had a mix of instructional goals for students, including subject matter knowledge and skills, complex reasoning skills…

Cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

van Wingerden, Evelien; Segers, Eliane; van Balkom, Hans; Verhoeven, Ludo

2014-11-01

A considerable number of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to acquire basic word reading skills. However, not much is known about their achievements in more advanced reading comprehension skills. In the present study, a group of 49 children with ID and a control group of 21 typically developing children with word decoding skills in the normal ranges of first grade were compared in lower level (explicit meaning) and higher level (implicit meaning) reading comprehension abilities. Moreover, in the group of children with ID it was examined to what extent their levels of lower level and higher level reading comprehension could be predicted from their linguistic skills (word decoding, vocabulary, language comprehension) and cognitive skill (nonverbal reasoning). It was found that children with ID were weaker than typically developing children in higher level reading comprehension but not in lower level reading comprehension. Children with ID also performed below the control group on nonverbal reasoning and language comprehension. After controlling for nonverbal reasoning, linguistic skills predicted lower level reading comprehension but not higher level reading comprehension. It can be concluded that children with ID who have basic decoding skill do reasonably well on lower level reading comprehension but continue to have problems with higher level reading comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Direct and mediated effects of language and cognitive skills on comprehension of oral narrative texts (listening comprehension) for children.

PubMed

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2016-01-01

We investigated component language and cognitive skills of oral language comprehension of narrative texts (i.e., listening comprehension). Using the construction-integration model of text comprehension as an overarching theoretical framework, we examined direct and mediated relations of foundational cognitive skills (working memory and attention), foundational language skills (vocabulary and grammatical knowledge), and higher-order cognitive skills (inference, theory of mind, and comprehension monitoring) to listening comprehension. A total of 201 first grade children in South Korea participated in the study. Structural equation modeling results showed that listening comprehension is directly predicted by working memory, grammatical knowledge, inference, and theory of mind and is indirectly predicted by attention, vocabulary, and comprehension monitoring. The total effects were .46 for working memory, .07 for attention, .30 for vocabulary, .49 for grammatical knowledge, .31 for inference, .52 for theory of mind, and .18 for comprehension monitoring. These results suggest that multiple language and cognitive skills make contributions to listening comprehension, and their contributions are both direct and indirect. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The unique role of executive function skills in predicting Hong Kong kindergarteners' reading comprehension.

PubMed

Liu, Yingyi; Sun, Huilin; Lin, Dan; Li, Hong; Yeung, Susanna Siu-Sze; Wong, Terry Tin-Yau

2018-01-15

Word reading and linguistic comprehension skills are two crucial components in reading comprehension, according to the Simple View of Reading (SVR). Some researchers have posited that a third component should be involved in reading and understanding texts, namely executive function (EF) skills. This study was novel in two ways. Not only did we tested EF skills as a predictor of reading comprehension in a non-alphabetic language (i.e., Chinese) to extend the theoretical model of SVR, we also examined reading comprehension further in kindergarten children (age 5) in Hong Kong, in the attempt to reveal possible early precursors of reading comprehension. A group of 170 K3 kindergarteners was recruited in Hong Kong. Children's word reading was assessed. Their linguistic comprehension was assessed with phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, and vocabulary knowledge. Using a structured observation task, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders (HTKS), we measured their composite scores for EF skills. Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders performance predicted unique variance in children's Chinese reading comprehension concurrently beyond word reading and a set of linguistic comprehension skills. The results highlight the important role of EF skills in beginning readers' reading comprehension. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Understanding the Microstructure and Macrostructure of Passages Among Chinese Elementary School Children.

PubMed

Lo, Lap-Yan; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Wong, Yau-Kai; Chan, David Wai-Ock; Chung, Kevin Kien-Hoa

2016-12-01

Understanding the microstructure and macrostructure of passages is important for reading comprehension. What cognitive-linguistic skills may contribute to understanding these two levels of structures has rarely been investigated. The present study examined whether some word-level and text-level cognitive-linguistic skills may contribute differently to the understanding of microstructure and macrostructure respectively. Seventy-nine Chinese elementary school children were tested on some cognitive-linguistic skills and literacy skills. It was found that word reading fluency and syntactic skills predicted significantly the understanding of microstructure of passages after controlling for age and IQ; while morphological awareness, syntactic skills, and discourse skills contributed significantly to understanding of macrostructure. These findings suggest that syntactic skills facilitate children's access of meaning from grammatical structures, which is a fundamental process in gaining text meaning at any level of reading comprehension. Discourse skills also allow readers to understand the cohesive interlinks within and between sentences and is important for a macro level of passage understanding.

That Comprehension Business!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Antier, Maurice

Comprehension for the foreign language learner is discussed, and it is claimed that comprehension is not a by-product of the other skills but should be taught and tested throughout a course of study. The channel or medium used in communication will influence the understanding of the message. Differences involved in reading and listening…

A Skills Map: The General and Specific Competencies Required in Different Occupations. Progress Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottfredson, Linda S.

To aid in assessing the employability of individuals and of various groups of individuals in different types of occupations, the general abilities and specific skills required of workers in different occupations were studied. Data on a comprehensive set of occupations were obtained from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) job ratings and…

Direct and Mediated Effects of Language and Cognitive Skills on Comprehension or Oral Narrative Texts (Listening Comprehension) for Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2016-01-01

We investigated component language and cognitive skills of oral language comprehension of narrative texts (i.e., listening comprehension). Using the construction--integration model of text comprehension as an overarching theoretical framework, we examined direct and mediated relations of foundational cognitive skills (working memory and…

Improving 4th Grade Primary School Students' Reading Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulut, Aydin

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to carry out action research to investigate reading comprehension skills when using the SQ3R reading comprehension strategy. To that end, this strategy was used for improving the reading comprehension skills of 7 primary school 4th grade students who had problems with these skills. An action plan was prepared for 3hours a…

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

PubMed

Roch, Maja; Florit, Elena; Levorato, Chiara

2011-01-01

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. © 2011 Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists.

Tracing children's vocabulary development from preschool through the school-age years: An 8-year longitudinal study

PubMed Central

Kang, Cuiping; Liu, Hongyun; Zhang, Yuping; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Tardif, Twila; Li, Hong; Liang, Weilan; Zhang, Zhixiang; Shu, Hua

2014-01-01

In this 8-year longitudinal study, we traced the vocabulary growth of Chinese children, explored potential precursors of vocabulary knowledge, and investigated how vocabulary growth predicted future reading skills. Two hundred sixty-four (264) native Chinese children from Beijing were measured on a variety of reading and language tasks over 8 years. Between the ages of 4 to 10 years, they were administered tasks of vocabulary and related cognitive skills. At age 11, comprehensive reading skills, including character recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension were examined. Individual differences in vocabulary developmental profiles were estimated using the intercept-slope cluster method. Vocabulary development was then examined in relation to later reading outcomes. Three subgroups of lexical growth were classified, namely high-high (with a large initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate), low-high (with a small initial vocabulary size and a fast growth rate) and low-low (with a small initial vocabulary size and a slow growth rate) groups. Low-high and low-low groups were distinguishable mostly through phonological skills, morphological skills and other reading-related cognitive skills. Childhood vocabulary development (using intercept and slope) explained subsequent reading skills. Findings suggest that language-related and reading-related cognitive skills differ among groups with different developmental trajectories of vocabulary, and the initial size and growth rate of vocabulary may be two predictors for later reading development. PMID:24962559

Psychology of computer use: XXXII. Computer screen-savers as distractors.

PubMed

Volk, F A; Halcomb, C G

1994-12-01

The differences in performance of 16 male and 16 female undergraduates on three cognitive tasks were investigated in the presence of visual distractors (computer-generated dynamic graphic images). These tasks included skilled and unskilled proofreading and listening comprehension. The visually demanding task of proofreading (skilled and unskilled) showed no significant decreases in performance in the distractor conditions. Results showed significant decrements, however, in performance on listening comprehension in at least one of the distractor conditions.

How the Size of Our Social Network Influences Our Semantic Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lev-Ari, Shiri

2016-01-01

People differ in the size of their social network, and thus in the properties of the linguistic input they receive. This article examines whether differences in social network size influence individuals' linguistic skills in their native language, focusing on global comprehension of evaluative language. Study 1 exploits the natural variation in…

Adolescent literacy: learning and understanding content.

PubMed

Goldman, Susan R

2012-01-01

Learning to read--amazing as it is to small children and their parents--is one thing. Reading to learn, explains Susan Goldman of the University of Illinois at Chicago, is quite another. Are today's students able to use reading and writing to acquire knowledge, solve problems, and make decisions in academic, personal, and professional arenas? Do they have the literacy skills necessary to meet the demands of the twenty-first century? To answer these questions, Goldman describes the increasingly complex comprehension, reasoning skills, and knowledge that students need as they progress through school and surveys what researchers and educators know about how to teach those skills. Successfully reading to learn requires the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information from multiple sources, Goldman writes. Effective readers must be able to apply different knowledge, reading, and reasoning processes to different types of content, from fiction to history and science, to news accounts and user manuals. They must assess sources of information for relevance, reliability, impartiality, and completeness. And they must connect information across multiple sources. In short, successful readers must not only use general reading skills but also pay close attention to discipline-specific processes. Goldman reviews the evidence on three different instructional approaches to reading to learn: general comprehension strategies, classroom discussion, and disciplinary content instruction. She argues that building the literacy skills necessary for U.S. students to read comprehensively and critically and to learn content in a variety of disciplines should be a primary responsibility for all of the nation's teachers. But outside of English, few subject-area teachers are aware of the need to teach subject-area reading comprehension skills, nor have they had opportunities to learn them themselves. Building the capacity of all teachers to meet the literacy needs of today's students requires long-term investment and commitment from the education community as well as society as a whole.

Examining the Relationships of Component Reading Skills to Reading Comprehension in Struggling Adult Readers: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Tighe, Elizabeth L; Schatschneider, Christopher

2016-07-01

The current study employed a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relative importance of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers. A total of 10 component skills were consistently identified across 16 independent studies and 2,707 participants. Random effects models generated 76 predictor-reading comprehension effect sizes among the 10 constructs. The results indicated that six of the component skills exhibited strong relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .50): morphological awareness, language comprehension, fluency, oral vocabulary knowledge, real word decoding, and working memory. Three of the component skills yielded moderate relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .30 and < .50): pseudoword decoding, orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) was the only component skill that was weakly related to reading comprehension (r = .15). Morphological awareness was a significantly stronger correlate of reading comprehension than phonological awareness and RAN. This study provides the first attempt at a systematic synthesis of the recent research investigating the reading skills of adults with low literacy skills, a historically understudied population. Directions for future research, the relation of our results to the children's literature, and the implications for researchers and adult basic education programs are discussed. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Examining the Relationships of Component Reading Skills to Reading Comprehension in Struggling Adult Readers: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

The current study employed a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relative importance of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers. A total of 10 component skills were consistently identified across 16 independent studies and 2,707 participants. Random effects models generated 76 predictor-reading comprehension effect sizes among the 10 constructs. The results indicated that six of the component skills exhibited strong relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .50): morphological awareness, language comprehension, fluency, oral vocabulary knowledge, real word decoding, and working memory. Three of the component skills yielded moderate relationships with reading comprehension (average rs ≥ .30 and < .50): pseudoword decoding, orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) was the only component skill that was weakly related to reading comprehension (r = .15). Morphological awareness was a significantly stronger correlate of reading comprehension than phonological awareness and RAN. This study provides the first attempt at a systematic synthesis of the recent research investigating the reading skills of adults with low literacy skills, a historically under-studied population. Directions for future research, the relation of our results to the children’s literature, and the implications for researchers and Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs are discussed. PMID:25350926

Examining the Prediction of Reading Comprehension on Different Multiple-Choice Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreassen, Rune; Braten, Ivar

2010-01-01

In this study, 180 Norwegian fifth-grade students with a mean age of 10.5 years were administered measures of word recognition skills, strategic text processing, reading motivation and working memory. Six months later, the same students were given three different multiple-choice reading comprehension measures. Based on three forced-order…

Reading component skills in dyslexia: word recognition, comprehension and processing speed.

PubMed

de Oliveira, Darlene G; da Silva, Patrícia B; Dias, Natália M; Seabra, Alessandra G; Macedo, Elizeu C

2014-01-01

The cognitive model of reading comprehension (RC) posits that RC is a result of the interaction between decoding and linguistic comprehension. Recently, the notion of decoding skill was expanded to include word recognition. In addition, some studies suggest that other skills could be integrated into this model, like processing speed, and have consistently indicated that this skill influences and is an important predictor of the main components of the model, such as vocabulary for comprehension and phonological awareness of word recognition. The following study evaluated the components of the RC model and predictive skills in children and adolescents with dyslexia. 40 children and adolescents (8-13 years) were divided in a Dyslexic Group (DG; 18 children, MA = 10.78, SD = 1.66) and control group (CG 22 children, MA = 10.59, SD = 1.86). All were students from the 2nd to 8th grade of elementary school and groups were equivalent in school grade, age, gender, and IQ. Oral and RC, word recognition, processing speed, picture naming, receptive vocabulary, and phonological awareness were assessed. There were no group differences regarding the accuracy in oral and RC, phonological awareness, naming, and vocabulary scores. DG performed worse than the CG in word recognition (general score and orthographic confusion items) and were slower in naming. Results corroborated the literature regarding word recognition and processing speed deficits in dyslexia. However, dyslexics can achieve normal scores on RC test. Data supports the importance of delimitation of different reading strategies embedded in the word recognition component. The role of processing speed in reading problems remain unclear.

Applying a Multiple Group Causal Indicator Modeling Framework to the Reading Comprehension Skills of Third, Seventh, and Tenth Grade Students

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Wagner, Richard K.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

This study demonstrates the utility of applying a causal indicator modeling framework to investigate important predictors of reading comprehension in third, seventh, and tenth grade students. The results indicated that a 4-factor multiple indicator multiple indicator cause (MIMIC) model of reading comprehension provided adequate fit at each grade level. This model included latent predictor constructs of decoding, verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and working memory and accounted for a large portion of the reading comprehension variance (73% to 87%) across grade levels. Verbal reasoning contributed the most unique variance to reading comprehension at all grade levels. In addition, we fit a multiple group 4-factor MIMIC model to investigate the relative stability (or variability) of the predictor contributions to reading comprehension across development (i.e., grade levels). The results revealed that the contributions of verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and working memory to reading comprehension were stable across the three grade levels. Decoding was the only predictor that could not be constrained to be equal across grade levels. The contribution of decoding skills to reading comprehension was higher in third grade and then remained relatively stable between seventh and tenth grade. These findings illustrate the feasibility of using MIMIC models to explain individual differences in reading comprehension across the development of reading skills. PMID:25821346

Children's understanding of ambiguous idioms and conversational perspective-taking.

PubMed

Le Sourn-Bissaoui, Sandrine; Caillies, Stéphanie; Bernard, Stéphane; Deleau, Michel; Brulé, Lauriane

2012-08-01

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that conversational perspective-taking is a determinant of unfamiliar ambiguous idiom comprehension. We investigated two types of ambiguous idiom, decomposable and nondecomposable expressions, which differ in the degree to which the literal meanings of the individual words contribute to the overall idiomatic meaning. We designed an experiment to assess the relationship between the acquisition of figurative comprehension and conversational perspective-taking. Our sample of children aged 5-7 years performed three conversational perspective-taking tasks (language acts, shared/unshared information, and conversational maxims). They then listened to decomposable and nondecomposable idiomatic expressions presented in context before performing a multiple-choice task (figurative, literal, and contextual responses). Results indicated that decomposable idiom comprehension was predicted by conversational perspective-taking scores and language skills, whereas nondecomposable idiom comprehension was predicted solely by language skills. We discuss our findings with respect to verbal and pragmatic skills. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Uneven Profiles: Language Minority Learners' Word Reading, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lesaux, Nonie K.; Crosson, Amy C.; Kieffer, Michael J.; Pierce, Margaret

2010-01-01

English reading comprehension skill development was examined in a group of 87 native Spanish-speakers developing English literacy skills, followed from fourth through fifth grade. Specifically, the effects of Spanish (L1) and English (L2) oral language and word reading skills on reading comprehension were investigated. The participants showed…

Subgroups of Adult Basic Education Learners with Different Profiles of Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacArthur, Charles A.; Konold, Timothy R.; Glutting, Joseph J.; Alamprese, Judith A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of adult basic education (ABE) learners with different profiles of skills in the core reading components of decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. The analysis uses factor scores of those 5 reading components from on a prior investigation of the reliability and…

It Matters Whether Reading Comprehension Is Conceptualised as Rate or Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rønberg, Louise Flensted; Petersen, Dorthe Klint

2016-01-01

This study shows that it makes a difference whether accuracy measures or rate measures are used when assessing reading comprehension. When the outcome is reading comprehension accuracy (i.e., the number of correct responses), word reading skills (measured as access to orthographic representations) account for a modest amount of the variance in the…

Individual Differences in Fifth Graders' Literacy and Academic Language Predict Comprehension Monitoring Development: An Eye-Movement Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connor, Carol McDonald; Radach, Ralph; Vorstius, Christian; Day, Stephanie L.; McLean, Leigh; Morrison, Frederick J.

2015-01-01

In this study, we investigated fifth graders' (n = 52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children…

Simple View of Reading in Down's syndrome: the role of listening comprehension and reading skills.

PubMed

Roch, Maja; Levorato, M Chiara

2009-01-01

According to the 'Simple View of Reading' (Hoover and Gough 1990), individual differences in reading comprehension are accounted for by decoding skills and listening comprehension, each of which makes a unique and specific contribution. The current research was aimed at testing the Simple View of Reading in individuals with Down's syndrome and comparing their profiles with typically developing first graders. Listening comprehension and the ability to read both words and non-words was compared in two groups with the same level of reading comprehension: 23 individuals with Down's syndrome aged between 11 years 3 months and 18 years 2 months and 23 first-grade typically developing children aged between 6 years 2 months and 7 years 4 months. The results indicate that at the same level of reading comprehension, individuals with Down's syndrome have less developed listening comprehension and more advanced word recognition than typically developing first graders. A comparison of the profiles of the two groups revealed that reading comprehension level was predicted by listening comprehension in both groups of participants and by word-reading skills only in typically developing children. The Simple View of Reading model is confirmed for individuals with Down's syndrome, although they do not show the reading profile of typically developing first graders; rather, they show an atypical profile similar to that of 'poor comprehenders' (Cain and Oakhill 2006). The crucial role of listening comprehension in Down's syndrome is also discussed with reference to the educational implications.

The Effectiveness of Using an Explicit Language Learning Strategy-Based Instruction in Developing Secondary School Students' EFL Listening Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amin, Iman Abdul-Reheem; Amin, Magdy Mohammad; Aly, Mahsoub Abdul-Sadeq

2011-01-01

The present study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of using explicit language learning strategy-based instruction in developing secondary school students' EFL listening comprehension skills. It was hypothesized that using explicit strategy-based instruction would develop students' EFL listening comprehension skill and its sub-skills. The…

Gender Difference in Mathematics Achievement and Its Relation with Reading Comprehension of Children at Upper Primary Stage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anjum, Sabahat

2015-01-01

The progress and prosperity of a country depends on the quality of mathematics taught in its school system. For people to survive and improve the quality of life, basic learning skills, reading, writing, arithmetic and life skills, are necessary and mathematics education is intended to develop these skills. The importance of mathematics transcends…

Relationships among L1 Print Exposure and Early L1 Literacy Skills, L2 Aptitude, and L2 Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Patton, Jon; Ganschow, Leonore; Humbach, Nancy

2012-01-01

Authors examined the relationship between individual differences in L1 print exposure and differences in early L1 skills and later L2 aptitude, L2 proficiency, and L2 classroom achievement. Participants were administered measures of L1 word decoding, spelling, phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, receptive vocabulary, and listening…

Decoding and Reading Comprehension: A Meta-Analysis to Identify Which Reader and Assessment Characteristics Influence the Strength of the Relationship in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García, J. Ricardo; Cain, Kate

2014-01-01

The twofold purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the relative importance of decoding skills to reading comprehension in reading development and to identify which reader characteristics and reading assessment characteristics contribute to differences in the decoding and reading comprehension correlation. A meta-analysis of 110 studies…

Lexical quality and executive control predict children's first and second language reading comprehension.

PubMed

Raudszus, Henriette; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2018-01-01

This study compared how lexical quality (vocabulary and decoding) and executive control (working memory and inhibition) predict reading comprehension directly as well as indirectly, via syntactic integration, in monolingual and bilingual fourth grade children. The participants were 76 monolingual and 102 bilingual children (mean age 10 years, SD  = 5 months) learning to read Dutch in the Netherlands. Bilingual children showed lower Dutch vocabulary, syntactic integration and reading comprehension skills, but better decoding skills than their monolingual peers. There were no differences in working memory or inhibition. Multigroup path analysis showed relatively invariant connections between predictors and reading comprehension for monolingual and bilingual readers. For both groups, there was a direct effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension. In addition, lexical quality and executive control indirectly influenced reading comprehension via syntactic integration. The groups differed in that inhibition more strongly predicted syntactic integration for bilingual than for monolingual children. For a subgroup of bilingual children, for whom home language vocabulary data were available ( n  = 56), there was an additional positive effect of home language vocabulary on second language reading comprehension. Together, the results suggest that similar processes underlie reading comprehension in first and second language readers, but that syntactic integration requires more executive control in second language reading. Moreover, bilingual readers additionally benefit from first language vocabulary to arrive at second language reading comprehension.

Brain basis of cognitive resilience: Prefrontal cortex predicts better reading comprehension in relation to decoding

PubMed Central

Patael, Smadar Z.; Farris, Emily A.; Black, Jessica M.; Hancock, Roeland; Gabrieli, John D. E.; Cutting, Laurie E.; Hoeft, Fumiko

2018-01-01

Objective The ultimate goal of reading is to understand written text. To accomplish this, children must first master decoding, the ability to translate printed words into sounds. Although decoding and reading comprehension are highly interdependent, some children struggle to decode but comprehend well, whereas others with good decoding skills fail to comprehend. The neural basis underlying individual differences in this discrepancy between decoding and comprehension abilities is virtually unknown. Methods We investigated the neural basis underlying reading discrepancy, defined as the difference between reading comprehension and decoding skills, in a three-part study: 1) The neuroanatomical basis of reading discrepancy in a cross-sectional sample of school-age children with a wide range of reading abilities (Experiment-1; n = 55); 2) Whether a discrepancy-related neural signature is present in beginning readers and predictive of future discrepancy (Experiment-2; n = 43); and 3) Whether discrepancy-related regions are part of a domain-general or a language specialized network, utilizing the 1000 Functional Connectome data and large-scale reverse inference from Neurosynth.org (Experiment-3). Results Results converged onto the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), as related to having discrepantly higher reading comprehension relative to decoding ability. Increased gray matter volume (GMV) was associated with greater discrepancy (Experiment-1). Region-of-interest (ROI) analyses based on the left DLPFC cluster identified in Experiment-1 revealed that regional GMV within this ROI in beginning readers predicted discrepancy three years later (Experiment-2). This region was associated with the fronto-parietal network that is considered fundamental for working memory and cognitive control (Experiment-3). Interpretation Processes related to the prefrontal cortex might be linked to reading discrepancy. The findings may be important for understanding cognitive resilience, which we operationalize as those individuals with greater higher-order reading skills such as reading comprehension compared to lower-order reading skills such as decoding skills. Our study provides insights into reading development, existing theories of reading, and cognitive processes that are potentially significant to a wide range of reading disorders. PMID:29902208

Motor Skills and Exercise Capacity Are Associated with Objective Measures of Cognitive Functions and Academic Performance in Preadolescent Children.

PubMed

Geertsen, Svend Sparre; Thomas, Richard; Larsen, Malte Nejst; Dahn, Ida Marie; Andersen, Josefine Needham; Krause-Jensen, Matilde; Korup, Vibeke; Nielsen, Claus Malta; Wienecke, Jacob; Ritz, Christian; Krustrup, Peter; Lundbye-Jensen, Jesper

2016-01-01

To investigate associations between motor skills, exercise capacity and cognitive functions, and evaluate how they correlate to academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension using standardised, objective tests. This cross-sectional study included 423 Danish children (age: 9.29±0.35 years, 209 girls). Fine and gross motor skills were evaluated in a visuomotor accuracy-tracking task, and a whole-body coordination task, respectively. Exercise capacity was estimated from the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 children's test (YYIR1C). Selected tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) were used to assess different domains of cognitive functions, including sustained attention, spatial working memory, episodic and semantic memory, and processing speed. Linear mixed-effects models were used to investigate associations between these measures and the relationship with standard tests of academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. Both fine and gross motor skills were associated with better performance in all five tested cognitive domains (all P<0.001), whereas exercise capacity was only associated with better sustained attention (P<0.046) and spatial working memory (P<0.038). Fine and gross motor skills (all P<0.001), exercise capacity and cognitive functions such as working memory, episodic memory, sustained attention and processing speed were all associated with better performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. The data demonstrate that fine and gross motor skills are positively correlated with several aspects of cognitive functions and with academic performance in both mathematics and reading comprehension. Moreover, exercise capacity was associated with academic performance and performance in some cognitive domains. Future interventions should investigate associations between changes in motor skills, exercise capacity, cognitive functions, and academic performance to elucidate the causality of these associations.

Motor Skills and Exercise Capacity Are Associated with Objective Measures of Cognitive Functions and Academic Performance in Preadolescent Children

PubMed Central

Thomas, Richard; Larsen, Malte Nejst; Dahn, Ida Marie; Andersen, Josefine Needham; Krause-Jensen, Matilde; Korup, Vibeke; Nielsen, Claus Malta; Wienecke, Jacob; Ritz, Christian; Krustrup, Peter; Lundbye-Jensen, Jesper

2016-01-01

Objective To investigate associations between motor skills, exercise capacity and cognitive functions, and evaluate how they correlate to academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension using standardised, objective tests. Methods This cross-sectional study included 423 Danish children (age: 9.29±0.35 years, 209 girls). Fine and gross motor skills were evaluated in a visuomotor accuracy-tracking task, and a whole-body coordination task, respectively. Exercise capacity was estimated from the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 children's test (YYIR1C). Selected tests from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) were used to assess different domains of cognitive functions, including sustained attention, spatial working memory, episodic and semantic memory, and processing speed. Linear mixed-effects models were used to investigate associations between these measures and the relationship with standard tests of academic performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. Results Both fine and gross motor skills were associated with better performance in all five tested cognitive domains (all P<0.001), whereas exercise capacity was only associated with better sustained attention (P<0.046) and spatial working memory (P<0.038). Fine and gross motor skills (all P<0.001), exercise capacity and cognitive functions such as working memory, episodic memory, sustained attention and processing speed were all associated with better performance in mathematics and reading comprehension. Conclusions The data demonstrate that fine and gross motor skills are positively correlated with several aspects of cognitive functions and with academic performance in both mathematics and reading comprehension. Moreover, exercise capacity was associated with academic performance and performance in some cognitive domains. Future interventions should investigate associations between changes in motor skills, exercise capacity, cognitive functions, and academic performance to elucidate the causality of these associations. PMID:27560512

Method Improving Reading Comprehension In Primary Education Program Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rohana

2018-01-01

This study aims to determine the influence of reading comprehension skills of English for PGSD students through the application of SQ3R learning method. The type of this research is Pre-Experimental research because it is not yet a real experiment, there are external variables that influence the formation of a dependent variable, this is because there is no control variable and the sample is not chosen randomly. The research design is used is one-group pretest-post-test design involving one group that is an experimental group. In this design, the observation is done twice before and after the experiment. Observations made before the experiment (O1) are called pretests and the post-experimental observation (O2) is called posttest. The difference between O1 and O2 ie O2 - O1 is the effect of the treatment. The results showed that there was an improvement in reading comprehension skills of PGSD students in Class M.4.3 using SQ3R method, and better SQ3R enabling SQ3R to improve English comprehension skills.

Teaching Reading Comprehension Skills to a Child with Autism Using Behaviour Skills Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Binita D.; Moore, Dennis W.; Furlonger, Brett E.; Anderson, Angelika; Busacca, Margherita L.; English, Derek L.

2017-01-01

A multiple probe design across skills was used to examine the effects of behaviour skills training (BST) on teaching four reading comprehension skills (predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing) to a 7th grade student with autism. Following baseline, the student received 12 sessions of BST during which each skill was taught to…

Riddle appreciation and reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking children.

PubMed

Tang, Ivy N Y; To, Carol K S; Weekes, Brendan S

2013-10-01

Inference-making skills are necessary for reading comprehension. Training in riddle appreciation is an effective way to improve reading comprehension among English-speaking children. However, it is not clear whether these methods generalize to other writing systems. The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between inference-making skills, as measured by riddle appreciation ability, and reading comprehension performance in typically developing Cantonese-speaking children in the 4th grade. Forty Cantonese-speaking children between the ages of 9;1 (years;months) and 11;0 were given tests of riddle appreciation ability and reading comprehension. Chinese character reading and auditory comprehension abilities were also assessed using tests that had been standardized in Hong Kong. Regression analyses revealed that riddle appreciation ability explained a significant amount of variance in reading comprehension after variance due to character reading skills and auditory comprehension skills were first considered. Orthographic, lexical, morphological, and syntactic riddles were also significantly correlated with reading comprehension. Riddle appreciation ability predicts reading comprehension in Cantonese-speaking 4th-grade children. Therefore, training Cantonese speakers in riddle appreciation should improve their reading comprehension.

Examining the Relationship Between Word Reading Efficiency and Oral Reading Rate in Predicting Comprehension Among Different Types of Readers

PubMed Central

Eason, Sarah H.; Sabatini, John; Goldberg, Lindsay; Bruce, Kelly; Cutting, Laurie E.

2013-01-01

To further explore contextual reading rate, an important aspect of reading fluency, we examined the relationship between word reading efficiency (WRE) and contextual oral reading rate (ORR), the degree to which they overlap across different comprehension measures, whether oral language (semantics and syntax) predicts ORR beyond contributions of word-level skills, and whether the WRE–ORR relationship varies based on different reader profiles. Assessing reading and language of average readers, poor decoders, and poor comprehenders, ages 10 to 14, ORR was the strongest predictor of comprehension across various formats; WRE contributed no unique variance after taking ORR into account. Findings indicated that semantics, not syntax, contributed to ORR. Poor comprehenders performed below average on measures of ORR, despite average WRE, expanding previous findings suggesting specific weaknesses in ORR for this group. Together, findings suggest that ORR draws upon skills beyond those captured by WRE and suggests a role for oral language (semantics) in ORR. PMID:23667307

Developing Higher Order Reading Comprehension Skills in the Learning Disabled Student: A Non-Basal Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solomon, Sheila

This practicum study evaluated a non-basal, multidisciplinary, multisensory approach to teaching higher order reading comprehension skills to eight fifth-grade learning-disabled students from low socioeconomic minority group backgrounds. The four comprehension skills were: (1) identifying the main idea; (2) determining cause and effect; (3) making…

Graphic Novel Comprehension among Learners with Differential Cognitive Styles and Reading Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Simpson W. L.; Miao, Hoyee; Cheng, Rebecca Wing-yi; Yip, Michael Chi Wing

2017-01-01

Learners with poor reading skills are less able to acquire knowledge through text. Graphic novels may enhance reading comprehension skills owing to fewer words, more pictures, and an engaging storyline. This study considered the reading skills of 188 Chinese-English bilingual undergraduates, comparing their reading comprehension performance after…

Coding and Comprehension in Skilled Reading and Implications for Reading Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfetti, Charles A.; Lesgold, Alan M.

A view of skilled reading is suggested that emphasizes an intimate connection between coding and comprehension. It is suggested that skilled comprehension depends on a highly refined facility for generating and manipulating language codes, especially at the phonetic/articulatory level. The argument is developed that decoding expertise should be a…

The Effect of the Cherry Hill Study Skills Program on Eighth Grade Students' Reading Comprehension and Study Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

La Marca, Marilyn Tierney

A study was conducted to determine the effects of the "Cherry Hill Study Skills Program" on eighth grade students' reading comprehension and study skills. The "Cherry Hill Study Skills Program" is a process oriented course dealing with the sequential development of nine specific skills deemed essential to the retrieval and retention of information…

Revalidation of the Selection Instrument for Flight Training

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-07-01

AACog) composite, as measured by the following SIFT subscales: o Mechanical Comprehension Test (MCT) o Math Skills Test (MST) o Reading...applied mechanical science. varies/ 15 minutes MST Math Skills Test—Assesses the examinee’s computational skill and mathematical aptitude...3.36 2.11 .03 1.01 Mechanical Comprehension 463 -1.95 3.58 .01 0.92 Math Skills 463 -2.59 2.87 .06 0.82 Reading Comprehension 463 -2.51 2.93 .52

Racial-Ethnic Differences in Word Fluency and Auditory Comprehension Among Persons With Poststroke Aphasia.

PubMed

Ellis, Charles; Peach, Richard K

2017-04-01

To examine aphasia outcomes and to determine whether the observed language profiles vary by race-ethnicity. Retrospective cross-sectional study using a convenience sample of persons of with aphasia (PWA) obtained from AphasiaBank, a database designed for the study of aphasia outcomes. Aphasia research laboratories. PWA (N=381; 339 white and 42 black individuals). Not applicable. Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) total scale score (Aphasia Quotient) and subtest scores were analyzed for racial-ethnic differences. The WAB-R is a comprehensive assessment of communication function designed to evaluate PWA in the areas of spontaneous speech, auditory comprehension, repetition, and naming in addition to reading, writing, apraxia, and constructional, visuospatial, and calculation skills. In univariate comparisons, black PWA exhibited lower word fluency (5.7 vs 7.6; P=.004), auditory word comprehension (49.0 vs 53.0; P=.021), and comprehension of sequential commands (44.2 vs 52.2; P=.012) when compared with white PWA. In multivariate comparisons, adjusted for age and years of education, black PWA exhibited lower word fluency (5.5 vs 7.6; P=.015), auditory word recognition (49.3 vs 53.3; P=.02), and comprehension of sequential commands (43.7 vs 53.2; P=.017) when compared with white PWA. This study identified racial-ethnic differences in word fluency and auditory comprehension ability among PWA. Both skills are critical to effective communication, and racial-ethnic differences in outcomes must be considered in treatment approaches designed to improve overall communication ability. Copyright © 2016 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparing growth in linguistic comprehension and reading comprehension in school-aged children with autism versus typically developing children.

PubMed

Grimm, Ryan P; Solari, Emily J; McIntyre, Nancy S; Zajic, Matthew; Mundy, Peter C

2018-04-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with reading comprehension. Linguistic comprehension is an important predictor of reading comprehension, especially as children progress through elementary school and later grades. Yet, there is a dearth of research examining longitudinal relations between linguistic comprehensions in school-age children with ASD compared to typically-developing peers (TD). This study compared the developmental trajectories of linguistic and reading comprehension in samples of children with ASD and age-matched TD peers. Both groups were administered measures of linguistic and reading comprehension multiple times over a 30-month period. Latent growth curve modeling demonstrated children with ASD performed at significantly lower levels on both measures at the first timepoint and these deficits persisted across time. Children with ASD exhibited growth in both skills comparable to their TD peers, but this was not sufficient to enable them to eventually achieve at a level similar to the TD group. Due to the wide age range of the sample, age was controlled and displayed significant effects. Findings suggest linguistic comprehension skills are related to reading comprehension in children with ASD, similar to TD peers. Further, intervention in linguistic comprehension skills for children with ASD should begin early and there may be a finite window in which these skills are malleable, in terms of improving reading comprehension skills. Autism Res 2018, 11: 624-635. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. There is relatively little research concerning reading comprehension development in children with ASD and how they compare to TD peers. This study found children with ASD began at lower achievement levels of linguistic comprehension and reading comprehension than TD peers, but the skills developed at a similar rate. Intervening early and raising initial levels of linguistic and reading comprehension may enable children with ASD to perform similarly to TD peers over time. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Growth of reading skills in children with a history of specific language impairment: the role of autistic symptomatology and language-related abilities.

PubMed

St Clair, Michelle C; Durkin, Kevin; Conti-Ramsden, Gina; Pickles, Andrew

2010-03-01

Individuals with a history of specific language impairment (SLI) often have subsequent problems with reading skills, but there have been some discrepant findings as to the developmental time course of these skills. This study investigates the developmental trajectories of reading skills over a 9-year time-span (from 7 to 16 years of age) in a large sample of individuals with a history of SLI. Relationships among reading skills, autistic symptomatology, and language-related abilities were also investigated. The results indicate that both reading accuracy and comprehension are deficient but that the development of these skills progresses in a consistently parallel fashion to what would be expected from a normative sample of same age peers. Language-related abilities were strongly associated with reading skills. Unlike individuals with SLI only, those with SLI and additional autistic symptomatology had adequate reading accuracy but did not differ from the individuals with SLI only in reading comprehension. They exhibited a significant gap between what they could read and what they could understand when reading. These findings provide strong evidence that individuals with SLI experience continued, long-term deficits in reading skills from childhood to adolescence.

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training

PubMed Central

Boonen, Anton J. H.; de Koning, Björn B.; Jolles, Jelle; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e., representational skills) in the context of word problem solving. Given this, it seems legitimate to assume that students from a RME curriculum experience difficulties when asked to solve semantically complex word problems. We investigated this assumption under 80 sixth grade students who were classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test. To this end, students completed word problems that ask for both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Based on this study, we concluded that reading comprehension skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME. PMID:26925012

Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training.

PubMed

Boonen, Anton J H; de Koning, Björn B; Jolles, Jelle; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

Successfully solving mathematical word problems requires both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. In Realistic Math Education (RME), however, students primarily learn to apply the first of these skills (i.e., representational skills) in the context of word problem solving. Given this, it seems legitimate to assume that students from a RME curriculum experience difficulties when asked to solve semantically complex word problems. We investigated this assumption under 80 sixth grade students who were classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test. To this end, students completed word problems that ask for both mental representation skills and reading comprehension skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Based on this study, we concluded that reading comprehension skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME.

Does Navigation Always Predict Performance? Effects of Navigation on Digital Reading Are Moderated by Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naumann, Johannes; Salmerón, Ladislao

2016-01-01

This study investigated interactive effects of navigation and offline comprehension skill on digital reading performance. As indicators of navigation, relevant page selection and irrelevant page selection were considered. In 533 Spanish high school students aged 11-17 positive effects of offline comprehension skill and relevant page selection on…

[The development and effects of a comprehensive communication course for nursing students].

PubMed

Kim, Sunah; Park, Jung-Hwa; Lee, Hyun-Hwa

2004-06-01

The purposes of this study were to: (a) develop a comprehensive communication course combined with a group program for improving communication skills; and (b) examine the effects of the comprehensive communication course on interpersonal communication, relationship change, self-esteem, and depression in nursing students. The experimental group consisted of 82 nursing students, and the control group, 108 nursing students. Both groups each took communication courses from March to June, 2002 and 2003. A group program for improving communication skills was conducted for each 8 subgroups of the experimental group for 90 minutes once a week during the 6 weeks, while the existing communication lecture was conducted for the control group. Both groups were post-tested after the intervention for verifying the difference of variables between the two groups, and the experimental group was also pre-tested for verifying the difference between before and after the treatment. Interpersonal communication score of the post-test in the experimental group was significantly higher than in the control group and the depression score of the post-test in the experimental group was significantly lower than in the control group. Interpersonal communication, relationship change and self-esteem scores were significantly increased and the depression score was significantly decreased in experimental group after the treatment. In conclusion, the comprehensive communication course that was developed in this study had positive effects on communication skills in nursing students.

Meta-Analyses of the Effects of Tier 2 Type Reading Interventions in Grades K-3.

PubMed

Wanzek, Jeanne; Vaughn, Sharon; Scammacca, Nancy; Gatlin, Brandy; Walker, Melodee A; Capin, Philip

2016-09-01

This meta-analysis extends previous work on extensive Tier 3 type reading interventions (Wanzek & Vaughn, 2007; Wanzek et al., 2013) to Tier 2 type interventions by examining a non-overlapping set of studies addressing the effects of less extensive reading interventions for students with or at risk for reading difficulties in Grades K-3. We examined the overall effects of these interventions on students' foundational skills, language, and comprehension as well as the intervention features that may be associated with improved outcomes. We conducted four meta-analyses on 72 studies to examine effects on (1) standardized foundational skill measures (mean ES = 0.54), (2) not-standardized foundational skill measures (mean ES = 0.62), (3) standardized language/comprehension measures (mean ES = 0.36), and (4) not-standardized language/comprehension measures (mean ES = 1.02). There were no differences in effects related to intervention type, instructional group size, grade level, intervention implementer, or the number of intervention hours.

Second Language Reading: Reading, Language, and Metacognition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrell, Patricia L.

A study investigated the role of metacognitive skills and the conception of reading in the reading comprehension of adult native speakers of Spanish and English. The study differed from others in its examination of reading conceptions and comprehension in both the first and second languages. Results suggest that both first language reading ability…

Print and Digital Texts: Evaluating the Differences in Reading Comprehension Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maynard, Stephanie Elizabeth

2016-01-01

Concerns about the reading comprehension skills of students in the United States have been raised partly because of the introduction of digital products into their lives and the classroom setting. The Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards results from 2013 that were provided by the Arizona Department of Education indicated that reading scores…

The Influence of Specific Phonemic Awareness Processes on the Reading Comprehension of African American Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Oliver W.; Taub, Gordon E.

2016-01-01

Research indicates the primary difference between strong and weak readers is their phonemic awareness skills. However, there is no consensus regarding which specific components of phonemic awareness contribute most robustly to reading comprehension. In this study, the relationship among sound blending, sound segmentation, and reading comprehension…

Reading Comprehension & Social Information Processing of Students with and without Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessler, Michele Lynn

2009-01-01

Students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle with reading comprehension (Shaywitz, 2003), even after attaining basic decoding skills. Similar proportions of students with LD have also been found to differ from their typical peers in some aspect of social adjustment (Kavale & Forness, 1996). Yet there is very little known about the…

Reading to a Different DRUM: The Directed Reading Using Music Strategy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marchionda, Denise B.

The Directed Reading Using Music Strategy (DRUMS) is a type of reading strategy that can lead to the teaching of reflective thinking skills, increased reading comprehension and vocabulary, along with increased motivation for learning. Research indicates that contemporary song lyrics aid reading comprehension and can be used as motivational text. A…

Longitudinal Stability in Reading Comprehension Is Largely Heritable from Grades 1 to 6

PubMed Central

Soden, Brooke; Christopher, Micaela E.; Hulslander, Jacqueline; Olson, Richard K.; Cutting, Laurie; Keenan, Janice M.; Thompson, Lee A.; Wadsworth, Sally J.; Willcutt, Erik G.; Petrill, Stephen A.

2015-01-01

Reading comprehension is a foundational academic skill and significant attention has focused on reading development. This report is the first to examine the stability and change in genetic and environmental influences on reading comprehension across Grades 1 to 6. This developmental range is particularly important because it encompasses the timespan in which most children move from learning how to read to using reading for learning. Longitudinal simplex models were fitted separately for two independent twin samples (N = 706; N = 976). Results suggested that the shared environment contributed to variance in early but not later reading. Instead, stability in reading development was largely mediated by continuous genetic influences. Thus, although reading is clearly a learned skill and the environment remains important for reading development, individual differences in reading comprehension appear to be also influenced by a core of genetic stability that persists through the developmental course of reading. PMID:25602760

Relationships of French and English Morphophonemic Orthographies to Word Reading, Spelling, and Reading Comprehension during Early and Middle Childhood.

PubMed

Abbott, Robert D; Fayol, Michel; Zorman, Michel; Casalis, Séverine; Nagy, William; Berninger, Virginia W

2016-12-01

Two longitudinal studies of word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension identified commonalities and differences in morphophonemic orthographies-French (Study 1, n =1313) or English (Study 2, n =114) in early childhood (grade 2) and middle childhood (grade 5). For French and English, statistically significant concurrent relationships among these literacy skills occurred in grades 2 and 5, and longitudinal relationships for each skill with itself from grade 2 to 5; but concurrent relationships were more sizable and longitudinal relationships more variable for English than French especially for word reading to reading comprehension. Results show that, for both morphophonemic orthographies, assessment and instructional practices should be tailored to early or middle childhood, and early childhood reading comprehension may not be related to middle childhood spelling. Also discussed are findings applying only to English, for which word origin is primarily Anglo-Saxon in early childhood, but increasingly French in middle childhood.

A Model of Reading Comprehension in Chinese Elementary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeung, Pui-sze; Ho, Connie Suk-han; Chan, David Wai-ock; Chung, Kevin Kien-hoa; Wong, Yau-kai

2013-01-01

The relationships of reading-related skills (rapid naming, morphological awareness, syntactic skills, discourse skills, and verbal working memory) and word reading to reading comprehension were examined among 248 Chinese fourth graders in Hong Kong. Multiple regression analysis results showed that syntactic skills (word order knowledge,…

Vocabulary Knowledge Is a Critical Determinant of the Difference in Reading Comprehension Growth between First and Second Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lervag, Arne; Aukrust, Vibeke Grover

2010-01-01

Background: This study examines the role of decoding and vocabulary skills as longitudinal predictors of reading comprehension in young first (L1) and second (L2) language learners. Methods: Two-group latent growth models were used to assess differences in growth and predictions of growth between the 198 L1 and 90 L2 language learners. Results: L1…

A Program Based on the Pragmatic Theory to Develop Grammatical Structure Comprehension Skills for Foreign Learners of Arabic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elsamman, Marwan

2014-01-01

This study aimed at designing a program based on the Pragmatic theory to develop grammatical structure comprehension skills for foreign learners of Arabic and examining its effectiveness. Hence, the problem of the study has been summarized in the weakness of grammatical structure comprehension skills for foreign learners of Arabic and in the need…

Translating Advances in Reading Comprehension Research to Educational Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McNamara, Danielle S.; Kendeou, Panayiota

2011-01-01

The authors review five major findings in reading comprehension and their implications for educational practice. First, research suggests that comprehension skills are separable from decoding processes and important at early ages, suggesting that comprehension skills should be targeted early, even before the child learns to read. Second, there is…

Multivariate analyses of individual variation in soccer skill as a tool for talent identification and development: utilising evolutionary theory in sports science.

PubMed

Wilson, Robbie S; James, Rob S; David, Gwendolyn; Hermann, Ecki; Morgan, Oliver J; Niehaus, Amanda C; Hunter, Andrew; Thake, Doug; Smith, Michelle D

2016-11-01

The development of a comprehensive protocol for quantifying soccer-specific skill could markedly improve both talent identification and development. Surprisingly, most protocols for talent identification in soccer still focus on the more generic athletic attributes of team sports, such as speed, strength, agility and endurance, rather than on a player's technical skills. We used a multivariate methodology borrowed from evolutionary analyses of adaptation to develop our quantitative assessment of individual soccer-specific skill. We tested the performance of 40 individual academy-level players in eight different soccer-specific tasks across an age range of 13-18 years old. We first quantified the repeatability of each skill performance then explored the effects of age on soccer-specific skill, correlations between each of the pairs of skill tasks independent of age, and finally developed an individual metric of overall skill performance that could be easily used by coaches. All of our measured traits were highly repeatable when assessed over a short period and we found that an individual's overall skill - as well as their performance in their best task - was strongly positively correlated with age. Most importantly, our study established a simple but comprehensive methodology for assessing skill performance in soccer players, thus allowing coaches to rapidly assess the relative abilities of their players, identify promising youths and work on eliminating skill deficits in players.

Developing and pilot testing a comprehensive health literacy communication training for health professionals in three European countries.

PubMed

Kaper, Marise S; Sixsmith, Jane; Koot, Jaap A R; Meijering, Louise B; van Twillert, Sacha; Giammarchi, Cinzia; Bevilacqua, Roberta; Barry, Margaret M; Doyle, Priscilla; Reijneveld, Sijmen A; de Winter, Andrea F

2018-01-01

Skills to address different health literacy problems are lacking among health professionals. We sought to develop and pilot test a comprehensive health literacy communication training for various health professionals in Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. Thirty health professionals participated in the study. A literature review focused on evidence-informed training-components. Focus group discussions (FGDs) explored perspectives from seventeen professionals on a prototype-program, and feedback from thirteen professionals following pilot-training. Pre-post questionnaires assessed self-rated health literacy communication skills. The literature review yielded five training-components to address functional, interactive and critical health literacy: health literacy education, gathering and providing information, shared decision-making, enabling self-management, and supporting behaviour change. In FGDs, professionals endorsed the prototype-program and reported that the pilot-training increased knowledge and patient-centred communication skills in addressing health literacy, as shown by self-rated pre-post questionnaires. A comprehensive training for health professionals in three European countries enhances perceived skills to address functional, interactive and critical health literacy. This training has potential for wider application in education and practice in Europe. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Predictors of Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Case of Spanish-speaking Language Minority Learners.

PubMed

Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K

2010-08-01

This longitudinal study examined the process of English reading comprehension at age 11 for 173 low achieving Spanish-speaking children. The influence of growth rates, from early childhood (age 4.5) to pre-adolescence (age 11), in vocabulary and word reading skills on this complex process were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Standardized measures of word reading accuracy and productive vocabulary were administered annually, in English and Spanish, and English reading comprehension measures were administered at age 11. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that English skills accounted for all unique variance in English reading comprehension outcomes. Further, expected developmental shifts in the influence of word reading and vocabulary skills over time were not shown, likely on account of students' below grade level reading comprehension achievement. This work underscores the need for theoretical models of comprehension to account for students' skill profiles and abilities.

Predictors of Reading Comprehension for Struggling Readers: The Case of Spanish-speaking Language Minority Learners

PubMed Central

Mancilla-Martinez, Jeannette; Lesaux, Nonie K.

2010-01-01

This longitudinal study examined the process of English reading comprehension at age 11 for 173 low achieving Spanish-speaking children. The influence of growth rates, from early childhood (age 4.5) to pre-adolescence (age 11), in vocabulary and word reading skills on this complex process were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Standardized measures of word reading accuracy and productive vocabulary were administered annually, in English and Spanish, and English reading comprehension measures were administered at age 11. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that English skills accounted for all unique variance in English reading comprehension outcomes. Further, expected developmental shifts in the influence of word reading and vocabulary skills over time were not shown, likely on account of students’ below grade level reading comprehension achievement. This work underscores the need for theoretical models of comprehension to account for students’ skill profiles and abilities. PMID:20856691

Annual Research Review: The nature and classification of reading disorders – a commentary on proposals for DSM-5

PubMed Central

Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2012-01-01

This article reviews our understanding of reading disorders in children and relates it to current proposals for their classification in DSM-5. There are two different, commonly occurring, forms of reading disorder in children which arise from different underlying language difficulties. Dyslexia (as defined in DSM-5), or decoding difficulty, refers to children who have difficulty in mastering the relationships between the spelling patterns of words and their pronunciations. These children typically read aloud inaccurately and slowly, and experience additional problems with spelling. Dyslexia appears to arise principally from a weakness in phonological (speech sound) skills, and there is good evidence that it can be ameliorated by systematic phonic teaching combined with phonological awareness training. The other major form of reading difficulty is reading comprehension impairment. These children read aloud accurately and fluently, but have difficulty understanding what they have read. Reading comprehension impairment appears to arise from weaknesses in a range of oral language skills including poor vocabulary knowledge, weak grammatical skills and difficulties in oral language comprehension. We suggest that the omission of reading comprehension impairment from DSM-5 is a serious one that should be remedied. Both dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment are dimensional in nature, and show strong continuities with other disorders of language. We argue that recognizing the continuities between reading and language disorders has important implications for assessment and treatment, and we note that the high rates of comorbidity between reading disorders and other seemingly disparate disorders (including ADHD and motor disorders) raises important challenges for understanding these disorders. PMID:22141434

Comprehensive Development Plan in Office Skills. Final Performance Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waubonsee Community Coll., Sugar Grove, IL.

The Waubonsee Community College Comprehensive Development Plan in Office Skills served 208 students by assessment of basic skills and referral to appropriate programs or help with job skills and referral to employment during the 18-month grant period from December 1988 through June 30, 1990. The target population was minority women or economically…

Learning Disabled Adolescents' Use of Pragmatic Functions and Code-Switching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biller, Maysoon F.

The study examined whether a difference existed between 10 learning disabled (LD) and 10 normally achieving (NA) high school students in terms of comprehension and production or use of pragmatic skills. The skills examined were pragmatic function (i.e., an utterance spoken in context with specific intent), and code-switching (i.e., modification of…

Investigating Orthographic and Semantic Aspects of Word Learning in Poor Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ricketts, Jessie; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Nation, Kate

2008-01-01

This study compared orthographic and semantic aspects of word learning in children who differed in reading comprehension skill. Poor comprehenders and controls matched for age (9-10 years), nonverbal ability and decoding skill were trained to pronounce 20 visually presented nonwords, 10 in a consistent way and 10 in an inconsistent way. They then…

Reading Comprehension and Working Memory in Learning-Disabled Readers: Is the Phonological Loop More Important Than the Executive System?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, H. Lee

1999-01-01

Investigated the contribution of two working-memory systems (the articulatory loop and the central executive) to the performance differences between learning-disabled and skilled readers. Found that, compared to skilled readers, learning-disabled readers experienced constraints in the articulatory and long-term memory system, and suffered…

Examination of the Relation between TEOG Score of Turkish Revolution History and Kemalism Course and Reading Comprehension Skill (An Example of Explanatory Sequential Mixed Design)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuvaci, Ibrahim; Demir, Selçuk Besir

2016-01-01

This paper is aimed to determine the relation between reading comprehension skill and TEOG success. In this research, a mixed research method, sequential explanatory mixed design, is utilized to examine the relation between reading comprehension skills and TEOG success of 8th grade students throughly. In explanatory sequential mixed design…

Listening comprehension in preschoolers: the role of memory.

PubMed

Florit, Elena; Roch, Maja; Altoè, Gianmarco; Levorato, Maria Chiara

2009-11-01

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.

Behavior, nutrition and lifestyle in a comprehensive health and disease paradigm: skills and knowledge for a predictive, preventive and personalized medicine

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Health and disease of individuals and of populations are the result of three groups of risk factors: genetics, environment and behavior. Assessment, interventions and tailored changes are possible with integrated approaches more effective if respectful of individuals and different cultures. Assessment tools and integrated interventional strategies are available, but widespread knowledge, skills and competence of well trained individual Medical Doctors still lack. Mediterranean diet is an appropriate reference paradigm because encompasses consistent research background, affordable sustainability, widespread comprehensibility and attractiveness inside a cultural framework of competences and skills in which the Medical Doctors can personally manage the need of prediction (early diagnosis), prevention (intervention on healthy persons) and tailored therapy and follow-up for patients. This profile is flexible and adjustable according to specific needs and preferences due to different economic and ethno-cultural milieus. It can enhanced through on-site/e-learning Continuous Medical Education (CME), by training and using friendly and affordable equipments. PMID:22738244

Behavior, nutrition and lifestyle in a comprehensive health and disease paradigm: skills and knowledge for a predictive, preventive and personalized medicine.

PubMed

Trovato, Guglielmo M

2012-03-22

Health and disease of individuals and of populations are the result of three groups of risk factors: genetics, environment and behavior. Assessment, interventions and tailored changes are possible with integrated approaches more effective if respectful of individuals and different cultures. Assessment tools and integrated interventional strategies are available, but widespread knowledge, skills and competence of well trained individual Medical Doctors still lack. Mediterranean diet is an appropriate reference paradigm because encompasses consistent research background, affordable sustainability, widespread comprehensibility and attractiveness inside a cultural framework of competences and skills in which the Medical Doctors can personally manage the need of prediction (early diagnosis), prevention (intervention on healthy persons) and tailored therapy and follow-up for patients. This profile is flexible and adjustable according to specific needs and preferences due to different economic and ethno-cultural milieus. It can enhanced through on-site/e-learning Continuous Medical Education (CME), by training and using friendly and affordable equipments.

The Effectiveness of Modified Multi-Component Cognitive Strategy Instruction in Expository Text Comprehension of Students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bilgi, Arzu Doganay; Özmen, E. Rüya

2018-01-01

This study investigates the effectiveness of Modified Multi-Component Cognitive Strategy Instruction (MMCSI) on expository text comprehension skills of students with mild intellectual disability (ID). Three students participated from inclusion classes of three different secondary schools in Turkey. The study was conducted using a multiple probe…

Preliminary Evidence for the Validity of the New Test of Everyday Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheldall, Kevin; McMurtry, Sarah

2014-01-01

The Test of Everyday Reading Comprehension (TERC) has recently been presented as an addition to the armoury of tests available for assessing the skills of low-progress readers. While comparison data for students of different ages are presented together with evidence for high test reliability, there is, as yet, no published evidence for its…

On-Line Quizzes to Evaluate Comprehension and Integration Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Badia Valiente, José David; Olmo Cazevieille, Françoise; Navarro Jover, José Manuel

2016-01-01

This work demonstrates the use of a 2.0 tool, namely, Socrative, to evaluate one of the cross-curricular competences indicated by the Universitat Politècnica de València, specifically, comprehension and integration. It has been applied to the courses in different areas: sciences, engineering and languages. As part of its implementation, activities…

Clarifying Linguistic Comprehension in the Simple View of Reading: The Influence of Word-, Sentence-, and Discourse-Level Linguistic Skills on Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santoro, Julie Kay

2012-01-01

There are a high number of students who struggle with reading comprehension beyond the primary grades and understanding the skills involved in successful reading comprehension continues to be a topic of investigation. The Simple View of Reading (SVR) is a viable theory of reading that suggests reading comprehension results from developing skills…

The contribution of executive skills to reading comprehension.

PubMed

Sesma, Heather Whitney; Mahone, E Mark; Levine, Terry; Eason, Sarah H; Cutting, Laurie E

2009-05-01

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9-15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF EXECUTIVE SKILLS TO READING COMPREHENSION

PubMed Central

Sesma, Heather Whitney; Mahone, E. Mark; Levine, Terry; Eason, Sarah H.; Cutting, Laurie E.

2009-01-01

Although word recognition deficits (WRD) are a known cause of reading comprehension deficits (RCD), other contributions to RCD, including executive function (EF), have not been fully explored. We examined the contribution of EF (working memory and planning), along with attention, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary to reading comprehension in 60 children (including 16 WRD and 10 RCD), ages 9–15 years. After controlling for commonly accepted contributors to reading comprehension (i.e., attention, decoding skills, fluency, and vocabulary), EF continued to make a significant contribution to reading comprehension but not to word recognition skills. These findings highlight the need for consideration of the role of EF in RCD. PMID:18629674

A Study of the Relationship between Physical Skills and Achievement in Listening Comprehension, Mathematics, and Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Templeton, Josey; Jones, Robbie

To determine if a relationship existed between physical skills and achievement in reading, mathematics, and listening comprehension of fifth-grade students, a study evaluated 334 fifth-graders in Starkville, Mississippi, on 20 physical fitness, motor fitness, and sports skills, as well as the Stanford Achievement Tests. The physical skills test…

An Electrophysiological Investigation of Semantic and Phonological Processing in Skilled and Less-Skilled Comprehenders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landi, Nicole; Perfetti, Charles A.

2007-01-01

The most prominent theories of reading consider reading comprehension ability to be a direct consequence of lower-level reading skills. Recently however, research has shown that some children with poor comprehension ability perform normally on tests of lower-level skills (e.g., decoding). One promising line of behavioral research has found…

American Sign Language Syntactic and Narrative Comprehension in Skilled and Less Skilled Readers: Bilingual and Bimodal Evidence for the Linguistic Basis of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chamberlain, Charlene; Mayberry, Rachel I.

2008-01-01

We tested the hypothesis that syntactic and narrative comprehension of a natural sign language can serve as the linguistic basis for skilled reading. Thirty-one adults who were deaf from birth and used American Sign Language (ASL) were classified as skilled or less skilled readers using an eighth-grade criterion. Proficiency with ASL syntax, and…

Comprehension of presuppositions in school-age Cantonese-speaking children with and without autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Cheung, Candice Chi-Hang; Politzer-Ahles, Stephen; Hwang, Heeju; Chui, Ronald Lung Yat; Leung, Man Tak; Tang, Tempo Po Yi

2017-01-01

While an enormous amount of research has been done on the deficient conversation skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), little is known about their performance on presuppositions, a domain of knowledge that is crucial for successful communication. This study investigated the comprehension of four types of presupposition, namely existential, factive, lexical and structural presuppositions, in school-age Cantonese-speaking children with and without ASD. A group of children with ASD (n = 21), mean age 8.8, was compared with a group of typically developing children (n = 106). Knowledge of presuppositions was evaluated based on children's ability to judge whether a given utterance was a correct presupposition of a preceding utterance. Children with ASD were found to show a deficit in the comprehension of presuppositions, even after controlling for differences in general language ability and non-verbal intelligence. The relative difficulty of the four types of presupposition did not differ between the two groups of children. The present findings provide new empirical evidence that children with ASD have a deficit in the comprehension of presuppositions. Future research should explore whether the deficit in the comprehension of presuppositions is related to the development of theory of mind skills in children with ASD.

Reading Comprehension in a Large Cohort of French First Graders from Low Socio-Economic Status Families: A 7-Month Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; Theurel, Anne; Colé, Pascale

2013-01-01

Background The literature suggests that a complex relationship exists between the three main skills involved in reading comprehension (decoding, listening comprehension and vocabulary) and that this relationship depends on at least three other factors orthographic transparency, children’s grade level and socioeconomic status (SES). This study investigated the relative contribution of the predictors of reading comprehension in a longitudinal design (from beginning to end of the first grade) in 394 French children from low SES families. Methodology/Principal findings Reading comprehension was measured at the end of the first grade using two tasks one with short utterances and one with a medium length narrative text. Accuracy in listening comprehension and vocabulary, and fluency of decoding skills, were measured at the beginning and end of the first grade. Accuracy in decoding skills was measured only at the beginning. Regression analyses showed that listening comprehension and decoding skills (accuracy and fluency) always significantly predicted reading comprehension. The contribution of decoding was greater when reading comprehension was assessed via the task using short utterances. Between the two assessments, the contribution of vocabulary, and of decoding skills especially, increased, while that of listening comprehension remained unchanged. Conclusion/Significance These results challenge the ‘simple view of reading’. They also have educational implications, since they show that it is possible to assess decoding and reading comprehension very early on in an orthography (i.e., French), which is less deep than the English one even in low SES children. These assessments, associated with those of listening comprehension and vocabulary, may allow early identification of children at risk for reading difficulty, and to set up early remedial training, which is the most effective, for them. PMID:24250802

The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning on the Reading Comprehension Skills in Turkish as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolukbas, Fatma; Keskin, Funda; Polat, Mustafa

2011-01-01

Cooperative learning is a process through which students with various abilities, gender, nationalities and different level of social skills carry out their learning process by working in small groups and helping each other. Cooperative learning is a pedagogical use of small groups which enable students to maximize both their own and others'…

Reading skills of students with speech sound disorders at three stages of literacy development.

PubMed

Skebo, Crysten M; Lewis, Barbara A; Freebairn, Lisa A; Tag, Jessica; Avrich Ciesla, Allison; Stein, Catherine M

2013-10-01

The relationship between phonological awareness, overall language, vocabulary, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills to decoding and reading comprehension was examined for students at 3 stages of literacy development (i.e., early elementary school, middle school, and high school). Students with histories of speech sound disorders (SSD) with and without language impairment (LI) were compared to students without histories of SSD or LI (typical language; TL). In a cross-sectional design, students ages 7;0 (years;months) to 17;9 completed tests that measured reading, language, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills. For the TL group, phonological awareness predicted decoding at early elementary school, and overall language predicted reading comprehension at early elementary school and both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and high school. For the SSD-only group, vocabulary predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at early elementary school, and overall language predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and decoding at high school. For the SSD and LI group, overall language predicted decoding at all 3 literacy stages and reading comprehension at early elementary school and middle school, and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension at high school. Although similar skills contribute to reading across the age span, the relative importance of these skills changes with children's literacy stages.

Reading Skills of Students With Speech Sound Disorders at Three Stages of Literacy Development

PubMed Central

Skebo, Crysten M.; Lewis, Barbara A.; Freebairn, Lisa A.; Tag, Jessica; Ciesla, Allison Avrich; Stein, Catherine M.

2015-01-01

Purpose The relationship between phonological awareness, overall language, vocabulary, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills to decoding and reading comprehension was examined for students at 3 stages of literacy development (i.e., early elementary school, middle school, and high school). Students with histories of speech sound disorders (SSD) with and without language impairment (LI) were compared to students without histories of SSD or LI (typical language; TL). Method In a cross-sectional design, students ages 7;0 (years; months) to 17;9 completed tests that measured reading, language, and nonlinguistic cognitive skills. Results For the TL group, phonological awareness predicted decoding at early elementary school, and overall language predicted reading comprehension at early elementary school and both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and high school. For the SSD-only group, vocabulary predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at early elementary school, and overall language predicted both decoding and reading comprehension at middle school and decoding at high school. For the SSD and LI group, overall language predicted decoding at all 3 literacy stages and reading comprehension at early elementary school and middle school, and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension at high school. Conclusion Although similar skills contribute to reading across the age span, the relative importance of these skills changes with children’s literacy stages. PMID:23833280

The Foundations of Literacy Development in Children at Familial Risk of Dyslexia.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Nash, Hannah M; Gooch, Debbie; Lervåg, Arne; Snowling, Margaret J

2015-12-01

The development of reading skills is underpinned by oral language abilities: Phonological skills appear to have a causal influence on the development of early word-level literacy skills, and reading-comprehension ability depends, in addition to word-level literacy skills, on broader (semantic and syntactic) language skills. Here, we report a longitudinal study of children at familial risk of dyslexia, children with preschool language difficulties, and typically developing control children. Preschool measures of oral language predicted phoneme awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge just before school entry, which in turn predicted word-level literacy skills shortly after school entry. Reading comprehension at 8½ years was predicted by word-level literacy skills at 5½ years and by language skills at 3½ years. These patterns of predictive relationships were similar in both typically developing children and those at risk of literacy difficulties. Our findings underline the importance of oral language skills for the development of both word-level literacy and reading comprehension. © The Author(s) 2015.

Reading Improvement in the Secondary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dechant, Emerald

This book, a comprehensive statement about the reading problems of adolescent students, relates the principles of learning and learning theory to the teaching of reading. Using a linguistic orientation, the author guides the teacher through the procedure for developing word recognition skills, comprehension skills, content-area reading skills, and…

Functional anatomy of listening and reading comprehension during development.

PubMed

Berl, Madison M; Duke, Elizabeth S; Mayo, Jessica; Rosenberger, Lisa R; Moore, Erin N; VanMeter, John; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Vaidya, Chandan J; Gaillard, William Davis

2010-08-01

Listening and reading comprehension of paragraph-length material are considered higher-order language skills fundamental to social and academic functioning. Using ecologically relevant language stimuli that were matched for difficulty according to developmental level, we analyze the effects of task, age, neuropsychological skills, and post-task performance on fMRI activation and hemispheric laterality. Areas of supramodal language processing are identified, with the most robust region being left-lateralized activation along the superior temporal sulcus. Functionally, this conjunction has a role in semantic and syntactic processing, leading us to refer to this conjunction as "comprehension cortex." Different from adults, supramodal areas for children include less extensive inferior frontal gyrus but more extensive right cerebellum and right temporal pole. Broader neuroanatomical pathways are recruited for reading, reflecting the more active processing and larger set of cognitive demands needed for reading compared to listening to stories. ROI analyses reveal that reading is a less lateralized language task than listening in inferior frontal and superior temporal areas, which likely reflects the difficulty of the task as children in this study are still developing their reading skills. For listening to stories, temporal activation is stable by age four with no correlations with age, neuropsychological skills or post-task performance. In contrast, frontal activation during listening to stories occurs more often in older children, and frontal activation is positively correlated with better performance on comprehension questions, suggesting that the activation of frontal networks may reflect greater integration and depth of story processing. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Differences between the Relationship of L1 Learners' Performance in Integrated Writing with Both Independent Listening and Independent Reading Cognitive Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheong, Choo Mui; Zhu, Xinhua; Liao, Xian

2018-01-01

In recent decades, integrated language competence has been highlighted in the language curricula taught in schools and institutions, and the relationship between test-takers' performance on integrated tasks and comprehension sources has been much studied. The current study employed the frameworks of reading and listening comprehension processes to…

Twice-Exceptional Students' Use of Metacognitive Skills on a Comprehension Monitoring Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

hannah, c. lynne; Shore, Bruce M.

2008-01-01

Boys identified as learning-disabled gifted or twice exceptional, at two different grade levels (5th or 6th grades, and 11th or 12th grades), were asked to read a history text with unknown vocabulary words, internal inconsistencies, and prior knowledge violations inserted to make immediate comprehension difficult. The students were asked to read…

Selected Factors in Reading Comprehension for Deaf and Hearing Adults: Phonological Skills and Metacognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Ye; Silvestri, Julia A.; Jahromi, Laudan B.

2018-01-01

The purpose of the study was to identify factors related to reading comprehension, and to compare similarities and differences in the reading processes of deaf and hearing adults. The sample included four groups, each consisting of 15 adults. The groups were identified as (a) deaf high-achieving readers, (b) deaf low-achieving readers, (c) hearing…

Annual research review: the nature and classification of reading disorders--a commentary on proposals for DSM-5.

PubMed

Snowling, Margaret J; Hulme, Charles

2012-05-01

This article reviews our understanding of reading disorders in children and relates it to current proposals for their classification in DSM-5. There are two different, commonly occurring, forms of reading disorder in children which arise from different underlying language difficulties. Dyslexia (as defined in DSM-5), or decoding difficulty, refers to children who have difficulty in mastering the relationships between the spelling patterns of words and their pronunciations. These children typically read aloud inaccurately and slowly, and experience additional problems with spelling. Dyslexia appears to arise principally from a weakness in phonological (speech sound) skills, and there is good evidence that it can be ameliorated by systematic phonic teaching combined with phonological awareness training. The other major form of reading difficulty is reading comprehension impairment. These children read aloud accurately and fluently, but have difficulty understanding what they have read. Reading comprehension impairment appears to arise from weaknesses in a range of oral language skills including poor vocabulary knowledge, weak grammatical skills and difficulties in oral language comprehension. We suggest that the omission of reading comprehension impairment from DSM-5 is a serious one that should be remedied. Both dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment are dimensional in nature, and show strong continuities with other disorders of language. We argue that recognizing the continuities between reading and language disorders has important implications for assessment and treatment, and we note that the high rates of comorbidity between reading disorders and other seemingly disparate disorders (including ADHD and motor disorders) raises important challenges for understanding these disorders. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2011 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Prediction during language processing is a piece of cake--but only for skilled producers.

PubMed

Mani, Nivedita; Huettig, Falk

2012-08-01

Are there individual differences in children's prediction of upcoming linguistic input and what do these differences reflect? Using a variant of the preferential looking paradigm (Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, Cauley, & Gordon, 1987), we found that, upon hearing a sentence like, "The boy eats a big cake," 2-year-olds fixate edible objects in a visual scene (a cake) soon after they hear the semantically constraining verb eats and prior to hearing the word cake. Importantly, children's prediction skills were significantly correlated with their productive vocabulary size-skilled producers (i.e., children with large production vocabularies) showed evidence of predicting upcoming linguistic input, while low producers did not. Furthermore, we found that children's prediction ability is tied specifically to their production skills and not to their comprehension skills. Prediction is really a piece of cake, but only for skilled producers.

Theoretical Models of Comprehension Skills Tested through a Comprehension Assessment Battery for Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tobia, Valentina; Ciancaleoni, Matteo; Bonifacci, Paola

2017-01-01

In this study, two alternative theoretical models were compared, in order to analyze which of them best explains primary school children's text comprehension skills. The first one was based on the distinction between two types of answers requested by the comprehension test: local or global. The second model involved texts' input modality: written…

Dimensions of Discourse Level Oral Language Skills and Their Relation to Reading Comprehension and Written Composition: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Park, Cheahyung; Park, Younghee

2015-01-01

We examined the relations of discourse-level oral language skills [i.e., listening comprehension, and oral retell and production of narrative texts (oral retell and production hereafter)] to reading comprehension and written composition. Korean-speaking first grade students (N = 97) were assessed on listening comprehension, oral retell and…

Exploring the Co-development of Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

PubMed Central

Little, Callie W.; Hart, Sara A.; Quinn, Jamie M.; Tucker-Drob, Elliot M.; Taylor, Jeanette; Schatschneider, Chris

2016-01-01

The present study explores the co-development of two related but separate reading skills, reading fluency and reading comprehension, across grades 1–4. A bivariate biometric dual change score model was applied to longitudinal data collected from 1784 twin pairs between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Grade 1 skills were influenced by highly overlapping genetic and environmental factors. Growth in both skills was influenced by highly overlapping shared environmental factors. Cross-lagged parameters indicated bidirectional effects, with stronger effects from fluency to comprehension change than from comprehension to fluency change. PMID:27859016

Scaffolding Reading Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salem, Ashraf Atta Mohamed Safein

2017-01-01

The current study investigates whether English language teachers use scaffolding strategies for developing their students' reading comprehension skills or just for assessing their comprehension. It also tries to demonstrate whether teachers are aware of these strategies or they use them as a matter of habit. A questionnaire as well as structured…

Teaching Reading Comprehension through Collaborative Strategic Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughn, Sharon; Klingner, Janette Kettman

1999-01-01

Provides an overview of collaborative strategic reading (CSR) as an approach to enhancing the reading-comprehension skills of students with learning disabilities. Procedures for implementing CSR with collaborative groups and techniques for teaching reading-comprehension skills are provided. The role of the teacher is described and sample teaching…

Improving Reading Comprehension through Higher-Order Thinking Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKown, Brigitte A.; Barnett, Cynthia L.

2007-01-01

This action research project report documents the action research project that was conducted to improve reading comprehension with second grade and third grade students. The teacher researchers intended to improve reading comprehension by using higher-order thinking skills such as predicting, making connections, visualizing, inferring,…

Relationships of French and English Morphophonemic Orthographies to Word Reading, Spelling, and Reading Comprehension during Early and Middle Childhood

PubMed Central

Abbott, Robert D.; Fayol, Michel; Casalis, Séverine; Nagy, William; Berninger, Virginia W.

2016-01-01

Two longitudinal studies of word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension identified commonalities and differences in morphophonemic orthographies—French (Study 1, n=1313) or English (Study 2, n=114) in early childhood (grade 2) and middle childhood (grade 5). For French and English, statistically significant concurrent relationships among these literacy skills occurred in grades 2 and 5, and longitudinal relationships for each skill with itself from grade 2 to 5; but concurrent relationships were more sizable and longitudinal relationships more variable for English than French especially for word reading to reading comprehension. Results show that, for both morphophonemic orthographies, assessment and instructional practices should be tailored to early or middle childhood, and early childhood reading comprehension may not be related to middle childhood spelling. Also discussed are findings applying only to English, for which word origin is primarily Anglo-Saxon in early childhood, but increasingly French in middle childhood. PMID:27818573

Effect of Hypertextual Reading on Academic Success and Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durukan, Erhan

2014-01-01

As computer technology developed, hypertexts emerged as an influential environment for developing language skills. This study aims to evaluate a text prepared in a hypertextual environment and its effects on academic success and comprehension skills. In this study, "preliminary test final test control group experimental pattern" was used…

Lexical Processing Skill in College-Age Resilient Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welcome, Suzanne E.; Chiarello, Christine; Halderman, Laura K.; Leonard, Christiana M.

2009-01-01

Despite an extensive literature linking individual differences in phonological processing to reading ability, some adults show normal text comprehension abilities despite poor pseudoword reading (Jackson & Doellinger (2002). "Journal of Educational Psychology," 94, 64-78). This study was undertaken to investigate differences between these…

Readers in Adult Basic Education.

PubMed

Barnes, Adrienne E; Kim, Young-Suk; Tighe, Elizabeth L; Vorstius, Christian

The present study explored the reading skills of a sample of 48 adults enrolled in a basic education program in northern Florida, United States. Previous research has reported on reading component skills for students in adult education settings, but little is known about eye movement patterns or their relation to reading skills for this population. In this study, reading component skills including decoding, language comprehension, and reading fluency are reported, as are eye movement variables for connected-text oral reading. Eye movement comparisons between individuals with higher and lower oral reading fluency revealed within- and between-subject effects for word frequency and word length as well as group and word frequency interactions. Bivariate correlations indicated strong relations between component skills of reading, eye movement measures, and both the Test of Adult Basic Education ( Reading subtest) and the Woodcock-Johnson III Diagnostic Reading Battery Passage Comprehension assessments. Regression analyses revealed the utility of decoding, language comprehension, and lexical activation time for predicting achievement on both the Woodcock Johnson III Passage Comprehension and the Test of Adult Basic Education Reading Comprehension.

Improving Student Comprehension Skills through Instructional Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sharp, Patricia; Ashby, Doris

This report intends to describe a program designed to enhance reading comprehension. Reading comprehension relies on skills that enable students to remember facts, draw out main ideas, make inferences, and relate reading to personal experiences. The focus group consisted of middle and high school students in a metropolitan area in northern…

Lexical Quality and Reading Comprehension in Primary School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richter, Tobias; Isberner, Maj-Britt; Naumann, Johannes; Neeb, Yvonne

2013-01-01

In a cross-sectional study, we examined the relationship between the quality of lexical representations and text comprehension skill in German primary school children (Grades 1-4). We measured the efficiency and accuracy of orthographical, phonological, and meaning representations by means of computerized tests. Text comprehension skill was…

The Association between Mathematical Word Problems and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vilenius-Tuohimaa, Piia Maria; Aunola, Kaisa; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2008-01-01

This study aimed to investigate the interplay between mathematical word problem skills and reading comprehension. The participants were 225 children aged 9-10 (Grade 4). The children's text comprehension and mathematical word problem-solving performance was tested. Technical reading skills were investigated in order to categorise participants as…

Language Skills in Classical Chinese Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, Kit-ling

2018-01-01

This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the role of lower- and higher-level language skills in classical Chinese (CC) text comprehension. A CC word and sentence translation test, text comprehension test, and questionnaire were administered to 393 Secondary Four students; and 12 of these were randomly selected to…

Domain-Specific Knowledge and General Skills in Reading Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhara-Kojima, Keiko; Hatano, Giyoo

A study examined whether the reading comprehension of students with rich domain-specific knowledge will be better than that of students without it and whether assessed general skills will be correlated significantly with reading comprehension performance for students without specific knowledge, but negligible for the students with much specific…

The Relation between Reading Skills and Eye Movement Patterns in Adolescent Readers: Evidence from a Regular Orthography

PubMed Central

Krieber, Magdalena; Bartl-Pokorny, Katrin D.; Pokorny, Florian B.; Einspieler, Christa; Langmann, Andrea; Körner, Christof; Falck-Ytter, Terje; Marschik, Peter B.

2016-01-01

Over the past decades, the relation between reading skills and eye movement behavior has been well documented in English-speaking cohorts. As English and German differ substantially with regard to orthographic complexity (i.e. grapheme-phoneme correspondence), we aimed to delineate specific characteristics of how reading speed and reading comprehension interact with eye movements in typically developing German-speaking (Austrian) adolescents. Eye movements of 22 participants (14 females; mean age = 13;6 years;months) were tracked while they were performing three tasks, namely silently reading words, texts, and pseudowords. Their reading skills were determined by means of a standardized German reading speed and reading comprehension assessment (Lesegeschwindigkeits- und -verständnistest für Klassen 6−12). We found that (a) reading skills were associated with various eye movement parameters in each of the three reading tasks; (b) better reading skills were associated with an increased efficiency of eye movements, but were primarily linked to spatial reading parameters, such as the number of fixations per word, the total number of saccades and saccadic amplitudes; (c) reading speed was a more reliable predictor for eye movement parameters than reading comprehension; (d) eye movements were highly correlated across reading tasks, which indicates consistent reading performances. Contrary to findings in English-speaking cohorts, the reading skills neither consistently correlated with temporal eye movement parameters nor with the number or percentage of regressions made while performing any of the three reading tasks. These results indicate that, although reading skills are associated with eye movement patterns irrespective of language, the temporal and spatial characteristics of this association may vary with orthographic consistency. PMID:26727255

A review of training research and virtual reality simulators for the da Vinci surgical system.

PubMed

Liu, May; Curet, Myriam

2015-01-01

PHENOMENON: Virtual reality simulators are the subject of several recent studies of skills training for robot-assisted surgery. Yet no consensus exists regarding what a core skill set comprises or how to measure skill performance. Defining a core skill set and relevant metrics would help surgical educators evaluate different simulators. This review draws from published research to propose a core technical skill set for using the da Vinci surgeon console. Publications on three commercial simulators were used to evaluate the simulators' content addressing these skills and associated metrics. An analysis of published research suggests that a core technical skill set for operating the surgeon console includes bimanual wristed manipulation, camera control, master clutching to manage hand position, use of third instrument arm, activating energy sources, appropriate depth perception, and awareness of forces applied by instruments. Validity studies of three commercial virtual reality simulators for robot-assisted surgery suggest that all three have comparable content and metrics. However, none have comprehensive content and metrics for all core skills. INSIGHTS: Virtual reality simulation remains a promising tool to support skill training for robot-assisted surgery, yet existing commercial simulator content is inadequate for performing and assessing a comprehensive basic skill set. The results of this evaluation help identify opportunities and challenges that exist for future developments in virtual reality simulation for robot-assisted surgery. Specifically, the inclusion of educational experts in the development cycle alongside clinical and technological experts is recommended.

The Effect of Using Discourse Analysis Method on Improving Cognitive and Affective Skills in Language and Literature Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapanadze, Dilek Ünveren

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to identify the effect of using discourse analysis method on the skills of reading comprehension, textual analysis, creating discourse and use of language. In this study, the authentic test model with pre-test and post-test control group was used in order to determine the difference of academic achievement between…

Living in Neighborhoods with High or Low Co-Ethnic Concentration: Turkish-Norwegian-Speaking Students' Vocabulary Skills and Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rydland, Veslemøy; Aukrust, Vibeke Grøver; Fulland, Helene

2013-01-01

Immigrant students may use and develop language and literacy skills differently depending on the dominance of the first and second language (L1 and L2) in the neighborhoods where they live. In this study, neighborhood effects on students' reported language use at home and with peers, and on measured language and literacy proficiency, were…

A Comprehensive Look into the Instruction of Listening Skill in Academic English Programs: A Case Study of Two State Universities in Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Babaee, Hamidreza

2017-01-01

The study reported here thoroughly investigated the instruction of listening skill in academic English programs. This was researched through a semi-structured interview. In this regard, in order to obtain a picture of listening requirements across the academy, data were collected from two different state universities of Iran. To compile the data,…

Levels of text comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD): the influence of language phenotype.

PubMed

Lucas, Rebecca; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2014-11-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have reading comprehension difficulties, but the level of processing at which comprehension is most vulnerable and the influence of language phenotype on comprehension skill is currently unclear. We explored comprehension at sentence and passage levels across language phenotypes. Children with ASD and age-appropriate language skills (n = 25) demonstrated similar syntactic and semantic facilitation to typically developing peers. In contrast, few children with ASD and language impairments (n = 25) could read beyond the single word level. Those who could read sentences benefited from semantic coherence, but were less sensitive to syntactic coherence. At the passage level, the strongest predictor of comprehension was vocabulary knowledge. This emphasizes that the intimate relationship between language competence and both decoding skill and comprehension is evident at the sentence, as well as the passage level, for children with ASD.

The interface between spoken and written language: developmental disorders.

PubMed

Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2014-01-01

We review current knowledge about reading development and the origins of difficulties in learning to read. We distinguish between the processes involved in learning to decode print, and the processes involved in reading for meaning (reading comprehension). At a cognitive level, difficulties in learning to read appear to be predominantly caused by deficits in underlying oral language skills. The development of decoding skills appears to depend critically upon phonological language skills, and variations in phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge and rapid automatized naming each appear to be causally related to problems in learning to read. Reading comprehension difficulties in contrast appear to be critically dependent on a range of oral language comprehension skills (including vocabulary knowledge and grammatical, morphological and pragmatic skills).

Is Word-Problem Solving a Form of Text Comprehension?

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Lynn S.; Fuchs, Douglas; Compton, Donald L.; Hamlett, Carol L.; Wang, Amber Y.

2015-01-01

This study’s hypotheses were that (a) word-problem (WP) solving is a form of text comprehension that involves language comprehension processes, working memory, and reasoning, but (b) WP solving differs from other forms of text comprehension by requiring WP-specific language comprehension as well as general language comprehension. At the start of the 2nd grade, children (n = 206; on average, 7 years, 6 months) were assessed on general language comprehension, working memory, nonlinguistic reasoning, processing speed (a control variable), and foundational skill (arithmetic for WPs; word reading for text comprehension). In spring, they were assessed on WP-specific language comprehension, WPs, and text comprehension. Path analytic mediation analysis indicated that effects of general language comprehension on text comprehension were entirely direct, whereas effects of general language comprehension on WPs were partially mediated by WP-specific language. By contrast, effects of working memory and reasoning operated in parallel ways for both outcomes. PMID:25866461

[Comparing Two Editions of Wechsler Intelligence Scales and Assessing Reading Skills in Children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder].

PubMed

Çelik, Cihat; Erden, Gülsen; Özmen, Sevim; Tural Hesapçıoğlu, Selma

2017-01-01

This study aimed to examine the cognitive profiles of children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV), the latter of which was recently standardized in Turkey. In addition, the reading abilities and intelligence scores of these children were also investigated. A total of 48 children with ADHD between the ages of 6 and 16 years who were outpatients in Muş State Hospital were included in this study. The children were administered the WISC-R, the WISC-IV, and the Oral Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension Test (ORCT). There were no significant differences between the WISC-R IQ scores and WISC-IV index scores. Moreover, reading comprehension skills (derived from ORCT scores) were predicted with significant accuracy by both the WISC-R Verbal IQ and the WISC-IV WMI (Working Memory Index). Results of this study suggest that the WISC-R and the WISC-IV scale are not sufficient for obtaining a specific cognitive profile for ADHD - there is no significant difference between them. However, the four-factor structure of the WISC-IV is believed to provide more specific information. In addition, results of this study related to reading skills indicate that the importance of reading skills should not be overlooked when assessing children with ADHD.

The Importance of Intrinsic Motivation for High and Low Ability Readers' Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Logan, Sarah; Medford, Emma; Hughes, Naomi

2011-01-01

The study examined how cognitive and motivational factors predicted reading skill and whether intrinsic reading motivation would explain significantly more variance in low ability readers' reading performance. One hundred and eleven children (aged 9-11) completed assessments of reading comprehension skill, verbal IQ, decoding skill and intrinsic…

Effects of an Individualized Narrative Intervention on Children's Storytelling and Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Trina D.; Kajian, Mandana; Petersen, Douglas B.; Bilyk, Nicholas

2013-01-01

Narrative skills that are important for preschoolers include retelling stories, telling personal stories, and answering questions about stories. Narrative abilities form the foundation of reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an individually delivered language intervention on the narrative skills of…

Examining the Relationships of Component Reading Skills to Reading Comprehension in Struggling Adult Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2016-01-01

The current study employed a meta-analytic approach to investigate the relative importance of component reading skills to reading comprehension in struggling adult readers. A total of 10 component skills were consistently identified across 16 independent studies and 2,707 participants. Random effects models generated 76 predictor-reading…

Prospective EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Listening Comprehension Problems in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solak, Ekrem; Altay, Firat

2014-01-01

Listening skill has been called as the "Cinderella Skill" which is overlooked by its elder sister speaking in language learning. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to reemphasize the importance of listening skill in ELT context and to determine prospective English teachers' perceptions of listening comprehension problems. The study…

How Does Evolution Design a Brain Capable of Learning Language?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savage-Rumbaugh, E. Sue

1993-01-01

Discusses methods of assessing language comprehension in apes. Considers the possible effect of brain physiology on the differences between productive and receptive language skills. Examines the possibility that differences between synaptic transmission and volume transmission, or transmission across extracellular spaces, of neurological impulses…

Basic reading skills in Swedish children with late developing language and with or without autism spectrum disorder or ADHD.

PubMed

Miniscalco, Carmela; Dahlgren Sandberg, Annika

2010-01-01

Reading skills at age 7-8 years were examined in a community-representative sample of 21 screened and clinically examined children with language delay (LD) followed prospectively from 2.5 years of age. The present study aimed to (1) determine whether these children with a history of LD had deficits in basic reading skills, i.e. decoding and comprehension, compared to the age norms of standardized tests, (2) analyze if there was a relationship between reading outcome and neuropsychiatric diagnosis by comparing three subgroups of children, LD pure, LD+ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and LD+ADHD, and, (3) determine what language measures at age 6 years were associated with the 7-8-year reading outcome. Both decoding and comprehension of single word reading were significantly below the norm for the whole LD group, where children with LD+ASD scored lowest, and children with LD highest. However, the differences between the three groups did not reach significance. Two reader groups were identified according to the results of word decoding and comprehension, respectively, resulting in the same 7 children. ANOVA revealed that the only differences on the 6-year language tests between the two groups were found on color naming and word memory. This study has shown that children with LD and subsequently identified neurodevelopmental problems such as ASD and ADHD experience continued deficits, demonstrated also in reading skills and that the picture of the reading problems seemed to resemble those of typically developing children. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Primary School Text Comprehension Predicts Mathematical Word Problem-Solving Skills in Secondary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Björn, Piia Maria; Aunola, Kaisa; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2016-01-01

This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the extent to which primary school text comprehension predicts mathematical word problem-solving skills in secondary school among Finnish students. The participants were 224 fourth graders (9-10 years old at the baseline). The children's text-reading fluency, text comprehension and basic calculation…

Improving Comprehension through Repetition...Repetition...Repetition. Working Paper No. 276.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Sandra; Witte, Pauline

Because teachers are asking for specific suggestions to help students apply comprehension skills and read content material, a mechanism that assists students in acquiring and applying specific comprehension skills as they read content texts is being investigated. The mechanism is called marginal gloss because learning activities are placed in the…

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR): Improving Secondary Students' Reading Comprehension Skills. Research to Practice Brief: Improving Secondary Education and Transition Services through Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bremer, Christine D.; Vaughn, Sharon; Clapper, Ann T.; Kim, Ae-Hwa

This brief introduces a research-based practice, Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR). This reading comprehension practice, designed to improve secondary students reading comprehension skills, combines two instructional elements: modified reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning or student pairing. In reciprocal teaching, teachers and…

The Influence of Teacher Epistemology and Practice on Student Engagement in Literacy Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bock, Amanda K.; Erickson, Karen A.

2015-01-01

Learning to read with comprehension requires that students acquire and integrate an increasingly complex set of skills. Students with severe disabilities are often seen as incapable of mastering and integrating the skills required for reading with fluency and comprehension, a presumption that results in decreased access to comprehensive reading…

Increasing Comprehension of Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities and Visual Impairments during Shared Stories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mims, Pamela J.; Browder, Diane M.; Baker, Joshua N.; Lee, Angel; Spooner, Fred

2009-01-01

Shared stories have been shown to help increase emerging literacy skills in students with significant intellectual disabilities. One important literacy skill is the development of listening comprehension. In this study, least-to-most prompt system was used to promote listening comprehension during shared stories for two students with significant…

The Role of Speech Prosody and Text Reading Prosody in Children's Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veenendaal, Nathalie J.; Groen, Margriet A.; Verhoeven, Ludo

2014-01-01

Background: Text reading prosody has been associated with reading comprehension. However, text reading prosody is a reading-dependent measure that relies heavily on decoding skills. Investigation of the contribution of speech prosody--which is independent from reading skills--in addition to text reading prosody, to reading comprehension could…

Impacts of Authentic Listening Tasks upon Listening Anxiety and Listening Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melanlioglu, Deniz

2013-01-01

Although listening is the skill mostly used by students in the classrooms, the desired success cannot be attained in teaching listening since this skill is shaped by multiple variables. In this research we focused on listening anxiety, listening comprehension and impact of authentic tasks on both listening anxiety and listening comprehension.…

Components and context: exploring sources of reading difficulties for language minority learners and native English speakers in urban schools.

PubMed

Kieffer, Michael J; Vukovic, Rose K

2012-01-01

Drawing on the cognitive and ecological domains within the componential model of reading, this longitudinal study explores heterogeneity in the sources of reading difficulties for language minority learners and native English speakers in urban schools. Students (N = 150) were followed from first through third grade and assessed annually on standardized English language and reading measures. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the relative contributions of code-related and linguistic comprehension skills in first and second grade to third grade reading comprehension. Linguistic comprehension and the interaction between linguistic comprehension and code-related skills each explained substantial variation in reading comprehension. Among students with low reading comprehension, more than 80% demonstrated weaknesses in linguistic comprehension alone, whereas approximately 15% demonstrated weaknesses in both linguistic comprehension and code-related skills. Results were remarkably similar for the language minority learners and native English speakers, suggesting the importance of their shared socioeconomic backgrounds and schooling contexts.

Predicting individual differences in reading comprehension: a twin study

PubMed Central

Cutting, Laurie; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; DeThorne, Laura S.; Justice, Laura M.; Schatschneider, Chris; Thompson, Lee A.; Petrill, Stephen A.

2010-01-01

We examined the Simple View of reading from a behavioral genetic perspective. Two aspects of word decoding (phonological decoding and word recognition), two aspects of oral language skill (listening comprehension and vocabulary), and reading comprehension were assessed in a twin sample at age 9. Using latent factor models, we found that overlap among phonological decoding, word recognition, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and reading comprehension was primarily due to genetic influences. Shared environmental influences accounted for associations among word recognition, listening comprehension, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Independent of phonological decoding and word recognition, there was a separate genetic link between listening comprehension, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and a specific shared environmental link between vocabulary and reading comprehension. There were no residual genetic or environmental influences on reading comprehension. The findings provide evidence for a genetic basis to the “Simple View” of reading. PMID:20814768

CALL--Enhanced L2 Listening Skills--Aiming for Automatization in a Multimedia Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayor, Maria Jesus Blasco

2009-01-01

Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and L2 listening comprehension skill training are bound together for good. A neglected macroskill for decades, developing listening comprehension skill is now considered crucial for L2 acquisition. Thus this paper makes an attempt to offer latest information on processing theories and L2 listening…

A Summary of an Assessment of Fourth and Sixth Grade Basic Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CTB / McGraw-Hill, Monterey, CA.

A comprehensive assessment was made of the status of elementary education in Missouri in reading, mathematics, language, and study skills. The Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) and the Short Form Test of Academic Aptitude (SFTAA) were administered to a sample of Missouri fourth and sixth graders. For each curricular area, Missouri…

The Dissociation of Word Reading and Text Comprehension: Evidence from Component Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakhill, J. V.; Cain, K.; Bryant, P. E.

2003-01-01

Discusses the relative contribution of several theoretically relevant skills and abilities in accounting for variance in both word reading and text comprehension. Data is presented from two waves of a longitudinal study. Shows there is a dissociation between the skills and abilities that account for variance in word reading, and those that account…

Why does working memory capacity predict variation in reading comprehension? On the influence of mind wandering and executive attention.

PubMed

McVay, Jennifer C; Kane, Michael J

2012-05-01

Some people are better readers than others, and this variation in comprehension ability is predicted by measures of working memory capacity (WMC). The primary goal of this study was to investigate the mediating role of mind-wandering experiences in the association between WMC and normal individual differences in reading comprehension, as predicted by the executive-attention theory of WMC (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004). We used a latent-variable, structural-equation-model approach, testing skilled adult readers on 3 WMC span tasks, 7 varied reading-comprehension tasks, and 3 attention-control tasks. Mind wandering was assessed using experimenter-scheduled thought probes during 4 different tasks (2 reading, 2 attention-control). The results support the executive-attention theory of WMC. Mind wandering across the 4 tasks loaded onto a single latent factor, reflecting a stable individual difference. Most important, mind wandering was a significant mediator in the relationship between WMC and reading comprehension, suggesting that the WMC-comprehension correlation is driven, in part, by attention control over intruding thoughts. We discuss implications for theories of WMC, attention control, and reading comprehension.

Preschool Predictors of School-Age Academic Achievement in Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Miller, Lauren E.; Burke, Jeffrey D.; Troyb, Eva; Knoch, Kelley; Herlihy, Lauren E.; Fein, Deborah A.

2017-01-01

Objective Characterization of academic functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly predictors of achievement, may have important implications for intervention. The current study aimed to characterize achievement profiles, confirm associations between academic ability and concurrent intellectual and social skills, and explore preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in a sample of children with ASD. Method Children with ASD (N = 26) were evaluated at the approximate ages of two, four, and ten years. Multiple regression was used to predict school-age academic achievement in reading and mathematics from both concurrent (i.e., school-age) and preschool variables. Results Children with ASD demonstrated a weakness in reading comprehension relative to word reading. There was a smaller difference between mathematics skills; math reasoning was lower than numerical operations, but this did not quite reach trend level significance. Concurrent IQ and social skills were associated with school-age academic achievement across domains. Preschool verbal abilities significantly predicted school-age reading comprehension, above and beyond concurrent IQ, and early motor functioning predicted later math skills. Conclusions Specific developmental features of early ASD predict specific aspects of school-age achievement. Early intervention targeting language and motor skills may improve later achievement in this population. PMID:27705180

Preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Miller, Lauren E; Burke, Jeffrey D; Troyb, Eva; Knoch, Kelley; Herlihy, Lauren E; Fein, Deborah A

2017-02-01

Characterization of academic functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly predictors of achievement, may have important implications for intervention. The current study aimed to characterize achievement profiles, confirm associations between academic ability and concurrent intellectual and social skills, and explore preschool predictors of school-age academic achievement in a sample of children with ASD. Children with ASD (n = 26) were evaluated at the approximate ages of two, four, and ten. Multiple regression was used to predict school-age academic achievement in reading and mathematics from both concurrent (i.e. school-age) and preschool variables. Children with ASD demonstrated a weakness in reading comprehension relative to word reading. There was a smaller difference between mathematics skills; math reasoning was lower than numerical operations, but this did not quite reach trend level significance. Concurrent IQ and social skills were associated with school-age academic achievement across domains. Preschool verbal abilities significantly predicted school-age reading comprehension, above and beyond concurrent IQ, and early motor functioning predicted later math skills. Specific developmental features of early ASD predict specific aspects of school-age achievement. Early intervention targeting language and motor skills may improve later achievement in this population.

Foundations of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities.

PubMed

van Wingerden, Evelien; Segers, Eliane; van Balkom, Hans; Verhoeven, Ludo

2017-01-01

Knowledge about predictors for reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) is still fragmented. This study compared reading comprehension, word decoding, listening comprehension, and reading related linguistic and cognitive precursor measures in children with mild ID and typically developing controls. Moreover, it was explored how the precursors related to reading achievement. Children with mild ID and typical controls were assessed on reading comprehension, decoding, language comprehension, and linguistic (early literacy skills, vocabulary, grammar) and cognitive (rapid naming, phonological short-term memory, working memory, temporal processing, nonverbal reasoning) precursor measures. It was tested to what extent variations in reading comprehension could be explained from word decoding, listening comprehension and precursor measures. The ID group scored significantly below typical controls on all measures. Word decoding was at or above first grade level in half the ID group. Reading comprehension in the ID group was related to word decoding, listening comprehension, early literacy skills, and temporal processing. The reading comprehension profile of children with mild ID strongly resembles typical early readers. The simple view of reading pertains to children with mild ID, with additional influence of early literacy skills and temporal processing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increasing Literacy Skills for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Effects of Integrating Comprehensive Reading Instruction with Sign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beecher, Larissa; Childre, Amy

2012-01-01

This study evaluated the impact of a comprehensive reading program enhanced with sign language on the literacy and language skills of three elementary school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Students received individual and small group comprehensive reading instruction for approximately 55 minutes per session. Reading…

Academic Language as a Predictor Of Reading Comprehension in Monolingual Spanish-Speaking Readers: Evidence from Chilean Early Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meneses, Alejandra; Uccelli, Paola; Santelices, María Verónica; Ruiz, Marcela; Acevedo, Daniela; Figueroa, Javiera

2018-01-01

Although literacy achievement has improved in Chile, adolescents' underperformance in reading comprehension is still a serious concern. In English, core academic-language skills (CALS) have been found to significantly predict reading comprehension, even controlling for academic vocabulary knowledge. CALS are high-utility language skills that…

Development and Validity of the Rating Scales of Academic Skills for Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shapiro, Edward S.; Gebhardt, Sarah; Flatley, Katie; Guard, Kirra B.; Fu, Qiong; Leichman, Erin S.; Calhoon, Mary Beth; Hojnoski, Robin

2017-01-01

The development and psychometric qualities of a measure using teacher judgment to rate performance in reading comprehension for narrative text is described--the Rating Scales for Academic Skills-Reading Comprehension Narrative (RSAS-RCN). Sixty-five teachers from the third, fourth, and fifth grades of 8 elementary schools completed the measure on…

Improving Reading Comprehension Skills through the SCRATCH Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papatga, Erdal; Ersoy, Ali

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to reveal how reading comprehension skills of elementary fourth graders who have problems in reading comprehension can be improved by means of the SCRATCH program. The study was designed as a participant action research. It was carried out within a 15- week process at an elementary school with middle socio-economic level…

Can Cloze Tests Really Improve Second Language Learners' Reading Comprehension Skills?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ren, Guanxin

2011-01-01

Cloze testing is a widely-used procedure to test learners' reading comprehension in learning a language, but little is known if it can really improve learners' reading comprehension skills. This paper attempts to seek answers to this question by comparing the cloze test scores of two groups of students (Experimental versus Control) undertaking…

Phenotypic and Genetic Associations between Reading Comprehension, Decoding Skills, and ADHD Dimensions: Evidence from Two Population-Based Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plourde, Vickie; Boivin, Michel; Forget-Dubois, Nadine; Brendgen, Mara; Vitaro, Frank; Marino, Cecilia; Tremblay, Richard T.; Dionne, Ginette

2015-01-01

Background: The phenotypic and genetic associations between decoding skills and ADHD dimensions have been documented but less is known about the association with reading comprehension. The aim of the study is to document the phenotypic and genetic associations between reading comprehension and ADHD dimensions of inattention and…

Enhancing Literacy Skills of Students with Congenital and Profound Hearing Impairment in Nigeria Using Babudoh's Comprehension Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Babudoh, Gladys B.

2014-01-01

This study reports the effect of a treatment tool called "Babudoh's comprehension therapy" in enhancing the comprehension and writing skills of 10 junior secondary school students with congenital and profound hearing impairment in Plateau State, Nigeria. The study adopted the single group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research…

Effectiveness of Instructional Strategies in Reading Comprehension for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Hyperlexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abnett, Jenelle M.

2013-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) commonly show deficits in social and communication skills, as well as in interpreting metaphorical meaning of language. These deficits often make reading comprehension more difficult for students with ASD. Past research has primarily focused on decoding rather than on comprehension skill interventions;…

Language and Cognitive Predictors of Text Comprehension: Evidence from Multivariate Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk

2015-01-01

Using data from children in South Korea (N = 145, M[subscript age] = 6.08), it was determined how low-level language and cognitive skills (vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and working memory) and high-level cognitive skills (comprehension monitoring and theory of mind [ToM]) are related to listening comprehension and whether listening…

Evaluation du programme d'etudes de francais langue seconde en immersion a la 6e annee. La comprehension orale et la production orale, 1990. Rapport Final. (Evaluation of French as a Second Language Study Program for Grade Six Immersion. Oral Comprehension and Speaking Skills, 1990. Final Report).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theberge, Raymond

An evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs at the levels of grades 3, 6, and 9 focused on program effectiveness in teaching listening comprehension and speech skills. The results for grade 6 are presented here. The first section describes the framework of the immersion curriculum and the listening and oral skills targeted in it. The…

The Effect of Learner Constructed, Fill in the Map Concept Map Technique, and Summarizing Strategy on Iranian Pre-University Students' Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soleimani, Hassan; Nabizadeh, Fatemeh

2012-01-01

Concept maps (CM) are powerful tools which have different uses in educational contexts; however, this study limited its extension and explored its impact on the reading comprehension skill of Iranian EFL students. To this purpose, a proficiency test was employed and 90 intermediate pre-university students were chosen and divided into three groups:…

An evaluation of the problem-solving ability of diplomates from a comprehensive nursing programme.

PubMed

Makhathini, J T; Uys, L R

1996-10-01

The aim of this South African study was to obtain a measurement of the problem-solving ability of diplomates from a basic nursing programme with this skill included in its programme objectives. The problem-solving skills of diplomates from this programme were compared with those of first years to determine if there is an improvement in the problem-solving skills. A comparison was also made with a different basic programmes not claiming to teach problem-solving. The research design selected for this study was the ex post facto design. Data were collected using the Triple Jump Method which is an interview technique. The findings suggested that the level of the problem-solving skills of the comprehensive nursing programme diplomate is not satisfactory. There was, however, some improvement in the problem-solving ability from the first to the fourth year. The level of performance of the fourth years was slightly higher than that of the third years of the three-year nursing programme, who were used as the control group. Recommendations on selection teaching and evaluation of students, as well as further research, were made.

Reading Pictures for Story Comprehension Requires Mental Imagery Skills

PubMed Central

Boerma, Inouk E.; Mol, Suzanne E.; Jolles, Jelle

2016-01-01

We examined the role of mental imagery skills on story comprehension in 150 fifth graders (10- to 12-year-olds), when reading a narrative book chapter with alternating words and pictures (i.e., text blocks were alternated by one- or two-page picture spreads). A parallel group design was used, in which we compared our experimental book version, in which pictures were used to replace parts of the corresponding text, to two control versions, i.e., a text-only version and a version with the full story text and all pictures. Analyses showed an interaction between mental imagery and book version: children with higher mental imagery skills outperformed children with lower mental imagery skills on story comprehension after reading the experimental narrative. This was not the case for both control conditions. This suggests that children’s mental imagery skills significantly contributed to the mental representation of the story that they created, by successfully integrating information from both words and pictures. The results emphasize the importance of mental imagery skills for explaining individual variability in reading development. Implications for educational practice are that we should find effective ways to instruct children how to “read” pictures and how to develop and use their mental imagery skills. This will probably contribute to their mental models and therefore their story comprehension. PMID:27822194

The Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

PubMed

Westerveld, M F; Paynter, J; Trembath, D; Webster, A A; Hodge, A M; Roberts, J

2017-02-01

A high percentage of school-age students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have reading comprehension difficulties leading to academic disadvantage. These difficulties may be related to differences in children's emergent literacy development in the preschool years. In this study, we examined the relationship between emergent literacy skills, broader cognitive and language ability, autism severity, and home literacy environment factors in 57 preschoolers with ASD. The children showed strengths in code-related emergent literacy skills such as alphabet knowledge, but significant difficulties with meaning-related emergent literacy skills. There was a significant relationship between meaning-related skills, autism severity, general oral language skills, and nonverbal cognition. Identification of these meaning-related precursors will guide the targets for early intervention to help ensure reading success for students with ASD.

Exploring the Relationship between Adolescent's Reading Skills, Reading Motivation and Reading Habits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGeown, Sarah P.; Duncan, Lynne G.; Griffiths, Yvonne M.; Stothard, Sue E.

2015-01-01

The present study examines the extent to which adolescents' reading affect (reading motivation) and behaviour (reading habits) predict different components of reading (word reading, comprehension, summarisation and text reading speed) and also adds to the limited research examining group differences (gender, age, ability) in adolescents' reading…

Examining the Effects of Skill Level and Reading Modality on Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickens, Rachel H.; Meisinger, Elizabeth B.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of reading skill and reading modality (oral versus silent) on reading comprehension. A normative sample of sixth-grade students (N = 74) read texts aloud and silently and then answered questions about what they read. Skill in word reading fluency was assessed by the Test of Word Reading…

Six Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension to Learning Disabled Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manzone, Christine A.

The paper describes six skills that can be used to improve the reading comprehension of learning disabled students. The skills can be utilized in a reading program or with reading in a content area. Examples from particular models of instruction are provided as well as a rationale for each. The skills may be used either individually, as a…

The Effects of Visual Attention Span and Phonological Decoding in Reading Comprehension in Dyslexia: A Path Analysis.

PubMed

Chen, Chen; Schneps, Matthew H; Masyn, Katherine E; Thomson, Jennifer M

2016-11-01

Increasing evidence has shown visual attention span to be a factor, distinct from phonological skills, that explains single-word identification (pseudo-word/word reading) performance in dyslexia. Yet, little is known about how well visual attention span explains text comprehension. Observing reading comprehension in a sample of 105 high school students with dyslexia, we used a pathway analysis to examine the direct and indirect path between visual attention span and reading comprehension while controlling for other factors such as phonological awareness, letter identification, short-term memory, IQ and age. Integrating phonemic decoding efficiency skills in the analytic model, this study aimed to disentangle how visual attention span and phonological skills work together in reading comprehension for readers with dyslexia. We found visual attention span to have a significant direct effect on more difficult reading comprehension but not on an easier level. It also had a significant direct effect on pseudo-word identification but not on word identification. In addition, we found that visual attention span indirectly explains reading comprehension through pseudo-word reading and word reading skills. This study supports the hypothesis that at least part of the dyslexic profile can be explained by visual attention abilities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Does Formal Assessment of Comprehension by SLT Agree with Teachers' Perceptions of Functional Comprehension Skills in the Classroom?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purse, Katie; Gardner, Hilary

2013-01-01

This study aimed to consider collaborative practice in contributing to joint assessment and producing appropriate referral of children to speech and language therapy (SLT). Results of formal testing of selected comprehension skills are compared with functional/classroom performance as rated by class teachers. Thirty children aged 6.5-8.4 years,…

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition Oral Language and Reading Measures Effects on Reading Comprehension in a Referred Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkin, Jason R.

2018-01-01

Oral language and word reading skills have important effects on reading comprehension. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition (WIAT-III) measures both skill sets, but little is known about their specific effects on reading comprehension within this battery. Path analysis was used to evaluate the collective effects of reading and…

Components of Story Comprehension and Strategies to Support Them in Hearing and Deaf or Hard of Hearing Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Susan; Oakhill, Jane

2015-01-01

In this article, we review the skills that have been found to be related to good story comprehension in novice readers with normal hearing and describe the relative weight each plays. The relationship between effective story comprehension and lower level skills (such as syntactic awareness and vocabulary knowledge) is considered, and the casual…

Why the Simple View of Reading Is Not Simplistic: Unpacking Component Skills of Reading Using a Direct and Indirect Effect Model of Reading (DIER)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2017-01-01

Pathways of relations of language, cognitive, and literacy skills (i.e., working memory, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, inference, comprehension monitoring, word reading, and listening comprehension) to reading comprehension were examined by comparing four variations of direct and indirect effects model of reading. Results from 350…

Interchange.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reading Teacher, 1982

1982-01-01

Five contributors discuss the following topics: bringing comics to life through readers theatre, peer tutoring to improve word attack and comprehension skills, using storytelling to increase reading comprehension skills on Okinawa, beginning reading in Italy, and using remedial reading students as tutors for younger students. (FL)

Relating Language and Music Skills in Young Children: A First Approach to Systemize and Compare Distinct Competencies on Different Levels

PubMed Central

Cohrdes, Caroline; Grolig, Lorenz; Schroeder, Sascha

2016-01-01

Children in transition from kindergarten to school develop fundamental skills important for the acquisition of reading and writing. Previous research pointed toward substantial correlations between specific language- and music-related competencies as well as positive transfer effects from music on pre-literacy skills. However, until now the relationship between diverse music and language competencies remains unclear. In the present study, we used a comprehensive approach to clarify the relationships between a broad variety of language and music skills on different levels, not only between but also within domains. In order to do so, we selected representative language- and music-related competencies and systematically compared the performance of N = 44 5- to 7-year-old children with a control group of N = 20 young adults aged from 20 to 30. Competencies were organized in distinct levels according to varying units of vowels/sounds, words or syllables/short melodic or rhythmic phrases, syntax/harmony and context of a whole story/song to test for their interrelatedness within each domain. Following this, we conducted systematic correlation analyses between the competencies of both domains. Overall, selected competencies appeared to be appropriate for the measurement of language and music skills in young children with reference to comprehension, difficulty and a developmental perspective. In line with a hierarchical model of skill acquisition, performance on lower levels was predictive for the performance on higher levels within domains. Moreover, correlations between domains were stronger for competencies reflecting a similar level of cognitive processing, as expected. In conclusion, a systematic comparison of various competencies on distinct levels according to varying units turned out to be appropriate regarding comparability and interrelatedness. Results are discussed with regard to similarities and differences in the development of language and music skills as well as in terms of implications for further research on transfer effects from music on language. PMID:27826266

Relating Language and Music Skills in Young Children: A First Approach to Systemize and Compare Distinct Competencies on Different Levels.

PubMed

Cohrdes, Caroline; Grolig, Lorenz; Schroeder, Sascha

2016-01-01

Children in transition from kindergarten to school develop fundamental skills important for the acquisition of reading and writing. Previous research pointed toward substantial correlations between specific language- and music-related competencies as well as positive transfer effects from music on pre-literacy skills. However, until now the relationship between diverse music and language competencies remains unclear. In the present study, we used a comprehensive approach to clarify the relationships between a broad variety of language and music skills on different levels, not only between but also within domains. In order to do so, we selected representative language- and music-related competencies and systematically compared the performance of N = 44 5- to 7-year-old children with a control group of N = 20 young adults aged from 20 to 30. Competencies were organized in distinct levels according to varying units of vowels/sounds, words or syllables/short melodic or rhythmic phrases, syntax/harmony and context of a whole story/song to test for their interrelatedness within each domain. Following this, we conducted systematic correlation analyses between the competencies of both domains. Overall, selected competencies appeared to be appropriate for the measurement of language and music skills in young children with reference to comprehension, difficulty and a developmental perspective. In line with a hierarchical model of skill acquisition, performance on lower levels was predictive for the performance on higher levels within domains. Moreover, correlations between domains were stronger for competencies reflecting a similar level of cognitive processing, as expected. In conclusion, a systematic comparison of various competencies on distinct levels according to varying units turned out to be appropriate regarding comparability and interrelatedness. Results are discussed with regard to similarities and differences in the development of language and music skills as well as in terms of implications for further research on transfer effects from music on language.

Effects of Pre-reading Instructions on the Comprehension of Science Texts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyons, Yuna H.

This study examined how three different pre-reading (or relevance) instructions led to different learning outcomes for middle school students reading science texts on the topic of sweetness. The first was a generic instruction to read for understanding. The second prompted students to form a holistic explanation of the topic of sweetness, and the third instruction prompted students to focus on the core scientific principle of the relationship between structure and function. The latter two were specifically designed to align with science disciplinary goals. A comparison of the three treatments found that the generic instruction and the structure-function instruction led to better learning outcomes, measured by recall, short-answer performance questions, and a traditional multiple-choice/short-answer assessment. A qualitative analysis of the data also revealed some small yet notable differences in the recall pattern of students, such as an increased recall of key ideas for the structure-function instruction. This effect was seen predominantly for higher-skilled readers. The results suggest the possibility that relevance instructions targeting core ideas may help to orient students to the key ideas and explanations in scientific text, especially for higher-skilled readers, and indirectly highlights some of the challenges for students with less reading competencies. Overall, this study provides greater insight into how middle-school students read science texts, the effectiveness of instructor-provided relevance instructions in promoting (higher-level) comprehension of science texts, and implications for teachers on how to use texts in science instruction. Keywords: relevance instructions, pre-reading instructions, comprehension, science texts, middle school students, low- versus high-skilled readers.

Gender Differences in Reading Motivation: Does Sex or Gender Identity Provide a Better Account?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGeown, Sarah; Goodwin, Hannah; Henderson, Nikola; Wright, Penelope

2012-01-01

This study examined sex differences in reading skill and reading motivation, investigating whether these differences could be better accounted for by sex, or by gender identity. One hundred and eighty-two primary school children (98 males) aged 8-11 completed a reading comprehension assessment, reading motivation questionnaire and a gender role…

Teaching Children with Autism to Read for Meaning: Challenges and Possibilities

PubMed Central

Randi, Judi; Newman, Tina

2010-01-01

The purpose of this literature review is to examine what makes reading for understanding especially challenging for children on the autism spectrum, most of whom are skilled at decoding and less skilled at comprehension. This paper first summarizes the research on reading comprehension with a focus on the cognitive skills and processes that are involved in gaining meaning from text and then reviews studies of reading comprehension deficits in children on the spectrum. The paper concludes with a review of reading comprehension interventions for children on the spectrum. These children can especially benefit from interventions addressing particular cognitive processes, such as locating antecedent events, generating and answering questions, locating referents, and rereading to repair understanding. PMID:20101452

A Comprehensive Staff Approach to Problem Wandering.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rader, Joanne

1987-01-01

Describes specific comprehensive program implemented in intermediate care facility/skilled nursing facility that reduced problematic wandering by patients, increased patient freedom and safety, and increased staff skill and comfort in handling wandering behaviors. Describes program components, problem identification, prevention programs,…

Are First- and Second-Language Factors Related in Predicting Second-Language Reading Comprehension? A Study of Spanish-Speaking Children Acquiring English as a Second Language from First to Second Grade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottardo, Alexandra; Mueller, Julie

2009-01-01

First-language (L1) and 2nd-language (L2) oral language skills and L2 word reading were used as predictors to test the simple view of reading as a model of 2nd-language reading comprehension. The simple view of reading states that reading comprehension is related to decoding and oral language comprehension skills. One hundred thirty-one…

Reading comprehension and its underlying components in second-language learners: A meta-analysis of studies comparing first- and second-language learners.

PubMed

Melby-Lervåg, Monica; Lervåg, Arne

2014-03-01

We report a systematic meta-analytic review of studies comparing reading comprehension and its underlying components (language comprehension, decoding, and phonological awareness) in first- and second-language learners. The review included 82 studies, and 576 effect sizes were calculated for reading comprehension and underlying components. Key findings were that, compared to first-language learners, second-language learners display a medium-sized deficit in reading comprehension (pooled effect size d = -0.62), a large deficit in language comprehension (pooled effect size d = -1.12), but only small differences in phonological awareness (pooled effect size d = -0.08) and decoding (pooled effect size d = -0.12). A moderator analysis showed that characteristics related to the type of reading comprehension test reliably explained the variation in the differences in reading comprehension between first- and second-language learners. For language comprehension, studies of samples from low socioeconomic backgrounds and samples where only the first language was used at home generated the largest group differences in favor of first-language learners. Test characteristics and study origin reliably contributed to the variations between the studies of language comprehension. For decoding, Canadian studies showed group differences in favor of second-language learners, whereas the opposite was the case for U.S. studies. Regarding implications, unless specific decoding problems are detected, interventions that aim to ameliorate reading comprehension problems among second-language learners should focus on language comprehension skills.

Cognitive flexibility predicts early reading skills

PubMed Central

Colé, Pascale; Duncan, Lynne G.; Blaye, Agnès

2014-01-01

An important aspect of learning to read is efficiency in accessing different kinds of linguistic information (orthographic, phonological, and semantic) about written words. The present study investigates whether, in addition to the integrity of such linguistic skills, early progress in reading may require a degree of cognitive flexibility in order to manage the coordination of this information effectively. Our study will look for evidence of a link between flexibility and both word reading and passage reading comprehension, and examine whether any such link involves domain-general or reading-specific flexibility. As the only previous support for a predictive relationship between flexibility and early reading comes from studies of reading comprehension in the opaque English orthography, another possibility is that this relationship may be largely orthography-dependent, only coming into play when mappings between representations are complex and polyvalent. To investigate these questions, 60 second-graders learning to read the more transparent French orthography were presented with two multiple classification tasks involving reading-specific cognitive flexibility (based on words) and non-specific flexibility (based on pictures). Reading skills were assessed by word reading, pseudo-word decoding, and passage reading comprehension measures. Flexibility was found to contribute significant unique variance to passage reading comprehension even in the less opaque French orthography. More interestingly, the data also show that flexibility is critical in accounting for one of the core components of reading comprehension, namely, the reading of words in isolation. Finally, the results constrain the debate over whether flexibility has to be reading-specific to be critically involved in reading. PMID:24966842

Deep Reading, Cost/Benefit, and the Construction of Meaning: Enhancing Reading Comprehension and Deep Learning in Sociology Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Judith C.; Roberts, Keith A.

2008-01-01

Reading comprehension skill is often assumed by sociology instructors, yet many college students seem to have marginal reading comprehension skills, which may explain why fewer than half of them are actually doing the reading. Sanctions that force students to either read or to pay a price are based on a rational choice model of behavior--a…

The Role of Inference Making and Other Language Skills in the Development of Narrative Listening Comprehension in 4-6-Year-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lepola, Janne; Lynch, Julie; Laakkonen, Eero; Silven, Maarit; Niemi, Pekka

2012-01-01

In this two-year longitudinal study, we sought to examine the developmental relationships among early narrative listening comprehension and language skills (i.e., vocabulary knowledge, sentence memory, and phonological awareness) and the roles of these factors in predicting narrative listening comprehension at the age of 6 years. We also sought to…

Examining the Developmental Dynamics between Achievement Strategies and Different Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Georgiou, George K.; Manolitsis, George; Zhang, Xiao; Parrila, Rauno; Nurmi, Jari-Erik

2013-01-01

We examined the developmental dynamics between task-avoidant behavior and different literacy outcomes, and possible precursors of task-avoidant behavior. Seventy Greek children were followed from Grade 4 until Grade 6 and were assessed every year on reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension. The teachers assessed the children's…

Selected Linguistic and Perceptual Abilities of Empirically Derived Subgroups of Learning Disabled Readers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyon, Reid; And Others

1981-01-01

Linguistic and perceptual tests were administered to learning disabled readers (LDR) and normal readers (NR). Results found six LDR subgroups all significantly different. Differences were found among the six LDR subgroups on measures of oral reading, reading comprehension, and spelling skills, but not on family history and developmental…

Reading Skill Components and Impairments in Middle School Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cirino, Paul T.; Romain, Melissa A.; Barth, Amy E.; Tolar, Tammy D.; Fletcher, Jack M.; Vaughn, Sharon

2013-01-01

This study investigated how measures of decoding, fluency, and comprehension in middle school students overlap with one another, whether the pattern of overlap differs between struggling and typical readers, and the relative frequency of different types of reading difficulties. The 1,748 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students were oversampled…

How Age, Linguistic Status, and the Nature of the Auditory Scene Alter the Manner in Which Listening Comprehension Is Achieved in Multitalker Conversations.

PubMed

Avivi-Reich, Meital; Jakubczyk, Agnes; Daneman, Meredyth; Schneider, Bruce A

2015-10-01

We investigated how age and linguistic status affected listeners' ability to follow and comprehend 3-talker conversations, and the extent to which individual differences in language proficiency predict speech comprehension under difficult listening conditions. Younger and older L1s as well as young L2s listened to 3-talker conversations, with or without spatial separation between talkers, in either quiet or against moderate or high 12-talker babble background, and were asked to answer questions regarding their contents. After compensating for individual differences in speech recognition, no significant differences in conversation comprehension were found among the groups. As expected, conversation comprehension decreased as babble level increased. Individual differences in reading comprehension skill contributed positively to performance in younger EL1s and in young EL2s to a lesser degree but not in older EL1s. Vocabulary knowledge was significantly and positively related to performance only at the intermediate babble level. The results indicate that the manner in which spoken language comprehension is achieved is modulated by the listeners' age and linguistic status.

Reading and listening comprehension and their relation to inattention and hyperactivity.

PubMed

Cain, Kate; Bignell, Simon

2014-03-01

Children with diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently have reading problems. To date, it is not clear whether poor reading is associated with both inattention and hyperactivity and also whether poor reading comprehension is the result of poor word reading skills or more general language comprehension weaknesses. We report two studies to examine how reading and listening comprehension skills are related to inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Separate groups of 7- to 11-year-olds participated in each study. In both studies, we used teacher ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity to identify three groups at risk of ADHD: poor attention, high hyperactivity, poor attention and high hyperactivity, and also same-age controls. In Study 1, we explored how inattention and hyperactivity predicted reading after controlling for non-verbal IQ and vocabulary. In Study 2, we compared listening and reading comprehension in these groups. Poor attention was related to poor reading comprehension, although the relation was partially mediated by word reading skill (Study 1). Groups with high hyperactivity had weak listening comprehension relative to reading comprehension (Study 2). These results indicate that the reading comprehension problems of children with attention difficulties are related to poor word reading and that listening comprehension is particularly vulnerable in children at risk of ADHD. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Effect of Preschool Working Memory, Language, and Narrative Abilities on Inferential Comprehension at School-Age in Children with Spina Bifida Myelomeningocele and Typically Developing Children

PubMed Central

Pike, Meredith; Swank, Paul; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan; Barnes, Marcia A.

2014-01-01

Children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) are more likely to display a pattern of good-decoding/poor comprehension than their neurologically intact peers. The goals of the current study were to (1) examine the cognitive origins of one of the component skills of comprehension, bridging inferences, from a developmental perspective and (2) to test the effects of those relations on reading comprehension achievement. Data from a sample of children with SBM and a control group (n = 78) who participated in a longitudinal study were taken from age 36-month and 9.5-year time points. A multiple mediation model provided evidence that three preschool cognitive abilities (working memory/inhibitory control, oral comprehension, narrative recall), could partially explain the relation between group and bridging inference skill. A second mediation model supported that each of the 36-month abilities had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through bridging inference skill. Findings contribute to an understanding of both typical and atypical comprehension development, blending theories from the developmental, cognitive, and neuropsychological literature. PMID:23388065

Effect of preschool working memory, language, and narrative abilities on inferential comprehension at school-age in children with spina bifida myelomeningocele and typically developing children.

PubMed

Pike, Meredith; Swank, Paul; Taylor, Heather; Landry, Susan; Barnes, Marcia A

2013-04-01

Children with spina bifida myelomeningocele (SBM) are more likely to display a pattern of good-decoding/poor comprehension than their neurologically intact peers. The goals of the current study were to (1) examine the cognitive origins of one of the component skills of comprehension, bridging inferences, from a developmental perspective and (2) to test the effects of those relations on reading comprehension achievement. Data from a sample of children with SBM and a control group (n = 78) who participated in a longitudinal study were taken from age 36-month and 9.5-year time points. A multiple mediation model provided evidence that three preschool cognitive abilities (working memory/inhibitory control, oral comprehension, narrative recall), could partially explain the relation between group and bridging inference skill. A second mediation model supported that each of the 36-month abilities had an indirect effect on reading comprehension through bridging inference skill. Findings contribute to an understanding of both typical and atypical comprehension development, blending theories from the developmental, cognitive, and neuropsychological literature.

Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension

PubMed Central

Van Dyke, Julie A.; Johns, Clinton L.; Kukona, Anuenue

2014-01-01

Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity of working memory with many other reading-related skills, especially IQ. In analyses which removed variance shared with IQ, we found that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the only significant predictor of comprehension performance in our task out of a battery of 24 skill measures. In addition, receptive vocabulary and non-verbal memory for serial order—but not simple verbal memory or working memory—were the only predictors of reading times in the region where interference had its primary affect. We interpret these results in light of a model that emphasizes retrieval interference and the quality of lexical representations as key determinants of successful comprehension. PMID:24657820

Low working memory capacity is only spuriously related to poor reading comprehension.

PubMed

Van Dyke, Julie A; Johns, Clinton L; Kukona, Anuenue

2014-06-01

Accounts of comprehension failure, whether in the case of readers with poor skill or when syntactic complexity is high, have overwhelmingly implicated working memory capacity as the key causal factor. However, extant research suggests that this position is not well supported by evidence on the span of active memory during online sentence processing, nor is it well motivated by models that make explicit claims about the memory mechanisms that support language processing. The current study suggests that sensitivity to interference from similar items in memory may provide a better explanation of comprehension failure. Through administration of a comprehensive skill battery, we found that the previously observed association of working memory with comprehension is likely due to the collinearity of working memory with many other reading-related skills, especially IQ. In analyses which removed variance shared with IQ, we found that receptive vocabulary knowledge was the only significant predictor of comprehension performance in our task out of a battery of 24 skill measures. In addition, receptive vocabulary and non-verbal memory for serial order-but not simple verbal memory or working memory-were the only predictors of reading times in the region where interference had its primary affect. We interpret these results in light of a model that emphasizes retrieval interference and the quality of lexical representations as key determinants of successful comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Why Does Working Memory Capacity Predict Variation in Reading Comprehension? On the Influence of Mind Wandering and Executive Attention

PubMed Central

McVay, Jennifer C.; Kane, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Some people are better readers than others, and this variation in comprehension ability is predicted by measures of working memory capacity (WMC). The primary goal of this study was to investigate the mediating role of mind wandering experiences in the association between WMC and normal individual differences in reading comprehension, as predicted by the executive-attention theory of WMC (e.g., Engle & Kane, 2004). We used a latent-variable, structural-equation-model approach, testing skilled adult readers on three WMC span tasks, seven varied reading comprehension tasks, and three attention-control tasks. Mind wandering was assessed using experimenter-scheduled thought probes during four different tasks (two reading, two attention-control tasks). The results support the executive-attention theory of WMC. Mind wandering across the four tasks loaded onto a single latent factor, reflecting a stable individual difference. Most importantly, mind wandering was a significant mediator in the relationship between WMC and reading comprehension, suggesting that the WMC-comprehension correlation is driven, in part, by attention control over intruding thoughts. We discuss implications for theories of WMC, attention control, and reading comprehension. PMID:21875246

Comprehension of texts by deaf elementary school students: The role of grammatical understanding.

PubMed

Barajas, Carmen; González-Cuenca, Antonia M; Carrero, Francisco

2016-12-01

The aim of this study was to analyze how the reading process of deaf Spanish elementary school students is affected both by those components that explain reading comprehension according to the Simple View of Reading model: decoding and linguistic comprehension (both lexical and grammatical) and by other variables that are external to the reading process: the type of assistive technology used, the age at which it is implanted or fitted, the participant's socioeconomic status and school stage. Forty-seven students aged between 6 and 13 years participated in the study; all presented with profound or severe prelingual bilateral deafness, and all used digital hearing aids or cochlear implants. Students' text comprehension skills, decoding skills and oral comprehension skills (both lexical and grammatical) were evaluated. Logistic regression analysis indicated that neither the type of assistive technology, age at time of fitting or activation, socioeconomic status, nor school stage could predict the presence or absence of difficulties in text comprehension. Furthermore, logistic regression analysis indicated that neither decoding skills, nor lexical age could predict competency in text comprehension; however, grammatical age could explain 41% of the variance. Probing deeper into the effect of grammatical understanding, logistic regression analysis indicated that a participant's understanding of reversible passive object-verb-subject sentences and reversible predicative subject-verb-object sentences accounted for 38% of the variance in text comprehension. Based on these results, we suggest that it might be beneficial to devise and evaluate interventions that focus specifically on grammatical comprehension. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of Children's Errors in Comprehension and Expression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatcher, Ryan C.; Breaux, Kristina C.; Liu, Xiaochen; Bray, Melissa A.; Ottone-Cross, Karen L.; Courville, Troy; Luria, Sarah R.; Langley, Susan Dulong

2017-01-01

Children's oral language skills typically begin to develop sooner than their written language skills; however, the four language systems (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) then develop concurrently as integrated strands that influence one another. This research explored relationships between students' errors in language comprehension of…

Sequential-Simultaneous Processing and Reading Skills in Primary Grade Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McRae, Sandra G.

1986-01-01

The study examined relationships between two modes of information processing, simultaneous and sequential, and two sets of reading skills, word recognition and comprehension, among 40 second and third grade students. Results indicated there is a relationship between simultaneous processing and reading comprehension. (Author)

Involvement of the right hemisphere in reading comprehension: a DTI study

PubMed Central

Horowitz-Kraus, Tzipi; Wang, Yingying; Plante, Elena; Holland, Scott K.

2014-01-01

The Simple View of reading emphasizes the critical role of two factors in normal reading skills: word recognition and reading comprehension. The current study aims to identify the anatomical support for aspects of reading performance that fall within these two components. Fractional anisotropy (FA) values were obtained from Diffusion Tensor images in twenty-one typical adolescents and young adults using the Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) method. We focused on the Arcuate Fasciculus (AF) and Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus (ILF) as fiber tracts that connect regions already implicated in the distributed cortical network for reading. Our results demonstrate dissociation between word-level and narrative-level reading skills: the FA values for both left and right ILF were correlated with measures of word reading, while only the left ILF correlated with reading comprehension scores. FA in the AF, however, correlated only with reading comprehension scores, bilaterally. Correlations with the right AF were particularly robust, emphasizing the contribution of the right hemisphere, especially the frontal lobe, to reading comprehension performance on the particular passage comprehension test used in this study. The anatomical dissociation between these reading skills is supported by the Simple View theory and may shed light on why these two skills dissociate in those with reading disorders. PMID:24909792

Comparison of auditory comprehension skills in children with cochlear implant and typically developing children.

PubMed

Mandal, Joyanta Chandra; Kumar, Suman; Roy, Sumit

2016-12-01

The main goal of this study was to obtain auditory comprehension skills of native Hindi speaking children with cochlear implant and typically developing children across the age of 3-7 years and compare the scores between two groups. A total of sixty Hindi speaking participants were selected for the study. They were divided into two groups- Group-A consisted of thirty children with normal hearing and Group-B thirty children using cochlear implants. To assess the auditory comprehension skills, Test of auditory comprehension in Hindi (TACH) was used. The participant was required to point to one of three pictures which would best correspond to the stimulus presented. Correct answers were scored as 1 and incorrect answers as 0. TACH was administered on for both groups. Independent t-test was applied and it was found that auditory comprehension scores of children using cochlear implant were significantly poorer than the score of children with normal hearing for all three subtests. Pearson's correlation coefficient revealed poor correlation between the scores of children with normal hearing and children using cochlear implant. The results of this study suggest that children using cochlear implant have poor auditory comprehension skills than children with normal hearing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

An evaluation of reading comprehension of expository text in adults with traumatic brain injury.

PubMed

Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Griffiths, Gina G; Fickas, Stephen

2014-05-01

This project was conducted to obtain information about reading problems of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments and to investigate how these readers respond to reading comprehension strategy prompts integrated into digital versions of text. Participants from 2 groups, adults with TBI (n = 15) and matched controls (n = 15), read 4 different 500-word expository science passages linked to either a strategy prompt condition or a no-strategy prompt condition. The participants' reading comprehension was evaluated using sentence verification and free recall tasks. The TBI and control groups exhibited significant differences on 2 of the 5 reading comprehension measures: paraphrase statements on a sentence verification task and communication units on a free recall task. Unexpected group differences were noted on the participants' prerequisite reading skills. For the within-group comparison, participants showed significantly higher reading comprehension scores on 2 free recall measures: words per communication unit and type-token ratio. There were no significant interactions. The results help to elucidate the nature of reading comprehension in adults with TBI with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairments and endorse further evaluation of reading comprehension strategies as a potential intervention option for these individuals. Future research is needed to better understand how individual differences influence a person's reading and response to intervention.

New and updated tests of print exposure and reading abilities in college students

PubMed Central

Acheson, Daniel J.; Wells, Justine B.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2010-01-01

The relationship between print exposure and measures of reading skill was examined in college students (N = 99, 58 female; mean age = 20.3 years). Print exposure was measured with several new self-reports of reading and writing habits, as well as updated versions of the Author Recognition Test and the Magazine Recognition Test (Stanovich & West, 1989). Participants completed a sentence comprehension task with syntactically complex sentences, and reading times and comprehension accuracy were measured. An additional measure of reading skill was provided by participants’ scores on the verbal portions of the ACT, a standardized achievement test. Higher levels of print exposure were associated with higher sentence processing abilities and superior verbal ACT performance. The relative merits of different print exposure assessments are discussed. PMID:18411551

A systematic and comprehensive approach to teaching and evaluating interpersonal skills.

PubMed

Grayson, M; Nugent, C; Oken, S L

1977-11-01

This study addressed one problem with current methods for teaching and evaluating interpersonal skills: the failure to include a wide range of behaviors reported in the literature as contributing to patient dissatisfaction and noncompliance. To address this concern, the authors developed a comprehensive interpersonal skills training program and a pretest-posttest evaluation. The tests were administered to two student groups one of which received the interpersonal skills instruction. The student group exposed to the training exhibited a significant positive change from pretest to posttest. Additionally the change for this group was significantly greater than the change for the group not exposed to interpersonal skills instruction.

Investigating morphological awareness and the processing of transparent and opaque words in adults with low literacy skills and in skilled readers

PubMed Central

To, Nancy L.; Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Binder, Katherine S.

2015-01-01

For adults with low literacy skills, the role of phonology in reading has been fairly well researched, but less is known about the role of morphology in reading. We investigated the contribution of morphological awareness to word reading and reading comprehension and found that for adults with low literacy skills and skilled readers, morphological awareness explained unique variance in word reading and reading comprehension. In addition, we investigated the effects of orthographic and phonological opacity in morphological processing. Results indicated that adults with low literacy skills were more impaired than skilled readers on items containing phonological changes but were spared on items involving orthographic changes. These results are consistent with previous findings of adults with low literacy skills reliance on orthographic codes. Educational implications are discussed. PMID:27158173

Contributions of Morphological Skill to Children's Essay Writing

PubMed Central

Northey, Mary; McCutchen, Deborah; Sanders, Elizabeth A.

2015-01-01

Morphological skills have previously been found to reliably predict reading skill, including word reading, vocabulary, and comprehension. However, less is known about how morphological skills might contribute to writing skill, aside from its well-documented role in the development of spelling. This correlational study examines whether morphological skill, as measured by a sentence generation task tapping both derivational morphology and meta-syntactic skills, predicts performance on a standardized essay writing task for fifth- and eighth-grade U.S. students (N = 233), after controlling for grade level, comprehension, and writing fluency. Multilevel analyses indicated that morphological skill and writing fluency were each uniquely predictive of essay quality, and this finding was consistent regardless of whether accurate spelling was required in the morphological task. Our results suggest that morphological skills play an important role in writing, as has been previously documented in reading and spelling. PMID:26957783

Linking Cognition and Literacy in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnahan, Christina R.; Williamson, Pamela S.; Christman, Jennifer

2011-01-01

Literacy skills, especially silent reading comprehension, serve as the foundation for learning, independence, and quality of life for all individuals. It is well documented that students on the autism spectrum have difficulties with reading comprehension even though they demonstrate adequate decoding skills. Unfortunately, communication…

Discourse Memory and Reading Comprehension Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perfetti, Charles A.; Goldman, Susan R.

1976-01-01

A study is reported in which short-term memory capacity, estimated by a probe digit task, and memory for structured language, measured by a probe discourse task, were investigated in an experiment with third and fifth grade IQ-matched children representing two levels of reading comprehension skill. (Author/RM)

Functional Anatomy of Listening and Reading Comprehension during Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berl, Madison M.; Duke, Elizabeth S.; Mayo, Jessica; Rosenberger, Lisa R.; Moore, Erin N.; VanMeter, John; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Vaidya, Chandan J.; Gaillard, William Davis

2010-01-01

Listening and reading comprehension of paragraph-length material are considered higher-order language skills fundamental to social and academic functioning. Using ecologically relevant language stimuli that were matched for difficulty according to developmental level, we analyze the effects of task, age, neuropsychological skills, and post-task…

Community Trial of a Comprehensive Psychosocial Treatment for HFASDs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopata, Christopher; Toomey, Jennifer A.; Thomeer, Marcus L.; McDonald, Christin A.; Fox, Jeffery D.; Smith, Rachael A.; Meichenbaum, David L.; Volker, Martin A.; Lee, Gloria K.; Lipinski, Alanna M.

2015-01-01

This community effectiveness trial examined the feasibility and efficacy of a comprehensive psychosocial treatment for 28 children, aged 7 to 10 years with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs). Treatment included instruction and therapeutic activities targeting social skills, face-emotion recognition skills, interest expansion, and…

A Bird in the Hand and a Bird in the Bush: Using Proverbs to Teach Skills and Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holden, Marjorie H.; Warshaw, Mimi

1985-01-01

Discusses objectives that can be accomplished through the study of proverbs. Suggests a number of exercises involving proverbs that can be used to improve reading comprehension and hone writing skills and to develop a vocabulary. (RBW)

Language skills and nonverbal cognitive processes associated with reading comprehension in deaf children.

PubMed

Daza, María Teresa; Phillips-Silver, Jessica; Ruiz-Cuadra, María del Mar; López-López, Francisco

2014-12-01

The main aim of this study was to examine the relationship between language skills (vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness), nonverbal cognitive processes (attention, memory and executive functions) and reading comprehension in deaf children. Participants were thirty prelingually deaf children (10.7 ± 1.6 years old; 18 boys, 12 girls), who were classified as either good readers or poor readers by their scores on two reading comprehension tasks. The children were administered a rhyme judgment task and seven computerized neuropsychological tasks specifically designed and adapted for deaf children to evaluate vocabulary knowledge, attention, memory and executive functions in deaf children. A correlational approach was also used to assess the association between variables. Although the two groups did not show differences in phonological awareness, good readers showed better vocabulary and performed significantly better than poor readers on attention, memory and executive functions measures. Significant correlations were found between better scores in reading comprehension and better scores on tasks of vocabulary and non-verbal cognitive processes. The results suggest that in deaf children, vocabulary knowledge and nonverbal cognitive processes such as selective attention, visuo-spatial memory, abstract reasoning and sequential processing may be especially relevant for the development of reading comprehension. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of the literacy achievement gap: a longitudinal study of kindergarten through third grade.

PubMed

Foster, Wayne A; Miller, Merideth

2007-07-01

The major goal of this study was to specify the developmental trajectories for phonics and early text comprehension skills of children from kindergarten through third grade. Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (N = 12,261) were used in this study. The participants were divided into 3 school readiness groups based on an assessment of literacy skill development at the time of entrance into kindergarten. The different groups were tracked on phonics and text comprehension development through the third grade. Students in the average and high literacy readiness groups achieved high scores in decoding (phonics) by the end of the first grade. Students in the low readiness group did not match these scores until the third grade. Although the phonics gap was essentially closed in the third grade, a second, very significant text comprehension gap was exposed. The 3 readiness groups were analyzed to assess the relative contributions of parent education, income, and kindergarten literacy score to third-grade literacy achievement. The results of this study stress the need for speech-language pathologists to assess emergent literacy skills in their speech and language clients and to include appropriate literacy goals in the treatment regimen as a means for reducing the potential need for identification as learning disabled in reading in the later years of elementary school.

The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek

PubMed Central

Manolitsis, George; Grigorakis, Ioannis; Georgiou, George K.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the role of three morphological awareness (MA) skills (inflection, derivation, and compounding) in word reading fluency and reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography (Greek). Two hundred and fifteen (104 girls; Mage = 67.40 months, at kindergarten) Greek children were followed from kindergarten (K) to grade 2 (G2). In K and grade 1 (G1), they were tested on measures of MA (two inflectional, two derivational, and three compounding), letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and general cognitive ability (vocabulary and non-verbal IQ). At the end of G1 and G2, they were also tested on word reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the inflectional and derivational aspects of MA in K as well as all aspects of MA in G1 accounted for 2–5% of unique variance in reading comprehension. None of the MA skills predicted word reading fluency, after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and RAN. These findings suggest that the MA skills, even when assessed as early as in kindergarten, play a significant role in reading comprehension development. PMID:29081759

The Effect of the Thinking-Aloud Strategy on the Reading Comprehension Skills of 4th Grade Primary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sönmez, Yasemin; Sulak, Süleyman Erkam

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study, which is designed in quasi-experimental model, is to examine the effect of the thinking aloud strategy on the reading comprehension skills of the 4th grade primary school students. For this purpose, in the second semester of 2016-2017 academic year, the reading comprehension levels of 26 students in the 4th grade at a…

Differences in Middle School TCAP Writing Assessment Scores Based on Keyboarding Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parker, Carol A.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the writing assessment scores for each of the four traits--development, focus and organization, language, and conventions--as measured by the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) of students who had a formal keyboarding course compared to those who did not. A…

Analysis of Textual Features of a New Reading Comprehension Assessment: MOCCA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seipel, Ben; Biancarosa, Gina; Carlson, Sarah; Davison, Mark

2015-01-01

Previous research has established two types of struggling readers: those who struggle with lower-level reading skills and those who struggle with higher-level reading skills (Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Perfetti, 2007). The latter group is commonly termed "poor comprehenders": readers who exhibit poor comprehension compared to peers with…

The Importance of Metacognitive Reading Strategy Awareness in Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmadi, Mohammad Reza; Ismail, Hairul Nizam; Abdullah, Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan

2013-01-01

Metacognitive reading strategy awareness plays a significant role in reading comprehension and educational process. In spite of its importance, metacognitive strategy has long been the ignored skill in English language teaching, research, learning, and assessment. This lack of good metacognitive reading strategy skill is exacerbated by the central…

Computer Assisted Instruction to Promote Comprehension in Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stetter, Maria Earman; Hughes, Marie Tejero

2011-01-01

Reading comprehension is a crucial skill for academic success of all students. Very often, students with learning disabilities struggle with reading skills and since students learn new information in school by reading; these difficulties often increase the academic struggles students with learning disabilities face. The current study examined…

Reading Comprehension and Immersion Schooling: Evidence from Component Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hansen, Laura Birke; Morales, Julia; Macizo, Pedro; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni; Saldaña, David; Carreiras, Manuel; Fuentes, Luis J.; Bajo, M. Teresa

2017-01-01

The present research aims to assess literacy acquisition in children becoming bilingual via second language immersion in school. We adopt a cognitive components approach, assessing text-level reading comprehension, a complex literacy skill, as well as underlying cognitive and linguistic components in 144 children aged 7 to 14 (72 immersion…

Language Profiles of Poor Comprehenders in English and French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Angelo, Nadia; Chen, Xi

2017-01-01

This study explored components of language comprehension (vocabulary, grammar, and higher-level language) skills for poor comprehenders in French immersion. We identified three groups of bilingual comprehenders (poor, average, and good) based on English reading performance and compared their language comprehension skills in English L1 and French…

What Is the Influence of Morphological Knowledge in the Early Stages of Reading Acquisition Among Low SES Children? A Graphical Modeling Approach

PubMed Central

Colé, Pascale; Cavalli, Eddy; Duncan, Lynne G.; Theurel, Anne; Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; El-Ahmadi, Abdessadek

2018-01-01

Children from low-SES families are known to show delays in aspects of language development which underpin reading acquisition such as vocabulary and listening comprehension. Research on the development of morphological skills in this group is scarce, and no studies exist in French. The present study investigated the involvement of morphological knowledge in the very early stages of reading acquisition (decoding), before reading comprehension can be reliably assessed. We assessed listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, morphological awareness as well as decoding, word reading and non-verbal IQ in 703 French first-graders from low-SES families after 3 months of formal schooling (November). Awareness of derivational morphology was assessed using three oral tasks: Relationship Judgment (e.g., do these words belong to the same family or not? heat-heater … ham-hammer); Lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who runs is a …? (runner)]; and Non-lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who lums is a…? (lummer)]. The tasks differ on implicit/explicit demands and also tap different kinds of morphological knowledge. The Judgement task measures the phonological and semantic properties of the morphological relationship and the Sentence Completion tasks measure knowledge of morphological production rules. Data were processed using a graphical modeling approach which offers key information about how skills known to be involved in learning to read are organized in memory. This modeling approach was therefore useful in revealing a potential network which expresses the conditional dependence structure between skills, after which recursive structural equation modeling was applied to test specific hypotheses. Six main conclusions can be drawn from these analyses about low SES reading acquisition: (1) listening comprehension is at the heart of the reading acquisition process; (2) word reading depends directly on phonemic awareness and indirectly on listening comprehension; (3) decoding depends on word reading; (4) Morphological awareness and vocabulary have an indirect influence on word reading via both listening comprehension and phoneme awareness; (5) the components of morphological awareness assessed by our tasks have independent relationships with listening comprehension; and (6) neither phonemic nor morphological awareness influence vocabulary directly. The implications of these results with regard to early reading acquisition among low SES groups are discussed. PMID:29725313

What Is the Influence of Morphological Knowledge in the Early Stages of Reading Acquisition Among Low SES Children? A Graphical Modeling Approach.

PubMed

Colé, Pascale; Cavalli, Eddy; Duncan, Lynne G; Theurel, Anne; Gentaz, Edouard; Sprenger-Charolles, Liliane; El-Ahmadi, Abdessadek

2018-01-01

Children from low-SES families are known to show delays in aspects of language development which underpin reading acquisition such as vocabulary and listening comprehension. Research on the development of morphological skills in this group is scarce, and no studies exist in French. The present study investigated the involvement of morphological knowledge in the very early stages of reading acquisition (decoding), before reading comprehension can be reliably assessed. We assessed listening comprehension, receptive vocabulary, phoneme awareness, morphological awareness as well as decoding, word reading and non-verbal IQ in 703 French first-graders from low-SES families after 3 months of formal schooling (November). Awareness of derivational morphology was assessed using three oral tasks: Relationship Judgment (e.g., do these words belong to the same family or not? heat-heater … ham-hammer); Lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who runs is a …? (runner)]; and Non-lexical Sentence Completion [e.g., Someone who lums is a…? (lummer)]. The tasks differ on implicit/explicit demands and also tap different kinds of morphological knowledge. The Judgement task measures the phonological and semantic properties of the morphological relationship and the Sentence Completion tasks measure knowledge of morphological production rules. Data were processed using a graphical modeling approach which offers key information about how skills known to be involved in learning to read are organized in memory. This modeling approach was therefore useful in revealing a potential network which expresses the conditional dependence structure between skills, after which recursive structural equation modeling was applied to test specific hypotheses. Six main conclusions can be drawn from these analyses about low SES reading acquisition: (1) listening comprehension is at the heart of the reading acquisition process; (2) word reading depends directly on phonemic awareness and indirectly on listening comprehension; (3) decoding depends on word reading; (4) Morphological awareness and vocabulary have an indirect influence on word reading via both listening comprehension and phoneme awareness; (5) the components of morphological awareness assessed by our tasks have independent relationships with listening comprehension; and (6) neither phonemic nor morphological awareness influence vocabulary directly. The implications of these results with regard to early reading acquisition among low SES groups are discussed.

Satisfying the needs of Japanese cancer patients: a comparative study of detailed and standard informed consent documents.

PubMed

Sato, Keiko; Watanabe, Toru; Katsumata, Noriyuki; Sato, Tosiya; Ohashi, Yasuo

2014-02-01

Simplified informed consent forms have been successful in improving patient satisfaction and decreasing patient anxiety. However, unsolved problems remain about whether these documents improve comprehension and satisfaction of patients with standard literacy skills. s To investigate whether a detailed consent form explaining the key elements of informed consent, in comparison to a standard consent form, would increase the comprehension and satisfaction of adult cancer patients. Patients who were eligible for the National Surgical Adjuvant Study of Breast Cancer (protocol 01(N-SAS/BC-01)) were randomly selected to receive one of the following four versions: detailed document with graphics, detailed document without graphics, standard document with graphics, and standard document without graphics. The forms were written in plain language from the patients' point of view. A total of 85 patients were administered questionnaires via interview to assess levels of comprehension, satisfaction, and anxiety. Patients demonstrated a strong understanding of information regarding treatment and research. Patient comprehension did not differ significantly between the detailed document arms and the standard document arms. Patient satisfaction level increased according to the amount of information presented in the consent form; most patients preferred the detailed document with graphics. Anxiety and accrual rates in the parent study were not affected by informed consent procedures. Findings were limited to adults who had standard literacy skills and may not be generalizable to a population with lower literacy. Informed consent can be a significant experience for a population with standard literacy skills, as long as the document is easily comprehensible. Such information should be provided in a format that corresponds with patient needs, education levels, and preferences.

Employer evaluations of nurse graduates: a critical program assessment element.

PubMed

Ryan, M E; Hodson, K E

1992-05-01

Accountability in higher education dictates implementation of a comprehensive evaluation plan. Employer evaluation of graduates is an important component of program evaluation and contributes a different view that is rarely reported in the literature. The purpose of this study was to establish a database by surveying employers of baccalaureate-prepared nurses, postgraduation, over a five-year period. Employer surveys measured perceptions of graduates' functioning. Findings indicated that graduates function above expected levels for leadership skills, nursing skills, communication skills, and professionalism. Systematic program evaluation by employers is recommended at one and five years after graduation. A tool for employer evaluation of baccalaureate graduates is discussed.

Exploring the Language and Literacy Outcomes of Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users

PubMed Central

Spencer, Linda J.; Barker, Brittan A.; Tomblin, J. Bruce

2011-01-01

Objective The principal goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between language and literacy (i.e., reading and writing) skills in pediatric cochlear implant users. A peripheral objective was to identify the children's skills that were in need of remediation and subsequently to provide suggestions for remedial programming. It was predicted that the robust language skills often associated with children who have cochlear implant experience would facilitate the development of literacy skills. It was further proposed that the language and literacy skills of pediatric cochlear implant users would approximate the language and literacy skills of children with normal hearing. Design Sixteen pediatric cochlear implant users' language and literacy skills were evaluated and then compared with a reference group of 16 age-matched, normal-hearing children. All 32 participants were educated in mainstream classes within the public school system in the Midwest. The “Sentence Formulation” and “Concepts and Directions” subtests of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-3 test were used to evaluate receptive and expressive language skills. Reading comprehension was evaluated with the “Paragraph Comprehension” subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. Performance measures for the writing analyses included productivity, complexity and grammaticality measures. Results Children with cochlear implants performed within 1 SD of the normal-hearing, age-matched children on measures of language comprehension, reading comprehension and writing accuracy. However, the children with cochlear implants performed significantly poorer than the children with normal hearing on the expressive “Sentence Formulation” subtest. The cochlear implant users also produced fewer words on the written narrative task than did the normal-hearing children, although there was not a significant difference between groups with respect to total words per clause. Furthermore there was a strong correlation between language performance and reading performance, as well as language performance and total words produced on the written performance measure for the children using cochlear implants. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the language skills of pediatric cochlear implant users are related to and correlated with the development of literacy skills within these children. Consequently, the performance of the cochlear implant users, on various language and literacy measures, compared favorably to an age-matched group of children with normal hearing. There were significant differences in the ability of the cochlear implant users to correctly utilize grammatical structures such as conjunctions and correct verb forms when they were required to formulate written and oral sentences. Given this information, it would be appropriate for their educational or remedial language programs to emphasize the use and development of these structures. PMID:12799546

FACTORS AFFECTING THINKING AND COMPREHENSION SKILLS.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ABRAMS, JULES C.

INTELLECTUAL, EDUCATIONAL, NEUROLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS IN VARIOUS PATTERNS OF INTERRELATIONSHIPS INFLUENCE THE THINKING PROCESS. INDIVIDUALS DIFFER IN THE CONCEPTS THEY HOLD AND IN THEIR USE OF THESE CONCEPTS BECAUSE OF VARIATIONS IN INTELLIGENCE AND BACKGROUND OF EXPERIENCE. THE RANGE AND LEVEL OF CONCEPTS…

Eye Movements, Prosody, and Word Frequency among Average- and High-Skilled Second-Grade Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valle, Araceli; Binder, Katherine S.; Walsh, Caitlin B.; Nemier, Carolyn; Bangs, Katheryn E.

2013-01-01

readers (as identified by their Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Academic Achievement Broad Reading scores) differed on behavioral measures of reading related to comprehension: eye movements during silent reading and prosody during oral reading. Results from silent reading implicate…

The Relations among L1 (Spanish) Literacy Skills, L2 (English) Language, L2 Text Reading Fluency, and L2 Reading Comprehension for Spanish-Speaking ELL First Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk

2012-01-01

We investigated the relations of L2 (i.e., English) oral reading fluency, silent reading fluency, word reading automaticity, oral language skills, and L1 literacy skills (i.e., Spanish) to L2 reading comprehension for Spanish-speaking English language learners in the first grade (N = 150). An analysis was conducted for the entire sample as well as…

Consumer competencies and the use of comparative quality information: it isn't just about literacy.

PubMed

Hibbard, Judith H; Peters, Ellen; Dixon, Anna; Tusler, Martin

2007-08-01

While consumers are increasingly expected to use complex health care information to make informed decisions, it is unclear how many have the skills to do so. In this investigation we examine health literacy, numeracy, and patient activation, assessing the contribution of each to the comprehension of comparative health care performance reports and their use in making an informed choice. A convenience sample of 303 employed-age adults participated in the study. The findings indicate that numeracy skill is the strongest predictor of comprehension, followed by health literacy. Higher activation helps those low in literacy and numeracy compensate for their lower skills and achieve higher levels of comprehension. In addition, making good choices, when trade-offs are necessary, is related to activation separate from comprehension. This is important as many real-life choices involve trade-offs. Results indicate that choice is not just about literacy or comprehension, it also has to do with activation.

The Role of Oral Language Skills in Reading and Listening Comprehension of Text: A Comparison of Monolingual (L1) and Bilingual (L2) Speakers of English Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Babayigit, Selma

2014-01-01

The study examined the role of oral language skills in reading comprehension and listening comprehension levels of 125 monolingual (L1) and bilingual (L2) English-speaking learners (M = 121.5 months, SD = 4.65) in England. All testing was conducted in English. The L1 learners outperformed their L2 peers on the measures of oral language and text…

Novice Readers: The Role of Focused, Selective, Distributed and Alternating Attention at the First Year of the Academic Curriculum

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The ability to read depends on different cognitive skills. This study investigated the role of the main components of attention (selective attention, focused attention, distributed attention, and alternating attention) on the different dimensions of reading skills in novice readers. Participants were 288 Italian children, who attended the first year of primary school. Attention and reading skills (reading “comprehension,” “accuracy,” and “speed”) were measured. Different components of attention influence each dimension of reading. Moreover, both the correctness and rapidity at which attention operates play a pivotal role in learning to read. Interestingly, selective attention is involved in all dimensions of reading. These findings may have educational and practical relevance. The early assessment of attention might favor the development of new strategies of intervention in dyslexic children and in children at risk of developing learning difficulties. PMID:28835811

Novice Readers: The Role of Focused, Selective, Distributed and Alternating Attention at the First Year of the Academic Curriculum.

PubMed

Commodari, Elena

2017-01-01

The ability to read depends on different cognitive skills. This study investigated the role of the main components of attention (selective attention, focused attention, distributed attention, and alternating attention) on the different dimensions of reading skills in novice readers. Participants were 288 Italian children, who attended the first year of primary school. Attention and reading skills (reading "comprehension," "accuracy," and "speed") were measured. Different components of attention influence each dimension of reading. Moreover, both the correctness and rapidity at which attention operates play a pivotal role in learning to read. Interestingly, selective attention is involved in all dimensions of reading. These findings may have educational and practical relevance. The early assessment of attention might favor the development of new strategies of intervention in dyslexic children and in children at risk of developing learning difficulties.

Different Cognitive Profiles of Patients with Severe Aphasia.

PubMed

Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Spaccavento, Simona; Craca, Angela; Marangolo, Paola; Angelelli, Paola

2017-01-01

Cognitive dysfunction frequently occurs in aphasic patients and primarily compromises linguistic skills. However, patients suffering from severe aphasia show heterogeneous performance in basic cognition. Our aim was to characterize the cognitive profiles of patients with severe aphasia and to determine whether they also differ as to residual linguistic abilities. We examined 189 patients with severe aphasia with standard language tests and with the CoBaGA (Cognitive Test Battery for Global Aphasia), a battery of nonverbal tests that assesses a wide range of cognitive domains such as attention, executive functions, intelligence, memory, visual-auditory recognition, and visual-spatial abilities. Twenty patients were also followed longitudinally in order to assess their improvement in cognitive skills after speech therapy. Three different subgroups of patients with different types and severity of cognitive impairment were evidenced. Subgroups differed as to residual linguistic skills, in particular comprehension and reading-writing abilities. Attention, reasoning, and executive functions improved after language rehabilitation. This study highlights the importance of an extensive evaluation of cognitive functions in patients with severe aphasia.

Teaching High School Biology Students to Coordinate Text and Diagrams: Relations with Transfer, Effort, and Spatial Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergey, Bradley W.; Cromley, Jennifer G.; Newcombe, Nora S.

2015-01-01

There is growing evidence that targeted instruction can improve diagram comprehension, yet one of the skills identified in the diagram comprehension literature--coordinating multiple representations--has rarely been directly taught to students and tested as a classroom intervention. We created a Coordinating Multiple Representation (CMR)…

Reading the Web: Internet Guided Reading with Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salyer, David

2015-01-01

Online reading requires traditional and new comprehension skills and strategies, and these skills and strategies will have to be taught and supported, especially for young beginning readers. But how do elementary teachers go about doing this? Much of the research regarding teaching and supporting online reading comprehension has focused on older…

Influence of Reading Comprehension Strategy Information on Children's Self-Efficacy and Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schunk, Dale H.; Rice, Jo Mary

Two experiments investigated the effects of sources of strategy information on children's acquisition and transfer of reading outcomes and strategy use. Children with reading skill deficiencies received comprehension instruction on main ideas. In the first experiment, the final sample comprised 33 students (21 fourth graders, 12 fifth gaders)…

Predictors of Reading Ability in English for Mandarin-Speaking Bilingual Children in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Yah Hui; Poon, Kenneth K.; Rickard Liow, Susan J.

2013-01-01

Research on the reading skills of monolingual children has established a convergent skills model for acquisition involving context-free decoding, language comprehension, and visual and phonological processing. This study sought to identify the predictors of Primary One bilingual children's reading accuracy and reading comprehension in English.…

Cognitive Development and Reading: The Relation of Reading-Specific Multiple Classification Skill to Reading Comprehension in Elementary School Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cartwright, Kelly B.

2002-01-01

A reading-specific multiple classification task was designed that required children to classify printed words along phonological and semantic dimensions simultaneously. Reading-specific multiple classification skill made a unique contribution to children's reading comprehension over contributions made by age, domain-general multiple classification…

Intervention to Improve Expository Reading Comprehension Skills in Older Children and Adolescents with Language Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward-Lonergan, Jeannene M.; Duthie, Jill K.

2016-01-01

With the recent renewed emphasis on the importance of providing instruction to improve expository discourse comprehension and production skills, speech-language pathologists need to be prepared to implement effective intervention to meet this critical need in older children and adolescents with language disorders. The purpose of this review…

Effects of a Decoding Program on a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Infantino, Josephine; Hempenstall, Kerry

2006-01-01

This case study examined the effects of a parent-presented Direct Instruction decoding program on the reading and language skills of a child with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. Following the 23 hour intervention, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and fluency skills improved to grade level, whilst statistically significant…

Core Academic Language Skills: Moving beyond Vocabulary Knowledge to Predict Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uccelli, Paola; Galloway, Emily Phillips; Kim, Ha Yeon; Barr, Christopher D.

2015-01-01

Despite a longstanding awareness of academic language as a pedagogically-relevant research area, the construct of academic language proficiency--understood as a more comprehensive set of skills than just academic vocabulary--has remained only vaguely specified. This study examines the potential--for both research and practice--of a more inclusive…

Shadowing: Who Benefits and How? Uncovering a Booming EFL Teaching Technique for Listening Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Yo

2016-01-01

This study examines common claims associated with shadowing. Studies in Japan conclude that shadowing is effective for improving learners' listening skills. Two common claims are that shadowing is effective for lower-proficiency learners and that it enhances learners' phoneme perception, thus improving listening comprehension skills. The former…

A Correlation Study between EFL Strategic Listening and Listening Comprehension Skills among Secondary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amin, Iman Abdul-Reheem; Amin, Magdy Mohammad; Aly, Mahsoub Abdul-Sadeq

2011-01-01

The present study was undertaken to investigate the correlation between EFL students strategic listening and their listening comprehension skills. Eighty secondary school students participated in this study. Participants' strategic listening was measured by a Strategic Listening Interview (SLI), a Strategic Listening Questionnaire (SLQ) and a…

Comprehension: an overlooked component in augmented language development.

PubMed

Sevcik, Rose A

2006-02-15

Despite the importance of children's receptive skills as a foundation for later productive word use, the role of receptive language traditionally has received very limited attention since the focus in linguistic development has centered on language production. For children with significant developmental disabilities and communication impairments, augmented language systems have been devised as a tool both for language input and output. The role of both speech and symbol comprehension skills is emphasized in this paper. Data collected from two longitudinal studies of children and youth with severe disabilities and limited speech serve as illustrations in this paper. The acquisition and use of the System for Augmenting Language (SAL) was studied in home and school settings. Communication behaviors of the children and youth and their communication partners were observed and language assessment measures were collected. Two patterns of symbol learning and achievement--beginning and advanced--were observed. Extant speech comprehension skills brought to the augmented language learning task impacted the participants' patterns of symbol learning and use. Though often overlooked, the importance of speech and symbol comprehension skills were underscored in the studies described. Future areas for research are identified.

Contributions of Morphological Skill to Children's Essay Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Northey, Mary; McCutchen, Deborah; Sanders, Elizabeth A.

2016-01-01

Morphological skills have previously been found to reliably predict reading skill, including word reading, vocabulary, and comprehension. However, less is known about how morphological skills might contribute to writing skill, aside from its well-documented role in the development of spelling. This correlational study examines whether…

Communication in the second and third year of life: Relationships between nonverbal social skills and language.

PubMed

Cochet, Hélène; Byrne, Richard W

2016-08-01

We aimed to investigate developmental continuities between a range of early social and communicative abilities (including gestural communication) and language acquisition in children aged between 11 and 41 months. Initiation of joint attention and imitation were strongly correlated to language comprehension and production. Moreover, the analysis of different communicative gestures revealed significant relationships between language development and the production of symbolic gestures, declarative pointing (declarative informative pointing in particular), and head nodding. Other gestures such as imperative pointing, showing, and head shaking were not found to correlate with language level. Our results also suggest that distinct processes are involved in the development of language comprehension and production, and highlight the importance of considering various characteristics of children's early communicative skills. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of Mental Skills Training in Surgery: A Review of Its Effectiveness and Proposed Next Steps.

PubMed

Anton, Nicholas E; Bean, Eric A; Hammonds, Samuel C; Stefanidis, Dimitrios

2017-05-01

Mental skills training, which refers to the teaching of performance enhancement and stress management psychological strategies, may benefit surgeons. Our objective was to review the application of mental skills training in surgery and contrast it to other domains, examine the effectiveness of this approach in enhancing surgical performance and reducing stress, and provide future directions for mental skills training in surgery. A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, and ClinicalKey was performed between 1996 and 2016. Keywords included were mental readiness, mental competency, mental skill, mental practice, imagery, mental imagery, mental rehearsal, stress management training, stress coping, mental training, performance enhancement, and surgery. Reviews of mental skills interventions in sport and well-regarded sport psychology textbooks were also reviewed. Primary outcome of interest was the effect of mental skills on surgical performance in the simulated or clinical environment. Of 490 identified abstracts, 28 articles met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The majority of the literature provides evidence that mental imagery and stress management training programs are effective at enhancing surgical performance and reducing stress. Studies from other disciplines suggest that comprehensive mental skills programs may be more effective than imagery and stress management techniques alone. Given the demonstrated efficacy of mental imagery and stress management training in surgery and the incremental value of comprehensive mental skills curricula used in other domains, a concerted effort should be made to apply comprehensive mental skills curricula during surgical training.

A Mathematical Mystery Tour: Higher-Thinking Math Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wahl, Mark

This book contains mathematics activities based upon the concepts of Fibonacci numbers and the Golden Ratio. The activities include higher order thinking skills, calculation practice, integration with different subject areas, mathematics history, extensions and home tasks, teaching notes, and questions for thought and comprehension. A visual map…

Associations of motor and cardiovascular performance with academic skills in children.

PubMed

Haapala, Eero A; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Tompuri, Tuomo; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina; Leppänen, Paavo H T; Lindi, Virpi; Lakka, Timo A

2014-01-01

We investigated the associations of cardiovascular and motor performance in grade 1 with academic skills in grades 1-3. The participants were 6- to 8-yr-old children with complete data in grades 1-2 for 174 children and in grade 3 for 167 children. Maximal workload during exercise test was used as a measure of cardiovascular performance. The shuttle run test (SRT) time, the errors in balance test, and the number of cubes moved in box and block test (BBT) were measures of motor performance. Academic skills were assessed using reading fluency, reading comprehension, and arithmetic skill tests. Among boys, longer SRT time was associated with poorer reading fluency in grades 1-3 (β = -0.29 to -0.39, P < 0.01), reading comprehension in grades 1-2 (β = -0.25 to -0.29, P < 0.05), and arithmetic skills in grades 1-3 (β = -0.33 to -0.40, P < 0.003). Poorer balance was related to poorer reading comprehension (β = -0.20, P = 0.042). The smaller number of cubes moved in BBT was related to poorer reading fluency in grades 1-2 (β = 0.23-0.28, P < 0.03), reading comprehension in grade 3 (β = 0.23, P = 0.037), and arithmetic skills in grades 1-2 (β = 0.21-0.23, P < 0.043). Among girls, longer SRT time was related to poorer reading fluency in grade 3 (β = -0.27, P = 0.027) and arithmetic skills in grade 2 (β = -0.25, P = 0.040). The smaller number of cubes moved in BBT was associated with worse reading fluency in grade 2 (β = 0.26, P = 0.030). Cardiovascular performance was not related to academic skills. Poorer motor performance was associated with worse academic skills in children, especially among boys. These findings emphasize early identification of children with poor motor performance and actions to improve these children's motor performance and academic skills during the first school years.

Making health care quality reports easier to use.

PubMed

Hibbard, J H; Peters, E; Slovic, P; Finucane, M L; Tusler, M

2001-11-01

Although there is evidence that consumers want comparative quality information, most studies indicate that consumers make limited use of the data in decision making. The reasons for the limited use appear to be the complexity of the information and the difficulty of processing and using the amount of information in reports. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether there are approaches to reporting comparative information that make it easier for consumers to comprehend the information. Further, the degree to which consumers who have a low level of skill can accurately use that information when it is presented in a format that is easier to use was examined. The study used an experimental design to examine how different presentation approaches affect the use of information. Participants were randomly assigned to different conditions and were asked to review information and complete a decision task related to using comparative information and making health plan selections. Two separate convenience samples were used in the study: an elderly Medicare sample (N = 253), and a nonelderly sample (N = 239). The findings indicate that there are data presentation approaches that help consumers who have lower skills use information more accurately. Some of these presentation strategies (for example, relative stars) improve comprehension among the lower skilled, and other strategies (for example, evaluative labels) appear to aid those in the midrange of comprehension skill. Using these approaches in reporting would likely increase the use of the comparative information and increase the efficacy of reporting efforts.

Children with a very low birth weight showed poorer reading skills at eight years of age but caught up in most areas by the age of 10.

PubMed

Leijon, Ingemar; Ingemansson, Fredrik; Nelson, Nina; Samuelsson, Stefan; Wadsby, Marie

2018-04-29

We evaluated the development of reading skills in very low birth weight (VLBW) children and controls at 8-10 years of age. This study was part of a longitudinal study of VLBW infants born between January 1998 and December 1999 in Sweden. We recruited 49 VLBW children and 44 sex and age-matched full-term controls when they started school at the age of seven and tested them using identical methods for decoding, rapid naming ability, reading comprehension, spelling and cognitive skills at about eight and 10 years of age. Univariate analysis of variance was performed to assess the effects of VLBW on reading performance at each age and to evaluate the differences between the groups and ages. VLBW children scored significantly lower in all domains of reading at 7.8 ±0.3 years, but the performance gap had narrowed by 9.8 ±0.3 years. Significant catch-up gains were found in phonological awareness, rapid naming and reading comprehension. The differences between the groups were minor at 10 years, when controlled for non-verbal cognition. VLBW children demonstrated worse reading performance at eight years of age than term-born controls. The gap in reading skills between the groups had largely narrowed two years later. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

A Look at Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Etten, Glen

1978-01-01

Reviewed are the literature and research on reading comprehension with elementary aged learning disabled and normal children as well as two specific programs designed to develop reading comprehension skills. (DB)

Modeling Polymorphemic Word Recognition: Exploring Differences among Children with Early-Emerging and Late- Emerging Word Reading Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kearns, Devin M.; Steacy, Laura M.; Compton, Donald L.; Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Goodwin, Amanda P.; Cho, Eunsoo; Lindstrom, Esther R.; Collins, Alyson A.

2016-01-01

Comprehensive models of derived polymorphemic word recognition skill in developing readers, with an emphasis on children with reading difficulty (RD), have not been developed. The purpose of the present study was to model individual differences in polymorphemic word recognition ability at the item level among 5th-grade children (N = 173)…

Multiple Intelligence Scores of Science Stream Students and Their Relation with Reading Competency in Malaysian University English Test (MUET)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razak, Norizan Abdul; Zaini, Nuramirah

2014-01-01

Many researches have shown that different approach needed in analysing linear and non-linear reading comprehension texts and different cognitive skills are required. This research attempts to discover the relationship between Science Stream students' reading competency on linear and non-linear texts in Malaysian University English Test (MUET) with…

Teaching communication skills in clinical settings: comparing two applications of a comprehensive program with standardized and real patients

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Communication is important for the quality of clinical practice, and programs have been implemented to improve healthcare providers’ communication skills. However, the consistency of programs teaching communication skills has received little attention, and debate exists about the application of acquired skills to real patients. This study inspects whether (1) results from a communication program are replicated with different samples, and (2) results with standardized patients apply to interviews with real patients. Methods A structured, nine-month communication program was applied in two consecutive years to two different samples of healthcare professionals (25 in the first year, 20 in the second year). Results were assessed at four different points in time, each year, regarding participants’ confidence levels (self-rated), basic communication skills in interviews with standardized patients, and basic communication skills in interviews with real patients. Data were analyzed using GLM Repeated-Measures procedures. Results Improvements were statistically significant in both years in all measures except in simulated patients’ assessment of the 2008 group. Differences between the two samples were non-significant. Differences between interviews with standardized and with real patients were also non-significant. Conclusions The program’s positive outcomes were replicated in different samples, and acquired skills were successfully applied to real-patient interviews. This reinforces this type of program structure as a valuable training tool, with results translating into real situations. It also adds to the reliability of the assessment instruments employed, though these may need adaptation in the case of real patients. PMID:24886341

Teaching Basic Reading Skills in Secondary Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnine, Linda

1980-01-01

This document presents diagnostic and prescriptive techniques that will enable teachers to enhance secondary school students' learning through reading in content areas. Three terms used in the document are defined in Section I: "vocabulary skills" include word attack skills, sight word skills, and word meanings; "comprehension skills" are literal,…

The impact of a comprehensive course in advanced minimal access surgery on surgeon practice

PubMed Central

Birch MD, Daniel W.; MD, Cliff Sample; MD, Rohit Gupta

2007-01-01

Introduction Practising surgeons need an effective means for learning new skills and procedures in advanced minimal access surgery (MASA). Currently, available educational methods include traditional continuing medical education symposia (1-day courses), instructional videos, mentoring, or comprehensive courses that combine lectures, skills laboratories and live surgery. The impact of comprehensive courses in advanced MASA on surgeons' knowledge, skills and practice has not been clearly established. Methods We completed a survey of all physicians who attended comprehensive courses in advanced gastrointestinal MASA held at the Centre for Minimal Access Surgery (CMAS) in Hamilton, Ont. Results Of 158 course attendees, we received 65 responses (response rate 41%). Fifty-sex men and 9 women responded, with a mean age of 44.9 years and a mean practice duration of 12.3 years. Eighty-seven percent of respondents were community-based surgeons. As a result of attending CMAS courses, respondents felt they experienced a substantial improvement in the knowledge and skills required to complete MASA. After a comprehensive course at CMAS, most respondents reported that they had introduced MASA procedures into their practice. The mean overall impact of a course on a surgeon's practice (with respect to patient referrals, procedural armamentarium and personal satisfaction) was rated by respondents at 3.92 (standard deviation [SD] 0.71; Likert scale 1–5, 1=negative, 5=positive). Conclusions A comprehensive course in advanced MASA has a positive impact on attendees' knowledge and skills. Ultimately, surgeons attending MASA courses will begin to introduce new MASA procedures into surgical practice. These courses have a distinct role in the teaching of MASA to surgeons in practice. PMID:17391609

Silent Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

O'Brien, Beth A.; Wallot, Sebastian

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on reading fluency by bilingual primary school students, and the relation of text fluency to their reading comprehension. Group differences were examined in a cross-sectional design across the age range when fluency is posed to shift from word-level to text-level. One hundred five bilingual children from primary grades 3, 4, and 5 were assessed for English word reading and decoding fluency, phonological awareness, rapid symbol naming, and oral language proficiency with standardized measures. These skills were correlated with their silent reading fluency on a self-paced story reading task. Text fluency was quantified using non-linear analytic methods: recurrence quantification and fractal analyses. Findings indicate that more fluent text reading appeared by grade 4, similar to monolingual findings, and that different aspects of fluency characterized passage reading performance at different grade levels. Text fluency and oral language proficiency emerged as significant predictors of reading comprehension. PMID:27630590

Profiles of verbal working memory growth predict speech and language development in children with cochlear implants.

PubMed

Kronenberger, William G; Pisoni, David B; Harris, Michael S; Hoen, Helena M; Xu, Huiping; Miyamoto, Richard T

2013-06-01

Verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) skills predict speech and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants (CIs) even after conventional demographic, device, and medical factors are taken into account. However, prior research has focused on single end point outcomes as opposed to the longitudinal process of development of verbal STM/WM and speech-language skills. In this study, the authors investigated relations between profiles of verbal STM/WM development and speech-language development over time. Profiles of verbal STM/WM development were identified through the use of group-based trajectory analysis of repeated digit span measures over at least a 2-year time period in a sample of 66 children (ages 6-16 years) with CIs. Subjects also completed repeated assessments of speech and language skills during the same time period. Clusters representing different patterns of development of verbal STM (digit span forward scores) were related to the growth rate of vocabulary and language comprehension skills over time. Clusters representing different patterns of development of verbal WM (digit span backward scores) were related to the growth rate of vocabulary and spoken word recognition skills over time. Different patterns of development of verbal STM/WM capacity predict the dynamic process of development of speech and language skills in this clinical population.

Reading Development in Typically Developing Children and Children With Prenatal or Perinatal Brain Lesions: Differential School Year and Summer Growth.

PubMed

Demir-Lira, Özlem Ece; Levine, Susan C

2016-01-01

Summer slide, uneven growth of academic skills over the calendar year, captures the fact that the learning gains children make over the school year do not continue at the same pace over the summer, when children are typically not in school. We compared growth of reading skills during the school year and over the summer months in children with pre-or perinatal brain lesion (PL) and typically-developing (TD) children from varying socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds as a new way to probe the role of structured environmental support in functional plasticity for reading skills in children with PL. Results showed that children with PL performed lower than TD children on both reading decoding and reading comprehension. Group differences were primarily driven by children with larger lesions and children with right hemisphere lesions (RH). For reading comprehension, children with RH showed greater growth during the school year but more slide during the summer months than both TD children and children with left hemisphere lesions, implicating a particularly strong role of structured input in supporting reading comprehension in this group. TD children from lower SES backgrounds fell behind their TD peers from higher SES backgrounds on decoding and reading comprehension, but did not show differential patterns of school year and summer growth. Overall, results highlight the importance of considering the role of a host of factors interacting at multiple levels of analyses, including biological and environmental, in influencing developmental trajectories of typically and atypically-developing children.

Idiom Comprehension Deficits in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Korean Autism Social Language Task.

PubMed

Lee, Seul Bee; Song, Seung Ha; Ham, Ju Hyun; Song, Dong Ho; Cheon, Keun-Ah

2015-11-01

High-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves pragmatic impairment of language skills. Among numerous tasks for assessing pragmatic linguistic skills, idioms are important to evaluating high-functioning ASD. Nevertheless, no assessment tool has been developed with specific consideration of Korean culture. Therefore, we designed the Korean Autism Social Language Task (KASLAT) to test idiom comprehension in ASD. The aim of the current study was to introduce this novel psychological tool and evaluate idiom comprehension deficits in high-functioning ASD. The participants included 42 children, ages 6-11 years, who visited our child psychiatric clinic between April 2014 and May 2015. The ASD group comprised 16 children; the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group consisted of 16 children. An additional 10 normal control children who had not been diagnosed with either disorder participated in this study. Idiom comprehension ability was assessed in these three groups using the KASLAT. Both ASD and ADHD groups had significantly lower scores on the matched and mismatched tasks, compared to the normal control children (matched tasks mean score: ASD 11.56, ADHD 11.56, normal control 14.30; mismatched tasks mean score: ASD 6.50, ADHD 4.31, normal control 11.30). However, no significant differences were found in scores of KASLAT between the ADHD and ASD groups. These findings suggest that children with ASD exhibit greater impairment in idiom comprehension, compared to normal control children. The KASLAT may be useful in evaluating idiom comprehension ability.

Effectiveness of a comprehensive integrated module using interactive lectures and workshops in understanding and knowledge retention about infant feeding practice in fifth year medical students: a quasi-experimental study.

PubMed

Sjarif, Damayanti Rusli; Yuliarti, Klara; Wahyuni, Luh Karunia; Wiguna, Tjhin; Prawitasari, Titis; Devaera, Yoga; Triyuniati, Henni Wahyu; Afriansyah, Andika

2016-08-18

Sixty percent of the 10.9 million under-5 deaths every year are related to malnutrition. More than two thirds of malnutrition is caused by inappropriate infant feeding practice. Only 35 % of mothers worldwide provide 4 months of exclusive breast-feeding, while complementary feeding is often untimely, nutritionally inadequate, hygienically poor, and improperly delivered. The existing pediatric nutrition module in our institution does not include proper delivery of food that involves oral-motor skills and feeding behavior. To scale up the knowledge and skill of medical students regarding evidence-based infant feeding practice, we designed a new module composed of comprehensive and integrated lectures with additional multidisciplinary lectures on oral-motor skill development and feeding behavior. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the new module compared to the previous module. Fifth year medical students of Universitas Indonesia were divided into intervention and control groups. The control group received lectures and a paper-based workshop. The intervention group received comprehensive and integrated interactive lectures with additional multidisciplinary lectures on oral-motor skill development and behavioral approaches to feeding problems. A hands-on workshop using real cases shown on recorded video and role-play sessions was also presented to the intervention group. A pre-/post-test, 3-month retention test, and Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) were performed to evaluate understanding, knowledge retention, and counseling skills. A linear mixed effect model with a random intercept analysis for pre-test, post-test, and retention test scores showed significant higher result for intervention group compared to control group (p < 0.001). Comprehensive knowledge and counselling skills were better in the intervention group than in the control group as shown by the OSCE score (68.6 vs 59.3, p < 0.001). Our comprehensive integrated infant feeding practice module, which incorporates multidisciplinary learning processes and an interactive hands-on workshop with a role-play session yields better knowledge understanding and counseling skills compared with the existing module. Comprehensive knowledge and good counseling skills of medical students as future doctors are a pre-requisite to provide effective education to parents to support successful infant feeding practices.

Basic Learning Skills Grades K-6. Minimum Statewide Educational Objectives Approved by the Board of Education May 27, 1977.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virginia State Dept. of Education, Richmond. Div. of Elementary Education.

The specific educational objectives or basic learning skills are listed for the Virginia elementary school grades. Minimum skills are listed in reading, communications, and mathematics. Terminal objectives for reading include skills in word identification or decoding, comprehension, and study skills. Communication skills include listening,…

Reading comprehension of ambiguous sentences by school-age children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Davidson, Meghan M; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-12-01

Weak central coherence (processing details over gist), poor oral language abilities, poor suppression, semantic interference, and poor comprehension monitoring have all been implicated to affect reading comprehension in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study viewed the contributions of different supporting skills as a collective set of skills necessary for context integration-a multi-component view-to examine individual differences in reading comprehension in school-age children (8-14 years) with ASD (n = 23) and typically developing control peers (n = 23). Participants completed a written ambiguous sentence comprehension task in which participants had to integrate context to determine the correct homonym meaning via picture selection. Both comprehension products (i.e., offline representations after reading) and processes (i.e., online processing during reading) were evaluated. Results indicated that children with ASD, similar to their TD peers, integrated the context to access the correct homonym meanings while reading. However, after reading the sentences, when participants were asked to select the meanings, both groups experienced semantic interference between the two meanings. This semantic interference hindered the children with ASD's sentence representation to a greater degree than their peers. Individual differences in age/development, word recognition, vocabulary breadth (i.e., number of words in the lexicon), and vocabulary depth (i.e., knowledge of the homonym meanings) contributed to sentence comprehension in both children with ASD and their peers. Together, this evidence supports a multi-component view, and that helping children with ASD develop vocabulary depth may have cascading effects on their reading comprehension. Autism Res 2017, 10: 2002-2022. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Like their peers, children with ASD were able to integrate context, or link words while reading sentences with ambiguous words (words with two meanings). After reading the sentences, both groups found it hard to pick the correct meaning of the ambiguous sentence and this decision was more difficult for the participants with ASD. Older children, children with better word reading abilities, and children with higher vocabularies were better at understanding ambiguous sentences. Helping children with ASD to develop richer vocabularies could be important for improving their reading comprehension. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dynamic Assessment or Schema Theory: The Case of Listening Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farangi, Mohamad Reza; Kheradmand Saadi, Zahra

2017-01-01

Not only is listening considered as an active skill nowadays, but also different approaches are suggested to incorporate it effectively into language classrooms. Our purpose, here, is to compare two approaches claiming to be effective in enhancing EFL learners' listening capabilities including schema theory and dynamic assessment. Through a…

Words and Concepts. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

"Words and Concepts" is a computer software program that focuses on building oral language skills related to vocabulary, comprehension, word relationships, and other concepts in six units--vocabulary, categorization, word identification by function, word association, concept of same, and concept of different. It can be used by adults and…

Interventions for Children's Language and Literacy Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snowling, Margaret J.; Hulme, Charles

2012-01-01

Against a backdrop of research on individual differences in reading disorders, this review considers a range of effective interventions to promote reading and language skills evaluated by our group. The review begins by contrasting the reading profiles seen in dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment and then argues that different…

Examining the Structure of Reading Comprehension: Do Literal, Inferential, and Evaluative Comprehension Truly Exist?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basaraba, Deni; Yovanoff, Paul; Alonzo, Julie; Tindal, Gerald

2013-01-01

Although the recent identification of the five critical components of early literacy has been a catalyst for modifications to the content of materials used to provide reading instruction and the tools used to examine student's acquisition of early literacy skills, these skills have not received equal attention from test developers and publishers.…

Using Primary Language Support via Computer to Improve Reading Comprehension Skills of First-Grade English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Cathi Draper; Filler, John; Higgins, Kyle

2012-01-01

Through this exploratory study the authors investigated the effects of primary language support delivered via computer on the English reading comprehension skills of English language learners. Participants were 28 First-grade students identified as Limited English Proficient. The primary language of all participants was Spanish. Students were…

A, B Seeing: The Role of Constructive Processes in Children's Comprehension Monitoring.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubman, Claire N.; Waters, Harriet Salatas

2000-01-01

Using a comprehension-monitoring model, 192 skilled and less skilled readers from 3rd and 6th grade read stories containing inconsistent information. Half of the students constructed a storyboard representation of the stories and half only read the text. Results reveal that storyboard construction enhanced the integration of text propositions and…

Writing for Learning to Improve Students' Comprehension at the College Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alharbi, Fahad

2015-01-01

This literature review will illustrate how writing could improve students' comprehension. Writing is one of the most important skills that students need to master for college level work. Therefore, students should be prepared with these skills before moving to the college level because they are required to write numerous papers that tend to be…

Reading Comprehension Skills of Bilingual Children in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayat, Seher

2017-01-01

This study aims to compare the reading comprehension skills of the bilingual students studying at the 4th Grade of the Primary School with the monolingual students studying at the 4th Grade. With this purpose, 303 students were included from the Black Sea Region, where mainly monolingual students studied and 247 students were included from the…

Learning to Read Spectra: Teaching Decomposition with Excel in a Scientific Writing Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muelleman, Andrew W.; Glaser, Rainer E.

2018-01-01

Literacy requires reading comprehension, and fostering reading skills is an essential prerequisite to and a synergistic enabler of the development of writing skills. Reading comprehension in the chemical sciences not only consists of the understanding of text but also includes the reading and processing of data tables, schemes, and graphs. Thus,…

Implementing the Massachusetts Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs: A Case Study Examining MARC Award Recipients

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salas, Kathryn

2013-01-01

Post secondary education is essential to success. To ensure that students who graduate from high school are prepared to make informed decisions about their life after high school, they need to be explicitly taught career development skills. These skills should be part of a comprehensive, results-based, developmentally appropriate comprehensive…

Teaching Reading Comprehension and Language Skills to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities Using Direct Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Margaret M.; Nelson, Cynthia; Hinton, Vanessa; Franklin, Toni M.; Strozier, Shaunita D.; Terry, LaTonya; Franklin, Susan

2013-01-01

There is limited research demonstrating Direct Instruction (DI) as an effective reading comprehension intervention for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developmental disabilities (DD). Previous research has shown that DI, when portions of the program were implemented, resulted in increased skills (Flores & Ganz, 2007; Flores…

Effects of Cooperative Learning Method on the Development of Listening Comprehension and Listening Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirbas, Abdulkadir

2017-01-01

In this study, the effect of the learning together technique, which is one of the cooperative learning methods, on the development of the listening comprehension and listening skills of the secondary school eighth grade students was investigated. Regarding the purpose of the research, experimental and control groups consisting of 75 students from,…

Storybook Read-Alouds to Enhance Students' Comprehension Skills in ESL Classrooms: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omar, Ainon; Saufi, Maizatulliza Mohd.

2015-01-01

The effectiveness of using storybooks during read-alouds to develop children's comprehension skills as well as in understanding the story has been widely studied. The reading aloud strategy has also been proven through numerous researches to be the most highly recommended activity for encouraging language and literacy. The study identified the…

Role of Narrative Skills on Reading Comprehension: Spanish-English and Cantonese-English Dual Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uchikoshi, Yuuko; Yang, Lu; Liu, Siwei

2018-01-01

This longitudinal study examined the role of narrative skills in English reading comprehension, after controlling for vocabulary and decoding, with a sample of 112 dual language learners (DLLs), including both Spanish-English and Cantonese-English children. Decoding, vocabulary, and narrative samples were collected in the winter of first grade and…

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the TerraNova Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills/5

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevens, Joseph J.; Zvoch, Keith

2007-01-01

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to explore the internal validity of scores on the TerraNova Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills/5 using samples from a southwestern school district and standardization samples reported by the publisher. One of the strengths claimed for battery-type achievement tests is provision of reliable and valid samples…

The Development of a Comprehensive Student Basic Skills Assessment Program at St. Louis Community College's Florissant Valley Campus.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Mel

A comprehensive student basic skills assessment program was developed at St. Louis Community College (SLCC) at Florissant Valley to appraise student readiness to take courses, gather information for counseling and advising, diagnose student problems, and evaluate program efficiency and effectiveness. The steps taken in developing the program were:…

Measuring New Media Literacies: Towards the Development of a Comprehensive Assessment Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Literat, Ioana

2014-01-01

This study assesses the psychometric properties of a newly tested self-report assessment tool for media literacy, based on the twelve new media literacy skills (NMLs) developed by Jenkins et al. (2006). The sample (N = 327) consisted of normal volunteers who completed a comprehensive online survey that measured their NML skills, media exposure,…

Dimensionality of Reading Skills with Elementary-School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lonigan, Christopher J.; Burgess, Stephen R.

2017-01-01

Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 1,501 kindergarten to 5th-grade children who completed 3 measures of decoding, 3 measures of reading comprehension, and 3 measures of listening comprehension as part of a larger study were used to identify the dimensionality of reading skills across elementary school. A 1-factor (reading) model was the…

Validation of a structured training and assessment curriculum for technical skill acquisition in minimally invasive surgery: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Palter, Vanessa N; Orzech, Neil; Reznick, Richard K; Grantcharov, Teodor P

2013-02-01

: To develop and validate an ex vivo comprehensive curriculum for a basic laparoscopic procedure. : Although simulators have been well validated as tools to teach technical skills, their integration into comprehensive curricula is lacking. Moreover, neither the effect of ex vivo training on learning curves in the operating room (OR), nor the effect on nontechnical proficiency has been investigated. : This randomized single-blinded prospective trial allocated 20 surgical trainees to a structured training and assessment curriculum (STAC) group or conventional residency training. The STAC consisted of case-based learning, proficiency-based virtual reality training, laparoscopic box training, and OR participation. After completion of the intervention, all participants performed 5 sequential laparoscopic cholecystectomies in the OR. The primary outcome measure was the difference in technical performance between the 2 groups during the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Secondary outcome measures included differences with respect to learning curves in the OR, technical proficiency of each sequential laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and nontechnical skills. : Residents in the STAC group outperformed residents in the conventional group in the first (P = 0.004), second (P = 0.036), third (P = 0.021), and fourth (P = 0.023) laparoscopic cholecystectomies. The conventional group demonstrated a significant learning curve in the OR (P = 0.015) in contrast to the STAC group (P = 0.032). Residents in the STAC group also had significantly higher nontechnical skills (P = 0.027). : Participating in the STAC shifted the learning curve for a basic laparoscopic procedure from the operating room into the simulation laboratory. STAC-trained residents had superior technical proficiency in the OR and nontechnical skills compared with conventionally trained residents. (The study registration ID is NCT01560494.).

Sensorimotor Skills and Language Comprehension in Autistic Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sigman, Marian; Ungerer, Judy

1981-01-01

The fact that the autistic children were so impaired in language even with fairly good sensorimotor skills suggests that these skills, particularly object permanence, play a minor role in their language acquisition. (Author)

Comprehension of Connected Discourse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mosberg, Ludwig; Shima, Fred

A rationale was developed for researching reading comprehension based on information gain. Previous definitions of comprehension which were reviewed included operational vs. nonoperational and skills vs. processes. Comprehension was viewed as an informational processing event which includes a constellation of cognitive and learning processes. Two…

Beyond the Story Map: Inferential Comprehension via Character Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McTigue, Erin; Douglass, April; Wright, Katherine L.; Hodges, Tracey S.; Franks, Amanda D.

2015-01-01

Inferential comprehension requires both emotional intelligence and cognitive skills, however instructional comprehension strategies typically underemphasize the emotional contribution. This article documents an intervention used by diverse third grade students which centers on teaching story comprehension through character perspective-taking…

Sign language ability in young deaf signers predicts comprehension of written sentences in English.

PubMed

Andrew, Kathy N; Hoshooley, Jennifer; Joanisse, Marc F

2014-01-01

We investigated the robust correlation between American Sign Language (ASL) and English reading ability in 51 young deaf signers ages 7;3 to 19;0. Signers were divided into 'skilled' and 'less-skilled' signer groups based on their performance on three measures of ASL. We next assessed reading comprehension of four English sentence structures (actives, passives, pronouns, reflexive pronouns) using a sentence-to-picture-matching task. Of interest was the extent to which ASL proficiency provided a foundation for lexical and syntactic processes of English. Skilled signers outperformed less-skilled signers overall. Error analyses further indicated greater single-word recognition difficulties in less-skilled signers marked by a higher rate of errors reflecting an inability to identify the actors and actions described in the sentence. Our findings provide evidence that increased ASL ability supports English sentence comprehension both at the levels of individual words and syntax. This is consistent with the theory that first language learning promotes second language through transference of linguistic elements irrespective of the transparency of mapping of grammatical structures between the two languages.

Explicitly Teaching Social Skills Schoolwide: Using a Matrix to Guide Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simonsen, Brandi; Myers, Diane; Everett, Susannah; Sugai, George; Spencer, Rebecca; LaBreck, Chris

2012-01-01

Socially skilled students are more successful in school. Just like academic skills, social skills need to be explicitly taught. Students, including students who display at-risk behavior, benefit when social skills instruction is delivered schoolwide as part of a comprehensive intervention approach. This article presents a seven-step action…

The contribution of theory of mind, counterfactual reasoning, and executive function to pre-readers' language comprehension and later reading awareness and comprehension in elementary school.

PubMed

Guajardo, Nicole R; Cartwright, Kelly B

2016-04-01

The current longitudinal study examined the roles of theory of mind, counterfactual reasoning, and executive function in children's pre-reading skills, reading awareness, and reading comprehension. It is the first to examine this set of variables with preschool and school-aged children. A sample of 31 children completed language comprehension, working memory, cognitive flexibility, first-order false belief, and counterfactual reasoning measures when they were 3 to 5 years of age and completed second-order false belief, cognitive flexibility, reading comprehension, and reading awareness measures at 6 to 9 years of age. Results indicated that false belief understanding contributed to phrase and sentence comprehension and reading awareness, whereas cognitive flexibility and counterfactual reasoning accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension. Implications of the results for the development of reading skill are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of Modified Essay Questions (MEQ) and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) as a tool for Assessing the Cognitive Skills of Undergraduate Medical Students

PubMed Central

Khan, Moeen-uz-Zafar; Aljarallah, Badr Muhammad

2011-01-01

Objectives: Developing and testing the cognitive skills and abstract thinking of undergraduate medical students are the main objectives of problem based learning. Modified Essay Questions (MEQ) and Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) may both be designed to test these skills. The objectives of this study were to assess the effectiveness of both forms of questions in testing the different levels of the cognitive skills of undergraduate medical students and to detect any item writing flaws in the questions. Methods: A total of 50 MEQs and 50 MCQs were evaluated. These questions were chosen randomly from various examinations given to different batches of undergraduate medical students taking course MED 411–412 at the Department of Medicine, Qassim University from the years 2005 to 2009. The effectiveness of the questions was determined by two assessors and was defined by the question’s ability to measure higher cognitive skills, as determined by modified Bloom’s taxonomy, and its quality as determined by the presence of item writing flaws. ‘SPSS15’ and ‘Medcalc’ programs were used to tabulate and analyze the data. Results: The percentage of questions testing the level III (problem solving) cognitive skills of the students was 40% for MEQs and 60% for the MCQs; the remaining questions merely assessed the recall and comprehension. No significant difference was found between MEQ and MCQ in relation to the type of questions (recall; comprehension or problem solving x2 = 5.3, p = 0.07).The agreement between the two assessors was quite high in case of MCQ (kappa=0.609; SE 0.093; 95%CI 0.426 – 0.792) but lower in case of MEQ (kappa=0.195; SE 0.073; 95%CI 0.052 – 0.338). 16% of the MEQs and 12% of the MCQs had item writing flaws. Conclusion: A well constructed MCQ is superior to MEQ in testing the higher cognitive skills of undergraduate medical students in a problem based learning setup. Constructing an MEQ for assessing the cognitive skills of a student is not a simple task and is more frequently associated with item writing flaws. PMID:22489228

Gender differences in the acquisition of surgical skills: a systematic review.

PubMed

Ali, Amir; Subhi, Yousif; Ringsted, Charlotte; Konge, Lars

2015-11-01

Females are less attracted than males to surgical specialties, which may be due to differences in the acquisition of skills. The aim of this study was to systematically review studies that investigate gender differences in the acquisition of surgical skills. We performed a comprehensive database search using relevant search phrases and MeSH terms. We included studies that investigated the role of gender in the acquisition of surgical skills. Our search yielded 247 studies, 18 of which were found to be eligible and were therefore included. These studies included a total of 2,106 study participants. The studies were qualitatively synthesized in five categories (studies on medical students, studies on both medical students and residents, studies on residents, studies on gender differences in needed physical strength, and studies on other gender-related training conditions). Male medical students tended to outperform females, while no gender differences were found among residents. Gaming experience and interest in surgery correlated with better acquisition of surgical skills, regardless of gender. Although initial levels of surgical abilities seemed lower among females, one-on-one training and instructor feedback worked better on females and were able to help the acquisition of surgical skills at a level that negated measurable gender differences. Female physicians possess the required physical strength for surgical procedures, but may face gender-related challenges in daily clinical practice. Medical students are a heterogeneous group with a range of interests and experiences, while surgical residents are more homogeneous perhaps due to selection bias. Gender-related differences are more pronounced among medical students. Future surgical curricula should consider tailoring personalized programs that accommodate more mentoring and one-on-one training for female physicians while giving male physicians more practice opportunities in order to increase the output of surgical training and acquisition of surgical skills.

The comprehension skills of children learning English as an additional language.

PubMed

Burgoyne, K; Kelly, J M; Whiteley, H E; Spooner, A

2009-12-01

Data from national test results suggests that children who are learning English as an additional language (EAL) experience relatively lower levels of educational attainment in comparison to their monolingual, English-speaking peers. The relative underachievement of children who are learning EAL demands that the literacy needs of this group are identified. To this end, this study aimed to explore the reading- and comprehension-related skills of a group of EAL learners. Data are reported from 92 Year 3 pupils, of whom 46 children are learning EAL. Children completed standardized measures of reading accuracy and comprehension, listening comprehension, and receptive and expressive vocabulary. Results indicate that many EAL learners experience difficulties in understanding written and spoken text. These comprehension difficulties are not related to decoding problems but are related to significantly lower levels of vocabulary knowledge experienced by this group. Many EAL learners experience significantly lower levels of English vocabulary knowledge which has a significant impact on their ability to understand written and spoken text. Greater emphasis on language development is therefore needed in the school curriculum to attempt to address the limited language skills of children learning EAL.

Seeing beyond monitors-Critical care nurses' multiple skills in patient observation: Descriptive qualitative study.

PubMed

Alastalo, Mika; Salminen, Leena; Lakanmaa, Riitta-Liisa; Leino-Kilpi, Helena

2017-10-01

The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of multiple skills in patient observation in critical care nursing. Data from semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Experienced critical care nurses (n=20) from three intensive care units in two university hospitals in Finland. Patient observation skills consist of: information gaining skills, information processing skills, decision-making skills and co-operation skills. The first three skills are integrated in the patient observation process, in which gaining information is a prerequisite for processing information that precedes making decisions. Co-operation has a special role as it occurs throughout the process. This study provided a comprehensive description of patient observation skills related to the three-phased patient observation process. The findings contribute to clarifying this part of the competence. The description of patient observation skills may be applied in both clinical practice and education as it may serve as a framework for orientation, ensuring clinical skills and designing learning environments. Based on this study, patient observation skills can be recommended to be included in critical care nursing education, orientation and as a part of critical care nurses' competence evaluation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quality and Equality: Basic Skill Requirements at the University Level.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guskin, Alan E.; Greenebaum, Ben

1979-01-01

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside's comprehensive collegiate skills program is described from proposal to implementation. Junior year students must demonstrate competence in: writing, reading, mathematics, research paper writing, and library skills. (MLW)

Improving Reading Comprehension Skills with Children's Books through Metacognitive Strategy: The Turkish Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çer, Erkan; Sahin, Ertugrul

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of metacognitive strategy in improving reading comprehension skills through children's literature of literary quality. A quasi-experimental study was carried out in a private secondary school in a city located Middle Black Sea region of Turkey. Two classes were randomly chosen as the study group, and…

The Effects of Learning-Style Based Activities on Students' Reading Comprehension Skills and Self-Efficacy Perceptions in English Foreign Language Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balci, Özgül

2017-01-01

This study investigated the effects of learning-style based activities on students' reading comprehension skills and self-efficacy perceptions in English foreign language classes. A quasi-experimental, matching-only pretest-posttest control group design was utilized. The study was conducted with freshmen university students majoring in Elementary…

Adults with Poor Reading Skills and the Inferences They Make during Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKoon, Gail; Ratcliff, Roger

2017-01-01

Millions of U.S. adults lack the literacy skills needed for most living-wage jobs. We investigated one particular comprehension process for these adults: generating predictive inferences. If a sentence says that someone falls from a 14th-story roof, a reader should infer almost certain death. On any test of comprehension, there are two dependent…

Effects of Note-Taking and Extended Writing on Expository Text Comprehension: Who Benefits?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hebert, Michael; Graham, Steve; Rigby-Wills, Hope; Ganson, Katie

2014-01-01

Writing may be an especially useful tool for improving the reading comprehension of lower performing readers and students with disabilities. However, it is reasonable to expect that students with poor writing skills in particular, may actually be less adept at using writing to improve their reading skills, and may not be able to do so without…

High Skills, High Wages. Washington's Comprehensive Plan for Workforce Training and Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington State Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, Olympia.

This document is the 1996 update to a 1994 Comprehensive Plan for Workforce Training and Education in Washington State. The plan focuses on collective actions that public and private sector partners need to take to have the best work force development system in the nation. The plan details how jobs are increasingly demanding higher-level skills,…

The Effectiveness of Scaffolding Interactive Activities in Developing the English Listening Comprehension Skills of the Sixth Grade Elementary Schoolgirls in Jeddah

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Yami, Salwa Ahmed

2008-01-01

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of scaffolding interactive activities in developing the English listening comprehension skills of sixth grade elementary schoolgirls in Jeddah. The subjects in this study were 50 sixth grade pupils at an elementary school in Jeddah. They were assigned to two groups--control and…

Exploring the Co-Development of Reading Fluency and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Callie W.; Hart, Sara A.; Quinn, Jamie M.; Tucker-Drob, Elliot M.; Taylor, Jeanette; Schatschneider, Christopher

2017-01-01

This study explores the co-development of two related but separate reading skills, reading fluency and reading comprehension, across Grades 1-4. A bivariate biometric dual change score model was applied to longitudinal data collected from 1,784 twin pairs between the ages of 6 and 10 years. Grade 1 skills were influenced by highly overlapping…

The Impact of Authentic Material Use on Development of the Reading Comprehension, Writing Skills and Motivation in Language Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Belet Boyaci, S. Dilek; Güner, Mediha

2018-01-01

The objective of the present study was to determine the impact of authentic task-based authentic material on reading comprehension, writing skills and writing motivation in the Turkish language course. The study was conducted with mixed design methodology. Quantitative data were collected with the quasi-experimental with pre-test post-test with…

Generating Inferences from Written and Spoken Language: A Comparison of Children with Visual Impairment and Children with Sight

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edmonds, Caroline J.; Pring, Linda

2006-01-01

The two experiments reported here investigated the ability of sighted children and children with visual impairment to comprehend text and, in particular, to draw inferences both while reading and while listening. Children were assigned into "comprehension skill" groups, depending on the degree to which their reading comprehension skill was in line…

The Effects of Teaching Informative Text through Processual Model on Reading Comprehension Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sulak, Süleyman Erkam; Günes, Firdevs

2017-01-01

This study was carried out in order to search the effects of teaching informative text structures through processual model on the reading comprehension skills of 4th grade students. The research was designed in accordance with experimental model with pre-test-post-test control groups. The study group of the study consisted of 62 fourth grade…

Examining the Simple View of Reading among Subgroups of Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grimm, Ryan Ponce

2015-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR; Gough & Tunmer, 1986; Hoover & Gough, 1990) has a longstanding history as a model of reading comprehension, but it has mostly been applied to native English speakers. The SVR posits reading comprehension is a function of the interaction between word-level reading skills and oral language skills. It has been…

The Impact of Reading for Pleasure on Georgian University EFL Students' Reading Comprehension (IBSU Case)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goctu, Ramazan

2016-01-01

Reading is one of the most significant skills, particularly for EFL students. Many students today do not have the reading skills needed to do effective work in their courses. This paper explores reading for pleasure, its importance and impact on reading comprehension. Pleasure reading helps students to communicate, listen and, most importantly, to…

The Significance of Journal Writing in Improving Listening and Reading Comprehension in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saad, Inaam; Ahmed, Magdi

2015-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of daily journal writing on enhancing the listening and reading comprehension skills in a fifty-week Modern Standard Arabic course taught at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California. In the field of foreign language (FL) teaching, writing has long been considered a supporting skill for…

Understanding Variability in Reading Comprehension in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Interactions with Language Status and Decoding Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Courtenay; Nation, Kate

2011-01-01

Although it is well recognized that reading skills vary in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), reasons for this variability are not well understood. We used the simple view of reading model to investigate both word decoding and text comprehension processes in two well-established subtypes within the autism spectrum, those with…

Effectiveness of Corrective Reading on Reading Comprehension and Fluency in At-Risk Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weaver, Barbara Jean Alexander

2012-01-01

One of the greatest predictors and characteristics of a high school dropout has been poor reading skills. Students with low achievement levels in reading by the end of third grade are at greater risk of becoming a dropout. The study sought to determine whether the Corrective Reading Program impacted reading comprehension and fluency skills of…

Participants in Adult Basic Skills Classes Using Intertextual and Metacognitive Skills and Strategies to Aid Reading Comprehension and Written Expression

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacMonagle, William Peter

2012-01-01

The purpose of this research was to seek evidence of awareness of metacognitive processes and intertextuality in the reading comprehension of students in an adult basic education class. Its purpose was to interweave several strands of research investigation and theory to explain the reading and writing capabilities of a representative population…

Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade: IES Practice Guide. NCEE 2010-4038

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shanahan, Timothy; Callison, Kim; Carriere, Christine; Duke, Nell K.; Pearson, P. David; Schatschneider, Christopher; Torgesen, Joseph

2010-01-01

Strong reading comprehension skills are central not only to academic and professional success, but also to a productive social and civic life. These skills build the capacity to learn independently, to absorb information on a variety of topics, to enjoy reading, and to experience literature more deeply. Despite the growing demand for highly…

Mental skills training effectively minimizes operative performance deterioration under stressful conditions: Results of a randomized controlled study.

PubMed

Anton, N E; Beane, J; Yurco, A M; Howley, L D; Bean, E; Myers, E M; Stefanidis, D

2018-02-01

Stress can negatively impact surgical performance, but mental skills may help. We hypothesized that a comprehensive mental skills curriculum (MSC) would minimize resident performance deterioration under stress. Twenty-four residents were stratified then randomized to receive mental skills and FLS training (MSC group), or only FLS training (control group). Laparoscopic suturing skill was assessed on a live porcine model with and without external stressors. Outcomes were compared with t-tests. Twenty-three residents completed the study. The groups were similar at baseline. There were no differences in suturing at posttest or transfer test under normal conditions. Both groups experienced significantly decreased performance when stress was applied, but the MSC group significantly outperformed controls under stress. This MSC enabled residents to perform significantly better than controls in the simulated OR under unexpected stressful conditions. These findings support the use of psychological skills as an integral part of a surgical resident training. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of the Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills program for adults on the autism spectrum: Results of initial study.

PubMed

Baker-Ericzén, Mary J; Fitch, Meghan A; Kinnear, Mikaela; Jenkins, Melissa M; Twamley, Elizabeth W; Smith, Linda; Montano, Gabriel; Feder, Joshua; Crooke, Pamela J; Winner, Michelle G; Leon, Juan

2018-01-01

The population of adults on the autism spectrum continues to increase, and vocational outcomes are particularly poor. Longitudinal studies of adults with autism spectrum and without intellectual disability have shown consistent and persistent deficits across cognitive, social, and vocational domains, indicating a need for effective treatments of functional disabilities as each impact employment. This initial pilot study is an open trial investigation of the feasibility, acceptability, and initial estimates of outcomes for the newly developed Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills intervention, a manualized "soft skills" curriculum, to enhance both cognitive and social development in adults with autism spectrum. A total of eight adults with autism spectrum, without intellectual disability (78% males), participated in the study. Results support the original hypothesis that adults with autism spectrum can improve both cognitive (i.e. executive functioning) and social cognitive (i.e. social thinking and social communication) abilities. Further Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills was found to be feasible, acceptable, and highly satisfactory for participants and parents. Employment rates more than doubled post-intervention, with an increase from 22% to 56% of participants employed. Conclusion is that Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills has promise as an intervention that can be easily embedded into exiting supported employment vocational training programs to improve cognitive, social, and vocational outcomes.

Contractor Sales Training: Providing the Skills Necessary to Sell Comprehensive Home Energy Upgrades

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Billingsley, Megan; Stuart, Elizabeth

2011-08-17

Many comprehensive home energy efficiency programs rely on contractors as the customer-facing ‘front line’ to sell energy improvements. Adding sales skills to contractors’ existing technical expertise is key to converting more assessments into comprehensive home energy upgrades. Leading programs recognize the need to support contractors with sales and business training to help them succeed and to support the growth of the home performance industry for the long term. A number of contractor sales training efforts are emerging, including some programs that are seeing encouraging early results.

The use of music to enhance reading skills of second grade students and students with reading disabilities.

PubMed

Register, Dena; Darrow, Alice-Ann; Standley, Jayne; Swedberg, Olivia

2007-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine the efficacy of using music as a remedial strategy to enhance the reading skills of second-grade students and students who have been identified as having a specific learning disability (SLD) in reading. First, an intensive short-term music curriculum was designed to target reading comprehension and vocabulary skills at the second grade level. The curriculum was then implemented in classrooms at two public schools in the Southeast. Reading skills were evaluated pre and post curriculum intervention via the vocabulary and reading comprehension subtests of the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test for second grade. Analysis of pre/posttest data revealed that students with a specific disability in reading improved significantly from pre to post on all three subtests: word decoding (p = .04), word knowledge (p = .01), reading comprehension (p = .01), and test total (p = .01). Paired t-tests revealed that for 2nd grade students, both treatment and control classes improved significantly from pre to post on the subtests word decoding, word knowledge, and test total. While both classes made gains from pre to post on the subtest, reading comprehension, neither improved significantly. Analysis of Covariance revealed that the treatment class made greater gains pre to post than the control class on all 3 subtests (Including reading comprehension), and significantly greater gains on the subtest, word knowledge (p = .01).

Language Arts: Comprehension Skills K-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Instructional Objectives Exchange, Los Angeles, CA.

This revised collection contains 91 objectives and evaluations for kindergarten through grade 12. Objectives appear in four sections: (1) Literal Comprehension, (2) Interpretation, (3) Vocabulary and Word Meaning, and (4) Comprehension of Non-written Materials. In Literal Comprehension the objectives contain location of specific information and…

Listen, Listen, Listen and Listen: Building a Comprehension Corpus and Making It Comprehensible

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mordaunt, Owen G.; Olson, Daniel W.

2010-01-01

Listening comprehension input is necessary for language learning and acculturation. One approach to developing listening comprehension skills is through exposure to massive amounts of naturally occurring spoken language input. But exposure to this input is not enough; learners also need to make the comprehension corpus meaningful to their learning…

Skills Training Works: Examining the Evidence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Whitney; Wittner, Jenny; Spence, Robin; Van Kleunen, Andy

The federal policy shift from skills training and toward work first strategies has come about, in part, from a misconception that "training does not work." A more comprehensive look at existing research reveals the documented effectiveness of skills training. A growing number of studies have shown skills training can increase earnings;…

Specific Early Number Skills Mediate the Association between Executive Functioning Skills and Mathematics Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fuhs, Mary Wagner; Hornburg, Caroline Byrd; McNeil, Nicole M.

2016-01-01

A growing literature reports significant associations between children's executive functioning skills and their mathematics achievement. The purpose of this study was to examine if specific early number skills, such as quantity discrimination, number line estimation, number sets identification, fast counting, and number word comprehension, mediate…

Teaching and Maintaining Behavior Management Skills in the Nursing Home.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgio, Louis D.; Stevens, Alan; Burgio, Kathryn L.; Roth, David L.; Paul, Penelope; Gerstle, John

2002-01-01

Examines the efficacy of a comprehensive behavior management skills training program for improving certified nursing assistants' (CNAs) skill performance in the nursing home. Results reveal improvement in five out of seven communication skills. Although CNAs showed a reduction in the use of ineffective behavior management strategies, they did not…

National Assessment's Consumer Skills Assessments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO. National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) encountered problems when developing a comprehensive assessment of consumer skills of 17-year-olds in 1978. When NAEP conducted a nationwide assessment of basic life skills of 17-year-olds in 1977, there was considerable interest in the consumer skills portion. Therefore, it was decided to…

20 CFR 669.380 - What is the objective assessment that is authorized as an intensive service?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... procedure designed to comprehensively assess the skills, abilities, and interests of each employment and...) Skills and aptitude assessments; (3) Performance assessments (for example, skills or work samples... attitude inventories; (5) Career guidance instruments; (6) Aptitude tests; and (7) Basic skills tests. (b...

20 CFR 669.380 - What is the objective assessment that is authorized as an intensive service?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... procedure designed to comprehensively assess the skills, abilities, and interests of each employment and...) Skills and aptitude assessments; (3) Performance assessments (for example, skills or work samples... attitude inventories; (5) Career guidance instruments; (6) Aptitude tests; and (7) Basic skills tests. (b...

Standard and modified administrations of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills with learning disabled students.

PubMed

Estes, R E; Baum, D L; Bray, N M

1986-04-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of junior high school learning disabled students on standard and modified administrations of selected subtests from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. No significant differences were noted for correlations between types of administration and teachers' ratings on any of the subtest comparisons. Grade placements for Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension using the modified administration were significantly higher than those using the standard administration and more closely aligned with teachers' ratings. Math Concept and Math Problem-solving grade-placement scores did not differ by type of administration; teachers' ratings were higher than those produced by either testing format.

Oral language and narrative skills in children with specific language impairment with and without literacy delay: a three-year longitudinal study.

PubMed

Vandewalle, Ellen; Boets, Bart; Boons, Tinne; Ghesquière, Pol; Zink, Inge

2012-01-01

This longitudinal study compared the development of oral language and more specifically narrative skills (storytelling and story retelling) in children with specific language impairment (SLI) with and without literacy delay. Therefore, 18 children with SLI and 18 matched controls with normal literacy were followed from the last year of kindergarten (mean age=5 years 5 months) until the beginning of grade 3 (mean age=8 years 1 month). Oral language tests measuring vocabulary, morphology, sentence and text comprehension and narrative skills were administered yearly. Based on first and third grade reading and spelling achievement, both groups were divided into a group with and a group without literacy problems. Results showed that the children with SLI and literacy delay had persistent oral language problems across all assessed language domains. The children with SLI and normal literacy skills scored also persistently low on vocabulary, morphology and story retelling skills. Only on listening comprehension and storytelling, they evolved towards the level of the control group. In conclusion, oral language skills in children with SLI and normal literacy skills remained in general poor, despite their intact literacy development during the first years of literacy instruction. Only for listening comprehension and storytelling, they improved, probably as a result of more print exposure. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Communication skills in pediatric training program: National-based survey of residents' perspectives in Saudi Arabia.

PubMed

Alofisan, Tariq; Al-Alaiyan, Saleh; Al-Abdulsalam, Moath; Siddiqui, Khawar; Hussain, Ibrahim Bin; Al-Qahtani, Mohammad H

2016-01-01

Good communication skills and rapport building are considered the cardinal tools for developing a patient-doctor relationship. A positive, healthy competition among different health care organizations in Saudi Arabia underlines an ever increasing emphasis on effective patient-doctor relationship. Despite the numerous guidelines provided and programs available, there is a significant variation in the acceptance and approach to the use of this important tool among pediatric residents in this part of the world. To determine pediatric residents' attitude toward communication skills, their perception of important communication skills, and their confidence in the use of their communication skills in the performance of their primary duties. A cross-sectional study was conducted among all pediatrics trainee residents working in 13 different hospitals in Saudi Arabia. A standardized self-administered questionnaire developed by the Harvard Medical School was used. A total of 297 residents out of all trainees in these centers participated in the data collection. The 283 (95%) residents considered learning communication skills a priority in establishing a good patient-doctor relationship. Thirty four percent reported being very confident with regard to their communication skills. Few residents had the skills, and the confidence to communicate with children with serious diseases, discuss end-of-life issues, and deal with difficult patients and parents. Pediatric residents perceive the importance of communication skills and competencies as crucial components in their training. A proper comprehensive communication skills training should be incorporated into the pediatric resident training curriculum.

Training Inference Making Skills Using a Situation Model Approach Improves Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Bos, Lisanne T.; De Koning, Bjorn B.; Wassenburg, Stephanie I.; van der Schoot, Menno

2016-01-01

This study aimed to enhance third and fourth graders’ text comprehension at the situation model level. Therefore, we tested a reading strategy training developed to target inference making skills, which are widely considered to be pivotal to situation model construction. The training was grounded in contemporary literature on situation model-based inference making and addressed the source (text-based versus knowledge-based), type (necessary versus unnecessary for (re-)establishing coherence), and depth of an inference (making single lexical inferences versus combining multiple lexical inferences), as well as the type of searching strategy (forward versus backward). Results indicated that, compared to a control group (n = 51), children who followed the experimental training (n = 67) improved their inference making skills supportive to situation model construction. Importantly, our training also resulted in increased levels of general reading comprehension and motivation. In sum, this study showed that a ‘level of text representation’-approach can provide a useful framework to teach inference making skills to third and fourth graders. PMID:26913014

Improvement of Engineering Students' Communication Skills in English through Extensive Reading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishizawa, Hitoshi; Yoshioka, Takayoshi; Itoh, Kazuaki

The students' communication skills in English have improved after introducing Extensive Reading courses into the curriculum of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department. The students' average TOEIC scores, which used to be far lower than the ones of students in other educational institutions, have increased in recent two years. The students who used to avoid learning English have welcomed extensive reading of graded readers for foreign learners and books for native children of English. This is because the extensive reading causes less stress and it is enjoyable. The students who have read more than 0.2 million words of English texts have faster reading speed and more confidence in reading. They seem to change their reading style from English-to-Japanese translation (and comprehension in Japanese) to direct comprehension in English. Their listening comprehension is also improved. Extensive reading is an effective educational method to improve English communication skills of engineering students, and it also becomes a useful method of continuous education for engineers in need of improving their skills.

Individual differences in fifth graders’ reading and language predict their comprehension monitoring development: An eye-movement study

PubMed Central

Connor, Carol McDonald; Radach, Ralph; Vorstius, Christian; Day, Stephanie L.; McLean, Leigh; Morrison, Frederick J.

2015-01-01

In this study, we investigated fifth-graders’ (n=52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation, and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children read two sentences; the second included either a plausible or implausible word in the context of the first sentence. Stronger readers had shorter reading times overall suggesting faster processing of text. Generally fifth-graders reacted to the implausible word (i.e., longer gaze duration on the implausible v. the plausible word, which reflects lexical access). Students with stronger academic language, compared to those with weaker academic language, generally spent more time re-reading the implausible target compared to the plausible target. This difference increased from fall to spring. Results support the centrality of academic language for meaning integration, setting standards of coherence, and utilizing comprehension repair strategies. PMID:27065721

The Reed & Kellogg System of Sentence Diagramming and Its Implementation in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coats, Judith Ruth

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to research whether or not the intervention of the Reed & Kellogg System of sentence diagramming would make a significant difference in the acquisition, retention, and comprehension of the basic grammatical skills, including parts of speech, complements, phrases, clauses, and sentence structures, on the higher…

A Comprehensive Model for Promoting Resiliency and Preventing Violence in Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castro-Olivo, Sara Maria; Tran, Oanh Kim; Begum, Gazi Ferdousi; Arellano, Elizabeth Michelle; Garcia, Nicole Marie; Tung, Catherine Yang

2013-01-01

Implementing violence prevention programs has become a priority for schools; however, most programs used for this purpose are limited in the skills they teach. In this study, two different resiliency building/violence prevention models were evaluated to assess their effectiveness at preventing violent and maladaptive behaviors in youth. Data from…

Impact of Private Secondary Schooling on Cognitive Skills: Evidence from India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azam, Mehtabul; Kingdon, Geeta; Wu, Kin Bing

2016-01-01

We examine the effect of attending private secondary school on educational achievement, as measured by students' scores in a comprehensive standardized math test, in two Indian states: Orissa and Rajasthan. We use propensity score matching (PSM) to control for any systematic differences between students attending private secondary schools and…

Strengthening Relationships with Families in the School Community: Do School Leaders Make a Difference?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quezada, Maria S.

2016-01-01

Many family engagement programs logically focus on providing training and support for parent leaders, giving them the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively partner with schools. Even with comprehensive parent leadership training, sustainable family engagement initiatives cannot truly take hold without buy-in, shared understanding, and a…

Dyslexia at a Behavioural and a Cognitive Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helland, Turid

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to see whether patterns of neuro-cognitive assets and deficits seen in dyslexia also would lead to different patterns of reading and writing. A group of dyslexic children was subgrouped by language comprehension and mathematics skills in accordance with the definition of the British Dyslexia Association of 1998. This…

Income Disparities in Preschool Outcomes and the Role of Family, Child, and Parenting Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohen, Dafna; Guèvremont, Anne

2014-01-01

The current study examined income disparities in a comprehensive set of preschoolers' outcomes (verbal ability, developmental skills, number knowledge, and hyperactivity) and the factors that could reduce differences in outcomes between children in the lowest and highest household income quartiles. Findings using Cycle 6 data from the Canadian…

Language-Impaired Preschoolers: A Follow-Up into Adolescence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stothard, Susan E.; Snowling, Margaret J.; Bishop, D. V. M.; Chipchase, Barry B.; Kaplan, Carole A.

1998-01-01

A follow-up study of 71 adolescents with preschool histories of speech-language impairments found children whose language problems had been resolved by ages 5 to 6 did not differ from controls on tests of vocabulary and language-comprehension skills, however, they performed significantly less well on tests of phonological processing and literacy…

Rate- and accuracy-disabled subtype profiles among adults with dyslexia in the Hebrew orthography.

PubMed

Shany, Michal; Breznitz, Zvia

2011-01-01

This study examined a subtyping scheme rooted in the dissociation between reading rate and accuracy in an exceptionally large sample of adult readers with dyslexia using a wide variety of behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures. Stage 1 was a behavioral study, in which basic reading skill, reading comprehension, linguistic and cognitive tasks were administered to 661 learning-disabled university students (n = 382) and their non-learning-disabled peers (n = 279). Based on a word reading measure, accuracy-disabled and rate-disabled subgroups were identified, as was a subgroup with deficits in both rate and accuracy. The results support the persistence of a rate versus accuracy dissociation into adulthood. Accuracy disability was related to a broad range of deficits affecting phonological, orthographic, and morphological processing, verbal memory, attention, and reading comprehension. Rate disability appeared to be associated with slower processing of printed material, alongside largely intact functioning resembling those of skilled readers. In stage 2, electroencephalogram (EEG)-ERP measurements were obtained from 140 participants recruited from the larger sample. Activation in visual association cortex, indicated by the N170 amplitude, was found to be lower for accuracy-disabled than skilled readers, and comparable between rate-disabled and skilled readers. The lowest amplitude was found in the double-deficit subgroup. The findings support the existence of distinctive reading disability profiles, based on selective deficits in reading rate versus accuracy and associated with different basic reading, linguistic, and cognitive skills as well as electrophysiological responses.

Concurrent Validity and Diagnostic Accuracy of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills and the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hintze, John M.; Ryan, Amanda L.; Stoner, Gary

2003-01-01

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the concurrent validity of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) with the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP), and (b) explore the diagnostic accuracy of the DIBELS in predicting CTOPP performance using suggested and alternative cut-scores. Eighty-six students…

The Effects of a Story-Mapping Procedure to Improve the Comprehension Skills of Expository Text Passages for Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stagliano, Christina; Boon, Richard T.

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using a story-mapping procedure to improve and enhance the reading comprehension skills using expository text passages for 3 fourth-grade students with learning disabilities (LD). The study was conducted in the resource classroom in which the participants regularly received reading…

The Roles of Emotional Comprehension and Representational Drawing Skill in Children's Expressive Drawing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brechet, Claire; Jolley, Richard P.

2014-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the roles of emotional comprehension and representational drawing skill in children's expressive drawing. Fifty 7- to 10-year-olds were asked to produce two (happy and sad) expressive drawings, two representational drawings (drawing of a man running and drawing of a house) and to answer the…

Reading Comprehension from a First to a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montes, Florencia; Botero, María Patricia; Pechthalt, Tracy

2009-01-01

The purpose of this action research paper is to disseminate the results of a 2-month study which focuses on how a student's first language (L1) reading comprehension skills affect the same skills in their second language (L2). The subjects of the study are sixth grade girls, ranging in age from 11 to 13 years old. They attend a private bilingual…

Investigation of the Effectiveness of the Story-Map Method on Reading Comprehension Skills among Students with Mental Retardation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isikdogan, Necla; Kargin, Tevhide

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the story-map technique on reading comprehension skills among students with mild mental retardation. The research group consisted of 14 students with mild mental retardation. The students in the research group were chosen from students who attended to an elementary school and a…

Using a Computer-Adapted, Conceptually Based History Text to Increase Comprehension and Problem-Solving Skills of Students with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Twyman, Todd; Tindal, Gerald

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to improve the comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with disabilities in social studies using a conceptually framed, computer-adapted history text. Participants were 11th and 12th grade students identified with learning disabilities in reading and writing from two intact, self-contained social studies…

The Relations between Children's Reading Comprehension, Working Memory, Language Skills and Components of Reading Decoding in a Normal Sample

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goff, Deborah A.; Pratt, Chris; Ong, Ben

2005-01-01

The primary aim of the current study was to identify the strongest independent predictors of reading comprehension using word reading, language and memory variables in a normal sample of 180 children in grades 3-5, with a range of word reading skills. It was hypothesized that orthographic processing, receptive vocabulary and verbal working memory…

Examining the Impact of Inference Instruction on the Literal and Inferential Comprehension of Skilled and Less Skilled Readers: A Meta-Analytic Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elleman, Amy M.

2017-01-01

Inference ability is considered central to discourse processing and has been shown to be important across models of reading comprehension. To evaluate the impact of inference instruction, a meta-analysis of 25 inference studies in Grades K-12 was conducted. Results showed that inference instruction was effective for increasing students' general…

Idiom Comprehension Deficits in High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder Using a Korean Autism Social Language Task

PubMed Central

Lee, Seul Bee; Song, Seung Ha; Ham, Ju Hyun; Song, Dong Ho

2015-01-01

Purpose High-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves pragmatic impairment of language skills. Among numerous tasks for assessing pragmatic linguistic skills, idioms are important to evaluating high-functioning ASD. Nevertheless, no assessment tool has been developed with specific consideration of Korean culture. Therefore, we designed the Korean Autism Social Language Task (KASLAT) to test idiom comprehension in ASD. The aim of the current study was to introduce this novel psychological tool and evaluate idiom comprehension deficits in high-functioning ASD. Materials and Methods The participants included 42 children, ages 6-11 years, who visited our child psychiatric clinic between April 2014 and May 2015. The ASD group comprised 16 children; the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) group consisted of 16 children. An additional 10 normal control children who had not been diagnosed with either disorder participated in this study. Idiom comprehension ability was assessed in these three groups using the KASLAT. Results Both ASD and ADHD groups had significantly lower scores on the matched and mismatched tasks, compared to the normal control children (matched tasks mean score: ASD 11.56, ADHD 11.56, normal control 14.30; mismatched tasks mean score: ASD 6.50, ADHD 4.31, normal control 11.30). However, no significant differences were found in scores of KASLAT between the ADHD and ASD groups. Conclusion These findings suggest that children with ASD exhibit greater impairment in idiom comprehension, compared to normal control children. The KASLAT may be useful in evaluating idiom comprehension ability. PMID:26446644

Identifying instruments to quantify financial management skills in adults with acquired cognitive impairments.

PubMed

Engel, Lisa; Bar, Yael; Beaton, Dorcas E; Green, Robin E; Dawson, Deirdre R

2016-01-01

Financial management skills-that is, the skills needed to handle personal finances such as banking and paying bills-are essential to a person's autonomy, independence, and community living. To date, no comprehensive review of financial management skills instruments exists, making it difficult for clinicians and researchers to choose relevant instruments. The objectives of this review are to: (a) identify all available instruments containing financial management skill items that have been used with adults with acquired cognitive impairments; (b) categorize the instruments by source (i.e., observation based, self-report, proxy report); and (c) describe observation-based performance instruments by populations, overarching concepts measured, and comprehensiveness of financial management items. Objective (c) focuses on observation-based performance instruments as these measures can aid in situations where the person with cognitive impairment has poor self-awareness or where the proxy has poor knowledge of the person's current abilities. Two reviewers completed two systematic searches of five databases. Instruments were categorized by reviewing published literature, copies of the instruments, and/or communication with instrument authors. Comprehensiveness of items was based on nine key domains of financial management skills developed by the authors. A total of 88 discrete instruments were identified. Of these, 44 were categorized as observation-based performance and 44 as self- and/or proxy-reports. Of the 44 observation-based performance instruments, 8 had been developed for acquired brain injury populations and 24 for aging and dementia populations. Only 7 of the observation-based performance instruments had items spanning 6 or more of the 9 financial management skills domains. The majority of instruments were developed for aging and dementia populations, and few were comprehensive. This review provides foundation for future instrument psychometric and clinimetric reviews. It a necessary first step in providing information to support decision making for clinicians and researchers selecting financial management skills instruments.

Monitoring Local Comprehension Monitoring in Sentence Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vorstius, Christian; Radach, Ralph; Mayer, Michael B.; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2013-01-01

on ways to improve children's reading comprehension. However, processes and mechanisms underlying this skill are currently not well understood. This article describes one of the first attempts to study comprehension monitoring using eye-tracking methodology. Students in fifth…

Multisyllabic Word Reading as a Moderator of Morphological Awareness and Reading Comprehension

PubMed Central

Gilbert, Jennifer K.; Goodwin, Amanda P.; Compton, Donald L.; Kearns, Devin M.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relation between morphological awareness on reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability in fifth grade students (N = 169, 53.7% female, 65.2% minority status, 69.2% free/reduced lunch status), oversampled for poor reading skill, when controlling for general knowledge and vocabulary. Based on the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007), it was expected that morphological awareness would have a stronger effect on comprehension for children with poor word reading skills, suggesting possible use of morphological awareness for word identification support. Results indicated that neither morphological awareness nor word reading was uniquely associated with reading comprehension when both were included in the model along with vocabulary and general knowledge. Instead, the interaction between word reading and morphological awareness explained significant additional variance in reading comprehension. By probing this interaction, it was determined that the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension was significant for the 39% of the sample that had more difficulty reading multisyllabic words), but not for students at the higher end of the multisyllabic word reading continuum. We conclude from these results that the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability, providing support for the lexical quality hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007). Although we have only correlational data, we suggest tentative instructional practices for improving the reading skill of upper elementary struggling readers. PMID:24219914

Theory of Mind and Reading Comprehension in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Signing Children

PubMed Central

Holmer, Emil; Heimann, Mikael; Rudner, Mary

2016-01-01

Theory of Mind (ToM) is related to reading comprehension in hearing children. In the present study, we investigated progression in ToM in Swedish deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing children who were learning to read, as well as the association of ToM with reading comprehension. Thirteen children at Swedish state primary schools for DHH children performed a Swedish Sign Language (SSL) version of the Wellman and Liu (2004) ToM scale, along with tests of reading comprehension, SSL comprehension, and working memory. Results indicated that ToM progression did not differ from that reported in previous studies, although ToM development was delayed despite age-appropriate sign language skills. Correlation analysis revealed that ToM was associated with reading comprehension and working memory, but not sign language comprehension. We propose that some factor not investigated in the present study, possibly represented by inference making constrained by working memory capacity, supports both ToM and reading comprehension and may thus explain the results observed in the present study. PMID:27375532

The role of working memory and fluency practice on the reading comprehension of students who are dysfluent readers.

PubMed

Swanson, H Lee; O'Connor, Rollanda

2009-01-01

The authors investigated whether practice in reading fluency had a causal influence on the relationship between working memory (WM) and text comprehension for 155 students in Grades 2 and 4 who were poor or average readers. Dysfluent readers were randomly assigned to repeated reading or continuous reading practice conditions and compared with untreated dysfluent and fluent readers on posttest measures of fluency, word identification, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Three main findings emerged: (a) The influence of WM on text comprehension was not related to fluency training, (b) dysfluent readers in the continuous-reading condition had higher posttest scores than dysfluent readers in the other conditions on measures of text comprehension but not on vocabulary, and (c) individual differences in WM better predicted posttest comprehension performance than word-attack skills. In general, the results suggested that although continuous reading increased comprehension, fluency practice did not compensate for WM demands. The results were interpreted within a model that viewed reading comprehension processes as competing for a limited supply of WM resources that operate independent of fluency.

Theory of Mind and Reading Comprehension in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Signing Children.

PubMed

Holmer, Emil; Heimann, Mikael; Rudner, Mary

2016-01-01

Theory of Mind (ToM) is related to reading comprehension in hearing children. In the present study, we investigated progression in ToM in Swedish deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing children who were learning to read, as well as the association of ToM with reading comprehension. Thirteen children at Swedish state primary schools for DHH children performed a Swedish Sign Language (SSL) version of the Wellman and Liu (2004) ToM scale, along with tests of reading comprehension, SSL comprehension, and working memory. Results indicated that ToM progression did not differ from that reported in previous studies, although ToM development was delayed despite age-appropriate sign language skills. Correlation analysis revealed that ToM was associated with reading comprehension and working memory, but not sign language comprehension. We propose that some factor not investigated in the present study, possibly represented by inference making constrained by working memory capacity, supports both ToM and reading comprehension and may thus explain the results observed in the present study.

Levels of Text Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): The Influence of Language Phenotype

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lucas, Rebecca; Norbury, Courtenay Frazier

2014-01-01

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have reading comprehension difficulties, but the level of processing at which comprehension is most vulnerable and the influence of language phenotype on comprehension skill is currently unclear. We explored comprehension at sentence and passage levels across language phenotypes. Children with ASD…

Mathematics is differentially related to reading comprehension and word decoding: Evidence from a genetically-sensitive design

PubMed Central

Harlaar, Nicole; Kovas, Yulia; Dale, Philip S.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Plomin, Robert

2013-01-01

Although evidence suggests that individual differences in reading and mathematics skills are correlated, this relationship has typically only been studied in relation to word decoding or global measures of reading. It is unclear whether mathematics is differentially related to word decoding and reading comprehension. The current study examined these relationships at both a phenotypic and etiological level in a population-based cohort of 5162 twin pairs at age 12. Multivariate genetic analyses of latent phenotypic factors of mathematics, word decoding and reading comprehension revealed substantial genetic and shared environmental correlations among all three domains. However, the phenotypic and genetic correlations between mathematics and reading comprehension were significantly greater than between mathematics and word decoding. Independent of mathematics, there was also evidence for genetic and nonshared environmental links between word decoding and reading comprehension. These findings indicate that word decoding and reading comprehension have partly distinct relationships with mathematics in the middle school years. PMID:24319294

Modeling the Relations Among Morphological Awareness Dimensions, Vocabulary Knowledge, and Reading Comprehension in Adult Basic Education Students

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2016-01-01

This study extended the findings of Tighe and Schatschneider (2015) by investigating the predictive utility of separate dimensions of morphological awareness as well as vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension in adult basic education (ABE) students. We competed two- and three-factor structural equation models of reading comprehension. A three-factor model of real word morphological awareness, pseudoword morphological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge emerged as the best fit and accounted for 79% of the reading comprehension variance. The results indicated that the constructs contributed jointly to reading comprehension; however, vocabulary knowledge was the only potentially unique predictor (p = 0.052), accounting for an additional 5.6% of the variance. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying a latent variable modeling approach to examine individual differences in the reading comprehension skills of ABE students. Further, this study replicates the findings of Tighe and Schatschneider (2015) on the importance of differentiating among dimensions of morphological awareness in this population. PMID:26869981

Mathematics is differentially related to reading comprehension and word decoding: Evidence from a genetically-sensitive design.

PubMed

Harlaar, Nicole; Kovas, Yulia; Dale, Philip S; Petrill, Stephen A; Plomin, Robert

2012-08-01

Although evidence suggests that individual differences in reading and mathematics skills are correlated, this relationship has typically only been studied in relation to word decoding or global measures of reading. It is unclear whether mathematics is differentially related to word decoding and reading comprehension. The current study examined these relationships at both a phenotypic and etiological level in a population-based cohort of 5162 twin pairs at age 12. Multivariate genetic analyses of latent phenotypic factors of mathematics, word decoding and reading comprehension revealed substantial genetic and shared environmental correlations among all three domains. However, the phenotypic and genetic correlations between mathematics and reading comprehension were significantly greater than between mathematics and word decoding. Independent of mathematics, there was also evidence for genetic and nonshared environmental links between word decoding and reading comprehension. These findings indicate that word decoding and reading comprehension have partly distinct relationships with mathematics in the middle school years.

Modeling the Relations Among Morphological Awareness Dimensions, Vocabulary Knowledge, and Reading Comprehension in Adult Basic Education Students.

PubMed

Tighe, Elizabeth L; Schatschneider, Christopher

2016-01-01

This study extended the findings of Tighe and Schatschneider (2015) by investigating the predictive utility of separate dimensions of morphological awareness as well as vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension in adult basic education (ABE) students. We competed two- and three-factor structural equation models of reading comprehension. A three-factor model of real word morphological awareness, pseudoword morphological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge emerged as the best fit and accounted for 79% of the reading comprehension variance. The results indicated that the constructs contributed jointly to reading comprehension; however, vocabulary knowledge was the only potentially unique predictor (p = 0.052), accounting for an additional 5.6% of the variance. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying a latent variable modeling approach to examine individual differences in the reading comprehension skills of ABE students. Further, this study replicates the findings of Tighe and Schatschneider (2015) on the importance of differentiating among dimensions of morphological awareness in this population.

Comprehensive Training Curricula for Minimally Invasive Surgery

PubMed Central

Palter, Vanessa N

2011-01-01

Background The unique skill set required for minimally invasive surgery has in part contributed to a certain portion of surgical residency training transitioning from the operating room to the surgical skills laboratory. Simulation lends itself well as a method to shorten the learning curve for minimally invasive surgery by allowing trainees to practice the unique motor skills required for this type of surgery in a safe, structured environment. Although a significant amount of important work has been done to validate simulators as viable systems for teaching technical skills outside the operating room, the next step is to integrate simulation training into a comprehensive curriculum. Objectives This narrative review aims to synthesize the evidence and educational theories underlining curricula development for technical skills both in a broad context and specifically as it pertains to minimally invasive surgery. Findings The review highlights the critical aspects of simulation training, such as the effective provision of feedback, deliberate practice, training to proficiency, the opportunity to practice at varying levels of difficulty, and the inclusion of both cognitive teaching and hands-on training. In addition, frameworks for integrating simulation training into a comprehensive curriculum are described. Finally, existing curricula on both laparoscopic box trainers and virtual reality simulators are critically evaluated. PMID:22942951

Executive Functions Contribute Uniquely to Reading Competence in Minority Youth.

PubMed

Jacobson, Lisa A; Koriakin, Taylor; Lipkin, Paul; Boada, Richard; Frijters, Jan C; Lovett, Maureen W; Hill, Dina; Willcutt, Erik; Gottwald, Stephanie; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R; Mahone, E Mark

Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing "higher-level" or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty.

American Sign Language Comprehension Test: A Tool for Sign Language Researchers.

PubMed

Hauser, Peter C; Paludneviciene, Raylene; Riddle, Wanda; Kurz, Kim B; Emmorey, Karen; Contreras, Jessica

2016-01-01

The American Sign Language Comprehension Test (ASL-CT) is a 30-item multiple-choice test that measures ASL receptive skills and is administered through a website. This article describes the development and psychometric properties of the test based on a sample of 80 college students including deaf native signers, hearing native signers, deaf non-native signers, and hearing ASL students. The results revealed that the ASL-CT has good internal reliability (α = 0.834). Discriminant validity was established by demonstrating that deaf native signers performed significantly better than deaf non-native signers and hearing native signers. Concurrent validity was established by demonstrating that test results positively correlated with another measure of ASL ability (r = .715) and that hearing ASL students' performance positively correlated with the level of ASL courses they were taking (r = .726). Researchers can use the ASL-CT to characterize an individual's ASL comprehension skills, to establish a minimal skill level as an inclusion criterion for a study, to group study participants by ASL skill (e.g., proficient vs. nonproficient), or to provide a measure of ASL skill as a dependent variable. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Reflex-based grasping, skilled forelimb reaching, and electrodiagnostic evaluation for comprehensive analysis of functional recovery-The 7-mm rat median nerve gap repair model revisited.

PubMed

Stößel, Maria; Rehra, Lena; Haastert-Talini, Kirsten

2017-10-01

The rat median nerve injury and repair model gets increasingly important for research on novel bioartificial nerve grafts. It allows follow-up evaluation of the recovery of the forepaw functional ability with several sensitive techniques. The reflex-based grasping test, the skilled forelimb reaching staircase test, as well as electrodiagnostic recordings have been described useful in this context. Currently, no standard values exist, however, for comparison or comprehensive correlation of results obtained in each of the three methods after nerve gap repair in adult rats. Here, we bilaterally reconstructed 7-mm median nerve gaps with autologous nerve grafts (ANG) or autologous muscle-in-vein grafts (MVG), respectively. During 8 and 12 weeks of observation, functional recovery of each paw was separately monitored using the grasping test (weekly), the staircase test, and noninvasive electrophysiological recordings from the thenar muscles (both every 4 weeks). Evaluation was completed by histomorphometrical analyses at 8 and 12 weeks postsurgery. The comprehensive evaluation detected a significant difference in the recovery of forepaw functional motor ability between the ANG and MVG groups. The correlation between the different functional tests evaluated precisely displayed the recovery of distinct levels of forepaw functional ability over time. Thus, this multimodal evaluation model represents a valuable preclinical model for peripheral nerve reconstruction approaches.

The Power of the Listening Ear

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Robyn

2011-01-01

Communicating effectively is a skill that must be taught and practiced--and the act of listening is a large part of this skill. According to the "International Journal of Listening," listening skills are imperative to reading comprehension and are valuable enough for "38 out of the 51 government entities to include listening skills as part of…

Content and face validity of a comprehensive robotic skills training program for general surgery, urology, and gynecology.

PubMed

Dulan, Genevieve; Rege, Robert V; Hogg, Deborah C; Gilberg-Fisher, Kristine K; Tesfay, Seifu T; Scott, Daniel J

2012-04-01

The authors previously developed a comprehensive, proficiency-based robotic training curriculum that aimed to address 23 unique skills identified via task deconstruction of robotic operations. The purpose of this study was to determine the content and face validity of this curriculum. Expert robotic surgeons (n = 12) rated each deconstructed skill regarding relevance to robotic operations, were oriented to the curricular components, performed 3 to 5 repetitions on the 9 exercises, and rated each exercise. In terms of content validity, experts rated all 23 deconstructed skills as highly relevant (4.5 on a 5-point scale). Ratings for the 9 inanimate exercises indicated moderate to thorough measurement of designated skills. For face validity, experts indicated that each exercise effectively measured relevant skills (100% agreement) and was highly effective for training and assessment (4.5 on a 5-point scale). These data indicate that the 23 deconstructed skills accurately represent the appropriate content for robotic skills training and strongly support content and face validity for this curriculum. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Associations of physical activity and sedentary behavior with academic skills--a follow-up study among primary school children.

PubMed

Haapala, Eero A; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina; Tompuri, Tuomo; Lintu, Niina; Väistö, Juuso; Leppänen, Paavo H T; Laaksonen, David E; Lindi, Virpi; Lakka, Timo A

2014-01-01

There are no prospective studies that would have compared the relationships of different types of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) with academic skills among children. We therefore investigated the associations of different types of PA and SB with reading and arithmetic skills in a follow-up study among children. The participants were 186 children (107 boys, 79 girls, 6-8 yr) who were followed-up in Grades 1-3. PA and SB were assessed using a questionnaire in Grade 1. Reading fluency, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills were assessed using standardized tests at the end of Grades 1-3. Among all children more recess PA and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across Grades 1-3. In boys, higher levels of total PA, physically active school transportation and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across the Grades 1-3. Among girls, higher levels of total PA were related to worse arithmetic skills across Grades 1-3. Moreover, total PA was directly associated with reading fluency and arithmetic skills in Grades 1-3 among girls whose parents had a university degree, whereas these relationships were inverse in girls of less educated parents. Total PA, physically active school transportation and SB related to academic skills may be beneficial for the development of reading skills in boys, whereas factors that are independent of PA or SB may be more important for academic skills in girls. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01803776.

Teaching Comprehension Processes Using Magazines, Paperback Novels, and Content Area Textbooks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nist, Sherrie L.; And Others

1983-01-01

Argues that teaching students the process of comprehension and ways to improve their own comprehension helps to develop skills in reluctant or poor readers. Offers teaching ideas that involve a variety of reading materials. (FL)

Investigating Individual Differences in General Comprehension Skill: The Role of Suppression and Enhancement

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-08-01

001, they did not differ in their performance on the Air Force Qualifying Exam (p >. 15). Neither did they differ in their performance on the three...toilet, bathtub, hair dryer, shaving cream can, toothpaste, razor, and toothbrush; and the objects typical of an orchestra were a harp, piano, violin ...conductor, horn, music stand, and violin case. We constructed 40 experimental arrays from these 10 scene types by varying the number of objects in an

Predicting reading comprehension of narrative and expository texts among Hebrew-speaking readers with and without a reading disability.

PubMed

Primor, Liron; Pierce, Margaret E; Katzir, Tami

2011-12-01

The aim of this study was to investigate which cognitive and reading-related linguistic skills contribute to reading comprehension of narrative and expository texts. The study examined an Israeli national database of Hebrew-speaking readers in fourth grade, from which a subsample of 190 readers with a reading disability (RD) and 190 readers with no reading disability (NRD) was selected. IQ, text reading, reading comprehension, and various linguistic and cognitive skills were assessed. Structural equation modeling results suggested that both groups rely on lower level processes such as text reading accuracy and orthographic knowledge for reading comprehension of both genres. However, RD readers depend more heavily upon these lower level processes compared with NRD for whom higher level processes contribute more to reading comprehension. The various variables accounted for only 25-34% of reading comprehension variance, and possible explanations are discussed. Taken together, these findings highlight the variety of factors influencing reading comprehension and its multidimensional nature.

Social dysfunction in bipolar disorder: pilot study.

PubMed

de Almeida Rocca, Cristiana Castanho; de Macedo-Soares, Marcia Britto; Gorenstein, Clarice; Tamada, Renata Sayuri; Issler, Cilly Kluger; Dias, Rodrigo Silva; Schwartzmann, Angela Maria; Lafer, Beny

2008-08-01

The purpose of the present study was to assess the social skills of euthymic patients with bipolar disorder. A group of 25 outpatients with bipolar disorder type I were evaluated in comparison with a group of 31 healthy volunteers who were matched in terms of level of education, age, sex and intelligence. Both groups were assessed using a self-report questionnaire, the Brazilian Inventario de Habilidades Sociais (IHS, Social Skills Inventory). Two Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale subtests (Picture Arrangement and Comprehension) were also used in order to assess subject ability to analyse social situations and to make judgements, respectively. Patients with bipolar disorder had lower IHS scores for the domains that assessed conversational skills/social self-confidence and social openness to new people/situations. Patients with anxiety disorders had high scores for the domain that assessed self-confidence in the expression of positive emotions. No differences were found between patients and controls in performance on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Picture Arrangement and Comprehension subtests. Euthymic patients with bipolar disorder present inhibited and overattentive behaviour in relation to other people and their environment. This behaviour might have a negative impact on their level of social functioning and quality of life.

Watching Subtitled Films Can Help Learning Foreign Languages.

PubMed

Birulés-Muntané, J; Soto-Faraco, S

2016-01-01

Watching English-spoken films with subtitles is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. One reason for this trend is the assumption that perceptual learning of the sounds of a foreign language, English, will improve perception skills in non-English speakers. Yet, solid proof for this is scarce. In order to test the potential learning effects derived from watching subtitled media, a group of intermediate Spanish students of English as a foreign language watched a 1h-long episode of a TV drama in its original English version, with English, Spanish or no subtitles overlaid. Before and after the viewing, participants took a listening and vocabulary test to evaluate their speech perception and vocabulary acquisition in English, plus a final plot comprehension test. The results of the listening skills tests revealed that after watching the English subtitled version, participants improved these skills significantly more than after watching the Spanish subtitled or no-subtitles versions. The vocabulary test showed no reliable differences between subtitled conditions. Finally, as one could expect, plot comprehension was best under native, Spanish subtitles. These learning effects with just 1 hour exposure might have major implications with longer exposure times.

Watching Subtitled Films Can Help Learning Foreign Languages

PubMed Central

Birulés-Muntané, J.; Soto-Faraco, S.

2016-01-01

Watching English-spoken films with subtitles is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. One reason for this trend is the assumption that perceptual learning of the sounds of a foreign language, English, will improve perception skills in non-English speakers. Yet, solid proof for this is scarce. In order to test the potential learning effects derived from watching subtitled media, a group of intermediate Spanish students of English as a foreign language watched a 1h-long episode of a TV drama in its original English version, with English, Spanish or no subtitles overlaid. Before and after the viewing, participants took a listening and vocabulary test to evaluate their speech perception and vocabulary acquisition in English, plus a final plot comprehension test. The results of the listening skills tests revealed that after watching the English subtitled version, participants improved these skills significantly more than after watching the Spanish subtitled or no-subtitles versions. The vocabulary test showed no reliable differences between subtitled conditions. Finally, as one could expect, plot comprehension was best under native, Spanish subtitles. These learning effects with just 1 hour exposure might have major implications with longer exposure times. PMID:27355343

Measuring Listening Comprehension Skills of 5th Grade School Students with the Help of Web Based System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acat, M. Bahaddin; Demiral, Hilmi; Kaya, Mehmet Fatih

2016-01-01

The main purpose of this study is to measure listening comprehension skills of 5th grade school students with the help of web based system. This study was conducted on 5th grade students studying at the primary schools of Eskisehir. The scale used in the process of the study is "Web Based Listening Scale". In the process of the study,…

Receptive Language Skills in Slovak-Speaking Children With Intellectual Disability: Understanding Words, Sentences, and Stories.

PubMed

Polišenská, Kamila; Kapalková, Svetlana; Novotková, Monika

2018-06-05

The study aims to describe receptive language skills in children with intellectual disability (ID) and to contribute to the debate on deviant versus delayed language development. This is the 1st study of receptive skills in children with ID who speak a Slavic language, providing insight into how language development is affected by disability and also language typology. Twenty-eight Slovak-speaking children participated in the study (14 children with ID and 14 typically developing [TD] children matched on nonverbal reasoning abilities). The children were assessed by receptive language tasks targeting words, sentences, and stories, and the groups were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. The groups showed similar language profiles, with a better understanding of words, followed by sentences, with the poorest comprehension for stories. Nouns were comprehended better than verbs; sentence constructions also showed a qualitatively similar picture, although some dissimilarities emerged. Verb comprehension was strongly related to sentence comprehension in both groups and related to story comprehension in the TD group only. The findings appear to support the view that receptive language skills follow the same developmental route in children with ID as seen in younger TD children, suggesting that language development is a robust process and does not seem to be differentially affected by ID even when delayed.

Reassessing word frequency as a determinant of word recognition for skilled and unskilled readers

PubMed Central

Kuperman, Victor; Van Dyke, Julie A.

2013-01-01

The importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension emphasizes the need to accurately assess an individual’s familiarity with words. The present article highlights problems with using occurrence counts in corpora as an index of word familiarity, especially when studying individuals varying in reading experience. We demonstrate via computational simulations and norming studies that corpus-based word frequencies systematically overestimate strengths of word representations, especially in the low-frequency range and in smaller-size vocabularies. Experience-driven differences in word familiarity prove to be faithfully captured by the subjective frequency ratings collected from responders at different experience levels. When matched on those levels, this lexical measure explains more variance than corpus-based frequencies in eye-movement and lexical decision latencies to English words, attested in populations with varied reading experience and skill. Furthermore, the use of subjective frequencies removes the widely reported (corpus) frequency-by-skill interaction, showing that more skilled readers are equally faster in processing any word than the less skilled readers, not disproportionally faster in processing lower-frequency words. This finding challenges the view that the more skilled an individual is in generic mechanisms of word processing the less reliant he/she will be on the actual lexical characteristics of that word. PMID:23339352

How Spoken Language Comprehension is Achieved by Older Listeners in Difficult Listening Situations.

PubMed

Schneider, Bruce A; Avivi-Reich, Meital; Daneman, Meredyth

2016-01-01

Comprehending spoken discourse in noisy situations is likely to be more challenging to older adults than to younger adults due to potential declines in the auditory, cognitive, or linguistic processes supporting speech comprehension. These challenges might force older listeners to reorganize the ways in which they perceive and process speech, thereby altering the balance between the contributions of bottom-up versus top-down processes to speech comprehension. The authors review studies that investigated the effect of age on listeners' ability to follow and comprehend lectures (monologues), and two-talker conversations (dialogues), and the extent to which individual differences in lexical knowledge and reading comprehension skill relate to individual differences in speech comprehension. Comprehension was evaluated after each lecture or conversation by asking listeners to answer multiple-choice questions regarding its content. Once individual differences in speech recognition for words presented in babble were compensated for, age differences in speech comprehension were minimized if not eliminated. However, younger listeners benefited more from spatial separation than did older listeners. Vocabulary knowledge predicted the comprehension scores of both younger and older listeners when listening was difficult, but not when it was easy. However, the contribution of reading comprehension to listening comprehension appeared to be independent of listening difficulty in younger adults but not in older adults. The evidence suggests (1) that most of the difficulties experienced by older adults are due to age-related auditory declines, and (2) that these declines, along with listening difficulty, modulate the degree to which selective linguistic and cognitive abilities are engaged to support listening comprehension in difficult listening situations. When older listeners experience speech recognition difficulties, their attentional resources are more likely to be deployed to facilitate lexical access, making it difficult for them to fully engage higher-order cognitive abilities in support of listening comprehension.

Syntax and reading comprehension: a meta-analysis of different spoken-syntax assessments.

PubMed

Brimo, Danielle; Lund, Emily; Sapp, Alysha

2018-05-01

Syntax is a language skill purported to support children's reading comprehension. However, researchers who have examined whether children with average and below-average reading comprehension score significantly different on spoken-syntax assessments report inconsistent results. To determine if differences in how syntax is measured affect whether children with average and below-average reading comprehension score significantly different on spoken-syntax assessments. Studies that included a group comparison design, children with average and below-average reading comprehension, and a spoken-syntax assessment were selected for review. Fourteen articles from a total of 1281 reviewed met the inclusionary criteria. The 14 articles were coded for the age of the children, score on the reading comprehension assessment, type of spoken-syntax assessment, type of syntax construct measured and score on the spoken-syntax assessment. A random-effects model was used to analyze the difference between the effect sizes of the types of spoken-syntax assessments and the difference between the effect sizes of the syntax construct measured. There was a significant difference between children with average and below-average reading comprehension on spoken-syntax assessments. Those with average and below-average reading comprehension scored significantly different on spoken-syntax assessments when norm-referenced and researcher-created assessments were compared. However, when the type of construct was compared, children with average and below-average reading comprehension scored significantly different on assessments that measured knowledge of spoken syntax, but not on assessments that measured awareness of spoken syntax. The results of this meta-analysis confirmed that the type of spoken-syntax assessment, whether norm-referenced or researcher-created, did not explain why some researchers reported that there were no significant differences between children with average and below-average reading comprehension, but the syntax construct, awareness or knowledge, did. Thus, when selecting how to measure syntax among school-age children, researchers and practitioners should evaluate whether they are measuring children's awareness of spoken syntax or knowledge of spoken syntax. Other differences, such as participant diagnosis and the format of items on the spoken-syntax assessments, also were discussed as possible explanations for why researchers found that children with average and below-average reading comprehension did not score significantly differently on spoken-syntax assessments. © 2017 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

Palliative Care: Delivering Comprehensive Oncology Nursing Care.

PubMed

Dahlin, Constance

2015-11-01

To describe palliative care as part of comprehensive oncology nursing care. A review of the palliative care, oncology, and nursing literature over the past 10 years. Palliative care is mandated as part of comprehensive cancer care. A cancer diagnosis often results in distress in the physical, psychosocial, spiritual, and emotional domains of care. Oncology nurses are essential in providing palliative care from diagnosis to death to patients with cancer. They address the myriad aspects of cancer. With palliative care skills and knowledge, oncology nurses can provide quality cancer care. There are many opportunities in which oncology nurses can promote palliative care. Oncology nurses must obtain knowledge and skills in primary palliative care to provide comprehensive cancer care. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigating Morphological Awareness and the Processing of Transparent and Opaque Words in Adults with Low Literacy Skills and in Skilled Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

To, Nancy L.; Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Binder, Katherine S.

2016-01-01

For adults with low literacy skills, the role of phonology in reading has been fairly well researched, but less is known about the role of morphology in reading. We investigated the contribution of morphological awareness to word reading and reading comprehension and found that for adults with low literacy skills and skilled readers, morphological…

Information fluency: Where to start

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viele, Pat

2012-09-01

There are many different definitions of information literacy, but perhaps the best succinct and comprehensive definition is: Information literacy (or fluency) is a set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information." This skill set will be invaluable throughout life in making informed decisions.

Elementary School Preservice Teachers' Competencies in the Field of Patterns under the Process of Scientific Skills Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inan, Cemil

2015-01-01

Probably the simplest and most comprehensive definition to be made regarding the question of "what is mathematics?" will be that "mathematics is a science of patterns and relationships". It is possible to examine patterns in different levels of difficulty and importance from preschool period to advanced levels. In fact, the…

Relationship between the Learning Hierarchy and Academic Achievement on Strategies Used by Third-Grade Students When Solving Multiplication Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kanive, Rebecca A.

2016-01-01

Distinguishing between sources of variability in mathematics performance may contribute to a more comprehensive theory of mathematics skills. Research has examined student differences based upon scores on achievement tests, which provide overall proficiency, but may not provide the detailed information for identifying and remediating difficulties.…

Cross-Language Transfer in English Immersion Programs in Germany: Reading Comprehension and Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gebauer, Sandra Kristina; Zaunbauer, Anna C. M.; Moller, Jens

2013-01-01

Cross-language effects on reading skills are of particular interest in the context of foreign language immersion programs. Although there is an extensive literature on cross-language effects on reading in general, research focusing on immersion students and including different dimensions of reading acquisition such as reading fluency and reading…

The Genetic Architecture of Oral Language, Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension: A Twin Study from 7 to 16 Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tosto, Maria G.; Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E.; Harlaar, Nicole; Prom-Wormley, Elizabeth; Dale, Philip S.; Plomin, Robert

2017-01-01

This study examines the genetic and environmental etiology underlying the development of oral language and reading skills, and the relationship between them, over a long period of developmental time spanning middle childhood and adolescence. It focuses particularly on the differential relationship between language and two different aspects of…

For US Students, L2 Reading Comprehension Is Hard Because L2 Listening Comprehension Is Hard, Too

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard; Patton, Jon; Luebbers, Julie

2018-01-01

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) model posits that reading is the product of word decoding and language comprehension and that oral language (listening) comprehension is the best predictor of reading comprehension once word-decoding skill has been established. The SVR model also proposes that there are good readers and three types of poor…

Reading comprehension skills of young adults with childhood diagnoses of dyslexia.

PubMed

Ransby, Marilyn J; Swanson, H Lee

2003-01-01

This study explores the contribution of cognitive processes to comprehension skills in adults who suffered from childhood developmental dyslexia (CD). The performance of adults with CD (ages 17 to 23), chronological age-matched (CA) adults, and reading level-matched (RL) children was compared on measures of phonological processing, naming speed, working memory (WM), general knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension. The results showed that adults with CD scored lower on measures of phonological processing, naming speed, WM, general knowledge, and vocabulary when compared to CA readers but were comparable to RL children on the majority of process measures. Phonological processing, naming speed, vocabulary, general knowledge, and listening comprehension contributed independent variance to reading comprehension accuracy, whereas WM, intelligence, phonological processing, and listening comprehension contributed independent variance to comprehension fluency. Adults with CD scored lower than CA adults and higher than RL children on measures of lexical processing, WM, and listening comprehension when word recognition and intelligence were partialed from the analysis. In summary, constraints in phonological processing and naming speed mediate only some of the influence of high-order processes on reading comprehension. Furthermore, adults with CD experience difficulties in WM, listening comprehension, and vocabulary independently of their word recognition problems and intellectual ability.

EFFECTIVENESS OF A COMPREHENSIVE MENTAL SKILLS CURRICULUM IN ENHANCING SURGICAL PERFORMANCE: RESULTS OF A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL

PubMed Central

Stefanidis, Dimitrios; Anton, Nicholas E; Howley, Lisa D; Bean, Eric; Yurco, Ashley; Pimentel, Manuel E; Davis, Cameron K

2016-01-01

Introduction We hypothesized that the implementation of a novel mental skills curriculum (MSC) during laparoscopic simulator training would improve mental skills and performance, and decrease stress. Methods Sixty volunteer novices were randomized into intervention and control groups. All participants received FLS training while the intervention group also participated in the MSC. Skill transfer and retention were assessed on a live porcine model after training and 2 months later, respectively. Performance was assessed using the Test of Performance Strategies-2 (TOPS-2) for mental skills, FLS metrics for laparoscopic performance, and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-6) and heart rate (HR) for stress. Results Fifty-five participants (92%) completed training and the transfer test, and 46 (77%) the retention test. There were no significant differences between groups at baseline. Compared to controls the intervention group significantly improved their mental skill use, demonstrated higher laparoscopic skill improvement during retention, and reported less stress during the transfer test. Conclusions The MSC implemented in this study effectively enhanced participants’ mental skill use, reduced cognitive stress in the operating room with a small impact on laparoscopic performance. PMID:27908500

Identifying the Effects of Specific CHC Factors on College Students' Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taub, Gordon E.; Benson, Nicholas

2013-01-01

Reading comprehension is an important skill for college academic success. Much of the research pertaining to reading in general, and reading comprehension specifically, focuses on the success of primary and secondary school-age students. The present study goes beyond previous research by extending such investigation to the reading comprehension of…

How logical reasoning mediates the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension.

PubMed

Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

The present study aimed to examine the role of logical reasoning in the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension in 146 fourth grade Dutch children. We assessed their standardized reading comprehension measure, along with their decoding efficiency and vocabulary as measures of lexical quality, syllogistic reasoning as measure of (verbal) logical reasoning, and nonverbal reasoning as a control measure. Syllogistic reasoning was divided into a measure tapping basic, coherence inferencing skill using logical syllogisms, and a measure tapping elaborative inferencing skill using indeterminate syllogisms. Results showed that both types of syllogisms partly mediated the relation between lexical quality and reading comprehension, but also had a unique additional effect on reading comprehension. The indirect effect of lexical quality on reading comprehension via syllogisms was driven by vocabulary knowledge. It is concluded that measures of syllogistic reasoning account for higher-order thinking processes that are needed to make inferences in reading comprehension. The role of lexical quality appears to be pivotal in explaining the variation in reading comprehension both directly and indirectly via syllogistic reasoning.

The Relationship between Parents' Literacy Skills and Their Preschool Children's Emergent Literacy Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Nicole A.; Greenberg, Daphne; Terry, Nicole Patton

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the correlational and predictive relationships between parents with low literacy skills (n = 96) and their 3-5 year old children's emergent literacy skills (n = 96). In the study parents were assessed on measures of reading comprehension, decoding, fluency, oral vocabulary, and word identification,…

Reading Self-Efficacy Predicts Word Reading But Not Comprehension in Both Girls and Boys.

PubMed

Carroll, Julia M; Fox, Amy C

2016-01-01

The relationship between cognitive skills and reading has been well-established. However, the role of motivational factors such as self-efficacy in reading progress is less clear. In particular, it is not clear how self-efficacy relates to word level reading versus comprehension, and whether this differs in boys and girls. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, word reading and reading comprehension across the range of reading abilities after controlling for reading-related cognitive factors. One hundred and seventy nine children (86 males and 93 females) between 8 and 11 years old completed a self-report measure of reading self-efficacy together with measures of reading comprehension and word reading, working memory, auditory short-term memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Boys and girls showed similar levels of attainment and reading self-efficacy. Reading self-efficacy was associated with word reading, but not with reading comprehension in either boys or girls. It is argued that this may reflect important differences between reading self-efficacy and more general measures of reading motivation and engagement. Reading self-efficacy is an element of reading motivation that is closely associated with a child's perceived attainments in reading and is less susceptible to the gender differences seen in broader measures.

Reading Self-Efficacy Predicts Word Reading But Not Comprehension in Both Girls and Boys

PubMed Central

Carroll, Julia M.; Fox, Amy C.

2017-01-01

The relationship between cognitive skills and reading has been well-established. However, the role of motivational factors such as self-efficacy in reading progress is less clear. In particular, it is not clear how self-efficacy relates to word level reading versus comprehension, and whether this differs in boys and girls. This study examines the relationship between self-efficacy, word reading and reading comprehension across the range of reading abilities after controlling for reading-related cognitive factors. One hundred and seventy nine children (86 males and 93 females) between 8 and 11 years old completed a self-report measure of reading self-efficacy together with measures of reading comprehension and word reading, working memory, auditory short-term memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Boys and girls showed similar levels of attainment and reading self-efficacy. Reading self-efficacy was associated with word reading, but not with reading comprehension in either boys or girls. It is argued that this may reflect important differences between reading self-efficacy and more general measures of reading motivation and engagement. Reading self-efficacy is an element of reading motivation that is closely associated with a child’s perceived attainments in reading and is less susceptible to the gender differences seen in broader measures. PMID:28144223

Measuring the Acquisition of Media-Literacy Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hobbs, Renee; Frost, Richard

2003-01-01

Explains that students who participated in a Grade 11 English media/communication course that incorporated extensive critical media analysis were compared with students who received no such instruction. Notes that the students' reading comprehension, writing skills, critical reading, critical listening, and critical viewing skills for nonfiction…

Predictors of nutrition information comprehension in adulthood.

PubMed

Miller, Lisa M Soederberg; Gibson, Tanja N; Applegate, Elizabeth A

2010-07-01

The goal of the present study was to examine relationships among several predictors of nutrition comprehension. We were particularly interested in exploring whether nutrition knowledge or motivation moderated the effects of attention on comprehension across a wide age range of adults. Ninety-three participants, ages 18-80, completed measures of nutrition knowledge and motivation and then read nutrition information (from which attention allocation was derived) and answered comprehension questions. In general, predictor variables were highly intercorrelated. However, knowledge, but not motivation, had direct effects on comprehension accuracy. In contrast, motivation influenced attention, which in turn influenced accuracy. Results also showed that comprehension accuracy decreased-and knowledge increased-with age. When knowledge was statistically controlled, age declines in comprehension increased. Knowledge is an important predictor of nutrition information comprehension and its role increases in later life. Motivation is also important; however, its effects on comprehension differ from knowledge. Health educators and clinicians should consider cognitive skills such as knowledge as well as motivation and age of patients when deciding how to best convey health information. The increased role of knowledge among older adults suggests that lifelong educational efforts may have important payoffs in later life. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predictors of Nutrition Information Comprehension in Adulthood

PubMed Central

Miller, Lisa M. Soederberg; Gibson, Tanja N.; Applegate, Elizabeth A.

2009-01-01

Objective The goal of the present study was to examine relationships among several predictors of nutrition comprehension. We were particularly interested in exploring whether nutrition knowledge or motivation moderated the effects of attention on comprehension across a wide age range of adults. Methods Ninety-three participants, ages 18 to 80, completed measures of nutrition knowledge and motivation and then read nutrition information (from which attention allocation was derived) and answered comprehension questions. Results In general, predictor variables were highly intercorrelated. However, knowledge, but not motivation, had direct effects on comprehension accuracy. In contrast, motivation influenced attention, which in turn influenced accuracy. Results also showed that comprehension accuracy decreased- and knowledge increased -with age. When knowledge was statistically controlled, age declines in comprehension increased. Conclusion Knowledge is an important predictor of nutrition information comprehension and its role increases in later life. Motivation is also important; however, its effects on comprehension differ from knowledge. Practice Implications Health educators and clinicians should consider cognitive skills such as knowledge as well as motivation and age of patients when deciding how to best convey health information. The increased role of knowledge among older adults suggests that lifelong educational efforts may have important payoffs in later life. PMID:19854605

An analysis of the reading strategies used by adult and student deaf readers.

PubMed

Banner, Alyssa; Wang, Ye

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify and examine effective reading strategies used by adult deaf readers compared with student deaf readers. There were a total of 11 participants: 5 deaf adults ranging from 27 to 36 years and 6 deaf students ranging from 16 to 20 years. Assessment methods included interview and think-aloud procedures in which individuals were interrupted 3 times during the reading of a text to answer questions about their internal cognitive processes. It was found that both student and adult groups had highly skilled readers who demonstrated higher level reading strategies and less skilled readers who demonstrated lower level strategies, and only the highest skilled reader demonstrated both breadth and depth of strategies in all three categories: "constructing meaning," "monitoring and improving comprehension," and "evaluating comprehension." The study contributes evidence toward two identified gaps in the existing body of research: (a) the lack of investigation into the reading strategies utilized by deaf readers in text comprehension and (b) the overemphasis of most research on studying less skilled deaf readers while overlooking highly proficient deaf readers.

Using Comprehensive Video-Module Instruction as an Alternative Approach for Teaching IUD Insertion.

PubMed

Garcia-Rodriguez, Juan Antonio; Donnon, Tyrone

2016-01-01

Family medicine clinicians and residents have increasing educational and work demands that have made it difficult to provide and access training on specific procedures such as IUD insertion. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of video-module instruction could provide residents with the necessary knowledge and skills to perform an IUD insertion correctly when compared with the traditional form of instruction, which is a lecture-demonstration session provided by an academic gynecologist. Thirty-nine family medicine residents participated in the study during the induction period at the beginning of their residency program in July 2012 at the University of Calgary. A randomized, two group pretest/posttest experimental research design was used to compare the procedural knowledge and skills performance (posttest only) of residents trained using an alternative instructional intervention (video-module teaching) with the traditional lecture-demonstration approach to teaching IUD insertion. Both teaching methods were effective in providing procedural knowledge instruction, and the paired-samples t tests results were almost identical: t (37)=1.35. On the other hand, performance scores were significantly higher in the video-module group: t (37)=2.37, 95% CI (0.61, 8.00), with a mean difference in performance of 4.31. There were no significant differences in residents' satisfaction scores, and there was no correlation between the different scores and sex or age or between performance and level of satisfaction. This video-module instruction is an effective method to provide comprehensive IUD insertion training, and the psychomotor skills gain (performance component) was significantly higher than the traditional method of instruction.

The Effect of a Computer Program Based on Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) in Improving Ninth Graders' Listening and Reading Comprehension Skills in English in Jordan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alodwan, Talal; Almosa, Mosaab

2018-01-01

The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a computer program based on Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) Model on the achievement of Ninth Graders' listening and Reading Comprehension Skills in English. The study sample comprised 70 ninth graders during the second semester of the academic year 2016/2017. The…

The Effects of Repeated Reading on the Fluency and Comprehension Skills of Elementary-Age Students with Learning Disabilities (LD), 2001-2011: A Review of Research and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strickland, Whitney D.; Boon, Richard T.; Spencer, Vicky G.

2013-01-01

This article provides an extensive review of the literature on the use of repeated reading to improve the reading fluency and comprehension skills of elementary-age students with learning disabilities. A systematic review of the published literature from 2001 to 2011 was conducted and nineteen (N = 19) research-based repeated reading studies were…

Deficits in working memory, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills in children with mouth breathing syndrome: analytical cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Kuroishi, Rita Cristina Sadako; Garcia, Ricardo Basso; Valera, Fabiana Cardoso Pereira; Anselmo-Lima, Wilma Terezinha; Fukuda, Marisa Tomoe Hebihara

2015-01-01

Mouth breathing syndrome is very common among school-age children, and it is possibly related to learning difficulties and low academic achievement. In this study, we investigated working memory, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills in children with nasal and mouth breathing. Analytical cross-sectional study with control group conducted in a public university hospital. 42 children (mean age = 8.7 years) who had been identified as mouth breathers were compared with a control group (mean age = 8.4 years) matched for age and schooling. All the participants underwent a clinical interview, tone audiometry, otorhinolaryngological evaluation and cognitive assessment of phonological working memory (numbers and pseudowords), reading comprehension and arithmetic skills. Children with mouth breathing had poorer performance than controls, regarding reading comprehension (P = 0.006), arithmetic (P = 0.025) and working memory for pseudowords (P = 0.002), but not for numbers (P = 0.76). Children with mouth breathing have low academic achievement and poorer phonological working memory than controls. Teachers and healthcare professionals should be aware of the association of mouth breathing with children's physical and cognitive health.

A comprehensive model for diagnosing the causes of individual medical performance problems: skills, knowledge, internal, past and external factors (SKIPE).

PubMed

Norfolk, Tim; Siriwardena, A Niroshan

2013-01-01

This discussion paper describes a new and comprehensive model for diagnosing the causes of individual medical performance problems: SKIPE (skills, knowledge, internal, past and external factors). This builds on a previous paper describing a unifying theory of clinical practice, the RDM-p model, which captures the primary skill sets required for effective medical performance (relationship, diagnostics and management), and the professionalism that needs to underpin them. The SKIPE model is currently being used, in conjunction with the RDM-p model, for the in-depth assessment and management of doctors whose performance is a cause for concern.

Dichotic listening performance predicts language comprehension.

PubMed

Asbjørnsen, Arve E; Helland, Turid

2006-05-01

Dichotic listening performance is considered a reliable and valid procedure for the assessment of language lateralisation in the brain. However, the documentation of a relationship between language functions and dichotic listening performance is sparse, although it is accepted that dichotic listening measures language perception. In particular, language comprehension should show close correspondence to perception of language stimuli. In the present study, we tested samples of reading-impaired and normally achieving children between 10 and 13 years of age with tests of reading skills, language comprehension, and dichotic listening to consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. A high correlation between the language scores and the dichotic listening performance was expected. However, since the left ear score is believed to be an error when assessing language laterality, covariation was expected for the right ear scores only. In addition, directing attention to one ear input was believed to reduce the influence of random factors, and thus show a more concise estimate of left hemisphere language capacity. Thus, a stronger correlation between language comprehension skills and the dichotic listening performance when attending to the right ear was expected. The analyses yielded a positive correlation between the right ear score in DL and language comprehension, an effect that was stronger when attending to the right ear. The present results confirm the assumption that dichotic listening with CV syllables measures an aspect of language perception and language skills that is related to general language comprehension.

Enhancing Memory Access for Less Skilled Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Emily R.; O'Brien, Edward J.

2016-01-01

Less skilled readers' comprehension often suffers because they have an impoverished representation of text in long-term memory; this, in turn, increases the difficulty of gaining access to backgrounded information necessary for maintaining coherence. The results of four experiments demonstrated that providing less skilled readers with additional…

The role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension among typical and learning disabled native Arabic speakers.

PubMed

Mahfoudhi, Abdessatar; Elbeheri, Gad; Al-Rashidi, Mousa; Everatt, John

2010-01-01

This work examines the role of morphological awareness in contrast to phonological processing in reading comprehension amongst two groups of native Arabic children: a group with learning disabilities (LD) and a mainstream group who were matched to the LD group in age or reading level. Measures of reading comprehension fluency, phonological skills, and morphological ability were given to both groups in addition to tests of nonverbal ability. For the mainstream children, unique variability in comprehension was predicted by the morphological measures over that of the measures of phonological skills and general nonverbal ability. In contrast, for the LD data, variability in comprehension was not predicted by morphological ability even though the children with LD performed the morphology task as well as their typically developing peers did. These findings are discussed in terms of theories of reading acquisition across languages as well as recommendations for literacy teaching and LD intervention in Arabic.

Comprehensive simulation-enhanced training curriculum for an advanced minimally invasive procedure: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Zevin, Boris; Dedy, Nicolas J; Bonrath, Esther M; Grantcharov, Teodor P

2017-05-01

There is no comprehensive simulation-enhanced training curriculum to address cognitive, psychomotor, and nontechnical skills for an advanced minimally invasive procedure. 1) To develop and provide evidence of validity for a comprehensive simulation-enhanced training (SET) curriculum for an advanced minimally invasive procedure; (2) to demonstrate transfer of acquired psychomotor skills from a simulation laboratory to live porcine model; and (3) to compare training outcomes of SET curriculum group and chief resident group. University. This prospective single-blinded, randomized, controlled trial allocated 20 intermediate-level surgery residents to receive either conventional training (control) or SET curriculum training (intervention). The SET curriculum consisted of cognitive, psychomotor, and nontechnical training modules. Psychomotor skills in a live anesthetized porcine model in the OR was the primary outcome. Knowledge of advanced minimally invasive and bariatric surgery and nontechnical skills in a simulated OR crisis scenario were the secondary outcomes. Residents in the SET curriculum group went on to perform a laparoscopic jejunojejunostomy in the OR. Cognitive, psychomotor, and nontechnical skills of SET curriculum group were also compared to a group of 12 chief surgery residents. SET curriculum group demonstrated superior psychomotor skills in a live porcine model (56 [47-62] versus 44 [38-53], P<.05) and superior nontechnical skills (41 [38-45] versus 31 [24-40], P<.01) compared with conventional training group. SET curriculum group and conventional training group demonstrated equivalent knowledge (14 [12-15] versus 13 [11-15], P = 0.47). SET curriculum group demonstrated equivalent psychomotor skills in the live porcine model and in the OR in a human patient (56 [47-62] versus 63 [61-68]; P = .21). SET curriculum group demonstrated inferior knowledge (13 [11-15] versus 16 [14-16]; P<.05), equivalent psychomotor skill (63 [61-68] versus 68 [62-74]; P = .50), and superior nontechnical skills (41 [38-45] versus 34 [27-35], P<.01) compared with chief resident group. Completion of the SET curriculum resulted in superior training outcomes, compared with conventional surgery training. Implementation of the SET curriculum can standardize training for an advanced minimally invasive procedure and can ensure that comprehensive proficiency milestones are met before exposure to patient care. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving text comprehension strategies in upper primary school children: a design experiment.

PubMed

De Corte, E; Verschaffel, L; Van De Ven, A

2001-12-01

With respect to the acquisition of competence in reading, new standards for primary education stress more than before the importance of learning and teaching cognitive and metacognitive strategies that facilitate text comprehension. Therefore, there is a need to design a research-based instructional approach to strategic reading comprehension. The design experiment aimed at developing, implementing and evaluating a research-based, but also practically applicable learning environment for enhancing skilled strategy use in upper primary school children when reading a text. Four text comprehension strategies (activating prior knowledge, clarifying difficult words, making a schematic representation of the text, and formulating the main idea) and a metacognitive strategy (regulating one's own reading process) were trained through a variety of highly interactive instructional techniques, namely modelling, whole class discussion, and small group work in the format of reciprocal teaching. Participants in the study were four experimental 5th grade classes (79 children) and eight comparable control classes (149 pupils). The effects of the learning environment were measured using a pretest-post-test-retention design. Multilevel hierarchical linear regression models were used to analyse the quantitative data of a Reading Strategy Test, a standardised Reading Comprehension Test, a Reading Attitude Scale, a Transfer Test and an interview about strategy use during reading. The data of the Reading Strategy Test, the Transfer Test and the interviews about strategy use showed that the experimental group out-performed the control group in terms of the strategy adoption and application during text reading. Whilst the experimental group also scored higher on the Reading Comprehension Test than the control group, the difference was not significant. This design experiment shows that it is possible to foster pupils' use and transfer of strategic reading comprehension skills in regular classrooms by immersing them in a powerful learning environment. But this intervention does not automatically result in improvement of performance on a standardised reading comprehension test.

Teacher-Directed and Student-Mediated Textbook Comprehension Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Catharine J.; Salend, Spencer J.

1990-01-01

The article describes teacher-directed and student-mediated comprehension strategies to improve the text comprehension skills of mainstreamed students with mild disabilities. Techniques include advance organizers, study guides, color coding, oral reading, critical thinking maps, and self-questioning techniques. Guidelines are offered for assessing…

The Comprehension Approach to Foreign Language Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winitz, Harris, Ed.

The comprehension approach to second language education emphasizes acquisition of listening comprehension prior to and as a vehicle for acquisition of other language skills. The following articles on this approach are collected here: (1) "Nonlinear Learning and Language Teaching" (Winitz); (2) "Aital cal aprene las lengas…

Echoic Memory Interference and Comprehension in a Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greenberg, Seth N.; Roscoe, Suzanne

1988-01-01

Study of echoic memory interference among students in college introductory Spanish and German courses revealed that students with weaker listening comprehension skills depended more upon vulnerable sensory codes in echoic memory, while students with stronger comprehension relied on stable higher-order codes. (Author/CB)

Patterns of language and discourse comprehension skills in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Asberg, Jakob

2010-12-01

The present study examined patterns of language and discourse comprehension skills in Swedish school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) (n = 16) as compared to a slightly younger group of typically developing children (n = 16) matched for non-verbal cognitive ability. Results suggested significantly lower abilities in narrative discourse comprehension for the ASD group, but not in oral receptive vocabulary or reception of grammar. This difficulty with discourse-level comprehension appeared to be of a general nature, as no evidence was found for the hypothesis that participants with ASD would find comprehension of inferential discourse information disproportionally more difficult than stated information, or for the hypothesis that discourse processing in ASD would be characterized by an elevated processing of explicitly stated narrative details. The study has clinical and educational implications, as the findings suggest that children with ASD would benefit from being offered specific support for discourse-level comprehension. © 2010 The Author. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

How Specific Are Specific Comprehension Difficulties? An Investigation of Poor Reading Comprehension in Nine-Year-Olds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rønberg, Louise Flensted; Petersen, Dorthe Klint

2016-01-01

This study explores the incidence of poor comprehenders, that is, children identified as having reading comprehension difficulties, despite age-appropriate word reading skills. It supports the findings that some children do show poor reading comprehension, despite age-appropriate word reading, as measured with a phonological coding test. However,…

The Role of First-Language Listening Comprehension in Second-Language Reading Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edele, Aileen; Stanat, Petra

2016-01-01

Although the simple view of reading and other theories suggest that listening comprehension is an important determinant of reading comprehension, previous research on linguistic transfer has mainly focused on the role of first language (L1) decoding skills in second language (L2) reading. The present study tested the assumption that listening…

The Effect of Font Size on Reading Comprehension on Second and Fifth Grade Children: Bigger Is Not Always Better

PubMed Central

Katzir, Tami; Hershko, Shirley; Halamish, Vered

2013-01-01

Research on reading development has focused on the linguistic, cognitive, and recently, metacognitive skills children must master in order to learn to read. Less focus has been devoted to how the text itself, namely the perceptual features of the words, affects children’s learning and comprehension. In this study, we manipulated perceptual properties of text by presenting reading passages in different font sizes, line lengths, and line spacing to 100 children in the second and fifth grades. For second graders (Experiment 1), decreasing font size, as well as increasing line length, yielded significantly lower comprehension scores. Line spacing had no effect on performance. For fifth graders (Experiment 2), decreasing font size yielded higher comprehension scores, yet there were no effects for line length and line spacing. Results are discussed within a "desirable difficulty" approach to reading development. PMID:24069266

Executive Functions Contribute Uniquely to Reading Competence in Minority Youth

PubMed Central

Jacobson, Lisa A.; Koriakin, Taylor; Lipkin, Paul; Boada, Richard; Frijters, Jan; Lovett, Maureen; Hill, Dina; Willcutt, Erik; Gottwald, Stephanie; Wolf, Maryanne; Bosson-Heenan, Joan; Gruen, Jeffrey R.; Mahone, E. Mark

2018-01-01

Competent reading requires various skills beyond those for basic word reading (i.e., core language skills, rapid naming, phonological processing). Contributing “higher-level” or domain-general processes include information processing speed and executive functions (working memory, strategic problem solving, attentional switching). Research in this area has relied on largely Caucasian samples, with limited representation of children from racial or ethnic minority groups. This study examined contributions of executive skills to reading competence in 761 children of minority backgrounds. Hierarchical linear regressions examined unique contributions of executive functions (EF) to word reading, fluency, and comprehension. EF contributed uniquely to reading performance, over and above reading-related language skills; working memory contributed uniquely to all components of reading; while attentional switching, but not problem solving, contributed to isolated and contextual word reading and reading fluency. Problem solving uniquely predicted comprehension, suggesting that this skill may be especially important for reading comprehension in minority youth. Attentional switching may play a unique role in development of reading fluency in minority youth, perhaps as a result of the increased demand for switching between spoken versus written dialects. Findings have implications for educational and clinical practice with regard to reading instruction, remedial reading intervention, and assessment of individuals with reading difficulty. PMID:26755569

Assessment of training needs and preferences for geographic information systems (GIS) mapping in state comprehensive cancer-control programs.

PubMed

Hopfer, Suellen; Chadwick, Amy E; Parrott, Roxanne L; Ghetian, Christie B; Lengerich, Eugene J

2009-10-01

Geographic information systems (GIS) mapping technologies have potential to advance public health promotion by mapping regional differences in attributes (e.g., disease burden, environmental exposures, access to health care services) to suggest priorities for public health interventions. Training in GIS for comprehensive cancer control (CCC) has been overlooked. State CCC programs' GIS training needs were assessed by interviewing 49 state CCC directors. A majority perceived a need for GIS training, slightly more than half of state CCC programs had access to geocoded data, and the majority of programs did not require continuing education credits of their staff. CCC directors perceived judging maps and realizing their limitations as important skills and identified epidemiologists, CCC staff, public health officials, policy makers, and cancer coalition members as training audiences. They preferred in-class training sessions that last a few hours to a day. Lessons learned are shared to develop training programs with translatable GIS skills for CCC.

Integrating 21st Century Skills into Teaching English: Investigating Its Effect on Listening and Speaking Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashraf, Hamid; Ahmadi, Fatemeh; Hosseinnia, Mansooreh

2017-01-01

The present study intended to integrate some 21st century skills teaching into English classroom and investigate their effect on listening and reading comprehension skills. In so doing, the study used a quantitative, experimental design with 55 participants, 25 in the control group and 30 in the experimental group who were students of second high…

Reliability and Validity of the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matson, Johnny L.; Neal, Daniene; Fodstad, Jill C.; Hess, Julie A.; Mahan, Sara; Rivet, Tessa T.

2010-01-01

Social skills are an important part of development, and deficits in this area have long-term impacts on a child. As a result, clinicians should include a measure of social skills as part of a comprehensive assessment. There are a few well-researched measures of social skills that are currently used, including the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills…

Mapping the MIS Curriculum Based on Critical Skills of New Graduates: An Empirical Examination of IT Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Downey, James P.; McMurtrey, Mark E.; Zeltmann, Steven M.

2008-01-01

MIS curricula research almost always focuses on either curriculum issues or the critical skills required of new MIS graduates, rarely both. This study examines both by determining the critical skills required of new graduates, from the perspective of IT professionals in the field, then uniquely mapping those skills into a comprehensive yet…

Generalization of Skills through the Addition of Individualized Coaching: Development and Evaluation of a Social Skills Training Program in a Rural Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gottlieb, Jennifer D.; Pryzgoda, Jayde; Neal, Andrea; Schuldberg, David

2005-01-01

There has been recent interest in adding interventions that aid in skill generalization to standard social skills training programs for schizophrenia. Some of these adjunctive interventions are very comprehensive and clearly promising (e.g., IVAST; Liberman, Glynn, Blair, Ross, & Marder, 2002), but their overall cost-effectiveness and feasibility…

Associations of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior with Academic Skills – A Follow-Up Study among Primary School Children

PubMed Central

Haapala, Eero A.; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Kukkonen-Harjula, Katriina; Tompuri, Tuomo; Lintu, Niina; Väistö, Juuso; Leppänen, Paavo H. T.; Laaksonen, David E.; Lindi, Virpi; Lakka, Timo A.

2014-01-01

Background There are no prospective studies that would have compared the relationships of different types of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) with academic skills among children. We therefore investigated the associations of different types of PA and SB with reading and arithmetic skills in a follow-up study among children. Methods The participants were 186 children (107 boys, 79 girls, 6–8 yr) who were followed-up in Grades 1–3. PA and SB were assessed using a questionnaire in Grade 1. Reading fluency, reading comprehension and arithmetic skills were assessed using standardized tests at the end of Grades 1–3. Results Among all children more recess PA and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across Grades 1–3. In boys, higher levels of total PA, physically active school transportation and more time spent in SB related to academic skills were associated with a better reading fluency across the Grades 1–3. Among girls, higher levels of total PA were related to worse arithmetic skills across Grades 1–3. Moreover, total PA was directly associated with reading fluency and arithmetic skills in Grades 1–3 among girls whose parents had a university degree, whereas these relationships were inverse in girls of less educated parents. Conclusions Total PA, physically active school transportation and SB related to academic skills may be beneficial for the development of reading skills in boys, whereas factors that are independent of PA or SB may be more important for academic skills in girls. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01803776 PMID:25207813

Improving reading in the primary grades.

PubMed

Duke, Nell K; Block, Meghan K

2012-01-01

Almost fifteen years have passed since the publication of the National Research Council's seminal report Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, which provided research-based recommendations on what could be done to better position students in prekindergarten through third grade for success in grade four and above. This article by Nell Duke and Meghan Block first examines whether specific key recommendations from the report have been implemented in U.S. classrooms. They find that recommendations regarding increased access to kindergarten and greater attention to and improvement of students' word-reading skills have been widely adopted. Others have not. Vocabulary and comprehension, long neglected in the primary grades, still appear to be neglected. Contrary to the report's recommendations, attention to building conceptual and content knowledge in science and social studies has actually decreased in the past fifteen years. In other words, the easier-to-master skills are being attended to, but the broader domains of accomplishment that constitute preparation for comprehension and learning in the later grades--vocabulary knowledge, comprehension strategy use, and conceptual and content knowledge--are being neglected. Near stagnation in fourth-grade students' comprehension achievement is thus unsurprising. The authors then turn to research and reviews of research on improving primary-grade reading published since 1998, when Preventing Reading Difficulties was issued. They discuss several instructional approaches identified as effective in improving word-reading skill, vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, comprehension strategies, and reading outside of school; they discuss advances in interventions for struggling readers, and in whole-school literacy reform. Duke and Block then identify three key obstacles that have prevented widespread adoption of these best practices in teaching reading. The first obstacle is a short-term orientation toward instruction and instructional reform that perpetuates a focus on the easier-to-learn reading skills at the expense of vocabulary, conceptual and content knowledge, and reading comprehension strategies. The second is a lack of expertise among many educators in how to effectively teach these harder-to-master reading skills, and the third is the limited time available in the school day and year to meet unprecedented expectations for children's learning. Policy makers, the education community, and parents must attend to these three challenges if they wish to see meaningful improvements in the reading skills of American children.

Cognitive Attributes of Adequate and Inadequate Responders to Reading Intervention in Middle School

PubMed Central

Miciak, Jeremy; Stuebing, Karla K.; Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Greg; Barth, Amy Elizabeth; Fletcher, Jack M.

2016-01-01

No studies have investigated the cognitive attributes of middle school students who are adequate and inadequate responders to Tier 2 reading intervention. We compared students in Grades 6 and 7 representing groups of adequate responders (n = 77) and inadequate responders who fell below criteria in (a) comprehension (n = 54); (b) fluency (n = 45); and (c) decoding, fluency, and comprehension (DFC; n = 45). These students received measures of phonological awareness, listening comprehension, rapid naming, processing speed, verbal knowledge, and nonverbal reasoning. Multivariate comparisons showed a significant Group-by-Task interaction: the comprehension-impaired group demonstrated primary difficulties with verbal knowledge and listening comprehension, the DFC group with phonological awareness, and the fluency-impaired group with phonological awareness and rapid naming. A series of regression models investigating whether responder status explained unique variation in cognitive skills yielded largely null results consistent with a continuum of severity associated with level of reading impairment, with no evidence for qualitative differences in the cognitive attributes of adequate and inadequate responders. PMID:28579668

Cognitive Attributes of Adequate and Inadequate Responders to Reading Intervention in Middle School.

PubMed

Miciak, Jeremy; Stuebing, Karla K; Vaughn, Sharon; Roberts, Greg; Barth, Amy Elizabeth; Fletcher, Jack M

2014-12-01

No studies have investigated the cognitive attributes of middle school students who are adequate and inadequate responders to Tier 2 reading intervention. We compared students in Grades 6 and 7 representing groups of adequate responders ( n = 77) and inadequate responders who fell below criteria in (a) comprehension ( n = 54); (b) fluency ( n = 45); and (c) decoding, fluency, and comprehension (DFC; n = 45). These students received measures of phonological awareness, listening comprehension, rapid naming, processing speed, verbal knowledge, and nonverbal reasoning. Multivariate comparisons showed a significant Group-by-Task interaction: the comprehension-impaired group demonstrated primary difficulties with verbal knowledge and listening comprehension, the DFC group with phonological awareness, and the fluency-impaired group with phonological awareness and rapid naming. A series of regression models investigating whether responder status explained unique variation in cognitive skills yielded largely null results consistent with a continuum of severity associated with level of reading impairment, with no evidence for qualitative differences in the cognitive attributes of adequate and inadequate responders.

The Effectiveness of the Barton's Intervention Program on Reading Comprehension and Reading Attitude of Students with Dyslexia.

PubMed

Mihandoost, Zeinab; Elias, Habibah

2011-01-01

The current research tested the differences in reading attitude and reading comprehension in the dyslexic students between the control group and the experimental group following the Barton intervention program. Dyslexia screening instrument and reading text were employed in order to identify dyslexic students. The population of the study included 138 dyslexic students studying in schools in Ilam, Iran. From this population, 64 students were randomly selected and assigned to an experimental group as well as a control group. The experimental group was taught for 36 sessions, using the Barton's method at two levels, and ten lessons were provided to improve the reading skill. The reading comprehension and reading attitude instruments were employed for the measurement of the attitude and comprehension before and after the intervention program. The analysis of covariance showed a significant difference between the control group and the experimental group following the Barton intervention program. This study showed that dyslexic students learned to read, and a more direct instruction related to decoding could influence their progress more than the general exposure to education.

A System of Movement and Motor Skill Challenges for Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hill, Grant M.; Turner, Bud

2012-01-01

Given increasing childhood inactivity and obesity, and minimal time for quality physical education in elementary and secondary schools, it is essential that children are motivated and held accountable for independent motor and movement skill practice. The Movement and Motor Skill Challenge System provides a comprehensive set of stimulating,…

Employability Skills + Adult Agency Support + Family Support + On-the-Job Support = Successful Employment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patton, Patricia Lucey; And Others

1997-01-01

This article describes a comprehensive transition program for students with mild disabilities. The program revolves around a classroom-based employability skills curriculum taught over a semester's duration. Four program components are addressed: employability skills training, family involvement, adult agency referral, and on-the-job support. (CR)

Factors Distinguishing Skilled and Less Skilled Deaf Readers: Evidence from Four Orthographies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Paul; Kargin, Tevhide; Guldenoglu, Birkan; Rathmann, Christian; Kubus, Okan; Hauser, Peter; Spurgeon, Erin

2012-01-01

This study aims to enhance understanding of the factors underlying variance in the reading comprehension skills of prelingually deaf individuals. Participants were 213 sixth through tenth graders with prelingual deafness recruited from four orthographic backgrounds (Hebrew, Arabic, English, and German) and allocated to three distinct reading…

Teaching Listening Skills to JFL Students in Australia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danaher, Mike

1996-01-01

Examines issues affecting the teaching and learning of listening skills within the study of Japanese as a Foreign Language. Listening within foreign-language learning is a complex skill, and students encounter several difficulties in learning to listen for comprehension. Teachers face concerns ranging from resource availability to how to teach…

Investigation of Turkish Teacher Candidates Listening Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karagöz, Beytullah; Iscan, Adem; Baskin, Sami; Irsi, Aysegül

2017-01-01

As a basic skill of language, listening is an essential process at interpretation surroundings. Today listening is necessary in many cases such as school life, interfamilial communication, etc. Thanks to listening, people acquire comprehension skills and expressing themselves in all areas. 2005 and 2015 Turkish Course Syllabus include special…

Storytelling as a Strategy for Understanding Concepts of Electricity and Electromagnetism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kokkotas, Panos; Rizaki, Aikaterini; Malamitsa, Katerina

2010-01-01

In our research, we investigated whether students will develop inquiry skills, such as hypothesis exploration and formulation and interpretation, and metacognitive skills, such as comprehension of new knowledge, as a result of a storytelling strategy employed during teaching. We also investigated whether students will utilize the skills and…

Physical activity and sedentary time in relation to academic achievement in children.

PubMed

Haapala, Eero A; Väistö, Juuso; Lintu, Niina; Westgate, Kate; Ekelund, Ulf; Poikkeus, Anna-Maija; Brage, Soren; Lakka, Timo A

2017-06-01

To investigate the independent and combined associations of objectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary time (ST) with reading and arithmetic skills. Cross-sectional/prospective. Participants were 89 boys and 69 girls aged 6-8 years. MVPA and ST were measured using a combined heart rate and movement sensor and body fat percentage by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in Grade 1. Reading fluency, reading comprehension, and arithmetic skills were assessed using standardized tests in Grades 1-3. The data were analyzed using linear regression analyses and analyses of covariance with repeated measures. In boys, MVPA was directly and ST inversely associated with reading fluency in Grades 1-3 and arithmetic skills in Grade 1 (P<0.05). Higher levels of MVPA were also related to better reading comprehension in Grade 1 (P<0.05). Most of the associations of MVPA and ST with reading and arithmetic skills attenuated after mutual adjustment for MVPA or ST. Furthermore, boys with a combination of lower levels of MVPA and higher levels of ST had consistently poorer reading fluency (P=0.002) and reading comprehension (P=0.027) across Grades 1-3 than other boys. In girls, ST was directly associated with arithmetic skills in Grade 2 (P<0.05). However, this relationship of ST with arithmetic skills was no longer significant after adjustment for body fat percentage. Lower levels of MVPA and higher levels of ST and particularly their combination were related to poorer reading skills in boys. In girls, higher levels of ST were related to better arithmetic skills. Copyright © 2016 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reading skills in young adolescents with a history of Specific Language Impairment: The role of early semantic capacity.

PubMed

Buil-Legaz, Lucía; Aguilar-Mediavilla, Eva; Rodríguez-Ferreiro, Javier

2015-01-01

This study assessed the reading skills of 19 Spanish-Catalan children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and 16 age-matched control children. Children with SLI have difficulties with oral language comprehension, which may affect later reading acquisition. We conducted a longitudinal study examining reading acquisition in these children between 8 and 12 years old and we relate this data with early oral language acquisition at 6 years old. Compared to the control group, the SLI group presented impaired decoding and comprehension skills at age 8, as evidenced by poor scores in all the assessed tasks. Nevertheless, only text comprehension abilities appeared to be impaired at age 12. Individual analyses confirmed the presence of comprehension deficits in most of the SLI children. Furthermore, early semantic verbal fluency at age 6 appeared to significantly predict the reading comprehension capacity of SLI participants at age 12. Our results emphasize the importance of semantic capacity at early stages of oral language development over the consolidation of reading acquisition at later stages. Readers will recognize the relevance of prior oral language impairment, especially semantic capacity, in children with a history of SLI as a risk factor for the development of later reading difficulties. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Dominance Analysis Approach to Determining Predictor Importance in Third, Seventh, and Tenth Grade Reading Comprehension Skills

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to investigate and rank order by importance the contributions of various cognitive predictors to reading comprehension in third, seventh, and tenth graders. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that for third grade, the best fit was a four-factor solution including Fluency, Verbal Reasoning, Nonverbal Reasoning, and Working Memory factors. For seventh and tenth grade, three-factor solutions with Fluency, Reasoning, and Working Memory factors were the best fit. The three and four-factor models were used in separate dominance analyses for each grade to rank order the factors by predictive importance to reading comprehension. Results indicated that Fluency and Verbal Reasoning were the most important predictors of third grade reading comprehension. For seventh grade, Fluency and Reasoning were the most important predictors. By tenth grade, Reasoning was the most important predictor of reading comprehension. Working Memory was the least predictive of reading comprehension across all grade levels. These results suggest that inferential reasoning skills become an important contributor to reading comprehension at increasing grade levels. PMID:26346315

Computerized trainings in four groups of struggling readers: Specific effects on word reading and comprehension.

PubMed

Potocki, Anna; Magnan, Annie; Ecalle, Jean

2015-01-01

Four groups of poor readers were identified among a population of students with learning disabilities attending a special class in secondary school: normal readers; specific poor decoders; specific poor comprehenders, and general poor readers (deficits in both decoding and comprehension). These students were then trained with a software program designed to encourage either their word decoding skills or their text comprehension skills. After 5 weeks of training, we observed that the students experiencing word reading deficits and trained with the decoding software improved primarily in the reading fluency task while those exhibiting comprehension deficits and trained with the comprehension software showed improved performance in listening and reading comprehension. But interestingly, the latter software also led to improved performance on the word recognition task. This result suggests that, for these students, training interventions focused at the text level and its comprehension might be more beneficial for reading in general (i.e., for the two components of reading) than word-level decoding trainings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Quantile Regression Approach to Understanding the Relations Between Morphological Awareness, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension in Adult Basic Education Students

PubMed Central

Tighe, Elizabeth L.; Schatschneider, Christopher

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the joint and unique contributions of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at five reading comprehension levels in Adult Basic Education (ABE) students. We introduce the statistical technique of multiple quantile regression, which enabled us to assess the predictive utility of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at multiple points (quantiles) along the continuous distribution of reading comprehension. To demonstrate the efficacy of our multiple quantile regression analysis, we compared and contrasted our results with a traditional multiple regression analytic approach. Our results indicated that morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge accounted for a large portion of the variance (82-95%) in reading comprehension skills across all quantiles. Morphological awareness exhibited the greatest unique predictive ability at lower levels of reading comprehension whereas vocabulary knowledge exhibited the greatest unique predictive ability at higher levels of reading comprehension. These results indicate the utility of using multiple quantile regression to assess trajectories of component skills across multiple levels of reading comprehension. The implications of our findings for ABE programs are discussed. PMID:25351773

Psychometric Properties of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Depressed Adults and Development of a Short Form

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bohlmeijer, Ernst; ten Klooster, Peter M.; Fledderus, Martine; Veehof, Martine; Baer, Ruth

2011-01-01

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in therapies that include the learning of mindfulness skills. The 39-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) has been developed as a reliable and valid comprehensive instrument for assessing different aspects of mindfulness in community and student samples. In this study, the psychometric…

Local Text Cohesion, Reading Ability and Individual Science Aspirations: Key Factors Influencing Comprehension in Science Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Sophie S.; Kowalski, Rebecca; Paterson, Kevin B.; Basran, Jaskaran; Filik, Ruth; Maltby, John

2015-01-01

In response to the concern of the need to improve the scientific skills of school children, this study investigated the influence of text design (in terms of text cohesion) and individual differences, with the aim of identifying pathways to improving science education in early secondary school (Key Stage 3). One hundred and four secondary school…

Teaching First Language Speakers to Communicate across Linguistic Difference: Addressing Attitudes, Comprehension, and Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Subtirelu, Nicholas Close; Lindemann, Stephanie

2016-01-01

While most research in applied linguistics has focused on second language (L2) speakers and their language capabilities, the success of interaction between such speakers and first language (L1) speakers also relies on the positive attitudes and communication skills of the L1 speakers. However, some research has suggested that many L1 speakers lack…

Comparison Study of Judged Clinical Skills Competence from Standard Setting Ratings Generated under Different Administration Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, William L.; Boulet, John; Sandella, Jeanne

2017-01-01

When the safety of the public is at stake, it is particularly relevant for licensing and credentialing exam agencies to use defensible standard setting methods to categorize candidates into competence categories (e.g., pass/fail). The aim of this study was to gather evidence to support change to the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing-USA…

Investigating the Effects of Multimedia Input Modality on L2 Listening Skills of Turkish EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Inceçay, Volkan; Koçoglu, Zeynep

2017-01-01

The present study examined whether or not different input delivery modes have an effect on listening comprehension of Turkish students learning English at the university level. It investigated the effect of one single mode, which is audio-only, and three dual input delivery modes, which were audio-video, audio-video with target language subtitles…

Learning disabled and average readers' working memory and comprehension: does metacognition play a role?

PubMed

Swanson, H L; Trahan, M

1996-09-01

The present study investigates (a) whether learning disabled readers' working memory deficits that underlie poor reading comprehension are related to a general system, and (b) whether metacognition contributes to comprehension beyond what is predicted by working memory and word knowledge. To this end, performance between learning and disabled (N = 60) and average readers (N = 60) was compared on the reading comprehension, reading rate, and vocabulary subtests of the Nelson Skills Reading Test, Sentence Span test composed of high and low imagery words, and a Metacognitive Questionnaire. As expected, differences between groups in working memory, vocabulary, and reading measures emerged, whereas ability groups were statistically comparable on the Metacognitive Questionnaire. A within-group analysis indicated that the correlation patterns between working memory, vocabulary, metacognition, and reading comprehension were not the same between ability groups. For predicting reading comprehension, the metacognitive questionnaire best predicted learning disabled readers' performance, whereas the working memory span measure that included low-imagery words best predicted average achieving readers' comprehension. Overall, the results suggest that the relationship between learning disabled readers' generalised working memory deficits and poor reading comprehension may be mediated by metacognition.

Development of the Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills program for adults on the autism spectrum: Results of initial study

PubMed Central

Baker-Ericzén, Mary J; Fitch, Meghan A; Kinnear, Mikaela; Jenkins, Melissa M; Twamley, Elizabeth W; Smith, Linda; Montano, Gabriel; Feder, Joshua; Crooke, Pamela J; Winner, Michelle G; Leon, Juan

2018-01-01

The population of adults on the autism spectrum continues to increase, and vocational outcomes are particularly poor. Longitudinal studies of adults with autism spectrum and without intellectual disability have shown consistent and persistent deficits across cognitive, social, and vocational domains, indicating a need for effective treatments of functional disabilities as each impact employment. This initial pilot study is an open trial investigation of the feasibility, acceptability, and initial estimates of outcomes for the newly developed Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills intervention, a manualized “soft skills” curriculum, to enhance both cognitive and social development in adults with autism spectrum. A total of eight adults with autism spectrum, without intellectual disability (78% males), participated in the study. Results support the original hypothesis that adults with autism spectrum can improve both cognitive (i.e. executive functioning) and social cognitive (i.e. social thinking and social communication) abilities. Further Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills was found to be feasible, acceptable, and highly satisfactory for participants and parents. Employment rates more than doubled post-intervention, with an increase from 22% to 56% of participants employed. Conclusion is that Supported Employment, Comprehensive Cognitive Enhancement, and Social Skills has promise as an intervention that can be easily embedded into exiting supported employment vocational training programs to improve cognitive, social, and vocational outcomes. PMID:29034696

Thinking through Text Comprehension III: The Programing of Verbal and Investigative Repertoires

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leon, Marta; Layng, T. V. Joe; Sota, Melinda

2011-01-01

Reading comprehension can be considered a complex human performance involving two integrated repertoires: a verbal repertoire and an investigative (generative) repertoire. The analytical and reasoning skills necessary to demonstrate reading comprehension can be systematically taught by analyzing the verbal and investigative repertoires involved…

Reading Comprehension Strategies: An International Comparison of Teacher Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kissau, Scott; Hiller, Florian

2013-01-01

In response to international concern over poor reading skills among adolescent learners, teachers of these students are encouraged to integrate reading comprehension instruction into their classrooms. To increase the likelihood that reading comprehension strategies are effectively used in schools, teachers in all content areas need extensive…

Reading, Thinking, and Concept Development: Strategies for the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Theodore L., Ed.; Cooper, Eric J., Ed.

Intended to help teachers both improve students' text comprehension and better understand the teaching-learning process involved, this book focuses on comprehension and concept development as the central core of an effective educational program. The book's five sections deal with teaching explicit comprehension skills, precomprehension and…

Narrative Language and Reading Comprehension in Students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barton-Hulsey, Andrea; Sevcik, Rose A.; Romski, MaryAnn

2017-01-01

Past research shows positive correlations between oral narrative skill and reading comprehension in typically developing students. This study examined the relationship between reading comprehension and narrative language ability of 102 elementary students with mild levels of intellectual disability. Results describe the students' narrative…

Predicting Second Grade Listening Comprehension Using Prekindergarten Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alonzo, Crystle N.; Yeomans-Maldonado, Gloria; Murphy, Kimberly A.; Bevens, Beau

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine prekindergarten predictors of listening comprehension in second grade. Methods: Within a large, 5-year longitudinal study, children progressing from prekindergarten to second grade were administered a comprehensive set of prekindergarten measures of foundational language skills (vocabulary and…

Effect of using a treadmill workstation on performance of simulated office work tasks.

PubMed

John, Dinesh; Bassett, David; Thompson, Dixie; Fairbrother, Jeffrey; Baldwin, Debora

2009-09-01

Although using a treadmill workstation may change the sedentary nature of desk jobs, it is unknown if walking while working affects performance on office-work related tasks. To assess differences between seated and walking conditions on motor skills and cognitive function tests. Eleven males (24.6 +/- 3.5 y) and 9 females (27.0 +/- 3.9 y) completed a test battery to assess selective attention and processing speed, typing speed, mouse clicking/drag-and-drop speed, and GRE math and reading comprehension. Testing was performed under seated and walking conditions on 2 separate days using a counterbalanced, within subjects design. Participants did not have an acclimation period before the walking condition. Paired t tests (P < .05) revealed that in the seated condition, completion times were shorter for mouse clicking (26.6 +/- 3.0 vs. 28.2 +/- 2.5s) and drag-and-drop (40.3 +/- 4.2 vs. 43.9 +/- 2.5s) tests, typing speed was greater (40.2 +/- 9.1 vs. 36.9 +/- 10.2 adjusted words x min(-1)), and math scores were better (71.4 +/- 15.2 vs. 64.3 +/- 13.4%). There were no significant differences between conditions in selective attention and processing speed or in reading comprehension. Compared with the seated condition, treadmill walking caused a 6% to 11% decrease in measures of fine motor skills and math problem solving, but did not affect selective attention and processing speed or reading comprehension.

A novel trauma leadership model reflective of changing times.

PubMed

DʼHuyvetter, Cecile; Cogbill, Thomas H

2014-01-01

As a result of generational changes in the health care workforce, we sought to evaluate our current Trauma Medical Director Leadership model. We assessed the responsibilities, accountability, time requirements, cost, and provider satisfaction with the current leadership model. Three new providers who had recently completed fellowship training were hired, each with unique professional desires, skill sets, and experience. Our goal was to establish a comprehensive, cost-effective, accountable leadership model that enabled provider satisfaction and equalized leadership responsibilities. A 3-pronged team model was established with a Medical Director title and responsibilities rotating per the American College of Surgeons verification cycle to develop leadership skills and lessen hierarchical differences.

Echolalia and Comprehension in Autistic Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roberts, Jacqueline M. A.

1989-01-01

The study with 10 autistic children (ages 4-17) found that those children with poor receptive language skills produced significantly more echolalic utterances than those children whose receptive skills were more age-appropriate. (Author/DB)

Passageless Comprehension on the "Nelson-Denny Reading Test": Well above Chance for University Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coleman, Chris; Lindstrom, Jennifer; Nelson, Jason; Lindstrom, William; Gregg, K. Noel

2010-01-01

The comprehension section of the "Nelson-Denny Reading Test" (NDRT) is widely used to assess the reading comprehension skills of adolescents and adults in the United States. In this study, the authors explored the content validity of the NDRT Comprehension Test (Forms G and H) by asking university students (with and without at-risk…

The Influence of Properties of the Test and Their Interactions with Reader Characteristics on Reading Comprehension: An Explanatory Item Response Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulesz, Paulina A.; Francis, David J.; Barnes, Marcia A.; Fletcher, Jack M.

2016-01-01

Component skills and discourse frameworks of reading have identified characteristics of readers and texts that influence comprehension. However, these 2 frameworks have not previously been integrated in a comprehensive and systematic way to explain performance on any standardized assessment of reading comprehension that is in widespread use across…

Reading Comprehension Tests Vary in the Skills They Assess: Differential Dependence on Decoding and Oral Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keenan, Janice M.; Betjemann, Rebecca S.; Olson, Richard K.

2008-01-01

Comprehension tests are often used interchangeably, suggesting an implicit assumption that they are all measuring the same thing. We examine the validity of this assumption by comparing some of the most popular reading comprehension measures used in research and clinical practice in the United States: the Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT), the two…

"Passageless" Administration of the Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension Test: Associations with IQ and Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ready, Rebecca E.; Chaudhry, Maheen F.; Schatz, Kelly C.; Strazzullo, Sarah

2013-01-01

There are few tests that assess reading comprehension in adults, but these tests are needed for a comprehensive assessment of reading disorders (RD). "The Nelson-Denny Reading Test" (NDRT) has a long-passage reading comprehension component that can be used with adolescents and adults. A problem with the NDRT is that reading comprehension…

Comparison of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Text Previewing and Preteaching Keywords as Small-Group Reading Comprehension Strategies with Middle-School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burns, Matthew K.; Hodgson, Jennifer; Parker, David C.; Fremont, Kathryn

2011-01-01

Reading instruction for middle- and high-school students is focused on vocabulary and comprehension, yet research suggests that comprehension skills among these students are alarmingly low. Small-group reading interventions are becoming more prevalent in schools, but there are few studies regarding small-group reading comprehension interventions.…

Final Year Undergraduates' Perceptions of the Integration of Soft Skills in the Formal Curriculum: A Survey of Malaysian Public Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devadason, Evelyn Shyamala; Subramaniam, Thirunaukarasu; Daniel, Esther Gnanamalar Sarojini

2010-01-01

A recent initiative or skill bridging measure taken by the Malaysian public universities is to build into the formal curriculum soft skills to produce graduates with a right balance of diverse abilities. However, to date, there is no comprehensive attempt to review the integration of soft skills in the formal curriculum (both coursework and…

The Effects of the System of Least Prompts on Teaching Comprehension Skills during a Shared Story to Students with Significant Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mims, Pamela Joanne

2009-01-01

The development of literacy skills is a crucial skill that all students are entitled to develop (Browder, Gibbs, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Courtade, Mraz, Flowers, in press). Currently limited research has been conducted on the acquisition of early literacy skills for students with significant disabilities (Browder, Mims, Spooner, Ahlgrim-Delzell, & Lee,…