The Role of Language Skills in Shaping Oral Reading Ability of Grade One Learners

Schools as Complex Host Environments: Understanding Aspects of Schools that May Influence Clinical Practice and Research

The acquisition and development of reading fluency, consisting of three components: accuracy, automaticity, and prosody, require the utilization of various language and cognitive skills due to their complex and multifaceted nature. Phonological processing skills are frequently emphasized in the literature, with a clear connection established between phonological processing and fluent reading. Additionally, existing literature indicates that predictors of reading in alphabetic languages are largely universal, but their contributions vary based on the transparency of orthography. In this context, it is important to determine the impact of phonological processing and language-based components on the development of reading fluency, especially in transparent orthographies such as Turkish. This research aims to determine the role of phonological processing and receptive and expressive language mesured in the beginning of first grade in the longitudinal development of text reading fluency over three semesters in first and second grades. The study, conducted in a correlational design, involved 310 participants selected randomly from 45 schools representing lower, middle and upper socioeconomic levels in Ankara. The Passage Reading Test of the Literacy Assessment Battery was used to assess participants' reading fluency, while the Phonological Awareness subtests of the Test of Early Literacy, Object and Color Naming subtests of the Rapid Naming Test, and the verbal memory subscales of the Working Memory Scale were employed to evaluate the phonological processing skills. A measurement model analysis was conducted within the Structural Equation Models, followed by the addition of predictive variables to the longitudinal development model to identify their roles in the developmental process. Results indicated that participants' reading fluency performances increased in each semester throughout the study, and the phonological processing and expressive language skills in the beginning of first grade significantly contributed to participants' reading fluency development in first and second grade. These findings suggest that deficiencies in phonological processing and language development observed in the early stages can be considered significant indicators of reading difficulties.

Mid-adolescence is a period of considerable potential growth in the language for academic writing. Yet, to date, few writing studies explore language development during this period and even fewer focus on longitudinal or diverse samples. In this study, we examined the development of language skills for academic writing in a socio-economically diverse sample followed from sixth to seventh grade ( n = 124). In each grade, participants wrote summaries of a science text. Subsequently, summaries were scored for writing quality (WQ) and analyzed for productive language skills (lexico-syntactic and discourse features). Participants completed a receptive academic language assessment and a test that measured reading comprehension of the source text. First, we examined if WQ or productive language skills changed over time. Next, we tested if Grade 6 productive and receptive language skills predicted Grade 7 WQ. Results revealed syntactic growth over time. Grade 6 use of connectives and receptive language skills emerged as predictors of Grade 7 WQ.

Evaluating the factor structure of the Dutch individual differences in language skills (IDLaS-NL) test battery.

Toddlerhood is characterized by rapid development in several domains, such as language, socio-emotional behavior and emerging math skills all of which are important precursors of school readiness. However, little is known about how these skills develop over time and how they may be interrelated. The current study investigates young children’s development at two time points, with about 7 months in between, assessing their language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills with teacher ratings. The sample includes 577 children from 18 until 36 months of age of 86 childcare classrooms. The results of the autoregressive path analyses showed moderate to strong stability of language, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills, although the magnitude of associations was smaller for the latter. The cross-lagged path analyses highlighted the importance of language and socio-emotional skills for development in the other domains. Differential relations were found for the autoregressive and cross-lagged paths depending on gender and age. Language skills appeared a stronger predictor of boys’ socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skill development compared to girls. Girls’ socio-emotional skills predicted growth in math. For boys, socio-emotional and math language and numeracy skills appeared to be unrelated. Language skills showed stronger relations with the development of math language and numeracy skills for younger children as compared to older children. Also, for older children math language and numeracy skills negatively predicted growth in their socio-emotional skills. The findings provide more insights in how language, math language and numeracy skills and socio-emotional skills co-develop in the early years and as such have important implications for interventions aimed to support children’s development.

Advancements in technology and pharmacology over the past 15 years have increased the survival rates of extremely low gestational age newborns to over 80%. However, these medical achievements are often accompanied by significant challenges in their early and long-term developmental competencies. This longitudinal descriptive study aimed to examine the neurodevelopmental patterns, prevalence of developmental delays, and associated risk factors -gestational age (GA) and birth weight (BW)-in Slovak children born at extremely low gestational age (ELGA), from 7 to 8 months of corrected age to 24-25 months of chronological age, focusing on cognitive, motor, and language development. The study included 7 female and 10 male ELGA children with a mean GA of 26.0 weeks (SD = 1.2; range = 24-28) and mean BW of 875.8 grams (SD = 171.2; range = 560-1,150). The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) was administered to assess cognitive, language, and motor development. The developmental functioning of cognitive, linguistic, and motor skills was analyzed using a descriptive approach, based on the average composite scores attained in each domain, in comparison with the normative group defined by the Bayley-III. The developmental patterns of cognitive, linguistic, and motor skills in the observed ELGA children were constructed based on the level of composite scores at two time points: the 7th or 8th month of corrected age (initial assessment) and the 24th or 25th month of chronological age (final assessment). These performance values were classified according to the 'cut-off' criteria for developmental delay in the Bayley-III. The degree of delay at these two time points determined the type of developmental pattern. The developmental functioning of cognitive, language, and motor skills in the sample of ELGA children studied at the 7th or 8th month of corrected age was within the average range. However, the average scores of ELGA children were 5 to 10 points lower than those of the normative population across domains. At this time point, only 30% of the ELGA children exhibited developmental delay in at least one domain, exclusively at the level of mild to moderate delay (< -1 SD). The prevalence of mild to moderate delay (< -1 SD) was as follows: cognition: 11.7%, language: 11.7%, motor: 29.4%. In the studied sample, we observed a decline in cognitive, language, and motor functioning to the low-average range at 2 years of chronological age. The average scores of ELGA children were 12 to 17 points lower than those of the normative population across domains. At this point, up to 58.9% of the ELGA children exhibited developmental delay in at least one domain. The prevalence of developmental delay was as follows: mild to moderate delay (< -1 SD) was observed in 29.4% of children for cognition, 29.4% for language, and 17.6% for motor skills. Severe delay (< -2 SD) was present in 11.7% of children for cognition, 17.6% for language, and 17.6% for motor skills. In the sample of children with ELGA, we observed declining developmental trends in cognitive and motor skills; however, the values of developmental functioning remained within the range of typical development without developmental delay. Regarding language skills, we observed the most pronounced decline during the first 2 years of development, shifting from typical development to a mild-to-moderate delay (< -1 SD). Within individual domains, we identified four types of developmental patterns in cognitive, language, and motor skills among ELGA children. These patterns were as follows: (1) ascending into the normal range: 0, 5.8, and 11.7%, respectively; (2) stable pattern within the normal range: 58.8, 47.0, and 52.9%; (3) stable pattern within the delayed range: 11.7, 5.8, and 17.6%; (4) descending into the delayed range: 29.4, 41.1, and 17.6%. Findings indicate a higher incidence of developmentally risky patterns in children born at low gestational age (24-25 weeks) and in children with birth weight below 750 grams and lower. Developmental functioning without delay in all three domains (cognitive, language, and motor) was observed in 41.1% of the ELGA children during their second year. The limitation of the study was the small sample size and the absence of Slovak standards for Bayley-III. The results demonstrate significant the need for early and long-term monitoring of developmental trends in this high-risk population, as well as the need to identify a broader range of health and non-health risk factors and their interactions that contribute to their final developmental outcomes.

Aural Habilitation Update: The Role of Speech Production Skills of Infants and Children With Hearing Loss

Certain language structures and skills continue to develop after the age of school entry. The present study sought to establish whether directly targeting the development of such complex language structures and skills in comprehension and production can be successful among older, school-going children. The data for the present study comprise four case studies of children with language learning problems, including language comprehension problems: one 5, one 6, and two 7 years of age. Relevant parts of the Receptive and Expressive Activities for Language Therapy (Southwood & Van Dulm, 2012) were used during six to eight language stimulation sessions. Substantial gains were seen when comparing pre- and post-stimulation language assessment results on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation (Seymour, Roeper, & De Villiers, 2005). The implication is that direct targeting of specific later developing language structures and skills can render the desired results, well after their usual age of acquisition, even among children with language comprehension problems and within a limited number of sessions. Given the relationship between language skills and the development of reading skills, the findings have implications for the literacy development of Foundation Phase learners who enter school with underdeveloped language skills.

Literacy in Ireland

Intervention for a Child with Auditory Neuropathy/Dys-synchrony

Structural equation model was used in this study to determine the effect of fluent reading, literal comprehension and inferential comprehension levels of elementary school 4th grade students on success in problem solving. The sampling of the research is composed of 279 students at elementary school 4th grade. In the research, in order to figure out reading accuracy percentage and reading rate, total 5 scales were used: a reading text, prosodic reading scale, literal comprehension scale, inferential comprehension scale and problem solving scale. As a result of the research, when the factors among the reading comprehension skills were analyzed, it was seen that fluent reading affects literal comprehension directly and inferential comprehension both directly and through literal comprehension and that fluent comprehension explains 31% of the variance in literal comprehension while both fluent reading and literal comprehension together explain 58% of the variance in inferential comprehension. When the research results were analyzed in terms of the effect of reading comprehension skills on problem solving skills, it was found that fluent reading skills do not affect problem solving skills directly, but through literal and inferential comprehension; that literal comprehension affects problem solving success both directly and through inferential comprehension; and that inferential comprehension skill affects problem solving success directly. As a result of the research, it was also determined that the variance of fluent reading, literal comprehension and inferential comprehension skills explains 54% of the variance in problem solving success. The relation between these interrelated skills reveals that rather than only as a part of mathematics lesson, problem solving exercises should be used interactively with language skills.

How to Fit Response to Intervention Into a Heavy Workload

We examined the associations of breastfeeding initiation and duration with language and motor skill development in a nationally representative sample of US children aged 10 to 71 months. Using cross-sectional data on 22399 children from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health, we examined relationships between breastfeeding practices and children's language and motor skills development. Outcomes were based on each mother's response to questions regarding her level of concern (a lot, a little, not at all) about her child's development of expressive language, receptive language, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills. Breastfeeding data were based on mothers' recall. Methods of variance estimation were applied and multivariate polynomial regression modeling was done to estimate the effects of breastfeeding initiation and duration on children's development after adjustment for confounders. Mean age of the sample was 2.79 years; 67% were non-Hispanic white, 16% were Hispanic, and 9% were non-Hispanic black. Approximately 17% of mothers reported concerns about their child's expressive language development; approximately 10% had receptive language concerns; approximately 6% had concerns about fine motor skills; and 5% reported general motor skills concerns. Multivariate analysis revealed that mothers who initiated breastfeeding were less likely than mothers of never-breastfed children to be concerned a lot about their child's expressive and receptive language development and fine and general motor skills. Mothers of children breastfed 3 to 5.9 months were less likely than mothers of never-breastfed children to be concerned a lot about their child's expressive and receptive language and fine and general motor skills. As with all cross-sectional data, results should be interpreted with caution. Our findings suggest breastfeeding may protect against delays in young children's language and motor skill development. Fewer concerns about language and motor skill development were evident for children breastfed >or=3 months, and concerns generally decreased as breastfeeding continued >or=9 months.

Learning to read is one of the most challenging skills for young children who are beginning their school careers. Reading incorporates a wide range of language-based and literacy-specific skills. When children have difficulty with any of the vocabulary, comprehension, or phonological skills that lead to fluent early reading, they are likely to have continued difficulty with learning that requires reading for academic content. Because reading fluency is expected by Grade 3, effective and developmentally appropriate instruction for vocabulary, comprehension, phonological awareness, and other early reading skills during the preschool years is essential. Furthermore, identifying those children who are not making adequate progress in acquiring the requisite language and pre-literacy skill sets and providing sufficient effective instruction to assist them in acquiring key skills, are important educational functions of preschool programs. The emergence of reading and related language skills as the cornerstone of preschool curricula is not surprising given the strong emphasis on reading in early elementary school.The challenge of teaching foundational skills for fluent reading is a daunting one. More than one third of children in middle- to low-income preschools will face some challenge in learning to read (Carta et al., 2015). Because language and literacy are multiplex skills, children vary widely in the ease with which they acquire the components of the literacy system and the amount of specific instruction needed to support their integrated learning of this skill set.In this Special Issue of the Journal of Early Intervention, Greenwood, Carta, Goldstein, McConnell, Kaminski, and their collaborators describe how the Center on Response to Intervention in Early Childhood (CRTIEC) addressed the challenges of creating and testing a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) for teaching language and literacy skills to preschoolers. This important work, funded through the U.S. Office of Special Education, is one of only a handful of preschool research and development projects that have focused on tiered systems of preacademic instruction. Although multi-tier systems for elementary reading and positive behavior support have been emergent for nearly a decade, building such systems at the preschool level has been delayed by the limited measures for preschoolers' language and literacy skills, limited evidence-based practices for Tier 2 and Tier 3 instruction, and wide variations in the extent that curricula for preschool instruction address reading and language. Further complicating the design of an MTSS is the need for systems of support that work across the range of settings in which young children are served.The articles in this Special Issue provide a comprehensive overview of the 5-year research process leading to the development of measures of language and reading skills for preschoolers for identification and progress monitoring, instructional interventions for vocabulary and story comprehension (Tier 2), and phonological processes and alphabetic principles (Tier 3). Additional research focused on describing the language and literacy skills of a relatively large sample of preschool children using Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) in addition to standardized assessments to determine the number of children in need of instruction beyond Tier 1.This set of articles is unique in a number of ways. First, the introductory article (Greenwood et al., 2015) and the article describing Tier 1 instruction (Carta et al., 2015) provide a broad view of the contextual challenges faced in developing an MTSS for preschool settings. By describing the press for creating a response to intervention (RTI) model at the preschool level and the current state of program instruction and staff awareness of RTI principles and procedures, the first two articles introduce readers to the scope of work undertaken by the Center investigators and the implicit constraints on moving to a well-developed RTI system. …

BackgroundThe developmental relationships between executive functions (EF) and early language skills are unclear. This study explores the longitudinal relationships between children's early EF and language skills in a sample of children with a wide range of language abilities including children at risk of dyslexia. In addition, we investigated whether these skills independently predict children's attention/behaviour skills.MethodData are presented from 243 children at four time points. Children were selected for being at risk of reading difficulties either because of a family history of dyslexia (FR; N = 90) or because of concerns regarding their language development (LI; N = 79) or as typically developing controls (TD; N = 74). The children completed tasks to assess their executive function and language skills at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. At 6 (T4) and 7 years (T5) parents and teachers rated the children's attention/behaviour skills.ResultsThere was a strong concurrent relationship between language and EF at each assessment. Longitudinal analyses indicated a considerable degree of stability in children's language and EF skills: the influence of language on later EF skills (and vice versa) was weak and not significant in the current sample. Children's EF, but not language, skills at T3 predicted attention/behaviour ratings at T4/T5.ConclusionsThere is a strong concurrent association between language and EF skills during the preschool and early school years, when children with language impairment show persistent EF deficits. Latent variables measuring language and EF show high longitudinal stability with little evidence of significant or strong reciprocal influences between these constructs. EF, but not language, skills predict later ratings of children's attention and behaviour.