Poor Readers Research Articles

Exploring The Challenges of Noisy Areas Faced by Teachers in Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools

This research study aimed to explore the challenges encountered by teachers teaching in urban areas and noisy surroundings, leading to several issues in achieving required learning outcomes. For this purpose, the qualitative research approach of phenomenological research was used, and data was collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The population of this research study was primary school teachers of Mominabad, Karachi. Using purposive sampling techniques, N=10 teachers from n=3 schools were selected. Data was collected by using semi-structured interviews. The study results show that unusual noise distractions impact students' learning and distraction concentration, which affects cognitive development and hinders effective communication between teachers and students, leading to anxiety and waste of time and energy. Furthermore, it has been found that children exposed to continuous disruptive noise can experience poor reading ability, memory and academic performance, which may lead to failure in the educational process. It is recommended that there is a need for strategies to mitigate noise effects, such as considering infrastructure, implementing soundproofing measures, utilising technology to enhance communication, and providing training and support for teachers to manage the challenges posed by noise pollution.

Reading comprehension improvement in autism.

A subset of autistic children excel at word decoding but have difficulty with reading comprehension (i.e., the discrepant poor comprehender reading profile). Prior research suggests the Visualizing and Verbalizing (V/V) for language comprehension and thinking intervention helps improve reading comprehension in autistic children with this reading profile. Previous studies have demonstrated the role of vocabulary, memory, and social functioning in reading comprehension; however, predictors and moderators of reading comprehension within this specific profile of autistic readers have not been thoroughly explored. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of the V/V intervention by comparing reading comprehension scores between groups and across time. Participants included a sample of autistic children (AUT-EXP; n=22) and a waitlist control group of autistic children (AUT-WLC; n=17) with reading comprehension difficulties, as well as a sample of non-autistic children (Non-AUT; n=26) (all age 8-13 years). AUT-EXP and AUT-WLC groups completed a battery of cognitive assessments during pre and post tests. We also analyzed whether cognitive assessment scores predicted reading comprehension, and examined the moderating effects of group (AUT-EXP vs. AUT-WLC) on these relationships. The AUT-EXP group significantly improved in their pre to post reading comprehension scores (t(21)=4.19, p<.001, d=.89), whereas the AUT-WLC group did not. Verbal memory significantly predicted reading comprehension, though group did not moderate relationships between cognitive test performance and reading comprehension. Results suggest that the V/V intervention may help improve reading comprehension for autistic children with the discrepant poor comprehender reading profile. Additionally, strategies for improving verbal memory may indirectly enhance reading comprehension in autistic children with this reading profile.

Multimodal Reading Model for a Rural Elementary School

This study intends to develop a multimodal learning model to assist teachers in addressing issues related to students’ poor reading performance in a rural elementary school in the Province of Sorsogon, Philippines. The study used the qualitative case study method to achieve its objectives. Data were acquired through document reviews, individual interviews, and focus group discussions with the informants purposefully selected for the study. Results showed that for the school year 2023 to 2024, out of 166 learners, four pupils belonged to the description of meeting expectations; 53 belonged to full intervention; 55 belonged to moderate intervention; and 54 belonged to light intervention. Meanwhile, for the school year 2022 to 2023, out of 202 learners, 30 pupils belonged to the description of meeting expectations; 16 belonged to full intervention; 104 belonged to moderate intervention; and 52 belonged to light intervention. Given this reading performance, this study proposes a multimodal reading model for a rural elementary school. The goal is to enhance the reading proficiency of the pupils by supporting reading teachers who use multimodal reading models to teach non-readers. The teachers’ feedback on using multimodal reading tools revealed both their positive and challenging experiences. Future studies may aim to develop, implement, and evaluate advanced multimodal reading technologies used in autonomous cooperative learning and reading intervention programs and activities.

Challenges of Teaching Reading: A Case of University English Reading Courses

The centrality of reading in students’ academic performance has been well-established in the literature. As a learned skill, reading is acquired in an instructional setting and students’ ability to comprehend and interact with texts is largely shaped by reading instruction. The efficacy of reading instruction is subject to varied factors that stand as challenges to be overcome. This study aimed to explore the challenges experienced by university teachers in teaching reading to B.Ed. English major students. To this end, the study adopted a case study design that comprised purposively selected four university English teachers teaching English reading courses at a constituent campus of Tribhuvan University, and eight B.Ed. English majors from the same campus. The data were collected through a combination of three qualitative methods: classroom observation, semi-structured interview and focus group discussion. The findings revealed students having no coursebooks and relying on other substandard reading materials, students’ poor reading habits, students’ limited vocabulary knowledge, strategically untrained students, and the length of courses and texts as major challenges faced by teachers in teaching the prescribed reading courses. Drawing on these findings, implications for reading pedagogy are considered.

The comprehension of double negation in Chinese children with reading difficulties

ABSTRACT This study investigated the processing of double negation in Chinese children with reading difficulties. The comprehension of Mandarin affirmative, single negative and double negative sentences was tested with Chinese young poor readers and typical readers, using a sentence-picture verification task. Results showed that double negative sentences were most difficult to process for both groups; the poor readers performed significantly worse than the typical readers in comprehending double negative sentences, while no difference between the two groups was observed in comprehending affirmative and single negative sentences. Besides, morphological awareness correlated with the comprehension of double negative and single negative sentences in poor readers, while this correlation did not emerge with typical readers. Overall, our results suggest that children with reading difficulties experienced great processing difficulty in double negation, confirming that reading disorders are also characterised by oral language difficulties, in particular in the comprehension of sentences requiring high processing costs.

The Essence of Giving Feedback on the Saudi Students' Reading Performance at Taibah University

The key characteristics of how to raise first-year university students' reading performance comprise basic pedagogical knowledge and understanding, awareness of expressive classroom practices, and linguistic and communicative competence. Nurturing these traits amongst learners is a challenging issue, specifically when they have a prior lack of English language proficiency. One way of improving learners' poor reading skills is the effective feedback given to them. This study investigates the efficiency of giving feedback to students to increase their reading abilities at the Foundation Institute in Taibah University. 15 EFL instructors who teach these students participated in the study. The descriptive method was applied and questionnaires were given to instructors to collect their views about the effects of feedback on students' reading skills. The data was analysed via content analysis. The findings revealed that constructive feedback had made remarkable progress in students' reading performance.

The effect of phonics skills intervention on early reading comprehension in an adolescent with autism: A longitudinal study

AbstractReading comprehension requires phonics skills, described as “blending phonemes in a word”. Adolescents diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often experience poor reading comprehension. The aim of the present study was to explore if it is possible for an adolescent with ASD and intellectual disability to learn reading comprehension skills even without direct teaching, when the focus of the intervention is on teaching phonics skills. An adolescent with ASD, profound intellectual disability and limited behavioral repertoire participated in the study. The participant received intensive ABA‐based interventions according to University of California at Los Angeles‐Young Autism Project (UCLA‐YAP) model and intensive phonics training. Intervention data show emergence of early reading comprehension skills in terms of words/pictures matching and responding to written instructions. It is suggested that implementation of similar interventions could change the opportunities for people with autism who have limited behavioral repertoire and who did not begin an ABA‐based interventions until their adolescence.

원격 음운변동중재가 읽기부진학생의 단어인지와 읽기유창성에 미치는 효과

Purpose: Communication technology and electronic devices are developing rapidly, and as many students have experienced remote education since COVID-19, the interest in the necessity and effects of telepractice has also grown in the field of speech-language pathology. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of telepractice for poor readers. Method: The subjects of the study were three 2nd-3rd grade students with poor reading. They were able to read words using the phonics principle but had difficulty reading words adapted to phonological processes. For these subjects, phonological processing intervention was conducted for 4 types of 7 coda rule, lenition, tensification, and aspiration. Both intervention and evaluation were conducted remotely using ZOOM. An intermittent multiple baseline design was applied to determine whether remote phonological processing intervention had a positive effect on the word identification of poor readers, and a pre-post design was applied to confirm improvements in reading fluency. Results: Results indicate that, following remote phonological processing intervention, all students demonstrated improvements in word identification scores compared to the baseline. Furthermore, their reading fluency scores exhibited enhancement in the post-test compared to the pre-test. Conclusion: In conclusion, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of remote phonological processing intervention for poor readers. We explored models and directions for future telepractice.

Cognitive Regulation Strategies Used by Children with Reading Difficulties.

(1) Background: Children with reading difficulties may experience negative emotions and social isolation. The cognitive emotion regulation strategies that they use in different reading tasks can make them more vulnerable in the stressful situations. Using adaptative emotion regulation strategies may help them overcome stressful reading situations. (2) Methods: Children identified with poor reading comprehension skills were compared to children without reading comprehension difficulties on measures of self-evaluation and thought in relation to task, and on cognitive coping strategies relevant to performance. The effect of some relevant demographic factors was also investigated, such as gender and urban/rural setting. (3) Results: Our results indicate that children that have poor reading comprehension skills present higher scores on negative self- evaluation and off-task thoughts that are in relation to performance anxiety. Also, in what concerns cognitive coping strategies, students with difficulties in reading comprehension display a greater use of blaming others strategy, which is in relation to the negative self-evaluations. Also, they displayed less use of putting into perspective. No effect of gender and setting emerged for off and on task thoughts and cognitive coping strategies, except for lower scores of students from rural setting in positive self-evaluation. (4) Conclusions: students presenting difficulties in reading comprehension tend to use more negative self-statements and disengagement through off-task thoughts and employ coping strategies directed to protect self-worth.

Reading performance in school going children with visual function anomalies

To compare reading performance in children with and without visual function anomalies. This cross-sectional study was carried out from May 2021 to April 2022 in a tertiary eye hospital of Bangladesh. This study included patients with 6-15 years of age who visited at Vision Therapy clinic. CISS-score was used to identify the asthenopia complaints and reading difficulties while having a normal vision and normal retinal function only selected for recruitment. Reading error, accuracy and reading speed were assessed with an N-notation chart with an N6 target size and the time taken to complete the task was recorded with a stopwatch. Both univariate and bivariate tables are used for analysis. Statistics analysis was performed accordingly, and the level of significance used was at 0.05. Out of 200 subjects, 46.5% boys and 53.5% girls. Of the total, 15.5% had NVF. The mean age of the participants was 12.04 (±2.44) years. Children with AVF had a higher number of reading errors and non-significant negative correlation (AVF=7.64 (±5.19); NVF 6.55 (±3.67); (r = -1.00, p=0.157). Lower Reading accuracy was noted in AVF as correlated to NVF and non-significant negative correlation (AVF=86.11 (±14.84); NVF=86.43 (±13.12); (r= -0.008, p=0.912). Similarly, lower reading speed was noted in AVF as correlated to NVF and non-significant negative correlation (AVF=79.47 (±39.20) wpm; NVF=84.51±36.84 wpm; (r= -0.047, p=0.507). A statistically significant difference was seen between AVF and NVF (p=0.001 at a 95% Confidence Interval of the differences). Children in the 1 to 5 grades presented a higher risk of reading impairment than the 6 to 10grades. Higher reading speed (112±20.69wpm) was noted in 10 grade. In this study, it was observed that poor reading performance is linked to abnormal visual function in school-aged children, but visual function and reading performance are not positively related.

Music literacy improves reading skills via bilateral orthographic development

Considerable evidence suggests that musical education induces structural and functional neuroplasticity in the brain. This study aimed to explore the potential impact of such changes on word-reading proficiency. We investigated whether musical training promotes the development of uncharted orthographic regions in the right hemisphere leading to better reading abilities. A total of 60 healthy, right-handed culturally matched professional musicians and controls took part in this research. They were categorised as normo-typical readers based on their reading speed (syl/sec) and subdivided into two groups of relatively good and poor readers. High density EEG/ERPs were recorded while participants engaged in a note or letter detection task. Musicians were more fluent in word, non-word and text reading tests, and faster in detecting both notes and words. They also exhibited greater N170 and P300 responses, and target-non target differences for words than controls. Similarly, good readers showed larger N170 and P300 responses than poor readers. Increased reading skills were associated to a bilateral activation of the occipito/temporal cortex, during music and word reading. Source reconstruction also showed a reduced activation of the left fusiform gyrus, and of areas devoted to attentional/ocular shifting in poor vs. good readers, and in controls vs. musicians. Data suggest that music literacy acquired early in time can shape reading circuits by promoting the specialization of a right-sided reading area, whose activity was here associated with enhanced reading proficiency. In conclusion, music literacy induces measurable neuroplastic changes in the left and right OT cortex responsible for improved word reading ability.

The Role of Prosody in Reading Comprehension for Individuals on the Autism Spectrum

Purpose: The purposes of this clinical focus article are to describe differences in expressive prosody among autistic individuals, describe the role of prosody in reading comprehension, highlight the potential contribution of prosody to the reading comprehension difficulties experienced by many autistic individuals, discuss interventions that target prosody, and make clinical recommendations. Method: We describe differences in expressive prosody that many autistic individuals experience; review the existing body of literature surrounding reading comprehension, prosody, and autism; and discuss interventions that target prosody as it applies to reading comprehension. Conclusion: Based on the review of the literature and presentation of the challenges that currently exist, we make clinical recommendations regarding the integration of interventions addressing prosody in expressive communication and reading comprehension for autistic individuals who have strong word reading skills and poor reading comprehension.

What is the Difference between Good and Poor Young Adult Readers?

This study investigated demographic profiles, reading characteristics and processes of good and poor young adult readers. Data were collected from 149 undergraduate students studying at a state university in Türkiye through a questionnaire set and eye-tracking experiments. Groups of this study – good and poor readers – were defined according to their performance in a combination of three reading comprehension tests and an oral reading skills test. As a result, significant differences were found between good and poor young adult readers in terms of their ages, genders, the number of books they have in their libraries, and eye movements such as saccade and fixation counts, saccade length, dwell time, and regressions but no differences in their reading habits, strategies, and attitudes, parents’ educational and economic levels, educational backgrounds, and saccade and fixation duration. Concentrating on several components of reading, this study thus provides a comprehensive perspective on the differences between good and poor readers.

The odd one out – Orthographic oddball processing in children with poor versus typical reading skills in a fast periodic visual stimulation EEG paradigm

The specialization of left ventral occipitotemporal brain regions to automatically process word forms develops with reading acquisition and is diminished in children with poor reading skills (PR). Using a fast periodic visual oddball stimulation (FPVS) design during electroencephalography (EEG), we examined the level of sensitivity and familiarity to word form processing in ninety-two children in 2nd and 3rd grade with varying reading skills (n = 35 for PR, n = 40 for typical reading skills; TR).To test children's level of “sensitivity”, false font (FF) and consonant string (CS) oddballs were embedded in base presentations of word (W) stimuli. “Familiarity” was examined by presenting letter string oddballs with increasing familiarity (CS, pseudoword – PW, W) in FF base stimuli.Overall, our results revealed stronger left-hemispheric coarse sensitivity effects (“FF in W” > “CS in W”) in TR than in PR in both topographic and oddball frequency analyses. Further, children distinguished between orthographically legal and illegal (“W/PW in FF” > “CS in FF”) but not yet between lexical and non-lexical (“W in FF” vs “PW in FF”) word forms. Although both TR and PR exhibit visual sensitivity and can distinguish between orthographically legal and illegal letter strings, they still struggle with nuanced lexical distinctions. Moreover, the strength of sensitivity is linked to reading proficiency. Our work adds to established knowledge in the field to characterize the relationship between print tuning and reading skills and suggests differences in the developmental progress to automatically process word forms.

Study on the Automatic Information Processing Strategy in L2 Reading

Reading is currently a prominent topic in L2 acquisition research, serving as an indicator of L2 learners’ overall language proficiency. However, there are still many challenges in reading for L2 learners. For example, there still exist some linguistic and non-linguistic problems, such as insufficient language ability, lack of cultural background knowledge, low reading efficiency, and poor reading habits. Effectively improving the information processing skills of L2 learners in reading posts a major challenge for researchers. This paper explores the effective strategies for L2 learners to obtain the ability of automatic reading information processing through the scale survey. It is found in the study that:1) L2 learners believe that they can reach the level of automatic reading processing through the automatic information processing strategy; 2) The automatic information processing strategy can be applied in L2 reading to effectively improve the level of L2 automatic processing. Various strategies, such as improving language proficiency, increasing cultural background knowledge, utilizing metacognitive strategies, and employing socio-emotional strategies, both linguistic and non-linguistic, have been identified to effectively improve the automatic information processing ability of L2 learners. This study has important theoretical and practical value for improving the reading ability of L2 learners.

A Case Study on Farmers’ Literacy in Agriculture Information in Lunglei District, Mizoram

Many farmers in Lunglei District depend on agriculture for their living, therefore urban residents also depend on agricultural produce. Due to the development of technology, farmers today have easy access to a variety of information that they can use in their farming. However, they still need to know where to turn for reliable data that they can use. The present study adopted a quantitative research method for accessing the information on literacy awareness among 150 agricultural farmers in selected 30 villages in Lunglei District, Mizoram during 2020-2023. The majority of the farmers claimed to be information literate, the findings show that farmers lacked information literacy abilities. Farmers rely heavily on the information they learn from other people, have poor reading abilities, and are unable to search for the information they require. The use of media has been discovered to be the most effective platform for farmers to acquire information and farmers primarily seek information to determine whether forecasts are accurate. The result suggested that farmers must be instructed on how to improve their information literacy abilities by Government officials and library professionals. carrots, sugarcane, chillies, ginger, tobacco, pineapple, and potatoes. Lunglei is located in the heart of Mizoram. According to the 2011 census, the entire area is 4536 square kilometres, and there are 1, 61, 428 people living there, of whom 78, 537 are women and 82, 891 men. The literacy rate is 88.86 per cent. Approximately 65–70 per cent of the population works in agriculture, making it the most common industry. Lunglei is separated into three R.D. Blocks: Lunglei, Bunghmun, and Lungsen; two major sub-districts: Tlabung SDO (S) and Lunglei SDO (S). The administrative hub of the district is located in Lunglei town.

Regulasi Layanan Kesehatan Digital di Indonesia: Tantangan Etis dan Hukum

Digitalization promotes more effective and efficient health-care services. Following the COVID-19 epidemic, there has been a surge in global interest and investment in digital healthcare. WHO has issued guidelines and recommendations to countries in order for them to properly use telemedicine on a global scale. This is not only beneficial to people who want to protect themselves against COVID-19 and other diseases to which they may be susceptible, but it also has the potential to increase access to health care. There are various problems in integrating digital healthcare across the country in Indonesia, a country that does not yet have universal healthcare and struggles with high levels of skepticism in the public health system. Indonesian technology laws currently do not explicitly control telehealth, nor do suitable data protection regulations exist to manage the massive volumes of data generated by digital health services if adopted on a wide scale. Furthermore, there are concerns regarding the level of patient privacy, which may be jeopardized by digital health services. Aside from legal concerns about privacy, there is no framework in place to ensure informed consent in the context of digital healthcare. In this study, the researcher examines the legal, structural, and ethical difficulties surrounding digital health and offer insight into the problems caused by these flaws, as well as policy proposals to remedy these issues. The outcomes of the discussion indicate that data protection rules in Indonesia must address the different concerns listed above. Furthermore, gaps in health-care access and public-sector distrust make universal implementation of digital health services difficult. Aside from legal considerations, the digitalization of health services in Indonesia has ethical implications. The key ethical considerations are informed consent, which is a critical issue, particularly for marginalized groups with poor reading levels and communities that have historically been targets of medical exploitation.&#x0D;

Will you read how I will read? Naturalistic fMRI predictors of emergent reading

Despite reading being an essential and almost universal skill in the developed world, reading proficiency varies substantially from person to person. To study why, the fMRI field is beginning to turn from single-word or nonword reading tasks to naturalistic stimuli like connected text and listening to stories. To study reading development in children just beginning to read, listening to stories is an appropriate paradigm because speech perception and phonological processing are important for, and are predictors of, reading proficiency. Our study examined the relationship between behavioral reading-related skills and the neural response to listening to stories in the fMRI environment. Functional MRI were gathered in a 3T TIM-Trio scanner. During the fMRI scan, children aged approximately 7 years listened to professionally narrated common short stories and answered comprehension questions following the narration. Analyses of the data used inter-subject correlation (ISC), and representational similarity analysis (RSA). Our primary finding is that ISC reveals areas of increased synchrony in both high- and low-performing emergent readers previously implicated in reading ability/disability. Of particular interest are that several previously identified brain regions (medial temporal gyrus (MTG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), inferior temporal gyrus (ITG)) were found to “synchronize” across higher reading ability participants, while lower reading ability participants had idiosyncratic activation patterns in these regions. Additionally, two regions (superior frontal gyrus (SFG) and another portion of ITG) were recruited by all participants, but their specific timecourse of activation depended on reading performance. These analyses support the idea that different brain regions involved in reading follow different developmental trajectories that correlate with reading proficiency on a spectrum rather than the usual dichotomy of poor readers versus strong readers.

Are comorbidities of poor reading related to elevated anxiety in children?

Studies of the association between dyslexia and mental health have typically tried to minimise the influence of dyslexia comorbidities on the outcomes. However, in the "real world", many children with dyslexia have these comorbidities. In this study, we tested (1) if children with dyslexia with three common comorbidities - inattention, hyperactivity, language difficulties - experience more anxiety than children with dyslexia without these comorbidities; and (2) if any type of comorbidity is related to a certain type of anxiety (reading, social, generalised, or separation). The data of 82 children with dyslexia (mean age = 9years and 4months; 25 girls) were analysed using Fisher exact tests, which revealed that those with inattention (40.54%) or hyperactivity (42.30%) were statistically significantly more likely to experience elevated anxiety than children with dyslexia without these comorbidities (8.11 and 14.28%, respectively). This was not the case for language difficulties (24.5% versus 30%). Spearman ρ correlations (α = .05) indicated significant moderate relationships between inattention and reading anxiety (.27), social anxiety (.37), and generalised anxiety (.24); and between hyperactivity and social anxiety (.24) and generalised anxiety (.28). There were no significant correlations between language and anxiety. Examination of highly inter-correlated variables suggested a specific relationship between one type of comorbidity (inattention) and one type of anxiety (reading anxiety).

Türk Ekmeklik Buğday (T. aestivum L.) Çeşidi Gerek 79'da Kuraklığa-Duyarlı Genlerin mRNA Farklılık Gösterim Analizi İle Tanımlanması

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops in the world. Many parts of the world depend on wheat as a source of food and animal feed. Drought stress negatively affects its development and greatly reduce its production. Drought response is a complex genetic mechanism involving multiple genes, transcription factors, miRNAs, hormones, proteins, co-factors, ions, and metabolites. The understanding of genetic basis of the drought tolerance mechanisms is very important for genetic improvement of this trait in wheat. Wheat is also an important cereal crop in Turkey. In this study, it is aimed to identify drought stress-regulated genes in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum cv. Gerek 79) and gene expression profiling using mRNA differential display (mRNA DD) was performed for seedling leaves of control and drought-stressed plants (62.4% of RWC). The comparative profiling study showed a total of 20 differentially-expressed cDNA bands and 10 of them were cloned and sequenced. The inserts having poor quality reads were eliminated. The nucleotide sequences of the remaining two cDNAs named G1 and G2 were subjected to similarity analysis. G1 and G2 showed a high degree of homology to mRNA sequence of purple acid phosphatase and glycosyltransferase family 92 protein-like sequence of Triticum aestivum and some other plants, respectively. Purple acid phosphatases have been shown to be involved in plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. Similarly, the role of glycosyltransferases on thermotolerance has been reported in rice besides their functions in cellular homeostasis and detoxification pathways in plants. These reports and our findings have laid a foundation for further investigation of G1 and G2 cDNA clones. The investigation of differential expression of these gene fragments corresponding to purple acid phosphatase and glycosyltransferase family 92 protein-like sequence under drought conditions at the RNA level is ongoing. Further characterization of these genes could be important in understanding the functions of these gene/s in drought response.