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PubMed2004

Fostering reading comprehension in fifth grade by explicit instruction in reading strategies and peer tutoring.

BACKGROUND: Research reveals that explicit reading strategies instruction and engaging students in interaction about texts promote students' reading comprehension ability. The present intervention study combines both aspects. AIMS: The study examines the educational benefits of explicit reading strategies instruction, followed by practice in (a) teacher-led whole-class activities (STRAT), (b) reciprocal same-age (STRAT + SA), or (c) cross-age peer tutoring activities (STRAT + CA) on fifth graders' reading comprehension achievement. SAMPLE: Twenty-two fifth-grade teachers and their 454 students from 19 different schools throughout Flanders (Belgium) participated. METHOD: A quasi-experimental pretest post-test retention test design was used with three experimental (STRAT, STRAT + SA, and STRAT + CA) and a matched control group. The experimental interventions were implemented during an entire school year. RESULTS: Multilevel analysis revealed that the STRAT and STRAT + CA condition made a significantly larger pretest to retention test progress than the control group. The significant major progress was especially situated from pretest to post-test, during which the intervention took place. Concerning the STRAT + SA condition no significant differences with regard to the control group were detected. Pairwise comparisons of the experimental conditions indicated that the STRAT + CA condition's progress from pretest to retention test also exceeded the STRAT + SA condition's advancement significantly. CONCLUSION: The study corroborated the efficacy of the STRAT and STRAT + CA conditions' interventions as feasible tools to enhance fifth graders' reading comprehension achievement.

Belgium↗
PubMed1996

Long-term consistency in speech/language profiles: I. Developmental and academic outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the 7-year developmental and academic outcome of speech/language-impaired and control children selected from a community sample. METHOD: Speech/language and psychiatric measures were administered to the children at ages 5 and 12.5 years. Using children's age 5 speech/language test results, a cluster analysis was performed to ascertain whether specific linguistic subgroups would emerge. The long-term consistency of these subgroups was explored. The association between time 1 speech/language clusters and linguistic, cognitive and academic measures at time 2 were examined. RESULTS: Four groups were identified in the cluster analysis: high overall, poor articulation, poor comprehension, and low overall. Children with pervasive language problems continued to perform poorly on linguistic, cognitive, and academic measures, while those with comprehension problems fared slightly better but still had more difficulties than those with normal language. The poor articulation cluster had few articulation errors at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Empirically supported speech/language classifications identified as early as age 5 continued to be relevant into late childhood. Pervasive speech/language impairment in early childhood was associated with increased risk of poor linguistic and academic outcome at follow-up, while isolated articulatory problems improved over time. These findings reveal the urgent need for early intervention among children with pervasive speech/language impairment.

Child↗
PubMed2002

Usefulness of a 15-item version of the Boston Naming Test in neuropsychological assessment of low-educational elders with dementia.

The purpose of this study was to validate a reduced version (15 items) of the Boston Naming Test (BNT) in a sample of 78 low-educational elderly persons with or without dementia, as determined by independent assessment with a battery of cognitive tests. The reduced version was found to be equivalent to the complete BNT, and to have criterion validity with respect to other measures of dementia. We conclude that the reduced version is a useful instrument for assessing patients who require shorter testing methods because of severe cognitive deterioration or their low level of education.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

Cultural and linguistic fairness in the assessment of semantics.

In creating a semantic assessment that will be linguistically and culturally fair, it is important to avoid the bias of acquired vocabulary tests. This article describes techniques to assess children's processing of new words, their lexical organization and retrieval, which may be more significant than the number of words known. Special properties of the quantifier every also give an idea of the child's level of semantic ability. In addition, we examine how the child's performance on each item-type helps the speech-language pathologist determine the sources of children's problems in this domain.

Cultural Diversity↗
PubMed1997

Dissociating types of mental computation.

A fundamental issue in the study of cognition and the brain is the nature of mental computation. How far does this depend on internally represented systems of rules, expressed as strings of symbols with a syntax, as opposed to more distributed neural systems, operating subsymbolically and without syntax? The mental representation of the regular and irregular past tense of the English verb has become a crucial test case for this debate. Single-mechanism approaches argue that current multilayer connectionist networks can account for the learning and representation both of regular and of irregular forms. Dual-mechanism approaches, although accepting connectionist accounts for the irregular forms, argue that a symbolic, rule-based system is required to explain the properties of the regular past tense and, by extension, the properties of language and cognition in general. We show here that the regular and irregular past tense are supported by different neural systems, which can become dissociated by damage to the brain. This is evidence for functional and neurological distinctions in the types of mental computation that support these different aspects of linguistic and cognitive performance.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Developmental assessment: 18 months to 4 1/2 years. The miniature toys test.

A modified version of the miniature toys test, originally designed by Sheridan (1975), has been standardized on a sample of 425 children in the age range 18 months to 4 1/2 years. The distinctive features are the assessment of symbolic play and the understanding of prepositions when used in verbal instructions. The acquisition of expressive verbal labels for miniature household objects and transport, and comprehension of questions relating to them have been explored. Responses in some of these areas are not always clear-cut or are ambiguous. The test will be more suited to the needs of the developmental paediatrician for assessment of children with developmental delay, than for doctors of primary care and health visitors in screening apparently healthy children.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Auditory processing abilities in children with previous middle ear effusion.

The present study was designed to determine whether auditory processing disorders are present in children with documented middle ear effusion (MEE) that required surgical treatment. Children with previous MEE and control subjects, in two age groups, were studied using five tests of auditory processing abilities: low-pass filtered speech, staggered spondaic word test, speech in noise, auditory sequential memory, and sound blending. Results found differences in groups at mean age 7 on the filtered speech tests, but no statistical differences were found on any other test at age 7 or on any test at mean age 9. The results indicate that well-managed MEE appears to have no long-term effects on children acquiring this disease.

Auditory Perceptual Disorders↗
PubMed1977

Cerebral dominance for language in cerebral palsy.

A test of cerebral dominance for language was administered to 51 cerebral palsied adults. The test consisted of dichotically presented words and in normal speaking adults had previously demonstrated very marked right ear superiority, interpreted as left cerebral dominance. The group of cerebral palsied subjects did not show the predicted right ear superiority. This finding may represent a chance maldistribution of side of cerebral injury within the 51 subjects. If substantiated, however, it would suggest either that the cortical damage in cerebral palsy is commonly widespread or else that the inherent left cerebral dominance of neonates is less tenacious than is generally assumed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Neurological and MRI profiles of children with developmental language impairment.

Children with developmental language impairment (LI) are defined partly by the absence of other identifiable neurological diagnoses. Such children are generally considered to be neurologically normal, but no systematic studies of neurological function have been reported. We obtained detailed medical histories and conducted neurological examinations for 72 children aged 5 to 14 years with LI and 82 typically developing age-matched control children. All the children took a standardized test of language, and those who were at least 8 years old and were willing to have brain MRI scans (35 children with LI and 27 control children) had scans. Analysis of developmental milestones from the medical histories revealed that children with LI were not only significantly later in speaking, but also mildly but significantly delayed in motor milestones, particularly walking. On neurological examination, abnormalities were found in 70% of the children with LI and only 22% of the control children. The most common abnormalities in the LI group included obligatory synkinesis, fine motor impairments, and hyperreflexia. The children with LI with the most abnormal neurological findings had the lowest language scores. Finally, 12 of 35 children with LI had abnormalities on their MRI scan, while none of the 27 control children had abnormal scans. Abnormal findings included ventricular enlargement (in five), central volume loss (in three), and white matter abnormalities (in four). These findings suggest that developmental LI is not an isolated finding but is indicative of more widespread nervous system dysfunction. Children with LI may need more comprehensive intervention programs than language therapy alone, depending on their other areas of dysfunction. Early identification of such problems may allow for more successful remediation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

A relationship between gonadotropins and visuospatial function.

Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) levels were negatively correlated with visuospatial function in two successive testing sessions in 32 young adult men. Men with high concentrations of FSH performed poorly on three-dimensional tests and tests of point localization. Men with low concentrations tended to perform better. Luteinizing Hormone (LH) tended to correlate positively with verbal/sequential skills and with two of the visuospatial skills for one session; testosterone was positively correlated with one spatial test. Multiple regression between the average performance on visuospatial tests and the three hormones produced Rs of 0.67 and 0.60, accounting for 39% and 29% of the variance, respectively, in Sessions 1 and 2. In women, the hormonal/behavior relationships were less clear although in many ways similar. For example, FSH was negatively correlated with one visuospatial test but only after the effects of estradiol and progesterone were partialled out. FSH was positively correlated with word fluency as was LH. With respect to sex differences women were poorer than men on the visuospatial tests and better on verbal fluency which is consistent with women's generally higher FSH levels and the negative relationship between FSH and visuospatial skills and the positive relationship with fluency.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Errorless learning of novel associations in amnesia.

In two experiments involving verbal association learning by people with memory impairments, the effectiveness of errorless learning (EL) was compared with errorful learning (EF). Experiment 1 examined the effectiveness of both methods in learning remotely linked word pairs. There was an advantage for items learned by EL at immediate test which was not sustained over a delay of 1 hr. Learning appeared to be stable over this delay in the EF condition. Analysis of responses at delayed cued recall showed more evidence of spontaneous recovery in EF than in EL. Elimination of these items from analysis resulted in a similar pattern of forgetting in both methods. Experiment 2 examined the effectiveness of EL and EF in teaching novel associations, and showed an advantage for EL at immediate and delayed test. Forgetting was apparently observed following EL, but not EF. As in Experiment 1, this discrepancy was attributed to recovered responses at delayed test in EF. Eliminating these responses showed a similar pattern of forgetting in both methods for items correctly recalled at immediate test. The study shows an advantage for EL techniques in learning novel associations. The two methods also differ in that learning via EF is associated with more spontaneous recovery.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

The effects of experimentally induced changes in self-concept on associative learning.

It has been hypothesized that self-concept influences ability to learn. This experiment systematically manipulated the self-concepts of learners regarding their abilities to learn a foreign language and measured their subsequent learning of a synthetic foreign language vocabulary list. Eleven Ss were randomly assigned to each of three groups: self-concept raised, self-concept lowered, control. Ss were college freshman who were not enrolled in a foreign language course or had not previously taken more than one semester of a foreign language. Self-concepts were measured as self-description of ability to learn a foreign language. Self-concepts were raised or lowered by providing false scores on a foreign language aptitude test. Learning was measured as performance on a paired-associates task utilizing random shapes and CVCs. Ss with lowered self-concepts learned more slowly than control Ss or Ss with raised self-concepts.

Achievement↗
PubMed2006

Getting to the root: young writers' sensitivity to the role of root morphemes in the spelling of inflected and derived words.

The English orthography is morphophonemic: spellings encode both morphemes and phonemes. Questions of the starting point and extent of young children's understanding of the link between morphemes and spelling are important for theories of spelling development. We conducted two experiments to address these issues. In Experiment 1, 65 six- to eight-year-old English-speaking children spelled just the first sections of inflected, derived and control words. Their spelling of these first segments was better in inflected and derived words than in control words. The findings were replicated in Experiment 2 with 78 six- to eight-year-old children spelling a greater number of items. These two studies converge on the conclusion that, in specific testing situations, six- to eight-year-old children appreciate the role of root morphemes in the spelling of both inflected and derived words. These results are discussed in relation to current models of spelling development.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1979

Verbal tests and transsexualism.

Gender discriminating vocabulary tests administered to a consecutive series of 53 male transsexuals show different results. The Slater Selective Vocabulary Test, Cohen's factors and the Terman-Miles Attitude Interest Analysis Test (M-F) show male transsexuals to have a higher degree of feminization than normal controls. The Wechsler-Bellevue Vocabulary Test and the Wechsler M-F Test are difficult to interpret, and do not show a clear trend of feminization in transsexual males. The investigation has shown that male transsexuals have a vocabulary which differs from that of normal males in the direction of greater feminization.

Humans↗
PubMed1992

60- and 72-month follow-up of children prenatally exposed to marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol: cognitive and language assessment.

Cognitive and receptive language development were examined in 135 60-month-old and 137 72-month-old children for whom prenatal exposure to marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol had been ascertained. Discriminant Function analysis revealed an association between prenatal cigarette exposure and lower cognitive and receptive language scores at 60 and 72 months. This paralleled and extended observations made with this sample at annual assessments at 12 to 48 months of age. Unlike observations made at 48 months, prenatal exposure to marijuana was not associated with the cognitive and verbal outcomes. Relatively low levels of maternal alcohol consumption did not have significant relationships with the outcome variables. The importance of assessing subtle components rather than global cognitive and language skills to detect potential behavioral teratogenic effects of the drugs being examined is discussed.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1981

Performance of children with normal and impaired oral language production on a set of auditory comprehension tests.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the comprehension abilities of children with impaired expressive language and to obtain information on the interrelationships among tests of comprehension. Forty preschool children, 20 with normal language and 20 with impaired expressive language, were given a set of auditory comprehension tests. As a group, the language-impaired children demonstrated deficits in comprehension when compared to the normal-language children. However, both groups scored near the ceiling on several tests, and on most tests that did differentiate the two groups, the mean scores of both groups when applied to performances of middle-class white children. An analysis of responses to selected groupings of analogous items revealed that a preschool child's correct response to a linguistic stimulus in one instance provides no assurance that the child will respond similarly to the stimulus in another linguistic environment with different task demands and different foil alternatives. In addition, the large majority of correlations among the test were nonsignificant, indicating that it is not clinically appropriate to regard these measures of language comprehension as equivalent.

Child↗
PubMed2003

The functional impact of HIV-associated neuropsychological impairment in Spanish-speaking adults: a pilot study.

Among English-speaking adults, HIV-associated neuropsychological (NP) impairments have been associated with problems in everyday functioning, including ability to function at work and drive an automobile. Latinos account for a disproportionate number of HIV/AIDS cases nationwide, and a significant segment of this population is primarily Spanish speaking. We have previously developed an assessment that evaluates English-speakers on a variety of instrumental activities of daily living. In this pilot study, we used Spanish-language translations of our functional battery to investigate the cultural relevance of such measures, and to explore relationships between NP status and ability to perform important everyday tasks in HIV-infected Spanish-speakers. Sixteen HIV-infected monolingual Spanish-speaking adults received comprehensive, Spanish language NP testing and functional assessments included the following domains: Medication Management, Cooking, Finances, Shopping, and Restaurant Scenario. Results revealed that most of the functional tasks appeared culturally relevant and appropriate with minor modifications. NP-impaired participants were significantly more functionally impaired compared to NP-normals (88% vs. 13%, p <.01). Performances on the functional assessment and the NP battery were also related to indicators of real world functioning, including employment status and quality of life. These results, though preliminary, suggest that Spanish language functional assessments are potentially valid tools for detecting everyday functioning deficits associated with NP impairments in HIV-infected Spanish-speakers.

AIDS Dementia Complex↗
PubMed1996

Congenital visual agnosia and prosopagnosia in a child: a case report.

We present an eight years old child, L.G. with congenital agnosia and prosopagnosia. This is a special case of perceptual deficits in a child which are discrete and exist in the context of a very high verbal intelligence. L.G. was administered an extensive battery of tests of cognitive functioning. He has intact basic visual skills, although his visual analysis is sometimes slow. L.G. can read, write and do math at age level or above. Four normal eight years old boys were used as controls on a selection of the perceptual tests, administered to L.G., which did not have normative data. L.G.'s object recognition skills bear the hallmarks of adult apperceptive agnosia. His visual memory and imagery are normal. Tests of face processing skills reveal, unlike adult prosopagnosics, severe deficits in addition to the familiar face recognition problem. L.G.'s agnosia and prosopagnosia are compared to the relevant literature.

Agnosia↗