Staying rooted: Spelling performance in children with dyslexia

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-444
Author(s):  
DERRICK C. BOURASSA ◽  
MEGHAN BARGEN ◽  
MELISSA DELMONTE ◽  
S. HÉLÈNE DEACON
Keyword(s):  
Similar Degree ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Spelling Development ◽  
Spelling Performance ◽  
Spelling Ability ◽  
Dyslexic Group ◽  
Matched Design ◽  
Children's Literacy ◽  
Atypical Development

ABSTRACTSpelling is a key, and telling, component of children’s literacy development. An important aspect of spelling development lies in children’s sensitivity to morphological root constancy. This is the sensitivity to the fact that the spelling of roots typically remains constant across related words (e.g.,singinsingingandsinger). The present investigation examined the extent to which children with dyslexia and younger typically developing children are sensitive to this feature of the orthography. We did so with a spelling-level matched design (e.g., Bourassa & Treiman, 2008) and by further contrasting results with those for a sample of children of the same chronological age as the dyslexic group. Analyses revealed that the dyslexic children and their spelling-ability matched peers used the root constancy principle to a similar degree. However, neither group used this principle to its maximum extent; maximal use of root constancy did emerge for age matched peers. Overall, the findings support the idea that sensitivity to root constancy in children with dyslexia is characterized by delayed rather than atypical development.

scholarly journals JOINT ATTENTION AND THE MENTAL MODEL OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT

2020 ◽  
pp. 96-123
Author(s):  
Yana K. Smirnova
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Preschool Children ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Mental Model ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Speech Impairment ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Primary Defect ◽  
Atypical Development

Relevance. The article discusses the relationship between the development of joint (shared) attention of a child with an adult, and the social and cognitive development of the child. Based on previous studies of typically developing children that demonstrate their participation and responsiveness to fundamental social characteristics, it is significant to identify manifestations of atypical joint attention when a child does not register which object (event) or which aspects of this object (event) are the focus of an interlocutor’s attention. The question of which aspects of joint attention are related to the normative development of the child makes this relevant for comparing groups with different forms of atypical development. For the study, the main indicator of understanding the intentions of the other in the direction of view was used, as one of the aspects of joint attention. Objective. To compare the development of social cognition and joint attention among typically developing children and children with various forms of atypical development in order to identify the correlation between the theory of mind and cognitive lesion. Methods. In a sample of preschool children with typical development and of those with mental retardation, hearing impairment, speech impairment, or visual impairment (N = 90), the following methods were used to evaluate the children’s understanding of the intentions, desires, and interests of others by their behavioral manifestations: “Test for Erroneous Opinion”, “Sally-Ann”; the “What does Charlie want?” task, and others. The task was also used to assess the child’s ability to use the direction of a character’s gaze in a picture to determine the person’s intentions. Results. We identified the “primary psychological” characteristics of the atypical development of the child, which prioritize violations of social communication. Several variations of the violation of joint attention were singled out by determining a person’s intentions by the direction of their gaze. It was shown that determining intentions by the direction of gaze is associated with the normative age formation of the child. Symptoms of deficiency in this skill vary depending on the specifics of the child’s atypical development. Conclusions. Secondary deviations in the development of social cognition are specific to a particular primary defect. The limited inflow of information in the event of a violation of the analyzer creates unusual conditions in the children’s accumulation of the experience of social interaction that is necessary to form a mental model.

scholarly journals You may point, but do not touch: Impact of gesture-types and cognition on language in typical and atypical development

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mila Vulchanova ◽  
Joana Acha ◽  
Sara Ramos-Cabo ◽  
Valentin Vulchanov
Keyword(s):  
Index Finger ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Atypical Development ◽  
One Year

We investigated whether two types of pointing hand features (index finger and open palm pointing) and three types of relation with the referent (manipulation, contact, no contact) similarly predict language in children with and without autism, and whether cognition mediates the longitudinal relationship between pointing and language development. Sixteen children with autism, thirteen children at high risk for autism, and eighteen typically developing children participated in an interactive gesture-elicitation task and were tested on standardized cognitive and expressive language batteries in a longitudinal design. Cognition was a significant and direct predictor of language skills in all groups. However, index finger pointing was a direct predictor of language in the autism group above and beyond cognition. In addition, index finger pointing total score and percentage of no contact pointing bids were key predictors of expressive language measured one year apart, once the effect of group, expressive language and cognition at Time 1 were controlled. Findings highlight the role of cognition in communicative development, but suggest a key role of index finder use in the longitudinal relationship between deictic gestures and language atypical development above and beyond cognition.

scholarly journals It Takes All Kinds (of Information) to Learn a Language: Investigating the Language Comprehension of Typical Children and Children With Autism

2020 ◽  
pp. 096372142096940
Author(s):  
Letitia R. Naigles
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Social Abilities ◽  
Atypical Development

What factors influence children’s understanding of language in both typical and atypical development? In this article, I summarize findings from the Longitudinal Study of Early Language (LSEL), which has been following the talk, understanding, and interactions of typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. The LSEL has found not only group similarities in syntactic understanding and word-learning strategies but also within-group variability that correlates with other aspects of the children’s behavior. In particular, early linguistic knowledge and social abilities have both been shown to play independent roles in later talk and understanding. Thus, theoretical perspectives that highlight social compared with linguistic underpinnings to language development should be viewed as complementary rather than competing.

scholarly journals Subskills associated with spelling ability in children with and without autism spectrum disorders

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 239694151880380
Author(s):  
Benjamin Bailey ◽  
Joanne Arciuli
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Linguistic Awareness ◽  
Spelling Ability ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Word Spelling

Background and aims Effective literacy instruction demands a clear understanding of the subskills that underpin children’s reading and writing abilities. Some previous research on reading has questioned whether the same subskills support literacy acquisition for typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorders. This study examined the subskills associated with spelling ability in a group of 20 children with ASD aged 5–12 years (ASD group). A group of 20 typically developing children matched for age and word spelling accuracy (TD group) provided comparative data. Methods Participants completed standardised assessments of vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and word spelling. Errors produced in response to the word spelling assessment were analysed for evidence of phonological awareness. In addition, all spelling attempts were analysed for evidence of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness, ‘linguistic awareness’, using the Computerised Spelling Sensitivity System. Results Correlation and regression analyses showed statistically significant relationships between phonological awareness and word spelling accuracy for children in the ASD and TD groups. Spelling errors produced by both groups contained evidence of phonological awareness. Analysis of all spelling attempts showed that the overall level of linguistic awareness encoded by children in the ASD and TD groups was not significantly different. Conclusions These findings provide evidence that phonological awareness and other subskills support spelling in children with autism spectrum disorders as they do in typically developing children. Implications The similar spelling profiles exhibited by children with autism spectrum disorders and their typically developing peers suggest that these populations may benefit from literacy instruction that targets the same underpinning subskills.

Multiple-object tracking among individuals with Down syndrome and typically developing children

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darlene A. Brodeur ◽  
Lana M. Trick ◽  
Heidi Flores ◽  
Caitlin Marr ◽  
Jacob A. Burack
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Object Tracking ◽  
Multiple Object Tracking ◽  
Relative Strength ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Multiple Object ◽  
Visuospatial Tasks ◽  
Atypical Development

AbstractWe investigated differences in multiple-object tracking among individuals with Down syndrome (DS) as compared to typically developing children matched on a visual–spatial mental age of approximately 5.5 years. In order to ensure that these effects did not originate in differences in encoding or reporting the positions of targets in distracters after a delay, immediate and delayed report were measured for static items. Although their immediate and delayed report for multiple static items was comparable to that of the typically developing children, the participants with DS performed as if they were only capable of tracking a single item at a time regardless of the number of targets that needed to be tracked. This finding is surprising because the operations used in multiple-object tracking are thought to be necessary for visuospatial tasks, which are an area of relative strength among persons with DS. These results call into question the idea that abilities or deficits in multiple-object tracking predict visuospatial performance, and highlight ways that atypical development can inform our understanding of typical development.

Temporal Processing Development in Chinese Primary School–Aged Children With Dyslexia

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Chih Wang ◽  
Hsien-Ming Yang
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Chinese Character ◽  
Orthographic Knowledge ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Auditory Modality ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Auditory Temporal Processing ◽  
Dyslexic Group ◽  
Character Reading

This study aimed to investigate the development of visual and auditory temporal processing among children with and without dyslexia and to examine the roles of temporal processing in reading and reading-related abilities. A total of 362 Chinese children in Grades 1–6 were recruited from Taiwan. Half of the children had dyslexia, and the other half were typically developing children who matched the dyslexic group on age, intelligence, and gender. Our results indicate that for typically developing children, the visual and auditory modalities follow the same developmental trend: The children in first and second grades performed significantly worse than the older children. Among the children with dyslexia, however, significant improvements in the visual modality were observed with increasing age. Furthermore, although both modalities were important for all reading-related abilities and for Chinese character reading in first and second grades, the visual modality significantly predicted only orthographic knowledge and Chinese character reading in third and fourth grades. In contrast, the auditory modality affected only phonological awareness. In fifth and sixth grades, only visual temporal processing slightly contributed to the orthographic knowledge and Chinese character reading of the dyslexic group. Also, the relationship between temporal processing and Chinese character reading is strongly influenced by age.

scholarly journals Semantics impacts response to phonics through spelling intervention in children with dyslexia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin van Rijthoven ◽  
Tijs Kleemans ◽  
Eliane Segers ◽  
Ludo Verhoeven
Keyword(s):  
Typically Developing ◽  
Semantic Representations ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Spelling Development ◽  
Spelling Errors ◽  
Spelling Intervention ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Orthographic Errors ◽  
Phonological Errors

AbstractWe examined the response to a phonics through spelling intervention in 52 children with dyslexia by analyzing their phonological, morphological, and orthographical spelling errors both before and after the intervention whereas their spelling errors before the intervention were compared with those of 105 typically developing spellers. A possible compensatory role of semantics on the intervention effects was also investigated. Results showed that before the intervention, children with dyslexia and the typically developing children both made most morphological errors, followed by orthographic and phonological errors. Within each category, children with dyslexia made more errors than the typically developing children, with differences being largest for phonological errors. Children with dyslexia with better developed semantic representations turned out to make less phonological, morphological, and orthographic errors compared with children with dyslexia with less developed semantic representations. The intervention for children with dyslexia led to a reduction of all error types, mostly of the orthographic errors. In addition, semantics was related to the decline in phonological, morphological, and orthographic spelling errors. This study implicates that semantic stimulation could benefit the spelling development of children at risk for or with dyslexia.

Age Norms for Auditory-Perceptual Neurophonetic Parameters: A Prerequisite for the Assessment of Childhood Dysarthria

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1071-1082
Author(s):  
Theresa Schölderle ◽  
Elisabet Haas ◽  
Wolfram Ziegler
Keyword(s):  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Voice Quality ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Age Norms ◽  
Elementary School Age ◽  
Speech Characteristics ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Computer Based

Purpose The aim of this study was to collect auditory-perceptual data on established symptom categories of dysarthria from typically developing children between 3 and 9 years of age, for the purpose of creating age norms for dysarthria assessment. Method One hundred forty-four typically developing children (3;0–9;11 [years;months], 72 girls and 72 boys) participated. We used a computer-based game specifically designed for this study to elicit sentence repetitions and spontaneous speech samples. Speech recordings were analyzed using the auditory-perceptual criteria of the Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales, a standardized German assessment tool for dysarthria in adults. The Bogenhausen Dysarthria Scales (scales and features) cover clinically relevant dimensions of speech and allow for an evaluation of well-established symptom categories of dysarthria. Results The typically developing children exhibited a number of speech characteristics overlapping with established symptom categories of dysarthria (e.g., breathy voice, frequent inspirations, reduced articulatory precision, decreased articulation rate). Substantial progress was observed between 3 and 9 years of age, but with different developmental trajectories across different dimensions. In several areas (e.g., respiration, voice quality), 9-year-olds still presented with salient developmental speech characteristics, while in other dimensions (e.g., prosodic modulation), features typically associated with dysarthria occurred only exceptionally, even in the 3-year-olds. Conclusions The acquisition of speech motor functions is a prolonged process not yet completed with 9 years. Various developmental influences (e.g., anatomic–physiological changes) shape children's speech specifically. Our findings are a first step toward establishing auditory-perceptual norms for dysarthria in children of kindergarten and elementary school age. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12133380

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