Handwriting Delay in Dyslexia: Children at the End of Primary School Still Make Numerous Short Pauses When Producing Letters

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Alamargot ◽  
Marie-France Morin ◽  
Erika Simard-Dupuis
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Reading Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Specific Reading

Developmental dyslexia is defined as a specific reading disorder but is also thought to be underpinned by a deficit in motor skills that may well affect handwriting performance. However, the results of studies addressing this issue are not consistent. The present study was, therefore, designed to better understand the functioning of handwriting in children with dyslexia, by conducting an analysis of the legibility and fluency of handwritten letters, supplemented by an assessment of motor skills. The performances of 15 children with dyslexia ( Mage = 11.4 years) were compared with those of two groups of typically developing children, one matched for chronological age, the other for orthographic level ( Mage = 8.7 years) on two handwriting measures (production of the letters of the alphabet and the child’s first name and surname). Results revealed a delay in motor skills, as well as in letter legibility, letter production duration, and the number of short pauses (i.e., lasting between 20 and 199 ms) made during letter production, in the children with dyslexia, with strong negative correlations between motor skills and the number of short pauses. Results are discussed in the context of handwriting control development in children, and perspectives are set out for practitioners.

Examining the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ knowledge of storybook events

2021 ◽  
pp. 026565902199554
Author(s):  
Lynn Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Narrative Comprehension ◽  
Important Predictor ◽  
Story Comprehension ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Event Knowledge ◽  
Yield Information ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Planning Intervention

Planning intervention for narrative comprehension deficits requires a thorough understanding of a child’s skill in all component domains. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of three methods of measuring pre-readers’ event knowledge, an important predictor of story comprehension. Thirty-eight typically developing children (12 males; 26 females) between the ages of 30–59 months ( M = 42.05 SD = 7.62) completed three measures – verbal account, enactment, picture-sequencing – that tapped their knowledge of two different events before listening to stories based on each of those events and completing story comprehension tasks. Scores for verbal account and enactment, but not for picture sequencing, (1) were moderately correlated with comprehension scores for the corresponding story; (2) reflected differential knowledge of the two events, though not in the expected direction; (3) were moderately correlated with one another in the case of each story. In general measures for the same event were more highly correlated with one another than with measures of the other event. Overall, results suggest that verbal account and enactment may yield information useful for clinicians planning intervention for children with narrative comprehension deficits.

scholarly journals Age effects on the development of stimulus over-selectivity are mediated by cognitive flexibility and selective attention

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Michelle P. Kelly ◽  
Phil Reed
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Distractor Task ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Cognitive Variables ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Developmental Trends

Stimulus over-selectivity is said to have occurred when only a limited subset of the total number of stimuli present during discrimination learning controls behavior, thus, restricting learning about the range, breadth, or all features of a stimulus. The current study investigated over-selectivity of 100 typically developing children, aged 3–7 (mean = 65.50 ± 17.31 SD months), using a visual discrimination task. Developmental trends in over-selectivity and their relationship to some cognitive variables (i.e., selective attention, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility) were the target. Over-selectivity decreased with age, but this effect was mediated by the development of cognitive flexibility. Over-selectivity increased when a distractor task was introduced, which was not mediated by the other cognitive variables under investigation. The current results assist in the establishment of the theoretical underpinnings of over-selectivity by offering evidence of its underlying determinants and relating these to developmental trends.

Asynchrony in the cognitive and lexical development of young children with Williams syndrome

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
THIERRY NAZZI ◽  
ALISON GOPNIK ◽  
ANNETTE KARMILOFF-SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Williams Syndrome ◽  
Chance Level ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Lexical Development ◽  
Object Selection ◽  
Object Categories

The present study investigates whether five-to-six-year-old children with Williams syndrome (N=8) can form new object categories based on naming information alone, and compares them with five groups of typically developing children aged 2;0 to 6;0 (N=34 children). Children were presented with triads of dissimilar objects; all objects in a triad were labelled, two of them with the same pseudoname. Name-based categorization was evaluated through object selection. Performance was above chance level for all groups. Performance reached a ceiling at about 4;0 for the typically developing children. For the children with Williams Syndrome, performance remained below chronological age level. The present results are discussed in light of previous findings of a failure to perform name-based categorization in younger children with Williams syndrome and the persistent asynchrony between cognitive and lexical development in this disorder.

scholarly journals Demographic factors associated with young children’s motor creativity

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 1307-1319
Author(s):  
Nezahat Hamiden Karaca ◽  
Halil Uzun ◽  
Şermin Metin ◽  
Neriman Aral
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skills ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Multiple Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
General Information ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Mother’S Age ◽  
Movement Test

This study investigated factors that are associated with the creative motor skills of young children. We recruited through random sampling 233 typically developing children attending preschool or kindergarten in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. We administered a “General Information Form” to gather the children’s demographic characteristics and the “Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement Test” to evaluate the children’s creative motor skills level. We analyzed the children and familys’ demographic characteristics with frequency and percentage values, and we analyzed the TCAM with multiple linear regression analysis to determine whether independent variables predicted creativity on the TCAM. Our results showed that, among the sub-dimensions of the TCAM, the mother’s age and profession best predicted the sub-dimension of fluency and the mother’s profession best predicted the sub-dimension of novelty. Regarding, the sub-dimension of children's creative motor-imagination, neither the children’s gender or age, the parents’ age, education or occupation were significant predictors. Keywords: Creativity;  creative thinking; motor creativity

scholarly journals Accuracy and variability in early spontaneous word production: The effects of age, frequency and neighbourhood density

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-150
Author(s):  
Samuel David Jones
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skills ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Bayesian Regression ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Speech Sound Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
Typical Range

High rates of error and variability in early word production may signal speech sound disorder. However, there is little consensus regarding the degree of error and variability that may be expected in the typical range. Relatedly, while variables including child age, word frequency and word phonological neighbourhood density are associated with variance in word production accuracy and variability, such effects remain under-examined in spontaneous speech. This study measured the accuracy and variability of 234,551 spontaneous word productions from five typically developing children in the Providence corpus (0;11–4;0). Using Bayesian regression, accuracy and variability rates were predicted by age, input frequency, phonological neighbourhood density, and interactions between these variables. Between 61% and 72% of word productions were both inaccurate and variable according to strict criteria. However loosening these criteria to accommodate production inconsistencies unlikely to be considered erroneous (e.g. the target /æləɡeɪtəɹ/ pronounced /ælɪɡeɪtəɹ/) reduced this figure to between 10% and 17%, with the majority of word productions then classed as accurate and stable (48%–58%). In addition, accuracy was higher and variability was lower in later months of sampling, and for high frequency words and high density words. The author discusses the implications of these results for future research and the differential diagnosis of speech sound disorder, and presents an explanatory account of findings emphasizing the development of oral-motor skills and increasingly detailed phonological word representations.

Frequency of occurrence of specific reading disorder and associated psychiatric comorbidity in a sample of Egyptian primary school students

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona M. El Sheikh ◽  
Marwa A. El Missiry ◽  
Hisham A. Hatata ◽  
Walaa M. Sabry ◽  
Abdul Aala A. El Fiky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Psychiatric Comorbidity ◽  
Reading Disorder ◽  
Frequency Of Occurrence ◽  
Primary School Students ◽  
School Students ◽  
Specific Reading

scholarly journals Nonword Repetition and Vocabulary Knowledge as Predictors of Children's Phonological and Semantic Word Learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 682-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Adlof ◽  
Hannah Patten
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Semantic Information ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Nonword Repetition ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
New Words ◽  
Reading Impairments

Purpose This study examined the unique and shared variance that nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge contribute to children's ability to learn new words. Multiple measures of word learning were used to assess recall and recognition of phonological and semantic information. Method Fifty children, with a mean age of 8 years (range 5–12 years), completed experimental assessments of word learning and norm-referenced assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition skills. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses examined the variance in word learning that was explained by vocabulary knowledge and nonword repetition after controlling for chronological age. Results Together with chronological age, nonword repetition and vocabulary knowledge explained up to 44% of the variance in children's word learning. Nonword repetition was the stronger predictor of phonological recall, phonological recognition, and semantic recognition, whereas vocabulary knowledge was the stronger predictor of verbal semantic recall. Conclusions These findings extend the results of past studies indicating that both nonword repetition skill and existing vocabulary knowledge are important for new word learning, but the relative influence of each predictor depends on the way word learning is measured. Suggestions for further research involving typically developing children and children with language or reading impairments are discussed.

scholarly journals Differences and Similarities in Predictors of Expressive Vocabulary Development between Children with Down Syndrome and Young Typically Developing Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 312
Author(s):  
Kari-Anne B. Næss ◽  
Johanne Ostad ◽  
Egil Nygaard
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Oral Motor

The purpose of this study was to examine potential differences in the predictors of expressive vocabulary development between children with Down syndrome and typically developing children to support preparation for intervention development. An age cohort of 43 children with Down syndrome and 57 typically developing children with similar nonverbal mental age levels were assessed at three time points. Linear mixed models were used to investigate the predictors of expressive vocabulary over time. Both groups achieved progress in expressive vocabulary. The typically developing children had steeper growth than the children with Down syndrome (1.38 SD vs. 0.8 SD, p < 0.001). In both groups, receptive vocabulary, auditory memory, and the home literacy environment were significant predictors of development. In the children with Down syndrome, the phonological awareness and oral motor skills were also significant. Group comparisons showed that receptive vocabulary, auditory memory and oral motor skills were stronger predictors in the children with Down syndrome than in the typically developing children. These results indicate that children with Down syndrome are more vulnerable when it comes to risk factors that are known to influence expressive vocabulary than typically developing children. Children with Down syndrome therefore require early broad-based expressive vocabulary interventions.

scholarly journals Laterais do Português Europeu Contemporâneo: estruturação interna, robustez de traços e dados de aquisição

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Clara Amorim ◽  
João Veloso
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
European Portuguese

This work intends to discuss the distinctive features of the laterals in Contemporary European Portuguese, in particular the features [+lateral] and [+continuous], based on language acquisition data. For this purpose, the productions of 80 typically developing children aged between 3 and 4 years and eleven months were analyzed. The results show that, after the nasals, the lateral in onset position is the first sonorant to be acquired. If the laterals are distinguished from the rhotics by the marked feature [+lateral], it would be expected that the class of the rhotics would be acquired before the laterals, since the acquisition of segments is made by the gradual acquisition of marked features and by their combination with features already acquired. The fact that /l/ is acquired before the rhotics suggests that the feature [+lateral] is not responsible for establishing the contrast between the two classes. Based on the data analyzed, the feature [+approximant] is proposed to characterize the laterals and rhotics, distinguishing them from the other sonorants, and the feature [[±continuant] to differentiate the rhotics from the laterals, the latter being characterized by the negative value of this feature.

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