Cognitive Enhancement Training (COGENT©): What Is It? How Does It Work With a Group of Disadvantaged Children?

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.P. Das ◽  
Denyse Hayward ◽  
S. Samantaray ◽  
J.J. Panda

A classroom-based program – COGENT©, consisting of five learning modules developed for the enhancement of cognitive, language, and literacy skills, was administered to a group of 11 disadvantaged children living in an orphanage in India. Pre- and posttests of reading and cognitive measures showed that 88% of the children made modest gains at posttest in word reading. The gains in the cognitive test scores were also encouraging with 54% of children showing gains in all four cognitive processing domains on which they were tested. All children responded positively to program activities and the interactive learning ambience. Cross-cultural concerns are discussed regarding cognitive processes involved in learning to read in a foreign language.

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-123
Author(s):  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Lauren Miller ◽  
Adrian Pasquarella ◽  
Xi Chen

The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish conducted the intervention as part of a service-learning program. Standardized measures given to the students before and after the intervention included phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency. The treatment group was compared to a group of twenty-five children (n=25) who did not participate in the program. The two groups were matched by age and non-verbal reasoning. Results from pre and post-tests showed significant gains for the treatment group in vocabulary growth, word reading fluency and word reading accuracy. Phonological awareness developed significantly for both groups, but there was no advantage for the experimental group. Overall, the intervention was effective at promoting both Spanish language and literacy skills (Rhoades, 2009). Contextualized and explicit instruction on word reading and decoding, as well as oral language and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, helped Spanish heritage learners develop academic language and literacy skills in their first/minority language. Furthermore, the results provide strong evidence supporting the efficacy of a service-learning program aimed at facilitating the development of literacy skills among child heritage language learners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-31
Author(s):  
Kelly J. Williams ◽  
Leticia R. Martinez

Many adolescent students who are learning English and are identified with learning disabilities have difficulties with both reading comprehension and English language proficiency. In the secondary grades, these students have fewer opportunities to improve their reading comprehension and to learn from a range of disciplinary texts. To address these challenges, this article provides research-based practices to improve the language and literacy skills of these students through explicit instruction on word reading and academic vocabulary.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1755-1774
Author(s):  
Language and Reading Research Conso ◽  
Carol Mesa ◽  
Gloria Yeomans-Maldonado

Purpose The purpose of the current study was to examine the role that the 1st language, Spanish, at prekindergarten (pre-K) plays in predicting 2nd language (L2), English, word reading in 1st grade. In addition, it examines the role of conceptual vocabulary in predicting word reading in English. Method As part of a longitudinal study of predictors and models of reading comprehension from pre-K to 3rd grade, 248 children attending preschool programs completed Spanish and English measures in the spring of each academic year. In this article, we report the results of English and Spanish measures of oral language and literacy skills that were administered in pre-K and 4 measures of English word reading that were administered in 1st grade. Results Results from structural equation modeling indicated that Spanish oral language made significant direct and indirect contributions to English oral language and word reading. Further, results supported previous evidence indicating that L2 letter knowledge and L2 oral language proficiency are the strongest predictors of L2 word reading in 1st grade. Discussion Similar to findings with monolingual English-speaking children, results support findings that, in the early stages of reading development, oral language in both 1st language and L2 make a significant and independent contribution to word reading. This study has important implications for the support of oral language skills in Latino preschool children.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Mesa ◽  
Dianne Newbury ◽  
Marysia Nash ◽  
Paula Clarke ◽  
Rosanne Esposito ◽  
...  

This study evaluated the effects of a reading and language intervention, for low-income children living in a remote Chilean community, using a randomized controlled trial. At the beginning of the study, participants were allocated to the intervention (n = 34) or waiting control (n = 34) minimizing on a composite language measure and age. Children in the intervention group received a 27-week program aimed at fostering code-related, word reading and oral language skills. Children’s progress in language and literacy was monitored at four time points: pre-, mid- post-intervention, and at delayed follow-up 9-months after the intervention had ceased. At the end of the intervention, children in the intervention group scored showed improvements compared to the waiting group on pre-literacy, reading, language, and reading comprehension measures (effect sizes d >.25). The gains in pre-literacy skills, word reading and word knowledge were maintained at 9-month delayed follow-up, though the improvements in language and reading comprehension were not. Intervention programs designed to support literacy and language skills in remote communities can be delivered successfully by trained assistants. Our findings inform the future provision of language and literacy programs in populations living in isolated areas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-616
Author(s):  
Kenn Apel ◽  
Victoria S. Henbest

Purpose Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study. Method Thirty second- and third-grade students with SSD and 30 with typical speech skills, matched on age and receptive vocabulary, completed four morphological awareness tasks and measures of receptive vocabulary, real-word reading, pseudoword reading, and word-level spelling. Results Results indicated there was no difference between the morphological awareness skills of students with and without SSD. Although morphological awareness was moderately to strongly related to the students' literacy skills, performance on the morphological awareness tasks contributed little to no additional variance to the children's real-word reading and spelling skills beyond what was accounted for by pseudoword reading. Conclusions Findings suggest that early elementary-age students with SSD may not present with concomitant morphological awareness difficulties and that the morphological awareness skills of these students may not play a unique role in their word-level literacy skills. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD are discussed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-70
Author(s):  
Jennifer Walz Garrett

Abstract School-based speech-language pathologists assess students to establish eligibility, collect baselines for treatment goals, determine progress during intervention and verify generalization of skills. Selecting appropriate assessment tools and methods can be challenging due to time constraints, agency regulations, and availability of tests. This article will describe legal considerations, types of assessments, and the factors involved with the selection and use of various assessment procedures and tools. In addition, speech-language pathologists will learn to calculate words correct per minute (WCPM) and perform miscue analysis, which can provide additional language and literacy information about a child's educational needs.


1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 533-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Ellis ◽  
Alan Beaton

In order to investigate the cognitive processes involved in learning Foreign Language (FL) vocabulary, this study evaluates different methods of instruction. It demonstrates that keyword techniques are effective for receptive learning but that repetition is a superior strategy for learning to produce the foreign word. Performance is optimal when learners combine both strategies. The nature of the keyword is crucial–-whereas imageable noun keywords promote learning, verb keywords actually impede it. A theoretical analysis of the roles of phonological short-term memory, imagery, and lexical factors in FL vocabulary learning is presented.


Author(s):  
Jia Li ◽  
Catherine Snow ◽  
Claire White

Modern teens have pervasively integrated new technologies into their lives, and technology has become an important component of teen popular culture. Educators have pointed out the promise of exploiting technology to enhance students’ language and literacy skills and general academic success. However, there is no consensus on the effect of technology on teens, and scant literature is available that incorporates the perspective of urban and linguistically diverse students on the feasibility of applying new technologies in teaching and learning literacy in intact classrooms. This paper reports urban adolescents’ perspectives on the use of technology within teen culture, for learning in general and for literacy instruction in particular. Focus group interviews were conducted among linguistically diverse urban students in grades 6, 7 and 8 in a lower income neighborhood in the Northeastern region of the United States. The major findings of the study were that 1) urban teens primarily and almost exclusively used social media and technology devices for peer socializing, 2) they were interested in using technology to improve their literacy skills, but did not appear to voluntarily or independently integrate technology into learning, and 3) 8th graders were considerably more sophisticated in their use of technology and their suggestions for application of technology to literacy learning than 6th and 7th graders. These findings lead to suggestions for developing effective literacy instruction using new technologies.


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