scholarly journals Remote Dyslexia Screening for Bilingual Children

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Maren Eikerling ◽  
Matteo Secco ◽  
Gloria Marchesi ◽  
Maria Teresa Guasti ◽  
Francesco Vona ◽  
...  

Ideally, language and reading skills in bilingual children are assessed in both languages spoken in order to avoid misdiagnoses of communication or learning disorders. Due to limited capacity of clinical and educational staff, computerized screenings that allow for automatic evaluation of the children’s performance on reading tasks (accuracy and speed) might pose a useful alternative in clinical and school settings. In this study, a novel web-based screening platform for language and reading assessment is presented. This tool has been preliminarily validated with monolingual Italian, Mandarin–Italian and English–Italian speaking primary school children living and schooled in Italy. Their performances in the screening tasks in Italian and—if bilingual—in their native language were compared to the results of standardized/conventional reading assessment tests as well as parental and teacher questionnaires. Correlations revealed the tasks that best contributed to the identification of risk for the presence of reading disorders and showed the general feasibility and usefulness of the computerized screening. In a further step, both screening administrators (Examiners) and child participants (Examinees) were invited to participate in usability studies, which revealed general satisfaction and provided suggestions for further improvement of the screening platform. Based on these findings, the potential of the novel web-based screening platform is discussed.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lingxiao Qiu ◽  
Shanshan Chen ◽  
Cong Wang ◽  
Caihong Liu ◽  
Huaqi Wang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Lung transplantation recipients (LTx) are more susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome-corona virus-2 (SARS-Cov-2) and suffer severer outcomes than healthy subjects. OBJECTIVE Here we aim to analyze whether it was appropriate to maintain lung transplant programs in medical institutions accepting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. METHODS Methods: the clinical characteristics, laboratory testing, and epidemiology survey results of 10 LTx recipients undergoing allograft lung transplantation surgeries in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University during the COVID-19 pandemic were collected. A web-based epidemiology questionnaire was used to collect the information of LTx recipients after discharge. RESULTS A total of 10 LTx recipients were identified. The main cause of lung transplantation was idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (60%), with another rare case of cystic fibrosis. Comorbidities involved hyperlipidemia, subclinical hyperthyroidism, diabetes, viral hepatitis of type B. The average white blood cell (WBC) count and average lymphocyte count were 9.5±3.9×109 cells/liter and 1.7±1.1×109 cells/liter, respectively. 40% of the LTx recipients had lymphopenia. Impaired alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate transaminase (AST) were observed in LTx recipients. Good habitats of hand hygiene (100%), wearing protective masks behaviors (100%), indoor ventilation behaviors (100%), indoor disinfection measures (83%), personal tableware (67%), separate room (100%), personal bedsheets/ quilts (100%) and drinking glasses (100%) were observed during the follow-up. None of the LTx recipients or their family members get infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the novel coronavirus pandemic. CONCLUSIONS Under the premise of taking appropriate preventive measures during hospitalization and after discharge, the lung transplant program can be maintained in the medical institution that accepts patients with COVID-19. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT RR2-doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.06.20147264


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Sano ◽  
Yohei Chiba ◽  
Sachiko Maeda ◽  
Chiharu Ikeda ◽  
Nobuyuki Handa ◽  
...  

Purpose This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities to obtain a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of how they are preparing for natural disasters in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Design/methodology/approach This study examines the websites of central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities in Japan to survey the actual status of information dissemination on “evacuation and sheltering” in the context of COVID-19. Findings This study found that the central government issued many notices, notifications and administrative communications to prefectures, cities with public health centers and special wards, which were mainly related to opening, securing and operating evacuation centers and improving the environment. It was found that most prefectures disseminated information on both survival and living evacuation and did so from June onward, when the flood season was approaching. Among the municipalities, there were differences in information dissemination tendencies by prefecture, and it became clear that smaller municipalities were especially incapable of fully disseminating information via the Web. Research limitations/implications The data from the prefectures and municipalities surveyed in this study were collected from websites and do not necessarily represent the actual response to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19 in those areas. To clarify this evacuation, more detailed surveys are needed. Originality/value This study is unique because no research has been conducted on the response of Japanese administrative agencies to disaster-related evacuation in the context of COVID-19; the actual situation was analyzed in this study by examining central government ministries, prefectures and municipalities as administrative agencies and comparing their responses.


Author(s):  
Noreena Kausar ◽  
Nadia Farhat ◽  
Fauzia Maqsood ◽  
Hafsa Qurban ◽  
Admin

Abstract Objective: To examine the frequency of specific learning disorder (SLD) among primary school children of Sarai Alamgir, Pakistan. Methods: The current cross-sectional study was conducted from January to July 2018 in Sarai Alamgir. Multistage stratified sampling technique was used to select the sample from target population (N=914) of school children studying in 3rd and 4th class of six primary schoolsof Sarai Alamgir, Pakistan.Sample of n=837 children was selected through the Taro Yamane formula. Structured Clinical Diagnostic Interviews based on DSM-V (APA, 2013) diagnostic criteria of specific learning disorder were used to collect data. Children were approached in their classes. Screening tool was applied on all selected children to screen out the vulnerable cases. After screening the vulnerable cases, diagnostic criteria of different specific learning disorders were applied on all vulnerable cases. The frequencies and percentages were analyzed to see the frequency  of learning disorder among children. Results:Findings indicate that 174 (20.7%) children were vulnerable to specific learning disorders out of sample of 837 children. Total 13 (7.5%) children were diagnosed as suffering from different specific learning disorders from vulnerable participants. From vulnerable cases, 1(7.7%) childfulfilled the diagnostic criteria of reading impairment, 3 (23.1%) were diagnosed with mathematics impairment, 4 (30.8%) with multiple impairments in mathematics and writing, 1 (7.7%) with multiple impairments in mathematics and reading, 1 (7.7%) with multiple impairments in reading and writing, and 3 (23.1%) children were diagnosed as suffering from multiple impairments in mathematics, reading and writing. Continuous...


2016 ◽  
Vol Volume 13 ◽  
pp. 109-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Riva ◽  
Renata Nacinovich ◽  
Nadia Bertuletti ◽  
Valentina Montrasi ◽  
Sara Marchetti ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Riva ◽  
Alessandro Musetti ◽  
Monica Bomba ◽  
Lorenzo Milani ◽  
Valentina Montrasi ◽  
...  

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to better understand the characteristics of the language-related skills of bilingual children with specific learning disorders (SLD). The aim is achieved by analyzing language-related skills in a sample of bilingual (Italian plus another language) and Italian monolingual children, with and without SLD.Patients and methods: A total of 72 minors aged between 9 and 11 were recruited and divided into four groups: 18 Italian monolingual children with SLD, 18 bilingual children with SLD, 18 Italian monolingual children without SLD, and 18 bilingual children without SLD. Each child underwent tests to evaluate different aspects of language skills: lexical and grammar, metalanguage and executive functions.Results: With regard to lexical and grammatical skills, the conditions of SLD and bilingualism both impact naming in terms of total number of errors for words with low frequency of use, while the condition of SLD has an effect on semantic errors for words with low frequency of use. The condition of bilingualism impacts on the total errors for words with high frequency of use and on circumlocution-type errors for words with low frequency of use. There were significant effects of bilingualism and SLD on the metalinguistic test for understanding implicit meaning, and an impact of SLD on phonological awareness was also found.Conclusion: The results suggest that both SLD and bilingualism have an effect on some lexical skills, in particular for words with low frequency of use. Both conditions, bilingualism and SLD, seem to impact on metalinguistic abilities that depend on lexical knowledge. These findings reinforce the importance of improving understanding of the neuropsychological profile of bilingual children with SLD.


2010 ◽  
pp. 1825-1843
Author(s):  
Gwo-Jen Hwang ◽  
Hsiang Cheng ◽  
Carol H.C. Chu ◽  
Judy C.R. Tseng ◽  
Gwo-Haur Hwang

In the past decades, English learning has received lots of attention all over the world, especially for those who are not native English speakers. Various English learning and testing systems have been developed on the Internet. Nevertheless, most existing English testing systems represent the learning status of a student by assigning that student with a score or grade. This approach makes the student aware of his/her learning status through the score or grade, but the student might be unable to improve his/her learning status without further guidance. In this paper, an intelligent English tense learning and diagnosticsystem is proposed, which is able to identify studentlearning problems on English verb tenses and to provide personalized learning suggestions in accordance with eachstudent’s learning portfolio. Experimental results on hundreds of college students have depicted the superiority of the novel approach.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jana Gamper

AbstractGerman-speaking children appear to have a strong N1-bias when interpreting non-canonical OVSsentences. During sentence interpretation, especially unambiguous accusative and dative case markers (den ‘the-ACC’ and dem ‘the-DAT’) weaken the N1-bias and help building up sentence interpretation strategies on the basis of morphological cues. Still, the N1-bias prevails beyond the age of five (Brandt et al. 2016, Cristante 2016, Dittmar et al. 2008) and remains until puberty (Lidzba et al. 2013). This paper investigates whether prototypical case-animacy coalitions (denACC + NINANIMATE and demDAT + NANIMATE ) strengthen a morphologically based sentence interpretation strategy in German. The experiment discussed in this paper tests for effects of such case-animacy coalitions in mono- and bilingual primary school children. 20 German monolinguals, 12 Dutch-German and 17 Russian-German bilinguals with a mean age of 9;6 were tested in a forced-choice off-line experiment. Results indicate that case-animacy coalitions weaken the N1-bias in OVS-conditions in German monolinguals and Dutch-German bilinguals, while no effects were found for Russian-German bilinguals. Together with an analysis of individual differences, these group-specific effects are discussed in terms of a developmental approach that represents a gradual cue strength adjustment process in mono- and bilingual children.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document