Reading Comprehension Monitoring of Expository Discourses in Third to Fifth Grade ADHD Children with/without Vocabulary Delay

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate reading comprehension monitoring including three types of error detection (lexical inconsistency, internal inconsistency, external inconsistency) and correction with expository discourse in school-aged children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).Methods: Nineteen ADHD children with vocabulary delay, 17 ADHD children without vocabulary delay, and 20 typically developing children students from third, fourth, and fifth grades participated in the study. In order to assess comprehension monitoring; expository discourses contained three different types of errors. Comprehension monitoring tasks were presented in the following order: First, children were asked to find out errors in two expository texts of comparison and causation. After finding out errors, children were asked to change the appropriate words verbally.Results: ADHD children with vocabulary delay did show difficultly in reading comprehension monitoring tasks when compared to age-matched typically developing children and ADHD children without language impairment. Internal inconsistency was the most difficult error to identify and correct, and lexical inconsistency was the easiest error for all three groups.Conclusion: The result proposed that even children with ADHD who have no difficulty in basic language and reading skills were likely to have difficulty properly using reading comprehension monitoring, which is closely related to working memory and executive functions. The poor comprehension monitoring skills would negatively influence effective reading comprehension.

Socioeconomic Status, Culture, and Reading Comprehension in Immigrant Students

Research on reading comprehension in immigrant students is heterogeneous and conflicting. Differences in socioeconomic status and cultural origins are very likely confounds in determining whether differences to native pupils can be attributed to immigrant status. We collected data on 312 Spanish students of Native, of Hispanic origin–therefore with the same family language as native students- and Non-Hispanic origin, while controlling for socioeconomic status, non-verbal reasoning and school membership. We measured reading comprehension, knowledge of syntax, sentence comprehension monitoring, and vocabulary. Differences among groups appeared only in vocabulary and syntax (with poorer performance in the non-Hispanic group), with no differences in reading comprehension. However, regression analyses showed that most of the variability in reading comprehension was predicted by age, socioeconomic status, non-verbal reasoning, and comprehension monitoring. Group membership did not significantly contribute to explain reading comprehension variability. The present study supports the idea that socioeconomically disadvantaged students, both native and immigrants from diverse cultural backgrounds, irrespective of the language of origin, are probably equally at risk of poor reading comprehension.

METACOGNITION AND ENGLISH READING-RELATED OUTCOMES FOR D/DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING STUDENTS: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

The purpose of this narrative review was to summarize empirical studies regarding the effects of metacognition on English reading-related outcomes for students who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh). This review covered the timeframe from the publication of the previous and only narrative review conducted by Strassman (1997) to 2020. Several of Strassman’s assertions were confirmed, including the oft-repeated one: d/Dhh students possess inadequate comprehension-monitoring skills. In fact, the students are not aware of effective metacognitive strategies and, in general, do not know “what they do not know.” Although intervention is strongly recommended, a few later studies asserted that such intervention not only should be based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel, but also should be differentiated to meet the individual needs of d/Dhh students. It was argued that d/Dhh reading comprehension challenges are due to metacognitive or executive function issues; however, this assumption needs to be contextualized within a framework of reading which entails decoding and comprehension processes.

Word processing difficulty and executive control interactively shape comprehension monitoring in a second language: an eye-tracking study

Successful reading comprehension – especially in a second language (L2) – relies on the ability to monitor one’s comprehension, that is, to notice comprehension breaks and make repairs. Comprehension monitoring may be limited given effortful word processing, but may also be supported through active control. The current study addresses to what extent increased word processing difficulty reduces adolescents’ ability to monitor their comprehension when reading in their L2, and whether readers can compensate limitations given sufficient executive control. To this end, we conducted an eye-tracking experiment where 34 adolescent L2 learners read short expository texts that contained two within-subject manipulations. First, comprehension monitoring was tested through textual inconsistencies, such as when the topic changed from speaking Spanish to speaking Russian vis-à-vis consistent controls. Second, word processing difficulty was altered by inserting either shorter and higher-frequency words such as want, or longer and lower-frequency words such as prefer. We additionally measured each participants’ executive control. We found evidence of successful moment-to-moment monitoring in the L2, as visible in adolescents’ increased rereading of inconsistent as opposed to consistent information. We also found that adolescents adapted their monitoring differently to word processing difficulty, depending on their executive control: while adolescents with weaker control abilities reduced their monitoring given higher word processing difficulty, adolescents with stronger control abilities monitored their comprehension more (instead of less) on difficult texts. These findings provide insights into how comprehension monitoring in the L2 arises in the interplay of limitations due to lower-level processing load and compensation thanks to active control.

The Contributions of Language Skills and Comprehension Monitoring to Chinese Reading Comprehension: A Longitudinal Investigation

This study examined how vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and orthographic knowledge are related to comprehension monitoring and whether comprehension monitoring mediates the relations between these language skills and reading comprehension. Eighty-nine Chinese children were assessed on their vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, orthographic knowledge, and comprehension monitoring in Grade 1. Their reading comprehension skills were assessed in Grade 1 and Grade 3. Results showed that in Grade 1, comprehension monitoring mediated the relations between vocabulary and syntactic knowledge and reading comprehension. For Grade 3 reading comprehension, syntactic knowledge in Grade 1 was the only significant predictor. These findings indicate that multiple language skills make direct and indirect contributions via comprehension monitoring to Chinese reading comprehension, and the relations would change as children’s reading skills develop.

EXPRESS: Online inference making and comprehension monitoring in children during reading: Evidence from eye movements

Inference generation and comprehension monitoring are essential elements of successful reading comprehension. While both improve with age and reading development, little is known about when and how children make inferences and monitor their comprehension during the reading process itself. Over two experiments, we monitored the eye movements of two groups of children (age 8-13 years) as they read short passages and answered questions that tapped local (Experiment 1) and global (Experiment 2) inferences. To tap comprehension monitoring the passages contained target words which were consistent or inconsistent with the context. Comprehension question location was also manipulated with the question appearing before or after the passage. Children made local inferences during reading, but the evidence was less clear for global inferences. Children were sensitive to inconsistencies that relied on the generation of an inference, consistent with successful comprehension monitoring, although this was seen only very late in the eye movement record. Although question location had a large effect on reading times, it had no effect on global comprehension in one experiment and reading the question first had a detrimental effect in the other. We conclude that children appear to prioritise efficiency over completeness when reading, generating inferences spontaneously only when they are necessary for establishing a coherent representation of the text.

Differences in Metacognitive Skills among Undergraduate Students in Education, Psychology, and Medicine

Metacognitive skills such as when and why to apply strategies successfully given task demands (conditional knowledge) and those that assist in regulation like comprehension monitoring are essential for effective learning. However, the debate regarding whether metacognitive skills are domain general or domain specific continues to rage among scholars.Presumably, if metacognitive skills are domain specific, there should be significant differences between domains whereas if they are domain general, there should be no differences across domains. Thus, in the present study we examined the generality/specificity of metacognitive skills (knowledge of cognition: declarative, procedural, and conditional; regulation of cognition: planning, information management, debugging, comprehension monitoring, and evaluation) in a sample of Colombian university students (N = 507) studying education (N = 156), psychology (N = 166), and medicine (N = 185) employing the Spanish version of the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory. Results revealed that there were significant differences in all but two metacognitive skills (procedural knowledge and debugging) across domains, largely supporting the domain specific hypothesis, but also partially supporting the domain general view. Implications and recommendation of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed. How to cite this article: Gutierrez de Blume, A. P., & Montoya, D. M. (2021). Differences in Metacognitive Skills Among Undergraduate Students in Education, Psychology, and Medicine. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 30(1), 111-130. https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v30n1.88146

Development of early literacy skills: A Comparison of two early literacy programmes

The aim of the present study is to monitor the effectiveness of a new conception of early literacy curriculum (in force since September 2016) which provides – unlike the previous one – a wide range of purposeful literacy practices and literacy events. The study compares graduates of previous early childhood literacy curriculum (tested in June 2016) with children who attended kindergarten in the years 2016-2019. Several indications of early literacy development were selected especially those that are culturally more sensitive, i.e. are significantly shaped by the social environment offering the broad spectrum of reading experiences. Results show statistically significant relationship of story listening comprehension with comprehension monitoring and narrative production, especially at the level of understanding the implicit meaning. The most profound group differences were found again in narratives and implicit meaning comprehension. On the other hand, no differences were found in indicators of phonemic awareness, comprehension monitoring and understanding the explicit meaning. The results are discussed in terms of their implications to educational practice.