Print Knowledge in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Do Child and Family Variables Play a Role?

Purpose This study aimed to examine the print knowledge of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to children who have developmental language disorder (DLD) and typically developing (TD) children as well as examine the child and family predictors of print knowledge. Method A total of 629 preschool children, including 33 children with ASD, 93 children with DLD, and 503 TD children, were the focus of the current study. Teachers completed direct assessments with the children in the fall and spring of the academic year on print knowledge using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screener. Results Analyses of covariance were used to compare the print knowledge skills (uppercase and lowercase letter identification, print and word awareness, name writing) in the fall and spring for each of the three groups. The groups were significantly different for the Print and Word Awareness and Name Writing subtests in both the fall and spring. A Tukey's honestly significant difference further indicated that, for these subtests, the children with ASD had significantly lower scores than both the children with DLD and TD children. When examining the child and family predictors of residualized gain in print knowledge for the children with ASD, the only significant predictor for any outcome was fall scores. When examining the predictors for the full sample, fall scores, age, ASD status, and mothers' education level were significant predictors of print and word awareness and name writing scores. Conclusions None of the child and family characteristics seemed to be related to residualized gain in print knowledge for children with ASD. However, when examining predictors of residualized gain in print knowledge for the full sample, ASD status was related to lower scores for both print and word awareness and name writing.

Emergent Literacy in Spanish-Speaking Children With Developmental Language Disorder: Preliminary Findings of Delays in Comprehension- and Code-Related Skills

Purpose This exploratory study describes the emergent literacy skills of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) who speak Spanish, a language with a simple phonological structure and transparent orthography. We examine differences between children with DLD and their typically developing (TD) peers on a battery of emergent literacy measures. Method Participants included 15 monolingual Spanish-speaking children with DLD (who did not present with cognitive difficulties) and 15 TD controls matched for age, gender, and socioeconomic status, ranging in age from 3;10 to 6;6 (years;months; M age = 4;11). All children completed a battery of comprehension-related emergent literacy tasks (narrative retell, print concept knowledge) and code-related emergent literacy tasks (beginning sound, rhyming awareness, alphabet knowledge, and name-writing ability). Results On average, children with DLD performed significantly worse than TD controls on a battery of comprehension- and code-related emergent literacy measures. On all code-related skills except rhyming, children with DLD were more likely than their TD peers to score “at risk.” Conclusions The results suggest some universality in the effect of DLD on reading development. Difficulties with emergent literacy that are widely documented in English-speaking children with DLD were similarly observed in Spanish-speaking children with DLD. Future research should explore long-term reading outcomes in Spanish for children with DLD.

Impact of Psycho-Educational Activities on Visual-Motor Integration, Fine Motor Skills and Name Writing among First Graders: A Kinematic Pilot Study

This pilot study presents the effects on acquisition of pre-writing skills of educational activities targeting visual-motor integration and fine motor skills on a convenient sample of first graders. After a 10-week intervention program, visual perceptual skills and fine motor control were tested on 13 six-year-old aged children. Participants completed the Beery-Buktenica VMI and the manual dexterity scale of the Movement ABC-2 at baseline (T1), after the intervention program (T2), and one month after the end of the educational activities (T3). Children’s writing pressure, frequency, and automaticity were measured using a digitizer during the administration of name writing test at T1, T2, and T3. The purpose of the study was to investigate changes in visual-perceptual abilities and fine motor skills after the intervention program and examine correlational effects on children’s kinematic writing performances. Findings reveal that educational activities impacted positively on children’s visual motor coordination component of writing improving VMI scores. No statistically significant difference was detected across the three time points on students’ manual dexterity skills. Measurement of writing kinematics allows to report and document variations in children’s writing during intervention. This pilot study discusses these findings and their implications for the field on early childhood acquisition of foundational skills for handwriting. It also proposes potential topics for future research on this field.

The Impact of Mobile Learning via Touch-Screen Tablets in Emergent Literacy Development

Children's use of touch-screen tablets is increasing as these mobile devices become increasingly available. The interactive, tactile touch-screen interface and easily downloadable applications make tablets especially popular with pre-schoolers. This chapter's literature review provides an overview of recent research into tablets and emergent literacy development at home and in the pre-school setting. A multi-faceted synthesis of research on children's use of tablets and its impact in emergent literacy skills was conducted. The evidence indicated that mobile learning via touch-screen tablets has the potential to broadly enhance emergent writing and may facilitate the development of letter name/sound knowledge, print awareness, letter writing and name writing skills, and phonological awareness. The relation between the use of tablets and emergent literacy development seems to be complex as it is mediated by factors such as the type of multisensory experiences through literacy applications and the type of scaffolding used by adults. Recommendations and directions for future research are discussed.

Demystifying simultaneous triliteracy development: One child’s emergent writing practices across three scripts focusing on letter recognition, directionality and name writing

It has long been acknowledged that immigrant children who are originally exposed to home languages become rapidly socialized into using only English. Although many children ultimately develop receptive skills in their home language, they often become English dominant and rarely have the opportunity for literacy development. There is also a common misperception that allowing children to acquire three languages and scripts simultaneously is either too difficult or too confusing, or both. That children do not realize their full multilingual, multiliterate potential is not only a loss to their cognitive, emotional and academic development but also a violation of their language rights. As a way to help demystify simultaneous triliteracy development, I study my own child as a motherscholar. He is growing up in the United States as a simultaneous trilingual and triliterate in three alphabetical languages using two non-Roman scripts, Korean and Farsi, as well as a Roman script, English. I examine the ways in which he makes sense of and communicates in his literate world from age three to six by focusing on his emergent writing practices, particularly letter recognition, directionality and name writing in three distinctively different scripts. Social semiotic and translanguaging theories have guided my analysis of video and audio data as well as artefacts pertinent to his writing. Qualitative analysis rooted in an ethnographic case study approach demonstrated that he recognized different orthographic symbols across scripts but made linkages between them, applied correct directionality in scripts but with flexibility, and stamped a trilingual identity and met audiences' needs through name writing. The findings show the trilingual child engaging in a more flexible and creative process of letter designing as well as name writing in three scripts in more sophisticated and nuanced ways. The study provides insights into educational practices for multilingual children at preschools and schools.

The Morean Legacy at St Monica’s

This chapter investigates the importance of women’s education and Latinity to the first chronicler of St Monica’s, who composed anonymously, but whom I have identified as Mary Copley, a descendant of Sir Thomas More. Copley was well-educated, and descended from a long line of well-educated men and women whose learning, she believed, was critical to the survival and flourishing of English Catholicism after the Reformation. Copley’s attention to More’s legacy at St Monica’s is more sustained than would have been possible had she written under her own name. Writing anonymously, she subsumes her concerns into the stories and voices of the other women and their family members who are represented in this significant early modern chronicle. Copley’s is the first of four detailed case studies of what I call ‘subsumed autobiography’: when an anonymous author, through the very vehicle of her anonymity, shapes a text around her own experiences, politics, theology or ideology to such a degree that the work can be read as an expression and exploration of the author’s selfhood. The case of Copley’s authorship rests on combined analyses of prosopographical, manuscript, and textual data, and provides a methodology for identifying anonymous authors.

Dorothy Wordsworth: Tours of Scotland, 1803 and 1822

Dorothy Wordsworth's name, writing, and identity as an author are frequently subsumed in the plural of ‘The Wordsworths’, in her relationship as the sister of the poet, William Wordsworth. But Dorothy was a Romantic author in her own right. She wrote poetry, narratives, and journals. Nine of her journals have been published. In 1803, and again in 1822, she toured Scotland and recorded her journeys in Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland and Journal of My Second Tour in Scotland. This article considers Dorothy's two Scottish journals. It discusses them in the light of historical and literary contexts, and places of memorial.

The Contributions of Phonological Awareness, Alphabet Knowledge, and Letter Writing to Name Writing in Children With Specific Language Impairment and Typically Developing Children

Purpose Name writing is one aspect of emergent writing that has been used to understand emergent literacy development. Name-writing skills and the relationship of name writing to other emergent literacy skills have not been studied extensively in children with specific language impairment (SLI). Children with SLI consistently demonstrate delays in phonological awareness (PA), alphabet knowledge (AK), print awareness, and emergent writing. The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of PA, AK, and letter writing to name writing in children with SLI and typically developing (TD) children. Method Participants were 65 children (22 SLI, 43 TD) with an average age of 53 months. Participants completed the Assessment of Literacy and Language (Lombardino, Lieberman, & Brown, 2005), a letter-writing task, and a name-writing task. Results Data were analyzed using correlation and mediation modeling. Mediation modeling, a more sophisticated analysis, revealed that PA, AK, and letter writing, in serial, were mediating variables for language status on name writing. Conclusion Phonemic awareness, AK, and letter writing help to explain the relationship between language status and name writing. These skills should be integrated during treatment, using a horizontal approach with developmentally appropriate activities, particularly for children with SLI.