Language Difficulties in School-Aged Children With Developmental Dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a common reading disability, affecting 5% to 11% of children in North America. Children classified as having DD often have a history of early language delay (ELD) or language impairments. Nevertheless, studies have reported conflicting results as to the association between DD-ELD and the extent of current language difficulties in children with DD. To examine these relationships, we queried the parents of school-aged children with reading difficulties on their child’s early and current language ability. Siblings were also examined. Children were directly assessed using quantitative tests of language and reading skills. To compare this study with the literature, we divided the sample ( N = 674) into three groups: DD, intermediate readers (IR), and skilled readers (SR). We found a significant association between DD and ELD, with parents of children in the DD/IR groups reporting their children put words together later than the SR group. We also found a significant association between DD and language difficulties, with children with low reading skills having low expressive/receptive language abilities. Finally, we identified early language predicted current language, which predicted reading skills. These data contribute to research indicating that children with DD experience language difficulties, suggesting early recognition may help identify reading problems.

Visual word form processing deficits driven by severity of reading impairments in children with developmental dyslexia

The visual word form area (VWFA) in the left ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex is key to fluent reading in children and adults. Diminished VWFA activation during print processing tasks is a common finding in subjects with severe reading problems. Here, we report fMRI data from a multicentre study with 140 children in primary school (7.9–12.2 years; 55 children with dyslexia, 73 typical readers, 12 intermediate readers). All performed a semantic task on visually presented words and a matched control task on symbol strings. With this large group of children, including the entire spectrum from severely impaired to highly fluent readers, we aimed to clarify the association of reading fluency and left vOT activation during visual word processing. The results of this study confirm reduced word-sensitive activation within the left vOT in children with dyslexia. Interestingly, the association of reading skills and left vOT activation was especially strong and spatially extended in children with dyslexia. Thus, deficits in basic visual word form processing increase with the severity of reading disability but seem only weakly associated with fluency within the typical reading range suggesting a linear dependence of reading scores with VFWA activation only in the poorest readers.

Syllable effects in beginning and intermediate European-Portuguese readers: Evidence from a sandwich masked go/no-go lexical decision task

Reading is one of the most important milestones a child achieves throughout development. Above the letter level, the syllable has been shown to play a relevant role at early stages of visual word recognition in adult skilled readers. However, studies aiming to examine when, during reading acquisition, the syllable emerges as a functional sublexical unit are scarce, and the studies conducted so far have led to inconsistent results. In this work, beginning and intermediate European-Portuguese (EP) developing readers performed a sandwich masked lexical decision task in which CV (e.g., RU.MOR[rumour]) and CVC (e.g., CIS.NE[swan]) first-syllable EP words were preceded either by syllable congruent (e.g., rum.ba-RU.MOR, cis.ra-CIS.NE), syllable incongruent (e.g., rum.ba-RU.MOR, ci.ser-CIS.NE), unrelated (e.g., va.cra-RU.MOR, zar.vo-CIS.NE) pseudowords primes, or identity (e.g., ru.mour-RU.MOUR, cis.ne-CIS.NE) primes. Results showed reliable syllable effects only for intermediate readers and for CV and CVC words alike. Findings are discussed attending to current models of visual word recognition.

Does the PillCam SB3 capsule endoscopy system improve image reading efficiency irrespective of experience? A pilot study

Background and study aims The aim of this study was tp compare the diagnostic efficiency of the PillCam SB3 capsule endoscopy (CE) system with the older system, PillCam SB2, taking into consideration the experience of the image reader. Patients and methods Small intestinal CE was conducted on 64 patients around May 2014 when the SB3 was introduced in our hospital. Data obtained from 20 patients (SB2: 10 and SB3: 10) based on transit time were assessed by junior (experience: 20 images), intermediate (> 50), and expert readers (> 600). Results Reading time with the CE down to the end of the small intestine was shorter in the SB3 group for each reader (SB2 vs. SB3: junior, 40.2 ± 10.1 vs. 23.7 ± 6.7 [P = 0.0009]; intermediate, 21.4 ± 4.9 vs. 10.3 ± 2.9 [P = 0.0003]; expert, 23.2 ± 5.6 vs. 11.1 ± 2.9 min [P = 0.0002]). Interpretation agreement rates between the findings by junior and intermediate readers and those by the expert reader were 84.6 % and 92.3 %, respectively. For the junior reader, rates of agreement using the SB2 and SB3 systems with those by the expert reader were 85.7 % and 83.3 %, respectively; no significant difference was noted between the two systems. Similarly, for the intermediate reader, the respective agreement rates using the SB2 and SB3 systems were 85.7 % and 100 %, respectively. Conclusions The PillCam SB3 reduces the time burden on readers irrespective of their experience.

That One Spooky Night by D. Bar-el

Bar-el, Dan. That One Spooky Night. Toronto: Kids Can Press. 2012. Print. Especially appealing during the Halloween season or for those students who appreciate a good semi-scary story any time of the year, That One Spooky Night delivers three off-the-wall short and spooky tales. Child protagonists who are all far from pillars of good behaviour set the stage for a more comedic and less truly scary approach to the zany horrors that happen to them. In Broom With A View, a young girl chooses a witch costume for Halloween but accidentally switches brooms with a real witch. On Halloween night, the broom whisks her away to its real owner, a cheeky but good-hearted witch who shows her younger counterpart how to really have fun on Halloween night without being a brat. In 10,000 Tentacles Under the Tub, two mischievous brothers, who, after a night of getting into trouble and almost overwhelming their father with their misbehaviour, find themselves locked in an epic battle in the underwater world they discover at the bottom of their bathtub. In The Fang Gang, four girls terrorize local children until they find themselves facing a foursome of real vampires in disguise who give them a dose of their own medicine. Illustrator David Huyck’s use of muted colours and soft edges throughout the book serve to both unify the stories and transmit an ethereal quality to the images. The different colour schemes used in each story are particularly effective for transporting the reader into foreign, underwater worlds and sinister vampire lairs. Wordless panels are interspersed throughout, further drawing the reader into sullen moods which effectively contrast the zany storyline making That One Spooky Night an entertaining read for upper primary and intermediate readers. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Annabelle Pendry Annabelle Pendry loves her job as Teacher Librarian at Mount Pleasant Elementary in Vancouver, BC.