Adrian Pop - In Search of a Long Lost Smile

"An anniversary, especially in the case of a generation colleague, the renowned composer Adrian Pop, generates the remembrance of a long series of musical events that have become notorious, with works included in the national and international concert repertoire. The avoidance of nostalgic memories made that a stage miniature be chosen for the present paper, an incursion of the author into the naive world of childhood reading. The result was a modern, glamorous musical transposition of a sequence with Max and Moritz, the playful heroes created by the famous humorist and cartoonist Wilhelm Busch in the middle of the 19th century. The musical act Onkel Fritz by Adrian Pop was first performed in Cluj in 2016, on October 22, on the occasion of his previous anniversary, within the Cluj Musical Autumn Festival. The graceful performers of the act, presented under the title “Anniversaries at the Festival, Adrian Pop compositional portrait”, were soprano Mihaela Maxim, in the role of Max and pianist Eva Butean, in the role of Moritz. How did composer Adrian Pop manage to musically enliven a 150 years old humorous story? The author of the following text will try to answer this question. Keywords: Adrian Pop, Wilhelm Busch, Max und Moritz, Unkle Fritz, musical act "

Childhood reading problems and cognitive ageing across mid to later life

BackgroundLittle research has investigated long-term associations of childhood reading with cognitive ageing. The aim of this study was to test longitudinal associations between childhood reading problems and cognitive function from mid-adulthood (age 43) to early old age (age 69), and whether associations were mediated by education.MethodsData were from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, a prospective population-based birth cohort. Reading problems were measured at age 11 using a reading test. Verbal memory and processing speed were measured at ages 43, 53, 60–64 and 69 and Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (ACE) was administered at age 69. Linear mixed models and path analyses were used to test: (1) associations between reading problems and verbal memory and processing speed trajectories; (2) associations between reading problems and ACE-III scores; (3) whether associations were mediated by education.ResultsReading problems were associated with poorer verbal memory at intercept but not rate of decline (N=1726), and were not associated with processing speed intercept or decline (N=1730). There were higher rates of scores below ACE-III clinical thresholds (<82 and <88) in people with reading problems compared with those without. Reading problems were associated with poorer total ACE-III scores and all domain scores at age 69 (N=1699). Associations were partly mediated by education.ConclusionReading problems in childhood were associated with poorer cognitive function in early old age, and associations were partly mediated by education.

Early Childhood Reading in Rural China and Obstacles to Caregiver Investment in Young Children: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

Studies have shown that nearly half of rural toddlers in China have cognitive delays due to an absence of stimulating parenting practices, such as early childhood reading, during the critical first three years of life. However, few studies have examined the reasons behind these low levels of stimulating parenting, and no studies have sought to identify the factors that limit caregivers from providing effective early childhood reading practices (EECRP). This mixed-methods study investigates the perceptions, prevalence, and correlates of EECRP in rural China, as well as associations with child cognitive development. We use quantitative survey results from 1748 caregiver–child dyads across 100 rural villages/townships in northwestern China and field observation and interview data with 60 caregivers from these same sites. The quantitative results show significantly low rates of EECRP despite positive perceptions of early reading and positive associations between EECRP and cognitive development. The qualitative results suggest that low rates of EECRP in rural China are not due to the inability to access books, financial or time constraints, or the absence of aspirations. Rather, the low rate of book ownership and absence of reading to young children is driven by the insufficient and inaccurate knowledge of EECRP among caregivers, which leads to their delayed, misinformed reading decisions with their young children, ultimately contributing to developmental delays.

Jojo, Jimmy and Marie Chairne: What scribbled comics can (not) tell us

With two scribbled comics in hand, this article considers material uses and reading practices in Belgian comics culture. As doodles and marks left on battered copies, scribbles foreground complex questions for the comics historian, offering clues to understanding childhood reading practices that otherwise remain elusive.

The developmental genetic architecture of vocabulary skills during the first three years of life: Capturing emerging associations with later-life reading and cognition

Individual differences in early-life vocabulary measures are heritable and associated with subsequent reading and cognitive abilities, although the underlying mechanisms are little understood. Here, we (i) investigate the developmental genetic architecture of expressive and receptive vocabulary in toddlerhood and (ii) assess origin and developmental stage of emerging genetic associations with mid-childhood verbal and non-verbal skills.Studying up to 6,524 unrelated children from the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort, we dissected the phenotypic variance of longitudinally assessed early-life vocabulary measures (15-38 months) and later-life reading and cognitive skills (7-8 years) into genetic and residual components, by fitting multivariate structural equation models to genome-wide genetic-relationship matrices.Our findings show that the genetic architecture of early-life vocabulary is dynamic, involving multiple distinct genetic factors. Two of them are developmentally stable and contribute to genetic variation in mid-childhood skills: Genetic links with later-life verbal abilities (reading, verbal intelligence) emerged with expressive vocabulary at 24 months. The underlying genetic factor explained 10.1% variation (path coefficient: 0.32(SE=0.06)) in early language, but also 6.4% (path coefficient: 0.25(SE=0.12)) and 17.9% (path coefficient: 0.42(SE=0.13)) variation in mid-childhood reading and verbal intelligence, respectively. An independent stable genetic factor was identified for receptive vocabulary at 38 months, explaining 2.1% (path coefficient: 0.15(SE=0.07)) phenotypic variation. This genetic factor was also linked to both verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities in mid-childhood, accounting for 24.7% of the variation in non-verbal intelligence (path coefficient: 0.50(SE=0.08)), 33.0% in reading (path coefficient: 0.57(SE=0.07)) and 36.1% in verbal intelligence (path coefficient: 0.60(0.10)), corresponding to the majority of genetic variance (≥66.4%).Thus, the genetic foundations of mid-childhood reading and cognition are diverse. They involve at least two independent genetic factors that emerge at different developmental stages during early language development and may implicate differences in cognitive processes that are already detectable during toddlerhood.Author summaryDifferences in the number of words young children produce (expressive vocabulary) and understand (receptive vocabulary) can be partially explained by genetic factors, and are related to reading and cognitive abilities later in life. Here, we studied genetic influences underlying word production and understanding during early development (15-38 months) and their genetic relationship with mid-childhood reading and cognitive skills (7-8 years), based on longitudinal phenotype measures and genome-wide genetic data from up to 6,524 unrelated children. We showed that vocabulary skills assessed at different stages during early development are influenced by distinct genetic factors, two of which also contribute to genetic variation in mid-childhood skills, suggesting developmental stability: Genetic sources emerging for word production skills at 24 months were linked to subsequent verbal abilities, including mid-childhood reading and verbal intelligence performance. A further independent genetic factor was identified that related to word comprehension at 38 months and also contributed to variation in later verbal as well as non-verbal abilities during mid-childhood. Thus, the genetic foundations of mid-childhood reading and cognition involve at least two independent genetic factors that emerge during early-life langauge development and may implicate differences in overarching cognitive mechanisms.

PENERAPAN PERMAINAN KOCOK ARISAN DALAM MENGEMBANGKAN KETERAMPILAN MEMBACA PERMULAAN PADA ANAK USIA 5-6 TAHUN

AbstrackThe purpose of this study is to develop the preliminary reading skills by using the arisan shake game. The method used is descriptive method.The techniques used are observation and interview techniques. Data Analysis Techniques used in this research are data collection, data reduction, conclusion, drawing/verification. Data analysis used in this study is Percentage Descriptive Analysis. Subjects in this study were kindergarten children aged 5-6 years, located in Primanda Untan Kindergarten, Jalan M. Sjafei Pontianak.In children's lives, playing has important meaning. Every healthy child always has the urge to play.Fun learning for early childhood is playing. Early childhood reading starts from reading pictures to letters.Early childhood reading starts from reading pictures to letters. In this study researchers gave a game of social gathering so that the children were interested and motivated to do the learning activities provided by the teacher, especially reading the beginning.The results of this study from the aspect of interest of children aged 5-6 years in Primanda Untan kindergarten have a "high" interest in reading the beginning.This means that the child has a high heart tendency towards the game of social gathering which is presented by itself due to the needs of the child himself. Furthermore, the child is very interested or motivated to pay attention and then do a preliminary reading activity which is done with a charcoal shake game first.In the game, the observations show that the child is very attentive and enjoys an activity with a sense of pleasure. Judging from the aspect of motivation the percentage is "High enough", meaning that children aged 5-6 years in Primanda Untan Kindergarten are attentive and enthusiastic in the activity, the children have a hard working attitude in carrying out the game to completion.The response of children when given learning in developing interest and motivation with the arisan shake game is good. Good means that children respond well to the game by wanting to do games without coercion. They approached and held the toy out of curiosity, and most importantly the children were very cooperative to carry out the game from start to finish. Â

Despotic reading

This chapter focuses on the reading of the ‘despotic’ Gurney script, which was so different from the Roman script that Dickens was used to decoding (section 3.1). It explores how Dickens was able to emerge from his initial state of bewilderment, described in David Copperfield as a ‘sea of perplexity’, by training himself in visualizing its character shapes (section 3.2), sounding out the missing vowel sounds in the Gurney script (section 3.3), and inferencing their meaning (section 3.4). The process of decoding Gurney is then compared to episodes from Dickens’s own childhood reading at home and at school (section 3.5). The chapter argues that the Gurney system’s extra level of coding, which involved the graphic representation of letters rather than sounds, drastically diminished its learnability. Dickens’s undeciphered shorthand letters are used to illustrate these difficulties.