Maternal exposure to a high-magnitude earthquake during pregnancy influences pre-reading skills in early childhood

Exposure to an adverse prenatal environment can influence fetal development and result in long-lasting changes in the offspring. However, the association between maternal exposure to stressful events during pregnancy and the achievement of pre-reading skills in the offspring is unknown. Here we examined the association between prenatal exposure to the Chilean high-magnitude earthquake that occurred on February 27th, 2010 and the development of early reading precursors skills (listening comprehension, print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, vocabulary, and phonological awareness) in children at kindergarten age. This multilevel retrospective cohort study including 3280 children, of whom 2415 were unexposed and 865 were prenatally exposed to the earthquake shows substantial evidence that maternal exposure to an unambiguously stressful event resulted in impaired pre-reading skills and that a higher detrimental effect was observed in those children who had been exposed to the earthquake during the first trimester of gestation. In addition, females were more significantly affected by the exposure to the earthquake than their male peers in alphabet knowledge; contrarily, males were more affected than females in print knowledge skills. These findings suggest that early intervention programs for pregnant women and/or children exposed to prenatal stress may be effective strategies to overcome impaired pre-reading skills in children.

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.

Improving Conceptual Print Knowledge: A Description of Intervention Considerations for Children With Hearing Loss

Purpose The purpose of this clinical focus article was to describe specific considerations for print-referencing interventions for children with hearing loss and present a case study. Method One preschool child with hearing loss who used amplification participated in this case study. The child participated individually in print-referencing book-reading intervention (10-min session once a week for 7 weeks), supplemented by parent carryover at home. Each session involved a dose of 20 print-referencing behaviors across two children's books, for a cumulative intervention intensity of 140 print references. Assessment of the child's print knowledge skills occurred at the beginning of each session. Results Print-referencing book-reading intervention was associated with gains in conceptual print knowledge. Conclusions Print referencing, when implemented with specific considerations for children with hearing loss in mind, may be an effective emergent literacy intervention for increasing conceptual print knowledge in preschool children with hearing loss. More research is needed in this area to determine appropriate dose and dose frequency, as well as effect of interventionist on gains. Supplemental Materials https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13093025

Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Print Knowledge in Preschool Children With Hearing Loss

Purpose The purpose of this article was to examine evidence that (a) published measures may tap different categories of print knowledge and result in disparate findings in the literature, (b) concept vocabulary knowledge in children with hearing loss may exacerbate deficits in conceptual print knowledge, and (c) concept vocabulary can be taught via direct instruction for preschool children with hearing loss. Method In Study 1, an item analysis of published print knowledge measures was performed to determine the prevalence of concept vocabulary in test items. Additionally, the performance on a conceptual print knowledge measure was compared for preschool children with and without hearing loss. In Study 2, four preschool children participated in a multiple probe across behaviors treatment design to determine if concept vocabulary could be explicitly taught to children with hearing loss. Results Differences emerged in use of concept vocabulary on test items across the measures, which may explain disparate findings that have been reported in this area. Additionally, children with hearing loss performed lower than children with typical hearing on items that contained concept vocabulary but not on items that did not. Finally, we found initial evidence that direct instruction can improve concept vocabulary for children with hearing loss, and it might not be necessary to separately target each concept category. Conclusion This series of studies lays groundwork for future research confirming a connection between conceptual print knowledge and conceptual vocabulary knowledge, and offers evidence for intervention that could be used clinically to teach conceptual vocabulary.

Designing and Implementing a Bilingual Early-Literacy Program in Indigenous Mexico Villages: Family, Child, and Classroom Outcomes

Globally, there is great interest in enhancing young children’s literacy development as a route to improving worldwide literacy. To contribute to this area of interest, this paper reports findings from a multi-pronged early-literacy program designed to improve the print-knowledge of young children in Yucatec Mayan villages. The school-based Club de Lectura Solyluna provided 16 culturally relevant bilingual (Spanish/Maya) children’s books to caregivers during four workshops. The sample of 567 mothers and their preschool-aged children (n = 567) were enrolled in 28 preschool classrooms, which also received teacher trainings, children’s books, and establishment of a school-based library. Outcomes were examined with respect to overall parent participation and uptake of workshop materials, features of the home-literacy environment, and children’s gains in print knowledge in both Mayan and Spanish. The study findings show positive outcomes across all outcomes evaluated with the exception of growth in children’s Mayan print-concepts skills. The program description and findings should be of relevance to efforts to implement early-literacy programming with indigenous villages in lower- and middle-income countries.