Co-Occurrence of Reading and Writing Difficulties: The Application of the Interactive Dynamic Literacy Model

This article presents the application of the interactive dynamic literacy (IDL) model (Kim, 2020a) toward understanding difficulties in learning to read and write. According to the IDL model, reading and writing are part of communicative acts that draw on largely shared processes and skills as well as unique processes and skills. As such, reading and writing are dissociable but interdependent systems that have hierarchical, interactive, and dynamic relations. These key tenets of the IDL model are applied to the disruption of reading and writing development to explain co-occurrence of reading–writing difficulties using a single framework. The following hypotheses are presented: (a) co-occurrence between word reading and spelling and handwriting difficulties; (b) co-occurrence of dyslexia with written composition difficulties; (c) co-occurrence between reading comprehension and written composition difficulties; (d) co-occurrence of language difficulties with reading difficulties and writing difficulties; (e) co-occurrence of reading, writing, and language difficulties with weak domain-general skills or executive functions such as working memory and attentional control (including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]); and (f) multiple pathways for reading and writing difficulties. Implications are discussed.

Contributions of Socioneuroscience to Research on Coerced and Free Sexual-Affective Desire

Neuroscience has well evidenced that the environment and, more specifically, social experience, shapes and transforms the architecture and functioning of the brain and even its genes. However, in order to understand how that happens, which types of social interactions lead to different results in brain and behavior, neurosciences require the social sciences. The social sciences have already made important contributions to neuroscience, among which the behaviorist explanations of human learning are prominent and acknowledged by the most well-known neuroscientists today. Yet neurosciences require more inputs from the social sciences to make meaning of new findings about the brain that deal with some of the most profound human questions. However, when we look at the scientific and theoretical production throughout the history of social sciences, a great fragmentation can be observed, having little interdisciplinarity and little connection between what authors in the different disciplines are contributing. This can be well seen in the field of communicative interaction. Nonetheless, this fragmentation has been overcome via the theory of communicative acts, which integrates knowledge from language and interaction theories but goes one step further in incorporating other aspects of human communication and the role of context. The theory of communicative acts is very informative to neuroscience, and a central contribution in socioneuroscience that makes possible deepening of our understanding of most pressing social problems, such as free and coerced sexual-affective desire, and achieving social and political impact toward their solution. This manuscript shows that socioneuroscience is an interdisciplinary frontier in which the dialogue between all social sciences and all natural sciences opens up an opportunity to integrate different levels of analysis in several sciences to ultimately achieve social impact regarding the most urgent human problems.

Social semiotic genre: exploring the interplay of words and images in advertising

This study examined the interplay of pictorial and written modes that position advertising as a multimodal genre, explainable through a social semiotic perspective. Eight advertisements of the financial, telecommunications, and beverage products functioned as devices of analysis. Nevertheless, multimodal communicative acts served as the processing tool, elucidating the meaning potentials of the advertising configurations. Having deployed a system of multimodal interacts, tables and graphs assisted in accounting for the frequency of the semiotic resources of the written modes. The analysis indicated large and highlighted fonts (Celebrating the world’s no. 1 fixer), repetitions (Guinness, Maltina, real deal), and deviant constructs (EazyLoans, GTWorld) as elements of propagating intended messages. The deployment of codes (*966*11#, 737) and fragmented clauses (Over N100 million worth of airtime) played some roles in the meaning-making operations. Of significance is the Guinness’ conceptual “digits” of 17:59, contextualising the year, time, and channel of promotional benefits. Though questions (Have you called mum today?), offer (It can be), and minor clauses (Welcome to Guinness time) were parts of the communicative systems, statements (Terms and condition apply) and commands (Enjoy the complete richness of Maltina) dominated the entire dialogues. One might suggest that communicators should endeavour to deploy apt constructions and create eye-lines between participants as means of sensitising readers into consumption.

I'm Different Online: An Account of Differences between Face-to-Face and Online Testimony

<p>Why is Testimony important? The field of testimony is a sub-discipline of the study of epistemology, the study of how we come to know things. Existing literature on testimony mainly focuses on face-to-face interactions. However, online communications have become an integral part of our daily discourse. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an account of testimonial injustices in the context of online testimony. First I will examine cases of face-to-face epistemic injustice which result from failures of knowledge transmission in communicative acts. I will then outline cases of online epistemic injustice. This showcases differences between the kinds of epistemic injustices that can arise in online and in face-to-face contexts. My intention is to identify epistemic issues unique to online environments, with the overall objective to hold agents accountable for acts of epistemic harm, such as intentional misinformation or trolling. I will then be in a position to introduce key features of online testimony, and explain the significance of distinguishing online testimony as a space for shared knowledge from face-to-face testimony. Finally, I propose a viable framework for successful online testimony which holds agents accountable for epistemic harms.</p>

I'm Different Online: An Account of Differences between Face-to-Face and Online Testimony

<p>Why is Testimony important? The field of testimony is a sub-discipline of the study of epistemology, the study of how we come to know things. Existing literature on testimony mainly focuses on face-to-face interactions. However, online communications have become an integral part of our daily discourse. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an account of testimonial injustices in the context of online testimony. First I will examine cases of face-to-face epistemic injustice which result from failures of knowledge transmission in communicative acts. I will then outline cases of online epistemic injustice. This showcases differences between the kinds of epistemic injustices that can arise in online and in face-to-face contexts. My intention is to identify epistemic issues unique to online environments, with the overall objective to hold agents accountable for acts of epistemic harm, such as intentional misinformation or trolling. I will then be in a position to introduce key features of online testimony, and explain the significance of distinguishing online testimony as a space for shared knowledge from face-to-face testimony. Finally, I propose a viable framework for successful online testimony which holds agents accountable for epistemic harms.</p>

In the Footsteps of Graphicons: Tracing Parameters and Pragmatic Strategies in Graphicon Usage

The textual intercourse in computer-mediated communication is intertwined with graphicons of various forms, gaining new meanings and functions. They are part of the online culture and, specifically, part of the communicative skills in digital environment. In many cases, graphicons are used not as signs of emotion but rather as indication of the illocutionary force of the textual utterances that they accompany. The current work endeavours to reveal the specific aspect of language use where iconoid objects “take over” and substitute textual utterances. The paper also attempts to trace to what extent pragmatics could be applicable in the analysis of the visual representations (i.e. graphicons) embodied in computer-mediated communication as means of communicative acts. The different graphicon forms and the dynamics in the usage carry additional challenge for the interpretation of the “visual” act. However, it is possible to systematically trace a pattern in the occurrence of the graphicons – their use as a complementary to a written statement, and their use as a single communicative act.

Identifying and Validating Prelinguistic Communicative Forms and Functions in Children with Developmental Disability

<p>While children with developmental disabilities often fail to develop speech, many will nonetheless engage in a range of prelinguistic behaviours. Prelinguistic behaviours include actions such as eye gaze or eye pointing, pointing with a finger, facial expressions (e.g., smile, frown), and body movements (e.g., waving an arm, leg extension). The purpose of this research project was to evaluate procedures for (a) identifying prelinguistic forms in the repertoires of children with developmental disability, and (b) validating the communicative function, if any, of these existing prelinguistic behaviours. This was achieved through a three-phase study involving a total of 10 children with developmental disabilities and their parents. For Phase 1, the author interviewed each child’s parent(s) and teacher using a structured protocol; The Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA; Sigafoos, Woodyatt, Keen et al., 2000). The IPCA has been used in numerous previous studies to identify prelinguistic behaviours that are interpreted as forms of communication. In Phase 2, the author used informant report to identify and replicate six situations: three in which each participant was reported to communicate a specific function and three in which he/she reportedly did not communicate. The author then compared the children’s responses during the clinical trials to the behaviours he/she was reported to use for the targeted function. In Phase 3, the parent replicated the structured trials used in Phase 2 to determine whether participant performance varied relative to communicative partner. Findings from this study provide evidence to support the validity of the IPCA as an interview protocol for identifying potential communicative acts in children with developmental disability and severe communication impairment. The comparisons made between the reported communicative behaviours used for each function revealed both similarities and differences across children. The results also provide evidence that children with severe communication impairment and developmental disability are using similar behaviours to communicate specific functions across different environments and with different communicative partners.</p>

Identifying and Validating Prelinguistic Communicative Forms and Functions in Children with Developmental Disability

<p>While children with developmental disabilities often fail to develop speech, many will nonetheless engage in a range of prelinguistic behaviours. Prelinguistic behaviours include actions such as eye gaze or eye pointing, pointing with a finger, facial expressions (e.g., smile, frown), and body movements (e.g., waving an arm, leg extension). The purpose of this research project was to evaluate procedures for (a) identifying prelinguistic forms in the repertoires of children with developmental disability, and (b) validating the communicative function, if any, of these existing prelinguistic behaviours. This was achieved through a three-phase study involving a total of 10 children with developmental disabilities and their parents. For Phase 1, the author interviewed each child’s parent(s) and teacher using a structured protocol; The Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA; Sigafoos, Woodyatt, Keen et al., 2000). The IPCA has been used in numerous previous studies to identify prelinguistic behaviours that are interpreted as forms of communication. In Phase 2, the author used informant report to identify and replicate six situations: three in which each participant was reported to communicate a specific function and three in which he/she reportedly did not communicate. The author then compared the children’s responses during the clinical trials to the behaviours he/she was reported to use for the targeted function. In Phase 3, the parent replicated the structured trials used in Phase 2 to determine whether participant performance varied relative to communicative partner. Findings from this study provide evidence to support the validity of the IPCA as an interview protocol for identifying potential communicative acts in children with developmental disability and severe communication impairment. The comparisons made between the reported communicative behaviours used for each function revealed both similarities and differences across children. The results also provide evidence that children with severe communication impairment and developmental disability are using similar behaviours to communicate specific functions across different environments and with different communicative partners.</p>