Simplifying informational text structure for struggling readers

Direct instruction of reading strategies, such as the \u2018structure strategy\u2019, is demonstrated to be effective for the development of more mature and skilled reading processes in struggling readers. This instructional intervention approach, aimed at directly improving reading ability, can be used in combination with text simplification. Text simplification is the modification of the text in order to make it more understandable or readable for target groups of readers. In this article, we discuss a theoretically-driven text simplification approach, inspired by cognitive models of reading comprehension. Differently from classical approaches to linguistic text simplification, the aim of cognitive text simplification is not simply to reduce the linguistic complexity of the text, but to improve text coherence and the structure of information in the text. This can be achieved by using rhetorical devices, like signaling or discourse markers, which specify relationships among ideas at a global level (macrostructural) and work as processing instructions for the reader, scaffolding reading comprehension. The goal of this paper is to discuss, in light of the literature, the effectiveness of these adaptations for improving struggling readers\u2019 understanding and learning from informational texts

Acquisition of nouns and verbs in Italian pre-school children

Noun and verb acquisition was investigated in three- and five-year-old 14 Italian children by means of picture naming of objects and actions, 15 selected from Druks and Masterson (2000). The aim was to examine 16 the previously reported advantage of nouns compared to verbs. Older 17 children were faster than younger children, and naming latencies were 18 faster for object pictures than for action pictures. For errors, the 19 advantage of objects over actions was greater for younger children. A 20 qualitative analysis of errors was carried out according to a 21 classification derived by Masterson, Druks, and Gallienne (2008). 22 Overall, 25% of the errors reflected a complete lack of knowledge of the names or of the meanings of the pictures. Most errors, however, were likely to be due to a not yet fully developed knowledge of the meaning of words labelling the pictures, or to an incomplete conceptual representation, and this pattern was more marked for action concepts

Toward a Re-Definition of Spelling in Shallow Orthographies: Phonological, Lexical, and Grammatical Skills in Learning to Spell Italian

The study report in this chapter aimed to identify the role that phonological, vocabulary (semantics) and grammatical knowledge play in Italian children\u2019s spelling development. To our knowledge, no previous research has investigated the contribution of different kinds of linguistic knowledge in the early stages of learning to spell Italian words. This chapterr might then be the first contribution in this direction

Analogic and Symbolic Comparison of Numerosity in Preschool Children with Cochlear Implants

This study explores how preschoolers with cochlear implants process numericalcomparisons from two different inputs: a) nonverbal (analogical) and b)verbal (symbolic). Preschool cochlear-implanted children (CI) ranging in agefrom 4;3 to 6;1 were compared with 99 age-matched hearing children (HC)in three numerical tasks: verbal counting, a digit comparison and a dot comparison.Results show that CI children may outperform HC in numerical tasksthat require visuo-spatial analysis (e.g. analogical comparison). More importantly,they perform as well as HC in numerical tasks that require symbolic processes(digit comparison) and in verbal counting. However, when theinfluence of children's verbal counting skills on digit comparison is examineddifferences between the two groups emerge. HC's capacity to compare digitswas influenced by their knowledge of the verbal counting system, but thisknowledge was not influential when CI children's performance in the sametask was considered. These findings suggest that different strategies may characterize the way the two groups tackle symbolic numerical comparisons.The educational and instructional implications of these findings are discussed