Spelling improvement through letter-sound and whole-word training in two multilingual Greek- and English- speaking children

Case studies of two children with spelling difficulty are reported. LK was multilingual and ED bilingual. A training programme that targeted phonic decoding (or sublexical) spelling processes was conducted with both children. Immediate and delayed post-training assessments showed improvement in spelling nonwords for LK but not for ED. Training that targeted whole word (or lexical) spelling processes was then conducted with ED. Improvement in spelling of irregular words (a marker for lexical spelling processes) was observed. Research into literacy difficulties with multilingual children is sparse, although multilingualism is increasingly widespread. Up to now theoretically based training studies have focused on monolingual children and results were promising. The present findings indicate that theoretically based training programmes for literacy difficulties can also be effective for multilingual children

Genetic Enhancement Perspectives and Prospects for Grain Nutrients Density

Diet-induced micronutrient malnutrition continues to be a major challenge globally, especially in the developing world. With the ever-increasing population, it becomes a daunting task to feed millions of mouths with nutritious food. It is time to reorient agricultural systems to produce quality food to supply the calorie and nutrient requirements needed by the human body. Biofortification is the process of improving micronutrients density by genetic means. It is cheaper and sustainable and complements well with the nutrient supplementation and fortification— the short-term strategies that are currently deployed to address the micronutrient malnutrition. Sorghum is one of the important food crops globally, adapted to semi-arid tropics, and there is increased awareness on its nutritional importance. Further, there is great opportunity to improve sorghum for nutritional quality. This chapter deals about the genetic enhancement perspectives and prospects for improving the nutritional quality with main emphasis on grain micronutrient density in sorghum

Enfrentando o problema dos estágios no desenvolvimento mental das crianças Facing the problem of stages in the mental development of children

O objetivo central do artigo é discutir o conceito naturalista e evolutivo de desenvolvimento mental, especialmente nos modelos teóricos que defendem uma concepção do desenvolvimento humano pautada numa divisão por estágios, relacionando marcadamente idade cronológica e mudanças intra e interindividuais. Tais modelos teóricos dicotomizam a psicologia da criança nos aspectos necessidade-motivação e intelectuais-cognitivos. Pretendendo superar essa dicotomia, Elkonin propõe que o desenvolvimento humano é melhor entendido como movimento dialético de assimilação, pela criança, desde o seu nascimento, dos objetivos, motivos e normas das relações humanas e de aquisição e interiorização dos modos social e historicamente evoluídos de ação com objetos, presentes em uma coletividade. Essa perspectiva dialética de compreender o desenvolvimento permite: 1. entender o processo de desenvolvimento mental como uma espiral ascendente, antes do que linearmente, 2. explanar a significância funcional dos diferentes períodos do desenvolvimento, clarificando seus padrões de transição, e 3. se mostra relevante como um auxílio para resolver a questão da suscetibilidade dos vários estágios do desenvolvimento da criança a tipos particulares de influência.The aim of the article is to discuss the naturalistic and evolutionary concept of mental development, especially in theoretical models which strongly defend a conception of human mental development into stages, relating chronological age and intra and interindividual changes. Such theoretical models dichotomize child psychology in need-motivational and cognitive-intellectual aspects. Intending to surpass this dichotomy, Elkonin considers that human mental development is better understood as a dialectical movement of the assimilation, by the child, since its birth, of the objectives, reasons and norms of human relations and of the acquisition and internalization of the socio-cultural and historically evolved modes of action with objects, within a social group. This dialectical perspective of understanding the development allows: 1. to see the process of mental development as an ascending spiral, rather than linearly, 2. to explain the functional significance of the different periods of development, clarifying their transitional patterns, and 3. to serve as an aid in resolving the question of the susceptibility of the various stages of child development to particular types of influence