Teacher–researcher partnership in the translation and implementing of PALS (Peer‐Assisted Learning Strategies): An international perspective

Funding Information: We would like to thank the schools, teachers and students who have alongside us developed PALS for each international context outlined. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Research in Reading published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of United Kingdom Literacy Association.Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) is a class-wide structured supplementary paired reading programme to support learners with their reading (Fuchs et al., 1997). What remains at the core of implementing PALS in any given location is the co-creation with teachers to ensure PALS fits with that educational context. This paper discusses the involvement of teachers as co-creators in the process of adapting PALS in England, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Taiwan and Iceland. The aim is to demonstrate the importance of careful adaptation when implementing a programme adopted from another country. Each adaption used a different methodological approach to co-creation. For example, in England, field notes, informal conversations and interviews were utilised for co-creation. In Iceland, preschool and elementary teachers were instrumental in translating and adapting the PALS materials to the Icelandic context. From each adaption, the teachers supported the development of a literacy programme that was suitable for classroom use. In England, teachers' involvement resulted in the removal of the motivational point system. For the UAE context, PALS began in English to support second language learning, but the instructional routines were a good ‘fit’ for the school culture and were developed in Arabic. For the Taiwan context, PALS provided an empirical basis for a model of differentiated instruction to enhance the reading literacy of Chinese-speaking elementary students. In Iceland, teachers trained other teachers in PALS as a research-based and efficient approach to meeting diverse learning needs of students, especially those with Icelandic as an additional language. Careful adaptation, piloting and the involvement of key stakeholders is important for the successful implementation of a reading programme.Peer reviewe

Sleep-disordered breathing and daytime sleepiness predict children’s reading ability

BACKGROUND: Sleep problems are common in children and are known to detrimentally affect language and cognitive abilities, as well as academic achievement. AIMS: We aimed to investigate effects of sleep on oral word and non‐word reading in a large, cross‐sectional sample of children. SAMPLE: Of 428 children who attended a public psychological science event, 339 children aged 4–14 years (mean 8;10 ± 2;2) took part. METHODS: Parents completed two sleep questionnaires (Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire and Sleep‐Disordered Breathing Questionnaire) whilst children completed the Test of Word Reading Efficiency. RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple linear regression assessed whether parentally reported sleep problems were able to predict word and non‐word oral reading speeds as measures of sight word reading and phonemic decoding efficiency, respectively. Children with parent‐reported increased sleep‐disordered breathing, daytime sleepiness, and shorter sleep latency had poorer performance on the reading task for both words and non‐words, as well as the total combined score. The models explained 6–7% of the variance in reading scores. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates associations between sleep and word and non‐word reading. The small but significant effect is clinically meaningful, especially since adverse factors affecting children’s reading ability are cumulative. Thus, for children with multiple risk factors for poor reading ability, sleep problems may be another avenue for treatment. Since reading ability is a strong predictor of later academic success and life outcomes, our study provides important evidence to suggest that children with sleep problems should also be screened for literacy difficulties, and children with literacy difficulties be screened for sleep problems

Sublexical and syntactic processing during reading : evidence from eye movements of typically developing and dyslexic readers

Skilled, typically developing readers and children with dyslexia read correct sentences and sentences that contained verb errors that were pseudo-homophones, morphological over-regularisations or syntactic errors. All errors increased looking time but the nature of the error and participant group influenced the time course of the effects. The pseudo-homophone effect was significant in all eye-movement measures for adults (N = 26), intermediate (N = 37) and novice typically developing readers (N = 38). This effect was larger for intermediate readers than other groups in total duration. In contrast, morphological over-regularisations increased gaze and total duration (but not first fixation) for intermediate and novice readers, and only total duration for adult readers. Syntactic errors only increased total duration. Children with dyslexia (N = 19) demonstrated smaller effects of pseudo-homophones and over-regularisations than controls, but their processing of syntactic errors was similar. We conclude that dyslexic children's difficulties with reading are linked to overreliance on phonological decoding and underspecified morphological processing, which impacts on word level reading. We highlight that the findings fit well within the grain-size model of word readin

La relación de causalidad y la imputación objetiva

The present study examines deaf and hearing children's spelling of plural nouns. Severe literacy impairments are well documented in the deaf, which are believed to be a consequence of phonological awareness limitations. Fifty deaf (mean chronological age 13; 10 years, mean reading age 7; 5 years) and 50 reading-age-matched hearing children produced spellings of regular, semiregular, and irregular plural nouns in Experiment 1 and nonword plurals in Experiment 2. Deaf children performed reading-age appropriately on rule-based (regular and semiregular) plurals but were significantly less accurate at spelling irregular plurals. Spelling of plural nonwords and spelling error analyses revealed clear evidence for use of morphology. Deaf children used morphological generalization to a greater degree than their reading-age-matched hearing counterparts. Also, hearing children combined use of phonology and morphology to guide spelling, whereas deaf children appeared to use morphology without phonological mediation. Therefore, use of morphology in spelling can be independent of phonology and is available to the deaf despite limited experience with spoken language. Indeed, deaf children appear to be learning about morphology from the orthography. Education on more complex morphological generalization and exceptions may be highly beneficial not only for the deaf but also for other populations with phonological awareness limitations