Predictors of developmental dyslexia in European orthographies with varying complexity

Background: The relationship between phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term/working memory (ST/WM) and diagnostic category is investigated in control and dyslexic children, and the extent to which this depends on orthographic complexity. Methods: General cognitive, phonological and literacy skills were tested in 1138 control and 1114 dyslexic children speaking 6 different languages spanning a large range of orthographic complexity (Finnish, Hungarian, German, Dutch, French, English). Results: Phoneme deletion and RAN were strong concurrent predictors of developmental dyslexia, while verbal ST/WM and general verbal abilities played a comparatively minor role. In logistic regression models, more participants were classified correctly when orthography was more complex. The impact of phoneme deletion and RAN-digits was stronger in complex than in less complex orthographies. Conclusions: Findings are largely consistent with the literature on predictors of dyslexia and literacy skills, while uniquely demonstrating how orthographic complexity exacerbates some symptoms of dyslexia

Cognitive precursors of reading : A cross-linguistic perspective

In this paper, we survey current evidence on cognitive precursors of reading in different orthographies by reviewing studies with a cross-linguistic research design. Graphic symbol knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and rapid automatized naming were found to be associated with reading acquisition in all orthographies investigated. However, apart from rapid naming, this association is mostly interactive, meaning that young children develop their symbol knowledge, and phonological and morphological awareness during reading development. Especially for phonological awareness, cross-linguistic evidence involving phonologically transparent orthographies, both alphabetic and non-alphabetic, suggests that it may be less of a hurdle than in the complex English orthography. Cross-linguistic research designs can be a useful methodological approach to test limits of reading theories that were initially developed for alphabetic orthographies

Egy hullámhosszon: neuro-tudományos felismerések az egymásra hangolódás szerepéről a tanulási folyamatok során

A pedagógia, mint tudomány elméletében és gyakorlatában is központi kérdéskör annak vizsgálata, hogy miként lehetne elérni, hogy a nevelési-oktatási folyamat során minden gyermek az adott szociokulturális közeg, társadalom elvárásainak megfelelően elérjen egy bizonyos neveltségi szintet, avagy szűkebben értelmezve, hogy minden tanuló elsajátítsa az adott tananyagot. Ez többé – kevésbé be is szokott következni, de a gyermekek teljesítményében jelentős eltérések mutatkoznak. A kutatókat kezdettől foglalkoztatja az a kérdés, hogy ezekben a folyamatokban milyen szerepe van az emberek közötti interakcióknak. Tanulmányom ehhez a témakörhöz kapcsolódóan ad rövid áttekintést

insights from different stages of language acquisition

Solving arithmetic problems is a cognitive task that heavily relies on language processing. One might thus wonder whether this language-reliance leads to qualitative differences (e.g., greater difficulties, error types, etc.) in arithmetic for bilingual individuals who frequently have to solve arithmetic problems in more than one language. The present study investigated how proficiency in two languages interacts with arithmetic problem solving throughout language acquisition in adolescents and young adults. Additionally, we examined whether the number word structure that is specific to a given language plays a role in number processing over and above bilingual proficiency. We addressed these issues in a German–French educational bilingual setting, where there is a progressive transition from German to French as teaching language. Importantly, German and French number naming structures differ clearly, as two-digit number names follow a unit-ten order in German, but a ten-unit order in French. We implemented a transversal developmental design in which bilingual pupils from grades 7, 8, 10, 11, and young adults were asked to solve simple and complex additions in both languages. The results confirmed that language proficiency is crucial especially for complex addition computation. Simple additions in contrast can be retrieved equally well in both languages after extended language practice. Additional analyses revealed that over and above language proficiency, language-specific number word structures (e.g., unit-ten vs. ten-unit) also induced significant modulations of bilinguals' arithmetic performances. Taken together, these findings support the view of a strong relation between language and arithmetic in bilinguals

Home literacy environment and early literacy development across languages varying in orthographic consistency

We examined the relation between home literacy environment (HLE) and early literacy development in a sample of children learning four alphabetic orthographies varying in orthographic consistency (English, Dutch, German, and Greek). Seven hundred and fourteen children were followed from Grade 1 to Grade 2 and tested on emergent literacy skills (vocabulary, letter knowledge, and phonological awareness) at the beginning of Grade 1 and on word reading fluency and spelling at the end of Grade 1, the beginning of Grade 2, and the end of Grade 2. Their parents responded to a questionnaire assessing HLE [parent teaching (PT), shared book reading (SBR), access to literacy resources (ALR)] at the beginning of Grade 1. Results showed first that PT was associated with letter knowledge or phonological awareness in Dutch and Greek, while ALR was associated with emergent literacy skills in all languages. SBR did not predict any cognitive or early literacy skills in any language. Second, PT and ALR had indirect effects on literacy outcomes via different emergent literacy skills in all languages. These findings suggest that not all HLE components are equally important for emergent literacy skills, reading fluency, and spelling. No specific trend in the role of orthographic consistency in the aforementioned relations emerged, which suggests that other factors may account for the observed differences across languages when children start receiving formal reading instruction in Grade 1

Longitudinal predictors of reading and arithmetic at different attainment levels

Reading and arithmetic are distinct academic skills that share similarities in skill acquisition and use. Previous research investigated the cognitive basis of associations and dissociations between reading and arithmetic by using either subtyping or dimensional approaches. In the current study, we aim to bridge the gap between these two approaches by investigating common and distinct predictors of reading and arithmetic at different performance levels with quantile regression models. This allowed us to look more closely at the lower tail of the ability distributions, and to test whether predictions for children with low reading and arithmetic fluency differed from the typical performance range. We analyzed longitudinal data of 357 children speaking English or German. Outcome variables were reading and arithmetic fluency assessed at the end of Grade 1, 2, and 3. Predictors were assessed in Grade 1. Results confirmed nonverbal IQ and working memory as domain-general predictors of reading and arithmetic. The association of reading and arithmetic was mainly explained by nonverbal IQ, phonological awareness, RAN and multi-digit transcoding. Across grades and performance levels, phonological awareness and RAN made a specific contribution to reading. Magnitude processing and multi-digit transcoding were specific predictors of arithmetic. Counting also made a specific prediction to arithmetic in Grade 3, but only in the low performance range. Our findings indicate partly distinct underlying cognitive mechanisms for reading and arithmetic. Shared predictors are involved in retrieval efficiency, language processing and cross-format integration. These results have important implications, as they suggest that most predictors are equally relevant for children with low, typical or even excellent reading and arithmetic fluency

Neuropedagógiai innovációs lehetőségek a neveléstudományi kutatások-ban az EMOTIV EPOC+ mobil EEG készülék alkalmazásával

A Soproni Egyetem Benedek Elek Pedagógiai Karán 2017-ben gyermekneurológusok, neveléstudományi kutatók, pszichológusok és gyakorló pedagógusok bevonásával indult el a Kisgyermekkori Neuropedagógia Kutatócsoport. A közös kutatómunka egyik jelentős szegmensét képezi a „Soproni Egyetem Struktúraváltási Terve” - 32388-2/2017 INTFIN sz. projekt keretében az Emberi Erőforrások Minisztériuma támogatásával vásárolt EMOTIV EPOC+ mobil EEG készülékek alkalmazhatóságának vizsgálata. Poszterprezentációnk egyrészről a gyermeki fejlődés – különös tekintettel az iskolaérettség – monitorozására alkalmazott klasszikus vizsgálatokat tekinti át, majd ezen vizsgálatokkal összefüggésben, a pedagógiai gyakorlatra is adaptálható innovációs sikertényezők mentén elemzi az EMOTIV EPOC+ mobil EEG készülék alkalmazhatóságát a neveléstudományi kutatásokban. Az innovációs sikertényezők közül vizsgáljuk az EMOTIV EPOC+ mobil EEG készülék alkalmazásában rejlő relatív előnyöket, a kompatibilitást, a potenciális alkalmazók innovációs szükségleteit és fogékonyságát, a megfigyelhetőséget és a kipróbálhatóságot, valamint az alkalmazás során tapasztalt hátrányokat, nehézségeket