The Cognitive Profiles of Poor Readers/Good Spellers and Good Readers/Poor Spellers in a Consistent Orthography: A Retrospective Analysis

Reading and spelling are closely related to each other, but empirical evidence shows that they can also dissociate. The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive profiles of good readers/poor spellers and poor readers/good spellers in a relatively consistent orthography (Greek). One hundred forty children were administered measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, phonological short-term memory, and orthographic knowledge in grades 1 and 2. Their performance in reading and spelling was assessed in grade 4. Two small groups of children exhibited dissociation between reading and spelling: seven children were identified as poor readers/good spellers and 11 children as good readers/poor spellers. The former group experienced severe deficits in both rapid naming and phonological awareness. The latter group experienced only mild deficits in orthographic knowledge. Although inefficient orthographic knowledge affects their spelling accuracy (Greek is inconsistent in the direction of spelling), it does not impact their reading fluency because they can recognize words by relying on partial cues

The Cognitive Profiles of Poor Readers/Good Spellers and Good Readers/Poor Spellers in a Consistent Orthography: A Retrospective Analysis

Reading and spelling are closely related to each other, but empirical evidence shows that they can also dissociate. The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive profiles of good readers/poor spellers and poor readers/good spellers in a relatively consistent orthography (Greek). One hundred forty children were administered measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, phonological short-term memory, and orthographic knowledge in grades 1 and 2. Their performance in reading and spelling was assessed in grade 4. Two small groups of children exhibited dissociation between reading and spelling: seven children were identified as poor readers/good spellers and 11 children as good readers/poor spellers. The former group experienced severe deficits in both rapid naming and phonological awareness. The latter group experienced only mild deficits in orthographic knowledge. Although inefficient orthographic knowledge affects their spelling accuracy (Greek is inconsistent in the direction of spelling), it does not impact their reading fluency because they can recognize words by relying on partial cues

Emergent literacy in early childhood education: New issues and educational implications

Περίληψη. Η μελέτη αυτή παρουσιάζει μία προσέγγιση για την ερμηνεία του αναδυόμενου γραμματισμού, η οποία τεκμηριώνεται στην ανάλυση βιβλιογραφικών δεδομένων τόσο ως προς τα θεωρητικά μοντέλα των τελευταίων τριάντα ετών όσο και ως προς τα σύγχρονα ερευνητικά ευρήματα για την ανάδυση του γραμματισμού. Σύμφωνα με το προτεινόμενο τριγωνικό θεωρητικό μοντέλο οι περιβαλλοντικές εμπειρίες κατέχουν κεντρικό ρόλο στη συνεχή ανατροφοδότηση μεταξύ των συστατικών στοιχείων του αναδυόμενου γραμματισμού. Τα συστατικά στοιχεία που βρίσκονται στις κορυφές ενός τριγώνου και θεωρούνται κρίσιμα στην ανάδυση του γραμματισμού προσδιορίζονται ως προς το επίπεδο των εννοιολογικών και διαδικαστικών γνώσεων, των δεξιοτήτων του προφορικού λόγου και της γλωσσικής επίγνωσης, των μορφών συμπεριφοράς αναδυόμενης ανάγνωσης και γραφής.Λέξεις κλειδιά: Συστατικά αναδυόμενου γραμματισμού, προφορικός λόγος, μεταγλωσσικές δεξιότητες, έννοιες αντίληψης γραπτού λόγου, οικογενειακός γραμματισμός.Summary. The present study aims to describe a theoretical perspective of emergent literacy, based on a detailed literature review of previous theoretical models, and on contemporary research findings on the structure of emergent literacy. A triangular model is suggested to explain the construct of emergent literacy. A prominent role is given to the continuous interaction of various contextual experiences with the components of emergent literacy. The construct of emergent literacy consists of three major components which are considered critical for literacy acquisition. These major components are the knowledge of literacy concepts, literacy skills and literacy behaviours. The knowledge components include concepts about print and letter knowledge; the literacy skills include oral language (vocabulary, listening comprehension, and narrative skills) and metalinguistic (phonological, syntactic and morphological awareness) skills; literacy behaviour includes emergent reading and emergent writing. According to this triangular model, the components of literacy knowledge and literacy skills are intercorrelated, while both components influence the emergence of literacy behaviours such as emergent reading and writing. However, beyond the direct links of each major component to each other, there are also indirect links among them through the effects of the experiences children get from the contexts they live in. These experiences originate from home and school contexts. Educational implications for optimal literacy acquisition from an early age are discussed based on the suggestions of this triangular model.Keywords: emergent literacy components, oral language, metalinguistic skills, concepts about print, home literacy. The present study aims to describe a theoretical perspective of emergent literacy, based on a detailed literature review of previous theoretical models, and on contemporary research findings on the structure of emergent literacy. A triangular model is suggested to explain the construct of emergent literacy. A prominent role is given to the continuous interaction of various contextual experiences with the components of emergent literacy. The construct of emergent literacy consists of three major components which are considered critical for literacy acquisition. These major components are the knowledge of literacy concepts, literacy skills and literacy behaviours. The knowledge components include concepts about print and letter knowledge; the literacy skills include oral language (vocabulary, listening comprehension, and narrative skills) and metalinguistic (phonological, syntactic and morphological awareness) skills; literacy behaviour includes emergent reading and emergent writing. According to this triangular model, the components of literacy knowledge and literacy skills are intercorrelated, while both components influence the emergence of literacy behaviours such as emergent reading and writing. However, beyond the direct links of each major component to each other, there are also indirect links among them through the effects of the experiences children get from the contexts they live in. These experiences originate from home and school contexts. Educational implications for optimal literacy acquisition from an early age are discussed based on the suggestions of this triangular model

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

SmartWall

Following the need of urban areas to maintain the existing building stock and simultaneously upgrade the overall energy performance, the renovation down-to-nZEB state has already become a necessity. In this regard, a vast range of prefabricated solutions have been developed lately. The main objective of such solutions would be not only to constitute an effective system to tackle building energy consumption but also to be versatile in terms of implementation and economic viability. In this regard, an adaptable off-site prefabricated envelope solution with an embodied HVAC system called “SmartWall” has been developed. The SmartWall can minimise thermal losses through the well-insulated envelope while, at the same time, its integrated HVAC system efficiently maintains indoor thermal comfort conditions. This study examines the virtual implementation of the SmartWall as a “Plug-n-Play” renovation solution to reach the nZEB state of a typical apartment in a multi-family residence in Athens. The analysis considers two SmartWall alternatives using conventional and eco-friendly materials. The results indicate a reduction of 88% in primary energy consumption without affecting thermal comfort conditions and highlighting that the nZEB state can be ensured if the SmartWall application is enhanced with photovoltaic modules

Cytoreductive nephrectomy for synchronous metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Is there enough evidence?

Objective: To assess the role of Cytoreductive Nephrectomy for synchronous metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma patients in the Systemic Therapy era and beyond regarding the Overall Survival, the optimal sequence between Systemic Therapy and Cytoreductive Nephrectomy and prognostic factors. Methods: The systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. Bibliographic search was performed in Medline (PubMed), ClinicalTrials.gov, and Cochrane Library-Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). Studies included were those indexed from 2005 in an attempt to limit those conducted in the cytokine era. Risk of bias assessment was performed by two authors (K.S and T.L) using the Cochrane Collaborative Risk of Bias tool for randomized trials, the Cochrane Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool for nonrandomized studies. Results: Cytoreductive nephrectomy was associated with improved overall survival in all but one of the observational studies. While in all of these studies the unvariable analysis showed improved overall survival in favor of the cytoreductive nephrectomy group in some studies the subgroup analysis showed no benefit. Regarding the optimal sequence, deferred cytoreductive nephrectomy demonstrated better results in more studies than upfront cytoreductive nephrectomy but a advantage was not clearly certain. In the analysis of possible prognostic factors for overall survival with cytoreductive nephrectomy, most common prognostic factors found were age (in 8 studies), tumor histology (in 7 studies), number of metastasis (in 6 studies), and T stage. Conclusions: Cytoreductive nephrectomy can still play an important role in wisely selected patients, although the role of cytoreductive nephrectomy in the new immunotherapy era needs to be defined