Abilità di apprendimento di lettura e scrittura in bambini in età prescolare e predittori di rischio

The years from birth through age 5 are a critical time for children’s development and learning. Early childhood educators understand that at home and in early childhood education settings, young children learn important skills that can provide them with the cornerstones needed for the development of later academic skills. These patterns of learning in preschool are closely linked to later achievement: children who develop more skills in the preschool years perform better in the primary grades. The development of early skills appears to be particularly important in the area of literacy. It is estimated that more than a third of all graders (and an even higher percentage of our at-risk students) read so poorly that they cannot complete their schoolwork successfully. Providing young children with the critical precursor skills to reading and writing can offer a path to improving overall achievement (Teale & Sulzby, 1986; Badian, 1988; Tressoldi & Vio, 1996; Whitehurst & Loningan, 1998; Ehri et al., 2005; Pepi, 2004; Cornoldi & Tressoldi, 2007; Pinto et al., 2009; Puranik & Lonigan, 2011). The purpose of this research is to identify and discuss areas of emerging evidence on the relationship between early childhood literacy experiences and subsequent reading acquisition. We do not wish to minimize the role of oral language in early literacy development, for it serves as a companion to the development of reading and writing. First, dimensions of literacy knowledge and literacy experiences are discussed, based on data from recent primary studies and reviews of emergent literacy research. Then areas of emerging evidence are examined for instructional implications for children entering school with diverse literacy experiences (Lonigan et al., 2009 ). In general, purpose of this study was to examine the correlations between indirect and direct measures of emergent literacy skills. Another the purpose of the present study was to examine the research that correlate emergent literacy skills and risk factors of learning disabilities in children in reading and writing . Although many advances have been made in early identification and intervention for students with reading disabilities, there has been less progress in identifying the elaboration of an effective assessment tool (in the Italian language and the languages transparent and semi-transparent like Italian) or “universal screening” for the early identification of learning disabilities that includes all the variables directly and indirectly involved in the learning of reading and writing (Jiménez, 2010; Lonigan et al., 2011). Standardized tools that assess learning to read and writing and can be accurate in identifying variables "at risk" of learning disabilities. Because some of these students may have experienced difficulty with reading from the beginning of their school careers, but other students confront reading and writing problems for the first time in primary school. Appropriate tools have been used for an assessment of all the skills involved in learning to read and write, according to the theoretical model of The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP; see Lonigan, Schatschneider, & Westberg, 2008a). Furthermore, we have involved the teachers in the early identification , we have showed confirming the literature that have a crucial role in learning processes. Instead, the present study is a longitudinal study in two phases (two years from 2012 to 2013), in which they were observed variables involved in learning to read and write in children from last year of kindergarten until first year of primary school. An important role in this research has been given to the influence of socio-cultural context and home literacy experiences or environment which have an important role (Puranik et al., 2010; Jiménez et al., 2009). Some children who have been assessed as "at risk" during the screening of the first phase were included in a specific training. In general, this research is divided into three main parts and three chapters: From emergent literacy to the risk profiles of learning of reading and writing in children (chapters I) Risk factors of learning disabilities in children : a systematic review and international meta-analysis (chapters II) The construction of a risk profile in reading and writing in pre-school-age children (chapters III) These three chapters are organized as three separate searches but that are related to each other by the study of the foundations of learning to read and write in typical and atypical development. The study of learning prerequisites of reading and writing as evidenced by the extensive literature throughout the world is crucial because are involved the life span. In particular, this research is characterized by the following specific and general objectives (Table 1)

The relationship between inferential processing and text processing: a developmental study

The research reported here was designed to investigate the critical role played by certain factors implicated in the mental representation of text, and to establish whether their role varies significantly as a function of developmental age. Specifically, it was decided to analyse, in a sample of 180 subjects was selected from three different age groups (7, 10 and 18 years of age respectively), the role of such factors in mediating and influencing the generation of the inferences needed to understand a piece of text characterised by a sequence of information which flows in a logical order, but leads to a conclusion which is contrary to the expectations evoked by the text. In line with this objective, it was decided to take into account factors related to encoding (added information about the key object – a title), those involved in recall (inferential tests regarding the object and action of change), as well as purely metacognitive factors, such as evaluation of one’s own comprehension and awareness of textual incongruence, whose presence, according to our assumptions, should facilitate the formulation of inferential hypotheses. It would thus seem that inferential processing is powerfully influenced both by cognitive and structural factors, factors which can play a role during both encoding and recall. The results reported here tend to confirm the hypothesis that there is indeed a significant developmental trend in the role played by those factors involved in the coherent representation of text and in the formulation of inferences. The data suggest that children in the youngest age group obtain the greatest advantage from clues in reaching a more correct representation of the text concerned. It is concluded that inferential processes do not serve only to make connections between propositions, but to construct a coherent mental representation of text (Kintsh, 1994; Zwaan, 1994, 1996)

Down Syndrome and Referential Communication: Understanding and Production

This study aimed to evaluate the ability of referential communication in subjects with Down Syndrome (DS). We evaluated the possibility that the referential communication is the result of a set of cognitive factors, verbal and nonverbal through the evaluation of relationship between cognitive abilities in individuals with DS and typically developing. In particular, we have identified some critical dimensions of communicative function, such as the referential communication, which means the subject's ability to produce o the listener or messages "referentially oriented", ie messages that are characterized by "clarity or ambiguity referential ". The referential communication skills, intended both as production (speaker condition) and as understanding (listener condition). Furthermore, has been decided to deepen their understanding through a test that assesses understanding of the text. This choice stems from the need to investigate whether the understanding of a text for individuals with DS could be easier than the understanding of individual messages. It is assumed in fact, that understanding of a text works as a facilitator in coherent mental representation of the text, compared to a single message

Linguistic prosody and comprehension of idioms and proverbs in subjects of school age

A crucial component of language is represented by the prosodic system because it provides essential elements to speaker about how a sentence should be interpreted or intended (Fodor, 2002). Increasing interest from researchers also relates to the understanding of figurative language (Levorato, & Cacciari, 2002). In the figures of speech that the speaker wants the listener intends something more or different than what is explicitly stated (Glucksberg, 2001).. In particular, prosodic intonation is crucial in the resolution of syntactic ambiguity and structural features that constitute the complex messages, such as idioms and proverbs. A crucial component of language, therefore, is represented by the prosodic system because it provides essential elements to talking about how a sentence should be interpreted or understood . The ability to relate to metalinguistic understanding the cognitive processes that allow you to reflect on language and manipulate its characteristics. These capabilities are essential to recognize and resolve the ambiguities of a complex message, you can control and plan the way we produce and understand language (Levorato, 2007). The study demonstrates that an understanding prosodic correlates with the understanding of idioms and proverbs, which are crucial for the achievement of metalinguistic awareness, are influenced by the level of schooling and socio-cultural

Challenging Social Media Threats using Collective Well-being Aware Recommendation Algorithms and an Educational Virtual Companion

Social media (SM) have become an integral part of our lives, expanding our inter-linking capabilities to new levels. There is plenty to be said about their positive effects. On the other hand however, some serious negative implications of SM have repeatedly been highlighted in recent years, pointing at various SM threats for society, and its teenagers in particular: from common issues (e.g. digital addiction and polarization) and manipulative influences of algorithms to teenager-specific issues (e.g. body stereotyping). The full impact of current SM platform design -- both at an individual and societal level -- asks for a comprehensive evaluation and conceptual improvement. We extend measures of Collective Well-Being (CWB) to SM communities. As users' relationships and interactions are a central component of CWB, education is crucial to improve CWB. We thus propose a framework based on an adaptive "social media virtual companion" for educating and supporting the entire students' community to interact with SM. The virtual companion will be powered by a Recommender System (CWB-RS) that will optimize a CWB metric instead of engagement or platform profit, which currently largely drives recommender systems thereby disregarding any societal collateral effect. CWB-RS will optimize CWB both in the short term, by balancing the level of SM threat the students are exposed to, as well as in the long term, by adopting an Intelligent Tutor System role and enabling adaptive and personalized sequencing of playful learning activities. This framework offers an initial step on understanding how to design SM systems and embedded educational interventions that favor a more healthy and positive society

Disabilità visiva e neuroni specchio

Il seguente lavoro ha come obiettivo quello indagare, il possibile coinvolgimento del sistema dei neuroni specchio nella disabilità visiva, cercando di analizzare, in particolare, come il soggetto non vedente possa comprendere e conoscere l’azione degli altri privato dal corpus di informazioni provenienti dal canale visivo. L’ipotesi da verificare è se nei soggetti con disabilità visiva e nei soggetti con sviluppo tipico venga messo in gioco e con quale modalità, lo stesso sistema di neuroni specchio unitario (visivo-uditivo) per il riconoscimento dell’azione. Inoltre, lo studio dovrebbe consentire di verificare se la disabilità visiva ad esordio precoce (congenita) è in grado di aumentare la responsività del sistema dei neuroni specchio rispetto a quella ad esordio più tardivo (acquisita) nel processo di apprendimento

DOWN SYNDROME AND REFERENTIAL COMMUNICATION: UNDERSTANDING AND PRODUCTION

Children with Down Syndrome (DS) have a delay that affects the global motor development, cognitive, communicative and linguistic. From the literature shows that these subjects follow the same general line of language acquisition of children with typical development, although their language remains behind their non-verbal cognitive abilities and then proceed with a slower. In our study we have set ourselves the objective to investigate some critical dimensions of the communicative function in particular, referential communication, which means the subject's ability to produce messages "referentially oriented”, or messages that allow the listener to recognize the immediacy of contact with the target and the ability to understand messages, or characterized by clarity "referential ambiguity". OBJECTIVE The objective is to evaluate the relationship between subjects with DS understanding of the written message and the ability referential communication. SAMPLE Participating in the research 6 children with DS of chronological age between 5 and 11 years and 6 typically developing children between 5 and 11 individually matched to children with DS to the cognitive level. METHOD The tests were administered to 12 subjects individually in three phases and three different times for each participant. First Phase: (CPM - Raven's Progressive Matrices) - (Raven 1996) Second Phase: (TOR - Text Comprehension Test of Oral) - (M.C. Levorato, M. Roch, 2007 ) Third Phase: (PCR - Test of Referential Communication) - (L. Camaioni, A.P Ercolani, P. Lloyd, 1995) RESULTS The results demonstrate that in subjects with DS, the ability to understand the message written positively influences the ability of referential communication. CONCLUSION The data suggest some interesting directions that can be used for planning intervention programs aimed at strengthening and recovery of the communicative dimension