HOW FAR FROM THE PREMISE; A META-ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF LITERATURE ON CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING

Background: Although there are numerous success records of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) implementation in educational settings and its principles have been found effective, the impact of the whole educational methodology may be overrated. Method: A comprehensive search conducted to retrieve articles published between August 2005 and July 2016 using the scholarly databases. Results: We identified 102 potentially relevant articles of which only 6 met the inclusion criteria. Positive effect sizes in 5 studies indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group. These effect sizes were analyzed separately to provide an interpretative context for the main results. High heterogeneity was observed (Q = 5, P < .001). The Chi-squared significance test shows that the distribution of effect sizes has heterogeneity. Likewise, I-squared statistic quantifies the heterogeneity on the data. Conclusion: Despite the positive feedbacks reported by researchers on the efficiency of such methodology applied in primary and secondary schools, it is occasionally admitted that the results of the study are in doubt as the participants of CLIL and non-CLIL groups do not have equal exposure to the foreign language. To compare both groups in the same conditions, it is necessary for both to receive the same number of instruction hours in L2.  Article visualizations

Language development disorder in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), a case study

Prenatal alcohol exposure can cause developmental damage in children. There are different types and ranges of alterations that fall under the name of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). Disabilities in learning, cognition, and behavior are observed. Environmental conditions are an influencing factor in this population since they are generally adverse and are either not diagnosed at an early stage or given the appropriate support and approach. We present a case study of a 9-year-old child, in which all the variables affecting his development (FASD diagnosis and socioenvironmental conditions) were observed and analyzed. His early childhood under institutional care, the move to a foster home at the age of 6, and several measures of evaluation from foster care to the present are described. Difficulties in vocabulary, access to vocabulary, morphology, syntax, grammar, oral narrative, pragmatics, speech, and communication were observed, along with cognitive difficulties in memory, perception and executive functioning, social adaptation, learning, and behavior. An early diagnosis and approach enable this population to develop skills in different dimensions to address early adversity despite their neurological and behavioral commitment. Speech-language pathologist services are crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of the language and communication difficulties that characterize this syndrom

Voice characteristics in smith–magenis syndrome: An acoustic study of laryngeal biomechanics

Smith–Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a rare genetic disease characterized by intellectual disability, serious behavior disorders, neurodevelopment delay, and speech and language disorders. An acoustic and biomechanical analysis of the voice of SMS young adults was carried out due to (a) the close relationship between the laryngeal biomechanics and the clinical and emotional state of a person; (b) the fact that no research on the voice in this syndrome has been conducted previously. The vocal timbre of most people diagnosed with SMS does not seem to be according to the complexion of diagnosed individuals, nor to their gender and age, so it could be interesting to attend the analysis of phonation of people with a rare genetic syndrome such as SMS. We used BioMetPhon, a specific piece of software to analyze the glottal source and biomechanics of vocals folds. Nineteen features related to dysphonia, physiology, and biomechanics of the vocal folds were considered. The adult phonation of 9 individuals with SMS was analyzed and compared to 100 normative male and female adult voices. Results showed that the phonation of the SMS group significantly deviates from the adult normophonic profile in more than one of the 19 features examined, such as stiffness of the thyroarytenoid muscle and dynamic mass of the vocal fold cover, among othersThis research was funded by grant TEC2016-77791-C4-4-R (Plan Nacional de I+D+i, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Competitiveness of Spain

Evidencias de una protolengua en el lenguaje del deficiente mental

Centro de Informacion y Documentacion Cientifica (CINDOC). C/Joaquin Costa, 22. 28002 Madrid. SPAIN / CINDOC - Centro de Informaciòn y Documentaciòn CientìficaSIGLEESSpai

Aprendizaje de la lectura en los niños con síndrome de Williams

Las personas con síndrome de Williams se caracterizan por tener capacidades lingüísticas superiores a lo que corresponderían por su inteligencia. Respecto al nivel de lectura existe controversia dada la escasez de estudios. El objetivo de este trabajo era comprobar las capacidades de lectura de un grupo de niños con SW en edad escolar, y para ello se contrastó su ejecución con un grupo control de la misma edad mental. Tres tipos de tareas fueron utilizadas: lectura de palabras y pseudopalabras, tareas metafonológicas y de denominación rápida. Los resultados muestran que el grupo con SW tiene una ejecución similar al grupo control en la precisión lectora de pseudopalabras, aunque son más lentos en la lectura tanto de palabras como de pseudopalabras. También son más lentos en las tareas de denominación rápida. Estos resultados sugieren que los SW no tienen dificultades para desarrollar los mecanismos de conversión grafema-fonema, pero muestran ciertas dificultades en el desarrollo de la lectura léxica