Spring School on Language, Music, and Cognition: Organizing Events in Time

The interdisciplinary spring school “Language, music, and cognition: Organizing events in time” was held from February 26 to March 2, 2018 at the Institute of Musicology of the University of Cologne. Language, speech, and music as events in time were explored from different perspectives including evolutionary biology, social cognition, developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience of speech, language, and communication, as well as computational and biological approaches to language and music. There were 10 lectures, 4 workshops, and 1 student poster session. Overall, the spring school investigated language and music as neurocognitive systems and focused on a mechanistic approach exploring the neural substrates underlying musical, linguistic, social, and emotional processes and behaviors. In particular, researchers approached questions concerning cognitive processes, computational procedures, and neural mechanisms underlying the temporal organization of language and music, mainly from two perspectives: one was concerned with syntax or structural representations of language and music as neurocognitive systems (i.e., an intrapersonal perspective), while the other emphasized social interaction and emotions in their communicative function (i.e., an interpersonal perspective). The spring school not only acted as a platform for knowledge transfer and exchange but also generated a number of important research questions as challenges for future investigations

Vocabulary and reading speed in the majority language are affected by maternal language proficiency and language exposure at home: a study of language minority bilingual children in Italy

Environmental sources of variance in the Italian vocabulary and reading skills of bilingual primary school children from immigrant families (or language minority bilingual children (LMBC)) in Italy were investigated, and the LMBC’s skill levels were compared to those of their monolingual classmates. A total of 140 children from the first, third, and fifth grades were administered standardized tests of receptive vocabulary, word reading, and nonword reading skills. LMBC’s exposure to Italian at home and their mothers’ Italian proficiency were reported by mothers. Immigrant mothers’ Italian proficiency was a significant predictor of vocabulary and word reading speed but not of word accuracy or nonword reading. High levels of Italian exposure at home in combination with low levels of maternal Italian proficiency was a negative predictor of vocabulary; high exposure to Italian at home was positively associated with word reading speed and negatively associated with nonword reading speed. LMBC had lower vocabulary scores but did not differ from monolingual children in measures of reading skill. The findings underscore the importance of the quality of language exposure for language development and replicate findings that bilingual children show decoding skills on a par with monolingual children despite smaller vocabularies

The effect of literacy and orthographic similarity on cross-language interference in bilingual children.

The effect of literacy and orthographic similarity on cross-language interference in bilingual childre

A Novel Computer-Based Assessment Tool for Evaluating Early Literacy Skills in Italian Preschoolers

The present contribution aims at presenting an assessment tool (i.e., the TALK-assessment) built to evaluate the language development and school readiness of Italian preschoolers before they enter primary school, and its predictive validity for the children's reading and writing skills at the end of the first year of primary school. The early literacy competences of 98 preschoolers were assessed and the statistical proprieties (item difficulty level and Discrimination Index, and the factorial structure using Confirmatory Factor Analysis) of each subtest of the assessment were presented (Study 1). Results showed that the subtests of the tool have good psychometric properties, with the only exception of the morpho-syntactic comprehension task, and are adequate for use with preschoolers in the school context. Study 2 investigated the early literacy skills of a group of 62 preschoolers and their reading and writing abilities at the end of primary school 1st grade. The scores obtained in the phonological awareness task of the final version of the assessment in preschool significantly predicted children's reading scores 12 months later, at primary school. The scores obtained in the lexical comprehension and morpho-syntactic production (i.e., sentence repetition) tasks of the final version of the assessment in preschool significantly predicted children's writing scores 12 months later, at primary school. The assessment has specific characteristics that make it a valuable candidate for adoption in educational settings, both to identify fragile areas in time to modify the children's developmental paths to literacy and to prevent future language and literacy difficulties at primary school

The syllabic approach intervention supports early literacy skills in children with cochlear implants.

Object: The aim of this study was investigate whether participation in a novel 12-week intervention program based on the syllabic approach (‘Simo-Syl’) leads to improvements in the language abilities that support literacy acquisition (or early literacy skills) in children with cochlear implant (CI) and normal hearing (NH). Methods: Three groups of children participated in the study: one group with CIs (n=10, mean age=62 months; SD=4.85 ) who participated in the intervention; all the children had profound congenital sensorineural hearing loss, the mean age at CI activation was 22.7 months (SD +/- 3.8; range 14-30); five children used bilateral CI, three children used monolateral CI, two children used bimodal stimulation. One group with NH (n=13, mean age=66.5 months; SD=3.50) who also participated in the intervention, and one control group of children with NH who did not took part in the intervention (n=17, mean age=61.70 months; SD=3.62). Children’s early literacy skills were tested in four tasks (syllable recognition, vowel recognition, syllable reading, word reading) using an ad-hoc computer-based assessment in two sessions, before and after the intervention for the CI and NH intervention groups and at corresponding time points for the control group. Results: Preliminary analyses showed that at T0 the syllable and vowel recognition abilities of the children with CIs did not differ between males and females, children with different modality stimulation, and did not correlate with maternal or paternal years of education completed (ps > .05). Their syllable and word reading skills were very weak (range = 0-1). A series of Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) on each of the four tasks showed significant Group x Session interactions for syllable reading (F(2,22)=3.57, p=.045) and word reading (F(2,22)=13.45, p<.001). Post-hoc tests with the Tukey correction showed significant improvements in syllable reading for all groups (CI: t(22)=-3.290, p=.003; NH: t(22)=-9.046, p<.001, Control: t(22)=-4.061, p<.001) and significant improvements in word reading between sessions only for the CI and NH intervention groups (CI: t(22)=-3.838, p<.001; NH: t(22)=-10.140, p<.001). At T1, the word reading skills of the NH intervention group were significantly better than those of the control group (t(34.4)=3.539, p=.003); those of the CI group were somewhat in between. Conclusions: These results show that participating in the Syllabic approach intervention benefits the syllable and word reading skills of children with CIs as well as those of children with NH, with potential positive consequences for their literacy acquisition process and school performance

Lexical access and competition in bilingual children: The role of proficiency, literacy and structural similarity

Non-selective language access has often been shown in studies using visually presented words that share some features across languages, such as false friends. However, not much research has focused on auditory processing, especially in early and balanced bilinguals. This study examined how languages are accessed and organised and affect one another in bilingual children in a picture-auditory word recognition task with false friends and semantically related words, with particular reference to differences for participants in proficiency, grade level, literacy and the similarity of the two languages. In Study 1 we analysed the performance of two groups of school-age bilingual children with Italian as their L1 and German as their L2, but with different proficiency levels in their L2. In Study 2 we compared two groups of unbalanced bilingual children with Italian as their L1 and either French or German as their L2 to investigate how the degree of similarity between the L1 and L2 affected the test results. Accuracy and speed in general and in responding to the critical conditions were compared to the control conditions within and across languages, grades, and levels of reading experience. Bilinguals showed \u2018interference\u2019 when presented with false friends, thus showing that language activation happens simultaneously and incrementally upon receiving an auditory stimulus. Performance in false friends in one language was affected by proficiency level in the other, by the degree of similarity between the L1 and L2, and by orthographic knowledge, and in semantically related words by a combination of a large enough vocabulary and relatively little experience with the language. The bilinguals\u2019 language access in general was affected by each of the several factors tested - proficiency, experience, similarity and literacy in the L1 and the L2

Simo-syl”: A computer-based programme to enhance child’s emergent literacy skills

Abstract: Introduction. Reading acquisition requires the integration of several skills from different cognitive domains. Many studies have shown that the adoption of specific supporting programmes during preschool enhances early language and meta-phonological skills (Dickinson et al., 2010; Goldstein et al., 2017; Walker & Carta, 2020). For example, some studies have reported that a meta-phonological intervention based on the syllabic approach, which is aimed at reinforcing the child’s syllabic awareness skills to learn reading and writing, supports preschool and school-age children in the automatisation of reading skills (Bertelli et al., 2013; Padovani et al., 2018). Furthermore, computer-based or multimedia intervention programmes in preschool and primary school are useful not only to maximally engage children in the learning process, but also to support teachers in their didactic activities (Cojacariu & Boghian, 2014; Neumann & Neumann, 2017). Aims. The objective of the present study is to explore the efficacy of “Simo-syl”, a 12-week multimedia intervention programme for enhancing Italian preschool children’s early literacy skills. “Simo-syl” consists in a series of meta-phonological games led by an invented character, the little fish “Simo”. We expected the children participating in the Simo-syl programme to reach higher meta-phonological scores as measured through a computer-based assessment tool as compared to the children not participating in the programme (control group). Method. Sixty-three Italian pre-schoolers aged between 4;10 and 5;9 years were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the Simosyl group participating in the intervention programme (n = 46) and the control group (n = 17). Children’s lexical, morpho-syntactical, meta-phonological, phonological, and phono-articulatory skills were assessed at the beginning of the last year of preschool using a standardised paper-based multidimensional assessment. Moreover, on the same day children’s meta-phonological skills (i.e., the ability to recognise syllables and vowels) and word reading skills were tested using a computer-based assessment. The intervention lasted 12 weeks and included three activities per week. Activities focused on syllable blending and spelling (week 1), on syllable recognition (weeks 2-11), and on vowel recognition (week 12). A few children in the Simo-syl group were tested again one week after the end of the intervention programme (Post-test) using the same computer-based assessment. Results. Preliminary analysis of the children’s scores before intervention showed that the children in the Simo-syl and in the control group displayed similar scores (all ps >.05). To test the efficacy of Simo-syl in enhancing the children’s meta-phonological skills, four 22 repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted using time (before and after intervention) as within-subject factor and group (Simo-syl and control group) as between-subject factor. An interaction effect between time and group for the word reading task emerged (F(1, 28) = 6.83, p = .014, mp2= .196). Post-hoc tests with the Bonferroni correction revealed that the Simo-syl group showed a significant improvement in word reading after the intervention (t(28) = -6.811, p <.001). Discussion and Conclusion. The Simo-syl intervention is shown to enhance the children’s word reading skills in 12 weeks. Further studies with a larger number of participants are needed to confirm these results