Reading acquisition: from digital screening to neurocognitive bases in a transparent orthography

155 p.El aprendizaje de la lectura es un área activa de investigación en la psicología y la neurociencia cognitiva. En las últimas décadas se ha avanzado enormemente en la comprensión de los procesos neurocognitivos subyacentes al aprendizaje de la lectura y a sus dificultades. Sin embargo, existen al menos dos dimensiones en las que es necesario seguir trabajando arduamente. Por un lado, el conocimiento actual sobre el aprendizaje de la lectura no ha impactado en las prácticas educativas. Por otro lado, la diversidad de las características del aprendizaje de la lectura en distintas ortografías no se comprende cabalmente. La presente tesis se enfoca en el estudio del aprendizaje de la lectura combinando estrategias de identificación oportuna de niños en riesgo lector en el contexto escolar, y estudios de laboratorio enfocados en comprender las bases neurocognitivas del aprendizaje de la lectura en una ortografía transparente como el español. Estos objetivos se lograron a través de un diseño longitudinal comenzando desde la educación inicial, siguiendo a un mismo grupo de aproximadamente 600 niños hasta segundo año de escuela. Los resultados muestran, por una parte, que es factible identificar a niños en riesgo lector incluso antes de la educación primaria, y, por otra parte, que el aprendizaje de la lectura en una ortografía transparente como el español tiene características comunes y características distintivas respecto a ortografías opacas. Estos resultados ponen en evidencia la factibilidad de la identificación oportuna de riesgo lector, y remarcan la importancia de considerar las características de la ortografía durante el aprendizaje de la lectura

Mind the Orthography: Revisiting the Contribution of Prereading Phonological Awareness to Reading Acquisition

published Online First March 21, 2022.Reading acquisition is based on a set of preliteracy skills that lay the foundation for future reading abilities. Phonological awareness—the ability to identify and manipulate the sound units of oral language— has been reported to play a central role in reading acquisition. However, current evidence is mixed with respect to its universal contribution to reading acquisition across orthographies. This longitudinal study examines the development and contribution of phonological awareness to early reading skills in Spanish, a transparent orthography. The results of a comprehensive battery of phonological awareness skills in a large sample of children (Time 1 n = 616, 296 females, mean age 5.6, from middle to high socioeconomic backgrounds; Time 2 n = 397) with no reading experience at study onset suggest that the development of phonological awareness is delayed in Spanish. Furthermore, our results show that phonological awareness does not contribute to the prediction of reading acquisition above and beyond other preliteracy skills. Letter knowledge indexes children’s ability to identify phonemes and thus takes a more central role in the prediction of early reading skills. Therefore, we underscore the need to thoughtfully address the distinctive features of the reading acquisition process across orthographies, which should be taken into account in models of reading and learning to read.This project was funded by ANII FSED_2_2015_1_120741 and ANII FSED_2_2016_1_131230 Grants. Camila Zugarramurdi received a PhD Scholarship from Fundación Carolina

Lexiland: A Tablet-based Universal Screener for Reading Difficulties in the School Context

First published online January 27, 2022Massive and timely screening of the student population for early signs of reading difficulties is needed to implement timely effective remediation of these difficulties. However, traditional approaches are costly and hard to apply. Here, we present Lexiland, a tablet-based reading assessment tool for kindergarten and primary school children developed to be applied in school settings with minimal personnel intervention. Following a story line, players help a character of the game perform several tasks that measure different predictors of reading outcomes. Most of the tasks that usually involve a verbal response were switched to receptive tasks to demand a touch-screen response only. The tablet application was administered to a sample of N = 616 5-yo kindergarten children and to a sub-sample of these children twice during the following two years (First and Second Grades). Applying logistic regression and cross-validation, we selected a reduced subset of tasks that can predict with great sensitivity and specificity, whether a five-year-old child will have reading difficulties by the end of first grade (sensitivity 90% and specificity 76%) and two years later (sensitivity 90% and specificity 61%). Importantly, Lexiland is a scalable tool to implement universal screening, given the increasing availability of devices able to run android and iOS applications.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by ANII FSED_2_2015_1_120741 and ANII FSED_2_2016_1_131230 grants to Juan Valle-Lisboa and Manuel Carreiras. Camila Zugarramurdi received a PhD Scholarship from Fundación Carolin

Diseño de una evaluación digitalizada de predictores de las dificultades lectoras

El presente proyecto se enfocó en implementar una batería digitalizada de tareas que permitiera evaluar predictores de dificultades en la lectura. Se basa, por un lado, en aportes ya clásicos de la Psicología Cognitiva y por otro en teorías recientes de la Neurociencia Cognitiva. Los aportes clásicos indican que es posible predecir dificultades en la lectura previamente a la instrucción lectora, principalmente a través de la evaluación de tres variables cognitivas: la conciencia fonológica, el conocimiento de las letras y la denominación rápida automatizada. Las evidencias provenientes de las Neurociencias Cognitivas sugieren que algunas de las dificultades en la lectura pueden explicarse por un pobre acoplamiento entre oscilaciones cerebrales y el ritmo presente en el lenguaje hablado, y que este acoplamiento puede ser medido comportamentalmente. Partiendo de esta base, nos planteamos la realización de un estudio longitudinal en dos tiempos que mida el desarrollo de estos constructos, previamente a la instrucción lectora y lo vincule con el desempeño lector 18 meses más tarde.Fundación Ceibal, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII

Conocimiento léxico y sistemas de memoria : estudio psicofísico y psicofisiológico

Tribunal: Dr. Angel Caputi, Dr. Andrés Pomi, Dr. Manuel Carreiras

Deep networks as cognitive models: the case of reading in different orthographies

Although Artificial Neural Networks were born as Neurocognitive models, the architectures used nowadays in AI are not conceived as models of the brain. In the last few years, Deep networks have been fitted to brain activity to use them as neural models, but their use as cognitive models is less prevalent. Here we use a transformer model complemented with a simplified visual input to model reading acquisition. First, we trained the network to recognize the speech input. After that, we use letter sounds and letter visual representations to train the network to output the correct letters. We apply this model to our empirical previous results, comparing learning in a transparent (Spanish) and an opaque (French) orthography as in transparent orthographies, phonological awareness is much less important than in opaque orthographies as a predictor of reading. We show that the difficulty of training correlates with opaqueness, and interpret the results

Informe Final de Proyecto. Promoviendo la lectura a través su estimulación en Educación Inicial: un abordaje digital

En el presente estudio se investigó el impacto del uso de una aplicación del Plan CEIBAL, “Luis, el Cardenal”, en el desarrollo de habilidades precursoras de la lectura en niños que cursan Educación Inicial. La aplicación fue construida a efectos de estimular en forma lúdica habilidades precursoras del aprendizaje de la lectura en niños pre lectores y lectores incipientes. Aunque el aprendizaje de la lectura es entendido como un proceso multidimensional, esta propuesta se circunscribe a la conciencia fonológica (CF) debido a su papel central en los primeros momentos del aprendizaje formal del lenguaje escrito. La CF es definida como un tipo de conciencia metalingüística, de temprano desarrollo, que refiere a la capacidad de analizar los componentes del habla y de operar conscientemente sobre ellos. La estrategia metodológica consistió en instrumentar un grupo de intervención (GI) y un grupo control activo (GC), con evaluación pre-post. En cada sesión del GI se trabajó con la aplicación investigada, en grupos de 5 niños, en actividades concebidas para desarrollar la conciencia fonológica a distintos niveles. El GC participó del mismo número de sesiones e igual duración, también en grupos de 5 niños, con aplicaciones educativas que no están orientadas a la estimulación de la conciencia fonológica. En ambos casos, la intervención constó de dos sesiones semanales, de 15 minutos cada una, por un período de 2 meses y medio hasta completar 24 sesiones. La evaluación previa y posterior a la intervención fue realizada a través de la App Lexiland, que evalúa la conciencia fonológica y otros precursores de la lectura, desarrollada en ediciones anteriores de la convocatoria FSED. La muestra final se compuso de 99 niños de Educación Inicial (nivel 5), de seis escuelas de los quintiles 3, 4 y 5 de la Inspección Departamental de Montevideo Centro (CEIP). En cada una de las escuelas, la asignación a grupos se hizo en forma aleatoria (53 del GI y 46 del GC). Los resultados cuantitativos fueron confrontados con el punto de vista de los ocho asistentes de investigación, constituyendo así un diseño de tipo mixto (cuanti-cuali). La evidencia empírica recogida permite afirmar la aptitud del dispositivo para producir algunos de los cambios proyectados. La aplicación se muestra parcialmente idónea para el cometido asignado, en tanto se constata una mejora estadísticamente significativa para el grupo de intervención solo a propósito de una de las subdimensiones de la CF estimuladas: la segmentación de sílabas. Entre los motivos que podrían explicar los magros resultados generales, se detectan: el bajo número de ítems que presenta Luis, el Cardenal para las diferentes actividades, la falta de feedback explicativo en la mayoría de ellas y la necesidad de brindar una orientación adulta sostenida para un amplio número de casos. El carácter atractivo de esta herramienta informática, la especificidad de su diseño y los resultados parciales obtenidos alientan a promover su uso en el aula, contando con un andamiaje oportuno del docente.In the present study, the impact of the use of an application from Plan CEIBAL, “Luis, el Cardenal”, was investigated in the development of precursor reading skills in children attending Kindergarten Education. The application was designed in order to stimulate precursors of reading in pre-reading children and incipient readers in a playful manner. Although learning to read is understood as a multidimensional process, this proposal is limited to phonological awareness (PA) due to its central role in the first stages of learning a written code. PA is defined as a type of metalinguistic awareness, of early development, which refers to the ability to analyse the components of speech and to operate consciously on them. The methodological strategy consisted of implementing an intervention group (IG) and an active control group (CG), with pre-post evaluation. In each IG session, the investigated application was worked on, in groups of 5 children, in activities designed to develop phonological awareness at different levels. The CG participated in the same number of sessions and the same duration, also in groups of 5 children, with educational applications that are not aimed at stimulating phonological awareness. In both cases, the intervention consisted of two weekly sessions, of 15 minutes each, for a period of 2 and a half months until 24 sessions were completed. The evaluation before and after the intervention was carried out through the Lexiland App, which assesses phonological awareness and other reading precursors, developed in previous editions of the FSED call. The final sample was made up of 99 children of Kindergarten Education (level 5), from six schools in quintiles 3, 4 and 5 of the Inspección Departamental de Montevideo Centro (CEIP). In each of the schools, group assignment was performed randomly (53 from IG and 46 from CG). The quantitative results were compared with the point of view of the eight research assistants, thus constituting a mixed type design (quanti-quali). The empirical evidence collected allows us to affirm the aptitude of the device to produce some of the projected changes. The application is partially suitable for the assigned task, while a statistically significant improvement is found for the intervention group only on one of the subdimensions of the stimulated PA: the segmentation of syllables. Among the reasons that could explain the meager general results are: the low number of items presented by Luis, el Cardenal for the different activities, the lack of explanatory feedback in most of them, and the need to provide sustained adult guidance in a large number of cases. The attractive nature of this digital tool, the specificity of its design and the partial results obtained encourage its use in the classroom, with the appropriate scaffolding of the teacher.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e InnovaciónFundación Ceiba

Diseño de una evaluación digitalizada de predictores de las dificultades lectoras

El presente proyecto se enfocó en implementar una batería digitalizada de tareas que permitiera evaluar predictores de dificultades en la lectura. Se basa, por un lado, en aportes ya clásicos de la Psicología Cognitiva y por otro en teorías recientes de la Neurociencia Cognitiva. Los aportes clásicos indican que es posible predecir dificultades en la lectura previamente a la instrucción lectora, principalmente a través de la evaluación de tres variables cognitivas: la conciencia fonológica, el conocimiento de las letras y la denominación rápida automatizada. Las evidencias provenientes de las Neurociencias Cognitivas sugieren que algunas de las dificultades en la lectura pueden explicarse por un pobre acoplamiento entre oscilaciones cerebrales y el ritmo presente en el lenguaje hablado, y que este acoplamiento puede ser medido comportamentalmente. Partiendo de esta base, nos planteamos la realización de un estudio longitudinal en dos tiempos que mida el desarrollo de estos constructos, previamente a la instrucción lectora y lo vincule con el desempeño lector 18 meses más tarde.Fundación Ceibal, Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (ANII

Relative meaning frequencies for 578 homonyms in two Spanish dialects: A cross-linguistic extension of the English eDom norms

Published online: 15 August 2015Relative meaning frequency is a critical factor to consider in studies of semantic ambiguity. In this work, we examined how this measure may change across the European and Rioplatense dialects of Spanish, as well as how the overall distributional properties differ between Spanish and English, using a computer-assisted norming approach based on dictionary definitions (Armstrong, Tokowicz, & Plaut, 2012). The results showed that the two dialects differ considerably in terms of the relative meaning frequencies of their constituent homonyms, and that the overall distributions of relative frequencies vary considerably across languages, aswell. These results highlight the need for localized norms to design powerful studies of semantic ambiguity and suggest that dialectal differences may be responsible for some discrepant effects related to homonymy. In quantifying the reliability of the norms, we also established that as few as seven ratings are needed to converge on a highly stable set of ratings. This approach is therefore a very practical means of acquiring essential data in studies of semantic ambiguity, relative to past approaches, such as those based on the classification of free associates. The norms also present new possibilities for studying semantic ambiguity effects within and between populations who speak one or more languages. The norms and associated software are available for download at http://edom.cnbc.cmu.edu/ or http://www.bcbl.eu/ databases/edom/.B.C.A. was supported by a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship (IIF) (No. PIIF-GA-2013-689 627784). C.Z., A.C., and J.V.L. have been supported by CSIC-UDELAR, and CZ was supported by ANII

A Translational Framework of Educational Neuroscience in Learning Disorders

Published: 04 July 2018.Neuroimaging has undergone enormous progress during the last two and a half decades. The combination of neuroscientific methods and educational practice has become a focus of interdisciplinary research in order to answer more applied questions. In this realm, conditions that hamper learning success and have deleterious effects in the population – such as learning disorders (LD) – could especially profit from neuroimaging findings. At the moment, however, there is an ongoing debate about how far neuroscientific research can go to inform the practical work in educational settings. Here, we put forward a theoretical translational framework as a method of conducting neuroimaging and bridging it to education, with a main focus on dyscalculia and dyslexia. Our work seeks to represent a theoretical but mainly empirical guide on the benefits of neuroimaging, which can help people working with different aspects of LD, who need to act collaboratively to reach the full potential of neuroimaging. We provide possible ideas regarding how neuroimaging can inform LD at different levels within our multidirectional framework, i.e., mechanisms, diagnosis/prognosis, training/intervention, and community/education. In addition, we discuss methodological, conceptual, and structural limitations that need to be addressed by future research.TD was funded by the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network (GSC1028), which is funded within the framework of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. YW was funded by the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LY14C090003). ML was supported by the Spanish Government (PSI2015-65338-P) and BCBL acknowledges funding from Ayuda Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2015-0490. We acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Tübingen