This study investigated the cognitive, linguistic, and reading skills of 79 Russian-speaking first and second graders to determine the strongest concurrent predictors of reading achievement. The children were administered a battery of 15 tests from which nine objective, interval-scale measures were derived: phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, decoding accuracy, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, nonverbal ability (IQ), vocabulary, decoding rate, and rapid naming. In a series of multiple regression analyses, phonological awareness accounted for a small amount of unique variance in both decoding accuracy and decoding rate whereas rapid naming was a unique predictor of decoding rate only. Neither verbal short-term memory nor IQ accounted for any variance in decoding. For reading comprehension, IQ and linguistic comprehension contributed a substantial amount of variance to the prediction of achievement whereas decoding rate did not. However, in a series of direct discriminant function analyses, reliable differences emerged between good and poor decoders on reading comprehension, indicating that decoding <italic> is / CITE/Language Arts

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / Text in English / Children with learning disabilities often exhibit emotional problems. Conversely, children experiencing emotional upsets cannot achieve scholastically. The exact nature of the relationship is difficult to elucidate. Most aid programmes deal with one aspect of the problem, placing little or no emphasis on the child in totality. This study focuses on the learning disabled child as a whole from a relation theory perspective. The aim is to ascertain how the child's difficulties affect his relation structures. Once the interaction between the relation structures had been established a programme was devised to assist the child emotionally and scholastically. Play therapy has proved one of the most successful methods of child psychotherapy. This study attempts to incorporate the essential elements of play therapy into a remedial programme. It was found that the children benefitted from both components of the programme and that it had a positive influence on their relation structures / Kinders met leerprobleme toon dikwels ook emosionele probleme. Omgekeerd kan kinders met emosionele versteurings dikwels nie skolasties presteer nie. Die presiese aard van hierdie verwantskap is nie duidelik nie. Die meerderheid hulpprogramme fokus op enkele aspekte van die probleem, ,met min of geen klem op die kind·in-totaliteit nie. Hierdie studie is daarop gerig om die leergestremde kind vanuit die relasieteorie waar te neem en van hulp te wees. Die doel is om te bepaal hoe die kind se probleme sy relasies be"invloed. Nadat die interaksie vasgestel is, is 'n hulpprogram ontwerp om emosionele sowel as skolastiese hulp te verleen. Spelterapie. blyk een van die mees geslaagde metodes in kinderpsigoterapie te wees. Die studie poog om die essensiele elemente van spelterapie by 'n remedierende hulpprogram in te sluit. Daar is bevind dat die proefpersone by hierdie program gebaat het en dat hulle relasies positief be"invloed is. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (with specialisation in Guidance and Counselling)

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

<p>The aim of this two years master thesis in Library and information science is to study the foundation <em>Centrum för lättläst</em> and its work regarding information use with focus on information structures and information needs. The aim is also to examine how <em>Centrum för lättläst</em> cooperate with Swedish libraries to promote the work concerning people with reading disabilities. This master thesis applies a domain analytic theory and method inspired by Birger Hjørland. The domain analysis is confined to examine ontology, epistemology, sociology, empirical user studies, document and genre studies and studies of structures and institutions in scientific communication. The main source material consists of information from the homepage of <em>Centrum för lättläst</em>. The result of the domain analysis describes the ontology which implies to produce easy-to-read texts. The epistemology constitutes of regulations from the Swedish government regarding the work with easy-to-read literacy. The sociology represents several organizations and authorities connected to easy-to-read literacy. The domain analysis has also identified <em>Centrum för lättläst’s</em> target groups and their information needs which are varying. The study present numerous of strategies composed by <em>Centrum för lättläst</em> to satisfy the information needs of the target groups. Furthermore; the domain analysis has distinguished the information resources <em>Centrum för lättläst</em> use to distribute and make information accessible which are represented by documents within the domain. The result also shows that <em>Centrum för lättläst’s</em> work with information use includes important operators in the domain which contributes to endorse the information needs of the targets groups. Finally the domain analysis has examined the collaboration between <em>Centrum för lättläst</em> and libraries in Sweden, where the result illustrate procedures made by <em>Centrum för lättläst </em>in order to assist libraries in their work with easy-to-read literacy and the target groups.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this two years master thesis in Library and information science is to study the foundation Centrum för lättläst and its work regarding information use with focus on information structures and information needs. The aim is also to examine how Centrum för lättläst cooperate with Swedish libraries to promote the work concerning people with reading disabilities. This master thesis applies a domain analytic theory and method inspired by Birger Hjørland. The domain analysis is confined to examine ontology, epistemology, sociology, empirical user studies, document and genre studies and studies of structures and institutions in scientific communication. The main source material consists of information from the homepage of Centrum för lättläst. The result of the domain analysis describes the ontology which implies to produce easy-to-read texts. The epistemology constitutes of regulations from the Swedish government regarding the work with easy-to-read literacy. The sociology represents several organizations and authorities connected to easy-to-read literacy. The domain analysis has also identified Centrum för lättläst’s target groups and their information needs which are varying. The study present numerous of strategies composed by Centrum för lättläst to satisfy the information needs of the target groups. Furthermore; the domain analysis has distinguished the information resources Centrum för lättläst use to distribute and make information accessible which are represented by documents within the domain. The result also shows that Centrum för lättläst’s work with information use includes important operators in the domain which contributes to endorse the information needs of the targets groups. Finally the domain analysis has examined the collaboration between Centrum för lättläst and libraries in Sweden, where the result illustrate procedures made by Centrum för lättläst in order to assist libraries in their work with easy-to-read literacy and the target groups.

Reading difficulties is the most common learning difficulty in the western world and it is common that people with reading disabilities also exhibit arithmetic difficulties. Different theories about the cause of the relationship exists, one theory describes the importance of good phonological ability in reading as well as in arithmetic, while another theory describes the importance of a reliable number system and that only a subgroup of students with reading disabilities also have difficulties with arithmetic. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students with reading difficulties (RD), without any known mathematical difficulties, perform on mathematical tasks relative to a control group. The study was theoretically grounded on the Triple code model (Dehaene, 1992), which is a model for numerical information processing that describes how various numerical and arithmetic tasks are processed through three distinct representation systems in the brain, a verbal and a visual representation system and a quantity system. Reading skills, phonological skills, arithmetic skills and number processing skills were examined in 61 students through a variety of tests. After examination of reading ability, the participants were split into two groups, students with RD and a control group. Statistical comparisons were calculated by one-way analysis of variance between the two groups on each task, and for some tasks one-way analysis of covariance were used. The results provided partial support for the present hypotheses. The main findings showed that students with RD have difficulties within the verbal and visual representation system but exhibit an intact quantity system. Within the verbal representation system, students with RD performed significantly worse in retrieval of arithmetic facts (addition, subtraction and multiplication), they retrieved fewer established answers from long-term memory on all of the three arithmetic operations compared to the control group. The students with RD also made more errors regarding subtraction and multiplication and within the visual representation system they had significantly fewer answers that were correct on written arithmetic calculation and was significantly slower in symbolic number comparison, compared with the control group. It is discussed whether a connection difficulty, namely difficulties in linking a particular symbol with a semantic content, is the cause of the exhibited arithmetic difficulties in students with RD. / Lässvårigheter är den vanligaste inlärningssvårigheten i västvärlden och det är vanligt att personer med lässvårigheter även uppvisar aritmetiska svårigheter. Skilda teorier kring orsaken till sambandet finns och en teori beskriver vikten av god fonologisk förmåga vid läsning såväl som vid räkning. En annan teori beskriver vikten av ett tillförlitligt antalsystem och att endast en undergrupp av elever med lässvårigheter också har svårigheter med aritmetik. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka hur elever med lässvårigheter (LS) utan kända matematiksvårigheter presterar på matematiska uppgifter i förhållande till en kontrollgrupp. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är Trippel-kod-modellen (Dehaene, 1992), vilket är en modell för numerisk informationsbearbetning som beskriver hur olika numeriska och aritmetiska uppgifter antas bearbetas genom tre representationssystem i hjärnan, det vill säga verbalt och visuellt representationssystem samt kvantitetssystem. Läsfärdighet, fonologisk förmåga, aritmetisk färdighet samt antalsuppfattning undersöktes hos 61 elever genom ett flertal test. Efter undersökning av läsfärdighet delades deltagarna upp i två grupper, elever med LS och en kontrollgrupp. Statistiska jämförelser beräknades genom envägs variansanalys mellan grupperna på respektive uppgift och för vissa uppgifter beräknades även envägs kovariansanalys. Resultatet gav delvis stöd för de uppsatta hypoteserna då huvudfyndet visade att elever med LS har svårigheter inom både verbalt och visuellt representationssystem men uppvisar ett intakt kvantitetssystem. Inom verbalt representationssystem presterade eleverna med LS signifikant sämre än kontrollgruppen på uppgiften framplockning av aritmetiska talfakta inom addition, subtraktion och multiplikation då de hade färre svar att plocka fram från minnet på alla tre räknesätt. Eleverna med LS hade också fler fel gällande subtraktion och multiplikation. Inom visuellt representationssystem uppvisade de signifikant färre rätt på skriftlig aritmetisk kalkylering samt var signifikant långsammare gällande symbolisk antalsuppfattning jämfört med kontrollgruppen. Utifrån resultaten diskuteras huruvida en kopplingsproblematik, det vill säga svårigheter att koppla en bestämd symbol med ett semantiskt innehåll, ligger till grund för de uppvisade aritmetiska svårigheterna hos elever med LS.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 10, 2010). Thesis advisor: Deborah Ann Wooten. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this study was to investigate reading difficulties as barriers to learning experienced by learners entering the intermediate phase. The researcher conducted an in-depth literature study and by means of a qualitative research approach, empirical data were collected through individual interviews, observations and document studies. The findings revealed a number of common themes on the impact of reading difficulties and the factors that may cause these difficulties. The research findings revealed that in order to prevent reading difficulties as barriers to learning, the essential components for reading development must be acquired effectively, the role of the teacher and the parent are crucial and the early identification and remediation of reading difficulties is paramount. Resulting from the findings in the empirical investigation and in correlation with the findings from literature, the researcher made recommendations regarding strategies to reduce reading difficulties. / Education / M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)