No description available.

yes / Purpose: There are many anecdotal claims that coloured lenses and overlays improve reading performance and there is a substantial literature on the topic of whether reading performance is enhanced through the use of colour. Here we present the results of a systematic review of this literature and examine the quality of the evidence concerning the assertion that reading can benefit from use of coloured overlays or lenses. Methods: We systematically reviewed the literature concerning the effect of coloured lenses or overlays on reading performance by searching the PsychInfo, Medline and Embase databases. Our searches revealed 51 published items (containing 54 data sets). Different systems are in use for issuing coloured overlays or lenses and we reviewed the evidence under four separate system headings (Intuitive, Irlen, Harris/Chromagen and Other). We classified each published item using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Results: Although the different colour systems have been subjected to different amounts of scientific scrutiny, the results do not differ according to the system type, or whether the sample under investigation have been classified as having visual stress (or a similarly defined condition), reading difficulty, or both. The majority of studies are subject to ‘high’ or ‘uncertain’ risk of bias in one or more key aspects of study design or outcome. Studies at lower risk from bias offered less support for the benefit of colour on reading ability. Whilst many studies report improvements with colour, the effect size is generally small and/or similar to the improvement found with a placebo condition. We discuss the strengths and shortcomings of the published literature and, whilst acknowledging the difficulties associated with conducting trials of this type, offer some suggestions about how future trials might be conducted. Conclusions: Consistent with previous reviews and advice from several professional bodies, we conclude that the use of coloured lenses or overlays to ameliorate reading difficulties cannot be endorsed and that any benefits reported by individuals in clinical settings are likely to be the result of placebo, practice or Hawthorne effects.

Recent research suggests that summer reading programs may benefit elementary-aged children with learning disabilities and reading difficulties. However, there exists limited literature on how both play-based learning (PBL) and scaffolding can be used to improve reading outcomes in non-school settings. The purpose of this qualitative research was to examine PBL, scaffolding, and perceived reading outcomes in a 6-week play-based summer reading program. The conceptual framework guiding this research is that PBL, when combined with scaffolding, results in either the maintenance or the improvement of reading outcomes. Fourteen individuals (5 support workers, 4 parents, 5 children) who were enrolled in a play-based summer reading program between 2019 and 2021 participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that PBL and scaffolding can lead to perceived reading progress and increases in confidence and motivation, as well as an absence of a summer learning slide. Additional themes relating to the role of the support workers, program organization and friendship/belonging emerged. Implications for the literacy learning of elementary-aged children with disabilities and reading difficulties are discussed.

It is not uncommon for math difficulties and reading difficulties to occur simultaneously. Despite this, math and reading difficulties are thought to have different cognitive profiles where math difficulties are linked to number sense; an innate ability to understand, approximate and manipulate both quantities and numerical information, whereas reading difficulties are linked to phonological ability; an innate ability to understand, create representations of and manipulate phonological information. A possible link between the difficulties is that phonological abilities also could affect mathematical ability. Support for this comes from studies where comorbid math and reading difficulties are associated with more severe difficulties in arithmetic ability compared to those with isolated math difficulties. The purpose of this study is to examine whether isolated math difficulties, isolated reading difficulties and comorbid math and reading difficulties can be linked to deficits in number sense, phonological ability or both of these, and whether comorbid math and reading difficulties differ in performance in mathematical tasks compared to isolated math difficulties for children in second grade. The study was carried out by testing 161 second grade children in arithmetic performance, reading performance, number sense and phonological ability. Based on performance in arithmetic and reading participants were divided into four groups: math difficulties (MD), reading difficulties (LD), comorbid math and reading difficulties (MD/LD) and control group. Statistical comparisons between groups were calculated by use of ANCOVAs, with non-verbal intelligence as covariate, and by independent t-test. Results gave partial support for the proposed core deficits for math and reading difficulties respectively, mainly concerning math difficulties and number sense deficits. The MD group performed significantly poorer in the non-symbolic number sense test.The group LD did not perform significantly poorer in respect to any task. The group MD/LD performed significantly poorer regarding subtraction, symbolic number sense tests and phonological awareness. Based on these results it can be discussed whether a link between number sense deficits and phonological awareness deficits may cause difficulty with learning and manipulating symbolic digit number. / Det är inte ovanligt att matematiksvårigheter förekommer tillsammans med lässvårigheter. Däremot förefaller matematiksvårigheter och lässvårigheter ha skilda kognitiva profiler där matematiksvårigheter kopplas till bristande number sense; en medfödd förmåga för att förstå, approximera och manipulera kvantiteter och numerisk information, medan lässvårigheter kopplas till bristande fonologisk förmåga; en medfödd förmåga att förstå, skapa representationer för och manipulera fonologisk information. En möjlig länk mellan svårigheterna är att fonologisk förmåga även kan påverka den matematiska förmågan. Stöd för detta har framkommit i studier där komorbida matematik- och lässvårigheter kopplats till mer uttalade matematiksvårigheter i jämförelse med isolerade matematiksvårigheter. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att undersöka huruvida isolerade matematiksvårigheter, isolerade lässvårigheter samt komorbida matematik- och lässvårigheter kan kopplas till bristande number sense, bristande fonologisk förmåga eller båda samt huruvida komorbida matematik- och lässvårigheter skiljer sig gentemot isolerade matematiksvårigheter gällande matematiksvårigheternas omfattning hos barn i andra klass. För att besvara syftet testades 161 barn i andra klass gällande aritmetisk färdighet, läsfärdighet, number sense och fonologisk förmåga. Efter sin prestation i matematik och läsningdelades deltagarna in i fyra grupper; matematiksvårigheter (MS), lässvårigheter (LS), komorbida matematik- och lässvårigheter (MS/LS) samt kontrollgrupp. Statistiska jämförelser beräknades mellan grupperna genom kovariansanalyser (ANCOVA), med icke-verbal intelligens som kovariat, samt genom oberoende t-test. Resultatet gav delvis stöd för den tänkta kärnproblematiken för matematiksvårigheter respektive lässvårigheter, främst gällande matematiksvårigheter och bristande number sense. Gruppen MS var signifikant sämre på ett icke-symboliskt number sense-test. Gruppen LS var inte signifikant sämre gällande något test. Gruppen MS/LS var signifikant sämre gällande subtraktion och symboliska number sense-test samt gällande fonologisk medvetenhet. Utifrån resultatet diskuteras huruvida en länk mellan bristande number sense och bristande fonologisk medvetenhet kan orsaka svårigheter med inlärning och hantering av symboliska siffertal.

En av lärarens allra viktigaste uppgifter är att lära alla elever att läsa. Tyvärr finns det alltid elever som stöter på problem i sin läsinlärning och som av en eller annan anledning utvecklar lässvårigheter. Forskning har visat att tidiga insatser är mest verkningsfulla vilket innebär att lärare måste klara av att tidigt identifiera de elever som kan komma att behöva extra stöd. Syftet med detta arbete är att synliggöra lärares åsikter kring tidig identifiering av de elever som riskerar att utveckla lässvårigheter samt att undersöka hur en eventuell identifiering går till i praktiken.   För att uppnå detta har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med sju lärare verksamma i förskoleklass. Intervjuerna har berört lärarnas syn på tidig identifiering, om möjligheter och svårigheter med tidig identifiering samt hur eventuell identifiering går till i praktiken. Resultatet visar att lärare anser att tidig identifiering av lässvårigheter är fördelaktigt och viktigt. Genom informella observationer av elevers språkutveckling och resultat från mer formella kartläggningar anser lärarna att de klarar av att identifiera de elever som ligger i riskzonen för att utveckla lässvårigheter. / One of the most important tasks teachers have is to teach all students how to read. Unfortunately, there are always students who encounter difficulties in their reading development and who, for one reason or another, develop reading difficulties. Research has shown that early intervention is most effective, which means that teachers need to identify these difficulties in students at an early stage. The purpose of this study is to highlight teachers’ opinions about early identification of those at risk of developing reading difficulties and investigate how teachers manage to conduct these identifications in practice.   This study consists of qualitative interviews with seven teachers in preschool class. The interviews have been focused around teachers’ views of early identification, on advantages and difficulties with early identification and how early identifications are done in practice. The results show that teachers believe that early identification of reading difficulties is advantageous and important. Through informal observations of students’ language development and results from more formal tests teachers believe that they are able to identify students who are at risk of developing reading difficulties.

Stress is being linked increasingly to physiological, psychological, sociological, and educational problems. However, scant attention has been given to stress in recent reading research. This study investigated referral and evaluation statements and diagnostic data from parents, teachers, reading specialists, and counselors regarding signs of stress and potential stressors as factors in the reading difficulties of seventy-seven primary schoolchildren referred for evaluation at the pupil Appraisal Center (PAC) at North Texas State University between 1977 and 1984. Qualitative methods, specifically situational analysis, were employed to obtain a holistic view of each subject's reading difficulties. The researcher collected data from documented files at PAC. Data analysis via a categorical coding system produced thirty-nine stress related categories, organized under broad headings of family and school environment, readiness for reading/ learning, general stress reactions, and responses to stress when reading/learning becomes a problem.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-01-10T11:32:13Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Carla Oliveira Garcia.pdf: 2463331 bytes, checksum: e10da87a2dd6b683165c2b358ec5974d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-10T11:32:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Carla Oliveira Garcia.pdf: 2463331 bytes, checksum: e10da87a2dd6b683165c2b358ec5974d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-12 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Introduction:This study investigated the effects of using colored overlays on reading rate to improve reading for children.Objective: To investigate the effect of the use of colored overlays on reading achievement. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 68 children (9-12 years of age, 53% male) regularly enrolled in the 5th (n = 24) and 6 years (n = 44) of elementary school. Were included in this study all children without peripheral visual or hearing loss. Instruments: Reading Test(TELVER) and Irlen Reading Perceptual Scale (IRPS): through a variety of tasks that enhance the visual stress, the instrument was used to define the optimal spectral blade (Irlen overlays) for each individual. Results: 68 students analyzed in this study, 31% showed an improvement of at least 5% on reading speed after using the overlay. Among these patients with improvement, there was an average gain of 14% in speed reading. Only 2 patients had 25% gains with the use of the intervention (28.8% and 30.8%). There was no difference in the performance of TELVER between female and male before the intervention (t (1,66) = 1.37; p = 0.174), with spectral blades (t (1,66) = 1.13; p = 0.262), and the read gain (t (1,66) = 0.53, p = 0.598). Conclusion: These data are very close to the international literature that evaluated childrenin the general population, providing external validation for TELVER / Introdução: as lâminas espectrais, folhas de acetato sobrepostas ao texto, são utilizadas para melhorar a leitura de crianças e adultos. O Teste de Leitura: Velocidade De Reconhecimento (TELVER) é o teste mais utilizado na literatura para investigar os benefícios das lâminas espectrais, elaborado de acordo com a teoriade hiperexcitabilidade cortical.Objetivo: investigar o efeito das lâminas de bloqueio espectral no desempenho de escolares na habilidade de velocidade de leitura. Materiais e Métodos: aamostra foi composta por 68 crianças (9 a 12 anos),matriculadas no 5° e 6° ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola estadual. Foram incluídas na pesquisa todas as crianças sem alterações visuais ou auditivas periféricas. Foram utilizados instrumentospara definir a lâmina espectral ideal e calcular o número de palavras lidas corretamente em um minuto, com lâmina e sem lâmina. Resultados: 31% apresentaram melhora de no mínimo 5% na velocidade de leitura após o uso da lâmina espectral. Nas crianças com melhoria, houve um ganho médio de 14% na velocidade na leitura. Doispacientes apresentaram ganhos acima de 25% com o uso da intervenção (28,8% e 30,8%). Não houve diferença no desempenho do TELVER entre os sexos feminino e masculino antes da intervenção (t (1,66) = 1,37; p = 0,174), com as lâminas espectrais (t (1,66) = 1,13; p = 0,262), e no ganhode leitura (t (1,66) = 0,53; p = 0,598). Conclusão: amelhoria de 5% no TELVER é um bom índice do uso sustentado das lâminas espectrais (validade preditiva)

In this dissertation, I present the findings from a qualitative case study of the digital literacy integration of a teacher and the digital literacy practices of three students with literacy-related learning difficulties within her classroom. As a researcher, I was interested in the ways students with literacy- related learning difficulties navigated digital tools in a technology-infused environment created by a teacher who has experience using digital tools for instructional and student-learning purposes. My research was guided by the following questions: (1) What was the context, content, and structure of the teacher’s technology instruction? (2) In what ways did the students use technological tools? (3) How did students with reading difficulties compose during digital literacy events? The data for this case study included classroom observations, interviews, field notes, work samples, and lesson plans. Through the use of both inductive (Phase I and II) and a priori (Phase III) analysis, the data highlight several important findings to inform the research questions: (a) Knowledge of Technology Does Not Ensure Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (b) Students with Reading Difficulties Still Have Difficulty with Reading Despite Technology Integration and (c) Change in Writing Tool (technology) does not Guarantee Change in Writing Performance.

This study describes the development and evaluation of a parent training model to test if a correlation exists between effective tutoring and locus of control. The model utilized parents of boys previously referred to the Educational Clinic for reading difficulties. The parents became the major treatment resource for remediating reading problems of their 8 to 11 year old boys. The venue was a local public library where a series of five lessons and three follow-up sessions were held with both parents and their sons present over a six month period. Reading strategies to develop the utilization of contextual clues were introduced and practiced at these sessions. Control group children from a variety of schools in Canberra were selected to match the 21 treatment children by the criteria of chronological age and pre-test results on an objective word recognition test. The parents were pre- and post-tested using the Rotter I-E Scale while all boys were given the IAR Scale, the Neale Analysis of Reading, ACER Word Recognition, a Goodman-Eurke Miscue passage and the Survey of General Reading Attitude. Analysis of results indicated that sample size limited the number of significant results obtained. No significant results between I-E ratings and dependent variables were found. The tutor's and spouse's initial I-E perceptions were correlated at p=.08. Correlations between tutor final I and subject final I ratings were nonsignificant but positively correlated. The initial and final I-E ratings of tutors were correlated at the p<.0l level. A negative correlation significant at p=.0l or better was noted between tutor behaviours and reading speed gains. This was also true of correlations between speed and both accuracy and comprehension (at p<.02 or greater). A trend to greater gains on all reading measures (at p=>.2 or higher) favouring the treatment group (when compared with the control group) suggests that a tutor programme based on improving reading comprehension may be of value to the clinic-referred retarded reader. A more comprehensive study bypassing the problems of sample size and differing causes for reading retardation is outlined using the n=l paradigm. Both locus of control and motivational factors of tutors and learners will be investigated.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the efficacy of a 'Reading Recovery' or an 'Extra Lesson' program in comparison to no intervention for children having difficulty reading in their second year at school. 'Reading Recovery' is an intervention program developed by Marie Clay to assist children who are showing signs of having difficulty learning to read after the first year at school. 'Reading Recovery' uses a whole language approach. The assumption is that given a second chance in a 1:1 structured learning environment, with a trained Reading Recovery teacher, the child will learn to read at an age appropriate level. The 'Extra Lesson' intervention is based on the paradigm of Rudolf Steiner's concept of education, which is a holistic developmental approach. The assumption is that there is a relationship between learning and development in the first seven years of the child's life. The 'Extra Lesson' assessment tests for and identifies developmental difficulties within the first seven years of the child's life and skills testing clarifies if the child has any significant learning difficulty. The 'Extra Lesson' intervention is a 1:1 program, based on a holistic developmental perspective of Rudolf Steiner, to work with the child's difficulties. The efficacy of both interventions was evaluated by using a case study design with embedded forms of analysis and a pre-test post-test non equivalent control group quasi-experimental design to measure the changes in the children's reading skills, processing speed, short term auditory memory and awareness of body geography. Follow up tests were administered 10 months after the post-tests. Case studies have been used to present the data collated for individual subjects and graphs were used for the analysis of group data. All the subjects showed an improvement in reading skills from the pre to the post-test. At follow up all the subjects tested continued to show an improvement in reading skills. Both interventions were shown to affect the subjects reading skills. A comparison of groups showed a slight measurable difference between the 'Reading Recovery', 'Extra Lesson' and Control group, with the 'Extra Lesson' showing a slightly larger improvement in sight word recognition. The treatment and Control groups' Writing Vocabulary increased from the pre to the post-test. The 'Reading Recovery' and Control groups' Writing Vocabulary decreased and the Extra Lesson group continued to improve at follow up. All the groups showed an improvement in short term auditory memory at the post-test and the Control and 'Extra lesson' groups continued to increase slightly at follow up and the 'Reading Recovery' group remained relatively constant. All the groups had relatively constant scores on Processing Speed from the pre to the post- test and at follow up. Neither intervention showed a measurable effect on Processing Speed. All the groups showed an improvement in graphical representation of body geography at the post-test and at follow up. The 'Extra Lesson' group showed the largest improvement at the post-test and long-term. The 'Extra Lesson' intervention had a positive and measurable effect on graphical representation of body geography after the intervention and long-term.