Syftet med studien är att undersöka samband som visas tydligt hos elever i både matematiksvårigheter samt fonologiska svårigheter. Studien har genomförts på elever i årskurs 7 som uppvisat matematiska såväl som fonologiska svårigheter. Resultatet baseras på en filmad observation där eleverna fått lösa ett urval uppgifter konstruerade utifrån svårigheter gällande grundläggande taluppfattning och aritmetik. Elever med fonologiska svårigheter såväl som bristande arbetsminne visar sig ha svårigheter när det gäller att automatisera tabellkunskap såväl som utföra beräkningar gällande de fyra räknesätten. / The purpose of the study is to research what correlation is apparent in students with both mathematical and phonological difficulties. The study has been conducted with 7th grade students who have shown both mathematical and phonological difficulties. The result is based on a filmed observation where the students solved a selection of tasks constructed based on problems with basic number sense and arithmetic. Students with phonological difficulties as well as inadequate working memory are showing problems when it comes to automated knowledge of the multiplication table as well as performing calculations concerning arithmetic.

M.A., Faculty of Humanities, University of the University, 2011 / With the increasing prevalence of autism on a worldwide scale, new teaching methodologies need to be explored in order to educate children with autism helping them to achieve their maximum potential. It has previously been established that many individuals with autism use visual opposed to verbal modes of thinking and learning. In this study action research was used to examine if high imagery instructional methods of teaching could be used as a teaching tool for autistic children attending a special needs school. This study examined whether there was a change in the classroom performance of three autistic children after a 5 month period of high imagery instruction, as compared against a baseline of response to previous instruction, as well as the pattern of verbal and non verbal abilities manifested at time of intake into the programme. Analysis of the results of initial cognitive, language and perceptual tests was thus undertaken for diagnostic purposes, combined with analysis of initial response to teaching prior to high imagery intervention. Once this base-line had been established, analysis of school readiness and scholastic tests was then undertaken pre and post intervention, combined with in-depth interviews with the children’s teacher, analysis of developmental diaries and analysis of work done as part of the school programme followed by each child over a five month period of intervention. At baseline all three children were found to have phonological weaknesses, as evidenced by difficulties isolating onset sounds in words, difficulties with rhyming and difficulties in skills such as blending sounds into words. Two of the children in the sample showed little to no response to the high imagery instruction, and continued to have difficulties with reading and pre-reading tasks involving working with the sound structure of the English language. The third child in the sample showed an increase in phonological skills and in reading, writing and spelling abilities in response to high imagery instruction, as well as an increase in both vocabulary and the non-verbal abilities involved in drawing . It was noted at base-line as well as throughout the study that visual memory was an area of strength for this child, but not for the other two children in the sample. The child who made progress was also able to use his visual strengths to develop associations between sounds and letters. The conclusions from this exploratory study are that not all children with autism learn through use of visual strategies in teaching. The success of high imagery teaching strategies when used with a child with well developed visual memory abilities would suggest that high imagery instruction could be a useful and successful teaching strategy where children with autism exhibit well developed visual modes of thought. Strengths in visual memory and in visual association may be indicators of the likelihood that a child with autism will respond positively to high imagery instruction.

I vilken grad ett barn är fonologiskt medvetet är i många fall avgörande för hur barnets läsinlärning kommer att fortlöpa, varför det är av stor vikt att redan tidigt arbeta för att stärka den fonologiska medvetenheten. En tillfredsställande läsförmåga är central för inlärningen även i andra skolämnen än svenska. Forskning har på senare tid visat att det finns ett tydligt samband mellan läs- och skrivsvårigheter och svårigheter i matematik. I denna studie undersöks huruvida det finns någon koppling mellan tidiga fonologiska svårigheter och matematiksvårigheter två år senare hos en grupp elever. Med kvantitativa metoder och genom analyser av bedömningar i olika diagnos- och kartläggningsmaterial har ett resultat kunnat presenteras som visar att majoriteten av de elever som i förskoleklassen uppvisade tecken på fonologiska svårigheter även hade matematiksvårigheter i år 2. Sambandet är dock inte entydigt, då det samtidigt påvisats att svårigheterna i matematik i år 2 var mer utbredda än väntat och långt ifrån alla dessa elever hade fonologiska svårigheter i förskoleklassen. / The degree to which a child is phonologically aware is in many cases crucial to the child's ability to learn how to read. Therefore it is vital, at a young age, to work towards strengthening the phonological awareness among young children. Satisfactory reading skills are central to learning in other school subjects besides reading and writing. Recent research has shown that there is a clear link between reading problems and difficulties in mathematics. This study examines whether there is any connection within a group of students between early phonological difficulties and difficulties in mathematics two years later. With quantitative methods, and through analysis of assessments of different diagnostic and mapping materials, results have been presented showing that the majority of the students in the preschool class that showed signs of phonological difficulties also had difficulties in mathematics in second grade. However, the relationship is not unambiguous, since the results also demonstrated that the difficulties in mathematics in second grade were more widespread than expected, and far from all of these students had phonological difficulties in the preschool class.

The phonological system can be described and analyzed on three levels; word, syllable and segment. The non-linear nature of the system enables an analysis from different viewpoints on phonology. LINköpingsUnderSökningen (LINUS) is a phonological test for children between the ages of 3 to 6 years which enables a non-linear analysis. Previous studies at  Linköping University have shown that children with phonological language impairment have phonological deviations on all three levels. Even though there is research involving Swedish-speaking children with expressive phonological impairment, further research is needed due to lacking in sample size and age span of participants. The purpose of this thesis is to compare the expressive phonological ability of children between the ages of 3 to 5 years who have been referred to a speech and language pathologist (SLP) for suspected phonological difficulties with a control group consisting of peers without known difficulties. In the study 10 children participated who were recruited from a speech and language pathologist clinic in a big city in Sweden, and raw data was also used from a previous study on an additional 11 children. Children with language impairment were matched with a control group with children of the same age. The age interval of participating children was between 3 years and 2 months and 4 years and 11 months.  The LINUS test was issued at a speech and language pathologist clinic together with a SLP.  The results showed similar deviations on word, syllable and segment level for both the study group and the control group. However the results of the study group contained a higher amount of deviations. The word and syllable level caused the greatest challenge for both groups. Additionally, both the study group and the control group exhibited deviations in terms of word structure where the most frequent shortcoming was reduction of consonant clusters. To conclude, similar types of deviations occurred in both groups, although the study group had a higher amount of deviations on all levels. For stronger conclusions, a larger sample size and younger participants are needed.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka expressiv fonologisk förmåga hos barn i åldrarna 3;5-4;9 år som följer en atypisk tal- och språkutveckling och jämföra den med en åldersmatchad kontrollgrupp.  Ytterligare ett syfte är att undersöka huruvida det föreligger ett samband mellan expressiv fonologisk förmåga och impressiv lexikal förmåga. Elva barn med konstaterade uttalssvårigheter rekryterades från logopedmottagningar och språkförskolor i Stockholm och i Östergötland. Barnen testades i en för dem välkänd miljö med bedömningsmaterialet LINUS. Barnens svar audioinspelades och transkriberades och utifrån transkriptionerna gjordes en analys med utgångspunkt från icke-linjär fonologi samt beräkning av Percentage Phonemes Correct och Word Complexity Measure. Resultatet jämfördes sedan med kontrollgruppen. Åtta av barnen i studiegruppen testades även med PPVT-IV för att undersöka eventuella samband mellan expressiv fonologisk förmåga och impressiv lexikal förmåga. Resultatet visade att barnen i de båda grupperna uppvisade uttalsavvikelser från vuxet målordsuttal på ord-, stavelse och segmentnivå, stavelsenivån var den nivå där flest avvikelser förekom i båda grupperna, men att avvikelserna förekom i högre grad hos barnen i studiegruppen. På stavelse- och segmentnivå kunde signifikanta skillnader ses men inte på ordnivå mellan grupperna. På stavelsenivå förekom klusterreduktioner i större utsträckning än uteslutning av enskilda segment för båda grupperna. På segmentnivå uppvisade barnen i studiegruppen problem med samtliga särdrag (sätt, plats och ton), till skillnad från barnen i kontrollgruppen som endast uppvisade problem med särdraget plats. Barnen i studiegruppen fick lägre värden på såväl PPC och WCM. En signifikant skillnad sågs mellan PPC och WCM i studiegruppen men inte i kontrollgruppen. Inget samband mellan expressiv fonologisk förmåga och impressiv lexikal förmåga kunde påvisas i följande studie. Studiens resultat indikerar att det är viktigt att ta hänsyn till alla fonologiska nivåer vid en bedömning och resultatet motiverar att ett icke-linjärt perspektiv kan vara till fördel vid planering av intervention. Då stavelsenivån ger upphov till störst svårigheter är det viktigt att ta hänsyn till detta vid fonologisk intervention. Studiens resultat kan ligga till grund för hur en icke-linjär analys kan användas inom klinisk verksamhet. / The aim of the study is to investigate the expressive phonological ability in children aged 3;5-4;9 following an atypical speech and language development and make a comparison to an age-matched control group following a typical speech and language development. A further purpose is to investigate whether there is a relation between expressive phonological ability and receptive lexical ability. Eleven children with speech sound difficulties were recruited from Speech-Language Pathology clinics and preschool language units in Stockholm and Östergötland. The children were tested in a familiar environment, with the swedish phonological assessment material LINUS. The children's responses were audio-recorded and transcribed and based on the transcriptions, a non-linear phonology analysis and calculations of Percentage Phonemes Correct and Word Complexity Measure were made. The results were then compared to the control group. Eight of the children were also tested with PPVT-IV to investigate a possible correlation between expressive phonological ability and receptive lexical ability. The results showed that the children in both groups had deviations at word-, syllable- and segmental levels, the syllable level appeared to be the most affected level in both groups, but that the deviations were more frequent in the study group. The differences on syllable- and segmental levels were significant, whereas the difference at word level was not significant between the groups. At the level of syllable, cluster reductions occurred to a greater extent than the exclusion of individual segments for both groups. At the segmental level, the study group showed problems with all features (manner, place and tone), whereas the children in the control group only had problems with the feature place. The study group had lower PPC and WCM than the control group. A significant difference was seen between PPC and WCM in the study group but not in the control group. No correlation between expressive phonological ability and receptive lexical ability was found. The results of the study indicate that it’s important to address all phonological levels in assessment and motivate that a non-linear approach could be beneficial as basis for planning of treatment. Since the syllable-level is the most affected it is important to address it in intervention. The report could serve as a guide for clinicians when applying a non-linear analysis.

Abstract The aim of the study is to investigate how three pedagogues with different orientations work with reading and writing difficulties in the same school. A qualitative method with interviews and observations of the teachers was applied to investigate the methods used by a special education teacher, a class pedagogue and a special education pedagogue, and the needs for support in the teaching of pupils with reading and writing difficulties. In the design of interview questions and observation protocols and the processing of the collected data, the research method has been deductive, which means that themes based on the aim of the study and previous research were the starting point for the categorization of the data. The results of the study show that the group of pupils with reading and writing difficulties is problematic because the needs for support vary greatly and because, according to the pedagogues, the iPad was the device that contained the alternative tools that were able to give the pupils the best support. It is important to have variation in the teaching, and different apps can offer this. The theoretical premise of the study is the socio-cultural perspective which revealed itself in the way that, no matter what difficulty the pupil has, support from the pedagogues is needed to advance in the learning process, and this should take place in social interaction between pedagogue and pupil.