Expressive versus receptive language skills in specific reading disorder

Despite ample research into the language skills of children with specific reading disorder no studies so far have investigated whether there may be a difference between expressive and receptive language skills in this population. Yet, neuro-anatomical models would predict that children who have specific reading disorder which is not associated with movement or attention difficulties, would have lower receptive language skills than expressive. This study investigates the difference between expressive and receptive language skills in a sample of 17 children with specific reading difficulty aged between 7 and 12 years. They were administered a battery of two receptive and two expressive language measures. The results showed that as the neuro-anatomical model would predict, the children scored significantly lower on tests of receptive than on tests of expressive language skills.

Autistic symptomatology and language ability in autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are common developmental disorders characterised by deficits in language and communication. The nature of the relationship between them continues to be a matter of debate. This study investigates whether the co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is associated with differences in severity or pattern of autistic symptomatology or language profile. Methods: Participants (N = 97) were drawn from a total population cohort of 56,946 screened as part of study to ascertain the prevalence of ASD, aged 9 to 14 years. All children received an ICD-10 clinical diagnosis of ASD or No ASD. Children with nonverbal IQ 80 were divided into those with a language impairment (language score of 77 or less) and those without, creating three groups: children with ASD and a language impairment (ALI; N = 41), those with ASD and but no language impairment (ANL; N = 31) and those with language impairment but no ASD (SLI; N = 25). Results: Children with ALI did not show more current autistic symptoms than those with ANL. Children with SLI were well below the threshold for ASD. Their social adaptation was higher than the ASD groups, but still nearly 2 SD below average. In ALI the combination of ASD and language impairment was associated with weaker functional communication and more severe receptive language difficulties than those found in SLI. Receptive and expressive language were equally impaired in ALI, whereas in SLI receptive language was stronger than expressive. Conclusions: Co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is not associated with increased current autistic symptomatology but appears to be associated with greater impairment in receptive language and functional communication.

Location, location, location: development of spatiotemporal sequence learning in infancy

We investigated infants' sensitivity to spatiotemporal structure. In Experiment 1, circles appeared in a statistically defined spatial pattern. At test 11-month-olds, but not 8-month-olds, looked longer at a novel spatial sequence. Experiment 2 presented different color/shape stimuli, but only the location sequence was violated during test; 8-month-olds preferred the novel spatial structure, but 5-month-olds did not. In Experiment 3, the locations but not color/shape pairings were constant at test; 5-month-olds showed a novelty preference. Experiment 4 examined "online learning": We recorded eye movements of 8-month-olds watching a spatiotemporal sequence. Saccade latencies to predictable locations decreased. We argue that temporal order statistics involving informative spatial relations become available to infants during the first year after birth, assisted by multiple cues.

Effective e-learning integration with traditional learning in a blended learning environment

E-Learning is an emerging tool that uses advanced technology to provide training and development in higher education and within industry. Its rapid growth has been facilitated by the Internet and the massive opportunities in global education. The aim of this study is to consider how effective and efficient e-learning is when integrated with traditional learning in a blended learning environment. The study will provide a comparison between purist ELearning and Blended learning environment. The paper will also provide directions for the blended learning environment which can be used by all the three main stakeholder student, tutors and institution to make strategic decision about the learning and teaching initiatives. The paper concludes that blended learning approaches offer the most flexible and scalable route to E-Learning.

e-learning in project management using simulation models: a case study based on the replication of an experiment

Current e-learning systems are increasing their importance in higher education. However, the state of the art of e-learning applications, besides the state of the practice, does not achieve the level of interactivity that current learning theories advocate. In this paper, the possibility of enhancing e-learning systems to achieve deep learning has been studied by replicating an experiment in which students had to learn basic software engineering principles. One group learned these principles using a static approach, while the other group learned the same principles using a system-dynamics-based approach, which provided interactivity and feedback. The results show that, quantitatively, the latter group achieved a better understanding of the principles; furthermore, qualitatively, they enjoyed the learning experience

Characterising developmental language impairment in Serbian-speaking children: a preliminary investigation

The aim of the article is to provide preliminary data on the use of auxiliaries and clitics in Serbian-speaking children with developmental language impairment. Two groups of children (a group of 30 children with developmental language impairment and a group of 30 typically developing children) aged between 48 and 83 months and matched on IQ took part in the study. They were asked to tell a story from a series of four pictures. The results showed that the children with language impairment omitted significantly more auxiliary verbs and clitics than the controls. In addition, the rate of omission of auxiliaries and clitics did not decrease with increasing chronological age. We conclude that, as in other languages, auxiliary verbs and clitics are particularly difficult for Serbian-speaking children with language impairment.

The observed relationships between wheat and climate in China

Recent changes in climate have had a measurable impact on crop yield in China. The objective of this study is to investigate how climate variability affects wheat yield in China at different spatial scales. First the response of wheat yield to the climate at the provincial level from 1978 to 1995 for China was analysed. Wheat yield variability was only correlated with climate variability in some regions of China. At the provincial level, the variability of precipitation had a negative impact on wheat yield in parts of southeast China, but the seasonal mean temperature had a negative impact on wheat yield in only a few provinces, where significant variability in precipitation explained about 23–60% of yield variability, and temperature variability accounted for 37–41% of yield variability from 1978 to 1995. The correlation between wheat yield and climate for the whole of China from 1985 to 2000 was investigated at five spatial scales using climate data. The Climate Research Unit (CRU) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) proportions of the grid cells with a significant yield–precipitation correlation declined progressively from 14.6% at 0.5° to 0% at 5° scale. In contrast, the proportion of grid cells significant for the yield–temperature correlation increased progressively from 1.9% at 0.5° scale to 16% at 5° scale. This indicates that the variability of precipitation has a higher association with wheat yield at small scales (0.5°, 2°/2.5°) than at larger scales (4°/5.0°); but wheat yield has a good association with temperature at all levels of aggregation. The precipitation variable at the smaller scales (0.5°, 2°/2.5°) is a dominant factor in determining inter-annual wheat yield variability more so than at the larger scales (4°/5°). We conclude that in the current climate the relationship between wheat yield and each of precipitation and temperature becomes weaker and stronger, respectively, with an increase in spatial scale.