Young Children's Ability to Engage in Cognitive Therapy Tasks: Associations With Age and Educational Experience

Abstract. In two linked studies we examined children’s performance on tasks required for participation in cognitive therapy. In Study 1 we piloted some new tasks with children aged 5 to 11 years. In study 2 the effects of IQ, age and educational experience were examined in children aged 5 to 7 years. In study 1, 14 children aged 5 to 11 completed three tasks related to cognitive therapy; generating post-event attributions, naming emotions, and linking thoughts and feelings. Study 2 used a between-subjects design in which 72 children aged 5, 6, or 7 years from two primary schools completed the three tasks and the Block Design and Vocabulary sub-tests from the WISC III or WPPSI-R. Children were tested individually during the school day. All measures were administered on the same occasion. In study 2 administration order of the cognitive therapy task and the WISC III/WPPSI-R were randomized. The majority of children demonstrated some ability on each of the three tasks. In study 2, performance was associated with school and with IQ but not with age. There were no gender differences. Children attending a school with an integrated thinking skills programme and those with a higher 1Q were more successful on the cognitive therapy tasks. These results suggest that many young children could engage in cognitive therapy given age-appropriate materials. The effects of training in relevant meta-cognitive skills on children’s ability to use concepts in CBT may warrant further research. Keywords: Cognitive behaviour therapy, young children, cognitive development

The Effect of Mental Health Problems on Children’s Ability to Discriminate Amongst Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours

Many young children appear to have skills sufficient to engage in basic elements of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Previous research has, however, typically used children from non-clinical populations. It is important to assess children with mental health problems on cognitive skills relevant to CBT and to compare their performance to children who are not identified as having mental health difficulties. In this study 193 6 and 7 year old children were assessed using a thought–feeling–behaviour discrimination task [Quakley et al. Behav. Res. Therapy 42 (2004) 343] and a brief IQ test (the WASI). Children were assigned to groups (at risk, borderline, low risk) according to ratings of their mental health made by their teachers and parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [Goodman, J. Am. Acad. Child Adolescent Psych. 40 (2001) 1337]. After controlling for IQ, children ‘at risk’ of mental health problems performed significantly less well than children with a ‘low risk’ of mental health problems. Before receiving CBT, children’s meta-cognitive development should be assessed and additional help provided to those with meta-cognitive difficulties.

Ability of students to recognize the relationship between using mobile apps for learning during fieldwork and the development of graduate attributes

The increasing importance of employability in Higher Education curricula and the prevalence of using mobile devices for fieldbased learning prompted an investigation into student awareness of the relationship between the use of mobile apps for learning and the development of graduate attributes (GAs) (and the link to employability). The results from post-fieldwork focus groups from four field courses indicated that students could make clear links between the use of a variety of mobile apps and graduate attribute development. The study suggests a number of mobile apps can align simultaneously with more than one graduate attribute. Furthermore, prior experience and the context of use can influence students’ perceptions of an app and its link with different GAs.

On the ability of statistical wind-wave models to capture the variability and long-term trends of the North Atlantic winter wave climate

A dynamical wind-wave climate simulation covering the North Atlantic Ocean and spanning the whole 21st century under the A1B scenario has been compared with a set of statistical projections using atmospheric variables or large scale climate indices as predictors. As a first step, the performance of all statistical models has been evaluated for the present-day climate; namely they have been compared with a dynamical wind-wave hindcast in terms of winter Significant Wave Height (SWH) trends and variance as well as with altimetry data. For the projections, it has been found that statistical models that use wind speed as independent variable predictor are able to capture a larger fraction of the winter SWH inter-annual variability (68% on average) and of the long term changes projected by the dynamical simulation. Conversely, regression models using climate indices, sea level pressure and/or pressure gradient as predictors, account for a smaller SWH variance (from 2.8% to 33%) and do not reproduce the dynamically projected long term trends over the North Atlantic. Investigating the wind-sea and swell components separately, we have found that the combination of two regression models, one for wind-sea waves and another one for the swell component, can improve significantly the wave field projections obtained from single regression models over the North Atlantic.

An analysis of pre-reading strategies in deaf/hard of hearing students

This literature review evaluates print knowledge ability in normally hearing pre-readers with and without specific language impairments. It then discusses implications of print knowledge ability in students who are deaf or hard of hearing and early intervention strategies.

Temporal processing and reading disability

The present investigation examined thehypothesis that early auditory temporalprocessing deficits cause later specificreading disability by impairing phonologicalprocessing (Farmer & Klein 1995; Tallal1980, 1984). Temporal processing ability atschool entry was examined using Tallal'sRepetition Test in a large unselected sample ofover 500 children followed over subsequentyears. Although our data confirmed the presenceof certain non-speech auditory processingdeficits in children later classified asspecific reading-disabled, many findings wereclearly at odds with a causal interpretation ofthis relationship. (1) Reading-disabled (RD)children were impaired at school entry on thesubtest with long interstimulus intervals(ISIs) but not the critical short-ISIsubtest. (2) RD children were not inferior toreading-age (RA) controls. (3) A subgroup of RDchildren with evidence of temporal deficitswere no less proficient on later phonologicalor reading measures than RD children with noevidence of early temporal impairment. (4)Although there was a reliable concurrentcorrelation between temporal deficits andphonological awareness at school entry(suggesting a possible common causeexplanation), early temporal deficits did notpredict later phonological impairment,pseudoword processing difficulties, or specificreading disability. On the other hand, earlytemporal deficits did predict later oralreceptive vocabulary and reading comprehensionweaknesses. These findings suggest thatauditory temporal deficits in dyslexics may beassociated with the same dysphasic-typesymptoms observed by Tallal and her colleaguesin specific language-impaired populations, butdo not cause the core phonological deficitsthat characterize dyslexic groups.

School-based materials for critical reading in English

This research aims to examine Thai students' critical thinking ability in reading English by using materials developed by a research team using a collaborative action research methodology. Initially, a survey of self-percpetions of Thai secondary students on their critical thinking ability was conducted. Then, two Thai teachers were interviewed about their materials and methodology in teaching students to read critically. Lastly, a literature of critical literacy was reviewed to introduce the notions to Thai teachers and Thai students.

Contextual Reading and Metalinguistic Processing in Brazilian Portuguese: A Longitudinal Study

Metalinguistic skill is the ability to reflect upon language as an object of thought. Amongst metalinguistic skills, two seem to be associated with reading and spelling: morphological awareness and phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability of reflecting upon the phonemes that compose words, and morphological awareness is the ability of reflecting upon the morphemes that compose the words. The latter seems to be particularly important for reading comprehension and contextual reading, as beyond phonological information, syntactic and semantic information are required. This study is set to investigate - with a longitudinal design - the relation between those abilities and contextual reading measured by the Cloze test. The first part of the study explores the relationship between morphological awareness tasks and Cloze scores through simple correlations and, in the second part, the specificity of such relationship was inquired using multiple regressions. The results give some support to the hypothesis that morphological awareness offers an independent contribution regarding phonological awareness to contextual reading in Brazilian Portuguese.

Reading on LCD vs e-Ink displays: effects on fatigue and visual strain

Purpose:  Most recently light and mobile reading devices with high display resolutions have become popular and they may open new possibilities for reading applications in education, business and the private sector. The ability to adapt font size may also open new reading opportunities for people with impaired or low vision. Based on their display technology two major groups of reading devices can be distinguished. One type, predominantly found in dedicated e-book readers, uses electronic paper also known as e-Ink. Other devices, mostly multifunction tablet-PCs, are equipped with backlit LCD displays. While it has long been accepted that reading on electronic displays is slow and associated with visual fatigue, this new generation is explicitly promoted for reading. Since research has shown that, compared to reading on electronic displays, reading on paper is faster and requires fewer fixations per line, one would expect differential effects when comparing reading behaviour on e-Ink and LCD. In the present study we therefore compared experimentally how these two display types are suited for reading over an extended period of time. Methods:  Participants read for several hours on either e-Ink or LCD, and different measures of reading behaviour and visual strain were regularly recorded. These dependent measures included subjective (visual) fatigue, a letter search task, reading speed, oculomotor behaviour and the pupillary light reflex. Results:  Results suggested that reading on the two display types is very similar in terms of both subjective and objective measures. Conclusions:  It is not the technology itself, but rather the image quality that seems crucial for reading. Compared to the visual display units used in the previous few decades, these more recent electronic displays allow for good and comfortable reading, even for extended periods of time.

Visual exploration behaviour during clock reading in Alzheimer's disease

Eye movement behaviour during visual exploration of 24 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease and 24 age-matched controls was compared in a clock reading task. Controls were found to focus exploration on distinct areas at the end of each clock hand. The sum of these two areas of highest fixation density was defined as the informative region of interest (ROI). In Alzheimer's disease patients, visual exploration was less focused, with fewer fixations inside the ROI, and the time until the first fixation was inside the ROI was significantly delayed. Changes of fixation distribution correlated significantly with the ability to read the clock correctly, but did not correlate with dementia severity. In Alzheimer's disease patients, fixations were longer and saccade amplitudes were smaller. The altered visual exploration in Alzheimer's disease might be related to parietal dysfunction or to an imbalance between a degraded occipito-parietal and relatively preserved occipito-temporal visual network.

Neuroimaging studies of word reading

This review discusses how neuroimaging can contribute to our understanding of a fundamental aspect of skilled reading: the ability to pronounce a visually presented word. One contribution of neuroimaging is that it provides a tool for localizing brain regions that are active during word reading. To assess the extent to which similar results are obtained across studies, a quantitative review of nine neuroimaging investigations of word reading was conducted. Across these studies, the results converge to reveal a set of areas active during word reading, including left-lateralized regions in occipital and occipitotemporal cortex, the left frontal operculum, bilateral regions within the cerebellum, primary motor cortex, and the superior and middle temporal cortex, and medial regions in the supplementary motor area and anterior cingulate. Beyond localization, the challenge is to use neuroimaging as a tool for understanding how reading is accomplished. Central to this challenge will be the integration of neuroimaging results with information from other methodologies. To illustrate this point, this review will highlight the importance of spelling-to-sound consistency in the transformation from orthographic (word form) to phonological (word sound) representations, and then explore results from three neuroimaging studies in which the spelling-to-sound consistency of the stimuli was deliberately varied. Emphasis is placed on the pattern of activation observed within the left frontal cortex, because the results provide an example of the issues and benefits involved in relating neuroimaging results to behavioral results in normal and brain damaged subjects, and to theoretical models of reading.

The open reading frame of bamboo mosaic potexvirus satellite RNA is not essential for its replication and can be replaced with a bacterial gene.

A satellite RNA of 836 nt depends on the bamboo mosaic potexvirus (BaMV) for its replication and encapsulation. The BaMV satellite RNA (satBaMV) contains a single open reading frame encoding a 20-kDa nonstructural protein. A full-length infectious cDNA clone has been generated downstream of the T7 RNA polymerase promoter. To investigate the role of the 20-kDa protein encoded by satBaMV, satBaMV transcripts containing mutations in the open reading frame were tested for their ability to replicate in barley protoplasts and in Chenopodium quinoa using BaMV RNA as a helper genome. Unlike other large satellite RNAs, mutants in the open reading frame did not block their replication, suggesting that the 20-kDa protein is not essential for satBaMV replication. Precise replacement of the open reading frame with sequences encoding chloramphenicol acetyltransferase resulted in high level expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase in infected C. quinoa, indicating that satBaMV is potentially useful as a satellite-based expression vector.

Genetic and environmental sources of covariance between reading tests used in neuropsychological assessment and IQ subtests

In this study, we examined genetic and environmental influences on covariation among two reading tests used in neuropsychological assessment (Cambridge Contextual Reading Test [CCRT], [Beardsall, L., and Huppert, F. A. ( 1994). J. Clin. Exp. Neuropsychol. 16: 232 - 242], Schonell Graded Word Reading Test [SGWRT], [ Schonell, F. J., and Schonell, P. E. ( 1960). Diagnostic and attainment testing. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.]) and among a selection of IQ subtests from the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery (MAB), [Jackson, D. N. (1984). Multidimensional aptitude battery, Ontario: Research Psychologists Press.] and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) [Wechsler, D. (1981). Manual for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation]. Participants were 225 monozygotic and 275 dizygotic twin pairs aged from 15 years to 18 years ( mean, 16 years). For Verbal IQ subtests, phenotypic correlations with the reading tests ranged from 0.44 to 0.65. For Performance IQ subtests, phenotypic correlations with the reading tests ranged from 0.23 to 0.34. Results of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) supported a model with one genetic General factor and three genetic group factors ( Verbal, Performance, Reading). Reading performance was influenced by the genetic General factor ( accounting for 13% and 20% of the variance for the CCRT and SGWRT, respectively), the genetic Verbal factor ( explaining 17% and 19% of variance for the CCRT and SGWRT), and the genetic Reading factor ( explaining 21% of the variance for both the CCRT and SGWRT). A common environment factor accounted for 25% and 14% of the CCRT and SGWRT variance, respectively. Genetic influences accounted for more than half of the phenotypic covariance between the reading tests and each of the IQ subtests. The heritabilities of the CCRT and SGWRT were 0.54 and 0.65, respectively. Observable covariance between reading assessments used by neuropsychologists to estimate IQ and IQ subtests appears to be largely due to genetic effects.

Grammatical sensitivity: Its origins and potential contribution to early word reading skill

A three-phase longitudinal study examined the origins of grammatical sensitivity and its usefulness as a predictor of early word-level reading. At about 4 years of age, children were given a range of language and cognitive tests. One year later, the children were given a further series of language and cognitive tests, this time including grammatical sensitivity, phonological sensitivity, and nonword repetition. Another year later, word-level reading achievement was assessed. Overall, grammatical sensitivity and phonological sensitivity were more firmly grounded in earlier language ability than in cognitive ability. Phonological sensitivity and nonword repetition showed reliable predictive associations with subsequent word reading skills. Grammatical sensitivity did not. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Spelling in adults: The combined influences of language skills and reading experience

One hundred and twelve university students completed 7 tests assessing word-reading accuracy, print exposure, phonological sensitivity, phonological coding and knowledge of English morphology as predictors of spelling accuracy. Together the tests accounted for 71% of the variance in spelling, with phonological skills and morphological knowledge emerging as strong predictors of spelling accuracy for words with both regular and irregular sound-spelling correspondences. The pattern of relationships was consistent with a model in which, as a function of the learning opportunities that are provided by reading experience, phonological skills promote the learning of individual word orthographies and structural relationships among words.